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KiteAuraan posted:Very full of poo poo. No credible evidence exists for any of this poo poo. But selling stories of Satanic conspiracies is a GREAT way to sell books and speeches to people with no real effort. And to get innocent people imprisoned. There's lots of people still serving sentences from Satanic panic cases.
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Jul 16, 2015 22:21
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Why do some divisions of American Christianity get so vocal about our government supporting Israel no matter what? If things are prophesied to happen, shouldn't you be confident that Iran can't do poo poo to change them?
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Jul 17, 2015 01:49
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Idiot Kicker posted:Why do some divisions of American Christianity get so vocal about our government supporting Israel no matter what? If things are prophesied to happen, shouldn't you be confident that Iran can't do poo poo to change them? Jews are God's chosen people. We need to stay on their good terms to keep on good terms with God. ... That's it, really.
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Jul 17, 2015 01:53
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Pretty much, usually with a reference to Genesis 12:3, where God tells Abraham "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you."
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Jul 17, 2015 01:55
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My favorite ex-satanist has got to be Christine "I'm not a witch" O'Donnell.
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Jul 17, 2015 02:15
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The whole "END OF DAYS" thing kind of annoys me now, and it actually scared the living poo poo out of me as a little kid. When it really shouldn't have in retrospect because...well...I mean, who the hell was going to kick start armageddon back then? (pre-2001. Let me make that clear). I've also heard it in arguments that it pretty much is a major reason why Christian Media is as terrible as it is. quote:And it all comes back to the fact that Jesus could come back any minute, for real, like in the next four years even, and everything everyone has ever accomplished will all be gone. There's only one day left of summer vacation, so you may as well spend it getting ready for school. Life is finite, why do you bother living? Such is the legacy of the last book of the New Testament, the most obsessed-over piece of prose in world history. The very book that is supposed to give us hope for the future and reassure us that the problems of human existence are only transitory and something better is coming is the book which has robbed the modern Church of all but a tiny shred of its human creativity. The knowledge that the end is coming is supposed to inspire us to be ready for Christ's return, but Evangelicals take that to mean becoming Jesus zombies who think, speak, and write only in churchgoer buzzwords. In the history of Christianity, our generation is the one that comes closest to sounding like a Bibled-up version of Dilbert's boss. It also bugs me as a Christian currently because I think it implies that everyone knows what God is to do, and when he's to do it. The whole "Thieve in the middle of the night" sums it up. Hell I've heard "Dawn of the Dead" may have not been that far off biblicaly if we're really going to discuss potential Armageddon scenarios. http://biblehub.com/isaiah/26-19.htm http://theghostdiaries.com/does-the-bible-predict-the-zombie-apocalypse/ FuzzySkinner fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 02:33
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FuzzySkinner posted:It also bugs me as a Christian currently because I think it implies that everyone knows what God is to do, and when he's to do it. The whole "Thieve in the middle of the night" sums it up. Hell I've heard "Dawn of the Dead" may have not been that far off biblical if we're really going to discuss potential Armageddon scenarios. One of the most idiotic things about this "aaaaany day now" bullshit when it comes to the rapture or the apocalypse or whatever is that people keep coming out and saying they know the exact date. Frequently Biblical literalists. Quoting the Bible that very specifically says only God knows when it will happen. Jesus doesn't even know what the gently caress. You can't force it and you can't predict it. God will end the world when He's good and loving ready, thank you very much. He might decide tomorrow. He might wait 90,000 years. He might wait a billion. He's God and He does what He wants.
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Jul 17, 2015 02:38
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ToxicSlurpee posted:One of the most idiotic things about this "aaaaany day now" bullshit when it comes to the rapture or the apocalypse or whatever is that people keep coming out and saying they know the exact date. Frequently Biblical literalists. Quoting the Bible that very specifically says only God knows when it will happen. Jesus doesn't even know what the gently caress. You can't force it and you can't predict it. God will end the world when He's good and loving ready, thank you very much. He might decide tomorrow. He might wait 90,000 years. He might wait a billion. He's God and He does what He wants. It's especially idiotic because the Bible itself says that you can tell if someone is a false prophet because their prophecies don't come true. You'd think people would be more wary - not just the false prophets, but also those who follow them.
