Response to A Fundamentalist Christian

I could be deleting a lot of what you post, "A Fundamentalist Christian", because you are repeating yourself and what you post is not relevant to the discussion. But I will respond anyway.

#10
You have misunderstood the point. The point being that you are supposed to realize that when a person believes in something - how ever stupid, wrong, mislead, unwise, what ever YOU personally think the belief is - the person believes the same way you do, with the same sincerity, purity, strength, hope, love and everything else you put in your belief.
To an Atheist you are just as wrong as all non-Christians are to you.
To a non-Christian your beliefs are just as wrong, false, "demonic", bad, evil, self-serving and anything else you call every non-Christian's beliefs.
You don't need to agree with other people's beliefs, but you really need to understand that there is no difference in the act of believing.
So - when ever you find it necessary to start bashing another person because he/she doesn't believe in the same things you do, remember that there are a lot of people who don't believe in the same things you do, and if you don't like when people are bashing your God, faith, dogma and beliefs, don't bash another person's God, faith, dogma and beliefs, how ever [fill the blank with an appropriate adjective] they seem to you.
Get it?

That you believe to be right and everyone else to be wrong is not an excuse.
That you think you are "simply pointing out the truth" and having all the good intentions, is not an excuse.

"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

And don't try to excuse your bad behavior by saying "you'd like people to tell you that you are worshiping a false god and that you'll go to hell if you don't change your wicked ways".
That's not what you are doing.

You are telling a person that the God he/she believes in doesn't really exist and that following the teachings of his/her parents, teachers, spiritual leaders, living by his/her Holy Scripture, is going to take him/her to hell... Nothing different from what Atheists are doing to Christians, and what is called "Christian bashing" by most of the Christians who are subjected to this, that causes a lot of tears and hurt feelings (if not outrage) to many people, and considered "persecution" by many Christians.

#9
"you have it wrong when it comes to how we feel"
Might be that YOU personally don't feel that way, but many Christians say they feel "insulted and dehumanized". You can speak for all Christians just as little as anyone else.
Nevertheless, that's not the point with this point either. The point here being that to many Christians, pointing out an ape and saying "we share the ancestors" is an offensive and "dehumanizing" idea, while pointing at the ground and saying "that's the stuff we are made of" is not. Being a human animal is "dehumanizing", being a bag of dirt is not.

"The theories of evolution stem from a denial that there is a Creator who has the power to speak and create something from nothing."

No, they don't.

You believe God took some dirt, formed the human being of it as a clay doll and then blew his breath in him to make him a living being. You believe it took him a work day to do this.
Nevertheless, that's not what the Bible says.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... ...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."


"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."

It doesn't say one word about HOW God formed man of the dust.

"God have mercy on your soul - you will have to answer to him, not to us."

So leave it to God to deal with us, ok? I have no problems with answering to God.

#8
Oh, you are polytheists. Ask a monotheist, and he'll agree with me, ask a polytheist, and he'll agree with me too. It's only you who are delusional about this.
If your God can be separated into three distinctly different entities, you have three gods.

#7
What you say about #7 is what the Muslims say when Christians use Quran quotes to explain how violent and horrible religion Islam is. If the Christians disregard that, the Atheists can disregard what ever the Christians say when trying to explain and excuse the Christian God's atrocities.
BTW, the Pharaoh wasn't disobeying God. "And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh..."

#6

"What makes you think that the Holy Spirit would need a physical encounter with Mary anything like men need for procreation?"

And what makes you think it did NOT happen? Is there anything in the Bible to prove it did NOT happen the way the Greek Gods have always created their offspring?

Again, you don't understand the statement properly.

You think all the non-Christian myths of the world are "false" (again, use which ever adjective you prefer, as you have a habit of nitpicking >:->) but the Christian myth, which is in all practicality just the same, is "true" - based on that it's the myth of YOUR religion.

Why would God need a man-god to be killed when God is omnipotent and could just as easily forgive our petty sins, being that we indeed are God's children and do stupid things of stupid reasons - like all children - and our lives are just dust in the wind, here today, gone tomorrow... we are like mosquitos.
Now, what makes you think anything a mosquito does would be reason enough for you to sacrifice your only son just to save the souls of all mosquitos in the world?
And WHAT are these mosquitos - or humans - supposed to be saved from? GOD'S JUDGMENT!
I mean... you kill your son so that you wouldn't need to kill a mosquito... don't you think it's a tad overreacting? Considering that the mosquitos just don't give a dime. They'll just keep doing what they have always done. Yeah, sure, SOME of them realize you killed your own son so that you wouldn't need to kill the mosquitos, but most of them too just keep doing what mosquitos have always done.

