Re: Ed Dolan the Great and Some Night Thoughts

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

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We are all dying each and every day a little and there is never any
point in rushing the process. But some are so stupid as to not even be
aware of the process.

I now know more dead folks that I do live folks. This is an indication
that I shall soon join that majority myself.

Beware of the witching hour of 4:00 AM. That is the time of the Grim
Reaper.

"just a little alcohol gets me high" - Ed

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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We are all dying each and every day a little and there is never any point
in rushing the process. But some are so stupid as to not even be aware of
the process.

You could look at it that way but we are also all living each and every day.
Death is not a process. It is an event much the same way conception and
birth are events. To look at them as a process robs them of any distinction.
While you might say that the journey of life (or consciousness to be more
precise) ends with death, it does not follow that we are dying. To focus on
this aspect alone makes no more sense than to deny it. You must learn to
live with death without dying every day.

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Jeff, there is a switch-over point that occurs sometime in your 60's when
you realize you are getting damn close to the end.

You could be right although I'm ten years from getting there. Hopefully
we'll both be around and I'll share my thoughts with you at that time.

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A young person who thinks about death is a freak, but an old person who
does NOT think about death is also a freak.
Nonetheless, I like your point about death being merely an event and not a
process. I am going to try to think of it that way myself.

I was that sort of freak. In my late teens and early twenties I was quite
troubled by death. I made my peace with death, however, and it doesn't
trouble me. You are correct about me being too cheerful. It is my lot in
life. I can almost always see the bright side and fail to account for what
can go wrong.

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PS. I do not think Jeff will ever be eligible for my Order of the
Perpetual Sorrows. He is just too god damn cheerful!

That's ok, Ed. I wasn't looking to join an order. There's far too many of
them already if you ask me. It is all these orders that is responsible for
all the disorder. That's my opinion.

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PS2. There are no more wretched creatures in this world than fallen away
Roman Catholics. Aye, keep the Faith, but easier said than done!

I think that Christians should keep the faith. But I think that they should
follow Jesus not worship him. He never considered himself anything other
than a somewhat enlightened Rabbi. I would love to be able to read and
understand that bible in its original language without King James or anyone
else to tell me what it says. I don't actually ever plan to make the effort,
however. I'd bet that Jesus wasn't claiming anything that he didn't feel was
available to everyone.

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Roman Catholics do not take the Bible literally. Everything we know is
mediated through the Church. Very strange to me that you do not know this!

I do know that. It is the entire problem.

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I think it is better to be a fallen away Roman Catholic like me than to be
a fallen away Jew like Jeff Grippe. We fallen away Catholics are not
stupid enough to think anyone cares about our former childish beliefs.

Now as for me, as I've told you in the past, I teach Sunday School. I belong
to the Ethical Culture Society. It was founded by a rabinical student who
decided that teaching deeds and good works were more important than teaching
religious beliefs.

As an athiest, I do not believe in anything supernatural. As a humanist, I
have respect for all other beliefs as long as they are non-violent and
moderate.

I believe (and I acknowledge that I could be wrong) that the Muslim
terrorists are a small segment of the Muslim population. While they need to
be fought, war is the wrong way to do it. They are simply taking literal
messages from their religious works and acting them out just as fanatic Jews
and Christians have done at times.

Ed, you do stir up the soup and get people to think but you are fighting
ignorance with ignorance and that is just as stupid as having a war to bring
peace.

Since you are an intelligent man and since you are closing in on your 10,000
message milestone, maybe you want to think about what those messages add up
to.

Or you can insult me again. Your choice. WWEDD?

Go in Peace Ed,

Jeff

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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"Jeff Grippe" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

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Roman Catholics do not take the Bible literally. Everything we know is
mediated through the Church. Very strange to me that you do not know
this!

I do know that. It is the entire problem.

You do not want individuals reading the Bible and coming to their own
conclusions. That way lies madness.

Stop agreeing with me dammit!

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I think it is better to be a fallen away Roman Catholic like me than to
be a fallen away Jew like Jeff Grippe. We fallen away Catholics are not
stupid enough to think anyone cares about our former childish beliefs.

Now as for me, as I've told you in the past, I teach Sunday School. I
belong to the Ethical Culture Society. It was founded by a rabinical
student who decided that teaching deeds and good works were more
important than teaching religious beliefs.

Very difficult to ever sperate the two. Morality without religion is never
trustworthy. It leads to all kinds of conundrums.

