Stephen Hawkins: Heaven is a fairy story...

[MoonSylver]

Dear God! What were my four X girlfriends all thinking? "Yes Daddy Moon, we'll dress up as whatever you want, just don't spank us again! Well, maybe just a little..."

[EvilNed]

Opiate for the masses.

[JDFP]

No offense to you, but that's how I feel about religion as a whole. Both sides think the exact same thing of the opposite side. Neither side can be swayed. The battle rages on. But, I supposed we shall see who is right (once again) after rapture doesn't happen this Saturday! Eh, Rapture is a mainline Protestant notion. Catholics, like me, don't buy that whole "Millienialist" ideology. I don't think it will happen either, but it will be entertaining if it does! I went over to Jersey Mike's for a meatball sub today just in case. They are expensive as hell (cost me freaking $11.75 for a 12" sub) but they are good -- I figure it's a special occasion, I might be dead tomorrow so enjoy it while I can. Opiate for the masses. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." Wow, some kind of opiate for the masses, aye! In context to Marx he was talking about the bastardization of weak members in the faith who preferred their childish interpretation of: "Oh, if I just follow these rules I'll get to eat pie in the sky when I die with the big guy with the white beard!" that Atheists love ot hark on. Marx was right to do so as well -- immature Christians are supplanting what Christ actually taught and the principles of faith with their own imaginary desires. Opiate, indeed. j.p.

[EvilNed]

Whatever Marx meant or did not mean (which is up for interpretation, I suppose, as is everything else), the quote itself sums up religion and faith pretty nicely. I do not have a spiritual bone in my body and I look at religion as I would superstition. Something which people use to explain away things they do not understand. To sum up their existence into something tangible. To find meaning where there necessarily isn't any. Say what you want about thoughts like these and atheism. But all religions can be traced alongside the socio-political evolution of human society. There's really nothing else to it.

[MikePizzoff]

Eh, Rapture is a mainline Protestant notion. Catholics, like me, don't buy that whole "Millienialist" ideology. I don't think it will happen either, but it will be entertaining if it does! I went over to Jersey Mike's for a meatball sub today just in case. They are expensive as hell (cost me freaking $11.75 for a 12" sub) but they are good -- I figure it's a special occasion, I might be dead tomorrow so enjoy it while I can. j.p. Trust me, JP, you'll be alive and well tomorrow. It's already May 21 in parts of Europe and they're quite fine. However, nice choice on going with some Jersey food!

[Publius]

Eh, Rapture is a mainline Protestant notion. Catholics, like me, don't buy that whole "Millienialist" ideology. My understanding is that the Catholic Church accepts the rapture, but holds to a post-tribulationist chronology, rather than the pre-tribulationist view that is most popular these days with evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants.

[Rancid Carcass]

It's already May 21 in parts of Europe and they're quite fine. No we're not... The fire! The brimstone! Damn my life of sinful choices! Save me! save me! ARRRRRRRRRGGGGG! NOOOOOOOOOOO!

[JDFP]

My understanding is that the Catholic Church accepts the rapture, but holds to a post-tribulationist chronology, rather than the pre-tribulationist view that is most popular these days with evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants. Oh yes, now you're talking my Theological jive, baby! I get off on this stuff like shit bugs in July next to a Korean restaurant... I'm a mostly a preterist, I think the Book of Revelations has already happened around 70 A.D. with the fall of Jerusalem/Diaspora and the coming fall of Rome several centuries later. We're looking for stuff to happen that's already taken place -- Revelations has already been fulfilled. The "Last Days" aren't necessarily the "last days" of the earth, but the last days of the old Mosaic Covenant Judaism had prior to the coming of Christ. As far as the millennial issue I'm fairly amillennial -- I don't think people are going to up and disappear as part of some "rapture" -- it's a too literal interpretation of Scripture that should be taken more allegorical for events that have already, mostly, taken place with the fall of Jerusalem and the fall of Rome. "Revelations" has already taken place -- we're living in a different age now. j.p.

[Rottedfreak]

Kirk Cameron had a pop at Stephen Hawking saying he has a 'unfair disadvantage' being in that wheelchair and upholds the absurd unscientific idea that eveything came from nothing. Kirk Cameron is CROCODUCK BOY!

[MikePizzoff]

[Neil]

^^ lol!

[blind2d]

Well, when you put it that way, Mike...