Pat Robertson on the Haitian Earthquake ...

[piece-itpete]

Originally Posted by merrylander

I suspect he may also have some taste and would not touch Robertson or Limbaugh with a stick.

What I can't understand is that we go around putting down poor little pit bulls and those two still live.

(Exits left humming "Onward Christian . . .")

ROTFLMAO! This place is on fire today!

Originally Posted by Boreas

... and Obeah gods become Satan.

The Haitians have no illusions about it. This story is far from being new news, there was even a ceremony voiding the pact.

Pete

[Boreas]

I just did a little research on the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian religion is what's called "syncretic". That means they folded their own religion into Christianity in order to disguise it and make its practice more acceptable to their colonial masters.

One of the ways they did this was to identify their various gods with Christian saints. God himself ("Bondye" for bon dieu, or good God) was above human concerns so the people besought the saints/lesser deities for redress. It turns out that the deity who blessed their revolution was their mother goddess Ezili Dantor. She's, of course, represented by the Virgin.

Tres interessant!

John

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Fast_Eddie

Am I surprised that there are people in one of the most impoverished, uneducated places in the Western Hemisphere who believe in spells, magic and voodoo? Not at all. You expect those things in places that haven't had the benefit of progress and prosperity. At one time those traditions were prominent throughout the world. The Greeks had a hell of a society going and they still believed in a lot of weird magic stuff.

Not surprised in the least, look at what some of our wing nuts believe and they alledgedly had the benifit of schooling.

[piece-itpete]

Next you'll be saying the world is round.



Pete

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Next you'll be saying the world is round.



Pete

That would be admitting that the Bible is not an historical document.

And please, I know the arguments. We need not have that discussion. It's one of my favorite bits of fundamentalist cognitive dissonance. Love the tree at the center of the Earth (Daniel 4:10-11). May be there, who knows? But I guarantee you nobody has seen it. I’m going off to a corner now to speak with one of the four winds. Be back in a bit.

[piece-itpete]

Oh nonono. That was a vision....

Pete

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Oh nonono. That was a vision....

Pete

Come on, admit it. You had to look it up.

Just responding in fun. I know you weren't forwarding that as your arguement.

Having said that, it's a relatively weak argument. I mean, even if you’re having a vision your understanding of how the Universe is laid out is unlikely to change. Even if it did, you would probably feel some need to note that in this vision things were quite odd. Like you might say “I had a dream, and it was really cool ‘cause I could fly!”

The more common argument is semantic. But I like that even more because it acknowledges not only that the text of the Bible was written in another language, but also that translation, which no one argues was done by anything but human beings, involves interpretation. Quite a paradox for people who claim the Bible shouldn’t be interpreted at all but taken as literal fact.

Just mental gymnastics. Gotta stay limber with this group.

[piece-itpete]

Yep, I'm busted! Been a while since I read that story.

It was a dream, by a pagan at that.

I read multple translations

And boy, limber I ain't

Pete

[Fast_Eddie]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

Yep, I'm busted! Been a while since I read that story.

It was a dream, by a pagan at that.

I read multple translations

And boy, limber I ain't

Pete

Dunno, you keep me on my toes.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by Fast_Eddie

The more common argument is semantic. But I like that even more because it acknowledges not only that the text of the Bible was written in another language, but also that translation, which no one argues was done by anything but human beings, involves interpretation.

The argument advanced is that of "divine inspiration". Even though the Bible was written, edited, translated, what have you by hooman beans, God oversaw the work and made sure no mistakes were made. It's more or less analogous to the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility where whatever the Pope says or does comes straight from God and is, therefore, perfect in every way.

John