Slashdot Mirror

First, you have to obtain a copy of THE
LIVING WORD OF GOD and read it.

Second, you need to succeed spreading the gospel, perhaps through a
"first post" on slashdot.org, a
popular "news for
atheists" website

Third, you need to share the word of god with every one you meet!
(in real life, in chatrooms, on messageboards).

Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in this
forum to ACCEPT CHRIST today!

=========text for satan's lamenes filter ===============
John 3
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly Things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of Go

You must get saved for the end is coming !

Repent for the end is at hand !

The Catholic communion wafer is not the only thing Chick is off base on. He believes that non-King James Bibles are tools to decieve people. This all boils down the the choice of Greek New Testament texts. Most Bibles are translated from texts that originate from Egypt. Some of these Egyptian Greek texts have ended up in the Vatican Libary over the years. To Chick, this, is in his mind, means that the newer Bibles are all Catholic plants. See his tract The Attack for more. (If you look at the cover of the tract, you'll see that there's a burning Bible on the front. Looks like Chick is flaming in all directions.)

The other Greek texts originate from modern day Turkey and Syria. These texts are favored by Chick, mainly in the Textus Receptus flavor. This love for the Textus Receptus, has caused Chick to reject the New King James Bible, which was translated from the same Greek text as the King James people used back in the day.

This belief system is sad, since there is evidence that both Greek texts are the same 40% to 50% of the time.

For more infomation, Google is your Friend.

Demon comes from the greek word diamon, or, more accurately delta-iota-alpha-mu-omicron-nu, depending on how it's declined. That's singular nominative (i think).

In helenistic greek, i.e. around the time of the peloponnesian wars, the word diamon meant sort of "guardian spirit", but implying that it could be either a mischievous spirit or a malevolent spirit. To blame things on a kakodiamon was to say that you had bad luck, and imply that you must be plagued by a mischievous diamon.

When the word was moved into other languages (i think it came to english via romance languages, stemming from latin), it changed to demon, and was christianized to mean "demon", i.e. servant of the dark lord (satan, not your boss, or bill gates, or $funny_guy_we_hate).

Yeah for me with my taking greek 1105. It was hard as crap, but wow, I learned a lot. For instance, this happened to a lot of words in greek. Take, for instance, the word that's used (at least in the new testamant in sinaiticus and the vatican codex) to mean "sin". In ancient greek, it meant "mistake" not "transgression". Although, I think that's one that the greeks had started to shift the meaning of before the christians got to it.

But, yeah, I've got this big thing for etymology, being 18 hours away from a history degree, and still eagerly taking every social sciences class I can fit in. For instance, when I see WindowsXP, I see windows, version christ. XP are the greek letters Chi Rho, which are the first letters of the word "christ", chi-rho-iota-sigma-tau-omicron-sigma. They're the letters constantine the great saw in the sky when he converted his army to christianity at the milvian bridge in 312(? i'm close, and i'm not looking it up).

Also, if you know a little greek, you know jack chick is full of shit in his Death Cookie tract, which says that IHS on the cookie that catholics eat at communion stand for Isis, Horus, and Seb, egyptian gods, and that it's pagan worship to be a catholic. Sorry, Chick, but IHS are the first three leters of jesus in greek, iota-eta-sigma-upsulon-sigma (remember, indiana jones and the last crusade? "Jehova starts with an I"? Yeah, there is no J in greek, it was Iota, in both jehova and jesus).

But, look, here, i've done rattled off my head for ever about nothing.

Just suffice it to say, when you see demon, you don't have to think servant of satan, from the pits of hell, sent to torment the true believing christians. It's just a spirit, who may have the attitude of a prankster.

~Will

Boost "morality"? What, are you handing out Jack Chick tracts?

Sounds suspiciously like a tract defaming evolution, and I find the resemblance unbecoming. You're obviously infringing on Jack T. Chick's copyright on straw-man jokes.

Quite simply, you have fallen into zealous and rote repetition of dogma even though it is utterly irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

Pot. Kettle.

Baptism/Protestantism: Thou Shalt Not Have Other Gods Before Me.

Which is an argument for seperation of church and state. Bad example.

