All topics seem to be cyclical. One question seems to spur on a reated question. I think we should do an expirement, ask one, and see how many more come up over the next 48 hours. We could do it with any topic. Just kidding. I think there have been fewer recently.. I ask a lot questions about religion, and haven’t lately. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe it has to do with religion not being as much of a current event lately. No one has been talking about the Muslims building a rec center in NYC, and we have not heard Obama is Muslim in the media lately. Now that stem cell research is ok, we don’t have to ask Christians about that, and abortion seems safe for now.

I’ve noticed. I was just thinking about this last night.

Actually, God exists in all His glory – the atheists are just taking a breather from the pounding they got last time. To hell with all you non-believers.

Oh, and I forgot the ~.

@JLeslie has a pretty good point. Anytime certain events happen there is usually a flurry of questions on here relating to the subject du jour.

@seazen, everyone knows Xtians are ignorant and stuck in the stone age and you are a bad person and you should feel bad.

maybe they all left Fluther?... or wait until the next religious news cycle.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I know I am but what are you? Jewish?

Yeah, maybe the media is a big driver in that stuff. Definitely people were pretty vocal about hating religion when Bush was in power, plus Pat Roberts would come out saying stupid stuff about the earthquake in Haiti. I suppose the gay marriage amendment in CA was top news too. The only thing suppressing that was religion.

Actually watched “Prop 8: The Mormon Proposition” recently. Revealed all the millions of $ the LDS pumped into that campaign. Buncha pricks.

I think we should ask why Chrisians love hitting their kids. I just was on a Q about disciplining a 5 year old, and I could not believe how many said to hit her, and if she is still misbehaving you must not be hitting hard enough. I am pretty sure most of the people suggesting the hit were Christian. I am sure there are many many Christians who don’t believe in hitting, but if you do believe in corporal punishment I bet you are Chrisians 9 times out of 10.

I don’t know, @JLeslie. I’m not the least bit religious and I beat the fuck out of my kid.

@cockswain I don’t believe you for a second.

Well I’ll send you a pic the next time she comes home with a B+

@cockswain Ok, so you are the 1 in 10.

It’s soooo time for a song… I AM A ONE IN TEN – enjoy

@seazen I didn’t mean to kill your buzz.

@seazen thanks. I have not heard that song in a long time. Do you think it was a sign from God that the discussion led you to post that song?

But did you listen to it – and like it? @jleslie

Edit: @bk Everything is a sign from God. Now I have a UB40 mix in the background. Don’t get no better ‘n that.

There’s not really much point to them, they just go around and around and around, same arguments, different day. Same stereotypes, misinformation, assumptions and nonsense, and ignorance, different day. Maybe people have gotten tired of it. Finally. Thank god. :-)

Good times, good times.

@lillycoyote Maybe I actually won all those arguments, and all Christians are now atheists. Maybe that’s what stopped them, my awesome powers of persuasion. DON’T YOU AGREE????

@dverhey I lurve you. If I were Christian I’d spank you.~

@cockswain OMG!!! That could be it! I didn’t even consider that. Don’t ever fluffy on me, like @josie was thinking about. You’ve been tearing the place up, it seems.

Pointless, yes. But fun. :\

@lillycoyote I must admit, I do have a certain je ne sais quoi

@jonsblond If I was Christian I wouldn’t be able to take that as a joke and would probably be horribly offended and mildy confused.

Qingo always taught me a thing or two. I love reading posts from you guys that are so well versed in religion, that you can support atheism or at least make someone think.

@dverhey So happy you understand then. Phew!

I think it’s because we’ve all calmed down a bit. I’m a Christian who has no problems with atheists and I expect the same from atheists. Maybe we all finally “got a long.” LOL!! ;)

Qingo is going straight to hell.

Oh, there will be. These things come in cycles. Pretty soon there will be a surge of homosexuality questions as well. It’s just how it works. :\

Besides, now that I’m studying the Crusades this month, I may ask one about the legitimacy and justification of the Crusades and “holy war” in general. Hmm…. ;)

@cockswain Yes, a certain… I don’t know. A certain cockswaininess? A certain cockswainnoire?

