Blank Stare

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_The Nehor
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Post by _The Nehor »

Scottie wrote:I love how Tal puts it. The first thing he asks is, "If I could prove to you that the LDS church weren't true, would you even want to know?"

For most TBM's, the answer is no. The amount of pain and anguish it would cause would be too much for them.

I think someone on MAD had a list of quotes. One good one was, "Everyone wants to share their religion with you, but refuses to let you talk about yours." or something like that.

To find a truly open minded person in this world is, well, needles and haystacks come to mind.


Can it be proven?
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics
"I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
_Sam Harris
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Re: Blank Stare

Post by _Sam Harris »

Mercury wrote:
GIMR wrote:Sometimes in speaking with the more zealous LDS that I know, I come across what seems to be a mental "blank stare", a point at which they shut off upstairs for some reason, because the discussion we're having is apparently something way too taboo for them.


OOOOh yah, the "I'm really going to start to speak really quickly and change the pitch of my voice tactic."

I know exactly what you mean. Its a shutdown between the centers of cognition and the responses cease, as if you were brushing off the Jehovah's witnesses on saturday morning.


LOL, that's kind of what happened, we were talking about A BOOK, and all of a sudden the conversation was cut short, because the person on the other line just had to go prepare dinner. Well, whatever.

I've never had JWs knock on my door. We have a kingdom hall right around the corner, and I've seen them out and about once, but they never approached our house. I have cousins who are JW, and used to have some friends in Germany who were JW. They were never pushy...
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. -Ghandi
_Sam Harris
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Re: CK

Post by _Sam Harris »

Mercury wrote:Do you feel the rhetoric coming from the christian right is justified?


The rhetoric coming from the fundies was the same BS that came out when the Harry Potter books came out. These folks need to learn to stop letting pastor think for them. Perhaps that's why my head never stops hurting, I think too damn much, but goodness...the alternative...
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. -Ghandi
_Sam Harris
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Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2006 2:35 am

Post by _Sam Harris »

Scottie wrote:I love how Tal puts it. The first thing he asks is, "If I could prove to you that the LDS church weren't true, would you even want to know?"

For most TBM's, the answer is no. The amount of pain and anguish it would cause would be too much for them.

I think someone on MAD had a list of quotes. One good one was, "Everyone wants to share their religion with you, but refuses to let you talk about yours." or something like that.

To find a truly open minded person in this world is, well, needles and haystacks come to mind.


Worldviews are very strange and delicate things. I've lost all goodness that I once had in the eyes of some, simply because the path my steps took either skirted the edge of their worldviews, or walked out of it altogether.

I have avoided (which has been an olympic feat, I tell you) getting into depths about why I left the church with some of my LDS friends. They just won't be able to handle what I have to say. There's one I'm just moving away from altogether, because he acts like I'm a ticking sin bomb or something...and what's strange is that my denomination changed (if we have to stick to labels), not who I am as a person. But still, for his sake, I avoid taking him to the local LDS bookstore, pulling a book or two off the shelf, and asking him to explain without his testimony what it is that I present to him.

Three scenarios:

1. This person is uninspired (but he's quoting scripture...and he wasn't the only one).
2. You're interpreting this the wrong way (common route, the one Juliann took).
3. I don't know (the most dangerous scenario, because that's when people's worldviews shut down).
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. -Ghandi
_Mercury
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Re: CK

Post by _Mercury »

GIMR wrote:
Mercury wrote:Do you feel the rhetoric coming from the christian right is justified?


The rhetoric coming from the fundies was the same BS that came out when the Harry Potter books came out. These folks need to learn to stop letting pastor think for them. Perhaps that's why my head never stops hurting, I think too damn much, but goodness...the alternative...


U need a lobotomy, Stat! Its the only way we can save your faith!
And crawling on the planet's face
Some insects called the human race
Lost in time
And lost in space...and meaning
_Sam Harris
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Post by _Sam Harris »

Seriously though, I wish these neurologists would go ahead and do some exploratory surgery on me. Since my stroke my health has gradually declined, and I'm at the point where 3 weeks out of the month I'm suffering from headaches. I just missed a week of work, and have seen the ER 3 times since December. The headache I'm fighting now I've had since New Years Eve. My parents are so worried they've decided to leave me the house we're in when they retire. , because should I be forced to leave the career world, it will cost me half of what it would cost to have an apartment to keep up this town home. THAT scared the crap out of me (and made me very grateful as well, fought back tears when she told me), because my mom has never been one to acknowledge my illnesses.

I have a new neuro, but I swear I'm gonna kill someone if they don't figure out what is wrong. I don't have a life anymore.
Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. -Ghandi
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