Man am I depressed after reading this, or maybe it's just because I finished reading The Road. I am straining to think of the last time I had a discussion with anyone that ran anywhere along these lines with these overtones. Nope, can't think of one, except that dude on the streetcorner with the end is near sign. But I know so many people in the world think like this where seemingly all critical thinking is trampled under bronze age dogma. I find this incredible. There is no debating it. There is no reasoning. I do not mean to offend but how can humanity truly progress, or even survive in the nuclear age, if it continues to be mired in this medievalism? I mean, what will the aliens truly think of us when they reveal themselves and take us to their promised land?

Humanity progresses as the flat earth types have always composed but a slim minority of humanity, fringe dwellers, really. Ultimately the ideas of Galileo and etc. prevailed, despite their persecution and the suppression of their science by religious zealots, because others with curious minds confirmed the science.

You're exactly right "there is no reasoning" with ideologues.

Twist and spin, Beavis.
I didn't say, and would never say, that children are stupid.

OHHHHHH...so I have the understanding level of a child, then.

Then I guess I'm going to heaven, and you're not.

"Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."
Mark 10:15

We'll talk when you have received the kingdom as a little child.

Apparently we won't, because according to you, of the two of us, I have the understanding of a little child and you don't.

Hey, dude, I don't make the rules.

See there you go again, not understanding scripture.
One receives the kingdom as a little child.
THEN one grows in the kingdom to spiritual maturity.
Christians are told to progress from the mother's milk of easily understood teachings, to the real meat of scripture, such as the Divine Incarnation.

See, there you go again, claiming that only you understand, that your interpretation is the only one.

Such arrogance. As it happens, what Jesus was referring to was the sense of childlike wonder with which the sage views the world, meaning true enlightenment is much like losing your veneer of adulthood and returning to the deeper and more intuitive understanding of a child.

But that would make too much sense, so you have to go off on some twisted semantic tangent, and when someone disagrees with you, they are "a nonbeliever who doesn't understand Scripture."

Hint: You are exhibiting a deadly sin.

I was hoping Glenn was going to write more about the "wild wild west". I lost interest after the word "prostitutes". At least I now know where to find some demons of greed and lust... The rambling of a lemming.

Welcome to GraysHarbor Talk. Glad you jumped in and started posting. Lurkers are welcome, but having more voices is better.

It takes a bit for me to "give up interest"... even with the lemmings. I always like to sort through intellectual guano to see if there is a jewel. It's not often, but every-once-in-a-while....