An appeal to insomniac Glib Christians and other Glib philosophers who enjoy navel contemplation about one of Western civilization’s greatest influences, and is like it in any gun-toting. Do not let your mind stray for the technical implications, Program origins, and why the ancient Council of Nicaea still affects us to this day,and to you, expressed even in the ethnic and geopolitical boundaries in Europe and the Near-Middle East.I struggle personally with the concept of the Trinity, commonly known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I believe that all three exist are in close—even overlapping—existence with each other, but I can’t see them as “the same.”
I’m not Arian, either (if indeed my understanding of Arianism is accurate). I do believe that God, Christ’, and the Spirit were all there “at the beginning”, not that God separately created Christ and the Spirit later. Genesis, Chapter 1:
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
So here we have God creating the universe through “the Spirit”.
Then the wonderful book of John:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. […]
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So here we have God, the Spirit, and Christ all together in the Beginning but also separate in their physical/spiritual manifestation and indeed, their timing. The book of Revelation says that no one knows the hour of the end times, not even the Son, but only the Father. So that shows a distinction between knowledge and indicator of some individuality.
Also, at Pentecost (after Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection) Jesus tells his followers:
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
In my very limited understanding, the Spirit is God and Christ living among us as a non-corporeal being. God before Christ was not directly seen; hence the Ark of the Covenant etc. Then Christ was a man and “dwelt among us for a little while.” But nowadays it’s the Spirit who embraces us, comforts us and performs miracles., great and small. The Spirit never asks for praise but is there to bind us closely to the Father and the Son, whom the Spirit exhorts us to praise.
Who physically wrestled Jacob, and who was the fourth figure along with the Israelite servants (Daniel, Chapter 3):
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
25 He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”
The Spirit? The Son of God before he was born in earthly form? An angel?
Anyway, the TL:DR version is, if anyone can point me to good reading on what the holy Trinity is and what was believed about it in the early church days, I’d appreciate it very much.
Secondary point: adjacent civilizations will alway try to conquer each other and re-write history to leave to others.
Nice interweave of the three, I like what you did there,
From Gods voice,
Cheers!
Thanks HE! Making me ponder and all that stuff.
It’s not reading material, but the Lord of Spirits podcast features some really interesting deep dives into some of the more esoteric parts of the Bible.
Thanks for this!
Orthodox priests, btw.
Early church history is fascinating, and of course we only really know who’s a heretic based on who won the dogma war. And the Roman Catholic Church isn’t the only Catholic Church!
What other Catholic Churches are there? Serious question.
There are several, they all fall under the umbrella of the Pope but don’t all day Mass the same way. There are several flavors of eastern Catholics, Ukrainian Greek, etc. Too many to know off hand.
There are apparently also some churches who claim to be Catholic but are not in communion with Rome. Which is very strange.
I am completely out of my depth here.
(((Me))) too
I’ve not read much on the Trinity. Even when you clear out the heretics, there are as many plausible theories as there are people.
I like CS Lewis’s formulation. A person is like a square. God is like a cube.
Before I ever dive into the Trinity as a study topic, I want to ground myself in an understanding of old heresies. A lot of really bad theology starts with good intentions but an ignorance of history, Scripture, and the philosophy of God. It’s really easy to end up backing yourself into Arianism, Modalism, Unitarianism, Manichaeism, or one of the various other heresies of old if you only get some of the puzzle pieces before starting to put them together.
The trouble is the filter we get those heresies through – of the ascendant orthodoxy (way, way back when).
I read once that Americans have a real tendency to be functionally gnostics.
There are two issues you hint at.
Issue 2 is easier to dismiss. The average American Christian should question their salvation. Yeah yeah, look at the fire and brimstone holier than thou Muppet over here. The problem is that “faith without works is dead” and the works of the average Christian involve rolling out of bed once a week and listening to a preacher for 20 minutes. Many will call His name and he will say “depart from me. I never knew you”. It doesn’t surprise me that people think that saying a prayer (secret knowledge) and taking a dunk in water saved them. We’re a transactional culture.
The first issue is matter of faith for me. Either the Holy Spirit is present in the church or He isn’t. Doesn’t mean the church is perfect or that specific churches/denominations won’t go off the rails, but it does mean that Truth will persist in one form or another.
