God sucks!

[libby]

The Saturday Washington Post features a RELIGION page, which features many points of view.  Here's one of today's topics -- which I found very interesting. 

The Washington Pos
BY DAVID GIBSON
— Religion News Service

Bewildered by the star of Bethlehem?

A planetary expert at the Vatican embarks on a voyage to show how faith melds with science

New York -- With Christmas just around the corner, Brother Guy Consolmagno gets a lot of questions this time of year about the star of Bethlehem that led the Magi to Jesus in the manger.
Consolmagno is an astronomer — a planetary scientist for the Vatican observatory, in fact — who specializes in asteroids and meteorites, the very sort that may well have been the famous "star" described in the Gospel of Matthew.

"It's fun speculation," Consolmagno said, smiling through a graying beard while sitting on a bench in Central Park on an unseasonably warm afternoon. "It's fascinating to realize that there actually are a couple of quite plausible things it could be.

"But what's even more interesting to me is that this story was included, of all the stories that Matthew might have included," he said, growing animated as he does when diving into his twin vocations of science and theology. "Whether it's something he heard from Mary, or whether it's something he made up, why was it included?"

If those are the sort of musings you enjoy, and a level of ambiguity you can handle, you'll like the book Consolmagno has written with a fellow Jesuit, the Rev. Paul Mueller, who heads the Jesuit community at Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town near Rome where the Vatican's main telescope is located.

Their book is titled "Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?" — another question Consolmagno is asked a lot at his speeches and media appearances and one that Pope Francis — a fellow Jesuit and a chemist — has posed as part of his focus on Catholic inclusivity.

Consolmagno's short answer is, "Yes" — but "only if she asks!"

The longer answer is spelled out in the book, but Consolmagno and Mueller are really aiming their lens at a bigger goal: to show how people of faith can also believe in science.

"God is reason. If you reject reason, you are rejecting God," Consolmagno said.

Unlike many apologists, Consolmagno isn't fixated on those "New Atheists" like Richard Dawkins who wield science like a cudgel to bash religion and believers.

"I don't mind someone disagreeing with my views on religion," he said. "But I'd like to have a sense of mutual respect. If you think that what a lot of people believe is nonsense, then maybe you don't understand what it is they believe."

But such debates are mostly a sideline for Consolmagno.

"The thing that really bothers me," he said, "is the creeping fundamentalism among Catholics who don't know their own faith and who are desperately trying to do the right thing and to be faithful believers, thinking that they have to sacrifice their reason to follow God. And that is exactly the opposite of what God wants."

Preaching that old-time Catholicism of faith and reason is what Consolmagno will now be doing almost full time.

For two decades, he was curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo, one of the largest in the world, and he wrote scientific books and delivered research papers. Last month, he was given the Carl Sagan Medal, one of the most prestigious awards within planetary science.
Yet Consolmagno has always seen himself as a teacher as muchas a researcher, and now he will be able to educate people even as he raises money in his new post as head of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. He'll be based in Arizona and will travel much of the year.

The goal is to make the church and the public more aware of the scientific work the Vatican does. ( Who even knows that the pope has an observatory, and why?) It's also to teach Catholics about their own intellectual tradition.

Although Consolmagno happily describes himself as an introvert — "pretty much a nerd," is how he also puts it — he says it's easier for him to talk to 2,000 people than to deal with individuals. Indeed, that's why he became a Jesuit brother rather than a priest who might have to tend to a parish.

Consolmagno was born in 1952 in a well-to-do suburb of Detroit. His immigrant family placed a high value on education and faith. He loved science as a kid, and, as was true of many young people in those days, his imagination was fired by the space race in the 1960s and the moon landing — the kind of efforts he believes we need to invest in today.

Space travel "is the one thing that draws us all together," he said, noting that both the Vatican and the U.S. government spend about 1 percent of their budgets on astronomy-related science.
"This kind of curiosity transcends momentary human conflicts and gives us a sense of perspective," he said.

Consolmagno continues to be a sci-fi buff, although he prefers oldschool books to movies. He did, however, love the recent space epic "Interstellar," watching it in an Imax theater with a high school buddy and a chum from MIT. The science was pretty good, he thought, and not even central to the film: "The word religion is never mentioned, because it's everywhere. It is entirely about dealing with the transcendent."

