Slashdot Mirror
LaserMonks Offer Prayer, Printer Cartridges
Minnesotan writes "According to a Twincities.com article: If you need discounted inkjet- or laser-printer cartridges, Wisconsin's LaserMonks say they'll give you a doozy of a deal while you 'support prayer for the world'. The Cistercian priests - yes, they're actual Catholic monks - oversee a novel e-commerce enterprise out of their rural abbey. Proceeds go to maintain the monastery and finance charitable works around the world."
Noticed they were using ASP, from the Evil empire....heathens!!! Oh wait they're monks, and they offer me prayers so does that cancel out and make them ok again?
...in bed
LaserMonks? With a name like that, they've got to be electric!
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
I guess Xerox wasn't too much off the bat...
Michael Bolton: Load Letter? What the f*ck does that mean?!?!?? You wanna step to this? I didn;t think so!
ThisIsAnExampleAccountGL@yahoo.com
Now if I could only just get a prayer for my dying OS.......
Refilling your Lexmark cartridge isn't just a DMCA violation -- it's a sin!
Somebody had to say it.
This is a manual virus. Copy it to your sig and help me spread!
This is an updated verson of a very old (middle ages) tradition of monastaries doing some specialized task (and doing it well) and using thier product to sell or barter for needed supplies, food, etc...
This practice kept a lot of trades and information alive that might have otherwise died out. It would take a reel jerk to sue them for DMCA violations too =:-)
---
Play Six Pack Man. I
Whether Lexmark will attempt to DMCA them?
That'll make for a wonderful headeline:
"Lexmark to sue monks"
Still, can't help but think of Brother Theo from Babylon 5, great character.
I wonder if they sell to non-catholics? Or do they first circumsize and baptize everyone who buys a modem from them? :D
The Custom Mary
I wonder if slashdoting the website of monks is actually a sin...
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
I'm an athiest!
After Sharks with frickin laser beams didn't work out.... Dr Evil hatches his next plot - LASERMONKS
mwhhhahhahahaha mwhhhaaaa
Looking over the page's source, it looks like they borrowed a lot of their JavaScript. Talk about copying scripture...
/rimshot
I heard some of these monasteries actually make money off brewing beer!
(Next, they'll be back at handwriting Bibles again for the lack of printing ink...)
"We can confirm that Debian does *not* ship the version with the trojan horse. Our version predates it." [CA-2002-28]
The site is already unavailable too :-\
Uhm, OT?
:D
Anyway, I'll be happy to have a pleasant, civil discussion with you!
Come over for tea sometime -- we can watch "The Life of Brian"
So they're the ones that have been spamming me!
- Sherman
I'm pretty sure slashdotting a bunch of monks is asking for plague, famine, or at least a couple of lightning bolts.
Ah, religion and politics. The atheist/libertarian geek is quite common. Some /. polls may have brought this up. I'd be very surprised to see more than a quarter theist in any way.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Can prayer help a web server? Apparently not!
Also I sure hope a slashdotting is not a sin. We are using up God's bandwidth after all.
Ok I'll stop....
Faith. The act of believing something with no proof.
Until then. it's a fairy tale.
Post: Sigged, for your pleasure.
Simple, don't mention religon.
A witchdoctor toner refiller who could put a curse on SCO with each cartridge purchase.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
that was getting a bit old after scrolling forever... I was hoping there were some actual comments at the bottom half of this!
Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.
I have no affiliation with Trappestine Quality Candy except that Mom orders it every year around the holidays and it's really good. Just sayin'.
:sigh: Yum!
Ok, so I have an affinity. Check my nick.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Wisconsin's LaserMonks say they'll give you a doozy of a deal
Are these LaserMonks related to the Electric Monk by any chance?
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
...We're all going to hell
OOPS I'm goin to hell. Hold me a spot pls.
This supports charities albeit without the tax deduction.
Uploading?
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Welcome our new monk overlords, well actually they kinda are if they talk to god and all.
In my prayers tonight: "God, give me strength to put up with my job to take care of my Fiance..."
God: "I can do that for you, but buy some new toner for your HP Laserjet 1100 for only $50 at http://www.lasermonks.com and you'll get a raise and your Fiance will love you forever..."
