In reply to Tom Heath:
Asketh and thou shall receive!
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:CaptainSpaulding wrote: So it upsets you that the statue of leberty is a sign of faith to this country?That was a gift from France as a token of mutual friendship. It is not a symbol of faith in anything.
Thats not how it was explained to me by my grandparents and many others when they arrived in Ellis Island. The old girl was a symbol of freedom and a new life from poverty and persecution.
How is that not a symbol of faith. Or are you using the word faith in a religious context when I am not.
CaptainSpaulding wrote: Thats not how it was explained to me by my grandparents and many others when they arrived in Ellis Island. The old girl was a symbol of freedom and a new life from poverty and persecution. How is that not a symbol of faith. Or are you using the word faith in a religious context when I am not.
I am not speaking in any context. Whatever it meant to your family... It was a gift from the French as a token of mutual friendship. It was not meant to be a symbol of faith.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:CaptainSpaulding wrote: Thats not how it was explained to me by my grandparents and many others when they arrived in Ellis Island. The old girl was a symbol of freedom and a new life from poverty and persecution. How is that not a symbol of faith. Or are you using the word faith in a religious context when I am not.I am not speaking in any context. Whatever it meant to your family... It was a gift from the French as a token of mutual friendship. It was not meant to be a symbol of faith.
What it was meant for and what it is are two different things that can be seen differently by different people.
You could give a giant Jesus to your neighbor as a symbol of friendship and have it not be meant as a symbol of faith.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to Tom Heath: Asketh and thou shall receive!
Here `tiz before Thor smote it for heresy..
CaptainSpaulding wrote: You could give a giant Jesus to your neighbor as a symbol of friendship and have it not be meant as a symbol of faith.
Giving out mutual friendship Jesui might be one of those reasons why you have few friends. The other might be that you mis-state facts in your examples and then grab at straws to defend them instead of choosing another, more fitting example.
friedgreencorrado wrote:Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to Tom Heath: Asketh and thou shall receive!Here `tiz before Thor smote it for heresy..
What did they build it from, paper maché? I've never seen a statue burn like that.
In reply to CaptainSpaulding: You do realize that your entire metaphorical comparison with the giant Jesus and the Statue of Liberty makes absolutely no sense, since the main complaint about the Jesus statue was the cost and the Statue of Liberty was a gift, right?
Just imagine a homeless shelter spending 600 kajillion dollars to build a statue of a homeless guy sleeping, instead of actually helping anyone with it. That's the dude's point. It has nothing to do with religion.
Tom Heath wrote: What did they build it from, paper maché? I've never seen a statue burn like that.
Tom, I had to research it, but I found it. Styrofoam core, Fibreglass skin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Kings_(statue)
No damn wonder it flamed up like the Hindenburg.
16vCorey wrote: Just imagine a homeless shelter spending 600 kajillion dollars to build a statue of a homeless guy sleeping, instead of actually helping anyone with it. That's the dude's point. It has nothing to do with religion.
thats pretty much what my understanding of the comment was. maybe because i grew up catholic and the priests were driving bmw's and drinking from golden cups and eating the wafers stored in gilded breadboxes has skewed my perceptions of the christian churches in general but they do tend to spend money on "hey look at me my church is more awesomer than yours" gaudy material goods(they missed that greed thing that god said was bad) - rather than doing good works with the money. lets see - spend a million bux on big butter zombie jesus or feed the homeless population of cincy and dayton for the foreseeable future...... hmmm excess or charity...... build the statue boys!
anybody read the article - they are going right back to the rebar/foam core build. brilliant!
patgizz wrote:16vCorey wrote: Just imagine a homeless shelter spending 600 kajillion dollars to build a statue of a homeless guy sleeping, instead of actually helping anyone with it. That's the dude's point. It has nothing to do with religion.thats pretty much what my understanding of the comment was. maybe because i grew up catholic and the priests were driving bmw's and drinking from golden cups and eating the wafers stored in gilded breadboxes has skewed my perceptions of the christian churches in general but they do tend to spend money on "hey look at me my church is more awesomer than yours" gaudy material goods(they missed that greed thing that god said was bad) - rather than doing good works with the money. lets see - spend a million bux on big butter zombie jesus or feed the homeless population of cincy and dayton for the foreseeable future...... hmmm excess or charity...... build the statue boys!
Yeah, that's kinda been my reaction to it as well. I've got no problem with folks being extravigant..just with their pretending they're a non-profit who wants to help people while they're doing it. Maybe the place was founded by a devotee of Creflo Dollar or Rev. Roosevelt Franklin?
patgizz wrote: anybody read the article - they are going right back to the rebar/foam core build. brilliant!
Its got to be an insrance scam. they should have to pay taxes on there income if they have enough money to build a new statue every year and do it the same dumb flammable way.
In reply to Incognito Bandito:
You might think this funny, coming from an atheist..but the last thing on Earth I want to see is churches (or any other religious organization) paying taxes. If they're paying money to a government, they're going to expect more representation in it..and there's some stuff in most religious "traditions" that I don't ever want to see codified into civil law..(where's the "scary" icon?)
Zombie update!
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/rebuilding-of-giant-jesus-statue-begins-today-1180001.html
The fire/aftermath photos above remind me, I just watched the first Terminator movie on TV the other night.
Having lived less than a mile from there I have heard some rumors about how Mr. Biship made his money. They say the name of the church could be taken quite literally. I have no proof of anything, however he does have a heard of bison which I always found odd.
friedgreencorrado wrote: In reply to Incognito Bandito: You might think this funny, coming from an atheist..but the *last* thing on Earth I want to see is churches (or any other religious organization) paying taxes. If they're paying money to a government, they're going to expect more representation in it..and there's some stuff in most religious "traditions" that I don't ever want to see codified into civil law..(where's the "scary" icon?)
All of that already happens to such an extent that I'm hard pressed to figure out how it would increase.
keethrax wrote:friedgreencorrado wrote: In reply to Incognito Bandito: You might think this funny, coming from an atheist..but the *last* thing on Earth I want to see is churches (or any other religious organization) paying taxes. If they're paying money to a government, they're going to expect more representation in it..and there's some stuff in most religious "traditions" that I don't ever want to see codified into civil law..(where's the "scary" icon?)All of that already happens to such an extent that I'm hard pressed to figure out how it would increase.
They're not..here's a link to some interesting books.
http://tinyurl.com/3g8m4zn
Not all Christians want this (for example, the head of Americans United for Separation of Church & State is a UCC minister), but a big pack of the ones with money seem to..
poopshovel wrote:ansonivan wrote:Counterpoint: Who's the Vice President of the United States?PubBurgers wrote: Yay, let's spend a bunch more money that could be put to real use....Counterpoint: at least they're not spending the money in DC influencing lawmakers.
WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA!?!!???!!?
corytate wrote: the buddy christ!
ROFL! Y'know, when that movie came out, all my theistic friends urged me to go see it. "It's so blasphemous! You'll love it!!"
Bah. That film not only supposes that a god exists, but that such a creature is actually benign & benelevent. I dug it, and really don't understand why some theists (well, except for Fred Phelps-style fundamentalists) don't. The whole thing was like all my "spiritual, but not religious" friends (I'm a "leftie", I know a lot of Deists, Buddists and Wiccans) had made it themselves.
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