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I assume God. The formulation "Could X...?" assumes X, for all that's worth. The question "Could a race of Snorks in a hypothetical universe in which gravity is frequently and arbitrarily reversed manage to keep their pants up with fewer than four grasping appendages?" assumes a race of Snorks. Unfortunately for the Snorks, it doesn't make them exist; nor does it make me believe they exist.
I cannot imagine a question starting with "Could God'" having any good answer other than "yes."
DOVINA: Exactly. Big rip.
ZODIAC: So why have you spent the last ten comments trying to "prove" it?
DOVINA: That's just what I always do.
ZODIAC: Exactly. And I appreciate how you stopped being a very realistic version of yourself about three imaginary comments ago.
DOVINA: Why thank you. Did I mention you're looking good today?
ZODIAC: You have now.
A2: Could God be anything less than totally cool? No. By definition.
Of course I don't believe any god wrote, inspired (in the scriptural sense), or approves of the Bible. I don't particularly believe in God. I do, however, believe that if you assume the Christian God, even literarily, you'd should also assume the Bible's true.
"If Christ were here there is one thing he would not be - a Christian."
"There has been only one Christian. They caught him and crucified him - early."
As you know, I think there is God. Much of the Bible points to God, and some of it might even be inspired by Him. But other parts are, by the authors' own admission, merely literature.
A bridge incomplete traverses no river - Dovina
I'm not hedging; I don't particularly believe in believing. I'll refuse to admit or deny the existence of anything unproven or unproveable.
Call it a pier, then. Fishing, anyone?
I don't particularly believe in believing either. I particularly don't believe in assuming beliefs in others when they have not clearly stated or lived out those beliefs.
A wise fish enticed to a pier-dangled hook will consider the source - Dovina
Integrity is something a person does with the appearance of thoughtful conversation, wouldn't you say? For example I could ask you if a spastic should be allowed to fly a plane. If you say yes, citing the high mental abilities of some spastics, I could trump with the common usage of the word spastic to mean dimtard. On the other hand if you say no, then I could cite the abilities of spastics. In either case I would shine with integrity and you would look dumb.
No, I wouldn't say. Spastics are incapable of the 'appearance of thoughtful conversation,' yet many of them are the most heartwarmingly 'integral' people I know. This has nothing to do with whether or not trumping is counter-intellectual, and everything to do with the fact that while you think it's arrogant and beneath you, you continue to trump in the first derivative. Integrate your way out of that one, spazmo.
Trumping is not necessarily counter-intellectual. It can be arogant, but not always. It is not beneath me, I just don't usually enjoy it. I thought all this was clear. What is it you're saying again?
http://www.areasofmyexpertise.com/hoboes
The rest of this comment is your typical madness. To wit:
DOVINA: I particularly don't believe in assuming beliefs in others when they have not clearly stated blah blah blah
ZODIAC: I don't do that.
DOVINA: I never said you did. I was commenting generally.
ZODIAC: But you're assuming beliefs. About me.
DOVINA: Trump. I'm "wily".
1. "when you or I assume God, we almost always assume Christian God."
2. "'There either is God, or there isn't' is a very Christian-God-minded thing to say."
There seems little point in arguing just to win, when so much can be learned through dialog of parties who want to extend their understandings, and all the more so when they hold widely differing views.
I never intend to trump. When I do, I almost always admit it. For example: "I don't believe you. Sorry, I'm well-aware this is the comment-equivalent of a spaz."
1. I considered using lines from your poems to argue that you assume Christian-God, but then I thought, what the hell? For one, the facile (and totally correct) response is going to be that your poems don't necessarily reflect your assumptions, and besides your poems are too vague in most cases to pin them down to Christianity (the one that's a plagiarized psalm included). And for two, this is an open dialogue, right? Why don't I just ask you? I've noticed Islam, Judaism, and African animism (at least) entirely lack the following concept:
Whatever you do for the least of my people, you do for God/the good of the whole.
Keeping in mind that responding positively does not "pin you down as Christian" (you could be Buddhist or Confuscist, at least), how do you respond to the aboveposted concept? That's a start.
2. Having by now researched or personally experienced all the world's major religions, I've never heard anyone but a Christian say something like 'There either is a God, or there isn't'. That's nowhere near conclusive, but I'm not trying to trounce on you, I'm running an idea past you. Moreover, I'd say that only Christianity at present coexists-with/allows/encourages the kind of critical inquiry required for a person to think 'There either is a God, or there isn't.' Those are my experiences anyway. I'd be interested in hearing yours.
1. My question to this kind of thinking is: Why do you want to discover my beliefs and then comment on them, rather than just commenting on what I say?
2. My comment here is similar: Why do you answer from the position that because I make a comment about God's existence using phrasing of that position which you think is typically Christion, that I therefore am probably Christian and should be addressed as such?
I could classify you before I comment, but I seldom do. Why do you invariably do it to me? I think better discussion results from comments about comments, rather than comments about inferred character or beliefs of the commenter.
1. Because if I do that, you say that most of what you've written/commented on poemranker doesn't reflect your real views or that it's too ambiguous to draw any real conclusion from. I'm not trying to dis; those are both excellent responses, but I'm trying to get somewhere. If you mean 'rather than just commenting on what I say, which is that I don't assume Christian God', well, because I think your a prime blunderer about those sort of things, and that people in general are not to be trusted to know their own minds.
2. Because the whole point of this argument is 'Oh, oh, shame on zodiac! He assumes God!' That is, shame on you Dovina for assuming not only God but Christian God, and then thinking it's some kind of dis to accuse others of that. Now you'll pretend the aboveposted comments and all of your other comments on this site are too vague for me to be drawing such conclusions. If that's the case, why the hell do you comment here? And do you ever suspect that you don't actually exist?
Despite your constant assertions to the contrary, you have always classified me and classify me at least as much as I classify you. Besides, I'm not the one who thinks classifying is some evil injustice; you're that one. At least half of the time. Disbelieve me if you like; these are the most obvious ways you've classified me on this page alone:
- God-assumer,
- Classifier,
- Likes to trump,
- Most cares about trumping,
- Will inevitably trump,
- Strongly-held believer.
So let it go.
Better yet: The Rapture. Possibly the craziest movie I've ever seen. And starring porn-era David Duchovny.
Question for a self-described skeptic believer: Do you think it was serious or satire?
My answer: It's been a long time since I've seen it. Honestly all I can remember is Mimi's tits. Everything else I remember from the movie are scenes from The Seventh Sign.
This reminds me of a joke. It's near the bottom of the page at this link. It's called The pink and purple polka dotted ping pong ball. You'll recognize it as a big block of text. Make sure you read every word of it slowly and carefully. Enjoy.
http://www.circleofbastards.com/cgi-bin/
I'd love to ask her what she thinks of the movie, but I'm pretty sure the preceding has made her scared to watch it. Watch.