Posts by Robin Fox2

Ramos has a bombshell of a wife🙏

And when he stepped off that plane, he looked absolutely disheveled... 😍

Lukica absolutely dominated Iniest in last year's season, truly embarrassing...

Iniesta🙏 It’s quite something to see how they’ve found ourselves a successor to Xavi... he might manage to play a single match this season before inevitably landing on the list 🤣
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ruggedjackal46 said:They’ve stripped the eagle off their seal and suddenly they're all world-class experts on global religions. Once the crown is gone from the coat of arms, I guess we should start expecting lectures on parliamentary monarchies and enlightened absolutism.

Enlightened absolutism is a lovely concept, provided the monarch happens to be a genius...

James Anderson5 said:

Given that being a Christian for those first five centuries pretty much meant certain death, I have to say... if anyone in a community like that sees an opportunity to spread their faith through fire and sword, more power to them. They should just write a research paper and revolutionize the history we know...

Could you explain something to me? If Constantine issued the edict of tolerance in 313 and the church became the official religion and state institution of the Roman Empire by 380, how could being a Christian mean almost certain death during those first five centuries? Are you sure you haven't mixed up the years and centuries?

The truth is, even starting back in the 3rd century and continuing through the reign of Emperor Julian, the priesthood held massive authority, including free travel across the entire empire at the state's expense and access to significant material wealth...

We can really only talk about that romantic era of the early church during the first two or three centuries. After that, especially in the West, things mostly turned into politics...

You're right, it wasn't five centuries, but somewhat less than that; a significant error on my part, apologies 👍

Oh sure, because Qatar in the 12th century was basically the birthplace of the Church itself...

I’ve studied actual history—the kind available to anyone in 2015 through a mountain of primary sources, not some cherry-picked version. Yes, the Crusaders looted Byzantium during one of their campaigns. They even looted Zadar, so what? How does that change the fact that Byzantium called upon the West for help against the Turks, or that the primary objective of the Crusader Wars was to return the Levant to Christian hands? That was the fundamental goal of all those wars: reclaiming lost territories. That’s just basic history. No one is claiming the Crusaders came specifically to conquer land on behalf of Byzantium. Are you actually surprised that Byzantium reached out to the West? It’s hardly shocking; they called for help several times, though by then it was mostly too little, too late... even one of our own kings suffered a defeat trying to assist Byzantium against the Turks. Why did you jump straight to the Fourth Crusade? Besides, I see you finally agreed that those weren't originally Arab lands, so we’re making progress... we’ve admitted someone else conquered them from someone else, which is a start 😁

The Congo isn't a Belgian Sin; the Congo was the direct sin of a Belgian king who held absolute power and total control over it. Under his reign, the Congo faced a catastrophe, and when the truth came out, it caused a scandal that forced Parliament to take over, at which point the Congo officially became a colony. Do you see the distinction?

Frankly, I couldn't care less about the American War on Terror, so where did you even get that idea? And how could Christianity be blamed for what happened to Native Americans? By what logic 🤣 everyone knows exactly who colonized North America first...

And who says it isn't a part of it? It's simply unimportant when compared to the New Testament. The New Testament established the core of Christianity; that is what defines the religion...

There’s nothing quite like riding the light rail while scrolling through these forums... those were the good old college days ☕

James Anderson5 said:You can't claim the New Testament is the only important book for Christianity when the Old Testament is cited at almost every mass and is a core part of the Bible. You can't just cherry-pick the parts you like when looking at a religion. For instance, Moses is just as vital to Christianity as Jesus is, even if he plays a different role...

And what's this idea that the Crusader Wars were just liberating territories? How could unified forces—mainly from Western Europe—be "liberating" lands in the Middle East and North Africa when Arabs had already been ruling those areas since Roman times?

Have you even heard about the Cathars and the Crusades against them? There was a moment where a papal envoy told commanders to kill everyone, including women and children, saying God would sort the good from the bad. That kind of thing happened right in the heart of Europe...

Plus, you're forgetting the Inquisition, which wasn't even abolished until the 19th century...

Then there's the early Church era around 300 AD, when certain factions physically wiped out their rivals until the Council of Nicaea finally decided once and for all what actually made it into the New Testament...

Or look further ahead, when the West was carving up colonies in Africa while the Church stayed silent—even while Belgians were responsible for the deaths of ten million people over a 23-year period...

And nobody raised an eyebrow when Americans were committing genocide against Native Americans, yet those same Americans are lecturing the rest of the world on democracy today...

The history of the West and Christianity is just as bloody as the history of Islam, surpassed only by Communism in terms of sheer ideology-driven casualties...

The New Testament is the only thing that truly matters for Christianity; it is the foundation, whereas the Old Testament merely foreshadows what is to come. The point lies in the New Testament...

Yes, the Crusader Wars were an attempt to liberate territories from Muslim conquerors. It doesn't require that European nations already rule those areas for it to be considered a liberation—to draw a parallel, do you consider the American invasion of Normandy an act of liberating Europe or an act of conquest? Originally, the Crusaders were called by Byzantium to assist against the Turks, though it later evolved into protracted warfare. And frankly, the idea that Arabs ruled those lands eternally is nonsense. They conquered those regions from someone else, though I'll leave it to you to figure out who... 😉 Besides, no one rules a territory forever; everyone is a conqueror somewhere. The only difference is the era and the duration of their reign. I hold no particular sympathies; throughout history, everyone has been a conqueror, arriving and departing as they please...

