Something came in the mail today #bitaxe

filed under 'when they tell you who they are, believe them' :

Hey parents, what should I know about the dtp vaccine?

Why would Israel have wanted JFK 'neutralized'?

Was Monarchy the way?

nostr:note18er8w3pt9rvtrp7zr7l657hj0lgc5zvnqfz426pmvq7z32f65drs2kgmlq

God is Truth.

Love is an overused, meaningless word & used incorrectly IMO.

Hollywood is evil and propagates evil.

I would vote for Tucker Carlson for president in the future if he ran

It's time for the annual reminder:

October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his "whitepaper," the 95 Theses, to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg Germany, sparking the #Protestant #Reformation.

October 31st, 2008 Satoshi Nakamoto released the #Bitcoin Whitepaper to the Cryptography Mailing List, sparking a movement toward sound, independent money in the digital age.

The first date marks the beginning of the separation of church and state, and the second marks the beginning of the separation of money and state.

Ehh.. This is evolving into a much bigger thing... I disagree that the Eucharist is Christ's 'actual' body and blood. The tradition is only useful as long as the meaning is understood. And there may be a lot more meaning than I can think of... If taking the Eucharist represents living and breathing Christ's teaching, and you actually do what he said to do, then it is meaningful. If it gets all messed up with a demand that believers take it literally, holding multiple irreconcilable beliefs simultaneously, then the meaning is lost. In that case I feel pretty confident in saying that Jesus would tell you to cut it out.

And I guess I have to balance this out by also criticizing the evangelical belief that all you have to do is confess belief and you'll be saved. Jesus said what you have to do to be saved. Its not just say the magic words. The Eucharist should be a reminder of that.

But also, no way I'm putting that spoon in my mouth that everyone already put in their mouth. That's gross.

Ha, that's funny how St. John of Damascus won by being in Muslim lands, won against the Muslim position.

Anyways, its nuanced. I do think veneration is the same as idolatry, but I also can't be an iconoclast because I would never smash art. The paintings inside Orthodox churches are really interesting, sometimes even beautiful, but I don't see any need to bow and scrape before them. Just... Have art.

Yeah I saw your post today about the Talmud. It seemed like it fit quite well with what early protestants said - that the Pope is "the" Antichrist (Quotes because I'm not sure if a definite article is theologically sensible).

I've had a hypothesis, which I can't verify because I don't know enough, that Islam was really an outgrowth of iconoclasm. It seems like it sprang into being at a time when the church was having that fight. Their destruction of any human image in art seems like a reaction to idolatry, whether the supposed idolatry is in Christianity or other religions. And that Orthodox thing with the desert fathers - the only desert around is where Islam started.