Were's the evidence?

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

There was a time when people had the decency to see visions in a cave. Good honest folk like Bernadette Subirous and Mohammad. Seeing Jesus in toast is the height of vulgarity.

Lgbttqqiaap? They could not stop at 4 or 5 letters?

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

It wasn't inclusive enough.

The problem in the world is relatively simple.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

I'm told Martin Luther brought a sense of individual accountancy into the Western world. It started as an individual's relationship to God, so different to the Roman Catholic hierarchical institution. Apparently, noone ever knew if they were saved or not in this new understanding of faith because there was no hierarchy that could justify confirming it so Protestants began to look for evidence of being blessed in their material prosperity. This led to the Protestant work ethic which led to capitalism. That individuality has expanded through capitalism to give us a world of people lost in themselves.

Rabbi Bans Females From Riding Bikes Because It’s ‘Provocative’ | Michael Stone

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

The Rabbi doth protest too much.

Its Saturday and I'm kinda bored

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Yes, it's showing. Not a criticism, though.

If your mind is dirty enough...

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

I'm not sure I could have sex on my own anymore.

Did you know about the first openly gay man to be on television?

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Another brave person moving the world toward a fairer place. I hope the excesses of the extreme left don't ruin everything.

Pastor Credibly Accused of Using Oral Sex to Exorcise Men’s “Evil Spirits” | David Gee | ...

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

William Blake's 'Encounter with Los as Spiritual Sun':

In memory of Matthew Sheppard in Pride Month.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Yes indded. You just need to be human.

This raindrop is about as positive as I can get - I hope everyone finds a little ❤ today.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Maybe I should have gone for a walk.

How do you debunk it when someone claims religion, no matter it's true or false' serves as an ...

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

There are times I would never attempt to debunk it, such as the time my very Catholic aunt lost the baby she was carrying and desperately needed to think the baby was in heaven.

Let's make frowning a disease and smiling the cure! Life still hurts but I feel better about it now.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

'Smile though your heart is aching!'

This is one of my favorite quotes.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Frankl learned that the hard way. Great quote and great book.

You're going to feel a little prick!

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Should've gone to SpecSavers!

How do you define love?

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

I can't remember. It was very nice at the time.

I'm human...

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

They say the chances of being born are very, very small. I'm grateful too for the chance to experience life even though it can be darn awful at times.

Eye of the beholder

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

“We become what we behold.” ― William Blake, Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion.

More truth than poetry

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Be a Philistine to the end!

Interesting article on a person leaving the JW faith.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

I enjoyed that article. I thought I understood from the article an implicit relationship between culture and religion that I can't quite put my finger on but feel they are somehow the same thing. I must try to find out if she expands on that idea in the book.

Trolling the crazies

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

We're all the same on the inside. Sorry, we're all the same on the outside.

Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests on truth.

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

There's a lecturer I listen to on YT called John Vervaeke who asked his class how many were in happy, stable relationships and many answered in the affirmative. He then asked how many would want to know if their relationship was a sham and their partner was cheating on them. Just about everybody answered in the affirmative again. He concluded that human beings see so much value in truth that they would rather be sad than to be ignorant of the truth.

"We must resist the impoverishment of public discourse on matters of religion which has come about ...

brentan comments on Jun 8, 2019:

Religion has played such a huge part in the development of human consciousness. As its influence diminishes, there is little to replace it - perhaps secular humanism, art and culture - but so far their reach still seems confined to the intellectual 'class'. The real replacement for religious values seems to be economic and growth is its god. The effect that has on human morality is seriously bad as we have entered a time of spiritual bankrupcy and loss of meaning in life.

But she's too old anyway

brentan comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Lead us not into temptation.

Tough to do at times but necessary.

brentan comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Yes indeed. Love your fellow man as you love yourself.

One of basic flaws of arguments against religion as such put forward by Richard Dawkins and other ...

brentan comments on Jun 7, 2019:

I look on religion as an earlier form of psychology. If we want to understand the development of our thinking and shared 'grammar' in how we express our human experience, knowing religion's huge place in our history is important. To narrow the focus down to the atrocities caused by religion is definitely reductive.

Happy birthday USB: The standard turns 20, and proud inventor Ajay Bhatt tells all [pcworld.com]

brentan comments on Jun 7, 2019:

I'm not capable of inserting a USB jack without thinking of the idea of probability.

Share your all time favorite & meaningful song :) [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jun 7, 2019:

Cohen giving us the benefit of his expansive Jewishness. He adopted the basic idea from somebody like Rumi, reworked it and gave us a timeless universal prayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wRYjtvIYK0 RIP Leonard.

Damn duvets.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I wouldn't manage these people at all, never mind insure them. Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey etc. They're far more trouble than they're worth.

If Ned Flanders had a fishing show, it would be "Diddliest Catch"

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Ned - where being nice isn't enough.

