The Word Cloud

21 Comments

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  by Caducean Whisks 1 year ago

  That's a seriously worrying site, Khaloth. They're mad, all of those fundamentalists. And frighteningly so. God doesn't come into it - it's pure hate.
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  by Gerilyn 1 year ago

  They're all unhinged... what happened to 'God is love'? People like that just use religion to spread prejudice.
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  by Ancient Woodland 1 year ago

  I weary of this. Seriously. Religion divides like no other mechanism known to society. It has killed more people than the tsetse fly and is responsible for many of the worlds woes. Let it lie. None of you know, you only quote scripture as if it was the word of God and not the writing of man. For the sake of peace, let it lie, let it die. Sites like this just polarise and focus weak minded people. Walk away. Meet your maker on your own terms. If he exists. The only way to find out is to die, and let no man tell you different. Death is the decider and we'll all find out or face oblivion in the end. Live with it.
  
  Sorry Khaloth, didn't mean to hi-jack, just fed up with this pish and have yet to see a theological debate that doesn't revolve around the writings of man.
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  by Barb 1 year ago

  Let him hate, as long as he fears.
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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 1 year ago

  I spose that accounts for the smoking ban. Seriously, tho, these loonies seem to think that god hates everyone except them! But then I guess that's pretty much what every religion sez: "Worship our way, or burn in Hell!"
  
  Well, I know god hates me, but I wouldn't have it any other way! God can suck my balls!
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  by Gerry 1 year ago

  For this sort of reason people often say they are spiritual but not religious. They also don't believe in God because some versions of God come across as, well, Hitler really. But bigger and nastier.
  
  So 'atheists' like Philip Pulman have a bit of fun knocking around a raddled old 'Creator' whilst simultaneously employing a mystical quality like 'Dust'.
  
  Maybe that's the best idea. Let's all be Jedis. Forcebewithyou! (Except sooner or later someone is going to say the Force is a Very Big Person and this Very Big Person doesn't like you.)
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  by Gerilyn 1 year ago

  Wrath, I would lurrrrve to see your face if God took you up on that offer ;D.
  
  Gerry, I think my husband follows the Jedi religion- he certainly worships all things Star Wars-ian.
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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 1 year ago

  When our bus company, Metroline, was bought by a Malaysian outfit called Comfort-Delgro (sounds like a cross between fabric conditioner and compost) they did a survey asking us what was our sneezy-word and religion. For your sneezy-word, you had multiple choice, eg white british, white european, afro-caribbean, mixed race, etc. For religion you just had to write it on the dotted line. They said this was to ensure fairness and equality stuff.
  Anyway, they published the results, garage by garage. Most were a mix of CofE, Catholic, Muslim, Hindu etc - but the results for Potters Bar kinda stood out from the rest! We had all the usual, plus half a dozen Jedi, several Wiccans, and a Luciferian! We rock ass!
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  by Gerry 1 year ago

  Sneezy word = ethnicity? I like it!
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  by Skylark 1 year ago

  AW, you took the words right out of my mouth. Wrath, last time there was a census, I believe there were a fair number of Jedis on there too. My memory is that Terry Wogan encouraged people to put Jedi in protest of having to state religion in the first place and his idea being that if enough people put it down, they would have to include it as a tick box in the following census. Well, should find out this year if that happened ;-)
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  by Kate7 1 year ago

  O_O
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  by Valkia 1 year ago

  It annoys me a bit that i often have to tick 'other' on those things
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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 1 year ago

  I ticked 'other' as sneezy-word.
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  by Valkia 1 year ago

  That one's kind of always confused me, as often all the other tick boxes seem to cover that one.
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  by JtF 1 year ago

  My attempted sneezy words are: for the short single: Suzuki,
  sneezing twice is Kawasaki, with the tortuous triple being Matsushita (they own Panasonic!)
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  by Gerry 1 year ago

  JtF/Wrathnar - gosh a new genre, The Language Of Sneezing - and I never even knew it existed!
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  by John Taylor 1 year ago

