Hard News: Deriving satisfaction from the misfortune of others
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What's With All The Capital Letters In Tamaki's Press Release?
Is It Because He Loves All Words Equally?I think it might be a matter of love the pedant, hate the pedantry, or some such.
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merc,
Voltaire, though he is often thought of as an atheist, did in fact participate in religious activities, and even had a chapel erected on his estate at Ferney. The primary source for this misconception is the line from one of his poems that effectively translates into "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." However, if one reads the entire work, it reveals Voltaire's true sentiments. This of course is not to say that Voltaire was a strict Roman Catholic, because he did indeed have many issues with religious dogma of the day. Nevertheless, Voltaire was certainly not an atheist as many would believe. Many also conceive Voltaire as an atheist because of his criticism for the Church. It may be pointed out that Voltaire's quarrel was with the institution of the Church, being the worldly body, not the existence of God.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
Voltaire also drank bucketloads of coffee per day.I'm running OS9 and 10.2, guess I'm screwed.
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Perhaps the Good Bishop T*m*k* has been reading Novels of the 18th Century, and imbib'd their Elixir of Typographickal Excess.
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I'm running OS9 and 10.2, guess I'm screwed
Not screwed, so much as doomed to be living in the past...
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__Does anyone know what "Judeo-Christian values" are?__
Yes, they are a rhetorical strategy for the American fundamentalist Christian right to disarm the Jews, who historically have been active in insisting on enforcing the constitutional separation of church and state.
Cheers Stephen, interesting point. But given the relatively small number of Jews in New Zealand I wonder why they bothered with the "Judeo-" bit?
I think I can count on one hand the number of Jewish people I've met in Auckland, and most of them were American exchange students (and thus not able to vote here).
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How does one spot a Jewish person in a crowd? For all I know every second Aucklander is Jewish, but not making a song & dance about it.
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I think that's the origin. But more generally, it sounds historical, impressive, and more inclusive.
Personally I'd like to know how "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" fits into the Christian political programme.
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merc,
Jeremy, yes indeed, I also run a 2001 500mhz iBook, everything works, and I buy my software. I do run CS3 on my 'doz 'puter at work but see no advantage money-wise to what I do with PS at home on OS9. I also run AuthorIt, it only runs on 'doz. Vista does not impress me yet.
I have to upgrade the home 'puter soon, I'm open to any suggestions, but I have a strict budget and Leopard won't be backwards compatible with OS9, so I will need to purchase a CS3 update...it's a real dilemma.
BTW, I'm a copywriter and a techwriter so I'm fairly good at reading between the lines as to puffery, benefits vs actual useful features. -
What's With All The Capital Letters In Tamaki's Press Release?
You know how there's that tradition to capitalise pronouns if they refer to God ("I feel His love.")?
Well, I suspect that Bri would quite like it if people did the same for him. It would be too much if Bishop T started referring to himself as He, but if Bri writes everything with initial capitals, then He Can Get Away With It.
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Peter:
Does anyone else get creeped out by Brian's mate Richard Lewis? Every time I see him I think he looks like a man who gets into bar fights at the weekend.
Well, he is a former police officer...
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doesn't he realise Destiny think the RC Church is the Whore of Babylon (seriously, they do)
So does this mean their plan to recriminalise prostitution also has another target?
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Was listening to the b this morning when Bill English was talking to Havoc, and I got a bit of a fright when I agreed wholeheartely with something Bill had to say.
His comment about 'Christian' parties was that the folks who are in them are generally those who are imbued with a highly developed sense of righteousness. And it is this righteousness that prevents them from being able to take on board anyone elses point of view or work with anyone else, ergo, makes them fairly useless polititians.
I reckon he has a point.
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Does anyone know what "Judeo-Christian values" are?
I don't think it's an entirely meaningless phrase, even if it is very, very vague. I think the phrase tends to be used as a contrast rather than as a list. It's a bit like 'European'. Clearly not meaningless, but hard to define. I think it's not a set, it's a property, which you can have in varying degrees. The world is not divided into Judeo-Christians and not-Judeo-Christians. Instead, everyone has a level of Judeo-Christianity. This level could be 0% or 100%, but I don't think you'd have to be 100% for anyone to say you had Judeo-Christian values. I, for instance, am bitter on slavery just like Christians have always been (with individual aberrations of course). But I'm agnostic. So I have some level of Judeo-Christianity about me.
