@Caleb ok if this was a perverbal bank i was a teller in addition to the money which the banks owns there is this wonderful invention called a wallet and if someone was despritly hungery i would tell my boss hey i need a break and take them and buy them whatever food was reasonable
@Caleb is there a pm system i dont know about?
because i've never once heard you help someone find another site
where they could actually get help
your closing questions and dismissing people
walking on the other side of the road
or telling people find a good sameritain
like its easy or something
@Caleb now about downvotes
this is a popularity contest
its a social organization
and the reason people up and down vote is sociolical and psychological
people naturally help those who they can relate with
its scientificly proven
and they have a tendency to be predjuce against those whom they cannot relate to
you say we are judeging the content
but i garentee you that if you have tons of points
and you ask a bad question
it will not recieve as many down votes
as if you have a few amount of points
the same applies to votes to close because people naturally have a us and them mentality
@caseyr547 reputation (points as you call them here) is a measure of community trust and also longevity. If you have a lot of reputation you have social capital in our community and yes that does carry with it a bit of benefit of the doubt.
@TRiG no, IIRC that one was quite highly upvoted before it was deleted. I'm thinking of Jeff's status decline on a very popular meta feature request
even here one of our worst downvoted questions (-6) is from a guy with over 10k. And we have a -4 from a high rep user here who is a mod on another site.
some other very high rep users have pretty significantly downvoted answers (though we don't have anything at -10 or below)
usually we clean stuff up if it gets real low because our users don't heavily downvote stuff that's bad, usually it gets a few downvotes to show it's not good/wrong and then they stop. They don't pile on unless it's severely bad and then the first instinct is to flag for mod attention rather than pile on downvotes (I've actually chastised some of these guys to vote down and then vote to delete because they are involving mods when they don't have to)
I know that I'm more likely to downvote an established user; if I feel it's a bad answer, a person with more rep points than me should definitely know better than to post it.
We have recently gotten some questions that assume that Christianity is false and that a completely different religion is true.
Some of the questions basically assume that the Bible is inaccurate, but then take one verse of the Bible, assume that it is true
Other questions are basically reduc...
@caseyr547 I don't see how affable's answer is patronizing. I see it as him saying that it's an opportunity for him to learn more through a response. I don't get any smugness from his answer htere
and also meta answers develop policy, users make suggestions and they get voted on. The mod team has little patience for abusive/hostile posts and they are dealt with quickly. Users do sometimes get a chance to answer them, how they do that we don't have a lot of control over.
This is a community not a single entity
The question is about people who are hostile. If you want a place where people are allowed to be openly hostile this is not the place for you.
(and to further the meta discussion, just because something gets a ton of votes on meta doesn't make it policy. bad ideas on meta often get tons of upvotes and they get ignored)
I know what you mean. between pressures at work, and pointless debates here, I'm spent. Wish I were a basketball fan so I could comment on the NBA finals.
Maybe I'll just take my gn0toting right-wing self out to the range and relax to the sound of targets exploding. ;-)
Understandable. Honestly, until three years ago I hadn't ever really touched one. I was convinced that if I were to even glance at one sideways it'd go ff killing someone. And if I touched it, I'd be sure to shoot myself in the leg.
I'm no expert at all, but I got some good instruction, and I'm much less scared these days.
@DavidStratton on that hostile question. I'm trying to figure out how to make hte point that we make a huge distinction between people who come here and interact with us politely even when they disagree vehemently with us (some of hte guys from skeptics, Trig, and some others). And folks who disagree and can't manage to maintain civility/ask quality questions.
but respect.. With 5 kids.. A necessity. Always locked up, always under my control
@waxeagle - yeah, I don't think I phrased it quite right. It's really, REALLY hard to explain or guide those that just haven't been around that long....
@DavidStratton I'd never fired a gun in my life until a church event a few months ago. Got to shoot shotguns for the better part of a day and had a blast.
@DavidStratton I've got a pair myself, so yeah, if I'm going to get one, the safe comes first.
@DavidStratton the learning curve is not gentle here. And we try hard to make sure new users are given leeway to adjust to it.
I'm still convinced that Richard stopped coming around out of exasperation in dealing with me fighting against hist assertions. now I'm constantly defending the points he tried tomake me see.
@DavidStratton I was not trying to criticize the Word of Faith movement. As a matter of fact, I was the only one who tried to find a credible source on the topic, and I was hoping that you would be interested in the book and the book review.
I know, I say that sort of tongue-in-cheek, but man, did I argue with him. And it wasn't long after he stopped participating that I saw that he was right.
So, what do you think of the Word of Faith church statement of faith?
Did you read it?
Maybe it will tell you about its basic beliefs. If you are interested in their faith, then you may always contact them and answer your own question. :)
@Anonymous I feel like you could have presented it without the quote/editorial and it would have been fine. As I said to casey, I'm not here to judge facts (I declined the flag I received on that comment). However, the whole discussion was heading in a non-constructive direction and I prefer to head that at the pass if I can catch it in time.