Oh, well... I'm sure it makes all the sense to you. Not that it would mean enough to you so that you would actually do what your God told you to do...

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
- Galatians 5: 22-23

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
- Philippians 4:8

Do you really think yapping with non-Christians is expressing any of this? Really? Because it's not. But - keep fooling yourself. God have mercy on your soul - you will have to answer to God... and as a Christian you should know better. Indeed... God have mercy on your soul.

#5
Again, not answering the statement. Sure, this list is not written in the best English and it has a lot to pick on, if one wants to. Why would you? It's not especially loving and forgiving, is it :-D

This statement is not about creation but the age of the Earth. To you these two questions might be the same, but they really are not.

As far as I know there really isn't any scientific evidence to support the theory of creation. I know to you hearsay, subjective interpretations of what is happening, personal myths and conclusions based on these things are "evidence", but they really aren't.

"Proving anything historic is impossible because we weren't there at the time" is one of the stupidest statements I've ever heard. :-D

No-one said anything about looking for holes in science, even though you do that by questioning the scientific methods and facts simply because they don't fit YOUR UNDERSTANDING of what YOU consider being "God's Word" and intentionally misunderstanding words, like "theory".

#4
So this one is a true statement. You do believe what is said you believe in #4. The point is that you really don't see the contradiction in a "loving" God who created a system where people unable not to sin will go to hell for sinning, unless they jump through hoops that were totally unnecessary to begin with, as NOTHING WE CAN DO could possibly be considered as unforgivable sin for a tolerant God...

I believe in God who IS loving and tolerant. I believe in God who is capable of loving me more than I could ever love anyone, my husband and children and family, friends and pets included. I believe in God who is loving me more than my dog does. And the mere idea of the love of my dog and the love of my husband makes me cry of gratefulness, the idea of God's love strucks me speechless by awe... My God wants to keep me with Her because my God loves me.
My God is more tolerant than the most loving and tolerant mother. Of course children will have to learn "the hard way", touch the stove to know it's hot and hurts, so that they won't touch it again. But where your God forces his children to sit on the stove unless they apologize for touching it, my God cools the ouch down with ice and puts aloe vera and honey on it, and kisses it to make it feel better, and does this time and time again, because I'm too stupid to realize that hot things are hot and it hurts to touch them.

"rival sects" are all the Christian denominations - even those that don't call themselves Christian - some Christian people consider "heretic". Most fundamentalist Christians in USA don't acknowledge Catholics as Christians, Mormons as Christians, this denomination or that as Christian - and I find it difficult to believe that you are really that clueless that you are not aware of this fact, so I assume that you are just pretending to be clueless so that you can avoid talking about the issue and in stead talk about irrelevant things.

#3
You know very well this is "copied and pasted from some other source".

The God of Islam is the same as the God of Christianity is the same as the God of Judaism. These three religions and their derivates are called Abrahamic. Anyone who says anything different is lying, in spite of anything that might seem as evidence of the opposite.

Your description of your reason to believe in God the way you do IS THE EXACT SAME REASON EVERY PERSON ON THIS PLANET HAS, TO BELIEVE IN GOD(S) THE WAY THEY DO. You should read your Lewis better. Perhaps you could really get on with "preaching the Gospel and serving and worshiping God" because hatred and despise is not part of that.

"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:
and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council:
but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

Besides, the point with #3 is that you don't give a crap about verifyiable facts if they contradict your personal, subjective interpretation.

#2
means that you will interprete the world and what happens in it according to your beliefs in spite of all the evidence of the opposite. For example, you believe prayers "work", and the reason to why they don't really work is that "God won't give us what we want, but what we need" or some other such cliché.
Your explanation to why prayer doesn't "work" is that "we are not here to get our prayers answered..."

"I don't know where your statement came from, but it sounds like a bunch of impatient, whining, selfish, lazy "Christians," to me. It is not the Word of God."
No-one has claimed it is... but on the other hand. Prove it's not. Prove this person is not God. I bet you can't. And it doesn't matter at all.
"It's not the Word of God" is your typical bunch of "impatient, whining, selfish, lazy Christian" answer to everything you don't know how to deal with, to me.