He started out at Jesuit-run Boston College but soon decided he didn't want to be a Jesuit. "I realized I'm much better at dealing with numbers and factoids," he says. So he transferred to MIT and was pondering academic stardom in planetary science when his Catholic conscience called again. He joined the Peace Corps and worked in Kenya for two years, teaching physics and astronomy.

"People in Africa are curious about the stars, too," he said. "If you deny them the chance to go 'Wow!' looking at stars, you are saying they're not fully human. They are hungry for that, because human beings are hungry for that."

When he returned to the United States, he found a satisfying teaching job at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, but it wasn't enough. He wanted — needed — to "stand for something bigger than myself."

Consolmagno had just ended a long and rocky relationship and realized that he was better on his own. So his old Jesuit calling beckoned, only this time as a brother, and by 1993 he found himself a fully vowed Jesuit, in Italy, and working for the Vatican. He wasn't teaching, but it wasn't a bad gig, to say the least.

Now, in his new incarnation, he hopes to be able to use what spare time he has for research, especially into the asteroid Vesta, which he wrote about years ago. He'll put the popular books on hold for a while, although he still hopes to test that hypothesis about baptizing an extraterrestrial.

But his main job is to ease the fears of fellow believers who worry that science undermines faith.
"I don't know how it could," he said before heading off to another interview. "Because my faith is already full of doubts. And the doubts have nothing to do with what I've learned is science. They have to do with what I've learned in myself. And in some ways, the doubts are the strongest proof I have of my faith.

"If there wasn't a God," he said, "why would I be so worried about there not being one?"

www.washingtonpost.com

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[Locutus]

Ho ho hell!!! 

_______________________

A woman was charged with criminal mischief Tuesday after the Satanic Temple's holiday diorama in the Florida Capitol was damaged.


"Susan Hemeryck, 54, of Tallahassee, entered the Capitol at 11:23 a.m. and told an on-duty police officer that "she was sorry and had to take the Satanic display," according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement probable-cause affidavit.

When the woman was advised not to remove the temple's fallen-angel display from its table, the affidavit said Hemeryck "reached forward and began to rip apart the display."

The first-floor display is set up in the middle of the hallway leading toward the offices of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott, feet from a post where Capitol police work at metal detectors.

Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said the group may leave the display as is.

"Even if it wasn't fixable I would be for leaving the smashed remains there for the rest of the time as a testament to the intolerance of some people," Greaves said. The state Department of Management Services has imposed a new seven-day timeline for items put up in the rotunda. The temple's diorama went up Monday.

The display includes the phrase "Happy holidays from the Satanic Temple" atop a diorama of an angel falling into hell. The temple, which doesn't really worship the devil, argues that government should either bar all displays from religious groups at public facilities or allow all groups to display their beliefs, Greaves said.

The criminal mischief charge is a second-degree misdemeanor.

The FDLE valued the diorama at less than $200.

A year ago, the display was barred from the Capitol because it was deemed "grossly offensive" by the Department of Management Services. However, the display won approval this year after threats of a lawsuit.

The display is the latest in a series of irreverent holiday displays from groups motivated by the state's acceptance of Christian nativity scenes the past two years.

Among the offerings has been a Festivus pole made from beer cans and a dressed-up pile of rope to signify the deity from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-satanic-display-vandalized-arrest-story.html#navtype=outfit

[Y]

American Taliban!   

[Locutus]

Yep!  But none of that shit should really be in the capitol building in the first place. 

[The Troll]

Ho ho hell!!! 

_______________________

A woman was charged with criminal mischief Tuesday after the Satanic Temple's holiday diorama in the Florida Capitol was damaged.


"Susan Hemeryck, 54, of Tallahassee, entered the Capitol at 11:23 a.m. and told an on-duty police officer that "she was sorry and had to take the Satanic display," according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement probable-cause affidavit.

When the woman was advised not to remove the temple's fallen-angel display from its table, the affidavit said Hemeryck "reached forward and began to rip apart the display."

The first-floor display is set up in the middle of the hallway leading toward the offices of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott, feet from a post where Capitol police work at metal detectors.

Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said the group may leave the display as is.

"Even if it wasn't fixable I would be for leaving the smashed remains there for the rest of the time as a testament to the intolerance of some people," Greaves said. The state Department of Management Services has imposed a new seven-day timeline for items put up in the rotunda. The temple's diorama went up Monday.