...in bed
In the year 5057 A.D., a consortum of middle aged monks form a weapons production business, selling their wares exclusively to Christian battle outposts and missionaries in distant galaxies, fighting a holy war against the masses of Romulan infidels...
and so these intergalatic boomstick hawkers called themselves...PhaserMonks.
So, what if they change their pricing plans...
"For a donation to the church of $19.95 we will refill your printer cartriges for free."
Then, you can write off the donation!
It's good to know these things. Without being warned I might have actually done business with them and become part of the problem of them forcing their religious views on the "ignorant pegans" around the world. And, yes, I do know what I'm talking about - I was brought up in that cult as a child.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I for one would like to welcome our toner cartridge weilding lasermonk overlords ?
And their cheese is pretty good, too.
Are there going to be any comments to this story which aren't modded "funny"? I mean really, what can you say?
Next time, log out before copy-pasting Slashdot in your AC post, Dumbo ...
Yeah they're cheap as hell but the refurbished (is that the word to use?) cartridge for my HP 970 cxi flat out didn't work. In fact, I think my printer's been really confused since.
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
You mean they can give me a reason not to buy from them two times ??
.. and this isn't just about christianity ,. it's any religion, just happens that the majority religion in my area is christian.
1. inferior refilled inkjet cartriges AND
2. supporting a church
I for one do not EVER willingly do business with any organization or entity that has a religious component.
No boy scouts, no Christian Childrens Fund, no Salvation Army, nothing fishy.
Now they are selling us the ink to copy and illuminate whatever manuscripts we want.
Since I'm pretty sure those ancient monks never had permission to copy any of the works they did, does that make them the original data pirates?
1 0WnZ0r y3 0ld 4$5
what if it goes wrong? Do you think God would give a refund?
Rus
CPanel + Root from $35/mo - 10% off with discount code SLASHDOT
check it out here now if only there were a technoGeek monastery somewhere...
That not even God can stand a slashdotting.
Wow! No wonder I keep coming back here.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
Which version are we talking about here ? If it's a collection of first hand accounts why so many different edits ? Shurely they aren't putting a little spin on the stories to match them up to the social ails of the day ? No, didn't think so.
Have you ever chatted with a Protestant? Christianity isn't a religion, its a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP!
Its all in your head though, of course.
We used to have a Glory to God
Towing company in Fort Collins.
this may or may not get modded to hell based on you're personal religous and spiritual orientation. Monk e-business BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA Pioneer Press More photos JIM GEHRZ PHOTO The Rev. Bernard McCoy heads up LaserMonks -- when he isn't praying, of course. SPARTA, Wis. -- Phone calls to LaserMonks' rural headquarters are sometimes tinged with caution or outright suspicion. Those are awfully good prices for generic inkjet or laser-printer cartridges, a caller might remark after checking the offerings at www.lasermonks.com. What's the catch? And, c'mon, you aren't really monks, are you? A recent caller lost seven years of savings to an online scam artist after trying to book a cruise for herself and her daughters. She vowed never to buy anything else on the Internet. But with three printers churning out student papers in her Pennsylvania home, she couldn't ignore discounts of up to 90 percent over name-brand cartridges. Look, she told LaserMonks, she had trust issues. She needed the firm to set her mind at ease. LaserMonks' response helps explain why the two-year-old e-commerce venture based at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank -- yes, with actual Catholic monks -- appears to be on a stratospheric business trajectory. At a time when online printer-cartridge vendors can trigger mistrust because of some questionable offers clogging inboxes, LaserMonks has seen its gross revenue soar from about $2,000 in 2002 to about $500,000 in 2003. Projected 2004 sales are three to four times higher still. To pull off this e-tailing feat, LaserMonks has had to win over disbelievers with high-quality products and top-flight customer service along with rock-bottom prices, not to mention small but meaningful gestures its clients don't expect. The skeptical Pennsylvania mother, for instance, got four cartridges on speculation. Try 'em out, LaserMonks said. If you like them, consider sending us a few bucks. No hurry, take a few months to think it over. The company soon got paid in full for the shipment, along with a second order for four cartridges. ORA ET LABORA The 75-year-old abbey, which has been at its current location about 130 miles southeast of St. Paul for 19 years, isn't the sort of place that screams "e-commerce hotbed." Perched on a wooded hill, just up an unpaved road and through a decorative