Christians find a defender in increasingly Godless Europe
Thankfully.
Aha - if you read my civil war 2012 series - the episode called Madame de la Guillotine. That is exactly what happens...
Excellent video. It shows the Bishop to be a deceiver and narrow minded fool, the more he talks, the more damage he does to Christianity.
Thanks for posting it.A pest?
Now, your acting just like the Bishop.
What attacks? Are you being attacked or is your faith being attacked. Does your faith not attack others and their beliefs? Are you and the Bishop stating that others should just bow down to your faith and allow it to rule our world, because that is exactly what the Bishop wants.
And, THAT is the attack folks like Dawkins are trying to explain.
Pest, indeed.
Paraglider. That was my laugh for the day. Thank you.
- Sooner28posted 12 years ago
0It's not an absurd political label. None of the positions on the major issues of the day supported by the current Republican party have any factual basis whatsoever. Tax cuts for the rich don't create jobs, being gay is not a choice, torture does not work, evolution occurred, and abortion is not murder.
Your attempts to derail the issue of denying climate change are very amusing. If you are a socialist who denies climate change, you would be correct to say you are not a right-winger. But your denial of it is supporting the future destruction of the planet, and it is indefensible. However, conservatives are much more likely to deny climate change. Which current GOP candidate has outlined a plan to combat it?
And if you seriously believe you are a closet conservative, libertarian, anarchist, pinko socialist leaning independent, I would say you probably need to learn the meanings of your positions, considering libertarians want to ensure private property, and socialists want to abolish it...
You're also right that labels tells NOTHING about global warming data, but anyone even REMOTELY informed on the issue knows the scientific consensus. To say I don't have a "grip on facts" shows how intellectually dishonest your reply is so far. Perhaps you should read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or read Gallup and their surveys of practicing climatologist, or how bout you read information from the National Academy of Sciences, or read NASA's website? Or you could enroll in an environmental science course at your local community college and find out there is a consensus that way.
Anyone who had the slightest understanding of THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT would not be asking me what "data" I have.I defended the use on Republican politicians only. I already admitted I was incorrect to say a Socialist who denied global warming would be a right winger. They would simply be intellectually dishonest on climate change, putting the planet in peril, but at least they would be willing to feed everyone! The context was referring to Republicans though, not socialists. But you also failed to provide any current Republican presidential candidates who are in favor of curbing global warming in any serious way. Jon Huntsman gave lip service to the idea and he never garnered much support.
And if you don't think positions are a reliable indicator of political philosophy, you might want to study political science. That's one of the issues the discipline is concerned with, predicting elections and how people will vote based on certain characteristics. And certain issues break down very neatly along party lines, such as with same-sex marriage 69% of Democrats favor it, and only 28% of Republicans do. So if you want to be speak very strictly, when I refer to a group, I just mean the "majority" of that group, such as if a Republican said Democrats were in favor of violating God's word and supporting homosexuality, they would be mostly correct. But back to the point.. All I would have to do is ask, what do you think of climate change, and what is your position on abortion, and I could very reliably tell you which way a person voted. There will be outliers everywhere, such as something around 5% of the Tea Party identifying themselves as "liberal," but majorities are who elects the politicians. If 80% of Texans said they believed in God, and you met a Texan and didn't know anything about them, there is an 80% chance they would believe in God, and it would be RATIONAL for you to believe that based on the make up of the Texas population, unless the individual told you otherwise.
If you lived next to a lake that was being polluted, you would be speaking out because something was DIRECTLY harming you, a sort of physical reaction to a stimulus, which any human being would do, regardless of political party. However, Republicans across the United States are constantly complaining about environmental regulations, which without their existence would pollute our air even more. So basically it's a, not in my specific backyard, but very much so in everyone elses kind of issue. And if a higher percentage of Republicans favor environmental regulations and curbing climate change, they do a poor job of showing it with the politicians they elect. Democrats are guilty more of inaction and not fighting for more environmentally stringent regulations.
Your use of conservative, Republican, banker and conscience all in the same breath is quite amusing, considering millions of people in this country do not have adequate access to health care, billions starve across the globe, and the bankers are paying themselves huge bonuses still, even after they had to be bailed out. But that's a slight digression.
Actually, the political label is pretty simple. If you are a Christian, you are against abortion, and a white male, the chances are quite good you will vote Republican, and polls bear this out. In fact, if you truly believe abortion is the murder of innocent babies, then voting for whichever party was against abortion would be the most logical thing for you to even do. But you misunderstood my point. I simply outlined a portion of the current GOP platform to show that none of those issues have any factual support behind them. Any Republicans that disagreed with the GOP platform and took more moderate stances would not be considered a "right-winger." Words must have meaning.
You're also right that people can mix and match. But generally that isn't how it works, and sometimes can be contradictory, with Republicans calling for "limited government" because economic justice is a "private charity issue" while calling for the government to legislate against homosexuality and abortion, because they are "God" issues.
'One’s interpretation of the causes, effects, or solutions relating to any social issue is not a reliable indicator of political leaning!" So if someone says the government should not be spending money on abortions, they are against abortion in all circumstances except for the life of the mother, and they are against gay marriage, that's not a reliable predictor of their "political leaning?" That actually fits perfectly with the modern day GOP. Am I wrong on their official platform?
I think you misunderstood me with this whole label business. I was not saying EVERY Republican shared the views. But when the majority of a party supports policies, and then votes for politicians that enact those policies, that is the political philosophy of the party. And when a majority of a party takes views on certain issues, it is only rational by the laws of probabilities to believe the next person you meet will take that view and to speak of the parties in terms of the majorities. You wouldn't speak about Catholics in terms of the 20% that actually don't use birth control would you? That could be included as the minority, but not the make-up of the whole.
When politicians of a certain party take actions that the voters did not endorse, then the voters could not be blamed for that. The two parties do stand for different things though. They have some shared common ground, like your example with unemployment insurance, but it's like accusing a socialist of being in favor of abolishing private property, and the socialist replying well I am not in favor of abolishing it all, I only want it in certain areas, and then becoming upset with you for believing they wanted to abolish all private party. Many socialists do, and it is actually the dictionary definition of the term, in popular discourse.
I'll end with a quote from the HOUSE Republican's website.
"More taxation, regulation, and litigation will not create more jobs. Government takeovers of the economy have failed while the size and the scope of the federal government has exploded. Washington has tied the hands of small business owners and job creators with onerous regulations and backward fiscal policies that have stalled the economy, slowed innovation and destroyed jobs. We need common sense, pro-growth policies to give small businesses and entrepreneurs renewed confidence in our economy and to remove Washington as the roadblock to job creation." One does have a responsibility to look at all the issues a party supports. It seems as though you are arguing that based on the majority of a party, one cannot speak of it's political philosophy. I have no idea how that view could possibly be defended.
P.S. I do find you to be a nice guy, and I never thought you were a threat to the planet
.
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