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Jul 17, 2015 02:44
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Pththya-lyi posted:It's especially idiotic because the Bible itself says that you can tell if someone is a false prophet because their prophecies don't come true. You'd think people would be more wary - not just the false prophets, but also those who follow them. The issue there is that you have religious leaders telling people that they'll go to Hell if they don't believe exactly what these false prophets are saying and you have people running around claiming they know exactly what God wants and have a direct like to the big guy himself. It just so happens that these people act like God happens to want all the same things they do. Tithe generously to this ministry because I want a private jet and God will reward you tenfold! The Rapture is coming! I know I was wrong about the date four times already but this time I have it right, promise!
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Jul 17, 2015 02:59
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Idiot Kicker posted:Why do some divisions of American Christianity get so vocal about our government supporting Israel no matter what? If things are prophesied to happen, shouldn't you be confident that Iran can't do poo poo to change them? There's a general feeling that Judaism is just a sort of subsect of evangelical Protestantism, helped a lot by the fact that Jews, at least Ashkenazim, are white Europeans, plus the various insane nutter theories about the Jews and Israel being necessary to start the End Times
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Jul 17, 2015 03:05
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icantfindaname posted:There's a general feeling that Judaism is just a sort of subsect of evangelical Protestantism, helped a lot by the fact that Jews, at least Ashkenazim, are white Europeans, plus the various insane nutter theories about the Jews and Israel being necessary to start the End Times This is a large part of Mormon belief, that all the tribes of Israel must return to Zion to bring about the second coming of Jesus.
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Jul 17, 2015 03:26
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ToxicSlurpee posted:I know I was wrong about the date four times already but this time I have it right, promise! The Great Disappointment/Millerites is one of my favorite American history stories.
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Jul 17, 2015 03:27
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Guavanaut posted:'sober adults' In vino Veritas
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Jul 17, 2015 09:02
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Dux Supremus posted:It's funny but not that surprising; hasn't there been a lot of widespread incorporation of the Left Behind series as to how Revelation will unfold? I'm pretty sure that's where the weird evangelical hatred for the United Nations comes from. (Which then brings their views into convergence with the people who think the UN is the Illuminati or NWO or Reptoid High Command or whatever...) Speaking of the Illuminati...  No, seriously. The reason that the Illuminati is actually a thing is because a Jesuit priest named Augustin Barruel latched onto them as the main reason that the French Revolution happened. The real Illuminati ( and yes, there was a secret society by that name ) were basically radical, proto-socialist political philosophers, mainly in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. And there were hundreds of clubs like them all over Europe, so they were by no means unique. But, because Bavaria was extremely Catholic and conservative, the Illuminati had to keep on the downlow about what they were discussing, and ended up getting busted up by the authorities. Who proceeded to publish internal documents from the 'Order'. At that point, with the French Revolution in full swing and desperate to explain how that could happen, Augustin Barruel latched onto this 'evil secret society' and pinned all the blame on them, even if the entire Illuminati-thing fell apart completely shortly after. See? Relevant! Christians getting up in arms about the Illuminati is by no means a new phenomenon. TLM3101 fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 09:39
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So what was the deal with the occult in 80s saturday morning cartoons anyway? The Evangelical overreaction about it being a plot to get devils into our front rooms is just that, an overreaction, but there was definitely more powers and crystals and speaking to spirits (all played straight) in 80s US cartoons than I recall from other decades or other countries. Is this a case of selection bias on my part, or a case of fads coming and going and that was the one for 80s America?
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Jul 17, 2015 10:03
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Malmesbury Monster posted:[About the Book f Revelation] Always thought the beast was Nero. Also, I like the critique that John of Patmos's imagery for Revelation comes from the fact he was exiled/banished/imprisoned on a hellhole of an island. Really, Revelation is a good argument against Biblical literalist. Those pointing it out as a guide for what the end will look like fail to grasp how much of the book was written to and for Christians in the 2nd (maybe 1st) century. Specifically, those experiencing the persecution from the Romans. Apocalyptic scripture comes from times of great turmoil and upheaval. For instance, the Book of Ezekiel, with its apocalyptic scripture, is written during the Babylonian Captivity (the one without the French). Fuzzy doesn't list it, but their quote is pretty spot on with the typical purpose of such scripture. Guavanaut posted:So what was the deal with the occult in 80s saturday morning cartoons anyway? Nothing comes from a vacuum. Even if it's for a kid's show, tapping into a vague notion of the "occult" isn't a big stretch for a writers to do. Beyond the hysteria, this meme (if that's the right usage) had been out there for a while. Think about the horror movies from the 70's and 80's. BirdOfPlay fucked around with this message at 10:43 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 10:36
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Guavanaut posted:So what was the deal with the occult in 80s saturday morning cartoons anyway? It's no different than all the swords and musclemen and women with impossible proportions that populated cartoons then and now. Certain things just tap into the human psyche as being "cool poo poo", and those sorts of things tend to be recognizable as cool by children, whereas complex narratives or relationships between characters aren't as recognizable to children. Therefore, you go hog wild with magic crystals and musclepersons and transforming cars and whatever else because "magic and not of this world" makes kids excited.
