IntenseDebate - GregorStephan

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 0 replies · +1 points

Good. I am glad that you found an absolute truth you can live with and that guides your life. I have no problem with that, believe we should all be concerned with higher things, and whatever works for an individual is not my business unless their pursuit imposes on my right to pursue a truth that works for me - with the same proviso.
What's troubling to me - what I allow to get under my skin, and I take full responsibility for my lapses here in taste and judgement - is that it is impossible these days to visit a political debate without tripping over religious sectarian messages, and impossible to talk about matters that should be personal - matters of faith, belief - without seeing them tainted by politics.
Say I am a sinner, not saved. How did it become the case that I can be called "red, lefty, libtard ... " in the context of religious discussion?
Thanks for your feedback, and Happy New Year.

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 1 reply · +1 points

The top of the page states in large letters: "Andrew Breitbart Presents."
Pull your mind out of the seething pit of resentments where you have it marinating, and tell me precisely what it is that I got "wrong," never mind "libelous." Is "Andrew" some kind of trigger for you? The name of your first boyfriend?
The only thing I'm sorry about now is that I wasted so much time trying to establish any kind of dialogue here. Reading your words, feeling the inchoate anger steaming off them, I do not think for one moment that "disease of the spirit" is anything but a fact. I'm calling it exactly as it is. Get some help.

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 3 replies · +1 points

Oh my goodness, Farley, you sure do take petty things a long way. I'm glad you're not my daddy. I did not imply that my ratings were being specifically manipulated by "Andrew." I think the entire concept manipulative. And if I got an attribution wrong, you know Farley, there's a big difference between that and "bearing false witness." You have gone way beyond faith; you have a disease of the spirit. Go pick on someone whose intellect matches yours. I don't understand, okay?

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 5 replies · 0 points

Charley. Afraid of what?
This whole thing is moot anyway, as I was going to apologize to all of you for wandering into your sectarian playroom and criticizing you for trying to tell other folks how they should view the world and their place in it. On reflection last night, I realized I had become what I was criticizing. Sort of forgot the old bit of wisdom: When you point your finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back.
May you all find peace and happiness.

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 0 replies · -1 points

Hey! You've got me confused with the other folks. You will notice I am questioning, not supporting, the prevalent ethos here.

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 0 replies · 0 points

mama pj's? It inspires an image of someone quite comfortable with themselves, in a good way.
Anyway, Jesus. None of us are Jesus, and I'm pretty sure there's no one exactly like him roaming the earth today. I think what pushes my button and sets off my argumentative side is the unyielding insistence on the part of so many of The Faithful that there is absolutely only one way to live. The only way that statement can stand alone is if those who utter it accept that they can only apply it to their own lives. Otherwise, they are promoting tyranny of the spirit. I don't see how that is any different from the spiritual and secular tyranny of Islam, or the tyranny of a political demagogue, or any other situation where there are limits imposed on the range of responses available to human beings to the fact and needs of their own existence.

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 2 replies · -1 points

This is not the time or place, but I like to think that if I told you my life story, showed you my heart, you would understand that I seek the opposite of "freedom from accountability." I seek a way to be fully engaged in life, without mediation, entirely accountable for the things I say and do and the things that subsequently arise from that. If you intend that in the more limited sense of "freedom from accountability to God," or any other external authority, then the answer is yes.
To forestall the inevitable misunderstandings that stem from statements of this kind, please note that I am not talking about anarchy - freedom from social norms - or criminality, freedom from the consequences of secular Law. I am talking about finding my own Truth and my own Laws in my own Heart. I am talking about the way I respond to the fundamental fact of life, which is the beauty and mystery of existence itself. I am prepared to live without certainties. Each of us is unique, our experiences are unique. Why would anyone want to deny that, deny all the potentiality of a life by cramming it into a little box called, "someone elses story about what it all means and what I have to do?"

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 1 reply · 0 points

Gonna have to give this up, fun as it's been; gotta go back into the bush for a while. I honestly have no idea what you folks are talking about when you use the term "Progressive." I assume it's a blanket curse used against anyone who doesn't agree with your Faith. But what it actually entails, in terms of alternative beliefs, I do not know.
And Harley, why on earth should I care whether you place me in your "worthless bin," or accept me morally? Who do you think you are?

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 5 replies · 0 points

bt99: I don't require anything for myself at this point, but thank you very much. What I do ask, for the sake of any kind of future on this earth for people of all or any ilk, is that people who adopt institutionalized reality constructs and value systems refrain from insisting theirs is the only way. It's such a short distance from, "I'm right and you're wrong," to "I'm right, you're wrong; therefore, you are an Enemy." Christian Soldiers? What would Jesus think?

12 years ago @ Big Journalism - Progressives Attempt T... · 1 reply · -1 points

I cannot argue with anything you have to say here. "If-then" is the foundation of reason, and I accept if I do this and then that occurs, it falls to me, and it is my choice whether I learn from it, and I am responsible.
These discussions fly off in all sorts of directions, depending on how closely people read, how they choose to interpret what they read, and whatever things might be primary in their hearts and minds.
When I first stumbled upon this story, the most notable thing was the number of posts that contained no discussion, no reason, only "labels" that are clearly intended to push emotional buttons to derogate.
We have moved on. And before I walked away from this, I had hoped to encourage at least one person to at least consider the notion that it might be possible to derive an Ethic without recourse to dusty texts and the threats and promises of supernatural entities. The Chinese developed a brilliant, rigorous set of conditions for harmonious life in a harmonious society while some of our forebears were still rubbing sticks together and sacrificing lambs to appease an invisible angry vengeful jealous father.
And they accomplished this by observing the manifestations of the universe around them, creating a metaphysical system derived from physical and interpersonal constants. Is faith superior to fact?

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