The Inquisition is such a massive exaggeration that it isn't even a faithful historical account; in the 10th century, only a few thousand people were executed by the Inquisition...

Congo? Please. Even the most intense opponents of the Belgians don't bring up the Belgian Sin as often as they should. Congo was essentially the private property of the Belgian King, where he did exactly as he pleased and no one even knew what was happening... 🤣

Good grief, how on earth did you decide to classify Native Americans as victims of Christianity... 😁

The history of the West is bloody, much like any other history of the human race; no one denies that. But the history of Christianity... well, that’s a different story entirely. I wouldn't dare claim Christianity had violent beginnings, given that for the first five centuries, being a Christian was essentially a death sentence. And yet, it spread across the entire known world. If anyone in such a community sees the capacity to spread faith through fire and sword, then by all means, write a scientific paper and revolutionize the history we think we know...

If you assume the Spaniards were out there in the New World, obsessed with hunting down gold and forcing their faith upon everyone they met at the edge of a sword, well, that’s just an accurate description of reality. It's just that we're looking at a discrepancy of about fifteen centuries...

If you happen to be in political science or philosophy, you should definitely send them there...

steelharbor9 said:Which part specifically? I mean, why would the Christian theory of God be any more valid than my own theory of God? I guess being stuck thinking "inside the box" is just such a common issue in these kinds of debates.

Missing obvious logical points seems to be becoming a bit of a habit for you! ☕

Btw, I'm a huge believer that Anderlon is going to pay for a better server soon, so maybe this forum won't be so slow anymore.

It is actually quite interesting when you look at it. What evidence do we truly have that any of it exists? Perhaps a few saints who miraculously healed someone, though even that is debatable—and if they did, was it really God, or were they just exceptionally skilled healers?...

steelharbor9 said:Honestly, Christianity is pretty much the same crap. In the Bible, they're killing people left and right, going on Crusades to spread the faith, and forcibly converting entire nations. It's kind of the same deal, I guess.

Or yeah, exactly that.

There isn't any killing in the New Testament, which happens to be the only book that actually matters to Christians. Those Crusader Wars weren't about spreading faith, but rather liberating conquered territories; the only ones who actually used the sword to push religion were the Spaniards in the New World, and maybe a few Germans, Estonians, or Poles in Eastern Europe before things went south for them...

Back in 2015, I remarked that the expansion of Islam and Christianity followed a remarkably similar trajectory... if you'll allow me to be somewhat blunt, though I suppose "audacious" might be a more polite term...

I honestly believe Islam is just inherently flawed as a religion; at its core, it spreads through force, having conquered 90% of its territory by the sword... When something is built on such a foundation, you can't just reform it into something better, which is the uncomfortable truth people tend to avoid saying, but whatever...

What really grinds my gears is the hypocrisy within Western liberal circles—they won't say a word when Scientology is making a fool of everyone, yet they'll jump to defend Islam in a heartbeat, purely because of the voting power...

Then again, I realize I don't actually care, since I live in a relatively homogeneous country, and if everything goes to hell, I'll just pack up and move to the States...

I’m a proponent of the death penalty, so I won't be participating in these debates about leniency ☕
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I’m not suggesting science holds all the answers. We can tackle the simple stuff, certainly, but when it comes to the truly vital questions, we’re still wandering in the dark. Perhaps somewhere out there, someone actually is watching us, looking down and thinking, "you guys really blew it; this isn't at all what I had in mind when I designed you"...

And let’s be clear, no single theory regarding the origin of everything is set in stone. Nobody actually knows what transpired; we just have our most educated guesses about how it all went down, but certainty? Hardly. If we were truly certain—as certain as we are of the chemical composition of water—we wouldn't be having these debates in the first place 😁 I am perhaps the least religious person on the planet, and I would gladly structure my entire existence around scientific principles, but being told "it just appeared" feels just as hollow as hearing "God got bored and decided to create everything."

Tomasi following the election results

I suspect the figure is actually 20k rather than 2,000, though such a trivial discrepancy hardly matters...

By the way, whenever election results start rolling in, I find those areas where a candidate pulls in an 80% majority to be utterly nonsensical. It’s just absurd. While seeing 50 or 60% support in certain counties or cities feels perfectly standard, those 80% margins feel incredibly insular, regardless of which party is winning.

Well, those were some truly stellar election results—a gap of 20,000 votes. Exactly how things should be...

restlesssurfer97 said:I just had to get this off my chest and vent it all out onto the keyboard because honestly, my heart is heavy and I’m feeling it deep in my soul. I’ve always considered myself a true-blue American patriot, you know, with those old-school leftist-Catholic values, just built tough like a walnut and steady as a brick wall. 🙂

You're one of us, man, that's why we love you

The constant mockery of Gerrard's slip on the United forum is absolutely nauseating; it’s high time for a complete purge...

No, I couldn't care less, but my intentions are perfectly clear.