701. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #175664 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 8:07 pm

I take it this Chomsky johnny is famous then...

702. Neanderthals were separate species, new study finds

Comment #175656 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 7:42 pm

How many Neanderthal specimens are there for them to compare and what are the ranges of their ages, I wonder. Where are their specimens from - given there's a bit of a physiological range in modern man, I dare say the Neanderthal from the Levant is a bit different to the one from Georgia who is probably different to the one from Gibraltar...

703. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #175648 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 7:21 pm

" If that means that some people do not get to vote based on intelligence then that is a consquence of them not being able to understand enough to vote."

Hmm, interesting point of view. Not much different from a guy called Adolf.

Or they know something we don't ;-)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/science/06dumb.html?8dpc

704. Boy dies of leukemia after refusing treatment for religious reasons

Comment #175643 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 7:07 pm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/life-after-jehovahs-witnesses-website-offers-help-to-followers-who-lose-their-faith-821603.html
One for this topic :-)
I'd post to articles @... but they never seem to get put up here :-(

705. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #175635 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 6:34 pm

Goldy Don't go to any muslim countries and drink copiously if you have a bun in the oven.

Not that bad - parents are in Malaysia and Tiger beer is sold in jugs :-) Nothing better to wash char kwey tow with! And you should have seen the streets of Deir Ezzor in Syria after ramadan - like Reading town centre on a Friday night!

706. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #175626 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 6:20 pm

Are you listening people? What have YOU done today to contribute to this needed tsunami of islamo-criticism.

Personally, I hae lumped it with the other religions and have made no secret of the fact. I don't give preferential treatment to any and no deference, even at the cost of slight offence. I go to Muslims countries and drink copiously and am bringing my children (well one - one is still gestating) up in the knowledge that there is no god and that one person's view of a god is no better then another. Today, though, I will admit to having done nothing. Well, not like Muslims are rampaging everywehre here! I notice the BNP in the UK got a seat or something in the London Mayoral elections (reference for it somewhere in the various topics I have contributed to). It appears to be i response to rising immigration and a perception of rising Islamicisation. Not that this is any better news for homosexuals and other minorities. Talking of homosexuals, did anyone else read the story about Lesbians wanting their island's name back? :-D
Besides, India and China are the up and coming countries. No lover of Islam, them! Mongol hordes smashed Islam once - I dare say these latter day Mongols wouldn't baulk at a repeat performance...

707. Neanderthals were separate species, new study finds

Comment #175604 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 5:16 pm

That technique typically divides the genus Homo into various classifications according to the shape of key facial features -- "flat-faced," "protruding-faced" and so on.

Hmmm....isn't this more to do with morphological adaptation to local environment? Certainly Chinese are flatter of face than us protrudingly faced westerners...

708. Shaw TV Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #175603 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 5:13 pm

Russia, the United States, Canada, Israel, the World...

Not too sure many places were so welcoming as you'd care to suggest. Certainly Russia was no great lover of Jews and given that pogroms were relatively recent history, I can't see why Jews would want to go there. And there's just something that tells me the numbers involved would have made a bigger impact than they did in other countries - look how Italians shaped America, as well as Jews. One would have thought a large influx of Jews into Australia, NZ, South America, etc would have resulted in some sort of Middle European impact in said countries.
Given the subsequent ability of humanity to slaughter itself by defined groups (ex Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Soviet Russia, Mao China) why is it hard to imagine that Europeans could not perform the same acts, using modernised mechanical and chemical methods, on a reviled ethnic group?

709. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #175596 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 4:54 pm

Certainly, the world be a finer, safer, anf fulfilling place without Islam.

Doubt it. Always another bogeyman in the closet to keep us hoi polloi in a state of anxiety...

710. Shaw TV Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #175593 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 4:49 pm

ASM, would I be correct in thinking this is your stance?
http://www.zundelsite.org/english/basic_articles/nutshell.html

711. Dumb and Dumber: A discussion between Ben Stein and Glenn Beck

Comment #175566 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 3:47 pm

Diacanu - I am saving this piece of intelligent satire for posterity. It's brilliant!

712. Shaw TV Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #175560 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 3:38 pm

But isn't that a rhetorical question to create the make-believe feeling that obvious proof exists and I'm the one acting in an irrational way by ignoring it, while you carefully refrain from sending me any concrete evidence that you fear might be demolished by a minimum of logic, common sense and historical knowledge?