Also in Genesis, it sounds as though God (in earthly form) and a couple of angels visited Abraham – then God left and the angels went down to Sodom to try and rescue Lot. Doesn’t imply the pre-sacrificial Son necessarily, just a human-formed temporary element of God as in other visitations – different than the specifically notated angels throughout the Bible.
I should probably have more references to hand (probably some on the shelves), but it’s been a little while since I delved as deeply into detailed apologetics, commentaries, etc.
In the Old Testament, it wasn’t necessarily God in the Ark – that was a representation/reminder of his presence (where the original stone tablets were stored). During the 40 years of wandering, God was incarnate as a cloud [of fire] over the Tabernacle by day and night and Moses would enter his direct presence regularly.
The Trinity has always been something I’ve been unable to wrap my puny brain around. Here’s some more thoughts from CS Lewis:
“The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is
also a Person. I know this is almost inconceivable, but look at thus. You know that among
human beings, when they get together in a family, or a club, or a trade union, people talk
about the ‘spirit’ of that family, or club, or trade union. They talk about it’s ‘spirit’ because the
individual members, when they are together, do really develop particular ways of talking and
behaving which they would not have if they were apart. It is as if a sort of communal
personality came into existence. Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a
person. But that is just one of the differences between God and us. What grows out of the joint
life of the Father and the Son is a real Person, is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are
God”
From Mere Christianity.
This is the most reasonable explanation I’ve heard. As reasonable as something based on faith can be, anyways.
Never got the Holy Ghost part. It always seemed to me to be an artificial construct to give a numerologist slant to appease the unwashed masses. Your example seems like it can be interpreted at will. For example, “God’s spirit” could simply be interpreted as “God’s Will”.
I am not an official “Christian” but was brought up in a heavily Christian-oriented family. A lot of that rubbed off on me and I have ruminated about the subject a lot over the years.
One thing that always bothered me was the apparent contradiction in “there is one God” and “there is one God and His Son”. Doesn’t that make two?
Anyway, this is what I came up with as an example:
God is like a cloud around the Earth, kind of like the Van Allen belts. So, a portion of this cloud breaks off and is carried to Earth in the form of a man. This man, a portion of God, is able to perform God-like tasks until his mortal body is executed and he returns to the cloud. So we still have only one God and yet we can have a “Son of God” a a portion of the One.
Thanks for the post and thanks for letting me express something that I have thought about for a long time but never had a soapbox to vocalize.
Yeah, you are nominally a monotheist, but without the spirit you’ve got a duality, so they solved that by bumping up to a trinity, but still only a single god.
This actually makes the point perfectly that faith is not about reason or logic.
Same here – the Holy Ghost portion didn’t make sense. And who, what are the Angels?
Good catch. And where did they fit in with the whole “creation of the Earth” thing? If God is eternal are His assistants immortal, also?
Angels are created servants/messengers. Not sure how much hierarchy there is in the spiritual world, but they are essentially immortal after being created (probably before the physical world) – not eternal. Satan (Lucifer/the devil) was a servant who rebelled and was expelled from God’s presence.
Daniel and Hebrews both have more information and information on some of the different roles, etc – I have no doubt that additional information has been revealed in spiritual revelations throughout history, but not as much is definitively documented in the Bible.
I’ve been sitting here trying -and failing- to channel my Mom’s words on this topic. She was a “Spirit-filled Christian”, AKA a “Holy Roller” who believed strongly in the Trinity, and that letting the Holy Spirit into you was every bit as important as loving God and accepting Christ as your savior. For whatever it’s worth, I’ll do my best to pass on what my Mom taught me, paraphrased and remembered as best I can:
When you feel that internal “tug” to go a certain way, that’s the Holy Spirit. Especially if there is some decision you are very prayerful about. If you feel like you’re being pushed in a certain direction, that is the Holy Spirit leading you.
The Holy Spirit is what gives you that fire and energy when you let go and really worship God. Speaking in tongues is the Holy Spirit speaking to God on your behalf. If you’ve ever been at a church service and you could feel the energy in the room, that’s the Holy Spirit.
