Salut From France

[Minimalist]

Any word contain via gra?


The Law of Unintended Consequences claims another victim.

[neilmarr]

***as an atheist, do you specialize in debunking judeo/christian claims or do you, like Dawkins, diversify and take on Buddhists, Isamics, Hindis and religion in general***

Hello there, Monk. I guess as a child, I believed, or at least was troubled by, some supernatural claims. Certainly for the past half century, though, I've accepted none.

I'm not on a 'debunking' mission, but promoting a critical approach where I can might, hopefully, lead some people to think more rationally about the strange beliefs they accepted without question as children born into any religion.

Yep, I've come across Ish, Min and Seeker on other boards, though not KoreaBrdge (must take a look at that). I followed them here through a link Min posted in another forum. All three are much more clued up on their subject than am I and I'm hoping to learn.

I can see from what I've read at archaeologica.org so far that coming here wasn't a bad move. I don't know too much about the archaeological side of biblical research, so I've also ordered some reading from Amazon that might help me more fully understand some of the threads here and perhaps add a thought or two from time to time.

Cheers. Neil

[Minimalist]

Koreabridge is pretty lame.

Now Kokobridge is a whole other story but even that hasn't been too exciting since Arch got banned....

You don't know Arch. Consider yourself lucky.

[MichelleH]

Maybe its spe "c i a l i s" t that's the culprit.

It was, and it's fixed.....

[Minimalist]

specialist


Yay!

[Forum Monk]

I'm not on a 'debunking' mission, but promoting a critical approach where I can might, hopefully, lead some people to think more rationally about the strange beliefs they accepted without question as children born into any religion.

Welcome Neil. So you live in France but your english seems better than mine, although I think the other six NeilMarrs who also posted on this board may have better grammar than you. But don't ask me, I'm american; I don't speak english.

Maybe you can help me straighten out the flaws in my thinking. Though I've had zero religious upbringing, I still tend toward the irrational and strange.

[neilmarr]

Hi Monk: I'm sorry about all those 'hello' threads. Can't think what happened there. Maybe one of the moderators could spare a moment to lose the others.

I've been in the south of France for twenty-two years now, but I'm a Scot. From what I hear, it's maybe no longer the case, but schools in Scotland did teach at least a form of English when I was a kid.

A tad of irrationality can be a lot of fun, Monk: I still firmly believe, for example, that haggis is a better meal than anything the French can come up with, in spite of all learned opinion to the contrary.

Very best. Neil

[Minimalist]

My guess is that while the board was having one of its periodic nervous breakdowns you kept hitting the "enter" key to hurry it along.


That never works, Neil.


I'll get the extras out of here for you.

[neilmarr]

Could be, Min. I do remember that the board was playing up when I first registered and my message didn't seem to be accepted, so I tried again several times.

Then the board went down completely and there were, I think, three of my messages up there when it came back to life. Then they vanished ... then they came back again.

Whenever I hit a snag like this, I always find it as well to blame myself. Nine times out of ten, that'll be a fair guess.

Hoots. Neil

[Minimalist]

Don't worry about it, amigo.

Cleaning up after the board is my main function around here.

(That and recruiting.)

[neilmarr]

Thanks for saving my blushes, Min. Neil

[Forum Monk]

... I still firmly believe, for example, that haggis is a better meal than anything the French can come up with, in spite of all learned opinion to the contrary.

I'm likely scottish myself, Neil, perhaps Ulster Scot. Things get a little mixed up in the 1600's thanks to Cromwell stirring the pot.

As good as haggis may be, we don't have a single scottish cooking program on television. I wonder why that is?

Happy reading Neil.

[War Arrow]

I still firmly believe, for example, that haggis is a better meal than anything the French can come up with, in spite of all learned opinion to the contrary.

Haggis is fantastic, and whilst I've a lot of time for French food (and indeed the French themselves) your point stands. On a different note entirely, I still remember believing that Haggises were actually animals of some sort thanks entirely to misleading claims made in the Beano (and possibly by the same guy who drew Oor Wullie).
Oh... hello by the way.

[neilmarr]

***we don't have a single scottish cooking program on television. I wonder why that is?***

Probably for the same reason that notably few bob-sleigh programmes originate in Mali, Monk. Apart from haggis and deep-fried Mars Bars, our countrymen aren't famous for their prowess in the kitchen department.

***I still remember believing that Haggises were actually animals of some sort thanks entirely to misleading claims made in the Beano (and possibly by the same guy who drew Oor Wullie)***

And what led you to believe such claims are 'misleading', War Arrow? Haggii are an endangered species, I confess, but some pairs (they mate for life like Moonies) still do exist in the wild.

They are small, bagpipe-shaped creatures with the legs on one side of their body shorter than those on the other to facilitate running around steep Highland slopes without falling over. They are notably timid, shy animals, which is why some English zoologists nefariously (perhaps jealously) claim that they have died out altogether through overhunting in centuries past and current poaching (haggis should be boiled, of course, and not poached).

Others go so far as to outlandishly propose that the Haggis is entirely mythological. Well, ha ha to them ... they might as well try to disprove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster for which there is more evidence that that for Julius Caesar and eye witess reporting as realiable as the very gospels themselves.

Thanks, by the way, for noticing 'Oor Wullie' in my avatar. There's the Wee Man on the left, happily sitting on his favourite bucket. You know, WA, there's even a wicked rumour by those who dispute the inerrant word of The Sunday Post and The Beano that Oor Wullie and the Broons are not historical characters and merely myths, possibly hijacked from an earlier culture (The Dandy).

An outrage. To take a leaf from the book of our fundamenalist Christian friends:

The DC Thomson Bumper Book of Fun says it.
I Believe it.
That settles it.

Hoots toots the noo. Neil

[War Arrow]

Hmmm. If I remember my Beano Annual correctly (early 1970s - two page spread featuring different species of Haggis) the kind with long legs on one side and short on the other was the type specifically adapted for walking sideways up mountains (thus proving Darwin right), though all the others appeared to have legs of equal length. Mind you, it was a long time ago...

By the way, have you seen The Dandy of late? I know it was never up to much compared to The Beano (or even The Beezer or The Topper) but "Dandy Xtreme" - Jesus! How the not-so-mighty-as-they-should-have-been-except-for-Desperate-Dan-obviously have fallen...

Finally, a Glaswegian friend once told me of a chippie up there in Glasgow where you could have a portion of chips in a pizza, folded over cornish pastie fashion and then fried. I'm still not sure whether he was joking or not.