The blessed ones:

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I hope he gets pleasantly surprised from time to time.

I had to say farewell today to my sweet, goofy girl, and will miss the eyes of "she who watches" and...

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Now look....

I'm this old...

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Please sir. Can I have some more?

The question posted on a xian right wing website was: How do we deal with Atheists in America?

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

That's tough love. Insanity too.

Thou shalt not test thy God... even if making sense.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Abraham tried that line too. God is a bit more like Samuel J. Sometimes you absolutely positively gotta kill every single motherfucker in the room.

I’ll tell you what’s wrong...

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I would horse-whip the lot of them if I didn't think they might enjoy it.

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

“One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing". - Oscar Wilde

What if....

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

You're always picking on me.

"An elder is wise, not because they are always right, because they have more experiences of being ...

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I blame old people for the disrespect they get from the young. So many people older have not learned a darn thing from their mistakes, often not even accepting they made mistakes.

Mexican Institute of Sound - Mi T Shirt De La NASA [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Too fly for a gringo.

Temperature guide

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Celsius looks much a much safer bet.

Bernie Sanders is trying very hard to cost the American job market great losses.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Walmart is American to its core: • created by real Americans • staffed by real Americans • serving real Americans It makes Costco look downright socialist.

[haaretz.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

That balance seems very precarious. The article didn't speculate much about the different ways this could pan out in the future. Such as, for example, if the Sunnis and the Shi'ites don't blow each other all to Jannah, who else is in the firing line?

I turned 64 today! [youtu.be]

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I never thought it could happen. Happy Birthday!

CYNICOCRATICAL adjective ...

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

That's a quare one. Is it really the leaders get that way and not the people?

Smile...😊

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I think that's very true.

Words of wisdom:

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

It's because I'm white, American and upper middle class. Not really.

The gay agenda.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

I think there is a gay agenda but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

It's how to seperate'em

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

There's a time to talk and a time to say absolutely nothing.

Fight the power!

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

Una puteria.

BRIO.

brentan comments on Jun 6, 2019:

That's how I would like my wine - vino con brio!

I had an experience this weekend that made me consider that there may be a God and he must hate me.

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

All those ducks in a row and then you forgot to go to Mass!

I'm doing my part! Y'all?

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

He didn't die for the sins people would commit. He died for the sins already committed so they could start again fresh. Christians better wise up and get with the program if they really believe in salvation.

'Revolution' in Poland as nation confronts priestly abuse

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

If they end up following Ireland, I hope they don't throw the baby out with the bathwater like we did. The country is spiritually bereft and seriously violent.

“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

Tolle is a wise man. I would like to see the context for this statement because it doesn't sound right.

I posted this on Facebook and all I got was a lousy 30 vacation....

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

He's just happy to see her.

XIAN FORUMS CRAZY -- I like to hang out and read the goofy shit people post on the Xian forums.

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

That's not exactly what Moses meant when he said "I wish all God's people were prophets!" - Numbers 11:29.

Hello Im finally setting up this account.

brentan comments on Jun 5, 2019:

Welcome aboard!

They're ready for it..

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Poor Patrick! What did he do?

It's a sign!

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

That was noticeable.

Wrong number???

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Probability was on his or her side.

So now Trump has to be the tallest in the royal lineup + Melania.

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

I was taken aback by how much Charles has aged.

Pavlov's cat.

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Turnaround is fair play.

Each of them is very confident to end up in heaven and all the others in hell.

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

I don't trust those bearded guys, or the baldy fellows. I don't trust the guys in suits either. There's a woman and a black guy in there too. What's their game? I don't trust them.

You may not.....

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

Next time I'm in the shit, I'll know I'm where I'm meant to be!

Is Jew a religion or ethnicity?

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

It's one or the other or both.

There are points in your life where you make decisions.

brentan comments on Jun 4, 2019:

I can't say much more than welcome to the human race and it's good of you to care.

What??????

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I've never known a subject where there is such reluctance to talk objectively about the details.

It really works!

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Wendy needs to chill the fuck out.

They've got heart beats..

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I guess this is another way of looking at the growing creature as a parasite which I'm told is technically accurate. I think children will become potentially more useful than worms in the long run. The mother and child relation will be like the present creating the future and the future supporting the past. This is mutual dependence. I don't think of this as anything other than a general principle, me being pro-life in general and pro-choice in the particular.

In 1633, Galileo was ordered by the church to stand trial on suspicion of heresy, because he said ...

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

The way I have read about it recently, the Church was a big supporter of science and learning but could not support Galileo's proposal that the new scientific understandings must include a new understanding of meaning in theological terms. Apparently, Galileo was very dogmatic that one must mean the other so the Church dug in its heels and refuted all the new science to cut through the complications.

I always liked the term "to gain purchase".

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Get a grip!

Recently I heard this piece and, again, memories came flooding in.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

The things we do to join the Freemasons! Seriously though, it's a wonderful opera. The other one is pretty good too.