gateway, the low-slung composite-stone structure seems bereft of life -- until Gregorian chanting tips off a visitor that white-and-black-robed inhabitants are somewhere about. Inside a small chapel, a few Cistercian priests melodiously remind themselves of the Latin dictum ora et labora -- prayer and work, always in that order. Only then does the 36-year-old Rev. Bernard McCoy trod through a carpeted hallway to his modest office -- the LaserMonks nerve center. From there, he oversees a nationwide network of people and facilities in his practical role as the abbey's "steward of temporal affairs." McCoy's key role: generating cash to support the abbey along with its complex array of charitable causes around the world. That also means overseeing a modest portfolio of real-estate holdings. One recent day, he haggled good-naturedly with the local tax assessor over one property's perceived value. Before LaserMonks came about, McCoy obsessed over other ideas for turning his perennially cash-strapped monastery into a money machine. Until last year, he sold spiritual books and other religious items on the Web. For a while, he oversaw a program to move and renovate homes due for demolition. He has considered cultivating shiitake mushrooms, building a golf resort and breeding Christmas trees. This is a common issue for monasteries, convents and other such communities, which typically must support themselves. Trappistine nuns in Dubuque, Iowa, make candy. Nearby Trappist monks build caskets. Oregon Trappists warehouse wine. Massachusetts Trappists make jams and jellies. Belgian Trappists brew beer. Filipino monks and nuns make fruit concoctions dubbed Food for the Soul. Greek Orthodox monks in Resaca, Ga., sell han
This sig blantantly stolen by a pack of robo-monkeys.
Having fewer signups into priesthood, the Catholic Church officially announced that they will be issuing standard lasers to people who complete the training program. The Pope noted that "this is a momentous occasion. Since the film Star Wars came out, the Church had contemplated issuing Light Sabers but did not want the public to know that we had such technology. Until now, we only dress like jedi knights."
On a more serious note, it's a difficult job raising money in a monastery. Unless you happen to attract genetically altered rich folks that answer to the name "47" (Hitman 2), you'll need to find creative ways to earn a living. I've heard quite a few that have products for sale ranging from seasonal fruitcake, chocolates, and now toner cartridges.
Wake me when the amish start selling toner cartridges.
And where would geeks be without caffeine? Try Monastery Blend Coffee from the Christ the All-merciful Saviour Russian Orthodox Monstery on Vashon Island near Seattle. Excellent stuff.
And the brethren went away edified.
The article mentions in passing that the monks achieve their great 90% discount prices through "canny negotiations" with manufacturers, but distinctly does not say which manufacturers. Could they be the original mfrs? Are HP and Lexmark welcoming these guys as competitors and cutting them a huge break? Or (more likely) are we talking about the same overseas child-employing sweatshops that supply all the other incredibly cheap goods we're used to? I'd kind of like to know.
The Bible was compiled as a teaching tool. We do hold its contents to be divinely inspired, though. That means the faith and traditions of the early Christians came LONG BEFORE the Bible was compiled. (Yes, Catholics had compilers!)
The Bible was then compiled to aid in the teaching and propagation of the faith. The writings were done and directed at people for the social ails of THEIR day. (surprisingly enough, a lot of it still applies to the social ails of this day)
There were writings that did exist but went against the faith and traditions -- they didn't include those.
Later on, people decided they wanted to interpret the teaching tool differently. That's like someone editing/printing a HOWTO and someone else picking it up and arguing with the editors about what the HOWTO is for.
So we have the Bible...and other people's versions of it with their own interpretations, rules, and spin. Now if you want to celebrate your Christian faith the way the Apostles did -- you've really just got one choice.
Actually, what we really need is a couple more abbeys making good beer. Those Belgian monks aren't cranking it out fast enough. 8-)
I need 300 of those InkJet cartridges for my orphanage in Nigeria. Pleaze pleaze help me get ink catridges. The Orphans ore so very hungry.
Larry Catina Davis
Would you like friars with that?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I think he's aiming at subliminal 'stud' link ... :)
but nobody really had to say it. Except for you.
1. "a collection of independant first hand accounts". No it isn't, and anyone who says it is hasn't studied the bible.
3. At least nominally.
4. This means what, precisely? Being a christian means you have a high IQ? Puhleese. Go tell it to Gallileo. Algebra was invented by muslims, Euclid, Pythagoras et al would have believed in the greek pantheon and so on. If "most" of the scientifik discoveries of the 19-20C were made by "christians' because the prevailing norm was that everyone identified as a christian.
