At least people will know what to get you for Christmas next year – a set of bullwhips so you can self-flagellate.

Self flagellation is still occasionally practised by some Christians and a few Muslim sects so, yeah, do you really wonder why some of us do consider Christianity at least a little bit a creepy death cult?

Also amused by the “Admiral” bit. Anyone that is familiar with navies knows that foul (your term not mine) language isn’t usually tolerated in the higher ranks. PZ would probably be a PO or Chief or something.

Consult the dictionary, you Dope. I’d say definition #1 pretty much covers it.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/05/the_recent_mabus_incursion.php

“He has been escalating his attacks lately, and if they get any worse, I’ll be contacting the authorities myself. This is one of those cases where I’ve been targeted by someone with a severe mental disorder, and I think he can be a real risk”

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/complain

com·plain
–verb (used without object)
1. to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault: He complained constantly about the noise in the corridor.
2. to tell of one’s pains, ailments, etc.: to complain of a backache.
3. to make a formal accusation: If you think you’ve been swindled, complain to the police.

No thanks, blood and guts aren’t my style. That stuff is about as weird and incomprehensible to me as it is to you. Where I come from, Fundy Mentalness is a Very Strange Planet. :-/

It’s been at least 30 years since I considered myself conventionally “religious,” even by the liberal-to-radical standards I grew up with. What I’ve ended up with is a lot more Quakerish or Unitarian-Universalist than “mainline.” I’d even go so far as to say I’m an agnostic :-0 at least half the time.

I’ve seen plenty of bad religion, but I’ve seen a lot of good religion too. Unfortunately, bad religion tends to drive out good religion, just like bad money drives out good…….

Anyway, I’ve made my peace with the whole biz of “belief”/”nonbelief” as my conscience sees fit. I gave up years ago on trying to explain to myself or anyone else why I’ve lost my religion (several times) but somehow retained a core of something I still call “faith.”

If that makes me a little bit “stupid” by anyone else’s standards, no biggie. I hope people are judging me more by what I do than what I claim to “believe.” I do my damnedest [1] not to be stupid about other things, [2] not to try to convince anyone else that they should share my stupidity, and [3] not to make the world over in the image of that stupidity.

One thing I do know is that all that Fundy Dementorist crap is as dangerous to me as it is to you because it’s stupid not only about its theology but about life, history, human nature, the universe, and everything in general, and it’s hellbent on shoehorning the world into its little box of overall stupidity. If you’ll excuse the expression, IMO it’s the atheists and the agnostics who are on the side of the angels here.

So if you want to razz me, go right ahead. At least being razzed by atheists doesn’t give me a splitting headache and depress the hell out of me the way being razzed by Fundy Mental Cases does.

Back on topic as ~ pointed out, Phil as a VF-1 (in Max’s colours no less) is awesome, but it brings up an important question in how to ensure his impending victory. Does he prefer pop or rock and thus do we bring out Minmei or Fire Bomber?

Though if he likes more trance or techno stuff I suppose we could bust out the psychotic AI.

The Veritech thing makes you (at least, for me) the absolute winner, Phil!

Though I like PZ’s blog too.

~on 02 May 2008 at 1:27 pm

Phil gets to be a Veritech/Valkyrie from Robotech/Macross. And its Max’s. Words can’t describe how awesome that cover is.”

I guess he’ll have to change his handle from BA to VF/1A!

So you’re a Christian who appreciates the Admiral when he says you’re stupid? When the Admiral says “Christianity is a creepy death cult” (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/04/morbid_freaks.php) what makes you think he’s referring just to fundamentalist Christians? He’s referring to all Christians. But I guess you enjoy that.

At least people will know what to get you for Christmas next year – a set of bullwhips so you can self-flagellate.

I hang out on Pharyngula quite a bit, and I get a tremendous kick out of his frequent potshots at the “Fundagelicals.” And I’m a Baptist Preacher’s Kid.

On the whole, I greatly prefer hanging out with atheists and agnostics, even the hardcore ones, because [1] They don’t check their intelligence at the door, [2] they don’t demand that I check my intelligence at the door, [3] They respect my intelligence in nonreligious matters, [4] they have a much better grip on reality, and [5] I agree with about 99% of what PZ et al. say about the phenomenal, stubbornly maintained st00pidity of Fundy Mental Cases even though I don’t agree with the notion that all faith/religion is bad.

So I say: Bring on the F-bombing F-bombs, PZ. I don’t blame you a F-bombing bit, and I don’t take it personally that you probably think I’m still just a tiny bit F-bombing idiotic for remaining a F-bombing person of faith. Sometimes I get so F-bombing pissed off at those F-bombing Fundy Dementalist motherF-bombers, I drop a few myself. You can say whatever you F-bombing want — it’s your F-bombing blog. And any F-bomber who doesn’t like your F-bombing tone can just go F-bomb themselves.

I was talking about specific “naughty” words, since that seemed to be your focus. You never got beyond the words to actual ideas, that I saw. However, given your increasing belligerence — and keeping in mind that this is not Pharyngula — I’m closing out this thread before either of us draws Phil’s wrath.

Better make it a *big* rock, didn’t the squids survive the last one?

Yeah, I must admit that I do buy into the whole discredited idea that insulting people tends to piss them off and tends to generate death threats for yourself (which BTW Admiral Meyers is now complaining about vociferously). Let me search my memory to see if there are any examples of people who tossed F-bombs my way which resulted in me seeing things their way.

Hmmm, accessing memory banks… accessing memory banks… Nope, can’t find any examples. I think I’ll stick with that discredited idea.

Also, one tends to wonder if Admiral Meyers has ever played a game such as tic-tac-toe or chess. There is such a thing as strategy in the game of getting what you want, you know.