The display includes the phrase "Happy holidays from the Satanic Temple" atop a diorama of an angel falling into hell. The temple, which doesn't really worship the devil, argues that government should either bar all displays from religious groups at public facilities or allow all groups to display their beliefs, Greaves said.

The criminal mischief charge is a second-degree misdemeanor.

The FDLE valued the diorama at less than $200.

A year ago, the display was barred from the Capitol because it was deemed "grossly offensive" by the Department of Management Services. However, the display won approval this year after threats of a lawsuit.

The display is the latest in a series of irreverent holiday displays from groups motivated by the state's acceptance of Christian nativity scenes the past two years.

Among the offerings has been a Festivus pole made from beer cans and a dressed-up pile of rope to signify the deity from the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster."

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-satanic-display-vandalized-arrest-story.html#navtype=outfit

       I'll bet the devil made her do it.   

[Locutus]

       I'll bet the devil made her do it.   

  Either that or she gave ole' Jeebus and early birthday present by casting out the devil from the Florida Capitol building. 

[The Troll]

American Taliban!   

  Please change that Mr. Y,  to Christian Taliban.  Now let us    

[Locutus]

Imagine that!  A Christian telling a lie; and a big lie it was. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" never actually went.

Alex Malarkey, a young boy who coauthored a book with his father first published in 2010 about going to heaven and returning to earth, wrote an open letter to Christian publishers retracting his story.

In 2004, Malarkey and his father, who is a Christian therapist, were in a bad car accident that left the 6-year-old boy paralyzed and in a coma.

According to the book's Amazon page: "When Alex awoke from a coma two months later, he had an incredible story to share. Of events at the accident scene and in the hospital while he was unconscious. Of the angels who took him through the gates of Heaven itself. And, most amazing of all ... of meeting and talking with Jesus."

The letter that Alex, who is now 16, wrote to publishers said he made the whole thing up: "I said I went to heaven because I thought it would get me attention. When I made the claims that I did, I had never read the Bible. People have profited from lies, and continue to. They should read the Bible, which is enough."

Two major Christian bookstores, Lifeway and Tyndale House, have announced plans to pull the books from stores.

In April, Alex's mother, Beth Malarkey, wrote on her blog that the book was untrue. She also implied that Alex had not received the proceeds from the book sales:

It is both puzzling and painful to watch the book The Boy who Came Back from Heaven to not only continue to sell, but to continue, for the most part, to not be questioned ... The ones making money from the book are NOT the ones staying up through the night, struggling for their breath, or were they the ones at six years old, waking up unable to move or breathe and in a strange place after last remember seeing a car coming right at the car he was riding in.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-boy-who-came-back-from-heaven-recants-everything-2015-1#ixzz3P6nmXDBy

[Henry Hawk]

Okay, I should know better than even voicing my opinion on this subject, but here I go.

If this thread was called "Christians Suck", I probably could go along with it.  I hate the label "Christian".  Too many people adopt that name, then they really don't care if they try to live up to any sort of "standard" that comes along with it.

I stand firm behind "God".  I think Christians is also a very, very good thing, but too many people attach themselves to it, and think that is all that is required. 

How can you put someone down, who strives to live as Christ did?

I 100% understand the stigma it has, and the millions of assholes who shove this belief down others throats, when they aren't even CLOSE to living the "life" themselves.

This "lie" this kid told, is no different than anyone else who has lied, to gain profit.  Atheists do the same thing.

A liar is a a liar.  PERIOD.

I quit going to my Church because of idiots.  I don't think all church's are bad, I don't think Christians are bad.  Just people who YELL they are, but don't come close to representing the lifestyle that is laid out by Christ.

anyway, just felt like rambling a tad on this issue.

[Locutus]

An Atheist Super Bowl commercial!   


https://www.youtube.com/v/axFyDGPSuDU

[Locutus]

That's funny as hell.  It certainly doesn't hurt that she's also smokin' hot! 



This increases critical thinking, free thought, logic, reason, and creates the ability to filter out bullshit.

--- Dr. Logic (a.k.a. some smokin' hot babe on the Internet.)

[Exterminator]

Yep; she's a cutie! 

[me]

Man could ya'll ever use some of that.

An Atheist Super Bowl commercial!   


https://www.youtube.com/v/axFyDGPSuDU

[Exterminator]

[Exterminator]