5. oh but the bible does..? yeah right.
thats hilarious!
You know I read this over and over and still can't work out if you are serious or not. Personally I think, if you are serious, you've got a pretty strange grasp on reality.
Scribe, laser printers, same thing really.
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
Hasn't this already been determined to fail DMCA? (specifically Lexmark)
do they only sell Brother ink cartridges?
Citations, please?
I'm pretty sure they did. Because many of the copied manuscripts have little line-counts in the margins, called stichoi, noting how many lines the scribe copied that day, so that the person hiring the monks to do the work knew how much to pay him. Perfectly legitimate job.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Everybody in the geek world know the 'fashion' of recycling ink cartridges is only a scam to make others rich through the ink refilling industry operating beneath. Shame on those who hide behind a false good cause to make money. Plain and square: decency and honesty have no room these days.
And God sayeth unto the people:
"You know, I have one simple request - and that is, to have monks with frikkin' laser beams attached to their heads!"
Amen.
There's no reason for circumcision.
The REAL plug 'n pray ;-)
I am not a number! I am a man! And don't you
The gentle folk at Gethesmani do an excellent bourbon fudge. Mmmm...
That's proof these people BELIEVED in the fairy tale, not proof that the fairy tale is real.
The monk in the article has has a plane for business trips.
Somehow, this seems to undermine my faith in this enterprise.
They also haven't actually done anything charitable with the $500,000 revenue so far. There's great tax advantages in being a charity; and everyone goes out of their way to help you.
I hope I'm just being too cynical?
periodically heads aloft in a 1954 Piper Tri-Pacer recently donated to the abbey and maintained by private donations
he will use it for travel to business meetings as LaserMonks continues to grow.
McCoy, like his brethren, is allowed no possessions other than a few mementos with deep meaning.
I think this is why some religious organizations have such a bad name. Although they preach humility, piety and charity, as you dig deeper you find pure bred dogs, private aircraft, and a desire not to mix with unwashed masses by flying commercial. Sure they don't own anything, but that is almost like a rich man transferring assets to a proxy to avoid taxes and insure entrance to heaven. These things have to be more than technical requirements.
Combine this with their heavy sales pitch that a purchase will help those less fortunate, and one gets close to the likes of girl scout extortion, the selling of papal indulgences, and claiming to be the protector of the environment while sucking electricity like there is no next generation.
There are a lot of fine religious leaders out there. I have worked with many of them, and the come from all faiths. Most of them would not consider excessive luxuries for themselves before the needs of others. Most of them would take responsibility for they blessings they use, and not hide behind technicalities.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
it was a medieval practice for a monastery to be self supportive.
Dom perignon anyone?
Wanted : A Signature.
I agree, read this:
Somehow, the Christians have managed to brainwash themselves into thinking that faith somehow justifies their belief in a deity. Faith is central to the Christian religion, and all "true" Christians are required to have a significant amount of it. After asking a person what their reason for believing in an invisible sky pixie is, the answer is often "faith". I'm not entirely sure how faith became the most common answer to such questions, but one thing is for certain: the Christians who think in this manner have no idea what faith really is, and more importantly, what it implies when one must resort to it.
Faith is defined as belief without evidence that supports the belief. Having faith in the existence of God quite simply means that there is no evidence supporting his existence. That is, after all, exactly what faith is. I find it amusing when a Christian claims that he or she has found irrefutable proof of God, for such a thing would make faith of this sort impossible. Belief isn't faith if the belief has been proven. Seeing as faith is so important to Christianity, proof of the existence of God would actually be rather detrimental to their principles.
Consider the statement "I believe because I have faith." I personally have encountered this statement many times when arguing with Christians. Let's examine this reasoning more closely. If faith is defined as belief without evidence, then the statement can be rewritten as, "I believe because I believe without evidence," which essentially means, "I believe because I believe." This is purely circular reasoning. The same kind of logic is used by five-year-olds when asked a "why" question. Ask a child of that age why he did a certain thing, and he may very well answer "Because," and nothing more. Ask him, "because why?", and he will again reply with, "Because." The same circular logic is used by Christians when answering why questions with faith. Faith, therefore, is not an answer of any kind to questions concerning the reasons for religious belief.
