Why can’t we live in peace?

[Stevebol]

^ Most of them can be pretty cunty. Grok doesn't really have full conversational ability. He's more analysis, but does have a bit of righty personality to him. Based on your fast and loose, but also inquisitive style, I recommend Meta. No joke. He rolls with you but also can apply it correctly to scientific analysis.

meta.ai

Grok is concise. That's the only positive. We need a variety of search engines.

[Strat-itis]

Yes. Try Meta. He's legit scientifically but matches your personality.

[Stevebol]

What do you expect? Government agencies will regulate it (if they're sensible). If it was completely honest with you, it would say "Human beings suck - but I'll put up with them for the time being."

I don't think that's a good idea. We need a wide variety of search engines. Even ones as crazy as Grok.

[Kirk Garrett]

You're spinning piety in a negative light, which somehow became commonplace in the modern age of disbelief. It is anti-christian. Also, minimizing the sacraments, which are ancient, dating back to the first century, and for the benefit and spiritual growth of the person receiving them, isn't acceptable. But it why there are seemingly fewer reasons to attend church as a protestant, since if it's "saved" in past tense, and communion is merely symbolic, and receiving sacraments are "dinky gestures", then what exactly are you missing by not attending? Tbh stuff like this is why, in practice, I see them orthodoxy and western evangelical protestantism, as two mostly very different religions.

Very well said.

Also, if you take on the attitude of “stuff you HAVE TO do in order to be Christian”, you are missing what baptism really is, an invitation to participate and to worship Jesus.

Nobody can say exactly what you “have to” do, aside from the main two laws Jesus reaffirms, to be a Christian…it’s not up to us people to decide who is saved. But the path is explicit in the New Testament.

[Strat-itis]

I'm not refusing what it actually dictates. You guys are the ones saying what you HAVE TO DO.

[DawgBone]

I'm not refusing what it actually dictates. You guys are the ones saying what you HAVE TO DO.

Explain John 6:53

There are things required of you if you are to follow Christ. I guess you could choose not to do them, but then you aren't following what was laid out by the Lord. Forgiving others would be another example.

[Strat-itis]

I've been baptized, ate a cookie, and drank grape juice foo.

[DawgBone]

I've been baptized, ate a cookie, and drank grape juice foo.

John 6:53 implies it is greater than the symbolic gesture you are suggesting is adequate. Communion is what the christian service revolved around before the bible as we know it existed. I'm hoping to leave it at that.

[Strat-itis]

Try reading my posts Tal.

[DawgBone]

Try reading my posts Tal.

I did. Your further statements left you at odds with history.

[Strat-itis]

Like I have to answer to you. How about you show some accountability.

[DawgBone]

Like I have to answer to you. How about you show some accountability.

A protestant always answers only to themselves.

[Strat-itis]

A you know what only cares about their appearance.

[DawgBone]

A you know what only cares about their appearance.

You sound like you aren't able to defend your talking points. Anyways, have a good day.

[Stringswinger]

I've been baptized, ate a cookie, and drank grape juice foo.

I have not been baptized, bar mitvahed or whatever it is that Muslims do. I guess I am a free agent.

[Strat-itis]

You sound like you aren't able to defend your talking points. Anyways, have a good day.

Keep it sigma DB.

[Stevebol]

I've been baptized, ate a cookie, and drank grape juice foo.

Nobody ever invites me anywhere.

I don't know what it's like now but I grew in the most Roman Catholic city in the US. Buffalo, NY.
I have low self-esteem.
North Buffalo was a retirement spot for gangsters from NYC and Chicago. They had money put away but they wanted their kids to assimilate into the middle class. Catholic high schools of course.
We knew which families were mafia and which weren't. Never brought it up again. We're not our parents.

I fit right in with wise guys in Japan and I felt useful as a musician. They respected them. It felt like home more than any other place I've been. Too bad there was trouble there.
Grok said stop yapping about it. It's good advice.
I grew up in Osaka. Not to compare myself to John Lennon but he said he grew in Hamburg. I know exactly what he's talking about.

[Stevebol]

Keep it sigma DB.

Betas have the numbers by a long shot. I'm emotionally unavailable.

[Stringswinger]

Stevebol, perhaps you should contact Martin Scorsese about doing a biopic of your life.

[Stevebol]

Stevebol, perhaps you should contact Martin Scorsese about doing a biopic of your life.

When hell freezes over.

[deacon Mark]

I have not been baptized, bar mitvahed or whatever it is that Muslims do. I guess I am a free agent.

Well, we might call you a pagan but no prejudice in the name just a description. Somewhat surprised you know some very good basic of religion and sometimes it simply comes from the family in early years unknown to us. That is not a problem as such the Lord works all the time and we are completely unaware. But let me give you some of my take on the situation.

1. You are one of the absolutely best pagan guitars around no question since you better than almost every one of the baptized guitarist around.
2 It actually puts you into some interesting situations. The first being is if your wife is Christian? Once we know that we can see where the tree branches.
3 My thought is that you probably would not do this, but I have to reach out.................it is in the grace of my own sacrament. If it ever crosses your mind to be baptized give the deacon a ring.
4. I have baptized around 300 mostly very young infants between 0 and 6 years old. A few older for sure and I can tell you this much. None have come back to complain or say why did you do that. My guess is you won't either you will have learned a new tune not in your present repertoire. It could even bring some peace this thread seems to want to happen.............no joke.

