What's on your mind today?

[Ali]

We should have a separate threads for Asmo sitings around the web.

[Buddy]

The funny part? I visit that site quite regularly, and that Asmothrall has been put up recently.

[Amicale]

Tonight my "Catholic" (quotes for a reason) grandmother and I had an interesting conversation about how horrible and strict nuns used to be when she was growing up. She told me a story about how when she was a little girl, she and a friend would duck inside a Catholic church to keep warm before school but wouldn't actually attend the mass, so rather than welcoming the children in, the Mother Superior would take a belt to them and whip them for daring to warm themselves up in the foyer. I was shocked and I said "and what caused you to stay Catholic??" and her response was "it's not like I really think there's a heaven and a hell, I just go because I've always gone and I like getting out to see my friends on Sunday."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.   This dear, sweet 84 year old lady who I love to bits is apparently Catholic 'in name only', and she keeps going to church just out of habit, to see her friends. That's true dedication to her friends, if you ask me....

[Ali]

Wow Amicale!  Your relatives are turning out to be Heathens left and right.  Methinks you come from good stock.

[Amicale]

Wow Amicale!  Your relatives are turning out to be Heathens left and right.  Methinks you come from good stock.

ROFL yeah, it's been a very weird couple of days for me... my grandfather IS very definitely still Catholic in the ordinary sense, so I guess part of the reason she goes to church is because of him. But in some ways, it's a little sad how my relatives don't actually believe in certain things, yet claim to profess them generally because it's expected of them. It just makes me wonder tonight how many "Christians" are out there who are Christian in name only because people expect them to be, or that's how they grew up although they never really believe it themselves, or because everyone else is doing it. That really seems to be the experience my mom and grandma have both had. I'm glad to hear that my grandma's given the issue some thought, and same with my mom. It's been a nice surprise.

[Sweetdeath]

I think most people are only religious in name only because it's easier than saying you're atheist, and ACTUALLY having to explain things to people. e_e

[Amicale]

I think most people are only religious in name only because it's easier than saying you're atheist, and ACTUALLY having to explain things to people. e_e

Honestly, I think in my grandma's generation, it's more a 'do as the community does' mentality. As a child, teenager, young adult and even older adult, she'd never met anyone in person who admitted to being an atheist. She's got over 80 years of knowing her own culture very well, and the thoughts and ideas of other cultures/groups much, much less well. I don't hold it against her at all. With an 8th grade education, she married, raised kids who all turned out to be very smart, funny, caring people, and she dotes on her husband, kids, grandkids and great-grandchild with a ferocity that is practically extinct in my own generation. She's incredibly talented and creative - she cooks from scratch, can look at a piece of clothing and then sew up an identical copy from memory, has the greenest thumb I know, and she works harder than most people I know. If going to church on Sunday is her one 'social quirk', she's welcome to it, and she doesn't have to explain anything to me.

[Sandra Craft]

Honestly, I think in my grandma's generation, it's more a 'do as the community does' mentality.

I think this is true.  My Dad was more freethinker than Xtian but he not only went to church with his wife, he actively took part in it.  My Dad was a very social guy and he grew up in the rural Deep South where the church pretty much is the social life so I think church-going was habit and tradition with him.  He also told me once that it was one of the few places he could get together with people his own age and shoot the breeze. 

One funny thing about Dad and church: he took part in a weekly men's bible study group and liked to take me along as a guest whenever I visited -- not because he felt it would change my mind, but because I'd say all the things he thought but was too easy-going to say!  It was all very friendly and the other guys liked having me join in to "mix it up", tho they'd have probably changed their minds if I came in every week.

[Tank]

We should have a separate threads for Asmo sitings around the web.

You can stick them in the Asmo world domination thread.

[Asmodean]

We should have a separate threads for Asmo sitings around the web.

You can stick them in the Asmo world domination thread.

Yes, beause the www is sort of a part of the very world The Asmo is trying to dominate 

[The Magic Pudding]

We all know intelligence got the universe going but how?
Does it have arms, maybe just a hand.
I've heard about the hand of god.
Maybe the primordial intelligence just thinks things and they happen.
But then why bother making them happen, isn't just thinking about it enough? What's to prove?
My theory is we are all part of a dream the Big Rabbit is having.
Well actually I'm a part of it, you are probably just an ancillary support cast.  
I think I'll put the kettle on, this philosophisen is thirsty work.

[Sweetdeath]

My phonebill is due in 3 days, and i'm ridiculously low on funds. Damn it.

[history_geek]

I'm just feeling a tad bit absolutely livid at the moment. Who the hell came up with this Windows 7 Starter thing? Whoever it was, I feel like going horribly generic pagan barbarian on their arse right about now.

My old lap top finally decided it was its time to join the paradise of the junkyard, leaving me with my shine new mini-laptop that I got for my previous birthday. It has te Starter thingie. Now, I would like to start using Xbox Live again (simply because I can't play any old saved games that I have in most games because the DLC's don't work without the bloody connection. Microsoft, you're next on the list...yes yes, Windows is their product but this time I mean the corporation rather then individual workers...). So I decided that I'll connect it through my laptop. I go to google to look how it was done again. Guess what. "Function not supported by Windows 7 Starter".

So after about an hour of looking through all sorts of possibilities, the only way is to get a full version W7 (as if I had the money)....or get a new computer. I actually do have one, but I doesn't have a Windows installed and I can't be bothered to try and figure out how to do all that on Linux. Plus, the old screen that we have is rubbish, and I would need a second mouse and....

Yeah. Now if you'll excuse me, I shall go and try to find myself a tappra (twin bladed battle axe) and practice my battlecry. Ahem.

Hakkaa päälle Pohjan poika, PERKELE!

[Too Few Lions]

Dawkins on BBC1 on 'The Big Questions' in the UK if anyone's up and about. Looks like a tasty debate on 'Is Britain a Christian country.'

[Guardian85]

Hakkaa päälle Pohjan poika, PERKELE!

Translation, please. Not all of us speak vodka.