I heard today that the Pope called an emergency meeting of all the Clergy and he said "I have good news and bad news. I will share the good news first. The good news is that Jesus Christ is back on the Earth and the second coming of Christ is upon us."
There was a celebratory roar throughout the land until somebody asked the inevitable question, "If that is the good news, what can the bad news possibly be?"
"Well," the Pope said, "He called from Salt Lake City."
Surprise!
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Registered: 02/03/08
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While it’s annoying I generally don’t mind too much if random people are trying to promote their religion. Not much different than the storm chasers who want to try to sell me on a new roof, or the incessant pop up ads online for any old sort of bullshit product.
Had some Jehovah’s Witnesses stop by a month or so ago (there is a JW Kingdom Hall not too far from my house.) I let “Alice” and “Gift” read me a passage about what it means for there to be a kingdom and wax for a minute or so further on the topic. Then I just told them we’re not a very religious household, but I’m Catholic and my wife is Muslim so thanks and have a nice day.
But yah, when it gets into gov’t I have a beef with that.
Flat, when you were in Kuwait and Afghanistan what did you think about the calls to prayer? I visited my wife’s family in Palestine again this past summer and yah 5 times a day the mosques will ring out the call to prayer. I actually find it kind of peaceful and beautiful though the call at 3:45am when there’s a mosque right across the street from us was a little…invasive. One of my wife’s cousins was saying the mosques got a new singer who was awesome. Most of the time I heard the usual old guy with a grovvely voice singing the call to prayer but one night at 3:45am it was a different dude and I was listening to him and thought “this has to be the guy her cousin was talking about” cuz he was *crushing* it. Seriously awesome vocal chops. So I just laid there in bed kind of smiling and admiring it. Then I fell back asleep.
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Doug, we say the Unitarian symbol is a giant question mark. My former church in MA is made up of all highly educated professionals who would never buy the talking snake schtick.
-m
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Registered: 07/11/01
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I always loved the call to prayer and I feel exactly as you do. I also alwats thought tt's really peaceful and beautiful. Mrsflat says the same thing.
I mean, I've also poked a little fun, I have to confess, from time to time. But there was a mosque right near us in Kuwait and I used to really like hearing it.
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Registered: 09/27/00
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I went to Malaysia for work several years ago. There was a guy who would sing the call to prayer off the hotel balcony some 20 floors up. It sounded really beautiful the way it echoed around the neighborhood.
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Registered: 02/03/08
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Yah. My wife’s family’s home town has like 9 mosques in their not-very-big town all equipped with speakers that have the audio quality of a megaphone so it blares through the whole town. One thing I forgot to ask her family about is once the singing is over there’s always two or three lo-fi touchtone phone sounding beeps. Not sure why but it sort of adds to the low fidelity of it all.
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Originally Posted By: Marty Gilman
Beautiful or not, I see a call to pray five times a day as an attempt at total indoctrination.
-m
Marty, keep in mind, at least where my wife’s family is from, it is virtually 100% Muslim and the town is basically like the Muslim equivalent of a small rural town in Alabama full of Christians. Likewise, no one is forced to go to the mosque or even pray for that matter. Yes it may seem extreme to blare the call to prayer 5 times a day, every day, but it’s just their version of church bells ringing on Sunday, ya know?
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he would make pizzas, while listening to this stuff non-stop on his cell phone. i tried to be as polite as i could while he tried to introduce me to that stuff...
i saw Jesus once in Vancouver...
he was smoking freebase in a back alley, near the Police station. lol
Registered: 02/03/08
Posts: 19705
Loc: Chicago, IL
Originally Posted By: Marty Gilman
If they rang church bells five times every day i would not like it.
-m
Yeah but that wouldn’t really align with Christian religion norms. It’s a Sunday thing for Christians so church bells on Sunday. For Muslims it’s 5 times a day so that’s what they do.
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If they rang church bells five times every day i would not like it.
-m
here in Quebec City, the bells ring every hour.
and i like it just fine that way. the sounds a city makes gives it its own personality.
if i hear 3 bells in the middle of the night, i know it's 3 o'clock. it's comforting...
My best friend (RIP Max) and best man at our wedding gifted us a lovely wall wind-up clock with a "Twilight Zone" Roman Numeral face (we were both big fans,) so I can hear it bong at night and yes, I too like to count the chimes BUT - it also chimes every 1/2 hour sooo is it 1? 1:30? 2:30? 3:30??
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My grandmother had a clock that did the Big Ben chime, so it rings every quarter hour with increasing parts of the whole thing, then does the whole little piece and the chimes of the hour on the hour. I used to love that clock, it was really comforting to me.
My wife hates it however.
_________________________ The internet, and the whole technology sector on which it floats, feels like a giant organ for bullshittery—for upscaling human access to speech and for amplifying lies. - Ian Bogost
Professor Truth T. Sweetness says,"Mind your manners!"
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My point was not so much the noise, but any religion that calls you to pray five times a day, indoctrination to the highest level as I see it.
Maybe it’s my attitude toward prayer to an invisible wizard that may grant a wish to one of the 8 billion people on this planet. I prefer to rely on myself.
-m
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Registered: 09/27/00
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Originally Posted By: Marty Gilman
My point was not so much the noise, but any religion that calls you to pray five times a day
Union regulations. Mandatory work breaks!
Taking a break to meditate is always a good thing.
The problem I have with most organized religions is the idea of "worship." Why would any truly supreme being insist on being worshipped, and punish any "lesser" beings who didn't comply?
Edited by Xenophile (09/20/2304:07 PM)
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