I wish I could call her and ask her for a good suggestion for you to read more. I know she’d offer several.
After years of neglect, I’m afraid I’m still in the difficult years. I just can’t get in the faith mode. As young kids we went to Lutheran Bible School, mainly ’cause we got out of an hour or so of class on Tuesday afternoons. We learned our morality at home and hopefully it mostly stuck with us. The day of reckoning is approaching and I’ll find out if I was wrong. At least it’ll be a family reunion.
I don’t question an other’s beliefs because it’s not my business nor do I proselytize my ignorance.
A-fucking-men, my friend.
*I say this as a former Bible school teacher and a dude who once considered going to seminary school. I seem to have lost my religion. It worked/works for my mom, but not for me.*
*Also jealous of the Catholic kids who got to skip class on Wednesdees and some Fridees.
“When I was back there in seminary school, there was a person there who said that you can ‘petition the Lord with prayer’. You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p-AUo1w45w
Can You Give Me Sanctuary?
In a few days the cabin will be open again, if that’ll help. It’s the best I can do.
No Sanctuary
She Sells Sanctuary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCOSPtyZAPA
It’s such a great song. Do not see them live. You will be disappointed. Far better to have good memories.
Yep. I am glad I worked the night they came to Ames, IA. I heard it was a lousy concert.
/then again, I had to cut my hair to work there. I have never washed as much lettuce or chunked as much cantaloupe.
I’ve questioned pastors after they’ve lectured on a religious topic, but don’t generally go around asking religious folk to explain their beliefs. What’s disappointing is that when a discussion does occur, those of faith can’t really answer questions. e.g. I asked the head pastor (Presbyterian Church) about the church’s concept of Hell and what happens to non-believers or those who never had the opportunity to believe. “That’s above my pay grade” was the answer. Same with prayer – does it cause God to change his will and why?
Again, no answer except “many prayers are never answered but we keep offering them.” Another pat answer seems to be that God is inscrutable and we can’t attribute human motives or behaviors to Him. And then we go and preach sermons about what God wants us to do.
I think this comes from applying reason to something that is not reason based. Personally I can’t accept the metaphysics of most (any?) religion, but see the tremendous value of the accrued knowledge, both cultural and innate/instinctual that is part of what we are as homo sapiens that gets reflected and codified in religious teachins. In some ways, asking questions like HE is above and you are messes everything up; the believer who believes and says things like “it’s God’s will” etc. gets the benefit of the accrued experience and knowledge without the torment of trying to understand rationally. Unfortunately (?) for me I cannot *not* ask those sorts of questions, so I’ll always sort of be outside of religion.
In some ways, asking questions like HE is above and you are messes everything up
Respectfully disagree. Modern American Christianity is peculiar in its desire to avoid thinking very much about hard things. Revivalism cut out the rational thought and replaced it with emotional appeals. There is more ink spilled on the character of the Trinity than on many scholarly topics. Much of the history of rationality in our civilization was borne out of attempts to understand God.
I did say “in some ways”. There’s certainly been tremendous advancement in ideas from attempts to ‘understand God’. But I might, if it wasn’t time to throw the steaks on the grill and get a cocktail, argue that cause and effect are reversed in that formulation. God(s) and religion, including Christianity arose out of an apparent innate need of humans to understand and explain existence, the nature of what it means to be human and our relationship to the world/existence. i.e. God exists because of the human drive to understand reality and understand our place in the world. That human drive creates God, and the existence of God can further drive/feed that advancement of ‘rationality’, philosophy, understanding.
*blockquote fail*
Yea, yea God is great.
Just a stranger on the bus
God(s) and religion, including Christianity arose out of an apparent innate need of humans to understand and explain existence, the nature of what it means to be human and our relationship to the world/existence. i.e. God exists because of the human drive to understand reality and understand our place in the world.
Which one is the wet streets, and which is the rain? Either man has a desire for some greater purpose because he has a soul and some sort of innate connection to the divine that whispers to him that there is something greater than he sees, or it is a cruel accident that drives man to pine for what does not exist yet in the process imbues him with the drive to organize and create in such a way as to out-compete and out-last all other species. As much as I see many flaws in all the religions, I cannot abandon spirituality for the simple fact that I see an even greater flaw in the absence of religion: the lack of morality. For without a spiritual reality of some sort, morality is logically nothing more than a social construct, in other words a fiction, and the only true morality is that might makes right, or rather simply that might makes. The dead get no justice, but that doesn’t matter, for there is no justice to give them.