Religion is not the source of morality. We do not live by Christian morals,
or Jewish morals in this day and age. I posted that list of biblically
prescribed punishments (that you said you were declining to read). We pick
and choose from scripture to fit what we innately understand as moral. Then,
many religious types pretend that they are doing what scripture says when
they are actually behaving in a way that conforms with basic human ethics.

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As an athiest, I do not believe in anything supernatural. As a humanist,
I have respect for all other beliefs as long as they are non-violent and
moderate.

The above statement will get you into all kinds of trouble everywhere in
the world. You wouldn't last a day in the Middle East.

You are right here. In many Muslim countries these thoughts would be
punishable by death. I don't live in the Middle East, however.

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I believe (and I acknowledge that I could be wrong) that the Muslim
terrorists are a small segment of the Muslim population. While they need
to be fought, war is the wrong way to do it. They are simply taking
literal messages from their religious works and acting them out just as
fanatic Jews and Christians have done at times.

The Muslim religion is more a culture than anything else, and it is a
culture which is at war with the West. In any event, in these times of
weapons of mass destruction, we cannot afford to cut them any slack. We
need to kill them before they kill us.

It is a war of ideas. Ideas can be modified and changed but they can not be
killed. You will never be able to wipe out a culture. It isn't worth trying.
When you try, you simply strengthen the idea and embolden its followers.

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Ed, you do stir up the soup and get people to think but you are fighting
ignorance with ignorance and that is just as stupid as having a war to
bring peace.

I am NOT an idealist like so many liberals are. That is the chief
difference between you and me.

It certainly is a big difference. I don't want to give up my idealism or my
optimism and so I remain as I am.

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Since you are an intelligent man and since you are closing in on your
10,000 message milestone, maybe you want to think about what those
messages add up to.

It adds up to having a lot of fun with very ordinary folks who are
essentially ignorant on most everything.

Yes but we really shouldn't be doing it here where the cyclists want to talk
about cycling. It's one thing to do it as a thread now and again but you go
way beyond that. This is all old ground, however, that we've been over many
times before.

Jeff

"Edward Dolan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Yes, I am strictly a side dish on these cycling newsgroups. My only appeal
will be to an intellectual elite. However, it does not hurt a newsgroup to
have an off-topic genius living among them. Surely, it must get extremely
boring to read nothing but cycling related topics.

Sure it hurts them. They don't want it and yet they are in no position to
get you to stop given the nature of the beast. If they wanted politics
they'd go to a politics group and post there. Cyclists go to cycling
newsgroups to read about cycling. If it were boring then there wouldn't be
any cycling newsgroups. The fact that there are so many is proof that many
people do not find it boring. I haven't seen anyone post a message yet that
says "Thank god all this political discussion has saved us from the boring
cycling talk."

Cyclists are interested in politics to the degree that it relates to cycling
such as helmet laws, driving laws, etc. Some of us, such as me, are willing
to dive into your silly little world but most of the cyclists would prefer
to limit the talk to cycling.

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You should not be picking and choosing anything from scripture if you are
not a believer. I never do that myself. Ideally, you ought to be basing
any appeal to morality strictly on humanistic, secular and scientific
terms unconnected to religion. If you can't do this, then you are being
hypocritical.

The fact remains that for the mass of men morality and religion go hand in
hand. In fact, it is the one and only thing I like about any religion.

Its a nice thought, Ed. If only it were true I'd probably be religious
myself. But the reality is that people with power have always felt free to
make their own rules. Apparently they aren't scared by god.

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But you need to know your enemy. I assure you Jeff, if they could, they
would kill you without a moments hesitation. What do you propose to do
about that - other than preach pieties?

What can I do? Kill them first? I don't think so. It won't work. It is not
people but rather an idea that we are fighting. You can't kill ideas with
guns.

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The ideas of the Muslim Jihadists with respect to the West are based
solely on their abominable religion. It why wars of religion have always
been so terrible. Frankly, I am very glad that there is a strong religious
element left in Israel (the Orthodox Jews). They may very well need that
in the end in order to survive.

Nope. They are going to have to work out terms for peace. That does not mean
agreement. It mean you go your way and I go mine. Kind of like what you and
I have done.

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If you were ever to immerse yourself in the study of history you would
soon become convinced at what makes the world go around - and it is NOT
idealism!

You have no credentials to recommend study to anyone when you won't study
yourself. Whatever you've learned has become warped by your opinions. This
is not bad. It happens to all of us but you refuse to let in anything new.
That's not good.

Jeff