Who Will Go To Heaven?

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
And now come the personal attacks to buttress your clever arguement.

Old. I'm trying to illustrate something, but you obstinately refuse to try and see it. Your refusal to at least to meet me halfway and try to take things in the spirit in which they're intended instead of persistently dwelling on the initial flawed rendition is tiresome and boorish. I sense that you jumped on what I said because you enjoy confrontation and not because you really want to understand what I'm trying to say. Your endless detours away from the spiritual context of the discussion into socioeconomics and what-not show that you're not interested in the subject matter either and are simply arguing for argument's sake.

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
Members of the lower class occasionally stumble across a piece of capitalist booty. That doesn't mean wealth and things are fundamentally dissassociated from socioeconomic status for all time. In fact ,it is still how the majority of us guess at someone's status.

To get back to the original point, it is not someone's socioeconomic status that is at issue. It's people's fixation on material possessions and attachment to worldly circumstances that inhibits their spiritual growth.

 

[Big D]

Roses are red and violets are blueish,

I think it's to bad we all can't be Jewish.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

sinsister implosives,
I think the actual truth is that you do not even realize your own biases. When they come across in your writing, you're suprised.

I think we all got your point. Closed minded christians should try to be more open minded. People should be less greedy.

Right?

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by Big D
Roses are red and violets are blueish,

I think it's to bad we all can't be Jewish.

Things would certainly be a lot easier if we all shared the same religion and philosophy, but they'd be pretty damned boring too.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
I think the actual truth is that you do not even realize your own biases. When they come across in your writing, you're suprised.

We all have default assumptions that we may never see through, and it's much easier to see someone else's flaws than to see our own. That said, I think you're carrying it too far when you interpret me as saying that all Christians are closed-minded. What I am saying (and which you have just reiterated), it's difficult but not impossible to see past one's own biases.

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
I think we all got your point. Closed minded christians should try to be more open minded. People should be less greedy.

Right?

You're oversimplifying it. People in general should try to seek out what those ancient texts are trying to teach us instead of interpreting them superficially or literally. The sort of people who wrote those texts were given to speaking in metaphors and parables, and their tendency was to use concretistic analogies for things that were very difficult to put into words. An analogy doesn't mean, for example, that "A represents B", but rather that "A is like B in a vague sense."

And yes, people should be less greedy, but in a broader sense they should devote their efforts to being rather than having. When we're distracted by a thousand and one things "out there," or even by the constant noise of our own minds, we can't observe the source of that noise. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but I really don't know any other way to explain it.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I also do not agree with literal interpretations of texts. I go for the spirit of the text.

The premise of your words WAS that christians are closed minded. Deal with it.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
The premise of your words WAS that christians are closed minded. Deal with it.

Well, I can only say that I know what I meant even if you insist on taking it some other way even after I've clarified it numerous times. But you have every right to your own interpretation.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

To put it another way. Why would you advise openmindedness, if you didn't believe closed mindednes was the problem?

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
To put it another way. Why would you advise openmindedness, if you didn't believe closed mindednes was the problem?

The position I was advocating was that people who habitually look at the matter in terms of the dogma or theology of their particular religion should try to strip it of that context and look at it from a different angle. In other words, it's not so much about who is doing it as what they do. Somehow I think most people who read my post were able to see it in that vein. Otherwise they would be picking the initial phrasing to death as you're still doing.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Yeah. That's also known as calling them closeminded. And there really arent' that many people on the board ya know. Others will weigh in.

Calling me a boor, a peasant, was more evidence of your inherenet elitism, by the way.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
Yeah. That's also known as calling them closeminded. And there really arent' that many people on the board ya know. Others will weigh in.

And I'm sure that at least some of them will think about what I said before jumping to the same conclusions you did.

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
Calling me a boor, a peasant, was more evidence of your inherenet elitism, by the way.

You're trolling. I didn't call you a boor, I said you were coming close to showing yourself to be one. I didn't call you a peasant either. My use of the word "peasant" was in reference to people who lived in medieval Europe. It's a valid English word used to describe people of the lowest socioeconomic strata and shouldn't necessarily be taken as derogatory.

(By the way, if you're going to insist next that I'm calling you a troll, please save your breath. It's stale already.)

 

[SinisterMotives]

And speaking of name-calling:

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
sinsister implosives,

 

[rtwngAvngr]

The president never said "imminent". He said we need to act before attack BECOMES "imminent". You sound like your hero, Bush.


One definition of a boor is a peasant. I'm not citing two distinct insults here.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Originally posted by SinisterMotives
And speaking of name-calling:

Well, it's funny when I do it.:clap1:

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
The president never said "imminent". He said we need to act before attack BECOMES "imminent". You sound like your hero, Bush.

One definition of a boor is a peasant. I'm not citing two distinct insults here.

I don't see that parsing words nor my "hero" - if indeed Bush is "my hero" - is relevant to the discussion. Unless you have some point to make about the subject matter rather than playing word games, I'll take my leave of you now.

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
Well, it's funny when I do it.:clap1:

To those who haven't already heard it a zillion times, perhaps.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Originally posted by SinisterMotives
I don't see that parsing words nor my "hero" - if indeed Bush is "my hero" - is relevant to the discussion. Unless you have some point to make about the subject matter rather than playing word games, I'll take my leave of you now.

You reason as the presidents defenders do: "He didn't say imminent, he said before it becomes imminent", is nearly the same as "I didn't call you a boor, I said the expression of your inherent boordom seemed imminent."


Your the king of word games. You insult christians and then try to wiggle out of it with overly expansive, and nonpersuasive, by the way, paragraphs.

You're really gone down in flames, you know.

Is kerry your hero?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

All you have to do is say uncle!

 

[SinisterMotives]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
You reason as the presidents defenders do: "He didn't say imminent, he said before it becomes imminent", is nearly the same as I didn't call you a boor, I said the expression of your inherent boordom seemed imminent."


Your the king of word games. You insult christians and then try to wiggle out of it with overly expansive, and nonpersuasive, by the way, paragraphs.

You're really gone down in flames, you know.

Correction. You perceived that I was insulting Christians as a group, although the intent was clearly not there on my part. Do get over yourself and understand that not everyone draws the same conclusions you do.

Your insistence on dwelling on my choice of words and phrasing and your continual attempts to twist what I've been saying do not bolster your argument in the least, nor do they prove that I've "gone down in flames." Your behavior only makes you look more and more like a troll. Note that I said "look like", not "you are a troll." If you want to make something of that too, that's your own problem. I have better things to do than argue the same non-point over and over with you when you've made up your mind that one post misinterpreted by you negates everything else I've said here today. I really expected better from you.

Have a nice day, RWA.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Originally posted by SinisterMotives
Correction. You perceived that I was insulting Christians as a group, although the intent was clearly not there on my part. Do get over yourself and understand that not everyone draws the same conclusions you do.

Your insistence on dwelling on my choice of words and phrasing and your continual attempts to twist what I've been saying do not bolster your argument in the least, nor do they prove that I've "gone down in flames." Your behavior only makes you look more and more like a troll. Note that I said "look like", not "you are a troll." If you want to make something of that too, that's your own problem. I have better things to do than argue the same non-point over and over with you when you've made up your mind that one post misinterpreted by you negates everything else I've said here today. I really expected better from you.

Have a nice day, RWA.

You called christains closed minded. All your words do not negate that fact. It was not a misinterpretation. You don't have to get so snippy about it.