tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post7517563940187857573..comments2023-10-25T14:20:11.408-05:00Comments on RHOBLOGY: More from the Jolly NihilistRhologyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14245825667079220242noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-57886093703815291152008-03-14T20:48:00.000-05:002008-03-14T20:48:00.000-05:00Rhology,You will find a fresh response on my websi...Rhology,<BR/><BR/>You will find a fresh response on my website.<BR/><BR/>Nice weekend!The Jolly Nihilisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08223458164080711495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-30775268701455486402008-03-14T05:07:00.000-05:002008-03-14T05:07:00.000-05:00Quoth Jeffrey: If a person doesn’t think there is ...Quoth Jeffrey: <I>If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then…what is the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges?</I><BR/>Rhoblogy: <I>I've made that point several times</I><BR/><BR/>Conversely, thinking any amount of unacceptable behaviour will be forgiven once they they repent is not much of a disincentive.<BR/><BR/>Happily, the secular justice system does not work that way. Jeffrey was held accountable by society, and died in jail.John Moraleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16354725997954085678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-3025223697712050132008-03-14T04:43:00.000-05:002008-03-14T04:43:00.000-05:00I'm still working on the language, it's pretty har...I'm still working on the language, it's pretty hard, but yeah, the Engrish is great.<BR/><BR/>I hadn't heard of the Ryukyu islands. Just Okinawa. Must have been nice, I'll check it out. Maybe go there for our honeymoon.<BR/><BR/>Don't forget to wish your wife a Happy White Day today...Chris (from Oz)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09559381837370079164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-79971563886230528002008-03-13T12:20:00.000-05:002008-03-13T12:20:00.000-05:00Yeah, I'm with you there, on both counts! Hmm, 3r...Yeah, I'm with you there, on both counts! Hmm, 3rd place...great transportation, the language is pretty cool though difficult, the Engrish is worth an almost daily chuckle, and the awesome drink machines that line the streets. That's a good start I should think.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Say, I don't know if you know this, but I lived in the Ryukyu Islands for 11 months Aug 05 - Jul 06. You should check my blog archives for posts from then, if you care to see a different side of Japan.<BR/>Catch you later!Rhologyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14245825667079220242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-19506803984052269362008-03-13T12:15:00.000-05:002008-03-13T12:15:00.000-05:00Rhology,That's good, while I like talking about re...Rhology,<BR/><BR/>That's good, while I like talking about religion and entering into debate, one of the things that really annoys the hell out of me are people who take advantage of other people like Sylvai Browne and others like Gellar who just deliberately lie to people about their "powers" to make a buck. So I reacted to those comments pretty hard. I'm happy to hear we mostly agree on that.<BR/><BR/>Yeah, Japan's great, obviously my fiance is the highlight, but the food is a close second :) , and about 100 things tied for third place..<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>ChrisChris (from Oz)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09559381837370079164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-12430279342422983302008-03-13T07:35:00.000-05:002008-03-13T07:35:00.000-05:00Chris,It's always a pleasure to meet another Nippo...Chris,<BR/><BR/>It's always a pleasure to meet another Nipponophile! And you're marrying a young Japanese lady, so probably you've got me beat in that department! Wish I could come to your wedding, actually. :-D Any excuse to go to Japan.<BR/><BR/>I would say that most of today's occult and witchcraft practices are parlor tricks and deception of the gullible, yes. But the Bible informs us that Satan has power to produce false signs and miracles in order to draw worship away from God, so I doubt there's not ANY "dark" supernatural force at work in the world.<BR/>No, I don't think the popular people have special powers besides talent and lots of practice. I don't expect people who have really close relationships with Satan to advertise it, for one thing. But the Bible's description of these false miracles and such occur within a certain eschatological and deceptive context, usually, and I don't necessarily think our modern times fits the bill for that. <BR/>Finally, although I can see why it might have led you to think so, I did not intend my comment to convey that special powers exist or are widespread. I was referring simply to practices of witchcraft. Sorry for the confusion.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>John,<BR/><BR/>I hope you will take this in the serious and sober spirit with which I am writing it. Dahmer was a terrible sinner. You and I are also terrible sinners. Who was worse is irrelevant b/c we are all doomed to bear the responsibility for our own sins before God when He judges. Our escape is Jesus, who offers to take our judgment on Himself. Even someone as terrible and hideous as Dahmer or Hitler or Stalin will be saved from their terrible sin. I have been saved from my own terrible sin. You need to be saved from yours as well.<BR/>And the description of Dahmer's activities was more disgusting than I knew. Yet those were not the actions of a brother in Christ. Please understand this - when we repent and put our trust in the Savior, our sin is no longer on us, it's on Him, but that's far from the extent of it. He transforms our spirits and hearts. It is said that we become a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. He removes our hearts of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. We are freed from slavery to sin and become slaves to righteousness. The Spirit of God comes to live in our hearts. I am not the same person I was 15 yrs ago, and if Dahmer was saved, he wasn't the same person who committed those atrocious acts. <BR/>Who knows? Perhaps God picks one notorious sinner who repented from each generation and holds him up and says, "If I can forgive Jeffrey Dahmer, I can forgive anyone of any sin." <BR/><BR/>I'd also add this (I think) well-attested quote from Dahmer:<BR/><BR/><BR/> If a person doesn’t think there is a God to be accountable to, then…what is the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges? That’s how I thought…I always believed the theory of evolution as truth, that we all just came from the slime. - Dahmer in an interview with Stone Phillips, Dateline NBC, 11/29/1994<BR/><BR/>I've made that point several times, but of course it didn't originate with me.