No, it was a question asking you if the evidence presented to you was good enough you would actually believe it. Bringing Jesus and the resurrection is neither here nor there. You can show someone that a dead person generally remains dead, that parthenogenesis always results in females and that H. sapiens is not able to reproduce by this method. One can point out all the mythology surrounding Jesus is that of the area and had appeared many times before - doesn't matter because people still believe what they want to believe themselves. That is why I asked you the question I did.

Have you never asked yourself how come those super-efficient Germans were so inefficient with their alleged extermination?

Silly comment. Germans are no more or less efficient than anybody else. And they did manage to remove pretty much all of middle Europe of significant numbers of Jews - 6 million in, what, a handful of years isn't that bad going, especially when you add all the other "undesireables". And they lost the war...and the one before that too. The recent case in Austria also highlights the fact that German efficiency isn't as great as one makes out - after all, how can a man hide his daughter for a quarter of a century along with three of her seven surviving offspring without anyone, not even lodgers and family, noticing?
So, where did all those Jews go? I know things get bad in war, but a significant portion of Poland's Jews gone?
Oddly enough, the NZ Herald had this story today..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10508119
Makes one think, doesn't it?

Edit - I don't refrain from giving you evidence, carefully or otherwise. I'm a technician at a university, not a genocide historian. There are things I like to consider truth and things I consider untruth (not lies - that implies malevolence. Just things that are believed but are not what I consider true). As a participant in this "oasis of clear thinking" I just like to engage in debate and try and consider all viewpoints given to me. I reserve my splenetic outbursts for those I feel have crept into foolishness.

713. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #175542 by Goldy on May 5, 2008 at 2:56 pm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7381633.stm
As you sow, so shall you reap, if I may paraphrase a rather well known saying :-)
Having lived in Bradford, I know there was a slight integration problem. Certainly the Poles and Germans from previous immigrations had appeared to have sunk out of sight - though there was a German evangelical church near the uni and a Ukrainian Catholic church near the digs I was in. Maybe it was something to do with the lenth of time they had been in England. However, there was a certain...air of apartheit with the Asians. Maybe the colour also didn't help, or the arrogance (perceived or otherwise) that one felt from the older men (didn't see much of the women, never mind speak to them).
I'm trying to remember if I had the same feeling in Leicester. I don't think I did - certainly we got on OK with our corner shop owner Sanj, who was from Kenya and not a Muslim. I do seem to recall stronger antipathetic feelings from the Muslim community, feelings which Hindus (our neighbours in Bradford) also felt even though they were the same racially.
Still, there is a backlash of sorts appearing with the growing Islamicisation of the community and with the growing requests for parity in UK life.

714. Shaw TV Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #175211 by Goldy on May 4, 2008 at 9:32 pm

ASM, if you do get the proof you're asking for, would you believe the Holocaust happened?
As a denier, you don't believe all the documentation available that show the Holocaust did occur. You also do not bellieve survivors of said event.
What would change your mind?

715. Shaw TV Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #175210 by Goldy on May 4, 2008 at 9:30 pm

Layla

You definitely don't want those guys after you, as the examples of outspoken ex-Muslims or Muslim reformers forced into hiding with 24-hour police protection

Don't worry, the Turks are on the case :-)
showhttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/asia/04islam.html?em&ex=1210132800&en=d2ee30fabe27b448&ei=5087

Should soon be seeing Islamic hippies in the streets ;-)

716. Shaw TV Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #175209 by Goldy on May 4, 2008 at 9:21 pm

Tears

Is the belief in the scientific approach, rather than the scientific answers, not just as fundamental as a faith based approach?

Depends how you define belief. I'd rather trust an empirical, scientific based reason for something over having it on faith. I guess yes, I'd believe in science more - butI would never call it a belief as in belief in gods.
Recently a young man killed himself in Auckland. He was one of these larrikin types, by all accounts, who liked doing wild "whacky" stuff, a bit of a daredevil. He honestly thought he could jump from an 8th floor apartment window, miss the wharf and land into the water. Belief in himself, or maybe even God, didn't help him any. If he had listened to his more scientific friends who could, with slight reference to physics and the theory of gravity, have told him of the errors in his belief.
Mankind has gotten this far on actually following the scientific approach (eat something, makes you ill, stop eating it, that sort of science). Faith hasn't really done much - which would you rather for head pain - aspirin or prayer? Trepanning to ease pressure due to trauma or to release the devils in your head?

