Mister P-Mosh

Other than the whole Jesus = God vs. Jesus = Prophet thing, what is the difference between Islam and Christianity? From my perspective there are no real differences other than language.

My wife and I are planning to have at least one if not two of our own children, but we'd probably adopt a third in that case just to take in someone who needs it. After taking care of the whole "passing on genes" thing, of course.

Sometimes arguing on the internet can be therapeutic. After I said what I said here, I felt better and now I don't care about the arguments anymore.

What about Christians who get their jollies by abusing non-Christians? I posted it here because as a non-Christian Raf's site is not for me. In fact, you were the one that started this by naming people who are not members of Raf's site. If you had not specifically named people (particularly me) then I would have left your post alone over there and not posted it here. You should include yourself, since you are the one who started naming names. I don't need to be banned, I respect Raf's request that it be a site for Christians. I'm not a Christian, so I don't sign up there.

I actually think that you and pawtucket made noble and honest statements over there, and I agree that the "fight" shouldn't be taken to your site, and I really don't think it should be taken to JWO either unless both parties register there. In fact, I was mostly trying to avoid this whole spectacle, but since I was called out personally, I have no choice but to be involved. In fact, I didn't like what Chuck was doing since Zixar didn't register there, but I wanted to stay out of it. Since I have been lumped into a group with those that I have been lumped in with, that makes it my responsibility now to defend my own name (well, internet nickname) as well as theirs. I haven't always agreed with the people on Zixar's list in what they've done and said, but it doesn't matter now because I've been forced to pick a side in a stupid message board war that should have never started in the first place. When I am pushed I will push back, that's it. When someone is nice to me I am nice back. There's no other way for me to respond. It's not a Christian vs. non-Christian thing even though some people want to paint it that way. You and I, for example, have never had an argument on here that I can think of. You're Christian, and I'm not, but I don't insult you for being one and you don't insult me for not being one. I think that's how people should act, and I try to except when backed into a corner.

I'm glad to have helped you get such an important thing off your mind then. If you're referring to what I said, you said on another thread: That doesn't sound too disapproving to me. I can't really comment on those as the site is blocked from where I work. Maybe later if I feel like it, but probably not. Dismissing it as trolling won't work, as I am simply responding to accusations against me posted on a site where I am not welcome. You would be the one who is trolling simply for naming names in order to bait all of us into an argument with you. For the most part on the JWO site I've tried to remain civil except for a few things I've said, but I haven't participated in complaining about how I hate specific users or anything. In fact, the only things I've said there that I wouldn't here are words that are blocked here. Unlike you, I don't like the idea of banning people who disagree with me. It's not an either or situation, I'd be perfectly happy to see you stay here as long as I do too, but I don't like the idea of people suggesting I be booted from this site behind my back when it should be said openly here if you really believe that list of people should be booted. That's why I said pawtucket should just shut the whole thing down. There are people on JWO that would like to see you booted, and you and others on Raf's board want to see others here booted. Why not grant everyone's wish and shut the site down? Imagine how happy you could be if you prevented non-Christians from ever posting here again.

Oh, there's more from another ex-GS user: I don't come here "bearing destruction" I came here like pretty much everyone else did. I wanted more information about the cult that f*cked up my life and my family's life for so many years. I don't care for your religion, but I'll be glad to discuss it and I'm glad it makes you happy, just don't hold me to a higher standard than you are held to when you compare atheism to rape and then having the gall to complain when we get mad and say something back.