Total dead thread, but whatevs. To quote JBP – “I behave like God exists”. I just think the drive for religion and belief in a god is evolutionarily driven. It comes from how our ancestors – not just primate – evolved and succeeded and became a flourishing species. How to pass knowledge down, how to exist and behave in a manner that makes your success and your descendants success more likely. Add on top of that the big brain that developed as a survival tool and you have a recipe for philosophical musings on what it all means. IOW, religion codifies all those rules, learned over time, selected for by evolution, etc. Religion is an evolutionary adaptation. I’m fully on board with a host of religious thought and teaching because I think it represents the best and brightest of all our ancestors integrated over time – not to say some parts of all of them are just bat-shit insane – but I just can’t see any way to the physical reality of an entity called God, in whatever form various religions cast Xer.
The true morality/dead get no justice – I wish it weren’t so, but wishes don’t make reality. That human need for justice/morality is also an evolutionary adaptation; that’s how we, as social animals, succeeded. Religious teachings help us keep those ideas in the forefront freeing up time for us to focus individually on other, more productive endeavors that are more suited to our individual talents. But that human need doesn’t provide evidence for the existence of God, it’s part and parcel of why all human societies create God. I’m not sure that we can keep the advantages that religion provides without the belief system though, nor if that’s even desirable. But that doesn’t mean I can personally can believe in the physical reality of God.
Well that’s a bit too long for a comment, let alone a comment in a dead thread. At least it helps me organize my thoughts!
Those are terrible answers. This is why priests are better.
what happens to non-believers or those who never had the opportunity to believe
Romans 2
does it cause God to change his will and why?
There’s no trite verse I can quote for that one, but the answer is “no” because God exists outside of space and time and His will was, is, and always will be perfect. Prayer is a benefit to the person praying and to the person being prayed for. It’s not for the benefit of God. I’ll slap a big asterisk here and say that prayer has a supernatural component that I won’t even begin to be able to explain because I struggle to understand.
Either you got somebody who graduated last in their class at seminary, or they were trying to avoid the conversation for some reason. Those questions aren’t particularly difficult ones.
Doesn’t that Romans verse imply that non-believers who “keep the law” by their behavior, even if they never heard of the law, will be judged and possibly saved? If that is what it implies, then there is another way to heaven that doesn’t require one to believe in Jesus as their personal savior? And don’t most prayers address “Holy God” and end with “we ask in Jesus name?” Yes, it makes the praying person feel better but it still seems to me that most prayers are asking God to intervene in some fashion (lately, “guide our leaders to wise decisions in ending the war in Ukraine.”)
Prayer has always seemed strange to me, when it’s done in a manner asking God to do something. But I’ve spent nothing more than passing moments thinking about the subject. Great minds have spent a long time pondering these questions. It doesn’t seem like a lot of modern Christians are really interested in the intellectual arguments put forward by the great men of the past, though. And from what I see of the leadership of the various churches today, it doesn’t seem like they do, either.
But we have a commie pope who believes mankind is destroying the planet, though, so that’s cool.
We need another Polish Pope. And also to return to saying Mass like I did when I was a kid. I’ll never stop saying ‘and also with you’, if that makes me a heretic, so be it.
Why, there is a group of angry Catholics who agree. Novus Ordo Watch
Thank you for sharing that.
This is a topic that always confuses the heck out of me and the more I question the less sense it makes. I know a lot of people who bend over backwards to explain it all, but there’s always a lot of twisted logic going on to make it work. Honestly, this is one of those things where I just say to myself “this is what faith is for. Just go with it.”
That’s very hard for me, but part of the reason I came back to the church is because I have lost a lot of faith and trust over the years and am trying to learn it again. Not a blind faith that excuses behavior or isn’t based on principles, but one that seeks to understand, yet still allows for some things that are simply beyond my comprehension and I trust that they work.