You requested an example of a Baptist/Protestant religious rule that contradicts the laws of the land. I provided one. You're welcome.

Bullocks. If anyone is making ad hominem attacks it is you.

This is an odd thing for you to say given the insult in the message I replied to plus the ones in your latest message that I will be quoting later on.

The term "Agnostic" was coined to mean PRECISELY what I'm using it for: a third choice between, to use your crude bungling of the language, atheism and theism.

"Crude bungling of the language" is ad hominem. Hope that information helps you can watch out for that sort of thing in the future. As for your actual point, you're wrong. "Agnostic" was coined to describe the position "That it is wrong for a man to say he is certain of the objective truth of a proposition unless he can provide evidence which logically justifies that certainty." This position, when applied to the question of the existence of a god, results in atheism. Weak atheism, to be precise. You continue to claim there is a third choice between having a belief in something and not having a belief in something but you fail to specify the details of what that choice is, just spouting the word "agnostic" as though your mere use of the word made your point for you. It's as though you just expect me to "see the light" and abandon the position of rationality. Read any Jack Chick tracts lately?

Furthermore, I am not attempting to "redefine" what religion means.

I do not believe you are attempting to redefine "religion". You are expressing a desire to treat atheism as if it were a religion even though you seem to understand that it isn't. I see no benefit to atheists were that to happen, although I can see how theists would like to be able to claim that atheism is just another religion and act as though it required proof the same way their religion of choice does. You'll forgive me if I don't fall all over myself to accommodate theists at my own expense.

I simply recognize that language is a flexible thing, and for a good deal of contexts, atheism can indeed be catagorized as "a religion."

You keep saying this and you keep failing to provide examples of these "good deal of contexts". One thing you need to learn about atheists is that we tend to require evidence before we accept a person's assertions. If you really are "seeking understanding" you'll start providing some.

But I suspect that you'll fail to grasp the fine point or the imprecision of our language.

This is another ad hominem. Just so you know, ad hominems usually work best when you have a third party audience of idiots. Your use of them would be an insult to the other people reading this discussion if there were any. I'm guessing that you and I are the only ones here so you needn't bother with the attacks.

I'm also guessing from your final paragraph that you are seeking an end to this conversation. To be honest, you sound like you're getting really stressed out about this. I don't expect to convince you of anything and based on your existing "arguments" (for lack of a better word) you shouldn't expect to convince me of anything. Please feel free to not respond if you're getting stressed. This discussion is not provoking an emotional response in me so I have no problem continuing if you do decide to respond. It's up to you.

There are some who think that it's an evil pagan holiday, most of us laugh at them. Besides, adult costumes are much more fun, that is, when they arrive on time. /me glares at the postal service, wondering if hir tail is going to arrive in time

Sounds like a real-life version of this

'Nuff said.

Don't forget how Bugs Bunny and other cartoons turned all of us into deranged killers, ready to drop anvils on people. Or how D&D turned us into spell-casting Satanists.

I have two boys, 10 and 5. For the most part, I let them play the same games I play. My only concern is for foul language. No, I'm not afraid that hearing naughty words is going to warp them, I just don't want them repeating choice Duke Nukem quotes at school.

Both my boys know the difference between game violence and real violence. And there's nothing like a little deathmatch to promote father-son bonding! (The older one can kick my ass at Unreal Tournament!) As a parent I'm especially fond of cooperative multiplayer games, though. It's fun to team up against the bad guys. Even the 5yo can get into the monster-killing action in Diablo II or Heretic when he has lots of back-up support.

See my sig. There are far more subtle messages lurking even in kiddie games...

The more things change....

Yes.

Take a look at some of their comics

Almost as good as Jack Chick!

Dugeons and dragons responsible for society's violence. Yeah right, because we all know how renound ganst* thugs are for smoking crack, jacking cars, and then going back home to play some D&D.

Seriously, people really thought this. In the 80's D&D was a pretty controversial subject, with lots of news stations airing stories about how it caused kids to commit suicide, take up satanism, or take part in ritualistic/occult murder sprees because it "caused them to lose track of the difference between real life and the fantasy world" (sound familiar?). It got to the point where the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) commisioned a study into the game, which later concluded there was no significant link between the game and suicide in teenagers. There's a bit of information on the whole controversy here.