These things do tend to be cyclical. Just about every time we have a surge in new members, they all get asked again. Of course, the news does play a part, too.

Now that you mention it….....innit nice?

You actually wonder why that is? ROFL

Helps @Summum up from the floor,

It truly is not hard to understand what you have now wondered.

Apparently it’s so easy to understand, it’s hilarious.

Totally cyclical -

I think that the current trend is the surge of “pro-regulation” vs. “no regulation” type arguments – we’re in a political atheists against the government Christians trend now (with all the inbetween arguments coming in).

@iamthemob it is odd the atheists seem to like big government. Hmm.

@cockswain

Yes it is think on it.

@bkcunningham It’s more like many of the atheist arguments regarding religion and god, not all mind you, are mimicked for me in arguments from the free market/no regulation side of the regulation argument.

Hey – I’m up for a religious argument until the next wave of jellies floats in. Who feels like one? I’ll take God’s side, thanks. Let’s go…

Dear @seazen, if atheists take over the world, will you cease to exist? ~

What am I a fucking tree? What kind of stupid question is that?

@seazen If a tree falls, and no one is around to hear it….muah!

Muah right back atcha.

Who do I have to insult around here to get a muah?!

@ANef_is_Enuf mwah

Free of charge

^Yay. :)

@JLeslie I think you really should ask “Why do Christians love hitting their kids?” I’ll just sit back and watch the shit fly, watch the carnage; then try to clean up the blood spatter up as best and as quickly as I can, and then clean and stitch up your wounds when it’s all over. Actually… no, not recommending that at all, not at all.

@lillycoyote I was just in a state of shock at that moment. Can’t ever ask the question, because they would get all defensive thinking I am saying or assuming all Chrisians do it no matter how I word it, which I do not think at all. I already know the answer anyway. There are bible versus amd everything that they pull out. Their communities think it is just fine, they get immediate short term results, they were hit and they turned out fine, etcetera, etcetera.

I hit my kids all the time when they misbehave… inside… outside I just mumble something and grunt and grumble as they remind me that they are too old to even bother responding and I should contact them via facebook if I have anything to say… which I then do… they ignore me on facebook, too – but I still help them on farmville.

@JLeslie I can’t see how “they” could possibly justify getting all defensive or thinking that you are “saying or assuming all Christians “do it” when all you are really saying is that 1) “I am pretty sure most of the people suggesting the hit were Christian,” regarding the responses on the thread about disciplining the 5 year old. I mean just thinking it it makes it true, isn’t that good enough for those irrational Christians? ” 2) “There are bible versus… that they pull out” and 3) ”their communities think it is just fine…” Honestly, Christians getting all defensive about that kind of thing? What on earth is wrong with them? Brainwashed, irrational, child beaters, that’s what “they” are, why can’t “they” simply see that? You just can’t reason with some people, can you?

@lillycoyote They would not classify it as beating their child. In fact I would not use that word either probably. There have been previous discussions on the topic on fluther if you are interested. It is systemic here in parts of the bible belt. Many schools still have corporal punishment, which I find stunning. I had no idea that was still legal in the US until I moved here a few years ago. I have friends here who ask surprised when the topic comes up, “your schools didn’t have corporal punishment?”

@JLeslie we don’t call it “corporal punishment” in the south. We call it knocking some sense in their damn heads.

I’m going to be filled with glee if a religious argument gets started on this thread

@cockswain You’re going to be happy, maybe, possibly, I think. I’m just about to have at it! I’m not quite locked and loaded here, give me a minute or two to get my thoughts together and in order and then, hopefully, at least, you will not be disappointed.

@cockswain I have no argument, only judgement on this one. :). I rarely feel judgemental. I even have an exception for hitting, when it is a matter of a child putting themselves at serious physical risk, if nothing else is working. But, it would have to be very extreme. This regular smack on the ass or wrist, no way.

Atheists bite. Godless twits.

I get the feeling @lillycoyote is baiting me. :)

@seazen Shhh. Don’t give away secrets.

@JLeslie ass or wrist? Hit them in the head along the hair so the marks don’t show. Geez, Yankees.

