Text book disclaimer stickers
 

there's only one reasonable response to such silliness.

Very nice, very nice indeed.

There are other bits you might have missed:

From Mark 12: Jesus answered, "The most important [commandment] says: `People of Israel, you have only one Lord and God. You must love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.' The second most important commandment says: `Love others as much as you love yourself.' No other commandment is more important than these."

I Corinthians 13: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

I'm sure the biology textbook had some corkers too, probably less Hallmark though.

If you think that those are things that should be on a warning label, I'm a bit worried.

jaguar might think so. i only want "can be deliberately taken out of context to fuel my bitterness and hatred" put on it.

Oh trust me, the love thing proves difficult. No sentimentality about me towards certain people (nor them for me, I'm sure). And naturally, the failures are going to be magnified and the successes diminished, even if people have to reach back to the crusades to do so. Still, it beats "Nothing matters" as a goal. You might try it, jag. doesn't vinegar straight from the bottle taste nasty after awhile?

Stop! Your independent thoughts will anger the magical bearded man who lives in the clouds! Boo!

Loathing would be a better term. After all, we're dealing with an institution that makes Stalin and Hitler look like lightweights in the scheme of things. A institution that has over it's history, been responsible in addition to practically countless deaths, retardation of science (and as this thread shows, is still doing its best to hold us back), retardation of women's rights, homosexual's rights & judging by your xenophobic posts in the IoTD thread, hasn't done much for cross-cultural understanding either. Reach back to the crusades? Hardly necessary. It doesn't have to be that way, I count a number of Christians amongst my friends but people like you in particular demonstrate the way it promotes and bathes in ignorance & division.

furthermore, while it might suit your narrow worldview to assume that non-beilief in god means nothing matters I consider myself existentialist. As Satre said, existence precedes and rules essence. Far from that nothing matters what matters is what I choose to matter to me.

On another not, to quote Joan Smith, a wonderful columnist here:

And what has this to do with God? :headshake

It's what people do in the name of G-d that is troubling.

Speaking of books, how about this article from Dec 2004 - Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker

God? Not much, institutionalised christianity? Everything. Stickers don't have much to do with god either.

then there's the part where Kansas is investing over 500 Million dollars to attract bio-tech corporations here. seems like oxymoronic, or maybe just moronic? to try to draw businesses here and then call the system that said work is based on inherently flawed if not dismiss it completely. sometimes I am really ashamed of this state I live in. then again I live in the one oasis of 'sanity' here.

What they really want is to attrack bio-tech corporations who don't believe in evolution, so they can use the employees as examples of scientists who aren't "brainwashed" by the "religion" of evolution. Whether they actually do any bio-tech work is not particularly relevant.

:beer:

Fundamentalists claim they need protection from the amoral athiests , their right are infringed upon in schools teaching evolution. When the scientists invade the church and force the Sunday youth group to read Darwin...then I'll buy it.

Its science and secular education that need protection, now. Right now. Lots of Christians I know, bless 'em, are fighting to protect science curricula from ID politics.

Again the question burns,..."What's The Matter With Kansas?" They want economic progress but that comes with cultural progress. They'll continue to shoot their own foot.

I guess they weren't listening when Dorothy told them what was really behind the curtain. :(

No offense man, but for me personally, I get really ticked when a discussion point such as this is brought up and someone proceeds to quote the Bible as an "answer." Since I don't believe in the Bible, every word of what you said might as well be Swahili, Russian or Arabic---or a mix of all three. And although it may not have been your intent, for anyone out there who wants to quote the Bible to "convince" anyone of anything, don't do it. It's a huge turn off and I think most people will agree that it has the opposite effect.

Smurf, mrnoodle wasn't trying to convince anyone of the truth of those statements. He was pointing out how the references on the Bible sticker to "suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs or alcohol, homosexuality, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness and human rights violations and atrocities" in the Bible were passages taken out of context and that the Bible clearly says that the opposite of all these things is the most important thing in life.

You don't have to believe it's true, but you should at least know what's in it before you argue against it.

No need to get yourself all in a lather--I wasn't insulting him, just making a point. Sorry to have offended if I did.

And BTW, I know what the Bible says--I was raised by strict Southern Baptist parents and had it shoved down my throat my entire childhood. Don't make assumptions about someone you don't know Clodfobble--very dangerous around here, from what I've seen. :mg:

Regardless, I've managed to block most of my Biblical knowledge out of my memory; I suspect it's something akin to post traumatic stress syndrome, although I'm not sure. I'm actually quite grateful for that. :)

Anyway, my point with all this is that you can make the Bible say whatever you want it to. You can quote one verse to make a point, and I can quote another to contradict you. If you believe in the Bible, that's swell, and I'm happy for you. I'm just get a little touchy when people get in your face with Bible quotes. Hey, just my personal opinion, and yes, I have lots of "issues." :bonk:

I wasn't offended in the slightest, I was just explaining why you shouldn't be ticked off at those particular Bible quotes being presented, as the discussion (started by the sticker) was specifically about the content of the Bible. Jaguar referred to some Biblical content; mrnoodle referred to some differing Biblical content.

I didn't mean to imply you didn't know what was in the Bible though, I was using the ubiquitous "you." Sorry about that, here's a better wording: "People don't have to believe in the Bible to be able to read it objectively and debate its merit as a moral guideline, and they should in fact read it before declaring it to be utter crap (instead of, say, just a nice collection of parables.) 'Love thy neighbor' is just as good of a rule whether it's me saying it or God."

And I agree, you do have some issues with having things shoved down your throat. But lots of people do, and there's no one to blame for that but the Christians out there who happen to be over-zealous and ham-fisted. :)

The real issue is that warning labels generally don't list the good contents of the thing they're affixed to.

