chri'stina

Rowthorn may be a Cambridge economist, but like so many academics, he sounds like an idiot when he steps outside his field.
A simple reading of any history book, let alone any evolution book (I recommend "The Blind Watchmaker" in particular, written by Dawkins before he went crazy) would tell us something that should be obvious to anyone who thinks about the idea of a genetic basis for religiosity for even two seconds:
If there is a gene or gene-complex for religiosity, it has already become nearly universal in the human species, and did not do so recently!
It's important to remember that, whether or not one believes atheism is correct, one cannot honestly believe it is the default condition of most of humanity. Secularism is a modern movement, and any secularist who allows their belief in the correctness of atheism to morph into "secularism and atheism have always been obviously true, and believed by the majority of human cultures, and religion is a johnny-come-lately development in human society - well, that's just plain pig-ignorance of the most basic facts we know about the last 100,000 years of human history.
It may very well be that the near-universality of religious belief in humans came about because it correlated strongly with increases in fertility, but the phase shift happened a long time ago, much closer in time to the initial development of structured recursive grammar languages, and that was a long, long time ago.
To speak of this being a novel, recent occurrence, that's simply dumb. To quote Richard Feynman, "It's not right. It's not even wrong." It's a basic application of Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" to the idea of a genetic basis for religiosity, and it's so badly misapplied, it's just comical.

Actually for a lot of people I know, it was the opposite.

The way that you questioned looks offensive, at least to me. I am not basing that off any other thread interactions between you and R-Jo because I am not aware of even the other one mentioned (up a few posts). Oh well, I doubt you will suddenly start replying in a different manner. I am just someone who likes seeing people be nicer, which is probably not an appropriate expectation for P&R or Off Topic! And it would ruin many ppl's entertainment I guess.

Since you are offering me advice on staying safe I think I should be allowed to give you advice on how not to be offensive when writing on an internet forum. You should express yourself without personally insulting people or their loved ones. I don't think you are the only person on VJ who does that, of course. But do you want to be known as a rude person? I guess the choice is yours.

The way that you questioned looks offensive, at least to me. I am not basing that off any other thread interactions between you and R-Jo because I am not aware of even the other one mentioned (up a few posts). Oh well, I doubt you will suddenly start replying in a different manner. I am just someone who likes seeing people be nicer, which is probably not an appropriate expectation for P&R or Off Topic! And it would ruin many ppl's entertainment I guess.

Since you are offering me advice on staying safe I think I should be allowed to give you advice on how not to be offensive when writing on an internet forum. You should express yourself without personally insulting people or their loved ones. I don't think you are the only person on VJ who does that, of course. But do you want to be known as a rude person? I guess the choice is yours.

Family Protective services are like the Gestappo. They carry on these nonsense crusades against people and there is virtually zero recourse. As to the decision that a few smacks not amounting to abuse, I agree. The line between discipline and abuse is not a fine line.

WRONNNNNG ANSWER! (closest I could get to a Biff Tannen imitation)There is good sci-fi and bad sci-fi--and L. Ron Hubbard was unquestionably of the latter variety, and a con-artist to boot!

The way that you questioned looks offensive, at least to me. I am not basing that off any other thread interactions between you and R-Jo because I am not aware of even the other one mentioned (up a few posts). Oh well, I doubt you will suddenly start replying in a different manner. I am just someone who likes seeing people be nicer, which is probably not an appropriate expectation for P&R or Off Topic! And it would ruin many ppl's entertainment I guess.

The way that you questioned looks offensive, at least to me. I am not basing that off any other thread interactions between you and R-Jo because I am not aware of even the other one mentioned (up a few posts). Oh well, I doubt you will suddenly start replying in a different manner. I am just someone who likes seeing people be nicer, which is probably not an appropriate expectation for P&R or Off Topic! And it would ruin many ppl's entertainment I guess.

The way that you questioned looks offensive, at least to me. I am not basing that off any other thread interactions between you and R-Jo because I am not aware of even the other one mentioned (up a few posts). Oh well, I doubt you will suddenly start replying in a different manner. I am just someone who likes seeing people be nicer, which is probably not an appropriate expectation for P&R or Off Topic! And it would ruin many ppl's entertainment I guess.

Since you are offering me advice on staying safe I think I should be allowed to give you advice on how not to be offensive when writing on an internet forum. You should express yourself without personally insulting people or their loved ones. I don't think you are the only person on VJ who does that, of course. But do you want to be known as a rude person? I guess the choice is yours.

Since you are offering me advice on staying safe I think I should be allowed to give you advice on how not to be offensive when writing on an internet forum. You should express yourself without personally insulting people or their loved ones. I don't think you are the only person on VJ who does that, of course. But do you want to be known as a rude person? I guess the choice is yours.