717. A New Jack Chick Tract: Moving On Up!

Comment #175146 by Goldy on May 4, 2008 at 3:42 pm

fides_sine_ratio

Not everyone on this site is an athiest. Not all athiests on this site think as one. I've been reminded on a couple of occasions that the only thing all athiests share is exactly that, their athiesm. The plural was inaccurate.

No, the plural can stand. This is, after all, a debate between those who believe in mythological entities and those who do not. Whether those that do or do not agree within their respective groups on minor issues is a moot point and doesn't have any bearing on the belief or non-belief.
Cartomancer

To wit, the point of view that it is important to speak out against and combat this particular kind of revolting (and highly popular) anti-scientific drivel, but that if theists keep their opinions privately to themselves and don't try to foist them on others then they are perfectly entitled to believe in whatever they wish.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7382831.stm

"You may have your religion behind your closed doors, but you don't bring it onto the streets," he said.

He being Richard Barnbrook.
While I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments, it is a dangerous thing to think - we may get our wish...
To the religious out there, be careful what you ask for - when the shit hits the fan, we can try and help you all we can, but you'll have royally screwed things up for everyone...

718. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #175143 by Goldy on May 4, 2008 at 3:19 pm

Well, it is a bit sad. Hopefully only media stoking of news - maybe it was a quiet time, news-wise...
But the US is going through a pretty rough patch, eh? Approval ratings down in all countries becasue of wars and intelligence perceptions down because some people want to push mythology into science. The will be a backlash - always is one. Look at the London mayoral elections - Red Ken out, Boris is and the BNP in aswell! Now, Conservatives getting in instead of Labour is understandable, but right wing nationalists? That's what uppity Islam gets you - not more tolerance and religious freedoms but growing restrictions.
I think the pendulum in the US will swing back again and maybe Time magazine will once again have a headline asking is God is dead. Either that or there'll be a bunch of Americans fighting to get into Chinese and Indian universities...

719. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174608 by Goldy on May 2, 2008 at 11:37 pm

Odd, eh, Brian, how a religious sect so obsessed with sex are the ones that have the most kids. Mind you, one can count the number of orgasms a Christy fundy lass has had in her life on one finger...and that was when she sinned.... ;-)

720. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174607 by Goldy on May 2, 2008 at 11:34 pm

Do you prefer your collagen in fibrils or bundles?

Ummm, I'll just check my thesis... ;-)
Back to Retro, who hasn't come back...

Richard Dawkins, with all that knowledge up there, I would think you would figure out how to fix them ugly teeth.

RD is a man. Man is made in the image of God. Teeth are therefore made in the image of God. That there's blasphemy you're spouting, boy. We burn blasphemers in these parts :-) Anyway, you better get used to bad teeth. Good ol' American Christianity is making sure all the scientific research is going to go to China(Indians are IT, as far as I can tell) - don't know what it is about mainland dentistry but they make British teeth look good ;-)

721. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174563 by Goldy on May 2, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Small world. The object of my professional affections is a little piece of loose connective tissue containing a bunch of Type I and Type III (fibroblast products) surrounded by hard tissue containing mostly Type I (odontoblast product).

And you have an Earles fork Beemer. You are my soul brother!
Retro

I know, I know, one of you morons is going to give some stupid explanation. Can't wait!

If we did, would you listen? If you listen, would you think about what we say? Or, as I suspect would be the case, you'd not listen and not even consider entertaining thinking about the information we give you. Am I right? I do like to be proven wrong. And, getting back on topic, sort of, what beer do you drink?

722. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174280 by Goldy on May 2, 2008 at 1:39 am

Strewth, Robo, that's too fast when the brain's a bit squiffy!

723. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174279 by Goldy on May 2, 2008 at 1:38 am

Treatornis, what is your opinion of this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/business/worldbusiness/29oil.html

724. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174250 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 11:41 pm

Mike, what's your master's on?

The role of Type I and Type III collagen in wound healing.
Oh...you meant t'other Mike. Sorry ;-)
Having one or two of these http://www.renaissancebrewing.co.nz/ while cooking sauerkraut. Wife went to the German butcher and one thing led to another. Austrian genes need feeding too...hic!

725. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174243 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 11:33 pm

What is Mrs. Goldy's take on Tibet and the Olympic?