<BR/><BR/>Finally, biblically, "eternal life" means heaven and "destruction" or "death" means hell. So it just depends on the context. But I'd agree that everyone will have eternal <B>existence</B>.<BR/><BR/>Peace,<BR/>RhologyRhologyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14245825667079220242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-47887638239277200062008-03-12T18:25:00.000-05:002008-03-12T18:25:00.000-05:00Re: reliance on Jesus Christ to forgive him of his...Re: reliance on Jesus Christ to forgive him of his sin and give him eternal life<BR/><BR/>I note that, in the Christian mythos, <I>everyone</I> gets eternal life (whether it be in Heaven or in Hell (or in Limbo [for Catholics]).John Moraleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16354725997954085678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-29108236549869091862008-03-12T18:10:00.000-05:002008-03-12T18:10:00.000-05:00Thanks for the quick response. I also appreciate t...Thanks for the quick response. I also appreciate the clarification regarding my exclusion from the Wall of Shame.<BR/><BR/>I have a few things I would add, but, in fact, not very much.<BR/><BR/>Expect a new post over the weekend.The Jolly Nihilisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08223458164080711495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-66266523567046264972008-03-12T18:06:00.000-05:002008-03-12T18:06:00.000-05:00... I believe it is documented on better-than-urba...<I>... I believe it is documented on better-than-urban-legend grounds that Jeffrey Dahmer converted to Christianity shortly before his death. If that is true, if he placed his faith and reliance on Jesus Christ to forgive him of his sin and give him eternal life, he is my brother in Christ and will spend eternity in heaven in the presence of Jesus. </I><BR/><BR/>Even when I was a child being indoctrinated in the Catholic faith, I had a real problem with this concept. Someone can be evil and depraved for decades, but if that person ultimately believes in Jesus and truly repents, they go to Heaven. Conversely, someone can be pious and altruistic for most of their life, but if they lose their faith at the end of their life they are to go to Hell.<BR/><BR/>Even as a child, I found that profoundly unfair - my naive intuition was that it should be the sum of good/evil one did that was judged (cf Egyptian mythos).<BR/><BR/>This was your brother in Christ:<BR/>Jeffrey Dahmer was an American serial killer. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. His murders were particularly gruesome, involving rape, necrophilia and cannibalism. Dahmer served his time at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Portage, Wisconsin, where he ultimately declared himself a born-again Christian. A local preacher, Roy Ratcliff, met with Dahmer and agreed to baptize him.<BR/><BR/>http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/<BR/>---<BR/>Even in his homosexual relationships, he did not want to please his sexual partner; he just wanted to have his own pleasures. Pleasure to Dahmer meant performing oral or anal sex on his partner, whether alive or dead.<BR/><BR/>This absolute need for control led him down some pretty weird roads. One of them was a kind of lobotomy that he performed on several of his victims. Once they were drugged, he drilled holes in their skulls and injected some muriatic acid into their brains. Needless to say, it caused death right away in a few victims, but one supposedly functioned minimally for a few days before dying.<BR/><BR/>Not surprisingly, his need for control led him to dabble with Satanism. In fact, just having the bodies of his victims around him made him feel "thoroughly evil." "I have to question whether or not there is an evil force in the world and whether or not I have been influenced by it. Although I am not sure if there is a God," Dahmer said," or if there is a devil, I know that as of lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about both." He had plans to create a shrine in his apartment, featuring all of his trophies, his statue of a griffin, and incense burned in the skulls of his victims, so that he could receive "special powers and energies to help him socially and financially."<BR/>---John Moraleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16354725997954085678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-91727204916510044442008-03-12T17:48:00.000-05:002008-03-12T17:48:00.000-05:00Chris,As a like minded believer with Rhology, I ha...Chris,<BR/>As a like minded believer with Rhology, I have to agree that 'witchcraft' exists today. I doubt Rhology thinks that most witchcraft is real 'magic' (read demonic activity) but rather parlor tricks as you have suggested. In most instances, witches are misguided individuals searching for spiritual truth through trying to contact the dead, magic spells, tarot cards, etc. These activities do not carry any magical properties in my understanding, but they open the individual up to self deception that these things actually work and they may believe religious truths associated with these bogus practices. <BR/><BR/>Although, I will admit that it is possible in certain situations for the devil or demons to directly deceive, trick, persuade, or otherwise influence those doing witchcraft. I don't think the devil has power over the physical environment in general (without permission from God such as in Job where he caused boils) but he can influence the minds. Witchcraft does not lead people to Jesus but away from Him and therefore should be rejected.Kylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12644308176643684697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13358611.post-80960214931781841562008-03-12T16:21:00.000-05:002008-03-12T16:21:00.000-05:00Shoot, they exist TODAY! Have you never heard of a...<I>Shoot, they exist TODAY! Have you never heard of a séance, channeling, Ouija boards, mediums, Tarot card readers, thaumaturgists...?</I><BR/><BR/>Rhology, really ?<BR/>I'm honestly surprised you believe in that stuff. Where does the power to do it come from ? Lemme guess - Satan ?<BR/><BR/>Those things are some of the most mundane, boring parlour tricks. Go see a Vegas magic show if you want something really interesting.<BR/><BR/>Stick to believing in your untestable, unreproducable god, but please do some research on that other stuff, which is reproduced by magicians all the time.<BR/><BR/>You don't believe Uri Gellar or Silvia Brown really have "powers" do you ?Chris (from Oz)https://www.blogger.com/profile/09559381837370079164noreply@blogger.com