These statements are not written by a Muslim - as we all know - but an Atheist. They are not questions, they are statements. They are called "signs of a fundamentalist Christian". So we have to look at the statements from that point of view. In science there are success rates expected for an empirical experiment to be considered successful, and these are much higher than 0.01%... In fact, astrology is more empirically successful scientific theory than prayer :-D

So - you don't give a crap about verifyiable facts or scientific method if these contradict your personal, subjective interpretation and understanding.

#1
Again, YOU might know the Bible "very well", but don't talk about "we". 9/10 people defining themselves as Christians haven't even read the Bible. Their "knowledge" of the Bible is mostly hearsay. Their interpretation of the text they believe to be God's Word is also given to them by someone else, as they are not supposed to "question" God's Word.
Most of this is created by people who have no understanding of Judaism; the times and habits of when the Bible was written; who wrote it; why it was written; why some parts were disgarded and why others were included; how much of the text has been lost or twisted in translation etc. etc. (with other words; "Christianity, the Bible, Theology and Church history")
(No, you don't need to be a theologian and church historian, but then don't pretend you have the knowledge by opposing people who do.)

Most of these Christians also hang on the traditional understanding of the words and passages in stead of the most probable and logical, even when the traditional understanding is very confusing, misleading and contradictory. (With "traditional" I mean the one person received from "the elders"; their parents, pastors and other authorities within the spiritual community one is a member of.)

There's nothing wrong or bad in this, it's basic and common human psychology. What's wrong is that one refuses to acknowledge the truth in this and vehemently denies one's personal understanding of things to be just that - one's personal and highly subjective understanding and interpretation.
Even if the Bible were God's Word, a man's understanding of it is not. Your priest's (or what ever name you use of the person; reverend, pastor, preacher...) interpretation is not God's Word.

The truth is that when these Christians start thumping people on heads with the Bible, they do it with less knowledge and understanding of what REALLY is in that book than the people they thump...

You are much more hateful and angry than any of the Muslims I've met and spoken with. You speak about "compassion for a lost and dying world", but show none. You say you love Jesus and God's Word, but you don't live by it. You SAY you do, but you don't actually DO.
Save yourself. Repent and change your wicked ways. Turn the hatred to love, and love, truly love your enemies, like you love yourself, your loved ones, your family, your children, your friends and neighbors. Show the world the truth with your living and your actions, not with your words, because your words are full of lies and deceit.

"But let your communication be, Yes, yes; No, no: for whatever is more than these comes of evil."

"That you resist not evil: but whoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue you at the law, and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. And whoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two. Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you turn not you away."

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you; That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brothers only, what do you more than others? do not even the publicans so?"

"Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."

So that's what you mean by saying you're Christian...

Hmm... There's something wrong with this... I'm really more interested what you mean when you say someone is NOT Christian. Because...

So you are saying you are not lost anymore. Good for you. I just have to wonder why you act like the rest of us, who you consider being lost?
Also... you're found and forgiven? Forgiven... for what? What did you do? Run away from home? Isn't that something most kids do, and always for a good reasons? I mean - either they are being abused, or they are curious about the world around them, or they are being stifled by bad rules, and there is no room for discussions? I mean... what's there to be forgiven? Especially, if it is as you say, you were LOST. Not run-away, LOST. Like - made a mistake, took a wrong turn without knowing it was a wrong turn, and getting where you didn't intend to go, and trying to get back? What kind of parents "forgives" you for getting lost? Geesh! 

Stumbling is being human. We are all "weak" and "strong". We all "fail" and "succeed". We are all "flawed" and perfect in our flawedness.We all have "pain" and "heartaches", emotions, feelings, and some of them are really hard to bear. We were made that way. To me, when you say you're Christian, it means you looks to the Christian God, Jesus, for help with this. And that's fine. I look to my God for help with this amazing thing called life.

But... if I have understood Xianity correctly, you consider EVERYONE needs Jesus. So - to you saying that you're Christian is saying that you consider me living a lie, in which I "refuse to admit" I meed Jesus.

"...cannot ever pay the debt."
What debt? I'm assuming you are referring to "Jesus dying for all of us" -stuff.

