Comments on: More ideas for comment policies

By: Mindy Carney

Mindy Carney — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:08:25 +0000

Yup. God works best when His “behavior” and “choices” can be interpreted at will to fit a particular situation. Were God to give definitive, specific answers and policies and “sides,” religion would be quite a different animal - as many of the pious searched frantically for loopholes . . .

By: Mark Tiedemann

Mark Tiedemann — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:42:15 +0000

Erich,

Classic piece of science fiction, you should look it up:

“Evensong” by Lester Del Rey. First story in “Dangerous Visions”

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:31:04 +0000

Mindy: Wouldn’t it be fun if God descended from the clouds and announced to everyone that the World Series down here on our tiny planet has His unabated interest. Yes, Earth, one of trillions of life-supporting planets in the vast universe has God’s unabated attention.

God picks up the PA microphone and and announces that he has picked sides. “I’m rooting for the Red Sox,” he announces. At that moment, the Red Sox fans go delirious. “Did you hear that!?” they scream to each other.

But if you look closely, you’ll also see thousands of Rockies fans all beside themselves. They love their Rockies, but they don’t want to root against God. What to do?

If the Red Sox started scoring a bunch of runs, it wouldn’t take long before some of the drunk Rockies fans start accusing God of intervening . . . cheating. Eventually they would start throwing beer cups at him and God would need to be escorted from the stadium so that the game could continue.

By: Mindy Carney

Mindy Carney — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:09:44 +0000

Well, DUH, Erich! Don’tcha think God would WANT those heathens trounced but good?! I mean, it’s not like we’re asking God to take sides - he already has. And we’re on HIS side, so anyone else is NOT WORTHY. I thought you knew that already.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:43:18 +0000

It’s a short extension to: “Thanks to God that we prevailed in this war by killing more of them than they killed of us.”

In the past few wars in which the U.S. was involved, I didn’t hear any Americans praying for the safety of the people firing bullets at Americans, but I constantly heard people praying for the safety of the American troops. They were clearly asking God to take sides.

By: Mark Tiedemann

Mark Tiedemann — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:31:59 +0000

Dan,

I agree, but one would then have to agree that the world of music was *older* than the Monkees, which we all “know” isn’t true…

By: Mindy Carney

Mindy Carney — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:40:38 +0000

I’ve always thought sports personalities who thank God for winning were particularly petty, yes. For a believer to thank God for the talent and perseverance it took to reach the top of his/her game is fine, but to thank God for trouncing another team? Nope.

It’s like that expression, “There but for the grace of God go I . . . ” Oh. So the other person wasn’t deserving of God’s grace? Why not?

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:19:26 +0000

I mulled the Monkees metaphor and found it wanting.
It’s more like saying that music reached perfection with the lyre. Anything composed for — or inspired by — newfangled inventions like the violin, organ, or piano are inherently inferior (un-true to music) because they are incompatible with an orchestra composed of lyre and earlier instruments.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:03:28 +0000

Mindy: BTW, I wasn’t talking about you in particular–I was referring to people in general.

By: Mark Tiedemann

Mark Tiedemann — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:43:07 +0000

True believers can be insufferably (and probably unintentionally) insulting. One time a friend of mine and I visited someone at her home and got into a jam session. The mother of the woman we were visiting was there and was clearly delighted with our playing. But all through the performance, she would clap her hands and declare joyously, “Praise the Lord for your hands! Praise the Lord for your talent!”

I got quickly very tired of this. As we were leaving, she said it again. “Praise the Lord for your hands!”

I turned and pointedly said, “They are MY hands, you know. The Lord didn’t teach me the songs or do my practicing for me.”

She looked utterly baffled and probably didn’t understand what I got all huffy about, but it made me feel better to say it.

But this same shit is what you see when some football player makes a field goal and drops to his knees to thank Jesus. Jesus didn’t do it, he did it. Besides, if Jesus had helped him, that means Jesus was against the other team. How petty is that?