The Sad Punk
Blue Crack Addict
Do U2 tribute bands do drugs?
Axver said:
The Aussie U2 Show is playing on the 17th, which is a Monday ... we decided it probably wouldn't be the best gig to attend. I think we're looking ahead to seeing them in May, and just doing our own quieter Saint Paddy's Day meet-up sometime over the weekend of the 15th/16th.
Alisaura said:
At least it will be warm.
Unlike this February.
Welcome to March, by the way!
The Sad Punk said:Do U2 tribute bands do drugs?
Axver said:
Thank fuck it's March. February can go burn in some godforsaken non-existent hell.
I did love its weather though. Nice and cool for the most part. That's why I left Queensland and came here. I often wonder if hell is just a fictionalised account of life in Queensland.
major_panic said:I had wondered where all the Aussies had disappeared too...
I'm a believer in Jesus by the way, but agnosticism FTW if it's what works for you!
major_panic said:Yeah, some of the people out there need to get a tablespoon of common sense into their religion cake... or muffins, which are more appropriate to this thread
major_panic said:You've not been to Asia recently, have you?
Although, it is dry here, whereas it's humid in Asia.
Axver said:
I suspect you and I could have some good theological discussions. Ever read Søren Kierkegaard or Paul Tillich by any chance? The uni library has some of both. I read Tillich's Dynamics Of Faith last year and his take on things is very interesting. It's a kind of theism I quite respect.
I would especially love to visit the former Soviet republics in Central Asia.
The Sad Punk said:Hell yes. Kazakhstan is one of my must-go-to places.
I have recently been fascinated with spending some time in Turkey, too. Pre-Petra mountain carved buildings? Underground ancient Christian cities? Pide? It's all good there!
The Sad Punk said:You mean Byzantium.
major_panic said:
Gotta look them up and add them to my reading pile. You already know I'm doing theology at the College of Divinity, but I don't proselytise actively because it's just annoying to everyone else. You have the right to make up your own mind, and if Christianity isn't for you, then all power to you with finding something that works.
Yeah I'm a bad Christian when compared to a lot of evangelicals - I actually think ethics, morals and rights are more important than religious beliefs.
The Sad Punk said:
Hell yes. Kazakhstan is one of my must-go-to places.
I have recently been fascinated with spending some time in Turkey, too. Pre-Petra mountain carved buildings? Underground ancient Christian cities? Pide? It's all good there!
major_panic said:
Also, China'd be good to go to this year. See the Wall, the Shaolin Temple, the Forbidden Palace... eat real Chinese food and get food poisoning...
Somehow being Chinese just isn't enough, you've gotta be there and experience it just once.
The Sad Punk said:You mean Byzantium.
Axver said:
I would dearly love to do some theology myself. I'm particularly interested in its socio-political role, and some of my historical research has been conducted into the role of the Reformation in the creation of the present day international political order. I've also done a bit of more purely historical work on Calvin's Geneva.
Axver said:
I never liked proselytisation either, when I was religious. It's a deeply personal thing, I think, and I always kept my religion to myself. If people wanted to know about it, they could ask me. I run a similar policy with my agnosticism. And I've always made jokes about religion that would get me kicked out of most churches.
Axver said:
And evangelicals ... well, they aren't my favourite people, let's just put it that way. I have an almost morbid fascination with extreme fundamentalism, though. It's like a car crash in theological form - hard to look away.
The Sad Punk said:I was accepted into a theology course last year, but declined. It's something I'd like to do when I'm a little older, though. I feel like I learn enough just by having AOG friends and hearing the stuff that goes on at some of the churches in SA. Burning Qur'ans and other non-Christian imagery and icons being one thing...
The Sad Punk said:I was accepted into a theology course last year, but declined. It's something I'd like to do when I'm a little older, though. I feel like I learn enough just by having AOG friends and hearing the stuff that goes on at some of the churches in SA. Burning Qur'ans and other non-Christian imagery and icons being one thing...
Axver said:
Oh fuck, and you're in Adelaide, so that's the crowd that gave the political scene Fundies First, isn't it?
major_panic said:Interesting, I've always wondered about the role of religion in society and politics (post-Reformation England is a fascinating example) and Calvin's just... well, Calvin. Zwingli interests me a bit more though.
I despise being told to go out and proselytise. I think people should be told about Christianity just once or twice, then be allowed to make up their own minds rather than be pressured into it.
Religious jokes FTW - even if I don't find them particularly funny, I can see the humour in some of them.
I've got this love-hate thing happening with American fundamentalists. Love their passion and faith, hate their beliefs and stupidity. And, of course, their rigidity and unwillingness to accept what's in front of them.
I find that Christianity makes a lot of sense for me personally, it's just that people tend to take things waaay out of context.
Axver said:
I've got to admit that China has never held a significant amount of appeal for me, or at least not what you usually see of it in the West. I would be far more interested in going to the farflung western parts of China than, say, Beijing, which frankly sounds terrifying. All that traffic! The crowds! The pollution! No thanks.
Also, you need to introduce me to good Chinese food. With my allergies and my family not being into it, I've never really had the stuff but I'd like to try it.
major_panic said:Of course, that's what SA birthed. Completely forgot. Actually, the senator for FF goes to my church. I always wanted to go up to him and ask him if he'd like to pay my student union fees...
Although, I am friends with his daughter, so I've always managed to stop myself.
The Sad Punk said:To be fair, Byzantium is too - I think it used to be just 'Byz' when inhabited by the Thracians. Then it became Latinized and such.
The Sad Punk said:The church in question where the burning took place was in a beachtown on Yorke Peninsula, some while south from where I grew up. A bunch of AOGers burned Qur'ans, dreamcatchers, whatever they could get their hands on that was religious, but not Christian. Whether this act was encouraged there or not, I'm not sure. I know all too much about how they all 'pity' the Muslims and Jews, particularly the younger fundies-in-the-making are potentially developing a degree of racism and intolerance.
It is unfortunate that we view AoG members like this, because a lot of them are actually fine and hardly fundamentalist- if at all. But so many of them, mostly youths, just downright frighten me. They even managed to convert a friend of mine that I thought would be atheist her entire life.
Axver said:
Ha, I was actually just going to ask, "hang on, isn't Byzantium not the original name either?" and then I noticed your post.