@bkcunningham Lol. Oh great wise one. I should have known.

@JLeslie What on earth would possibly, could possibly, make you think, make you feel, that in any possible way whatsoever, that I, little ole me, might be baiting you? Honestly, I’m as sweet; as transparent, as hookless and as baitless, as unskilled in the art of guile and as deficient and lacking in malice as they come. @JLeslie, really, my feelings are hurt now. :-)

When I looked at my activity and saw this thread had 22 new responses, my immediate thought was that an argument must have been started. I guess I’m sort of right, sort of wrong…

@dverhey Not necessarily. @JLeslie and I are currently in negotiations as to whether or not we are going to have a knock down, drag out slugfest of an argument, whether we are going to simply drop the whole thing or whether, perhaps, we are going to form a mutual admiration society. At least those are the options I’m considering and laying on the table. @JLeslie may have a whole different negotiating stance, a whole different set of options that will be put on the table. Stay tuned. I’m not even sure how this is going to end.

@lillycoyote Since I have no idea where the hell you stand on the issue, I don’t even see how the discussion can move forward. Seems the ball is in your court. But, as I said, I don’t really have an argument in me tonight on the topic. If you want to state your position, obviously you are free to. If it winds up you are for hitting children as a way to discipline, I find your coyness a little annoying. If you indeed are against it, I apologyze for my skeptism.

@lillycoyote hit her. Go ahead. Hit her.

Proverbs 13:24 ‘Nuff said.

@bkcunningham I think I’m going to have to, I have no other choice that I can see, in that a good nature and good humor seems to have been insufficient in diffusing the situation. Again, I need a moment to regroup and get my thoughts in order. Please excuse me for moment, will you all, please. Coy?? Really? And @bkcunningham, don’t you think for one goddam minute that this means that I am on your side, well maybe you have said one or two things that I might have possible agreed with, but this is not the end of it, between you and me. It means nothing. You may very well be imagining that you have box seats in the Coliseum, or have Elizabethan bear baiting fantasies, for all I know.

@lillycoyote You seem interested.

Corporal punishment

Spanking

Another

@lillycoyote she said you are annoying too.

@DominicX Thanks.

@bkcunningham I don’t believe that I have ever claimed that I am not annoying so that is not a valid argument.

@lillycoyote hmm, you know yourself better than I.

@JLeslie First, if you can show me any statement, any statement at all, whatsoever, that I made that indicates that I in any way support, that I ever stated that I believe in and/or support corporal punishment, beating children or even hitting them I would really appreciate if you would show me what exactly I said, and exactly where, when and how I said it. I don’t think you can. You are the one that has taken it there, not me.

My only issue with you, now, and since the beginning, is with your characterization of “Christians” as people who “love” to hit their kids. That is it, that is all. I have not once, not one single time, not made one utterance that would or should have led you to believe that I in any way support beating or hitting children. It is you who have stereotyped certain people, Christians in particular as people who like hitting their children.

This is the issue I have with you and it is the _only _ issue I have with you. I am not a Christian, I’m actually an absolutely, unrepentant and unapologetic Christian apostate, having walked away spiritually and intellectually from the Church and it’s doctrine, at around the age of 9 and walked away from it physically at the age of 15, because even though my parents still had authority over me, we agreed that, because I was not a believer, that we would be done with it upon my confirmation. I am not a Christian, I am not a believer, I am not an apologist, I am not even a particularly big fan of Christianity. There is some truth and some wisdom in it, just as there is some truth and wisdom in many traditions and in much literature. I am not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, as they say.

If you, any of you, want to condemn religion, religion in general and Christianity, or any religion in particular as being the result of irrational thinking and brainwashing then you simply cannot counter it, simply cannot argue with it, cannot allow yourself to indulge in irrational thinking, self-brainwashing, and the consumption of misinformation, stereotypes and ignorance yourselves. Bible belt folks beat their children? Christians, 9 times out of ten like hitting their children? Show me. Show me the numbers, show me the data, show me that that is true and not just your own ignorance, assumptions, brainwashing and irrational thinking on your part. Can you do that? If you can, fine. I’m waiting.

