More Religious Nutters

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yea! The prefix of the Beast has been vanquished!

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Jesusland, students continue to attend high schools named for Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

I guess you gotta have your priorities.

Why, oh why didn't we let the South leave when we had the chance?

[Elok]

It's not reasonable, it's what he considers a bulletproof argument, and it's moronic even when you ask it instead of him. The only original part is your use of the term "superstition," which you seem to love. I do not use that word to describe religions of any kind, as the term to me implies pseudoscientific or magical thinking rather than the mysticism found in most religions. I know you don't understand the distinction, but that's your problem.

[Elok]

Silly Rufus, since the mid-nineties every person/place/thing named "Forrest" has been named after the inspirational retarded guy from the movie, not the klansman.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Elok
Silly Rufus, since the mid-nineties every person/place/thing named "Forrest" has been named after the inspirational retarded guy from the movie, not the klansman.

Would that it were so. Imagine the school board meeting where the debate on the change took place:

"The first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is a noble representative of Dixie and an inspiration to today's Southern youth!"

"Yes, but so is a mildly retarded guy with no understanding of current events!"

[SlowwHand]

You have no understanding of history, Rufus.

The Klan's first incarnation was in 1866. Founded by veterans of the Confederate Army, its main purpose was to resist Reconstruction, and it focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the freed slaves

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan

Now, back to 666, unless you want to tell me Abe Lincoln had it tattooed on his ass, which I would believe and like to hear more about.

Again, it wasn't blacks to the South, as much as it was jackasses with their snobass attitude.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Jesus Sloww, actually read what you post, will ya?

it focused as much on intimidating "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags" as on putting down the freed slaves

So it was persecuting blacks and other things. But don't even try to pretend it wasn't about blacks.

[Omni Rex Draconis]

Originally posted by Elok
It's not reasonable, it's what he considers a bulletproof argument, and it's moronic even when you ask it instead of him. The only original part is your use of the term "superstition," which you seem to love. I do not use that word to describe religions of any kind, as the term to me implies pseudoscientific or magical thinking rather than the mysticism found in most religions. I know you don't understand the distinction, but that's your problem.

No, it is you who does not understand that there is no distinction between superstition and religion. But that's your problem.

The number 666 (or 616, for that matter) is just a number. Do any kind of survey you like - wealth, longevity, happiness, number of pets - and you will find no difference in people who have 666 in their telephone listing and those who do not.

The quoted article was printed because many people now realize just how stupid it is to change your phone number because it is "evil". It is apparent that some here in 'Poly are still stuck in the age of superstition.

If LOTM said he did not want live in a neighborhood with a street layout like a swastika because he's a Jew, which of the following would you infer

If LotM is disturbed by random swastika-shaped objects, then I would infer that he needs psychiatric help.

If LotM is disturbed because people are painting swastikas on his family's tombstone, I infer that he has some f'ed up enemies who need to go to jail.

Just one more time, then. The Holocaust? Real. The Beast and his Number? Not real.

If I was a Jew, I would be offended by your comparison of a trivial bit of ancient prophecy with the horrifying genocide still carried in living memory. To the Jews, it is not "just an image thing".

[Elok]

Okay, so you have poor reading comprehension and/or analytic skills. That, too, is your problem.

EDIT to explain and forestall protests (hopefully): I have just spent like a dozen posts establishing that there is no evidence in the article that these people believe their phone number will do them actual harm, and in fact some evidence against that reading. They just don't like being represented by the number, AFAICT. Hence your first point is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT.

As to the second, the truth or falsehood of the holocaust/bible is also COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to this argument. My whole point in that analogy was that reluctance to be associated with a well-known symbol of evil is not a form of superstition. The origin of the symbol in question is totally tangential. And if you think their reluctance is an overreaction, that's a whole other argument, also having nothing to do with my point.

In conclusion: Read. Reread. Then, and only then, respond. And (I cannot emphasize this enough): COMPLETELY! IRRELEVANT!

[Joseph]

Hey the Military bypass the number 13. You will not fine an F-13 or A-13 or B-13.

[Blake]

I'm not so sure about this...

For instance, New Zealand number plates currently follow a 3-letter 3-number format (ie AAA111)

I am quite certain, that the "ASS" and "C*M" plates were skipped. It is probable that the "SEX" and "NAZ1" plates will be skipped.

I don't know. Is the 666 thing really that different?

[Saras]

There are EVL 666 and BAD 666 licence plates in Lithuania

[Harovan]

My license plate is BA-NE 666

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Joseph
Hey the Military bypass the number 13. You will not fine an F-13 or A-13 or B-13.

In WW2, the German armies were numbered. You find everything from 1st to 20th Army. Except 13th.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Elok
The existence/activity of God is not provably false. And don't give me that flying spaghetti monster crap, it's plain to me that by superstition Wezil meant that they were afraid the telephone number would jinx them somehow--not borne out by the article quoted. I know you want to be a condescending superior enlightened rational smegtard, but pick another thread for it.

I'm a condescending superior enlightened rational smegtard, and I'll happily wipe the floor with any argument you propose as a justification for belief in God.

Try me.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Elok
I do not use that word to describe religions of any kind, as the term to me implies pseudoscientific or magical thinking rather than the mysticism found in most religions. I know you don't understand the distinction, but that's your problem.

Mysticism is bollocks. Even if people have such experiences, there are better explanations than religion.

People used to believe that getting sick was due to the disfavour of the divine. Mysticism is no more rational than that.

Most mysticism is just poor man's Neoplatonism without any of the interesting bits.