It's always a pleasure to argue with you Dan. congrat's on the inaugural post of the week. By the way it would be Roman not ferret-nosed M- F'r. I'm disappointed you couldn't argue the point without cursing me out. Please refresh my short term memory loss. Once you get past 40 these things happen.
Color me chastened. That "whoosh" you heard, by the way, was the joke sailing over your head like a Sputnik. Selling out is COOL! - Eric Cartman
I've just finished reading some of the arguments on this board regarding alternating left and right winners. How revolting! Everyone knows all the best professors are timid woosey little leftists, and all the best cockfighters and bearbaiters are right wingers. As Morrissey said: Some girls are better than others, and some girl's mothers are better than other girl's mothers. And if you'd like to marry me I'll buy the ring...
I though Morrissey said: "Some girls are bigger than others, and some girl's mothers are bigger than other girl's mothers." Oh well...
I'm a practicing Catholic. I actually had to receive absolution for awarding Dan's post. I make these sacrifices for the benefit of ALL BigSoccer politics postors: left wing and right wing alike.
Holy mother of christ, what a bunch of whiners! This is the POLITICS board, folks -- i.e. stark raving OPINIONS. You want rational discussions? Go to the USA Mens News and Analysis Board. (Oh, I do crack myself up.)
Actually, in retrospective, the post should have been nominated for the "I've got a big hole in my soul and I'm going straight to hell Religious Rant" board, but that point has already been made. I've always hated Paul's Epistles, but lately I've been reading them pretty closely, and they really are amazingly liberating. If you can get past some of his little (hateful) gems, he is basically saying that you can live your life now, and stop worrying about silly little literal laws. Now I know many of you religious types may have known this for a long time, but I always looked at the negative, when in reality, this big, liberating positive was staring me in the face. For the last few thousand years man has been trying to somehow establish some sort of explanation for existence,truth and life. I think man always comes up a bit short. The Bible, and Christianity, is a goddamn good college try -- better than most, and thankfully, steeped in a cultural tradition that at least gives us the tools to try to make sense of it. There is tons in it that is really, really mistaken. I haven't lived enough or studied enough to completely discount it. And I'd wager no one here has either.
This was a truly amazing article in the New Yorker last week, about a Zionist scholar that I had never heard of. Fascinating and powerful. I think this is somewhat related to the post of the week... http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cach...rge/+kabbalah+new+yorker+ozick&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Actually, I forgot to add the childish and petty doctrine of "hell" to my list of Biblical statements to route to File 13. Does everyone who doesn't believe precisely what you believe had a big hole in their soul? I believe that statement says more about you than me. If you're a Gentile Christian who wanted to eat pork and keep your foreskin, maybe. Those hateful little gems are precisely the point. And the message of Paul was not to stop worrying about silly literal laws, but to change the silly literal laws that are followed. I didn't completely discount it, either. However, I cheerfully discount Paul's attempt to turn the ethical teachings of Jesus into another pagan mystery religion.