Friday 19th of April 2024
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letting god down the toilet...

crossed

"De concordia liberi arbitrii cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione, et reprobatione ad nonnullos primae partis divi Thomae articulos..." I know. You feel better already. You are free to pee in the swimming pool.

 

So, someone called Erdozain tells us: ...

The Enlightenment, as David Bebbington has shown, was a seminal influence on the rise of evangelicalism and its experiential, sensed-based spirituality. Pierre Bayle ― that prophet of conscience ― was not only the darling of the philosophes in the eighteenth century: he played a vital role in the emergence of Continental Pietism. Voltaire, meanwhile, added to his scattering of liberal advocates a number of orthodox admirers. He would have enjoyed the phrase with which a nineteenth-century priest appraised his radioactive ministry: “Dieu, par une ruse diabolique, envoya Voltaire combattre son Église pour la régénérer.”


And Spinoza ― “the most impious, the most infamous, and at the same time the most subtle Atheist that Hell has vomited on the earth” ― made good on his enduring claim that love is criticism, and criticism is love. Among his posthumous admirers was the Russian philosopher, Vladimir Soloviev, who credited Spinoza with his return to the Christian faith he lost as a teenager. A towering and ecumenical intellect, and perhaps the single greatest influence on the Russian religious renaissance of the twentieth century, Soloviev gracefully eludes the set-piece humour of secularisation. Ideas that savoured of blasphemy to a dualistic, Western mind were here taken as intended.


Such examples may be multiplied. Together they confirm my view that modernity is a war of religious ideas, not a war on them. The secular other, it turns out, is a not-so-distant relative ― possibly a friend.

Read more:
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/recovering-the-religious-character-of-th...

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Nice twist to explain undue appropriation of (steal) ideas. Erdozain's leaky dissertation bucket does not hold water. Sure, there were some dudes of the enlightenment who were god believers — but they started to do it with an elastic band in regard to religious values. And plenty more gave god the finger. By the mid 1800s, the idea of god was just that — an idea that had been concocted by humans in order to solve their uncertainty on this planet — which soon was explained through evolution by Charles Darwin.


Dominic Erdozain is thus naive here and missed the boat by giving obscure example of people who were sitting on two stools at once. I don’t mean that Spinoza was obscure, but Pierre Bayle has long gone in desuetude. He is best forgotten as a footnote who “possibly” sowed the seed of the Enlightenment without knowing he was doing it.


Erdozain’s quote: “Dieu, par une ruse diabolique, envoya Voltaire combattre son Église pour lerégénérer.” is no validation of his simplistic naive view. His source is a book that one has to buy, but by all account, Jules (Letambour), my friend who is a stickler for French vernacular, would say that it was either misquoted or fabricated, or that the ABC religious editors have no idea — which could be a possibility due to the indecent ABC budget cuts by the Momo (Morrissonof themissions/Abbott/Turnbull) government… It should read: "Dieu, par une ruse diabolique, envoya Voltaire combattre son Église pour la régénérer.” (God, with a devilish trick, sent Voltaire to fight his Church to rejuvenate it.) Thus Voltaire was not really enamoured with the Catholics.

As a Research Fellow at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Erdozain has thus sunk deep into the traps of “what changed” and tries to con us with a lot of rounded sophisms with name droppings like those of pigeons in a loft. The Enlightenment was not an overnight affair. It is still fought out as a battle between the believers and the non-believers: on one hand the god botherers who believe in crap and on the other side the people who accept and study reality — the scientists.

Actually, there were many non-believers BEFORE the Enlightenment, but history was never kind to them because their views did not suit the narrative of the power of kings and other despots — who used the idea of god to conquer lands. 


The Soul of Doubt: The Religious Roots of Unbelief from Luther to Marx seems to be a work of fiction in order to claim that unbelief is rooted in Christianity. It’s not. Even if it was, it would be a complete rejection of Christianity. 


The Romans and the Greeks had their own beliefs that were not as simplistic as those of Christianity which, when analysed properly, make as much sense as worshipping a long dead banana, floating in a sewer. Since the anointment of Christianity as the official religion of Constantine, Many people saw this was a crock, and knew god was a fiction character, but they could not claim this aloud without losing their life. Martyrdom had been turned around against non-believers. Lucky, we, non believers, had manage to get our freedom from the god slavery...

hissing like the devil...

profets


freedoms alla voltaire...

Voltaire rebels against Pascal and against the "original sin" in which he hardly believes. But as the beyond remains so inaccessible, he invites his readers to find an organization that makes them happy on earth, and not to trust Providence. In fact, he fights against wars that ruin the hopes of civilization, and hopes to eliminate religion inside governments so that reason can govern.

Voltaire preaches several freedoms:

- freedom of persons (against slavery and serfdom)

- individual liberty

- free disposition of his property and work

- freedom to speak and write

- freedom of conscience


He also develops the idea that luxury is a "superfluous very necessary" because it stimulates energies.

For Voltaire, the culmination of civilization is art, as well as the development of thought. He relies on enlightened elites to guide people towards knowledge.

 

read more:

http://www.bibliolettres.com/w/pages/page.php?id_page=96

 

We are not there yet... 

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35357

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/29098

 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31027

nothing less than wanting a miracle...

After praying fervently for a week for her to be resurrected, plans at Bethel Church in Redding, California are underway for a memorial service for Olive Heiligenthal, the 2-year-old daughter of Bethel Music songwriter Kalley Heiligenthal.