Since you are offering me advice on staying safe I think I should be allowed to give you advice on how not to be offensive when writing on an internet forum. You should express yourself without personally insulting people or their loved ones. I don't think you are the only person on VJ who does that, of course. But do you want to be known as a rude person? I guess the choice is yours.

I guess you could believe that if you want to, since every religion is completely made up according to you and others. Just make your own and believe whatever you want. But I believe that Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." and had the authority to do so. I can't judge every person myself who wasn't following him their whole life and then died. We can't know every single spiritual thing that happens to a person when they are in the process of dying, whether drawn out or dead in seconds.

I don't think you remember things that people like me have already said or you might not ask these kinds of questions. Maybe you do it on purpose. In one of your other threads, about heaven, I mentioned what I believe to be in heaven and peace of mind was one of them. If people could not become mentally sound in heaven, what would be the point of heaven anyway. We all have some issues even if they are very small compared to those diagnosed as insane. Heaven provides relief to everyone who enters.
Well, since you aren't God you don't have his wisdom of how to handle that kind of situation. I personally don't see how He would punish someone for acts they never did.

I was going to say my state is the worst at avoiding hurricanes but I see it's actually identity theft. I might not really be Christina typing this...

Funny thing is ... many people on VJ's P&R forum like to label others by how they see them.
And a lot of the time, they're so far wrong it beggars belief. Yet here is another thread about how people shouldn't be labelled as one thing or another. Ironic, wouldn't you say?

What about the deficit? Does the deficit cause you concern? Currently at
100 percent of GDP and rising...
It's impossible to "grow our way out" of this one even if we stop borrowing
*and* have double-digit growth for the next 30 years. Think about that.
If the fiscal crisis is not addressed soon, we will lose our AAA rating and
the yield on Treasury debt will exceed the growth rate of the economy
(anemic as it is), which means we will sink deeper and deeper into debt
just to meet the interest coupon payments on the existing debt.
Now that's a real cause for concern, not the antics of Palin and Angle.

up to that point you were on the nail--afterwards, way off! He was quoting the Saviour as per Matt 12:46-50, Mark 3:31-35, Luke 8:19-21 (all of which refer to same incident).

I wouldn't stand outside an abortion clinic and do that. I don't think expressing my views on VJ equals that, but maybe you didn't mean me specifically.
I guess this is part of my point, that people want Christians to have certain views only if it suits their political views.

I wouldn't stand outside an abortion clinic and do that. I don't think expressing my views on VJ equals that, but maybe you didn't mean me specifically.
I guess this is part of my point, that people want Christians to have certain views only if it suits their political views.

Some people, which includes some Christians who are right wing (but also includes people who aren't Christians), don't think it's the government's business to legislate a lot of things, including requiring everyone to buy health insurance. That does not = not wanting people to get help or medical care. I won't deny that there are Christians who don't seem to represent Jesus well.
I guess a problem I have with Christians on the left is using Jesus for their own political means, when it suits them. The same thing you seem to have as a problem with Christians on the right. I guess in general, Christians- or maybe all humans, are just picky. The right might say, how can Christians on the left tolerate abortion? Christians on the left here say, how can Christian tolerate people not getting health care? Can you say with confidence that either side is actually doing exactly what Jesus wanted? I can't say that with confidence.

While I don't completely disagree with points in the original post, I think it's very convenient for the left to pick and choose which issues they think Christians need to be more Christian about. Why should we trust Colbert's opinions exactly? Is he a beacon of Christian behavior? Does he show us how to live a holy Christian life? Jesus was not involved in politics, and I know they didn't even have a vote then either. We do have the freedom to vote, but I don't think it's fair to say that Christians need to support the health care reform as it has been proposed. And to assume that Christians don't help the poor because they don't support the way democrats put together the health care bill is very judgmental. The deeper problem is how people even need insurance to go see doctors due to medical expense. How giving everyone insurance so we can have health access doesn't change the fact that insurance is needed and seems like it will never not be needed.
"They can wrap themselves up in the flag but when the time comes to walk the walk they'll say no their neighbor, their state, their nation, their president and even Jesus himself."
I don't believe they need to say yes to their state, nation or president on everything. So because they don't say yes to those 3 things all the time, it means they say no to Jesus and their neighbor? That's laughable.
And what about other Christian views that are rejected by the left as an intrusion of church legislating state? Like abortion. Like morality issues. Pornography. Jesus preached to live a holy life. Are Christians even representing Him in their talking? In their sexual jokes? In their compromised morals that are influenced by Western culture and not the bible? Bottom line: He came for our spirituality and not for politics. If a Christian doesn't want to be involved in politics at all(which I sometimes feel like), I don't see anything wrong with it. How I live is based on my beliefs in Jesus' words and the bible, not on my government, whether a democracy or dictatorship.

In all honesty there is nothing particularly wrong with his opinion. Its the nationalistic bullsh*t he slips in with it. I showed my wife some of his posts and her first comments were "how very un-British".