1) None of us asked to be put here. None of us asked to be created and born. We are all here, everyone of us, because it is God's will. God made us as we are, to be what we are, with everything we were born with, because God wants us this way. We are, every one of us, 100% God's creation according to God's will.
2) The majority of us have not done anything so bad a HUMAN SACRIFICE is needed - none of us have done anything so bad a GOD needs to be sacrificed. We are all fully capable of taking the consequences of ALL OUR CHOICES ourselves. Simply because God IS a loving God. God understands better than we do why we made the choices we made, and God knows our souls better than anyone, and God sees and acknowledges and counts every little shred of goodness in every human being, and there is a lot of those shreds, in every human being. Because God made us.
3) I think if you go and get yourself punished "for my sake", when it's not needed, when I didn't ask for it, and I didn't want it - frankly, I'd prefer you didn't - don't come whining about me being in debt to you. I DON'T OWE YOU ANYTHING.

Just as little as a pot owes anything to the potter. It's not the pot's fault if there were inpurities in the clay that made it weak. It's not the pot's fault if the potter left an air bubble in the clay so it shattered in the oven. It's not the pot's fault if it was fired wrong and couldn't stay steady. It's not the pot's fault, if the glazing failed and it looks awful. It's not the pot's fault, if someone drops it and it shatters. And it is not the pot's fault if it cannot pick up the pieces and glue them together by itself...
So - what debt?

Also - God created us. God made us. We are all God's children, God's artwork, and each one of us is a perfect piece of art, exactly as God intended us to be. Why would God NOT love us? Why would God NOT be pleased with us? Why would God not believe we are "worth it"?

So it's incomprehensible to you that God loves you... That is incomprehensible to me.

It is difficult to stay positive...

In a discussion about the "Rapture Day", a Christian woman asked "why doesn't the world laugh at any other RIDICULOUS religion?"


What does she know about "the world laughing" at other religions? Nothing. I am not Christian, and that has been used to ridicule my faith, my God, my opinions and my persona by Christians, Atheists and other people. So, dear Christian woman, "the world" laughs at everyone different from themselves. You don't need to be bitter about your faith being ridiculed. Just avoid those people and places where they dwell, and keep your faith. YOU know your God is not fake, invented, fantasy figure, or anything else people not knowing better claim, and that should be enough.

Also, the fact that you don't seem to be able to notice, see or understand that yours is not the only ridiculous religion being laughed at, is one of the reasons to why people mock people like you. You take yourself way too seriously and elevate yourself above other people.

Also, very few people representing other religions walk about bothering other people by telling them they are wrong, and because of that will burn in hell... Your God, your beliefs, YOU burn in hell.

But it's good that you acknowledge Christianity being a ridiculous religion.

"Why doesn't the world curse by saying "Budah dam*, etc..."??"

"God" is not the name of your God only, you know. You don't have the exclusive right to the word.

Also, Buddha was not a god. He was just an enlightened human being, who had a lot of good and interesting things to say about the world and people and how to live your life. It reminds very much of what a certain Jewish man is said to have taught some 400-600 years later.

"dam*" refers to damnation. It is in the Anglish society very much associated with Christianity. I don't recollect the concept of damnation existing in Anglo-saxon paganity... The expression itself is sort of a prayer: the one saying it is actually begging God to damn whatever "it" is - "May God damn it!"


"A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, 'curse' may refer to a wish that harm or hurt will be inflicted by any supernatural powers, such as God. "
- Wikipedia: Curse

So "the world" doesn't curse by saying "Budah dam*" because "the world" has been raised in a Christian society.

"Research looking at swearing in 1986, 1997, and 2006 in America found that the same top-ten words of a set of over 70 different swear words were used. The most-used swear words were fuck, shit, hell, damn, goddamn, bitch, boner, and sucks. These eight made up roughly 80% of all profanities. 
Two words, fuck and shit, accounted for one-third to one-half of them. 
The phrase   "Oh my God  " accounts for 24% of American women's swearing. "

"Oh my God" naturally are the first words of a prayer where God is asked to give the person courage to stand the situation or a prayer of thanking. Again, people who have not been raised in a Christian society (which is what the WHOLE Western world is, even when you might disagree.) don't swear by using that expression.

"THE TRUE GOD is known to be the TRUE GOD even by the heathen who deny Him. "

FYI, I am a Heathen and I don't deny the TRUE God, but I deny the divinity of any woman-born human, like Jesus, Buddha or Confucius.