I did read several that I found online. I don't agree with much of it. But I'm honestly trying to understand it. Who knows. I like to challenge my own beliefs. It's certainly a large enough movement that it can't be summarily dismissed.
@Anonymous essentially this "From what it says, it seems that the Word of Faith movement fits well with the present hedonistic and therapeutic American culture, because it offers a sense of entitlement. I think the Word of Faith movement can be summarized as prosperity theology."
the problem is that "prosperity theology" is essentially a pejorative at this point
@Anonymous - there are several teachings that are debatably non-mainstream. But I prefer not to make any judgment calls or discuss it further until I actually understand it. It's quite possible that I'm merely misunderstanding what I'm reading. Far too often, I, like many people, am hasty to jump to conclusions. As i get older and grayer, I try very hard to curb that particular tendency.
@caseyr547 - thank you for your answer. I'm going to read it in the morning when I'm not falling asleep at the keyboard before up-voting and/or accepting the answer. Right now my eyes are heavy and my head is swimming, and I'm having a hard time following my own thought process, but it looks like a good, well-sourced answer, which is exactly what I was looking for.
@waxeagle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology According to Wikipedia, it's about "health and wealth", which is exactly what I read in the book review. It helps African Americans cope with their lives by giving them a sense of entitlement to health and wealth.
Most of my knowledge about Christianity are from hearsay and readings on Wikipedia and other encyclopedic sources; in other words, factual knowledge. I am not affiliated with a church, and I have never had a Christian upbringing, so I am not familiar with the Christian culture.
@Anonymous - Neither did I. I was openly hostile to Christianity until about 10 years ago. It's completely understandable that you would not realize that such a statement could be taken offensively.
@DavidStratton yeah definitely. @Anonymous thanks for coming and chatting, I'm always happy to explain if I can.
Christianity can be a minefield. There are a lot of sensitivities that can easily be offended just with the wrong word choice. Generally people around here are pretty forgiving because frankly that's what Jesus teaches. But it's still the internets and we're still talking about religion on them.
Oh, I didn't mean that I thought you were openly hostile. i was just commenting that I remember what it's like to be an "outsider" not knowing about things that can easily offend.
That said, at it's most genuine, Christianity can be the most humble and caring religion in the world. Because it's starting place is "I can't do it. At all. Even if I try really hard" and it's message is "Jesus takes your place. Now go be like him, but if you screw up, he's still there"
5
everything else is just baggage
(though sadly, and this essentially informs the fracturing we have, we don't even all agree on those statements)
and i've stayed up entirely too late. so I'm going to bed.
I am not sure what really caught my interest. I think it was more of a gradual thing. I live in the United States. Evangelism. Missionary work. Preaching. Churches at every street corner. Phrases derived from the Bible. And I got hooked ever since.
Sadly, I wish I had devoted more time other religions besides Christianity. There was that book called Religion for Dummies, so I know some information on other religions and the nature of religion in general.
@DavidStratton Richard had the genius to play out some scenarios in his head and figure out how this had to go down before the full scale trial and error that convinced the rest of us played itself out.
@user4813: Concerning the "which flavor?" you keep asking about when speaking of Christianity, think of quantum mechanics. We have the mathematics, and we have the interpretation of the math (thirteen interpretations, if I remember correctly). So yes, most of us are wrong about something, but we build our interpretations on a solid foundation.
@RyanFrame, I have thought about the common ground problem too. Has anyone come up with a cross-denomiational least-common-denominator? However, keep in mind that my "which flavor" is based upon years of reformation war, tens of thousands of victims and (likely) hundreds of thousands of forced conversions as various countries have taken (or changed) sides. This might seem like a moot point nowaday, but it has a long history
Someone dropped a link to a chat in response to a comment (presumably in order to not overload the comment format). But I can't seem to be able to do anything but view that chat. Am I supposed to response in chat, and if so, how?
@RyanFrame, if "there is at least some group that disagrees with every aspect" within Christianity, doesn't it mean that a rational, intelligent, well-intentioned human being could choose to disagree with Christianity when presented all relevant information? Because I believe that's the point you were trying to make, that the evidence for Christianity is so overwhelming as to be unchallangeable?
@user4813 responding to your comments from christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/301/…. Basically answers are expected to present the view of a group of Christians. We don't do truth here because that expands subjectivity beyond useful bounds
Since practical advice, truth questions, hostile questions and pastor advice are all off topic here why not create a different se site where they are on topic? A practical Christianity or Bible Answers with a different venue to support those who are not able to overcome the steep learning curve w...
@user4813: I'm not saying Christianity is the only rational solution -- I'm saying it is a rational one.
"There is at least some group that disagrees with every aspect" means that everyone is not correct -- it does not follow from that that everyone is incorrect.
We have recently gotten some questions that assume that Christianity is false and that a completely different religion is true.
Some of the questions basically assume that the Bible is inaccurate, but then take one verse of the Bible, assume that it is true
Other questions are basically reduc...
Someone dropped a link to a chat in response to a comment (presumably in order to not overload the comment format). But I can't seem to be able to do anything but view that chat. Am I supposed to response in chat, and if so, how?
The Upper Room
The Upper Room