This guy needs to be in Iraq when we bomb!!!

[Svenmonkey]

Wow. I just read that article again and I feel the need to beat that man to death now. I thought Puritanism was dead, but apparently not. A kid steals some cash from his parents, and then gets off with it by just saying he felt the devil urging him on? I suppose they'll start asking the child who in the town was "conjuring" him and hang anyone that is accused of witchcraft by the kid.

 

[Shiro, Time Devourer]

Go to crossroad.to to look at other articles of Kjos's. She doesn't seek to antagonize everyone she meets, so she says. And please, don't antagonize her back. For the CPA's sake.

 

[Bob]

I really hate Christian Fanatics. They are such hypocrites. They say things they can't understand with their small, closed minds are evil, and that they warp the minds of children, but they are warping the minds of their own children by disencouraging imaginations.

Blah. I can't rant today because I'm sick.

 

[Ferret]

Oh, it's okay, Bob. I'll rant for you:

I've been dealing w/ Xtian Fanatacism since I was a kid. I was raised by a Catholic mother that was married three times and served us meat every Friday. We celebrated all the major holidays w/o ever digging into their real meanings...

As I grew older I became an atheist because I found all organised religions to be hypocrital. Later, I couldn't deal w/ that because it was another absolute belief (in Nothing). Absolute beliefs are too much for me. They require too much faith, and not enough thought. So...I decided to look at some of the lesser-known religions.

In 1992 I discover Witchcraft and it's been working great for me. My wife is a Witch and I plan on raising my kids to look at all religions equally and to choose for themselves. The philosophy I've been following for over a decade can be summed up in four simple words:

Find Your Own Truth.

-Ferret

"...not really just a philosopy, but a way of life..."

 

[Spiderman]

I've been dealing w/ Xtian Fanatacism since I was a kid. I was raised by a Catholic mother that was married three times and served us meat every Friday. We celebrated all the major holidays w/o ever digging into their real meanings...

It seems to me that's not really fanaticism, but just "going through the motions". If your mom was preaching, actively trying to convert people and putting down other religions/beliefs, that would be more in line with fanaticism.

 

[Shiro, Time Devourer]

The worst members of a faith aren't a good yardstick to judge that faith. Just because quite a few professing members of a faith are hypocritical and paranoid doesn't prove ill of the faith. Jesus hated hypocrisy and His teachings were at their core quite practical (Thought). In addition, when He was absolute, it was because he knew EXACTLY what was going on; he didn't sugar or vinegarcoat anything he said for sensation's sake. The Bible said its words would be perverted, and that seems pretty accurate to me.

Spiritual discernment on possible hazards is important, and many Christians, as well as other faiths, treat it seriously. It's just that there are a few ideologies that break the discernment barrier and go right into Paranoiaville, as is the "Theme = Vocation" school of thought. Where did the Bible say, "If a work can be made evil by a select few, then evil it shall be" or "If ill was made of it in the past, then ill it is, and unfixable."? or anything like that?

Just as a few HR4DKr0E OKULTESTS OF TEH SATANANANAN!1!@222 and regular gateway magicians don't make Magic: The Gathering irrevocably like actual sorcery, a few Murphy's Law-ists and paranoids doesn't make all organized religion hypocritical on its face.

Some of the Murphys don't even look at their Scripture at face value and apply wisdom (as the Bible says you should in interpreting it). They just use it as a firing post.

 

[train]

Ferret - Do you have a familiar, honestly, an animal you feel a strong connection with?

 

[Ferret]

Now, there's a loaded question. A little over ten years ago I got my first ferrets, Rockie and Jasmine. Rockie was big and quite dumb sable furball, while Jasmine was a small butterscotch w/ a MEAN temper. She would push Rockie around all of the time. She was my favourite of the two and I grew to be quite close to her - although, I loved Rockie a lot, also.

When my parents moved away, I gained a couple of roommates and one had a pregnant, flea-infested cat. The cat produced two very weird kittens - one thought he was a ferret. He would trip over his own feet and lacked the ability land on his feet. However, the flea population was growing and I couldn't control it. Flea collars didn't help. Flea spray didn't help. Borax didn't help. Eventually, the roommates were expelled due to non-payment, but the fleas stayed.

