"Palpable nonsense"

My response:

and you aren’t supposed to use birth control. I’ll take the no tea, coffee and alcohol over no birth control any day – and, I would like to think, twice on Sunday.

:ugeek:

Then, I hope I would say what Orson suggests – although I know myself well enough to know I probably wouldn’t. 🙂

I just came from a business dinner…by now, everyone in my office knows I have a coke when they order a glass of wine. For dessert, I ordered an espresso creme brulee dessert…it was yummy. The dude next to me said, “I thought you weren’t supposed to have coffee.” I told him I wasn’t supposed to DRINK coffee, my religion says nothing about eating it with a spoon. He laughed, and said, “So, if I freeze coffee as a popsicle, you’d eat it?” I just said, “Dude, if you’re freezing coffee popsicles on a stick to see if I’ll eat it…you’ve got issues.”

If it is nonsense to some people that mormons avoid coffee and tea, I think it is nonsense others care if mormons have coffee or tea.

I don’t think he has to worry about birth control. Despite all this pious nonsense, he has been an active homosexual in the time that I’ve known him (not active with me, no thanks 😆 ) despite knowing canon law inside out and various obscurities of RC theology.

He’s also told me off for supposedly repeating the Black Legend* even though there’s plenty of evidence of RC atrocities in the conquest of the Americas – the Spanish pretty much wiped out all the inhabitants of the Caribbean islands. He doesn’t believe that the Spanish Inquisition was anything more than a Civil Court, and that it didn’t have the official sanction of the church… :wtf:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend

Do they know what they’re in for? If he doesn’t behave like this, he’ll pretty much intellectually dismantle them (because he is pretty intelligent)

Another one of my friends has tattoos over every part of his body, a shaven head and piercings and believes he’s a shaman, and continually tries to give me healings (trust me, they don’t work). He also dresses in leather and is schizophrenic with occasional OCD (sometimes more obviously than other times). His hobbies include regular attendance at strip bars, and almost constant consumption of strong coffee and cigarettes. Even if he grew his hair and lived the WoW, I don’t believe he could ever be accepted as a full member of our ward…

Even many of my acquaintances are pretty Bohemian. I’m rapidly becoming known as “the Writer” in my ward.

These are the people I’m supposed to witness to and bring to church events!

From some aspect, all forms of religion are patently absurd. It all depends on your point of view, your personal preferences, and what happens to work for you. Of course, this doesn’t address the fact that it’s just bad form to state that fact in the company of ‘friends’ whose particular form of religion you consider to be absurd.

“One man I knew who was studying ethics said that as soon as you claim to be ethical in some way, you become a target.”

Not to drag politics into this, but that is the key method Alinsky uses in Rules for Radicals. You look at what the person or organization aspires to or claims to believe and you target their failings. They shrink and have no footings. Truth is we all live that way. Each of us aspire to things that we can’t fully achieve. So yes – if you have no boundaries or principles you cherish you should be safe.

Bit of a diversion here, but I love Rules for Radicals. Some great quotes are in that book:

1. “Why was Ghandi into non-violence? Because he couldn’t afford any guns.”

2. [speaking of civil disobedience measures]: “A drag that goes on too long becomes a drag”. (I use this one when deciding what form of discipline to enact on my children; rarely will I pick a punishment that puts me on a treadmill. It has to be easy to execute, and pleasant to me — like saying I’m going back to bed to read comfortably instead of going on that bike hike we had planned due to non-cooperation on house cleaning. If I have to discipline, I WIN )

3. If you want to change the mind of the bank, then put a dead fish in a safety deposit box.

Personally, I don’t think you can be a Mormon, and fully believe everything we believe, without being highly tolerant of the beliefs of other groups — even though they seem unusual. We have enough unusual beliefs ourselves, including leadership that embraced weirdness to the extent they were willing to buy salamander letters. (not criticism, just proving my point that faith often involves believing things you would never consider if you were left to your native deductive abilities.)

. “Why was Ghandi into non-violence? Because he couldn’t afford any guns.”

😆 😆 😆

I agree with Doug. I respect Catholics, but c’mon. They certainly aren’t more reasonable in their religious views than anyone else. It’s the “all the kids in our own town are exceptional” myth. It’s hard for some people to see the ridiculous in their own people.

My respect for Catholicism is not scientific, it’s artistic. Some of the best art and music has been commissioned by them. They have produced some brilliant thinkers, but in its folk variety, Catholicism is a million miles from Hans Kung and Benedict’s intellectualism.