For a sample of the hysteria prevalent at the time, check this out.

Oh, but D&D does corrupt, as proven by this highly factual publication: Dark Dungeons.

I rest my case. :)

Oh my god. I was just sitting in a linux channel on irc.openprojects.net when an internet vandal entered and repeatedly posted messages of a homosexual site with the address of http://www.goatse.cx OMG do not follow that link. I am going to need much prayer to cleanse that abominable image from my mind.

and child porn. MUCH child porn.

Whatever you do, do NOT CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE!!!
Thank you.

Personally I find the possibility of my kids seeing sex and nudity much less offensive than having their minds poisoned with nonsensical religous propeganda.

I don't know wheter religious right nutter Jack Chick is some sort of a church leader, but he sure hates it.
This comic is also pretty hilarious

I don't know wheter religious right nutter Jack Chick is some sort of a church leader, but he sure hates it.
This comic is also pretty hilarious

I don't know wheter religious right nutter Jack Chick is some sort of a church leader, but he sure hates it.
This comic is also pretty hilarious

RPGing will land you in the lake of fire

"Where do people get this crap?"

Depends, some people come up with crap like this on their own, others need help. From my experience most of it comes from christan propaganda such as this: http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.a sp

Off topic, yes. Unnecessary, no.

...just trying to be funny. Sorry.

Thank you! That was where I saw the comic strip format on Halloween.

Don't make fun of them. It just convinces them that they're right. Although the anti-Catholic stuff is worthy of the Klan.

Well, that was SUPPOSED to be a Jack Chick link and it was SUPPOSED to be funny.
But I'm stupid.

only 10,000 years old!

It can teach you insights into:

• What 'scientific proof' really means (it's not a good idea to say something is something with 100% certainty) and how hard it is to dislocate it from human psychology.
• How dangerous it can be to blindly believe so-called 'experts' (what about that guy at Bell Labs who falsified his work, they had to pull 6 patents!)
• How to describe things without defining their 'reality' for clearer thinking.

Remember: Belief gets in the way of learning. The philosophy of science is something I believe that everyone should learn about, and scientists unwilling to study it should not call themselves scientists.

See Robert Anton Wilson's "Cosmic Trigger" series (esp. Cosmic Trigger III) for a really interesting read about this. (He's one of the guys who wrote Illuminatus, so you can trust him! Fnord!)

pretty simple to fire it up on the old @home network and suddenly finding myself on a password-less PC. I also ran notepad but wrote, "Put a damn password on your pcAnywhere!"

A frend of mine had @home - I spent a fun-filled evening attaching to pepoples printers and printing out porn, Jack Chick tracks, Gynocology Doctor remonder notices for their 8am discharge examination, and a 'turn you fscking Windows sharing off' how-too's. Annoying and yet, informative.

It might seem like fun and games to you, if eternal damnation of your everlasting soul is your idea of fun and games, but the sweetest candy in the world can't match the bitter truth behind the devil's own holiday. Read here for more information, and remember that only living in the Word will save you from the fire and brimstone. Give your life over to worship, and the first posts will flow like a river of honey.

For the real story about Helloween, please visit this site

Those are far from the only reasons... Read this:

English - Are Roman Catholics Christians? ©1985 by Jack T. Chick LLC

Become a Christian and do missionary work. It doesn't pay well early-on, but the payoffs are Heavely.

Well, the Bible may not mention rings (that I know of) but the effects sure sound alot like this which is in the Bible.

I was trying to make a sarcastic comment about the nature of Slashdot. But, if you really want some evidence, look here. (I rather doubt you'll actually read the book, so I'll summarize. "It's impossible for life to come from non-life. Organic molecules simply don't behave that way, either in the lab or in the real world." If you want facts to back up that assertion, read the book.)

A much more complete overview of the differences between Catholic theology and the Bible is available here. It uses as its source the 1994 Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church.

You will only be able to try if you have an immortal soul, which is what you were trying to prove. You can't prove the existence of something by assuming it's existence.

