Alan Turing "pardoned""
 

[URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25495315[/URL]

Our bad, chappy - but the similarity of the 2 themes (Mary's freedom from original sin, Jesus' virgin birth) obviously makes confusion/conflation inevitable.

OT: I find it interesting how similar the views of Mary/Jesus in Islam are to those in Christianity. It is the Christian belief that Jesus is son-of/one-with God that arguably provides the most serious rift between the 2 faiths [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_view_of_Jesus]on the subject of Jesus[/url]:
[quote]According to Islamic scriptures, the belief that Jesus is God or Son of God is [i]shirk[/i], or the association of partners with God, and thereby a rejection of God's divine oneness ([i]tawhid[/i]) and the sole unpardonable sin.[/quote]

[QUOTE=davieddy;362780][URL]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25495315[/URL][/QUOTE]

Good of 'em, eh? I'm sure 'e feels a whole lot better.

But seriously: it's about time. Talk about gratitude, not to mention the un-brilliant decision to wreck one of the most brilliant men in his field.

[QUOTE=kladner;362789]Good of 'em, eh? I'm sure 'e feels a whole lot better.

But seriously: it's about time. Talk about gratitude, not to mention the un-brilliant decision to wreck one of the most brilliant men in his field.[/QUOTE]The radio is struggling to do full justice to him which I suppose is not very surprising. How many of the audience have heard of these?
Godel
The UTM
Church
Von Neumann
Shannon
...or even Bletchley Park until 1995. (On my doorstep BTW).

David

[QUOTE=chappy;362770]If you are going to criticize the concept you should at least start there.[/QUOTE]

So, then, what you are saying is according to the Bible Mary might have gotten a really good "spanking" to produce Jesus, but her mother didn't to produce her?

Just trying to figure out the logic.

[QUOTE=chalsall;362848]So, then, what you are saying is according to the Bible Mary might have gotten a really good "spanking" to produce Jesus, but her mother didn't to produce her?

Just trying to figure out the logic.[/QUOTE]

No, that's not what I am saying. That's not even what the Catholics are saying.

These concepts fail on their own merit without making up straw men. Even for comedic effect.

There is, of course, nothing in the Bible about Mary's conception. Which is why protestants who among the 5 solae include sola scriptura and disregard the Catholic notion of immaculate conception which was controversial even in the church until the 1800's. It's one more layer of made up tradition becoming doctrinal. On it's surface though it is no crazier than any other single piece of theology.

[QUOTE=chappy;362853]It's one more layer of made up tradition becoming doctrinal. On it's surface though it is no crazier than any other single piece of theology.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for your honesty.

And Merry CHRISTmas.... :smile:

Did the nine-year-olds who wrote and produced their own nativity play get it about right then with the following fragment of their script?

INN KEEPER: I'm sorry, the inn is full.

JOSEPH: But we need somewhere to stay, and my wife Mary here is heavy with child.

INN KEEPER: Well, that's not my fault.

JOSEPH: It's not mine either.

Cue Pythons:

Brian's mother: He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy! Now, piss off!

[i]Due to Terry Jones' refusal to allow certain cuts, [url=www.imdb.com/title/tt0079470]this film[/url] was banned for one year in Norway for blasphemy, being released with an '18' rating and a warning from the censors at the beginning. Thus, it has been marketed in Sweden as "The film that is so funny that it was banned in Norway!"[/i]

The IMDB memorable quotes collection misses one of my favorite lines, so we had to resort to [url=http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Life_of_Brian/2.htm]the nuclear option[/url]: here -- my only quibble with the manger sketch is that I would have done the Myrrh bit a little differently, more along these lines:

MANDY [Brian's mother]: Go and praise someone else's brat! Go on!

WISE MAN #2: We--

WISE MAN #1: We were led by a star.

MANDY: Or led by a bottle, more like. Go on. Out!

WISE MAN #1: Well-- well, we must see him. We have brought presents.

MANDY: Out!

WISE MAN #2: Gold. Frankincense. Myrrh.

MANDY: Well, why didn't you say? He's over there. Sorry the place is a bit of a mess. Well, what is myrrh, anyway?

WISE MAN #3: It is a valuable balm.

MANDY: A bomb? What are you bringing it in here for?

[QUOTE=Brian-E;362549]If I have followed the story correctly, this dedicated and popular teacher has been with his male partner for many years with the school's full knowledge of this. His sacking (more accurately, forced resignation) is as a result of his announcement that he was to finally marry his partner. Why is marrying the guy now sinful when living with him unmarried apparently was not?[/QUOTE]
The marriage isn't the issue, the problem is that we have a school full of kids celebrating the sin.

[QUOTE=chappy;362554]Some number of years ago, the same thing would have happened for an administrator getting divorced and remarried. And we would hear the same narrow-minded chants about sin being wrong no matter what.

Let's turn the tables a little and ask, what if God said don't eat shrimp or turtle soup, or catfish, or snails. Perhaps we might imagine that God would forbid us to eat fat or blood. Maybe God might say don't walk around without a hat or with torn clothes, or mixed fabrics, or tattoos, or mixing a few different kinds of herbs in a garden. And we might imagine a God who forbids us American Football, not because it interferes with the Sabbath--since that is Saturday and people conveniently ignore that specific rule and worship on the same day as the Romans set aside for Sol Invictus the Sun god, you know it as Sunday--but because it is unclean to touch the dead carcass of a pig.

Men without two testicles can't go to church in this imagined scenario and no bastards are allowed either. Women shouldn't braid their hair, wear gold or pearls, or expensive clothes either.

So perhaps Sin is so damned cool. Especially when you do it in a group. Like every Sunday. When you go to church to hang out with all the others defying G-d's word in deed and action.

What denomination of sinners do you belong to?[/QUOTE]
I belong to New Life. And you're right, Christians sin. That's the point of Jesus' death on the cross. He didn't come for the righteous, He came for sinners. If there were even one righteous person on the Earth, Christ's death would be unnecessary. Christ was a bandaid, because otherwise the "earth experiment" would've been a total washout.

And I don't comdemn homosexuals, I condemn homosexuality. Everybody sins, it's just the specifics that are different. I'm not claiming homosexuals go to Hell just for being homosexuals, but homosexuality is a sin and it isn't a good idea to practice or endorse it.