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Jul 17, 2015 15:02
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BirdOfPlay posted:Always thought the beast was Nero. Also, I like the critique that John of Patmos's imagery for Revelation comes from the fact he was exiled/banished/imprisoned on a hellhole of an island. I've seen strong arguments for Nero or Domitian (or both), but I confess my historical knowledge isn't really sufficient to make a strong claim for a specific emperor. Seven heads representing seven hills is about as straightforward as symbolism gets, though, and makes sense given when the book was written (concurrent with massive Christian persecution). And you are right on describing the purpose of apocalyptic literature. I've seen it described, though I can't find where now, as writing an end to the "story" of what's happening now. The wrongs will be righted, and a lot of theologians suggest that apocalypses call for active resistance to those wrongs to bring justice. People who claim to be Biblical "literalists" have basically no respect for what they're reading because you can't claim obviously figurative language as literal (and then write off literal language as figurative).
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Jul 17, 2015 15:16
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A bit of light reading for the thread: Our Great Big American God by Matthew Paul Turner. In it, Turner makes the case that modern American Evangelical Christianity is basically American Exceptionalism: The Theology. It's not a long book, but Turner makes his points well, and the fact that he's a Christian himself (though of a considerably more progressive bent) just illustrates how political the various strains of American Christianity have become.
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Jul 17, 2015 15:29
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:It's no different than all the swords and musclemen and women with impossible proportions that populated cartoons then and now. Certain things just tap into the human psyche as being "cool poo poo", and those sorts of things tend to be recognizable as cool by children, whereas complex narratives or relationships between characters aren't as recognizable to children. Therefore, you go hog wild with magic crystals and musclepersons and transforming cars and whatever else because "magic and not of this world" makes kids excited. When it comes to magic, ghosts, and the supernatural one of the biggest things is that's easy to write. After cartoons had their golden age a lot of people decided that cartoons are for children and children are stupid and really just care about pretty colors, stuff moving around, and characters hitting each other while saying funny things. There started to be this race to the bottom where people were trying to produce cartoons as cheaply as possible. This basically peaked in the 70's and 80's when very nearly every cartoon on TV was just reused animations, literally tracing everything, and making the shows with as little effort as possible to make as much money as possible. "A wizard did it" doesn't need to explained nor does "well let's talk to ghosts!" That took a minimal amount of effort to do because all you had to do was have characters sit around and make their mouths move. Technology was used in similar ways. You didn't explain it you just put some weird looking gizmo on the screen and it just did whatever you needed it to do. When it came to muscleperson shows and transforming robots the majority of that was "how do we sell toys?" Cartoons like He-Man, G.I. Joe, and Transformers were about the toys first and the shows second. They were literally half hour time slot advertisements for toys. The only thing that mattered was keeping children watching to make them want the toys. The devil had nothing to do with it though I'm sure Jesus would have a few things to say about the rampant commercialism of it all.
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Jul 17, 2015 18:39
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ToxicSlurpee posted:This basically peaked in the 70's and 80's when very nearly every cartoon on TV was just reused animations, literally tracing everything, and making the shows with as little effort as possible to make as much money as possible.