It's not an assumption, nor has the proof's "experiment" (although quite risky) been completed yet. You're assuming the "hypothesis" has been already proven, yet strangely enough, you're not dead yet. You will find it is true, after death. Not maybe. That is the only proof, this side of the chasm, that I can offer.

You are reading it. // Reading what? Slashdot? Slashdot is proof of God?

If you recall, your argument was that God should find you if He's so great 'n' grand. However, the seed seems to have fallen to the wayside. (Matthew 13:3-23)

You haven't shown that these things actually happened. Why do you believe they did? The Bible says so? How do you know the Bible is accurate?

So, you suppose that manuscripts passed down from ages past, delicately kept and translated so all may read, verified by historians and scholars alike and confirmed, proven then by the times thereof, are now false?

Do you also question the existence of Abraham Lincoln? You have neither seen nor heard him personally, but thousands of people will testify to his existence and claim he was the president. Historians verify and confirm, scholars agree. There is no way to physically prove, aside from texts, art, and word of mouth that Abraham Lincoln truly existed and was president. Such is the same for Jesus, except the proof of the 'hypothesis' above.

If I were to tell you that "if you put a piece of meat in the fire, it will sizzle, some of it turned into carbons, and become very tough," you might say, if you had never observed nor heard such a thing, that such a thing is absurd. There would be no way for me to prove it but to show you, or for you to try it yourself, but having it shown to me gives me faith that the process is true.

God reveals truth personally to those who earnestly and honestly seek answers, not just hoping to get a clue. If you really want to risk it, feel free to completely ignore my suggestion. Otherwise, some day soon, where no one can see you or hear, silently pray in all honesty of seeking for answers. After doing so, be patient and heed your circustances. God works on His own timescale, not yours. If nothing happens, then no big deal. No one knew about it, and no one ever will as long as you don't tell them. No embarassment, no shunning, and you've proved your measely point. Prove me wrong once and for all. Refuse and you have conceded the arguement.

Sample Prayer and short explanation or Full Explanation.

You will only be able to try if you have an immortal soul, which is what you were trying to prove. You can't prove the existence of something by assuming it's existence.

It's not an assumption, nor has the proof's "experiment" (although quite risky) been completed yet. You're assuming the "hypothesis" has been already proven, yet strangely enough, you're not dead yet. You will find it is true, after death. Not maybe. That is the only proof, this side of the chasm, that I can offer.

You are reading it. // Reading what? Slashdot? Slashdot is proof of God?

If you recall, your argument was that God should find you if He's so great 'n' grand. However, the seed seems to have fallen to the wayside. (Matthew 13:3-23)

You haven't shown that these things actually happened. Why do you believe they did? The Bible says so? How do you know the Bible is accurate?

So, you suppose that manuscripts passed down from ages past, delicately kept and translated so all may read, verified by historians and scholars alike and confirmed, proven then by the times thereof, are now false?

Do you also question the existence of Abraham Lincoln? You have neither seen nor heard him personally, but thousands of people will testify to his existence and claim he was the president. Historians verify and confirm, scholars agree. There is no way to physically prove, aside from texts, art, and word of mouth that Abraham Lincoln truly existed and was president. Such is the same for Jesus, except the proof of the 'hypothesis' above.

If I were to tell you that "if you put a piece of meat in the fire, it will sizzle, some of it turned into carbons, and become very tough," you might say, if you had never observed nor heard such a thing, that such a thing is absurd. There would be no way for me to prove it but to show you, or for you to try it yourself, but having it shown to me gives me faith that the process is true.

God reveals truth personally to those who earnestly and honestly seek answers, not just hoping to get a clue. If you really want to risk it, feel free to completely ignore my suggestion. Otherwise, some day soon, where no one can see you or hear, silently pray in all honesty of seeking for answers. After doing so, be patient and heed your circustances. God works on His own timescale, not yours. If nothing happens, then no big deal. No one knew about it, and no one ever will as long as you don't tell them. No embarassment, no shunning, and you've proved your measely point. Prove me wrong once and for all. Refuse and you have conceded the arguement.