Female ferrets are highly susceptible to anemea and Jasmine was no different. On Holloween eve '92 Jasmine disappeared. I went to work. When I came home the following day (I worked nights at the time) she was still missing. I fig'ed she was asleep somewhere in the house. When I woke up I was looking everywhere for her and eventually found Rockie poking around under the shelfing I was using as my computer desk. I looked down there and found her. It was devastating - typing this is quite hard. I bought a plant - a jasmine bush, of course, and buried her in my yard. The bush died a week later. This depressed me even more. About a week later, my computer stopped working. I was really starting to feel pretty damned depressed. Rockie helped me though - as well as a lot of friends on some local BBS's.

After saving up some money, I was able to rebuild my computer from scratch and it started to act a little weird. It would work w/ some applications, but only some of the times and others it just seemed to reach out and bite me (metaphoricly, of course) and I realised that it was behaving just like Jasmine - seriously.

Please, don't roll your eyes. She was in my computer. The computer has been through a lot of motherboards, hard drives, monitors, but in the end it's always been her. Lately, I gave her the biggest overhaul ever and I renamed her Jasmine III.

So, my familiar is a ferret that moved into my computer nearly a decade ago. Every Holloween I remember her and I know she's w/ me. I miss her - but, she's never really gone.

-Ferret

"...sorry, that was so long, but I didn't want to leave out any details..."

 

[train]

That's pretty cool...

Do you mind if I pm you with any serious questions I may conjure up on witchcraft?

 

[Ferret]

I wouldn't mind at all. I'm sure anything that I cannot answer I can ask my wife. She knows more than I do

-Ferret

"...her familiar is a big fluffy orange/black/white cat named Mugwort..."

 

[Bob]

Your pet died on Halloween on the year you became a witch.

Freaky.

What do witches believe in anyway?

 

[Ferret]

Basicaly, the same as everyone else. There is an all-powerful force in the Universe that keeps things ordered. We believe in a 'god' - but, we also believe in a Goddess. We have a basic rule that dictates everything you do comes back to you three-fold. There's a few other things and we have lots of different factions, but none of claim the others are wrong as long as we remember the 'Rule of Threes'. Each of us is an individual. Some like to gather in Covens, while others are Solitary Practitioners.

-Ferret

"...I could reccommend a few books..."

 

[Spiderman]

I don't know about ferrets, but Advantage works wonders for cats. We have 4-5 and it took care of any flea infestation (they're indoor cats, so it came from a cat we temporarily took in).

 

[Ferret]

Hmmm...I may have to ask my vet. Now, that I have two furballs running around the house (along w/ the three cats) I should find out what would be best for them...

-Ferret

"...the new one is female and I worry about her already..."

 

[Spiderman]

Do your pets go outside though? If they do, Advantage might not be the best thing (ask your vet though). Since ours was indoors, we didn't have to worry too much about a re-infestation. But if your pets go outside, they could keep picking the fleas up.

 

[theorgg]

I wonder what the SUBGENIUS CULT would think of this...

 

[Ferret]

I've never considered the Church of Subgenius to be a cult. People have to give them money to join - they're more like your average organized religion

-Ferret

"...a minister of Bob married me and the wife..."

 

[Shiro, Time Devourer]

BTW: Kjos is a woman.

 

[train]

That must've been Victoria's Secret this whole time!!!...

Way to go Shiro Sleuth!!!...

 

[Shiro, Time Devourer]

I've read some of the comments made regarding the Pokemon/Magic article, and some of you have gone overboard to the extreme. The lady only expressed an opinion, not with any threats or trash talk, but as she saw them through what she noticed. There is a *much* worse tone one can speak in, and she only put out what she was convinced of, welcoming even the harshest responses. The title of the post, and the idea of "beating the (person) to death" show that some of you could at least pick up on *that*. I still believe that the article smacks of Murphy's Laws of Perception, but it doesn't mean you should denounce her or (in some cases) everything she stands by. When I first read this, I thought it was fear-based paranoia, but now I see that it's fear-free and mainly shell-shock from having to deal with so many genuine occult/demonic threats.