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Jul 17, 2015 19:05
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Guavanaut posted:I think this hits the nail on the head for what I was looking for. Other One of the reasons that skinny anime people happened was because Japan was actually producing very, very good animation in that period. Akira for example was so detailed they had to literally invent new inks just to make the movie possible. Early anime was basically proof positive that you could still make high quality animation. I think Europe had some good stuff going too but all told I don't know that much about European animation. In the 1980's there was also interest in older cartoons that were actually good and Disney was making a resurgence. People were watching stuff like Tex Avery cartoons or...well, really anything Disney did ever and wanting more stuff of that quality. Some people turned to anime and that's where anime sinking its hooks in came from. The bottom was hit when stuff like the Happy Days cartoon and the Star Trek one came around. Go watch them if you can find them for a bit. These shows were terrible. The Happy Days cartoon was literally just a few Happy Days characters stuck time travelling and trying to get back home. No. Seriously. That was the plot of the show. Fonzie and Pals time traveling with some other characters randomly thrown in because reasons. There wasn't a single bit of continuity and every episode was basically just whatever the writers puked onto the page that day. Plus we all know about stuff like Scooby Doo being the same episode remade over and over for years using the same animations over and over. Eventually people started saying "wait, animation can be used to do incredible things!" and remembering stuff like Tex Avery saying "you can do anything in cartoons." So why were they so limited? Ren and Stimpy was ultimately the big breakthrough that allowed American cartoons to have actual budgets again. Traditional animation kind of went by the wayside after a while but even now you're seeing good stuff coming out. You ended up with things like Samurai Jack coming around and that show was goddamned art. As you can see there is not the devil influencing cartoons but it can be purely explained by economic factors. But then I also remember hearing people screeching about how Japanimation was "those loving Jappos" trying to sneak their culture into ours so they could take over. Yes xenophobia runs rampant among these types and they were screaming that American shows were better simply because they were American. G.I. Joe was patriotic so it didn't matter that it was garbage animation created solely to sell toys. Of course part of the reason this came up in the 1980's was that the Reagan administration loosened restrictions on marketing directly to children. And yes the fundies just adore Reagan in case you were wondering.
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Jul 17, 2015 19:36
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You've got to also factor in that most of the people who would be creating the toy and cartoon lines in the 1980s grew up in the 60s and 70s. "Why would someone who grew up in the 1960s put unicorns into things?" is a much less interesting question, though.
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Jul 17, 2015 19:43
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Here in the UK/Ireland we watch US evanglical TV shows on SKY digital TV. Its loving hilarious. Best ever show had a swarmy guy in a thousand dollar suit saying that money was excellent and good if you spent it the right way. And of course the right way was to send it to him
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Jul 17, 2015 19:58
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ToxicSlurpee posted:One of the reasons that skinny anime people happened was because Japan was actually producing very, very good animation in that period. Akira for example was so detailed they had to literally invent new inks just to make the movie possible. Early anime was basically proof positive that you could still make high quality animation. I think Europe had some good stuff going too but all told I don't know that much about European animation. In the 1980's there was also interest in older cartoons that were actually good and Disney was making a resurgence. People were watching stuff like Tex Avery cartoons or...well, really anything Disney did ever and wanting more stuff of that quality. Some people turned to anime and that's where anime sinking its hooks in came from. The bottom was hit when stuff like the Happy Days cartoon and the Star Trek one came around. Go watch them if you can find them for a bit. These shows were terrible. The Happy Days cartoon was literally just a few Happy Days characters stuck time travelling and trying to get back home. No. Seriously. That was the plot of the show. Fonzie and Pals time traveling with some other characters randomly thrown in because reasons. There wasn't a single bit of continuity and every episode was basically just whatever the writers puked onto the page that day. Plus we all know about stuff like Scooby Doo being the same episode remade over and over for years using the same animations over and over. yeah i wasn't alive for it but i suspect a lot of the panic over saturday morning cartoons in the 80s tied into general japanophobia.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:09
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I think what we had discussed a few pages earlier is that their movement/influence is kind of dying because people are now being presented actual facts and statistics on quite a few things. Let's face it. It's becoming extremely difficult to keep playing the bible trump card when someone is able to present facts to an argument. You can't just slam a bible onto the table and go "BOOM. EVOLUTION IS A LIE. IT SAYS SO IN THE BIBLE.". No one buys that argument any more. You either have to adapt your message or find yourself facing irrelevancy. Same with gay marriage and same with women's reproductive rights. The argument really rings hollow when you go and slam a bible on a table insisting that this is how things should be, when the other side can simply point out how absurd the whole thing is. Via their own words, the bible's words or via (again) statistics and facts. Plus you know, people's own experiences with interacting with people outside of their own bubble. Very, very hard to take the whole "HOMOSEXUALITY IS A THREAT TO THE AMERICAN FAMILY" argument when pretty much everyone here has had to work with, been acquaintances with or even had gay family members. I don't think a lot of these arguments via Scientists and various types of people are done out of malice like these people seem to think they are. Bill Nye isn't attacking Christianity by not believing in it, yet these people seem to take it oddly personal that someone with a different view point kind of exists and tells them that they're causing a lot of potential danger as a result.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:20