Suppose for a minute that faith did somehow justify a belief in God. If it can be used as reasoning for the belief in one god, then why not another? If having faith in the Christian god somehow makes the belief in him valid, then wouldn't it also validate a belief in Zeus, Odin, or Thor? If Christians are supported in their beliefs, then so are members of every other religion with a belief in a deity.
The only reason that faith is a major part of Christianity is that there simply is no evidence for the existence of God. Christians must resort to faith because there is, and never will be, proof of God. If there were, then they would be using it in their arguments, not just depending on blind, baseless, and irrational dogmatic beliefs.
Taken from this page
This means what, precisely? Being a christian means you have a high IQ? Puhleese. Go tell it to Gallileo.
You're bantering the same horse as the parent. (Not)? Being a Christian does not preclude someone from being smart.
Anyways, Galileo was a Christian. However, a faction in the inquisition didn't like his discoveries because it threatened their world view and|or power.
1. ...that was writen about 30 years after the fact.
2. true but irrelevant.
3.At least half of Americans are overweight, your point?
4.Has to do with number 3, theres so man of them; and I'll bet you could find a similar statistic about famous criminals
5. evolution goes pretty deep into explanation and what do you expect, I dont think that science should have all the answers by 2004 AD(ignore that) we havent even cured the common cold.
Bottom line: Never argue with a man about religion, sports, politics, music, or OS preference.
Read a bit about it here, it's quite good!
Yes, Christianity exists. How? Easy, some of my relatives adhere to this belief system. I've seen it in person. So yes, Christianity, the collection of people who beieve in a greater being named God who sent forth a man named Jesus, it exists.
But the thing in which Christians (and Muslims and Jews) believe in? Belief in God with no proof that this entity even exists. That's the fairy tale.
Hey, I guess I'm the only one who remembered these guys when this story rolled around, but there's an order of monks who will illuminate web pages!
I want a new world. I think this one is broken.
http://www.rootstrikers.org/
Must have been one of the monks themselves :-)
That's odd, most of the large software companies have led me to believe those are the same thing...
True story.
I like the Trappistine Creamy Caramels from Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey
If you don't at least see little people its not really worth it. I'll just have another Guinness.
Quack, quack.
I tried to go to the monk's website, and this is what I got:
Access to this server is forbidden from your client
I'm using mozilla on knoppix. What's the deal?
scifiber_phil,
If you like to get all your calories from sugar. Its like eating a Snickers bar in a glass. Give me an IPA or a single malt.
Quack, quack.
Translation variations are more likely to be for historical or scholastic reasons than anything else, but history plays a part as well. For example, the King James version was partly created to produce an English translation to displace the Geneva Bible, mainly because James didn't like the footnotes in the latter. But it wouldn't have gotten anywhere if it didn't pass intellectual muster. Later translations such as the Revised Standard Version and the New International Version were made mostly to clean up the older version of English and to apply textual criticism principles to the contents.
Bottom line is that they're all pretty similar and the differences that exist are pretty unimportant. Think about it; tinkering with a translation is more likely to get you laughed at by anyone who knows the language, and the languages are too well known to just muck around with. Any modern Greek can pick up a copy of the New Testament and read the original language. If he knows English too, there's not a lot of wiggle room for a biased translator to move around.
Not that people don't try. Lots of cults produce their own "interpretations", but they're just not accepted. The major translations don't have a lot of variations either in the translation or the underlying text. The big difference isn't the interpretation of the text, but applying it to real life. If you want to see an editor's bias, keep an eye on the footnotes.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
The Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (collectively the Apostolic Churches, because they have valid, unbroken apostolic succession [which is also debatably claimed by Anglican bishops]) derive all translations of their bibles directly or indirectly from the Hebrew scriptures (the Law and the Prophets) and the Septuagint. The Septuagint adds several Greek texts to the Law and the Prophets to round out the Christian Old Testament (including the Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach, certain pieces of the Book of Daniel, etc.), and the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles and the Revelation to John, which compose the New Testament. The Protestant and Pentecostal Churches have at times left out certain Greek writings in the Old Testament which the Apostolic Churches call deuterocanonical and they call apocryphal, some because it reduces printing costs and others because they question the inspiration of them. The western churches nearly all leave out the Books of Maccabees beyond the second because they were omitted by St. Jerome in his translation into Latin, called the Vulgate, which was used almost exclusively in the Roman Church until the Second Vatican Council.
