As for the actual content of this post, I have some ideas to offer:

1) Regarding death, Christianity does offer hope. But what’s the difference between the false joy of the “ecstasy” drug and the false hope of an imaginary afterlife? Is it not better to accept that the universe is capable of getting along just fine after we’re gone?

2) Christianity does offer absolution of guilt. But is it real absolution? Christianity says “you are utterly irredeemable, but I forgive you anyway”. Is that really as good as the kind of absolution you get when you actually make up for the bad things you’ve done? Frankly, I think the absolution offered by Christianity is not even remotely satisfying, and that Christians in fact feel perpetually inadequate, because they’re always comparing themselves to an idealized super-altruist. In many ways, Christians are taught to despise their own humanity.

3) Christian fellowship can make some people very happy. But it can also make some people very unhappy. The flip-side of a tight-knit community is that if you’re on the outs with that community, you have nowhere to turn. It feels like the whole world is against you. So there is a powerful pressure to conform, agree with everyone else, do what they say, etc. Consider how the evangelical community in the 1970s was overwhelmingly liberal, and supported programs for the poor. And today, that SAME community has almost entirely shifted to right-wing politics, hating welfare, discouraging immigration, etc. How can millions of people all change their minds at the same time, in the same way? The answer is simple: the “fellowship” of the Christian community is NOT free; it comes with a price tag, and the price tag is conformity.

Let me just leave with one final thought: if Christians are so happy, why do so many of them rant so angrily about “family values”? And let’s face it, the way they use it, “family values” is a wonderfully clever term for “let’s manufacture an excuse to treat certain people like crap even if they’ve never hurt anyone”. Any group which tries so hard to harm the interests of other people can’t be considered collectively “happy”.

“Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins” Revelation 18:4

http://brandplucked.webs.com/realcatholicbibles.htm

http://brandplucked.webs.com/easterreplenish.htm

That state­ment is a lie, and peo­ple who love Jesus & the Bible should not make such a claim — even if they do have the best of inten­tions in doing so!”

Well, what about the American Bible Society statement?
Even the American Bible Society, no friend to the King James Bible, had this to say about the “revisions” of the King James Bible. The American Bible Society wrote, “The English Bible, as left by the translators (of 1611), has come down to us unaltered in respect to its text…” They further stated, “With the exception of typographical errors and changes required by the progress of orthography in the English language, the text of our present Bibles remains unchanged, and without variation from the original copy as left by the translators” (Committee on Versions to the Board of Managers, American Bible Society, 1852).

I found your blog again after several years and see with some surprise that you are an atheist.

Did you write a specific blog entry about the tipping point away that occurred in favor of atheism? I’d like to read about that journey.

Bill

See ‘The Printing Errors Ploy’
http://brandplucked.webs.com/printingerrors.htm

Will Kinney

1) When clicking a save button the page should return to the hook that was updated. Perhaps an ajax update? I often edit the same hook many times before getting it right, and if I could avoid scrolling back to the hook after updating it, it would save LOTS of time.

2) Remembering the text area size. Some of my hooks have 50+ lines of html. I can resize the textarea, but after hitting save it will return back to the default size. If openhook could remember the size, it would be great.

Thanks!