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A Usonian guy doesn't think being impregnated during a rape is a big deal. While denying the women a possibility to plan ahead and prepare for such occasion by signing a specific insurance that garantees the abortion of such pregnancy, the guy simply tells women to "plan ahead". How, that he doesn't mention.

"My best friend was the child of a 16 year old's rape. She knew her attacker. 
You never knew pain and torture until you looked into her eyes after her mother beat the hell out of her for reminding her of her attacker. 
She wished almost every single day that her mother had aborted her since she never knew a mothers love. ALL because of a rape. 
My friend killed herself at 16. 
The same age as her mom when her mom was RAPED."
- Min, Care2

In my mind being forced to first carry a piece of your rapist INSIDE you for 9 months, then suffer the childbirth to then be forced to LIVE and provide for that piece of your rapist for the rest of your life IS a "risk to the life and wellbeing of the woman".
I remember the women raped during the Bosnian war, raped and forced to have the child... A lot of them did kill themselves. Some killed the child. 

Also, I happen to believe in "soul". I don't know when the spirit enters the body, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't do so before the body looks like one. In some cultures the person is said to be born at the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg, but in some cultures it is believed that the soul might not enter the body before the child is a couple of years old.

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Slut-march? No, thank you. I am not a slut and I refuse to call myself so. What you call me is your choice, but if you call me a slut, I will consider you an idiot.

""a Toronto police officer's comments that women should avoid dressing like "sluts  " in order to maintain their safety from sexual assault ."
No. I actually expect men to be able to control their lusts however women are dressed - or not dressed - and I know a lot of men who would not sexually assault a woman, to know that it is possible for men not to assault a woman. Frankly, if a man thinks a woman is a whore because of how she dresses AND thinks he can have his way with a "whore" without needing to ask her permission, he is an idiot who should be locked in for his own best.

To those people who think a woman is a whore because she dresses like one
- this person is not a police officer, even though he is dressed like one.
I know it can be hard to know the difference,
considering that the uniform has even the word "police" written on it,
and has US flag on it too.
Sure, don't take my word on it, but I strongly advice you not to take his word on it either...

Whores, as everyone knows, are people who provide sexual services as their profession - that means that ANYTHING sexual you do with a whore, you are expected to pay to her/him, and just as little as you can walk into a restaurant kitchen and help yourself, you can walk to a whore and "help yourself".

It is interesting that people who like to express the opinion on that "if a woman dresses like a ---, she should expect nothing but to be treated like one ", don't get how stupid that opinion is... and frankly, I haven't seen many others get it either. Next time, idiot, when you see a woman dressed like a ---,  you should pay her for watching her. Or just shut up. What is it to you how your fellow human beings dress? And haven't you ever seen naked people? Buy a Playboy or something and help yourself, so you don't need to get so upset. Or watch some MTV.

Besides, how the heck can you believe it's ok to treat a whore like that? That it's ok to rape a whore? They are human beings too, and just as valuable as everyone else, and you need to treat them as well as you treat every other human being, you yourself, your children and parents, your heros and idols included.

Now - I don't think Carrie from Sex and the City is a fashion icon.

There is nothing sexy, classy, stylish, fashionable or worthy to be copied in this outfit.

The same goes with Christina Aquilera and Lil'Kim in the "Can't Hold Us Down" video.

That's just ridiculous. But I assume this is the style this police officer meant with "dressing like a slut".
The thing is that if I was a man, I wouldn't want a piece of meat every other man has already either seen or seen AND fingered.

Why do I assume these girls might be fingered by another guy? Because they ARE sluts? No.
I don't think they are sluts. Let me tell you a story.

A Swedish young woman was in a bar in Greece and someone put his hand into her panties... Now, I am not condoning that in any way, the guy doing this is a creep and sexually assaulted the Swedish girl, and nothing she did or worse excuses, justifies or explains his behavior. But -

if she was dressed even remotely like this, he didn't have any difficulties to assault her. This woman is SERVING her private parts for anyone to see... of course a creep who doesn't understand any better gets ideas.

Even though this woman can probably get away with it without being assaulted because she's Usonian in USA, and a Swedish girl would get away with it too, IN SWEDEN, in the Mediterranean countries the culture is VERY different.

I don't think ANY Greek girl would wear something this short, especially NOT with string panties - or no panties at all... You really can't tell - and NOT in a night club. Look at how the local girls dress and adjust your style to that. For your own safety.

