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USA Today reports:
"Russia's Supreme Court formally banned Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist organization Thursday and ordered the state to seize its property in Russia, according to Russian news media."
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Russian Court Bans Jehovah's Witnesses
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Hey, wait a minute!! I want a divorce!! ... you're not Clint Eastwood!!
(Score: 4, Informative) by julian on Friday April 21 2017, @11:25PM (36 children)
I dunno man, Christians are supposed to kill you for all sorts of reasons. But I've never been stoned for working on the Sabbath.
And no Muslim has ever rung my doorbell during dinner.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @01:07AM (1 child)
But I've never been stoned for working on the Sabbath.
I've been stoned while working on the Sabbath ... and just about every other day, too.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:17AM
You may try working on the Black one too.
(leaves singing "...son, son you've gone too far,/'Cause smokin' an...")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @01:15AM (33 children)
Um, you obviously know nothing about Christianity. When asked how many times one should forgive his neighbor, Christ said 70 times 7 times per day. Christ was the one who coined the phrase "let he who is without sin cast the first stone." All that death sentence stuff was from the old testament law. Christ brought grace which to you means forgiveness and loving your enemies. Christians strive for perfection while all the while knowing they can never be perfect. We pray that we are forgiven as we forgive others, knowing that we will be judged as we judge. No one is perfect and every organization has bad actors, but the true leader of the church is our risen saviour. The antics of us imperfect followers often must be forgive.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 22 2017, @01:20AM (15 children)
Sure, and then if you don't kiss his ass he forgives you zero times seventy times and tortures you for eternity. Nice try.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:23AM (2 children)
Your choice.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 22 2017, @04:25AM (1 child)
Having been dead, and dating a woman who has also been dead and remembers between lives...no. Fuck you. You can go to Hell, as she did, and you can stay there a shitload longer than she did. Fuck you, fuck your demonic God-concept, fuck your devil-worshiping religion, and if I didn't say "fuck you" yet, fuck you. The early church fathers were Universalists, you theologically-illiterate moron. Latin doesn't know how to parse Koine's distinctions between aionios and aidios.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:42PM
Don't mind the hypocrites, they were brainwashed from birth and are just happy to be part of a community. So they follow the little rules everyone e talks about, pretend their virtuous, and pay zero attention to facts and care nothing about their own hypocrisy. Letting them upset you is like letting a 5 year old get to you, sure its annoying but just detach and view them from a more mature viewpoint and pity them. Smile and nod, encourage the good stuff. "Yes forgiveness is a very important thing, so forgive those poor terrorists misled to do such bad things!" Oh wait, that is child-like humor to make them see their hypocrisy, damnit I was so close!
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:37AM (11 children)
Heh - for once we see things similarly. You get one chance at life. You get twenty, maybe thirty, possibly 60, if you're REALLY LUCKY, you might get 100 years to get life "right". And, if you don't manage to do it right that one time around, you get to burn in fire for eternity?
Yeah, that is pretty fucked up.
The Hindus have a more appealing system. If you really suck ass at life, you get to come back as a cockroach or something. If you do things almost perfectly throughout your life, then you're rewarded by becoming a king or emperor in your next life. Karma isn't a bad system. In effect, you punish yourself for being a complete ass.
But, what am I saying? Next, I'll be touting the benefits of communism!
Whatever - if there really is an afterlife, I think it's going to shock the shit out of most dogmatic people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @03:20AM
Quantum effects seem like the best chance for eternal life:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide_and_immortality [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 22 2017, @04:22AM (5 children)
Actually in the Dharmic religions, if you "really fuck up" you spend several quadrillion times the age of the known universe being roasted in a huge metal oven under the earth; look up "Avici" sometime. Hinduism and Buddhism love them some torture porn.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:36PM (2 children)
That's why I liked Dante so much. You might get yourself sent to hell, but even then, there was possible redemption.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:48PM (1 child)
Hell does not work that way. It's a state, not a place, and it seems to be tied about 1:1 with the pain you caused others, minus the good you did, though that good can only be applied to things you've been well and truly forgiven for by the ones you harmed. And if what my girlfriend says is any indication, even after your actual torture is over, if you haven't forgiven yourself, you're not getting out of that mode of existence.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @03:03PM
"if you haven't forgiven yourself"
That was part of Dante's story . . . .
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday April 24 2017, @10:10AM (1 child)
That's not quite how it works, you end up being reborn in avici until you've burned up your bad karma, then it's back onto the usual cycle. The length of each period in avici varies depending on interpretation, but about 1K years is a common figure. Apparently your occupation for the duration of your stay is something involving an old 486 laptop and a copy of systemd.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday April 24 2017, @05:33PM
I swear I'd heard something like 10^17 years, which is utterly ridiculous and unjust, but I can definitely accept something like 10^3 to 10^4 for someone like Adolf Hitler.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:32AM (3 children)
Most Christians forget about the only person who was promised heaven was a criminal getting crucified beside Christ.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:32PM (2 children)
So - you're going to make a case that we should all be criminals, so that we too can have a chance at paradise? Nahh - ignore that, I'm just being a smart ass.
