Cugalabanza

They gotta be kidding with the name of the detective: Major Johnson

That's not bad

I procrastinated too, but I just did my small part. Cheers, Rock!

You may use oak tag.

The fact that casinos exist and flourish…I don’t know if there’s a better illustration of the profound stupidity and desperation of the human race. And I say this as a Bills fan.

I think you should go take a poop in a manilla envelope and mail it to yourself. That's what I think.

Great album! I recently picked up the vinyl.

Each one's better than the next

I honestly literally didn't even know Jackie Robinson was gay. That's how little that kind of thing matters to me.

Please consider gringo starr for your thread winner. Thank you for your support.

Great thread. Five pages of pure gold.

Only $124.24 on Amazon... http://www.amazon.com/Stuffed-Banana-Jamaican-Dreadlock-Rastafarian/dp/B009PDD9VU

Just the one. Finally got something right--don't wanna push it.

Great! Thank you...

With the #8 pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, the Buffalo Bills select... Steve Holt!!

Might as well make it a DRAUGHT DAY as well.

Fine. It’s a tautology. Faith is Faith. And if I ask a proponent for clarification, they say, “you’ll know it when you know it.” Can’t be logically proven or disproven. I still say it’s a BS notion. There are those who claim to have knowledge of the divine and they claim this is attained not through evidence or logic and it’s not mere belief. They call it faith. I say they’re just giving a name to something that is just regular belief plus self-delusion. This is a psychological observation on my part. Of course, I could be wrong and there is something mystical at play that eludes me.

When I hear something like this, I cringe. Sounds exactly like willful ignorance to my ears.

I don't completely understand your question. I think the notion of will is very difficult. Hard to give an account of how it's possible, yet hard to reconcile our experience without it. It's an apparently dubious notion, kind of similar to faith. If I think a while about either, sometimes I retreat to the feeling that maybe we should just appreciate the mysteries of being alive. Which would be fine except I'm jolted back to skepticism by those who insist they're RIGHT about some particularly dangerous piece of dogma. (The current example being the true believer parents who keep murdering their children with divine neglect.)

Wow, I'm slipping. In behind the guy who hasn't even been here for about two years.

I know people like this. I admire anyone who possesses humility, kindness, bravery, peace. But none of this illuminates the empty designator [Faith]. It's possible for someone to have a belief that gives him strength or confidence or calm. Granted. However, that does not prove the truth of the thing believed, nor, more importantly, does it say anything about the mode of belief in question. (Very much in question in my opinion.) I'm surprised you don't see the distinction here.

Sure, in an utterly trivial way. The meaning you describe belongs to that which a person has faith in, not to "faith" as a thing. But my point is that faith used in this way is a misnomer. The belief turns out to be quite ordinary if you look below the surface. In most cases, "hope" is what they mean.

I submit: When people talk about “Faith,” nothing is denoted. The word aims at something like belief-without-reason-to-believe. Not luck, not randomness, not simply hope--it’s supposed to be some other special kind of belief, but it’s not. It’s simply a fearful longing combined with a complete capitulation in terms of moral responsibility or reasonable expectation. It’s an infantile appeal to a supreme Daddy in the sky. I realize that, in ordinary language, the word faith is used as synonym for trust or fortitude or patience or hope, etc… That’s not what I’m disputing. I’m talking about the theological Faith, which has no meaning.

Nice! He's better than he gets credit for. Next year is his time to shine.

Victory is mine.