MP said to Marsha: ...You demand this joy be on *your* terms when you question the way in which others pursue theirs. Quoting Deuteronomy to accentuate what you see as "blatant contradictions" in "the Bible" seems an odd way for you to wish me joy when you know I find my joy through a faith in the God of that Bible no? ...The contradiction you think you see in "the Bible" is one of your own making, and has nothing to do with faith in Christ being a source of joy for me or not. Its all about *you* when you take it upon yourself to attempt to undermine what works for me simply because it doesn't work for you, and then in a manner that reveals the degree to which you don't understand my joy in the slightest. ..Yet how many times have you denigrated theism? How many times have you gone out of your way to undermine its legitimacy as a source of joy, of quality? ...If joy is your goal, why so much negativity about anything, let alone someone else's source of joy? ...But lets please allow each other the space to find our joy our own way.
dmb says: What if I said Astrology was my source of joy? What if I said it works for me and demanded that everybody refrain from denigrating it because it my source of joy? Do you think my personal comfort level can legitimately over-ride things like empirical evidence, a coherent explanation and logical consistency or do I get to avoid these intellectual demands because of the joy provided by this belief? C'mon, be honest. Aren't you really just asking Marsha to shut up because her point of view hurts your feelings? And what could that possibly mean except that you have no intention and no interest in honestly examining your own beliefs? Didn't you recently claim that doubt was the essence of faith? In that case, shouldn't you welcome words that cast doubt? See, this is the thing about theism in our world today. People want the comfort of the beliefs way too much. People are all too willing to overlook the consequences of these beliefs because the emotional motives are overwhelming. When beliefs are held on the basis of such motives, then it becomes almost impossible to change or grow or even learn anything because its too expensive and even legitimate debate is felt as an attack. In such a case, disputing theism becomes an attack on the other guy's psychological coping mechanism and naturally, he's gonna be rather fierce about protecting something so crucial. It's like taking food from a fat man. It might be good for him in the long run, but he'll hate you for it anyway. I mean, dude, that kind of belief just isn't healthy. Sorry, but emotional satisfaction is just no way to measure the quality of an idea. Just for the record, I get no joy from astrology. I get my joy from stealing your joy. ;-) _________________________________________________________________ Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_AE_Access_022009 Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