I think the values are so deeply ingrained it's often hard to recognize them. I think charity is a good thing, but I couldn't say why I thought that, or how I came to - it's just something that's revered in the society I find myself in. Similarly with my dislike of permitting suicide. Intellectually I think suicide should be allowed, but find it very hard to get my heart to agree with my brain on it.
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His comment about 'Christian' parties was that the folks who are in them are generally those who are imbued with a highly developed sense of righteousness.
Hmm... I think I would have said, "self-righteousness".
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bitter on slavery just like Christians have always been (with individual aberrations of course
You mean small aberrations, like the American South for several hundred years, I presume...
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... or peasants and indentured labourers all over Europe.
On righteousness: the world is divided into two groups, the righteous and the un-righteous. And the righteous do the dividing. (I wish I knew who came up with that, it's not mine).
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For the tag lines for the whiskey ad
"Tactical losses" are more believable.......
...if you are drinking proper whiskeyThe score isn't so important......
.....if you order proper whickey -
3410,
Someone Should Point Out To Gordon Copeland That "Damage Control" Doesn't Really Mean Telling A Flock Of Reporters That Your Own Team Is "Shambolic", Etc. Same Guy Who Publicly Rebelled Against His Party's Position On The Smacking Bill, And Then Missed The Vote, No?
The Guy Is Like The Frank Spencer Of Parlaiment.
Mind You, It's All Very Funny Until They Get A Five Per Cent Share.
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Scotland produces the world's best in two fields...
Rugby isn't one of them. -
You mean small aberrations, like the American South for several hundred years, I presume...
Yup. Exactly. Was not the American Civil War claimed to be over slavery? Who else would ever have bothered for such a cause?
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`Judeo-Christian values' is really a bastardisation of the term `Abrahamic' values, and `Abrahamic religions'
or more longwindedly `Judeo-Christian-Islamic-Sabean' religions. All descended fom an amalgam of Semitic cults, whose main feature is that they emphasise The Word (and the auditory sense of religious experience), and, its concrete form, The Book; All have a common morality - which may differ, of course, in the individual severity of its application to everyday life.To distinguish it from the East Asian religious emphasis on Sight as the medium for enlightenment.
OK, thats Off-Topic enough for now... -
Does anyone know what "Judeo-Christian values" are?
Is that so they can include Old Testament values in their policies - eye-for-an-eye, death penalty etc., rather than just the New testament 'love your neighbour'...?
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... or peasants and indentured labourers all over Europe.
Hey I never said such values were well thought out. Christianity obviously had to reconcile it's slave origins with the fact that it took over the Roman Empire, and that involves making effective slaves in a different form, hence peasants.
And most Christians have no bitterness on buying the products of modern slavery. But to actually enslave someone themselves is a no-no.
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His comment about 'Christian' parties was that the folks who are in them are generally those who are imbued with a highly developed sense of righteousness. And it is this righteousness that prevents them from being able to take on board anyone else’s point of view or work with anyone else, ergo, makes them fairly useless politicians.
Most of us probably have limits to what we believe in as we are stuck in our bodies and in this historical time frame. But these fundamental types, (Christian and Muslim seem particularly susceptible) seem able to screen out vast amounts of contemporary knowledge to maintain their viewpoint of the world. This would be acceptable in the 15th century but how do you maintain it in the 21st? By what trick in your mind can you somehow here another point of view and not give it any validity?
This seemed to be the case with the recent argument about the burial of the bloke from Christchurch. His North Island whanau have adopted a view of the world that was valid when there was nothing to test it against but I don't understand how it can be defended these days with such vehemence. You might say you prefer the traditional ways for a host of reasons but how can you say in 2007 it is now the only way to proceed?
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All have a common morality - which may differ, of course, in the individual severity of its application to everyday life.
I don't think it's quite that simple. Judeo-Christian doesn't just mean Old Testament. Christians probably revere the New Testament more. It's what distinguished them from other Jews, along with the fact that you could join the religion, rather than just having to be born in it. Which is in turn why it's a such a big religion compared to Judaism.
I think the term Judeo-Christian is nothing to do with emphasizing the Old Testament, and more of a political statement saying that Christian nations are allied with Israel. Which is not true, which is why the term is needed. In practice it really means American-Christian but that doesn't sound anywhere near as inclusive.
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