In a Saturday statement that was posted to both Bethel Church's Facebook page and Bethel Music's Instagram account, the church noted that praying for a miracle of this kind is outside the norm but that God is both God of the reasonable and possible and the unreasonable and impossible. 

Olive was pronounced dead by doctors on Dec. 14 after she suddenly stopped breathing. The northern California church and several other worship artists from all over the country subsequently called for prayer that the young girl be raised back to life and added the hashtag #wakeupolive to their social media postings.

"When you are a friend of God and know that He is your heavenly Father, you trust Him and ask for big, outlandish miracles. As a church, we have been contending for, singing about, and witnessing God’s power to save, heal, and deliver for over fifty years. It is normal for us to ask for things, trust Him, and then glorify His name regardless of the outcome. This is what life with the King is all about," the statement read.

 

Read more:

https://www.christianpost.com/news/bethel-planning-memorial-service-for-...

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Sad for the family to loose a kid. Sadder still is the delusions attached to this sad event.

 

Meanwhile as the wind expert Donald shows signs of IMPOTUS, the Christian mob is divided about getting rid of the genius via impeachment:

Here is Jentezen Franklin at CP:

I am writing this piece just hours after reading the Christianity Today opinion piece of one man, the outgoing editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, Mark Galli.

I have asked Christianity Today for the opportunity to present the actual reasoning of an evangelical Christian leader rather than being spoken for by a lone writer who has never asked me, or any other evangelical leader or pastor I am aware of, why they would support the current President, Donald Trump, and I speak with hundreds of national Christian leaders each month.

Additionally, I would like to respectfully challenge the author’s definition of morality and character within the context of first-hand observation, the social context we live in today, and by the values evangelical Christians hold closest.

To miss the fact that this nation was sliding down a slope to a cliff between 2008 and 2016 would be nothing less than turning a blind eye or political deafness. Federally funded abortion on demand was a machine raging out of control, our prisons were in desperate need of reform, and a 1% GDP was the “new normal.”

 

Read more:

https://www.christianpost.com/voice/why-i-still-stand-by-45-president-tr...

Yep. Abortion is still the "bête noire" of the evangelicals... Gus is an atheist.

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jesus of the rainbow...

A Brazilian judge on Wednesday ordered Netflix to stop streaming a Brazilian Christmas satire film that premiered on the platform on December 3. The film has drawn widespread backlash in Brazil over its depiction of Jesus in a same-gender relationship.

The film, titled “The First Temptation of Christ,” was brought to Netflix by Brazilian comedy group Porta dos Fundos and has been heavily criticized by conservative Christians in Brazil. Porta dos Fundos’ headquarters in Rio de Janeiro were attacked on Christmas Eve by men in hoods with Molotov cocktails. No one was injured in the attack. A far-right group in Brazil, known as the “Popular Nationalist Insurgency Command of the Large Brazilian Integralist Family” later claimed responsibility for the attack.

“The consequences of the dissemination and exhibition of ‘artistic production’ ... are more likely to cause more serious and irreparable damage than its suspension,” said Benedicto Abicair, a judge in Rio de Janeiro state, according to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, also noting that removing the film from Netflix is “beneficial not only to the Christian community, but to Brazilian society which is mostly Christian.”

Abicair’s ruling came after a conservative, Catholic organization in Rio filed a legal complaint stating that the film “attacked the protection of religious freedom” by depicting Mary as a cheater, Joseph as an unintelligent individual and Jesus as a “childish homosexual.” The film has also been greatly criticized by Eduardo Bolsonaro, the eldest son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and a member of Congress, as well as other public figures in the country. 

Netflix told the Associated Press that it would not comment on Abicair’s ruling.

More than 2.3 million people have already signed a Change.org petition urging for the film to be removed. 

Catholicism is the largest religious denomination in Brazil, with around 64.6% of the population - or around 123 million people - being members of the church, AFP reported, citing the country’s 2010 census. In fact, Brazil has the largest Catholic community in the world.

According to a Netflix summary of the movie: “Jesus, who's hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos.”

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/society/202001091077991741-brazilian-judge-order...

 

 

 

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the sins of god...

Jean Vanier CC GOQ (September 10, 1928 – May 7, 2019) was a Canadian Catholic philosopher and theologian. In 1964, he founded L'Arche, an international federation of communities spread over 37 countries for people with developmental disabilities and those who assist them. In 1971, he co-founded Faith and Light with Marie-Hélène Mathieu, which also works for people with developmental disabilities, their families, and friends in over 80 countries. He continued to live as a member of the original L'Arche community in Trosly-Breuil, France, until his death.

Over the years he wrote 30 books on religion, disability, normality, success, and tolerance.[1] Among the honours he received were the Companion of the Order of Canada (1986),[2] Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec (1992),[3] French Legion of Honour (2003), Community of Christ International Peace Award (2003), the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award (2013), and the Templeton Prize(2015).

In February 2020, an internal report published by L'Arche concluded that Vanier sexually abused six women in Trosly-Breuil, France, between 1970 and 2005.[4][5] The investigation was conducted by the UK-based GCPS Consulting Group.[5]


....


Cardinal Thomas Collins of the Archdiocese of Toronto described the events "tragic and heart wrenching". The Canadian and American branches of L'Arche have voiced their concern in various statements.[33]

In Canada, where there are many schools named after Vanier, some school boards are considering renaming schools named for him.[34][33]

In February 2020, the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana posthumously stripped Vanier of two awards which the university had awarded him, including the 1994 Notre Dame Award for humanitarian service.[35][36]

 

 

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Vanier

 

 

 

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