Saturday Fun (週末歡樂)

I attended an excellent  talk last night about Buddhist views on gay rights which was contrasted with the views advocated by some Christian fundamentalists in Hong Kong whose government is now consulting the public about the possibility of passing new legislation to give equal rights to gays, neutrally described as people having different sexual orientations. That turns my thoughts on the mysteries how it is possible for Christian fundamentalists to remain as such. Are their brains somehow made in a different way from that of the rather more "ordinary" people. But how to tell if you're a Christian fundamentalist? This is what I found on the net.

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian

10.  You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9.   You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8.   You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.


7.   Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!

6.   You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a God-man who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5.   You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (between 4-4.5 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few tens generations old or just about 6000 years.

4.   You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3.   While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2.   You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers.You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1.   You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history, but still call yourself a Christian.

But then, this is a strange world. There certainly are many many things that us poor benighted fools whose resurrected "bodies" are destined to burn for all eternity in a fire which somehow will never turn them into cinders, unlike the Christian fundamentalists, don't "really" understand.