You know, I'm beginning to think that all the Christians should go to Raf's site, everyone else go to the ex-JWs site, and we all urge pawtucket to close GS message boards down. I was browsing Raf's site when I came across this gem: What vile things have I posted, and what did I start that I have laughed about? Yes, I don't like Christianity in the way most people act who believe it, but I try to use restraint when expressing that in mixed company so I don't offend anyone. Yes, CKnapp3 is giving you hell over there and I think he wants you to go there to argue with him. Other than that, I don't think most of the people on your list complained about you specifically or anything else. Perhaps they have since I last looked since the site is blocked from where I work. Of course, it gets better: Now you're asking pawtucket to kick all of us off the site and calling us trolls. How many of the threads about GreaseSpot going downhill have I started? None. How many posts in those threads have I made? Relatively few, and none are meant to attack anyone. In fact, the only naming of someone here was of a former/current user here who was part of the reason Rocky got kicked out. If anything, what I said should have deflected attention from you and to the other person. It's not like I should have expected better, but it's sad to see a so-called "Christian" site exist so users of this one can go off and be backstabbers towards other members of this one. It's bad when non-Christians do it on the JWO site, but Christians are the ones that claim to follow the morals of the bible. I know Raf didn't set up his site to be "complain about your least favorite GS users" but it looks like it is getting that way. It's particularly sad that a former user here equates the discussion of atheism with rape as well. If they want to consider all of us that don't toe the line with Christianity as rapists, trolls, whatever that's their right. However, they could at least do it on a forum that we can respond on. Personally, I'm agreeing with Raf's idea that he runs a Christian website and I won't go there and argue with people. However, I'll call it out here instead.

Sounds good. I originally wasn't going to see it because it sounds like they bastardized the story pretty badly, but if it's a good action movie, I'll just pretend that the names are Ether, Whenever, and Pantsalot.

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I don't think that Godwin's law applies to these people. Basically, there were some foster parents in Tennessee who had 18 kids they adopted, mostly handicapped or disabled in some way. They had the kids dig their own graves as a punishment and threatened that nobody would find out if they were bad. Other forms of punishment were to take away their glasses, crutches, leg braces, etc. and lock them in a cage. Where in the world do people like this come from? How can someone be so sick?

I take it you've been reading the jwo site where Chuck has been releasing steam about you?

Canibalism?!?!?!

I have a plan which if executed correctly, will allow me to retire before I turn 40, possibly even to start making preparations for it by the time I'm 30. I've been considering investing in the stock market, but being a fan of Paul Krugman I'm convinced that we're on our way to a Japanese style economy. I will still probably put $5,000 or so into an index fund that I've been looking at anyway just to see how it does. I also am leery of the seeming impending burst of the real estate bubble in the U.S., so I plan to buy some properties in Mexico not too far from the ocean. Even if commercial and residential real estate go bad, people will still want to take vacations and retire.

So...rather than continuing the name calling and arguing about users... What reason should there be for me to believe in gods, Jesus, or the bible? There is nothing compelling about any of those to me, so I don't see why I should believe in it. Since it is a duty of Christians to try to convert people, what reason would you all that are Christians give to others who you try to convert?

Snowcones just won't be enough on this thread, we need freaking Coldstone for this one...

If you want to be extra impressed, here are a few extensions (plugins) that make it a lot better: AdBlock, for blocking advertisements. There are sites on the web that can show you some default things to put in there to block, but I like to buid my list from scratch. It even lets you block flash advertisements. BugMeNot, allows you to get usernames and passwords for sites like the NYTimes that ask for you to register. TinyURL Creator, if you've not used this it may not make much sense, but basically it allows you to create shorter URLs for really long ones. E.g. if you have something like www.gscafe.com/blah/blahblah&blah&blah&blah you can set it to be something like tinyurl.com/b445. UserAgent Switcher lets you spoof servers to think that you are using IE or whatever browser you want. I use this with my bank website because they only allow IE, however the site works fine with FireFox. There are probably a few others I missed, but those ones are really good all-purpose extensions that I think you would like.

Thanks. I just wanted to throw some ideas out there. While I do understand where you are coming from, I see it from the other side as well. TWI is a Christian organization, and to me, it represents a lot that I see wrong with Christianity. The churches I attended with other family members growing up were just as bad, whether Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, or whatever. I also feel that my time in TWI made me aware enough of the bible to be able to determine what I feel is wrong or right about it. The point I am trying to make is that what some people consider to be the sins of TWI, I consider all of Christianity to be guilty of to some degree. I also fail to see a difference in believing in Jehovah and believing in Zeus. I also find it somewhat offensive when I hear people using "America" and "God" in the same sentence because it feels like they are trying to impose Christianity on me or our country (which the founding fathers seemed to want to keep religion and government seperated.) On the other hand I try not to be offensive in my posts when I discuss those things unless someone else is being so first. I don't think Refiner was being offensive when he posted "Why I reject Jesus" or whatever the original name was. The part where he said that the bible is B.S. was after a long argument had occurred, so although it was without tact and unfriendly, I do think he was responding in kind to how he was treated. I can't blame him for what he said without first blaming the others who participated in the argument on that thread. I think that what happened with Dot leaving was unfortunate. Also, I think that the reason Refiner got support was because it seemed like cowgirl was picking a fight with him and the girl from Oz. In fact it seems like some folks support their right to post, but vehemently disagree with Refiner at least, such as Raf.

