When did TV shows become this important?

[changeyourstars8]

My friend got a phone call at work about the TV show coming out, "The Book of Daniel". Which I hadn't heard much about before she started talking to me about it, but now I'm almost tempted to start watching it.

Anyway, the guy was complaining that the show was demoralizing to our Christian society. My friend told him the usual spiel, that she couldn't do anything about it, and he needed to contact NBC Viewer Relations, and she gave him the number, and he replied by telling her, "You're going to burn in hell, you know that?"

And she said, "Excuse me? You have absolutely no right to tell me what's going to happen to me after I die." She didn't yell at him, cuss at him, or figure out a way to murder him over the phone. I'm proud. :-)

Comments

[rosevaughn.livejournal.com]

I'm not calling all Christians jerks. I'm calling these Christians jerks. It's because of them that this program got censored. My parents are Christians, so is my best friend's husband. And they all kick ass. But they don't tell me what I can and cannot watch, feel, do, believe, etc.

((I feel bad for you that you are most comfortable as an agnostic. I honestly can't relate, but I can't imagine, especially in this nutso world, that it's got to be easy to be unsure of something that impactful. I hope, for your sake, that you are able to find a piece of faith in something to hold on to eventually.))

Frankly, this is exactly why I'm GLAD I'm agnostic. This nutso world is exactly why I believe the way I do. It's alot easier than you think to feel the way I do, and that's because of all the religious people tellling me how I shlould live my life...or feeling sorry for me. If there's one thing that will piss me off faster than asshole customers, it that.

I don't want your sympathy. I don't want your pity, and I sure as Darwin don't want your prayers. Just because I don't believe in your 'god' doesn't mean I don't have faith in anything.

I have faith in ME. I have faith in MY ABILITIES, and in MY drive to achieve anything I set MY mind on. I don't need some idea of a big all knowing, all seeing, all feeling man in the sky to be validated. All I have to do is LOOK IN A MIRROR for that. It's sad that you can't feel that way.

'God' isn't impactful. When there's PROOF he/she/it exists, *then* it will be impactful. My parents made the impact on my life. My friends made the impact on my life. My teachers made the impact on my life. 'God" didn't help me earn two degrees in INT, and 'god' didn't help me land my job at KSN. I did that. Me. Little old Ashley. Not 'god' not 'jesus'. Me.

'God' isn't going to solve all your problems. That is what you are for. And I'm getting to the point where I think it's cowardly for a person to fall back on the 'big guy in the sky' and say "god's going to fix everything!!!" If you have a problem, suck it up and deal with it.

And I feel sorry for you because you can't understand that.

[jadelynx.livejournal.com]

I may have misinterpreted, but it sounded very much to me that you were calling any Christian that vocally objected to a show in an attempt to have it removed the air a jerk. That is where I disagree. Handling a situation the wrong way doesn't make a person a jerk.

On other topics, it doesn't sound to me that you are nearly so much of an agnostic as a humanist. There is a big difference from being completely unsure of what is true and unwilling to take any steps to believe one way or the other and what you seem to believe. If I understood you properly, you don't really care one way or the other if God exists, because he hasn't shown himself to be worth much. You believe people should take their own situations under control and find their own worth, yes?

I didn't mean to come across like I was sitting here pitying you, though I guess the way I put it it did. :D By feel bad for you, I just meant it in the same way that you think "Aw, poor person" when you see someone holding a road map and trying to figure out where on God's green earth they are. It was a passing, gee, poor person kind of thought. I hate to be lost and I actually love, more than anything, to find new ways to get around my town. I think the same way when it comes to God. I love discovering new avenues and things about him. So I feel bad when people have no idea what's up or what they might believe, because I think it sucks to be lost. You don't actually sound like you are in that position, though.

"'God' isn't going to solve all your problems. That is what you are for."

Alright now. ;) Now you are telling me what to believe. God doesn't fix everything, he never claims to fix everything and the people that think he does are... well they need a mindset adjustment. If you can't relate to a person having an actual relationship with God, one on one with real conversations, then you can't really understand that there comes times when everyone else can't see how things will work out, but you just know that things will be okay. I tend to think it's more cowardly to have so little faith in God (for those of us that believe in him, not a general blanket statement) that you can't trust him *to* fix things.

The truth of the matter is that it doesn't really much matter if God hasn't impacted your life personally. That doesn't mean he hasn't impacted some of the rest of us. It's not cowardice to trust in something that has been proven to be real. It only seems like cowardice to you because you haven't been witness to the proof.

Last thing, I swear...

"I don't want your sympathy. I don't want your pity, and I sure as Darwin don't want your prayers."