On Tibet - was always a part of China. Like Taiwan. Slowly realising that maybe if the people don't feel Chinese...but then there's Tibetans in all the neighbouring provinces...
Olympics...ummm, Go China, I guess. A sporting event, doesn't interest her unduly. The political aspect is not surprising. I think she feels those who express surprise at the rest of the world's reaction are bloody naive - after all, why would China hold the Olympics if not for political reasons? Duuuh!
Also, Richard Gere is resembling the Dalai Lama more and more... ;-)
Ressurection ales from Christchurch...man, they're good! Hic!

726. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174197 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 8:56 pm

Don't get drunk and post online Goldy, like some guy I know was doing last night......;)

I think I was no longer allowed to actually get drunk since just before marriage. I am only allowed to reach squiffy. And by that stage I'm kind of at Zara's state of fuckitol so don't bother posting :-D
Geodensic17 - don't worry about thi..th1..blokey. He was sober. Think it was a he. And he thought we were elephants. No, hang on, sycophants....they're not pachyderms too, are they?

727. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174193 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 8:44 pm

It shall be in...checks time...1 and a half hours for me :-D
Hic! I know all about holy spirits, me!

728. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174192 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 8:41 pm

Bonzai

I don't think your wife would like it. From what I gather there is a lot of yellow journalism and I don't know how the author would know so much about Mao's private life unless she hid in his bedroom

I'd describe the book as a rather large diatribe, personally :-)
Face is rather important to Chinese - something a lot of westerners (like me - don't ask how I know!) don't really appreciate. I can understand you're bit about airing dirty laundry.
To say I'm underwhelmed by Shanghai is an understatement of biblical proportions. It really is not the place I read about in the media. Large building, frenetic building, cars everywhere, shops....it is third world. Good eating, mind - though I am wary of the food though my wife reminds me not everyone is dead yet so it must be OK :-)
I also tell the odd Chinese that if everything was OK, why the secrecy. Stumps them for a spell, but a mainlander student here is woefully ill-prepared for debate. I send my nephew in law (is there such a thing) as many articles as I can highlighting the difference between our media and Xinhua as I can to prepare him in case he has to come to NZ to study.
On another topic (what, go off topic? Moi??) - I see the torch is about to go through HK. BBC has a picture of a protester with a Tibet flag. Wonder if that one was made in China? :-)

729. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174186 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 8:20 pm

Yeah, I think th1nk3r wrote his small piece while under the influence of sobriety...not one single mention of any form of beer. He even spelt wining wrong...

730. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174174 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Bonzai, of course these are members of the urban middle class - a rapidly growing class :-)
OK, my wife's love of Mao is something to do with the 30-some years she was told what a great guy he was. She admits it's brainwashing. I suspect you'd have to ask a Christian about that - one can point out all the failings of the Bible but they still love it!
Yes, there is a multitude of Chinas. The western media do not dwell too much of them. We don't hear of the land grabs, we never see the deformed beggars in Shanghai, etc. I think that is one of the growing resentments Chinese have against the western media - we tend to focus on the bad, missing the good.
Regarding your judge - my wife would despise him as some parvenue, a real peasent in city clothes :-) No culture, no finesse, just a taste for whores and karaoke bars. A contemptible lickspittle, if I may put words in her mouth. Mind you, living in Auckland, she does sometimes feel like she's in a hick town...and there's no IKEA here!
It is hard to try and describe Mao - western and Chinese (mainland mainly, I guess) views are different, I guess. I have Mao, the untold story on the shelf at home. Wife wants to read it but can't - not yet.
FightingFalcon, they are moving from the bottom up. Seems we're moving from top down. We'll probably meet in the middle sometime soon ;-)

731. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174141 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Bonzai, MPhil, you are both right. China has problems, problems a-plenty. Being poor and away from the centres of commerce means a sodding pissy life. They do not have what we in the west have and which apparently we in the west want to get rid of.
But talking to those that are here, those that study, that live, that are married outside of China, life is not as bad as you think. It is easy to circumvent things there, information is there for the taking and everyone knows how to get it...if they want (the recent BBC thing about truthful reporting shows many are as lazy as Fox news watchers). The things you describe have been a way of Chinese living since some bloke made unified the states under the Qin - saving money for rainy days is intrinsic to Chinese living and they do. Being told what to do is intrinsic to Chinese living and they know how to cope. And given the number of Chinese outside of China hearing our news, seeing our way of life, our health systems and social welfare, you think things will remain as they are? You think the CCP won't try and change things to avoid social unrest? Yes, corruption is really bad - always has been - and hinders progress. The CCP knows this, it knows its reputation is a bit crappy but it has lifted millions out of poverty and made sure that starvation is something grandparents tell their grandchildren about, as opposed to seeing the children die.
Sound like an spologist for the CCP, eh? Blame the wife - she still loves Mao :-) But as she tells me, it's easy to throw point out failings when you ignore your own...
Styrer, I agree totally with you. Steve, get your head out of your arse and get a grip. Pissing off isn't making any less theism!

732. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #174137 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 6:11 pm

I am sure you can induce one by eating bacon and drinking the lard

Hmmmm, bacon....lard...drool.... ;-p

733. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174125 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 5:19 pm

China is a closer approximation to "free market" than any European country and it has a lot of problems underneath GDP growth and corporate balance sheets

Wild west, I thought it was ;-) Coupled with a millenium or two of distrust of "foreigners" and you can either make a fortune or get royally shafted :-)
Doesn't help that everything is such a secret there - what we know of the economy is what they tell us and sometimes they don't really like to say much...

734. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174122 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 5:15 pm

Of course in China civil liberties aren't further restricted... they're sufficiently marginalized already.

You'd be surprised how free one is over there. Not as bad as the media makes out. As my wife says, she doesn't notice any real difference unless one talks of travel - and that's all ok-ish now. Money talk loud there, corruption is a way of life and if you grew up under totalitarianism, you know the hoops to get around it :-) That which you really know will get you into trouble is what now gets us westerners into trouble (try demonstrating outside Number 10 these days!)
But I'll let you enjoy your drink. Friday today, I can buy beer. Also getting wife to buy beer yeast as the latest brew just isn't starting...

735. Bill Good Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #174114 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 4:43 pm

Of course, the Chinese have not shared our German-tainted history.

I think a bit did get through. They like Marx :-) And Tsintao was a German concession...

736. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174112 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 4:40 pm

Shit, just realised the CAPITAL meme has infected me! Aaargh!!!

737. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174111 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Man, Rev, that article shows something really rotten in Memphis.
Shame, I liked it there. Nice people at Memphis State (girlfriend at the time was doing a post doc there).
What do people have against public displays of affection. Why is it offensive to them, what right have they to intervene because THEY are offended?
Why do the religious snipers almost invariably come here with stupid posts. Some of you are actually quite nice people if you decide to stop and say something meaningful. Discussions can be had between us and you, some of them fruitful.
DickyD, what questions did you have that made you want to convert?

738. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174108 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 4:33 pm

FightingFalcon

Individual freedom is being rolled back in almost every country in the world

Not in China...or Cuba :-) It is in the west, I think. This "War on Terror" is the biggest load of personal restrictive hogwash I have come across. But I have to say, what my Chinese in-laws are getitng now is great. Even the BBC is unblocked (English language only). Of course, there is a bit of a cultural divide to cross - our truth is different from their truth, we were taugh one thing, they were taught something else but the two shall meet one day :-)

739. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #174104 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm

You know, I never heard the term "ad hominem" until I came here.
The things one can pick up... :-)

740. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #174085 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 3:10 pm

Al

You should have also put "Jews living in the Middle East" 632 A.D.--->

That late? Daniel's tomb is in Iran - I think he was a BC character. Then there was Nebu...Nebuch.....Babylonian johnny with his population transfers. Old Abe was apparently from Ur and he's the originator or something.
Jews living in the Middle East since God was born :-)


Edit - think I got the wrong end of the stick here :-) Yep, plenty Jews in Islamic lands - some of the more famous "Islamic" scholars were Jews, methinks. Certainly European Jewry though flight to Islamic lands preferable to staying at home and being converted...

741. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #174081 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Hmm, had to read back to see what was the RM fuss.
Why do the converted, reconverted always come out with the glazed eye, "love" shit? Spooky, creepy and somewhat...suspect.
God so loved the world, he made sure it was filled with agents of pain and death :-) Nice. We are his special creation, so he made sure without the machinations of man, childbirth kills.
Sorry, I don't get it - where is this love? How, conceivably, can a person see God in this world, filter out the nasty and see only the good - even when the good is because of humans.
The daycare my daughter goes to tells me she's "a gift from God". Balderdash - my wife and I had sex, our gametes met, fertilization occurred and things progressed naturally. No God involved. In fact, were it not for an Iraqi doctor (most probably in NZ because of a few disagreements concerning said god) performing caesarian section, I dare say wife and daughter would not be with me today.
Gift from God my arse. God so loves the world my arse.

742. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173649 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 3:25 am

The beer works in mysterious ways....

Indeed! And tomorrow be Friday, Day of Drinking. After a lay off (sort of) during the week to attend to temple matters (my gut is, apparently, a temple to beer. Bugger) I can enjoy it's cool effervescence upon my tongue and worship the taste with devout burping.
10:30, wife a-bed, better join her or I'll not be seeing, never mind tasting, beer tomorrow!
G'nite - really and truly this time!

743. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173645 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 3:15 am

I'm drinking Stella Artois

Hic! Where's yours brewed. Ours comes from the sunny shores of....Auckland - Khyber Pass Road at the Lion Brewery. Doesn't even sound Belgian! Brewed just down the road from where I work. Still sold for a $ extra in the restaurants and listed under imported beers.
A good analogy, to me at least, of what going to a religious person (rabbi, priest, pasta maker) with questions gets you. You think you have answers from on high, but really it's just something that's made at home...
Bastards!
:-D

744. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173638 by Goldy on May 1, 2008 at 2:43 am

Just caught up on last night's chit-chat, and I'm surprised nobody commented on the above.

Someone mentioned beer and it kinda went from there :-)
Almost time for me to sleep :-)
Dick, questions? What sort of questions makes a man turn to gods? I know if I have any questions, there's generally an answer. If not, I know an answer will eventually appear. As it is, the apparently big questions (why are we here, etc) don't worry me - it doesn't matter.
Get a good woman, have children. That's why I am here now :-) The rest I leave to philosophers (cheers, MPhil! Get them answers for me soon...I'll think of the questions to go with the answers ;-)).
Maybe the questions you needed answering have the answers within you. Certainly no religious man can help you - they're just giving you the answers they think you want to hear. What makes a rabbi or priest a mouthpiece for a god? No more than Jesus (also a man - being God didn't help him much as he was nailed to a tree and now Islam is ascendant because God thought Mo was more important...or something. Maybe it was Gabrial having a joke...)
I lived in Holland for a short spell. Don't know any Dutch but since you mentioned your fluency, I thought I'd throw in the small bit I do know :-) See how nice we athiests are?
G'night all!
Oh - Emerson's beers from South Island somewhere. Very quaffable. And my homebrews...when they work ;-)

745. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173528 by Goldy on April 30, 2008 at 8:46 pm

I am really extremely sad that Steve Zara is leaving

Me too. What gives?
I'll catch answer later...

746. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173526 by Goldy on April 30, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Well, I'm off. Home time (bit early, I know - wife has bad morning sickness...at 3:45pm).
Tot ziens, all!

747. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173523 by Goldy on April 30, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Please Gold, your information is patently false. It's coming into winter, so the flies have found somewhere warmer to be. Though, had you made that accusation some months ago...

Darwin?
I was in Melbourne a year last Xmas (see, cultural Christianity again!). First few days were the hottest I can remember since living in Abu Dhabi (this was at Hoppers Crossing). I told my parents, who were coming, how hot it was. They can, and so did the rains, tempratures plummeted and bugger me if there wasn't snow in the hills. Still more flies than I could imagine. Tenacious little buggers, sort that smack you back if you swat them away!
Still loved Melbourne. Might even try and get a job there...maybe...

748. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173512 by Goldy on April 30, 2008 at 8:34 pm

They were not about oil

I was just pulling your leg too ;-)
Oh, and don't listen to Brian, he's in some fly infested haven for the world's most poisonous animals....
So, what converted you? (Dick, not Brian...)

749. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173486 by Goldy on April 30, 2008 at 8:02 pm

Only reason I know where New Zealand is is because they filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy there, lol. Frodo lives!

You don't watch rugby, then?
Ernest Rutherford was a Kiwi. Scott set off for his ill fated jaunt to the South Pole from here. Ummm, I'm sure it's famous for other stuff too...thinks hard...errr....

OIL!

The post anti-Cathar crusades were about oil??

750. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #173477 by Goldy on April 30, 2008 at 7:51 pm

Goldy, didn't see your post there,
so you're down under, eh, kinda?

Any more under and I'll be in Antarctica :-)