I get that Mustang. You are not the only one who feels that way.
One thing that helps me is that logic isn’t infallible.
It’s like that goat game show. If you pick a door at random, somehow you have a higher chance of finding the car when you then switch your guess. /Very quick summary
That makes no logical sense to me, but the math works.
I see it as simply different facets of the same being. I think it’s possible that God dosent mess with the rules of the universe much, even being His rules so He adapts himself to the realm/dimension/space He inhabits for a certain purpose.
The trinity is something that turned off a lot of people. Muhammad was one of these guys, in my understanding of what happened he was so strictly monotheistic that he rejected Christ.
A chaplain once told me that the three Abrahamic religions were intertwined such that Judaism represents the G-d of the Covenant, Christianity represents the G-d of Redemption and Islam represents the G-d of Faith (submission). Combining the three gives a complete picture of the Abrahamic tradition. All three have also been guilty of committing atrocities; it’s all about integrating it into your life in a way that builds meaning and morals.
https://archive.ph/ZYjIv
TITS.
I would disagree about that re: Islam. Christianity and Judaism are irretrievably intertwined. Christ is seen in Christianity as the fulfillment of the covenant/promises/prophecy going back to the original creation/fall in the Torah.
Islam was a man taking traditions – going all the way back to Abraham and heading up an alternate branch. (Isaac was sacrificed, not saved by God, and Ishmael was the true son). From there, it’s all downhill.
“Isaac was sacrificed, not saved by God”
I was under the impression that Islamic tradition held that both Isaac and Ishmael were saved; yes Ishmael’s descendants founded Islam but Isaac (and Jesus for that matter) were considered lesser prophets.
I’m pretty sure Moh changed his story to whatever suited his interests of the moment, which is why it lacks a lot of internal consistancy.
it’s all about integrating it into your life in a way that builds meaning and morals.
I don’t get it. Why would I build a worldview off of a bunch of stories that I don’t believe to achieve some goals that aren’t any more deeply tied to reality than the stories I don’t believe?
What makes you think I don’t believe?
I said nothing of the sort. I’m mostly picking at the “it’s all about” statement. I’d imagine that adherents of all three faiths would balk at that statement. Christianity in particular because a core tenet is that you can’t earn your way to heaven via good works. The morals proceed from the meaning and the meaning comes from the faith. The point I was clumsily trying to make is that to synthesize the three abrahamic religions, you have to throw out so much of each of them as to render them hollow. There’s nothing left to believe.
I’m pretty sure they all originated from something earlier out of the Fertile Cresecent or Levant area. Look at the flood story and I think it is The Epic of Gilgamesh, it’s pretty obvious. They all originate from the same source, but each put their own personal spin on it.
If the Bible had your outro I would have read it more often as a youth.
And another piece of the puzzle drops into place. He acknowledged Christ as a prophet, same as Moses. He didn’t acknowledge His divinity, and that explains why.
Do Glib agnotics count?
Well, agnostics, damn I’m too tired to type…
I hear that Elon wants an edit button on Twatter. I hope he buys 3 billion in Glib stock, then maybe the promised day finally arrives and I get my edit button!
YOU GET NUTHINK! AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!
OK, Klaus, I don’t think so, I don’t like it.
I’ve got it all figured out by my time in church as a yungun.
You see, God is that mean old man, loving, but mean because he’s going to have to send you to hell, forever, for doing stuff like ogling the female form and partaking of the devil’s dishwater.
The Son, he’s the nice one who’s trying to save you from his mean old man if you just say that he’s your personal savior, that’s all you have to do, so why don’t you do it?
The Holy Spirit, that’s like LSD, it will make you talk in tongues and overall act like someone who is on an LSD trip and it’s free, you just have to go to a church that speaks in the tongues and join them.
So there you have it, that’s the whole deal.
Working right now, so I can’t do a deep intellectual dive, which is sad, because I LOVE this topic.
So, really quickly: [[[We]]] don’t believe in the trinity. [[[We]]] believe that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are 3 distinct beings, who are one in purpose.
Off Topic – It really tells when a production plays an experienced actor against a no-name without any real chops. Most recently I was reminded of this by a short which pitted someone whose name I can’t even find (who had the lead role) against Clancy Brown (who had the title role). She sounded like a piece of cardboard, even during the ‘angry’ lines.