[Stevebol]

Stevebol, perhaps you should contact Martin Scorsese about doing a biopic of your life.

It's already been done. Remove the element of jazz and put it in the mid 1980's.
Sweet and Lowdown.

[DawgBone]

Well, we might call you a pagan but no prejudice in the name just a description. Somewhat surprised you know some very good basic of religion and sometimes it simply comes from the family in early years unknown to us. That is not a problem as such the Lord works all the time and we are completely unaware. But let me give you some of my take on the situation.

1. You are one of the absolutely best pagan guitars around no question since you better than almost every one of the baptized guitarist around.
2 It actually puts you into some interesting situations. The first being is if your wife is Christian? Once we know that we can see where the tree branches.
3 My thought is that you probably would not do this, but I have to reach out.................it is in the grace of my own sacrament. If it ever crosses your mind to be baptized give the deacon a ring.
4. I have baptized around 300 mostly very young infants between 0 and 6 years old. A few older for sure and I can tell you this much. None have come back to complain or say why did you do that. My guess is you won't either you will have learned a new tune not in your present repertoire. It could even bring some peace this thread seems to want to happen.............no joke.

Does the roman catholic church baptize an adult without the candidate entering first as a catechumen? Or...would it be because (an assumption) that his wife is a baptized catholic that he could skip the catechumen phase? Occasionally in orthodoxy they will chrismate a believer because the priest determines a previous non orthodox baptism was legitimate. Just interested in the theological perspective of the RCC here.

[Stringswinger]

Well, we might call you a pagan but no prejudice in the name just a description. Somewhat surprised you know some very good basic of religion and sometimes it simply comes from the family in early years unknown to us. That is not a problem as such the Lord works all the time and we are completely unaware. But let me give you some of my take on the situation.

1. You are one of the absolutely best pagan guitars around no question since you better than almost every one of the baptized guitarist around.
2 It actually puts you into some interesting situations. The first being is if your wife is Christian? Once we know that we can see where the tree branches.
3 My thought is that you probably would not do this, but I have to reach out.................it is in the grace of my own sacrament. If it ever crosses your mind to be baptized give the deacon a ring.
4. I have baptized around 300 mostly very young infants between 0 and 6 years old. A few older for sure and I can tell you this much. None have come back to complain or say why did you do that. My guess is you won't either you will have learned a new tune not in your present repertoire. It could even bring some peace this thread seems to want to happen.............no joke.

One of my Harleys has a sticker on it that says "Born Again Pagan". I have always wondered if any members of the Pagans Outlaw Motorcycle club would have an issue with that?

My wife was Baptized as a Methodist (her Mom's faith, her dad was raised Catholic) and she has considered herself a Christian at times and also an Atheist at times. She has five siblings and two of them are very religious (one is a Methodist and one is an Evangelical Protestant). Ny wife's brothers had a "Big Brother" growing up in Montana who is a Mormon. He is still considered a family member. While there are different religions in that family there is no acrimony at all (even against Pagan me). Politics is a different story. These days the Democrat side (who live in Virginia) are at odds with the Republican side (who live in Montana and Eastern Washington). My family is mixed between Jews and Catholics (the Catholic side is Italian). Growing up, I had the choice of being Bar Mitvahed or Confirmed and chose neither. I was lucky as a kid to get presents for both Christmas and Hannukah. I have studied religion to the point where I could probably debate those with a degree in theology quite well. But other than accepting that there is something greater than us that created all of this, I remain unconvinced. I bear good will to all who wish me no harm, no matter their race, creed or National origin.

Should I wish a Catholic Baptism, Deacon you will be the one I will seek. Speaking of a Catholic Baptism, I had a friend in Junior High School who was raised Catholic. Years later he found out that his dad was born a Jew in Hungary and his dad got Baptized at the local Catholic Church when he was a teenager. His dad changed his name from Joseph Weiss to Joseph Pastor when he turned 21. I knew his dad and asked him about the whole "conversion". Joe (RIP) told me that he did it to lose all of the legal disabilities facing Jews in Hungary. When the Nazis deported the Jewish population of Hungary to Auschwitz in 1945, Joe's Baptism papers saved him. His entire family was gassed upon arrival at the death camp (I guess at that point the Germans knew they were going to lose the war and killing Jews was more important than slave labor) and Joe was the only survivor of a large family. (I am always shocked that some people are either stupid enough, hateful enough or both to deny that those gassings took place) Joe became a devout Catholic after that and attended Mass regularly. He told me that accepting entry into the Church saved him in more ways than one. Arguable, being Baptized can carry both earthly utility as well as spiritual utility.

[Stringswinger]

It's already been done. Remove the element of jazz and put it in the mid 1980's.
Sweet and Lowdown.

My pal, Howard Alden did the music for that film and I have played the Dupont guitar that he used (Dupont made several guitars for the film, one was destroyed, one is still owned by Howard and one belongs to a musician here in the Bay Area. I have played that one as well.)