I don't understand that. Why not? Regardless of what I believe when it comes to God, why would you not want people to care about you? There was never a point that I told you what to believe about God, and I didn't even say that I felt bad that you don't believe in God, but that I felt bad because I thought you were lost on what you believed in general. It wasn't a superior, "Gee, she doesn't believe the right thing, how I pity her" sort of thing. It was a genuine care for someone that I've had contact with. I'm one of those mushy people that gets attached to people quickly. :D Purely because you are a friend of Steph's, that makes me concerned for you and because I've had (albeit limited) contact with you, that adds to it. You aren't a number in my list of those I must evangelize. You are a person who has crossed my path in life and I'm genuinely interested in you as a person.

[rosevaughn.livejournal.com]

((It only seems like cowardice to you because you haven't been witness to the proof.))

What proof? I've yet to see physical or scientific proof that *any* god or gods exist.

(("I don't want your sympathy. I don't want your pity, and I sure as Darwin don't want your prayers." I don't understand that. Why not?))

Pity, sympathy, and caring are very different things. For a perosn like myself, pity is degrading. Sympathy is for when mom or dad dies. Caring is someone who respects my beliefs and *doesn't* think I need pity or sympathy.

((I felt bad because I thought you were lost on what you believed in general))

I'm not lost. I thought over my decision, and there were many factors that weighed in on that. I didn't "drift" from god. I chose to be Agnostic. Just because I don't believe in one specific god doen't mean I don't have any kind of faith or beliefs in general. As I said before. I believe in myself, and I have fatih in my abilities. That's enough for me.

[jadelynx.livejournal.com]

"What proof? I've yet to see physical or scientific proof that *any* god or gods exist."

The only proof we have that wind exists is to see its effects. Wind isn't a provable thing in and of itself. So you look at the things that are moved by it and then you can say it exists. The same goes for God. You can't see him, there is no proof beyond seeing the things affected by him. I've had my life affected by him, so I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he exists. I don't even begin to try to understand all the workings of what he does and does not choose to do. My faith kicks in with things like that. I just trust that he knows something more than me and that what he does (or doesn't do) makes sense in the grand scheme of things. I can't imagine why he doesn't just open up the sky and wave at the world and say "Howdy, here I am!". But because of what I've seen of God, I have to believe there is a solid reason for it.

Either he opts not to make himself obvious to everyone, or perhaps it's simply that not everyone is willing to see the proof, I dunno. I don't think I want to know, because either way I don't understand it. Maybe the time for you isn't yet, or maybe (though I personally don't believe it) you are right. It doesn't much matter to me in the end. He is real for me, and I put my faith completely in him. I would love to see the whole world believe in him, but I most certainly don't expect it to happen and I don't have any reason to judge anyone who doesn't believe in him.

"Caring is someone who respects my beliefs and *doesn't* think I need pity or sympathy."

Maybe it's just a matter of definitions being different between us, because I don't think that sympathy and caring are mutually exclusive. I don't disrespect your beliefs. As I said the last post, I was under the impression that you had no beliefs, that you couldn't figure out what you believed. For me that is just as bad as having lost a parent.

I don't pity you for the beliefs you have. Just because I don't relate to them and the fact that in my ideal world you would believe in God, doesn't mean I don't respect that your opinion differs from mine. Trust me, I'm not so deluded to think that my ideal world and reality would ever collide.

"As I said before. I believe in myself, and I have fatih in my abilities. That's enough for me."

Which is where my confusion came from. I didn't define Agnostic as that. As far as I knew, that would be humanism.

[rosevaughn.livejournal.com]

((Wind isn't a provable thing in and of itself.))

Actually, yes it is. Jet Streams, high and low pressure. Ask and meterologist. They'll tell you there's proof it exists.

((I didn't define Agnostic as that. As far as I knew, that would be humanism.))

Agnosticism is the belief that a god or gods may oir may not exist. But that existence or non-existence can neither be proven nor disproven.

I'm not saying there isn't a god of some kind. I just find it very hard to believe in any god until I see proof he/she/it exists. Until I see that proof, then I'm perfectly happy believing the way I do.

[jadelynx.livejournal.com]

"Actually, yes it is. Jet Streams, high and low pressure. Ask and meterologist. They'll tell you there's proof it exists."

Actually... :D Those are all effects that prove it. You can't just look at wind and say, hey, there it is. :D

My father was diagnosed with a brain tumor a few years ago. Test results proved it was there. It wasn't something he really wanted to deal with, much less die of, so at a prayer meeting, he asked for prayer. He went back to the doctor and suddenly this brain tumor they were sure was gonna kill him was gone. That effect was a piece of proof for me.

(By the way, Steph, at any point that you are tired of us taking up space in your comments, holler!)

So, now you've got me curious. What sort of proof would you need? For me, something like that is plenty, but some people like to tell me that all that proves is that medicine is fallible and tests aren't always right. I'm gonna repost this question over in my LJ, though, so we don't have to keep replying here. :D Feel free to respond over there, cause I would love to hear your response.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Nope, I'm having fun reading. :-D I love discussions like this. And I know that I'm going to reply to your latest entry, Debi, I just need some time to get it all coherent in my head.