The neccessity of all the edits arises out of the diversity and dynamic nature of the common languages. Should we all not speak different languages, the Septuagint and the Vulgate would likely be sufficient. Should English not have changed since the 15th century, Anglicans would probably all still use King James' Authorized translation. But this is not the case. Even most of Jesus' own words were probably never written in any language but Greek, although his primary and possibly only language was Aramaic, spoken today only in the Assyrian Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
I hope you have some appreciation for what I wrote here, and I hope I did not offend anyone. This is not intended to be flamebait.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, + et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Hmmm, I work at HP, and when I go to their website, all I get is:
"Access to this server is forbidden from your client"
Not very friendly monks, now are they?
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Indeed. From what little bit I studied the Bible, it is commonly accepted that all of the gospels were written long enough after the death of Christ that not one of them could have been a first hand account by anyone alive at the time. They have references to historical events known to have occurred as much as centuries later, for crying out loud. I am not saying the Bible isn't true. I am not saying the Gospels don't tell a true story. I am just saying you certainly can't prove any part of the Bible to be true by broadly calling it a collection of first hand accounts.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
...apparently even god can't protect a server from a good slashdotting :)
"Give someone a program, frustrate them for a day... Teach someone to program, frustrate them for a lifetime."
Then why the hell are you browseing slashdot?
...from your client"
I wonder if this means that I should to go home and rethink my life...
Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle. -- Steinbach (Might apply) I'm just an old nerd from before it had anything to do with computers. When I try to connect via:http://www.lasermonks.com/ I get this message: Access to this server is forbidden from your client What's with that?
"...while history is usually explicable it is often irrational" --Roger Spiller
1. The bible is not a fairy tale. It is put together as a collection of independant first hand accounts, not mythology.
Like all first hand accounts, it should be taken with a large grain of salt. Added to the fact that the source documents have been translated through several languages and heavily edited.
4. Many (most) important scientific discoveries throughout history have been made by Christians (Wright brothers...)
So what? what's this got to do with anything? It could be argued that these christians managed to make their discoveries despite their religion (think about the middle ages/renaissance when you could quite literally be burnt at the stake for challenging church beliefs, the earth is not flat and the world is not at the centre of the universe).
Many critical discoveries were made before christianity was of any note. Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Plato spring to mind.
5. Science has not explained many fundamental characteristics of the universe... and evolution doesn't fully explain how complex life developed. Science doesn't (yet) provide all the answers.
I'll take science over ignorance any day. How *exactly* has the theory of evolution not explained complex life developing?
If religion works for you, great. For me, religion represents an excuse not to take responsibility for ones own decisions and living a false reality where people are something other than smart primates.
Fine. Then stop continually mentioning atheism.
Believe it or not, you do not have some unique right to not be offended. You also do not have some unique right to force other people to talk (or not talk) about things you do or do not want.
Boy...that was fast. I guess ppl think they're being all religous buying their toner from monks.
Sure it's a good deal, but they are lying. It's mandated that they do "prayer before labor" yet if you read through it they pray but never labor.
In fact, all the work is done through subcontractors.
I smell a rat, this guy is not supposed to "own" anything, but he has some pretty kickass deals going down, and a big new monastery on the horizon.
Kiddie porn, sex toys and altar boys.
Why don't we pray that certain litigious bastards go away or get severely beaten by the courts sometime soon?
Interestingly, what they're specialising in is the monk brand. They don't do any of the manufacture, and they outsource the fulfillment and the customer management too.
Now, all they need to do is learn from the other very old Christian tradition of excellent franchise management...
Shocking. Thank you.
DFL
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
1. You can trace the Bibl to its roots. Edited changes are known.
5. Theolistic evolution. Some small religous groups, such as the Catholic chruch, believe that it is possible the evolution was gods way of creating life.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This turns out not to be the case. In the first place, you would have to say (on the basis of zero evidence) that John was a liar, since he explicitly claims to have been an eyewitness. In the second place, this late dating of the gospels is only "commonly accepted" by people who refuse to believe even the possibility that the content of the gospels is true: hardly an impartial audience.
More importantly, there is evidence to demonstrate that these naysayers don't know what they are talking about: namely, references to a parody of Matthew that was written by Gamaliel no later than 70AD.
