Ignorance... Intolerance... or just plain old stupidity?

[abbyseyes]

Hi everyone. As some of you know, I'm one of those full-time ebay people. While I was surfing tonight I came across this auction....

<url>http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1456547884</url>

Don't ya' just wanna shake him 'til his teeth rattle?!?!

[Earth Walker]

He must one of the group that is referred to as a Swellhead.
Swellhead.....Nature's frantic efforts to fill a vacuum!

[abbyseyes]

Mystique- LOL - I like that.


so I'm not the only night surfer around here....

[Earth Walker]

The Goddess of the Night........

[Amora]

What's even more scary is there are people bidding on that crap!

[bloodstone20]

Well, i can answer. Its ignorance. One person looked up crap on the internet and wrote a book about it. Its not geared really towards Christians i think, but towards teens who might be spiritualist and they're parents who aren't, in an effort to try and scare them into christianity. Hmm, sounds like the good old days...

[EasternPriest]

If all paths are valid..then so are these books to someone's path......You cannot decry intollerance with intollerance.

[bloodstone20]

its not a book on Christianity, its a book condemning something that isn't.

[Earth Walker]

Originally posted by Amora
What's even more scary is there are people bidding on that crap!

And just like Dubya, they're hopped up on bible dust and crisco!:D

[EasternPriest]

Originally posted by bloodstone20
its not a book on Christianity, its a book condemning something that isn't.

That doesn't matter...if all beliefs/paths are vaild for the individual - then these books are "valid" to someone's path.

[EasternPriest]

Originally posted by Mystique


And just like Dubya, they're hopped up on bible dust and crisco!:D

And of course, you have proof of those facts......

[mol]

I dont get it.

[bloodstone20]

Originally posted by EasternPriest


That doesn't matter...if all beliefs/paths are vaild for the individual - then these books are "valid" to someone's path.
So if i wrote a book about Christianity that said that the Christian God as really satan, it would be valid?

[bloodstone20]

Originally posted by mol
I dont get it.
what don't you get?

[slvr_phoenix]

EasternPriest, while sometimes I can agree with what you say, this is one of those times that I don't. These books aren't about defining anyone's path. They're about creating prejudice for other paths. There's a difference.

When driving down an interstate (the road of life), looking for your exit (the path you wish to take to or avoid the divine), a sign saying, "Highways 51, 151, and Bilbo Road are all evil paths that will see you burn in hell", is not the proper way to guide people down Highway A. The sign doesn't even say why you should take Highway A or what Highway A has to offer. It just says not to take the other roads.

So these books aren't defining someone's path. They're just defining was someone's path isn't, which is a totally different and only slightly related thing. And worse, these books define what paths not to take by using lies. Books like this don't help anyone. They just create prejudice. They don't define someone's beliefs, they create anti-beliefs.

If someone hears the truth and decides to believe something, that's one thing. They have every right to believe what they will, so long as they came to that belief of their own accord and with the guidance of truth.

If someone uses lies to support their beliefs, that's something else entirely different. Those who 'believe' based on those lies don't really have 'beliefs' then because they are not based on anything existent.

If you build a house by following instructions, example, and / or by doing what you think is right, you will one day have a house as strong as that effort which you put into it.

If you build a house by not making it a car or a coffee machine, you're lucky if it turns out to be a house at all. Was stating that a house isn't a car or a coffee machine in any way helpful?

Likewise, if you build a house out of real materials, it's a real house. You can live in it. It does you good.

If you build a house out of imaginary materials, it's not a real house. It doesn't exist. And if you try to live in that imaginary house, you're only setting yourself up for problems.

[Earth Walker]

Originally posted by EasternPriest
If all paths are valid..then so are these books to someone's path......You cannot decry intollerance with intollerance.

Huh? :confused:

[Earth Walker]

Originally posted by EasternPriest


That doesn't matter...if all beliefs/paths are vaild for the individual - then these books are "valid" to someone's path.

hmmm..."I see," said the blind lesbian to her deaf lover. :eek:

[slvr_phoenix]

You cannot decry intollerance with intollerance.

I think the point to this is that if you want other people to respect your right to believe what you want to believe, then you should also respect their right to believe what they want to believe.

Or more simply, you don't prove that your way is right by telling someone that their way is wrong.

Which, to me, is a good point.

However, it's also a moot point because no one said this person was wrong to want to sell these books to a priest/pastor/etc. only, just that this person could use a bit of reality shaken into them.

[bloodstone20]

i often agree with you to, ep. but i have to take slvr's side in this.

[Wyrdsister]

Well said, slvr_phoenix! *thumbs up*

What I find interesting is that the books up for sale are from the 1920's and 1940's. The auctioneer is trumping them up as relevent for the spiritual fight of today!! While possibly still "valid" (from their point of view), the works still must be incredibly dated in their arguements.

Wyrdsister

[slvr_phoenix]

Yeah, I thought that was kind of interesting too. I mean books that old, how innacurate are they compared to today? Who knows? Especially when I see tarot decks of angels and crosses for pendulums. Who ever said that god always 'speaks' in words? And who ever said that his angels aren't allowed to speak?

I think as annoying as it is to me as a Wiccan, it must be ten times worse for a Christian who has integrated forms of divination and spiritualism into their life and sees them as a valid way to talk to god.

And why CAN'T we talk to people in Heaven? (Or Hell or Purgatory, etc., etc.) God never said, "Thou shalt not talk to thine dead ancestors." So why can't we? **L** People talk to Jesus and he died.

I wonder if in the 60s or 70s (or even any time really) a Christian wrote a book to debunk the points of those books.