My rule of thumb for such things is thus – If I am noticing the performances as acting, the actor has failed. These mismatches cause the sort of dissonance that draws my attention to the performance.
And occasionally the “no-name” shows up the star – On a high school “grand cultural tour” of NYC, we attended the Met Opera. The diva, Martina Arroyo, stood like a stone during her arias, while a more minor cast member portraying a witch was many times more animated and entertaining to watch.
That’s Tom Hanks to me. I have never seen a performance of his that didn’t make me say, “He’s reading his lines.”
Hobbit, I’ll be done tomorrow around noon. Maybe message me on the board if you can meet for lunch?
I’ve got a guy who is supposed to be here at 10. If he is on time I can be at the north end of town by noon. Well, noon-thirty.
It looks like they closed the place at the base of the tram. Closest eatery is the County Line BBQ.
I’ve been to County Line BBQ. People on time? What kind of magic would that be?
Nicole Kidman acted rings and rings around Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut. It was glaring.
I liked Tom better in Far and Away, which is just a great flim anyway, back when Hollyweird still made good stuff.
He was pretty open about hating Kubrick’s endless takes on that film, as I recall. Not that I think he’s a great actor, but there was also a mismatch of style there, that I don’t think played to his strengths either.
Nicole Kidman in “Dead Calm”….OMG
!
+1 shampoo and croissants
Meanwhile, in a place nobody is paying any attention to right now…
Probably hyperbole because who the fuck knows what is going on in NK… could be even worse.
There is not any of those things that every democrat in this country is not drooling over being able to do themselves. Biden better get on the go, Xi is becoming the favorite of Klaus.
Blood chilling.
Some of those who did will no doubt get disappeared.
The Orwellian nature of the government aside, it’s awfully strange that a country that only admits a tiny number of Covid deaths would be locking down one of their major cities at a time when the rest of the world’s prog-fascists has basically said fuck it and moved on. Like, Covid served its political purpose in the West already. What is the Chinese government hoping to achieve here?
MOAR TOTALITARIANISM! Perfect excuse.
Their objective is fear. If that doesn’t work, people get disappeared. If that doesn’t work, then their families get disappeared too.
This.
What they hope to achieve is instilling maximum terror in the population. Kind of like the current US administration only dialled up to 11.
Well, they don’t have to play ‘democracy’. The democrats sort of fucked themselves with that one, if they would just stop pretending I suppose they could go full on China a lot faster, but they just can’t control their need for lying.
They’ve likely
released another pathogen to help reduce their surplus populationfound that another citizen ate a pangolin or a bat sammich or whatever they blamed last time.Sigh, that is the most logical. Though since they’re apparently trying to reduce the spread I would say’incompetence’ not on purpose.
Covid Zero. That and trying to not be too obviously lying about the low COVID deaths.
There also the degree that lower rates are merely delayed not truly avoided.
And this being China, there is zero reason to believe that even the tests are real. They could just be shoving people into concentration camps for fun and nobody will be the wiser.
And China can afford a majorly catasprophic pandemic with huge losses of life. They could lose a billion and still have a billion peasants left over for slave labor.
The creepiest thing about the pandemic response was that supposedly liberal democracies all quickly followed the lead of a fucking totalitarian state and ditched all kinds of freedoms to try and stop a contagious disease. Not really that surprising that our dear role model is now returning to lockdowns to futilely try and play God.
Lot of ostensibly intelligent people were citing China as a model. Friends and coworkers that I thought were pretty intelligent hinted that they’d prefer the US behaved more like China. It was kind of chilling, given their positions.
Something something give up freedom for safety…
Yes, very disturbing how quickly fear begged for totalitarian solutions. It was duly noted I’m sure.
I went to a conference this week on ‘resiliency’.
These people LIKE to be afraid, they like to be bossed around. Not everyone, but a certain subset of the true believers.
JFC. The CCP members truly have no souls.
My higher power is very clear in his purpose and desire for the world. He calls on you to First in his name. He is The Great Firster. He is one and The One. Singularly minded and purposed. I am his chosen vessel, bringing about his greatest work for I am the most devoted to his will.