Sample Prayer and short explanation or Full Explanation.

Rather interesting book on evolution: http://www.chick.com/catalog/books/0123.asp. If you don't want to read it, I'll summarize. "It is impossible for a living cell to form from the random interaction of non-living molecules." It goes into quite a lot of detail about how organic molecules actually behave in the real world.

Actually, creationism does have evidence in favor of it. Take a look at this.

You mean Jack Chick?

Not the Catholic God - the Catholics believe all sorts of non-Christian things (like Jesus is crucified every time their priests invoke a wafer).

... unrepresentative samples, like 10% of us are homosexuals (based on a self-reporting study of inmates defining homosexual as having had a sexual situation or thought dealing with the same sex--IN PRISON)

I've heard the 10% number over the years and believed it, so out of curiousity I did a little little google search, and whattaya know, the #1 result was this 10% myth page from the Family Research Institute.

Also featured today on the Family Research Institute home page:

• Homosexual rape is 5-10% of all rape and is increasing
• Story of Jim, homosexual sex offendor
• Link between pedophilia and homosexuality
• Children raised by homosexuals have "childhood difficulties"
• Special Study on Homosexuality (realaudio "lessons", I didn't bother listening to it)

You can also check out their " educational pamphlets", such as " Medical Consequences of What Homosexuals Do" ... utter homophobia (and a lot of hetrosexual couples have oral sex, anal sex, kinky S&M play, but the text is pure FUD, mostly Fear) I wonder if their pamphlets are made by the Chick Tract guys.

Later on the same google result is this paper which at first appears to be based on some honest research which claims 5% and goes on to say "On the basis of the Bagley et al.(1994) sample data, it is now known that the recent studies producing 1%(90) to 3% estimates for gay males, or for males who are homosexually active, are seriously flawed." Turns out this one is hosted by the Queer Resources Directory, but the author appears to be dedicated to helping troubled homosexual teens (more google searching)

So I guess I learned something new today. The gay population numbers are in a lot more dispute than WorldCom's traffic growth due to the tension between homosexual communities and homophobic right-wing groups, the 10% number I've always heard before does appear to be a bit high. Hmm. Personally, I'm het, but I'd much rather be around people who are homosexual than people who are homophobic. Fortunately, repressed homophobics are a lot easier to spot.

Very off-topic, someone please mod me down, if for nothing else other than wasting time on this instead of what I should be working on....

There is no such thing as white magic

Yes it is an unnatural progression from Dungeons and Dragons to Occultism and Satanism. Here, I have the proof

This story is true I tell you, true!

I sent this link to my sisters, who have taken no interest in this issue at all. I am know that the stupid cartoon and song will make them laugh, but the confrontational lyrics should make them think. (I'm just glad I sent it to them yesterday.)

I don't cary what you fancy-schmancy tele-scope in space says - Jack Chick says the this here universe is only 6000 years old.

Excuse me, while I go back to the trailer.

I'm from Alabama - a state where allowing the ten commandments to be displayed in the courtroom is a popular campaign platform, and "I didn't come from no monkey" is a viable political argument against teaching evolution in school. I say it's possible that this is no hoax.

Once, a teacher in my junior high school showed the class Geraldo Rivera's devil-worship special as an educational film. In that same place, I was called into the principal's office and threatened with expulsion for devil worship. (I had brought an Ozzy Osbourne tape to school.) I've also attended a church function (involuntarily) in which youth ministers played Rush and Judas Priest albums backwards in order to expose the hidden Satanic messages.

This site may be a parody, but it's not foolish to believe that it's sincere. People like this exist in real life.

And yes, Jack T. Chick is that nutty!

Christians do not believe this tripe. Not even the fundamentalists or evangelicals. If all you know about christianity is what Hollywood and the MPAA tell you, then this guy sound genuine, but it most certainly is not. Distrust all stereotypes. A christian would be as likely to spout this blather as a geek would wear a pocket protector and taped glasses.

It didn't seem to be any different from what's in the Chick Tracts...

So do you think that Satan is making video games to lure kiddies away from marijuana? Because that would be EVIL.

We all know role-playing games are evil and drive people to suicide, don't we?