I suppose some people think that just because one SHOULN'T be sexually assaulted even when wearing only a C-string and tassels, just because it's WRONG, then it WON'T happen either...
I don't get that kind of thinking. We KNOW the world doesn't always work as it should, but I suppose we have come so far in Scandinavia with the women's liberation, young Swedish girl doesn't understand the rest of the world hasn't caught up with us...

What I am saying is that to some degree I agree with the Toronto police officer. I believe a lot of women could have saved themselves from certain sexual assaults - like being fingered in a Greek nightclub - if they had been wearing something different. Always wear a pair of jeans when in a nightclub in the countries around the Mediterranean. Have your pretty minidress on top of those, but wear jeans for your own safety. Even if the creep gets caught and punished - which happens very seldom - it doesn't remove the experience. If wearing a pair of jeans can save you from it, heaven's sake, wear a pair, and don't be stubborn for the sake of principles!


(I am aware of the fact that wearing a pair of jeans won't protect you from being sexually harassed, assaulted, even raped, but it is one thing to be pinched through jeans and totally other to have someone's hand in your panties.)

Also, I am not recommending "modest clothes" to the whole world. If you like them, sure, but I happen to like high heels, corsets, generous cleavage and wide skirts above and below the knees. I have no problems with shorts, not even hotpants, or showing a lot of skin. Wear what ever you like. But if you dress like those four ladies in above pictures, don't be surprised when people tell you you look ridiculous, because they are telling you the truth.

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"This is a place for the creatures who lurk in the night, with a candle with them. This candle is Christ. This is a place for Christians who live among the darkness. The Darkly Inclined, people of the Gothic Society. This is a sanctuary like no other, one where we can be ourselves and not be ashamed. God made Goths for a reason. Why not be proud of his very excellent idea."

What? Uh... facepalm.

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I was watching this interesting documentary Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory where "Willie" was making "handmade chocolate"... The chocolate was roasted by machine, ground by machine, conched by a machine, tempered by machine, poured into moulds by machine and wrapped by machine. So... handmade?
Regretsy would have a ball with his "handmade" chocolate :-D

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I read about people who had turned down a great role... and everyone thinks "poor sod!"... but I was also watching the ESC, and RedOne wrote a song to a Russian boy band... and I thought, that it's not the ROLE that made the actor, but the ACTOR that made the role. Like with Nigella Lawson and Annabel Langbein. They both have a very similar style of presenting the food they make, but when Nigella makes everything sound sensual, Annabel just irritates me.

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To wrap this up: there was a white (not albino, but "blonde") kiwi bird hatched in New Zealand :-) Lovely!

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Also from ESC;

You are wonderful :-)
Truly :-)

Being poisoned

I am a middle-aged woman, as I have said several times.

I grew up in a Christian environment, not in a severe and hateful such, but loving and tolerant one. I read the Bible as a fairytale book when I was about 10, and with "fairytale book" I don't mean "invented entertainment that is not true", but educational entertainment, useful life lessons for children, covered with enough magic to make the medicine go down, quick and easy. I was very interested of the stories and the people and what they had to say. I read Christian children's magazines, and loved them, I read Christian picture books and loved them. One of my favorites is actually a book written about a boy and his cat as an introduction to the 10 commandments :-D

My mother has a very warm and close relation to God. I think I inherited that attitude. God is a power beyond us, mightier than anything else, God is who created us, made us into what and who we are now, gave us everything, EVERYTHING, we have, and loves us, because God made us...

I grew up in a world where the religion was synonymous to Christianity. I was about 10 when I first met Jehova's Witnesses, but to me that was just another form of Christianity. We had been studying about the Revivalism in school, and I learned from that that everyone has their own form of religion. (that is, Christianity.)

Later we were to learn about other religions than Christianity, and to me they all were Pagans. Jews and Muslims maybe less so, but still... very archaic, aggressive, cruel, violent, hateful and primitive forms of religions, something that hasn't changed, ever, and not evolved, like Christianity. I was slightly interested in Pantheism and Animism, but... our teacher was Christian - as every religion teacher I've ever had - and so the teaching was infused with her attitudes, and that was "there is no religion but Christianity, and all the others are crude, primitive, superstitious crap". We were never taught WHAT Pantheism and Animism, or anything else, really was. These were never any feasible options to the One and Only True Religion.