@lillycoyote And there it is. Exactly what I said. No matter how I worded it I would be accused of generalizing about Christians. I never said Christians 9 times out of 10 like hitting their children.

Plus, I never presented anything as being hard fact, I said I was annoyed with that recent thread about disciplining a 5 year old, and my first comment about it had some sarcasm in it if you failed to pick it up. I never intended to ask such a question. Here is the wikipedia for legal corporal punishment in schools, mostly bible belt. And, my own personal experience is all I was going by.

I really thought the above conversation was a joke… until the last few posts.

@ANef_is_Enuf I thought is was a joke too.

lol @ this question. The ironing is delicious!

@JLeslie Maybe I’m wrong, but I took it as a joke too, until you made it something serious. Maybe I am to blame, maybe you are to blame. Who knows?

@DominicX I try very hard to keep my irony and my ironing separate. Don’t mess it up.

Maybe we should pass around some more muahs.

I would just like to know who it is that you think isn’t getting the “joke” whatever the joke might be. If it’s me that you think isn’t getting the joke, please, tell me, say it, fess up, because I would really like to know if and that it is me that’s not getting it. Show yourselves, let me know, I can take it, really, I can and I want to know. I guess it is probably best that I wash my hands of this one too. Never mind. See you all around.

Oh my god, I didn’t think this would actually have happened. Glee meter: pegged.

Oh boy and then we wonder why there is war.

@lillycoyote So let me get this right. What you wrote, that looooonnnnnnggggg ass condemnation and challenge of how you think I think, asking for proof, feeling the need to explain your own religious beliefs, and then you twisted, omitted, or at minimum, you misunderstood my words, is a joke? Funny. Explain why that is so funny? Because, I felt the need to defend myself, is that what is funny? So, nothing you said was honest? You completely understood from the start that I am not accusing all Christians of hitting their children? So you agree with me in realty?

@ALL There was some joking in there no question; I even PM’d @bkcunningham because I thought he was so funny.

Why won’t any of you God-less atheists fight with me? I’ll put the fear of the Lord into you raggedy-ass atheists… put up your dukes.

@seazen, Christians are bad people. They caused the holocaust and 9/11. They believe the earth is 6000 years old and are intolerant! All they do is stereotype people! As a Bright, I believe the world would be a better place if all of those judgmental, ignorant screw-heads were rounded up and left on an island so the rest of the world can continue on into the 21st century, for they clearly are unenlightened.

u mad, zen?

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Just curious, when @seazen said he wanted to fight with atheists, why did you choose Christians as bad people, instead of just theists in general?

@JLeslie, I’m just trollin’. Deliberately being ridiculous in order to elicit a response. It’s usually specifically Christians and Atheists that get targeted for trolling because they are the easiest targets for some reason…. I haven’t seen many Buddhists, or Jews, or Sikhs get effectively trolled. Also, I’m more or less agnostic, but I do follow a few Christian tenets… (and Sufi, and Mahayana…)

But, shhh! Don’t tell Zen that, or he’ll figure out what I’m up to.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard OK, I won’t tell.

Is it possible for a ginger kid to be saved?

@JLeslie, thank you kindly.

Whatssa matter, Zen? You haven’t responded? Are you too busy burning books or writing essays on how the Devil planted fossils to test our faith?

@cockswain Pharaoh was a ginger kid. God raised him up just to destroy him. They serve some purpose.

Gingers are God’s clowns.

@cockswain, my beard has some red in it, does that count?

Does the Catholic Church turn a blind eye to pedophilia?

@cockswain Stop it. LOL.

@cockswain, ouch. lol.

@cockswain when I was young, I played one-eyed snake with altar boy once. I did it because his Priest told him he’d go blind if he didn’t quit playing with it by himself. I thought I was doing something good for the church.

I’m a ginger, and I’m officially offended. Hmph.

after a lifetime of abuse and ridicule, a little more won’t hurt

Hahahaha. You made me snort. Now I’m gonna’ have to kick your ass. :p

I’m sure you have a lot of very dangerous pent up anger

That’s cause I finally got wise and starting avoiding ‘em like one of God’s plagues. ;-)

I decided to no longer get involved in such debates.