When The First comes, there will be time for all to repent.
I think this schtick is funny, but even this is a bit…odd…on a post about religion. If I see a news story in the links tomorrow about a bro spontaneously combusting, I think we’ll all know who it was.
?
So when is he going to finally inseminate you so we can get this show on the road?
I am already impregnated. I accepted The Great Firster into me in a totally non-gay way. A way that only the greatest of all Firsters could. Though is should be stated that true Firsters existed outside the binary sexuality dynamics that the rest of you abide by.
A mere human child takes 9 months to develop. What is growing inside of my man-womb could take any length of time, but it is only reasonable to expect that something this great could take even longer.
That’s pretty woke. Exists outside the binary sexuality dynamics? Not woke. Everyone knows sexuality dynamics are no longer binary. Being so woke that you have a man-womb that transcends a normal gestation is pretty fucking woke though, so I guess we’ll call it a wash.
Pictured: https://www.oglaf.com/honor/
That looks right.
What’s that smell?
Didn’t take long for the pants shitting to start. Spreading disinformation? They’d better be careful.
I’m pretty sure she shits her pants for any reason.
Oh, you guys must read this article.
It screams “I am a CIA plant!!!” so loud it will make your ears ring.
It is also a huge tip of the hand as to what they are planning. Clearly they liked the success in 2020 with the misinformation , gaslighting and censorship and are planning for more of the same.
Spit on hands, hoist the black flag, and start slitting throats!
Also, why on Earth does the US Treasury Dept. even have a spokesman for international affairs? I thought that was the bailiwick of the Ivy League nit-wits in Foggy Bottom.
She can fuck right off.
Everybody knows about the traditional exceptions to free speech.
“Disinformation” is not one of them.
Jumpin’ Jiminy! That article is a goldmine of derp.
I’m not a stonks or corporate governance expert, but somehow I don’t think that role falls to shareholders or board members at all.
I’m unqualified to comment on your article HS but I did enjoy it.
We’re all unqualified, that’s why I’m an agnostic. I’ve met the religious who ‘know’ there is a god and I’ve met the aetheists who ‘know’ that there is not a God, both with an equally religious like faith and certainty. I’m convinced they are both wrong, about the knowing part.
I just don’t understand anything anymore.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/06/politics/justice-oligarch-war-crimes/index.html
We are criminally prosecuting a Russian for violating US sanctions.
Apparently he “evaded” sanctions by using proxies to take over media outlets in the EU?
What in the ever-loving hell does that have to do with US law? This sounds even dumber that the Kim Dotcom case.
A non US citizen doing something entirely outside US jurisdiction that involves no US citizens? That sounds….. insane.
Why do we keep doing this? Aren’t we aware that other countries exist? Any if them could start doing the same thing. China could charge the CEOs of US tech companies with violating Chinese law. The EU could just start siezing US ships.
This seems like a really stupid road to walk down….
Because we can.
‘This seems like a really stupid road to walk down’
Was the best answer. If it’s dumb, we must do it.
Bro. James said it best- “For the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night”
Suh’ fam
Whats goody
+1 Chaka Khan in the choir
*waves*
Let’s kick this day off…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7PGqGPHz4F8
Piano version.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa5Mawz92xU
Solid music. Better than Sloopy’s gay porn sountracks.
*soundtracks. ?
It’s not gay without the ‘d ‘
Longing looks can be pretty Gay.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE
470m views can’t be wrong.
One more.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HbN99f9esS4
Good stuff. Read some comments while listening to…
https://www.nj.com/advice/2022/04/dear-abby-gay-man-wishes-he-had-straight-male-friends.html
Let’s start with “baseball is gay” as a response, then move on to maybe you’re just not likeable.
https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2022/04/07/kenyatta-johnson-dawn-chavous-philadelphia-federal-bribery-trial-city-councilmember/
Lock him up.
I was friends with an Orthodox priest back home, and he did some lectures on arianism and the Trinity. Sadly I have a poor memory so I don’t have much to add. I do remember he claimed that most people don’t properly understand arianism, that their opponents purposefully misrepresented their views (what, in politics?). Iirc, the beliefs of the Coptic Christians are still essentially arianism.