My aunt had been "born again", and my grandmother - her mother - died. At the funeral, she had asked her Christian friends to help, and these people... My aunt also provided me with some of the publications she was reading, and... that was my first encounter with the Christian vitriol towards ANYTHING not Christian "enough".
My sisters had moved to Sweden and were introduced to New Age, and they forwarded that to me too, and even though it didn't fully resonate within me, this was closer to what I really felt was the truth than Christianity, and it was also the first encounter I had about an alternative to Christianity as a viable religion. As I am not an Atheist, but a Monotheist, with an exceptionally strong faith in God, I welcomed these ideas.
At this point of time, the Christian vitriol was poured over New Age, and thus over me, my sisters and all the nice people I've met in these circles.

The main point of change happened one day, when we were supposed to read the Bible in school, and I was met with the words "The man has now become like one of us"... It's not a "majestic plural". One of us - us... who? My teacher couldn't explain this, so she made me repeat "and so did God love the world blah blah blah". That was the end of it.


I have never been comfortable with the idea of Jesus being Son of God and God, having died for our sins, that he would judge us after death, and not according to how we have lived, not even according to what we believe, but arbitrarily, by mercy alone.... not deeds, not faith, but mercy alone... so there never was anything I could do to see that I wouldn't burn in hell the rest of eternity. One couldn't even trust in God's love, because God DID NOT love everyone. Only some chosen few. Everyday I was bombarded with the idea that some people DESERVED the fire of hell and so on. Then there were all these rules... The Old Testament had been, in all its cruelty, HUMAN, the New Testament was boring, pretentious, weird... with one word, fake. It was also very exclusive. They lived in a world where there was only a handful of women, and they were all called Mary, except for Martha. I know this is a very childish description of Christianity and its main tenets, but I have Asperger's Syndrome and I am very childlike in many ways. I also have to say, that if a religion, philosophy, ideology, doctrine, doesn't manage to convince a CHILD, what possibilities it has with adults?

So, at the age of 17, realized that I do not believe in Jesus, and there is nothing in Christianity for me, so I must be an Atheist. 

Later my sisters gave me "Witch's Handbook", which was my first encounter to the idea of that there are people in this world who believe to be witches, and they call it a RELIGION. (Wicca) The ideas took some time to grow, and in 1999 I declared I was Wiccan, after having investigated it in the Internet. I was a Pagan, one of these people believing the "crude, primitive, superstitious crap", and that that crap was exactly what my spiritual soil needed to flourish and bear fruit. :->
At THAT time, I entered the USonian Christian vitriol shower, now as a witch and a Pagan.

Now, one needs to remember that I have actually READ THE BIBLE, and several times... Most USonians defining themselves as Christians HAVE NOT. I was being attacked by people repeating what they had been told and taught by self-appointed leaders and teachers, and I KNEW it was WRONG. When I proved it to these people, they started screaming about me being from Satan, and Satan putting words in my mouth, and that *I* was twisting God's Word, and what not.
They were also saying that my God - my good and kind and gentle and loving God, who had stood by me through everything, who had encouraged me, supported me, comforted me, walked before me into every fight, and carried me, when I was weak - they said my God was wicked, fake, evil whore. That I knew not faith, love, or any other positive feeling, that everything I was and believed was dirty, ugly, fake and wrong... My conviction was hollow only because they didn't share it, my faith was weak, because they didn't believe the same things, my God was a fantasy figure, because they used different words when they spoke about theirs...
The worst thing is that EVERY TIME it has been shown that it is they who don't have any faith in God, because if they did, they wouldn't be so defensive and aggressive and possessive. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord", says the Bible - THEIR Bible, and yet when ever Lord taketh away, these people cry, scream, fear and hate, swear revenge and start lynching mobs.
Just look at the USonian Republican Christian reaction on 9/11. "Let's go bomb Iraq, Afghanistan and everyone who looks in any way suspect." What happened to "turn the other cheek"? If someone wants your WTC, you give them the whole Manhattan? It's better for a man to loose his hand than his soul?
Not only are these people weak in faith, they are also disloyal. They don't do what their God told them to do.They do what their "authorities" tell them to do, hate by command of their leaders, fear what their leaders tell them to fear, start wars of any kind of reasons, against anything, have no tolerance, patience or kindness towards anything or anyone in any way different. They keep sowing disagreement and segregation around themselves, whine about people wishing "happy holidays" in stead of what ever it is THEY choose to call the holiday, about people not being "real" Christians, patriots, this or that, have temper tantrums and argue about everything. What ever happened to "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance"? These people claim that these are the "fruits of Holy Spirit"; if you have it, you cannot but show these qualities, and if you show these qualities, you cannot but have the Holy Spirit. I'm sorry, but "decisiveness" is not a "fruit of Holy Spirit".