  I'm one of the minority here who live life within (and occasionally, but rarely, restricted by) a pattern of religious devotion. It's the framework – in just the way that some people observe Tesco's devotion on Friday nights and others, BMW polishing on Sunday mornings. I meet bigoted people, gay-bashers and (through the people I move amongst) those who bully disabled people on a daily basis. Most of them have no faith. Faith is a pretext for intolerance, rarely a cause. Where it is a cause, it is usually through literal interpretation of figurative or fantastical texts that were either written in a different cultural context or simply for meditational use. The age of enlightenment has left us a legacy of clockwork thinking (all those hellfire preachers who could prove that the earth was x number of years old from arithmetic carried out on purely symbolic numbers). Islam, a younger religion, is going through a similar stage now. But I would not dismiss any religion on the basis of wooden interpretations and failure of the human imagination. We cannot know the truth behind existence, but I know one thing - faith is surprising, and keeps on surprising. Many people of no faith perceive religious people as looking for 'pie in the sky when they die.' I'm getting my pie now, here, gratefully received. That pie is the fuel that helps me take people seriously and fight bigotry with truth. The future is not a great concern of mine. I stand with the Jedi and the Wicca and those of no faith as well as those of any faith who believe in the potential for good in all the people around them. May the force be with you!
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  by anchovy 1 year ago

  I have difficulty with the nature of religion - it seems to be a pairing of a transcendental perception of an unseen power, with, let's face it, housekeeping. Who in your family tells you when to wash your hands and what not to eat? Which part do we have to respect? What a lot of silliness there is in this world.
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  by Nibs 1 year ago

  Wow! Every one writes great stuff I think when it comes to religion, for or against. I'm spiritualist and happy to call myself so. Though it has to be said I too walk alongside a small quantity of those mentioned above. I do get annoyed at small mindedness of others, whether they believe in 'A Faith' or none at all. I believe, live and let live, but I believe you shouldn't dismiss, criticise, demolarise or poke fingers at, or belittle etc, all who do not think the way you think. Some regard it as bad karma, others regard it as simple bad manners and ignorance. All through the bits of the Bible I've read, there is ALWAYS an argument For and Against any subject which causes a lot of quoting out of text (especially those who claim to know the Bible inside out - well they probably do and use any phrase they like to support their side of a discussion, just to put themselves above others I think on times, making themselves look bigger and better) I'm not criticising, I'm simply pointing out what I've witnessed over the years - I'm not judging.
  Hey, that's people and that's life.
  When someone is trying that one on with me, I simply walk away. I walk away because some of them are not using their brains to think for themselves, they are only quoting someone elses words. And I feel this prevents them from opening their eyes, hearts and minds to the bigger world around them.
  
  God/Creator/ life / what ever you wish to call the effect that got the human race to where we are today - etc
  gave us the power to think for ourselves. Isn't it time we all took a brave step into the light of the unknown, stepped out from the shadows of others and used our own brains, ideas.
  That website mentioned above I would imagine says a lot of what people don't want to hear. This country gives us the power of Freedom of speech, (to a degree at least, and probably not as much as we think, but it's still there) so we must be prepared to listen to stuff we don't like and disagree with along side the stuff we find fits in with our ideals.
  
  I love what you always right John onceupon.
  
  rathner
  Smoking ban, hahah,
  I must admit that was something I thought of too.
  
  as for the 'Ticking of the religion box'
  I've never understood why we have to. But at least it lets the higher folk know where us lower folk in the real world are. and I think sometimes the world is turning into a crazy mishmash of everything.
  Some folk have lost their way and confused by life, while others have found roads that are better suited than the old.
  
  God bless to all,
  Be kind to those as you would like them to be kind unto you
  May the people on top of the pyramid of life respect us and stop and listen to us more this year and understand we too have brains and ideas of our own.
  Happy new year for 2011 to us all
  Nibs
  :o)
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  by Wrathnar the Unreasonable 1 year ago

  JtF: I call it 'sneezy-word' cos it makes me want to sneeze when I say it, so I don't say it.
  
  I was in the pub one time, and a couple of blokes were discussing football. One of them was trying to remember which footballer had scored a particular goal or something. When it suddenly came to him, he burst out: "Le Tissier!"
  The barmaid said: "Bless you!"
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  by Gerry 1 year ago

  See, you can't even keep religion out of footie in the bar.
  
  Great post John - I always relish your contributions.
  
  Nibs - delighted to meet a Spiritualist - I always feel there's huge potential there even if it doesn't seem to manifest much. (Archbishop Cosmo Lang binning the C of E's enquiry into Spiritualism back in 1938 [or some such date] seems to have been a well-nigh mortal blow. The report was positive, and could have led to a real partnering of faith and knowledge. But Cosmo Lang seemed to prefer faith on its own. [Am finding it hard not to call him a wally!])