Just because you were forced to participate in a religion does NOT mean you know what's really in the book, and understand it.

Aren't you jumping to conclusions here? How do you know if I "understand" what is in the Bible? Is it your place to judge my knowledge and understanding in this case? You have no idea what my experiences or beliefs are.

I'm glad to hear that you "know what's really in the book" and that you "understand" it. That's swell. Contrary to your opinion, I also know what is in this book and I believe I understand it quite well. Based on my understanding, I choose not to believe in it. Isn't that my right?

http://photos9.flickr.com/11542889_914cd43ae9_m.jpg

(another view)

I see that Cobb County worships that same four elements that we Pagans do. Bet they'd be surprised to hear that... :lol:

I was going to say something similar ... "Earth, Air, Fire, Water" yep, all there ...

Reminds me of a friend who had an "elemental magician" in a D&D campaign. He only knew one spell. He could summon elementals of each of the elements.

Each one on the periodic table.

They left out the 5th element.

that's always been my problem with the bible, it's really not very consistant.. you can make it be for or against damn near anything... just depends on which version you choose.. if I had to choose one it would be before pauls re-write... and surely before king james had his way with it!

You just wanted to see a picture of Milla Jovovich.

Since we're marginally on the subject ...

Does anyone have recommendations for a good readin' Bible? Like most folks I already have a KJV, published by the Gideons, and swiped from a hotel, just like you're supposed to ... I also have a Douay, which is the usual Catholic version, however, being a Catholic Bible, it's not for reading, it's for storing mass cards in.

I just finished up reading the Koran, and while I've read extensive bits of the Bible, I've never taken the opportunity to go through it, front to back.

I do NOT want to deal with a large, unwieldy, concordance Bible. Although there would be tons of interesting information, I'm hoping for something that 1. won't weigh more than 5 pounds and 2. Is cheap (which means that I'll likely end up just going with something that's already in the house).

I do intend to eventually get the controversial "modernised" Bible approved by the current Archbishop of Canterbury, but it's got to get a lot cheaper before I buy one from amazon.

It is on my wish list, however.

I thought they were just for camhos?

Don't assume that anyone that doesn't accept it doesn't know and understand what it says. Of course that could be possible since bible scholars have been working on it for a very long time and are still at it. Maybe once they figure it out, a new version comes out and they have to start over.
Knowing content and understanding what it says, doesn't make it true either.

As far as rejecting without reading a book, I do that with Dr Phil's books. :)

Sycamore's Amazon store would greatly appreciate such a purchase.

Sycamore's amazon store is a source of wonderment.

I may be buying a tent first. I, whose idea of camping is a hotel with room service that shuts down at 9pm, will be spending my late summer vacation camping. Sort of.

Why camping if you don't really like it? Is this a "forced camping" situation?

The floor in Slang's new place is still dirt?

When you dig a hole in the ground, all you got is dirt ...

For an easy to read translation that doesn't modernize anything controversial... i would recommend the New Living Translation. Tyndale House has quite a few choices.

As appealing as that may be, I was merely trying to show you religious wackos that I keep a few esoteric texts in my ivory tower. And not just to level furniture either.

I've got a kitchen but I'm no chef. ;)

Kansas Debate Challenges Science Itself
 

From here.

You know, is it me or does anyone else get the impression that only conservative Christians could have gotten away with this. If pagans or UFO enthusiasts had pushed something like this they would have been laughed at.

BTW, considering the separation of church and state, someone should remind conservatives that if religion creeps into this, there is no control over which religious viewpoint is taught. Being an avid Terry Pratchett fan, I'm leaning towards the world as a disc on the backs of four elephants on the back of a giant turtle. :D

http://www.chris-miller.org/books/pr.../discworld.jpg

There was a version of the bible called the "Good News Bible" that was made around the Jesus freak era of the 70s. It's kind of fun to read -- only the NT was translated though. Lots of "groovy" language, iirc.

Smurf, I too was raised in the southern baptist tradition and feel your pain. But don't blame the big haired ladies and green bean casseroles on God. They mean well, same as anyone else. Baptists are just people who don't wave to each other in the liquor store. And most of em that I know are decent people (again, just like any other group). One or two of them got in the news with the 'matthew shepard is burning in hell' thing, but they don't represent the rest of us. The southern baptist church is the protestant version of the roman catholic one. Top heavy leadership that concentrates more on matters of "policy" and such than on matters pertaining to the soul. It's a disease that organized religion has to fight against.

I didn't say whether you understood it or not, nor did I speculate. I merely stated that simply being indoctrinated in an organized religion does not mean you understand the contents of the book.

Seems like you're the one jumping to conclusions.

I never said he didn't understand it, or that understanding = instant belief or agreement with contents, or accepting as truth.

It was a statement that just because you grow up in a relgion does not mean you understand what's in the book. I can't get any plainer than that.

I didn't think I needed to.

I think I had one of those ... CCC gave 'em out by the boxful. Chucked it prior to a move, I believe.

the whole Jesus Freak movement was kind of wacky. i know quite a few people who were involved in it in the beginning... the ones i know dropped out of the scene that became well known. they founded organizations such as JPUSA - Jesus People USA - which is effectively a commune in the inner city of Chicago. They bought a building that housed a failing assisted living center in and have continued to allow all of the folks live there without any hassles. really a pretty neat group of people if you ever get the chance to meet them. they host one of the biggest music festivals in the world.

Macomb,IL is home to Cornerstone each year.

Not to argue with you here, but is seems Bruce thought the same thing, so I'm not alone on this one.

You made the assumption that I didn't understand the Bible without knowing my whole situation, life experiences, etc. I would call that jumping to conclusions.