Good morning Lack, Sean, homey, l0, rhy, and anyone else commenting further upstream or lurking!
My sister’s birthday is coming up in a few days. What do you get for a crazy cat lady who’s trying to kick that habit?
Good morning.
Another cat anyway, because they never quit.
600 lbs of cat litter. It won’t go to waste.
A 55 Gallon drum of Pine-Sol and a “personal massager”?
Don’t do this at home … or anywhere really. Not the only example on-line but really who thinks of these things.
Growing up I had a buddy that was like that. We used to spar and he’d leave me black and blue. He would win bar bets walking up and down stairs on his hands. Nobody ever fucked with Denis.
What is with this annoying psuedo-cellphone interface Youtube has been putting on some videos? I took that for an april fools joke from Google when I first saw it, but it’s not gone away.
Morning, Glibs.
Mornin’ Glibbies! Just found out that eldest Grandson’s AWOL was as a drug mule. God damn it! That kid has everything handed to him on a silver platter. He’s on his third Dad even as we speak! Seriously though, his parents are quite well-off. When I was his age I was selling nickel-bags. Good on him for getting in the front door of the drug trade. Leaning in, as it were. Why doesn’t he just ride his motorbike, hang out at pit parties and fuck girls?
“Why doesn’t he just ride his motorbike, hang out at pit parties and fuck girls?”
To be fair, being a drug mule can facilitate these things.
He’s gainfully employed. He’s already taller than me, he has better hair and symmetry and more charisma than 17 year old me could shake a stick at. Just boredom and bad friends. Just like I used to be. Hopefully he’ll knock one of those girls up and settle down soon.
I have an important meeting today. I pondered getting a haircut.
Nope. Rocking the apocalypse hair still.
Recommended.
So far as the article, thanks for your efforts lovely lady but I just can’t wrap my mind around belief without evidence. I wish that I could but there it is. I don’t know if we are meant to understand everything. Maybe that is what keeps us striving.
Mornin’, reprobates.
Took a while to read through this thread; it’s been a long time since I pondered such things. This might be a good time to take the world of the spirit more seriously; the earthly relm is rather disappointing these days.
Bookmarked lobot’s link to Novus Ordo Watch. From that site:
“The big rupture occurred at the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of all Catholic bishops called in 1959 by the newly-elected “Pope John XXIII”. ”
Fun fact: back in the day, Brooklyn Prep held an annual essay contest with a first prize of a full scholarship. My essay on Vatican II in 1965 won that prize.
Neat!
Why do Roman bridges stay standing while Italian bridges keep falling down?
I thought London bridges were falling down. The more you know…
It’s because the Samites were never really Romans.
They recently found out that some of the Mediterranean salts and other minerals strengthened the Roman concrete far better than “purer” freshwater used in modern concrete.
Thanks for writing this, HE. It’s something I occasionally ponder, but I don’t understand. My faith in our creator(s) and humanity is on life support.
Sorry I missed the whole discussion, folks! I didn’t know this was going up last night.
I will continue to check in here through the week even though it’s a dead thread.
To me, the Holy Sprit seems to be the most accessible and nearby manifestation of God. There’s never a mention of the Spirit itself being worshipped, but it is divine. The Spirit is the one who can enter us and give us the strength to do superhuman things when we are too weak to do them on our own. He also has a sense of humor and will thump us upside the head with the occasional reminder that nothing is coincidental.
When my husband was in his ICU psychosis (this time last year!!) for 5 days straight, he was tied to the gurney just outside radiology where he’d had another CT scan, struggling against the straps and bindings on his hands and feet (he thought he was dead and fighting demons, partly because he hadn’t seen an unmasked face in a week). Then, he says a gray cloud appeared in front of him and said to him “I am the Helper. Stop fighting me.” And then he snapped out of the psychosis at once. Half an hour later they untied him and gave him back his cell phone. He called me immediately and said, perfectly normally, “Hi, honey. I miss you. Come see me…sorry about your lip.”
Interesting thing about it was that my husband hadn’t remembered that Jesus had referred to the Spirit as “the Helper” in Acts.