But, you certainly can't be doing anything terribly wrong is you're only sending a saved man home to be with his Father in Heaven, can you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:32PM
> you certainly can't be doing anything terribly wrong is you're only sending a saved man home to be with his Father in Heaven, can you?
Look at that, derpaway is now justifying murder as being the christian thing to do.
Is anyone here actually surprised? Anyone? Bueller?
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday April 24 2017, @02:06AM
Well being a criminal does not mean being a bad person, think of the people prosecuted and convicted of helping slaves escape. Recently read about the first woman to be hung in on of the colonies of New England, her crime was preaching Quakerism.
The law only aligns with morals some of the time and other times it is at odds with morals.
And they were killing the man who became saved before he was saved.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by julian on Saturday April 22 2017, @01:21AM (1 child)
The Bible is a sprawling, hacked together, sparsly edited, iteratively translated, incomplete, multi-author, self-contradictory, work of fiction that can be used to justify almost any position you want to take.
But I'm happy you've taken the pacificsm and tolerance message from the Bible. Many Christians don't. And there's no way to adjudicate who is "correct" because it's all absolute nonsense.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:16PM
It's kind of like a textual Rorschach test.
The old testament is suddenly applicable when it comes to the gays.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @01:50AM (6 children)
Wait - who threw that "per day" in there? Did you do that, or do you read a version of the Bible with it in there?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @03:52AM (2 children)
Awwww! Isn't that cute?
Derpaway is trying to lawyer out the part of Christ's teaching that says to forgive.
Face it dipshit, you are an old-testament asshole through and through who only claims to be a christian but has no interest in behaving like a christian.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:21PM (1 child)
God, you're a dumbass. I'm the one who told you that I'm an asshole. I'm the asocial asshole, remember? Old Testament asshole? Nope - not even close. I've never slaughtered a lamb, or a gay, or my own son, or even a bull on an altar as sacrifice to God. Just how stupid can you possibly be?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:35PM
> God, you're a dumbass. I'm the one who told you that I'm an asshole.
And you don't just talk the talk, you walk the walk too. We see it here every day.
> Just how stupid can you possibly be?
I don't know. Your level of delusional stupidity is beyond measure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:46AM (2 children)
Well, it's Saturday in my timezone now, the 7th day and day of rest, so let's get to know Jesus a little better. Personally, my friends and I believe that Jesus was a buddha who had reached enlightenment and tried his best to explain the dharma to a bunch of sand n... a bunch of filthy Je... to people who were without the dharma. I see I have many more incarnations to go and much work to be done. Until then!
Matthew 18:21–22 MSG (my preferred translation):
At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?”
Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven….”
Matthew 18:21–22 MSG (if you prefer):
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times….”
Let us hear the Message that he meant by that, where he goes on to say:
“The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
“The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
“The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
“The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
“The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:51AM
Of course I forget to quote KVJ, which is likely the source of the misapprehension.
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
If we were to attempt to be lawyers about the dharma, we might be under the impression that the brother or neighbor sins against him daily, and that the deal is up after only seven days.
Lawyers will never find the dharma. They'll need to reincarnate and try again.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:38PM
Excellent job on that parable. You done great!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:34AM (5 children)
Oddly, Moslems also worship this Jesus guy.
Personally I think Mohammed is perfectly in line with the Old Testament.
I'm still scratching my head wondering how the heck Jesus fits into the Abrahamic religions. He seems more like a buddha.
Most Christians are not followers of Jesus. I'm not sure why they don't just admit that they like Mohammed better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @06:07AM (3 children)
You may want to educate yourself. Here is a good first step. [prophetofdoom.net]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @11:25AM (2 children)
Going to that site to learn about islam is like reading a pamphlet on democracy written by Putin.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @01:55PM (1 child)
Judging a book by its cover, eh? Too bad you won't be able to point out any actual errors with the information presented from Prophet of Doom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:49PM
Same reason I don't bother to try rebutting Putin's distortions about democracy.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:27PM
Uhhhhh - no. Muslims DO NOT worship Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and part of the entire Holy thing. Muslims believe that Jesus was just another prophet, and prophets are unworthy of worship. No Muslim worships Mohammed. They worship God, Allah, but they most certainly do not worship Mohammed.
Go back and try again. Try reading the Quran.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Saturday April 22 2017, @04:57PM (1 child)
> All that death sentence stuff was from the old testament law.
I never got how christians square the difference between old testament and new testament. I mean, the concept is that morality change in AD 0? Or that God changed her mind in AD 0? Or what?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:46PM
It doesn't help that Jesus literally said that the old testament rules are still in force too:
“For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 5:18-19
“It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid.” (Luke 16:17)
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.” (Matthew 5:17)
“Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law” (John7:19)