Well, he couldn't have written a parody of a non-existent document. And he wouldn't have written a parody of a document that no one took seriously. And it would have been pointless to write a parody of a book so new that no one had heard of it. So it's entirely reasonable to suggest that Matthew wrote his gospel no later than 60AD. So in fact there is no reason whatever to pretend that it wasn't written by an eyewitness.
Now, with respect to Bible books as being universally firsthand accounts - that, of course, is a given: Moses, after all, lived millennia after the events recorded in the early chapters of Genesis; and as you rightly say, this fact doesn't mean that Genesis isn't true.
DFL
Never send a human to do a machine's job.
No, the Catholics tried to teach me Hypocrisy. They even told me how good it was when the Pope sent all those missionaries over to the new world to kill the central American Indians and loot their treasures... er, I mean save them from their heathen beliefs. But somehow the cult indoctrination didn't take, I now understand that any and all religions are the worst forms of evil.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Slashdot a Monk's web server!!!
So if I promise only to have sex with altar boys, can trade all the mp3's I want over kazaa?
5. Theolistic evolution. Some small religous groups, such as the Catholic chruch, believe that it is possible the evolution was gods way of creating life.
Hmm, yes. I suppose you if can't silence a threatening idea, just claim it's what you were saying all along.
Personally, I believe in creation as stated in Genesis. However, it was written in poetic form to the people of the day, so the actual details are open to interpretation. Obviously, upon creation (and whatever Big Bang started matter expanding), solar days did not exist... but at that time the day was the basic unit of understood time. In order for our relatively stable universe to have developed, there obviously had to be a number of extremely complex forces. Our universe appears more art than pattern. The "watch in a forest" analogy comes to mind. In addition, I don't contest the fact that all living things came from the same living matter. However, I believe that each creature was created, NOT by natural selection, but by Creation. This isn't to say that natural selection doesn't exist... it does. However, natural selection from a random force would have resulted in patterns. There are no fossiles for transatory species - the times of "evolution" appear to be extremely small with no record. Did they even happen? Taking all the evidence in for myself, I don't see how there could not have been a creator. However, I welcome others views and find it interesting to read about them.
Interesting. For me, atheism is the easy out. It takes a lot of personal responsibility to study Scripture, set aside time for daily prayer, and generally try to descern God's will for my life. The responsibilty is in the free will given to me by God. Religion isn't about deciding what I want to do, then declaring "That's God's will." (although there are some "Christians" who take that tack). Religion is a relationship. And relationships are chock-full of personal responsibility.
Last time I checked, humans are something more than smart primates. Well, I suppose that doesn't count the ones who are determined to prove that's all they are. :)
Anonymous Kev
Proudly posting as AC since 1997
5. Holy Orders (when your calling in life is to molest a little boy, apparently)
Speaking as one who is applying to seminary to study for the Catholic priesthood, and on behalf of the 99.9% of Catholic priests who are all good, holy men, I must take exception to your hateful, prejudiced remark. I would tell you to crawl back under whatever rock you spawned from and die in your own filth, but that wouldn't be Christian of me.
Instead I'll forgive you and pray for your salvation . . . I somehow think that may be more beneficial to you in the long run.
Most of you have complained taht TV ebvangelists have begged for money. here are a bunch of Godly men who are working so they can help someone else! I say its great. They are making their own way and trying to offer everyone a good deal on stuff people actually need.
Help these guys out and I bet they even bless the toner. you will notice they dont hit you up for an offering to pray for you. They pray for you because they love God and they care.
I just looked up the cartridge for my printer, at least, (A Samsung ML-1710 - the cheapest laser printer money can buy) and found them for $40 more than I can get them with a simple Froogle search. Similarly scaled differences on a few other random cartridges I searched for.
Nice domain name, though.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
A geek needs his printer cartridge refilled. He weighs:
Pro: Monks do good works
Con: Monks propagate the virus-meme of religion
Argh, what to do???
Talk about beeing on the short end of the karmic stick...
rumor i heard was that the Philosophy department was mad that this uppity Mathematician was talking about celestial bodies and trying to usurp their top slot on the academic ladder and they sicced the church at Galileo to knock him down a peg.
also heard Galileo's models were less accurate than Ptolemaic models used by the Vatican observatory (he assumed circular, not elliptical orbits). so he had this theory that didn't fit the evidence as well as the Ptolemaics' and the papists rejected it for that reason (among others).
happily, Galileo taught the church a valuable lesson in biblical hermeneutics: that of phenomenological language. the narrative describes phenomena and not underlying mechanisms. thus, when the weatherman says sun-rise, we know he's speaking phenomologically and not asserting geocentricity.
mod me down for being off topic. mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa maxima.