A couple posts yesterday got me thinking of this song - Rainy Day People Gordon Lightfoot.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Nice song! What's that roundy thing that's spinning around?

Pretty much.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

It's fate that matters, not Hodor.

Oh most definitely.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I could never decide if they thought they were out of their depth or they just thought I was mad.

I Vant You

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Vat do you vant me vor? I'm wery scared.

I don't remember the book.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

That story has everything!

Good morning my hippies.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I'm drawn to mad people. I don't know how much more I can bear to learn about being careful and fitting in.

Woof woof sigh

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Dog's a Buddhist! Maybe even smarter!

Volbeat.

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I came across some of these bands after googling the Norwegian singer Aurora across the internet. I’m not convinced that they actually ‘good’ musically. Not saying they are bad. I think they provide a sense of identity that is lacking and lots of us – Celts, Anglo-Saxons and I’ll bet even more far-flung cultures – relate to a musical expression of history and culture even if it’s not their own. I hope this trend grows in the face of a culturally generic Europe that holds so much of the communal culture we share but has no interest in the distinctive cultures of earlier times. Here’s a sample from Wardruna, Aurora and Oslo Fagottkor, The Road To Hell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg0TQyjdHJ0

Religious education can be bad for you; A big fella goes into a bar and asks, are there any Jews in ...

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I guess he missed the part about not returning evil for evil.

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I don't think it's a good idea to keep telling people you are different. The parades had their place but I think that time is gone and now it's time to just get on with life without the fanfare.

The goose that kept the golden egg....

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Words is all those losers are getting!

Hahahahaha! The pot is calling the kettle black!! 😂😂 Creationists Are Mocking Flat Earthers ...

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

There is a scriptural basis for believing in a flat earth. This is a picture of the cosmos of the old world. The earth of the living is a flat circle with a metallic covering in the heavens and the world of the dead beneath. Ham wants his bread buttered on both sides by believing science only when it suits him. A true believer would believe in this old world picture.

Tell it sister..

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

Well I'll be darned - I'm a dangerous weapon!

Time to say goodnight again and I’m leaving you tonight with George Michael and his version of ...

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

That's quality!

Maybe it was pointed out previously, but it deserves to be repeated: The most hilarious (Or, should...

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

I think he must have been a Gnostic, blaming everything on the material world and looking at the spiritual world as perfect.

This says it all

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

That sounds fair enough and a big help in a challenging world.

The last resort

brentan comments on Jun 3, 2019:

The degradation of poverty!

The artwork of R. Crumb - who else had this album?

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

I had it too. It was grungy.

Mean Mary - Blazing [youtube.com]

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

Finger-pickin' good!

"Why should I fear death?

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

I don't wanna die!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean it!

This Kenyan Priest Created a Shadow Catholic Church Where Celibacy is Optional (WOW!) ...

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

These pseudo-Christians should wise up and chuck the whole thing in.

Companies during Pride!!

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

It's been a while since gay meant happy.

How come 1.

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

I think it is very difficult to follow the development of the meaning of spirit. It started off in the Bible as 'ruach' - wind, breath. It seems to be understood more as the *power* inherent in the wind or breath. My understanding of the human body according to the ancient Hebrews is that it has two sources of life - breath and blood. If either is removed, the result is death of the 'nephesh' - the soul in the Old English sense of the word, such as 'all 200 souls on board were lost'. Here's a curious description of death, detailing the breakdown of the body and the resulting expiration of the body: Remember Him before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is crushed, before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel is broken at the well, before the dust returns to the ground from which it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it - Ecclesiastes 12:6, 7. Ecclesiastes seems to saying that the spirit, the power inherent in breath, returns to God. While Hebrew 'ruach' became Greek 'pneuma', the traditional understanding of what goes back to God is the psyche. Wiki says the Stoics related pneuma and psyche this way: In its highest form, pneuma constitutes the human soul (psychê), which is a fragment of the pneuma that is the soul of God (Zeus).

I have always enjoyed traveling throughout our nation but always love returning home to the Pacific ...

brentan comments on Jun 2, 2019:

Best of luck with your books!

Adam Smith approved.....

brentan comments on Jun 1, 2019:

The second millennial prophets have made a holy show of themselves with their false dates. It might be worth saying that the day-to-day duty of a prophet of God was to encourage people to keep their faith in their covenant with their god. Nowadays it seems to focus on what other people are doing.

What a beautiful and rare shred of what once was! Matriarchal and matrilineal peace and balance.

brentan comments on Jun 1, 2019:

I'm such a lazy bastard. I would have loved that culture.

I thought this was funny. Also kinda true.

brentan comments on Jun 1, 2019:

Sex gets very boring after a few years.

When doves cry

brentan comments on Jun 1, 2019:

Do doves cry because they are symbols of peace and they watch over relationships that should be peaceful but have become anything but peaceful?