Nevertheless, even in spite of the vitriol shower I have been subjected to by these "loving and kind" Christians, FOR OVER 20 YEARS, I would like to point out - I only burst out in "vitriolic attacks", when I meet the most glaring examples of the ignorance, arrogance, egoism, aggressiveness and offensiveness of Christianity. You can call it an allergic reaction. :-> I would also like to add: when now these people think so highly of themselves and so lowly of everyone else, why the heck should I even TRY to be civil? They don't have any right to even expect a civil treatment from their victims, on the contrary. All they have to expect is to be bitten, whipped, bashed, spanked, DISCIPLINED, AND  

THEY SHOULD ALSO TAKE IT AS A RIGHTFUL PUNISHMENT,  

BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT BEEN OBEDIENT   

TO   T H E I R   G O D.

I don't need to. Not my God. I'm obedient to mine.

About stealing other people's traditions, habits, Gods and what not.
Yes, we all do that.

But who has stolen another people's God and now claim to have more right to this God than His original people? As far as I know, only Christians (and Muslims...).
The God of Jews is the God of Jews, because when it was time to choose Gods, only Jews chose him. Not Arabs, and none of the European peoples, and no-one in Africa, Australia or China. Only Jews. So He chose them, because they chose Him. If you want to belong to Him and worship Him, CONVERT TO JUDAISM! If you think the Jews have misunderstood their own religion, CONVERT TO JUDAISM AND LIVE LIKE YOU THINK JEWS SHOULD LIVE.
But, no, these people didn't want to be Jews, so they just took everything Jewish and started calling it something else, and on top of it, now they believe it's theirs, and ONLY theirs!

I mean... Neo-Pagans "steal" Deities right and left. We have practically adopted ANY God, ever, in every religions. Some even count God and Jesus as "Pagan Gods"! (Some people really have no clue of what "Pagan" means.... *sigh*) But I have never heard a Neo-Pagan say to a Hindu, that the Pagan has more rights to Sarasvati, and that Sarasvati loves the Neo-Pagan more than She loves the Hindu, because She is a Neo-Pagan God and not a Hindu God. I have heard MANY Christians say bollocks like this to Jews.

Not only have the Christians stolen (yes, stolen - you steal something when you take something that doesn't rightfully and legally belong to you but someone else, without permission, without giving something in exchange, and claim it belongs to you, and you alone) the Jewish God, they also stole the Jewish God's promises to His people, the Jews, but they didn't take the obligations of the Jewish people... they just took what they wanted, and mixed it with other religious ideas, traditions and rulings, and created something they thought was "better". It's not that they created a new religion and called it that, no, they created a new religion and called it "the improved version"! Talk about invading your father's house and then kicking you out and saying that they are the rightful heir, AND YOUR FATHER ISN'T EVEN DEAD YET!!!

All the religions are practically taking, adapting, adopting and adjusting other people's beliefs and traditions into something one can live with, but the rudeness and arrogance of Christians! I know I'm not impartial in this discussion, I'm married to a Jewish man and thus know more of Judaism than people normally do, but I have seen what the Christians do all the time to Jews and Judaism, and it is disgusting. 

And see what they did with Yule. It's not "Jesus' birthday". It's the birthday of Sun. Nevertheless, today we have a "war on Christmas"... These people who claim to express peace with their existence, to be unable to express anything opposite of peace, are ready to FIGHT OVER CHRISTMAS!!! IT WASN'T YOURS TO BEGIN WITH!

I don't mind people adopting others traditions and making them one's own, or giving them a new meaning, not at all. I do that all the time. We all do. But *I* don't adopt these traditions, fix them to suit my purposes and THEN say it's mine, mine, all mine, and always was and always will be, like the Christians do.

It might be unfair of me to speak of Christians as if they were a huge, monolithic group where all are the same, but I am sure we all know what I mean. If you define yourself as Christian, but don't recognize yourself from my description, then I'm obviously not talking about you. Unless, you cannot think of any Christian who behaves the way I have described, because then I AM indeed talking about you, but you are just too stupid to realize what you and your fellows are doing.