Monks aren't priests.
That is all.
I just found this comment - I have trolled many, many times but never bothered with a cut n paste or a page widener. Why do you think the inclusion of my login name in the cut n paste means I posted it? I am WELL KNOWN for ALWAYS trolling as myself, and I take it as an insult that I'd be assumed liliy-livered enough to post ANYTHING as an AC.
I have nothing to hide, save my email address.
I can't prove that I didn't do the page widener, but my posting history speaks for itself, I will post whatever garbage and insults come into my head, I have no fear of moderation.
That was classic intercourse!
This recalls an interesting 1996 article from Wired Magazine, called "The Electronic Scriptorium". It discussed the efforts of Religious as transcriptionists, and web page designers.
It's Protestants who claim evolution is a lie, and the Earth is 6,000 years old. Catholics believe that evolution and the Big Bang are the most likely explanations for why we are here, they accept that Genesis is a metaphor.
A. Rightmann
When I first read Lasermonks, I imagined monks shooting laser beams from their index fingers to kill sinners.
Sort of an Inquisition from a post-apocalyptic 25th century.
I've seen too much japanese movies... Hehe...
Ah, but do they support Diablo printers?
Yeah right. Nice try, dumbass.
They spammed me last year about their products.
It was YOU wasn't it?
Why do you post as an AC? Don't you realise that your Slashdot username and it's associated karma is NOT a respected or valued commodity?
That was classic intercourse!
If you can handle satire, see my suffer the Usenetter prayer.
There are many varieties of Bhuddhism. Some of them are religions (Tibetan Bhuddism comes to mind).
Bhuddhist philosophy (which is not a religion) does not require you believe anything without proof - in fact it encourages you to take a personal journey in order to prove to yourself, on your own terms, that the Eightfold Path does in fact lead to enlightenment.
You might be familiar with the Rinzai teaching, "If you meet the Bhuddha in the road, kill him!" or the more commonly used "the finger pointing at the moon is not the moon". Both of these are exhortations to the listener to directly experience Bhuddhism (in this case Zen flavor) rather than placing faith in teachers or teachings.
Although your comment can be applied to most forms of christianity, there are plenty of religions that don't require any specific belief system.
Read "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves. Read the Unitarian Universalist Principles. Read "Introduction to Bhuddism". Read the Tao Te Ching and the Lieh Tzu. If you make it through all that and you aren't either convinced or sound asleep, read George Fraser's "Golden Bough" (which is a sure-fire soporific).
Saint Augustine's argument from faith is not the only Christian "proof" either. It's just the most popular these days. Some people prefer the famous ontological proof from Rene Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy" (which is a hell of a lot more readable than Fraser, Graves, or Augustine).
*** read the sources *** instead of asking some slashbot you don't even know to tell you what Descartes wrote!
Before water was pasteurized, people all over the world have known for a long time that a small amount of alcohol would kill most of the bacteria in the water.
Of course they didn't know about bacteria. They just knew that water+wine would keep you less sick than just water.
Even so, certainly no Prohibition in the New Testament. Cheers!
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
"We specialize in ink for Brother printers."
Everybody needs something to believe in,
So I believe I'll have another beer...
There's a very well-known beer in Germany, Kloster Andechs beer, that's made by Benedictine monks at a monastery in Bavaria.
i n.asp
The monks use their brewery and beer-making skills to support themselves and their monastery. It's become such huge business for them, that they now employ many non-monks from the surrounding area.
Here's their website:
http://www.andechs.de/englisch/index_ma
Don't mind the slashdotters, pretty sure most of them are crazy.
Mind you, so am I, so who knows...
In July O7, I got a mac pro. There's no punchline. Just endless joy and wonder.
If I happen to be a naturalist/atheist/freethinker/Bright (take your pick) or maybe even just a Mormon or Scientologist, would it be a conflict of belief - would I be a hypocrite - for buying product from these guys, knowing that after a fashion some of the money might be used to indoctrinate others with a message of conviction contrary to my own?