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To be fair, anime does seem to have a corrupting influence on those who watch it. Nobody makes GI Joe part of their adult identity.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:24
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happyhippy posted:Here in the UK/Ireland we watch US evanglical TV shows on SKY digital TV. In Georgia? All over standard Cable on Sunday. Its really bad.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:25
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FuzzySkinner posted:I think what we had discussed a few pages earlier is that their movement/influence is kind of dying because people are now being presented actual facts and statistics on quite a few things. To be honest I think a lot of that has to do with how easy it is to get information thanks to the internet. It's becoming harder and harder to live in a bubble and harder still to force people into one. Watch stuff like the ex-Satanist and videos like that and one of the central messages is "deliberately isolate yourself and isolate your children for their own good." The fundies want total control of the messages you get and that's why I compare them to dangerous cults. They basically are just on a much larger scale. Which is also why you get madness like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZFG5PKw504 Yup, evolution is fake because you never find new life in jars of peanut butter. Pack it in folks, evolution lost. Actually also when it comes to Saturday morning cartoons there was also literally a Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. It actually kind of sucked but did, in fact, exist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_(TV_series) ToxicSlurpee fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 20:25
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Shbobdb posted:To be fair, anime does seem to have a corrupting influence on those who watch it. Nobody makes GI Joe part of their adult identity. There was a whole episode of Community where Jeff does just that
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Jul 17, 2015 20:28
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Shbobdb posted:To be fair, anime does seem to have a corrupting influence on those who watch it. Nobody makes GI Joe part of their adult identity. 
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Jul 17, 2015 20:31
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CommieGIR posted:In Georgia? All over standard Cable on Sunday. Its really bad. Can't remember the accent. But it was some guy who looked like Tony Robbins. All square jaw and fake grin.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:33
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Shbobdb posted:To be fair, anime does seem to have a corrupting influence on those who watch it. Nobody makes GI Joe part of their adult identity. Current anime? Yes. I would definitely agree with that. It's actually interesting because some very historically important names in anime have been lamenting the fact that current anime is just fan service pandering to creeps who want to gently caress 12 year olds. Granted the only anime I've ever really watched myself was some older movies (pre-2000...probably also pre-1990 in general), some Gundam Wing, and Cowboy Bebop. I also watched Robotech as a child but I don't know if that really counts. G.I. Joe is kind of different from anime. It was based on ultra-patriotic action figures from the 1960's that were ultimately "America is awesome OORAH!" in toy form. It wasn't an identity people could really take because it was based on identities people already had. If you look at it it was the cartoon taking America's identity rather than people taking its identity. You really, really saw that in the cartoon. A tiny group of perpetually outnumbered, ultra-masculine musclebros ran around constantly thwarting the plans of an omnipresent, worldwide terrorist organization that wanted to ruin America because "gently caress you." It was thinly veiled McCarthyism, really. The rest of the world was a threat and it was up to the plucky underdogs to beat them with grit, determination, and probably steroids.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:37
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ToxicSlurpee posted:To be honest I think a lot of that has to do with how easy it is to get information thanks to the internet. It's becoming harder and harder to live in a bubble and harder still to force people into one. Watch stuff like the ex-Satanist and videos like that and one of the central messages is "deliberately isolate yourself and isolate your children for their own good." The fundies want total control of the messages you get and that's why I compare them to dangerous cults. They basically are just on a much larger scale. It almost feels like they're scared of being "wrong", which in itself is kind of silly. i don't think there's any top scientist that have just flat out said for example "THERE IS NO GOD. I HAVE PROOF. -insert generic internet atheist argument here-". Rather what we've seen is something along the lines "I don't believe there is a God, but only because I don't really have facts one way or the other. Therefore I cannot support an argument for one". Which to me speaks volumes to more so their argument and kind of puzzles me. if top scientists cannot disprove the existence of God then why be frightened of them? I would imagine if God does exist (which I think and believe is the case), would he not want us to grow in knowledge and become more intelligent about his overall creation as a result?