Well, I'd say that they are abusing an IE security flaw that lets you run EXE files, but that still wouldn't get you anywhere. I'm amazed that a company would do something that stupid, but then again they're not a computer company. Sorry I couldn't be of any help, you can probably only open it from IE directly embedded in the form.

Nah, I just pick the right tool for the job. Plus, if I used C# I'd have to connect via ADO anyway to run SQL statements, so I'd just be creating more unnecessary work. I've been in I.T. long enough to know that I should put forth the least amount of effort to accomplish a task, because the management will have me redo over and over again while they are indecisive about what they really wanted. :D-->

I didn't really see it as being ridiculed, but I am biased as I have no love for Christianity myself, so I'm sure I didn't see it in the same light that a Christian would. I can't really comment further on that I guess. Yeah, it was definitely doctrinal material. I wonder if it is possible to give people the ability to move their threads to another forum? I think Refiner would have done that if asked, and it would have solved this issue. We're mostly adults here so I think that we shouldn't expect constant moderator supervision, but at the same time something more may be able to help improve this problem. There is always the mid-summer lull on websites. Every online community I participate in with the exception of dailykos is in a lull right now. Once "school starts" I expect to see this site picking up again, or at least by fall. I would agree, except for the fact that we would end up having those same arguments here. I can't help but jump on people sometimes when I see something that I feel is really wrong, whether it's right for me to do it or not. I normally try to avoid doing that on the Open forum, but I have a feeling that without the political forums a lot of that would spill over here. It might be worth it for pawtucket to try disabling those forums for a while, and deleting political posts. He could even set up "badword" lists like he did for names of TWI members. I don't know how well that would work out. I'd be glad to offer my assistance to writing queries to determine the most commonly used words in the political threads if he has SQL access to the database.

He may or may not answer, so I'll give a few suggestions, to be taken with the dehydrated Salt Lake. 1) Define the site more clearly, and find a way to make sure people realize that. There have been many people that come here and think that we're all supposed to be Christians. I assume Dot Matrix left because she felt that this site wasn't Christian enough or something like that. I think that pawtucket has designed this to not be anti-Christian, but to allow people of whatever belief system (or lack thereof) to come here and discuss TWI. (Un)fortunately, there are other forums than "About the Way" that sometimes distract us from that, but the way international is the main topic of this site. 2) Stricter enforcement of forums by the moderators. I don't want to ask for more work to be done, but I think it might be good to be a little more strict about the sectioning of things. For example, moving refiner's topic about rejecting the bible was something that should happen more often. 3) More posts by the rest of us. I could probably post more things to discuss, but don't really do it much other than in the political forums. I think that some of the issues Zixar was complaining about are due to a lack of other posts by people here. The reality is that even though the main focus of this site should be the "About the Way" forum, the community here on the other forums is just as important since it ties us all together. I think it's fine to post birthdays and such, because it helps us all know each other a little better. I'd just like to see more stuff posted as well that are our thoughts on other topics. Even though my "favorite candy" topic has been done already and is fairly asinine, it at least gives people something to talk about. 4) Lighten the f***** up! Some people around here take things entirely too seriously, and some of us get frustrated by others here too easily. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the most tightly wound people around here who need to take this advice the most will probably not do so. I am primarily thinking of myself here, because it's too easily to passionately argue about some of the things I argue about here. I know others are the same way. Anyway, there are four suggestions, take them or leave them it doesn't matter. They're just suggestions. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Well, you won't be getting me to leave, not permanently anyway since I do take breaks now and then. :D-->

Which attitude is that?