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Jul 17, 2015 20:40
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Shbobdb posted:To be fair, anime does seem to have a corrupting influence on those who watch it. Nobody makes GI Joe part of their adult identity. Shitloads of manchild nerds make non-Japanese children's media part of their identities. The movie industry and arguably television have been completely taken over by nerd movies and shows wringing nostalgia dollars out of 35 year old manchildren
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Jul 17, 2015 20:45
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FuzzySkinner posted:I would imagine if God does exist (which I think and believe is the case), would he not want us to grow in knowledge and become more intelligent about his overall creation as a result? Dude, he kicked us out of the Garden of Eden for getting knowledge. God wants you thick as poo poo and keep rota repeating those prayers.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:48
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Here are just a few people who have made GI Joe part of their adult identity:   
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Jul 17, 2015 20:49
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They made a Skylab playset for GI Joe? The gently caress? That's obscure as hell.
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Jul 17, 2015 20:51
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Who else thinks these people have never actually gotten shot at for a living?
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Jul 17, 2015 20:52
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FuzzySkinner posted:It almost feels like they're scared of being "wrong", which in itself is kind of silly. That's actually one of the sticking points both between the fundy Protestants and the Catholic Church. The current doctrine of Catholicism is basically that if science proved something than God made the universe that way and we can't be questioning that. 2 + 2 always equals 4. That's provable. God made the universe in such a way that 2 + 2 is always equal to 4. If science proves that the universe is billions of years old then God must have made it that way. The echo chamber bubble also has people screaming that science is out to disprove religion specifically to make people distrust secular science which is dumb for exactly the reasons you're pointing out. They're frightened though because science might one day prove that there is no God or that they are wrong. Science has proven religion wrong about a poo poo load of things over time and that's part of why certain movements are inherently suspicious of science. That's also where the antagonism comes from; the view among some is that science is deliberately trying to destroy religion but these are people that don't understand the scientific method or what secular science does. Science isn't out to prove anything. The only thing scientists really do is poke and prod at the universe to figure out how it works. Which is part of why the current Catholic stance is that science is awesome because they're just figuring out how God's creation functions. Maybe evolution was, in fact, how God intended to get mankind. We don't know, we aren't Him. The universe behaves by a certain set of mathematical rules. If God created the universe then He put those rules in place in exactly the way they work. We can't really defy math or physics because those are the constraints of the universe. Mathematical, universal laws are basically God's laws. Of course as we understand them better it just keeps getting more bizarre and doesn't behave the way we expect it to but, you know, that's existence. Even so the current scientific consensus is nothing more than "God might exist." Fact is we just flat out don't know. Granted that's another reason the fundies dislike science. They hate uncertainty and preach unwavering faith in whatever you believe. Anybody trying to prove you wrong on anything at all is the devil trying to lead you astray. Which is why Young Earth Creationism is such an awful, awful thing and why evolution gets under so much fire. Granted when it comes to evolution that comes under fire because it suggests that God didn't create mankind directly at all which ruins quite a lot of arguments they make based on Biblical stories. Of course the Catholic view is that one story turning out to be false doesn't ruin the rest of the religion. If it turns out that stories like Adam and Eve or Noah are literally impossible and never happened it only disproves those stories specifically and not everything else. I get the feeling that fundie leaders really do understand that their arguments are a massive house of cards that is easily knocked over. When I actually started to question this crap I was like "holy crap that's a lot of bullshit." But yes a lot of it has to do with fear of being wrong. The fundie movement runs very heavily on fear and in many ways it preys on the fear of oblivion. This is part of why the afterlife is so strongly harped on. If you tithe generously to This Ministry and believe what we tell you you get to go to heaven and be happy forever. It sounds great but if you disprove any form of afterlife then our lives have no meaning and all we have to look forward to is nonexistence. That's a bleak, miserable thought but being able to get eternity from an omnipresent, loving, perfect God with no beginning and no end sounds great. ToxicSlurpee fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 20:52
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