Ben Dunne on 4fm

Nodin

Soundbraid wrote: »

............
For once, somebody stands up for an increasingly insidiously persecuted religion, yes that's right - Christianity - deal with it - and we ridicule him.
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Doing the following, as per the OP

Ranting about giving 2 fingers to Europe because "they're trying to take our Christianity" and "only the Lord can save us".

is not standing up for anything other than his own delusions.

awec

Soundbraid wrote: »

Yes, it is freaking ok! The word 'hypocrite', would be all well and good if it weren't for the fact that Christianity, I will say for the 3rd time, is FOR sinners!!

Also, we have a little thing called 'free speech' here in the Western world. And he's not persecuting non-Christians in this country by using the word Jesus. He's trying to speak to those who are Christian in this country (about 85percent of the population) who have forgotten about Jesus, the real living person and hope in our Church, the main character!!

We are living in despair today, and our media constantly uses omission and misquotes to promote an image of a Church past the sell-by date. We're in the 21st century here, so they do it nice and subtle. I don't know why they do it, but they do. They want the end of Christianity in this country. Already, EU-pushed laws pave the way for wearing of crucifixes, and prayer in public, to be made illegal. I'm an 18-year-old LC student, not some old ranting fogey, and I've done my research. This is really happening.

So if someone if willing to stand up for an increasing persecuted Christ in our country today, I will stand by him, whatever his mistakes in the past. I believe in second chances, and I believe in hope. And I believe we can all get along in this country, all of us with different faiths or none, without there being a need to destroy one religion to pave way for another.

(And Atheism has enough stringent doctrines and dogmas, in my experience, to be a religion by the way. )

1. He's a hypocrite. More fool you if you take a coke sniffing, hooker shagging, politician bribing dick seriously.

2. Free speech, except when that right to free speech is exercised to mock and ridicule a hypocritical windbag?

3. If we are living in despair then fecking religion isn't going to fix it. Personally I don't care what they make illegal, although I do have to say that I fail to see the point of public prayer. I thought religion was a personal thing, why do you think everyone else wants to know you're praying? Seems a bit "look at me, look at me" in my eyes.

4. It's not really wanting an end to religion though. I'd say people are looking a much bigger separation of church and state. Which is totally correct. There should be a bigger separation. Religion should not be taught in schools.

5. I live by no doctrines. I am not religious. I don't care if anyone else is religious, so long as they don't start getting preachy with me. Especially if they're hypocrites.

Soundbraid

grindle wrote: »

He was talking about the theological Jesus, not the historical Jesus. The historical Jesus was just another doomsday-saying vagrant living through hard times, trying to make the world a little bit better in his own way, and promising an afterlife to those who needed to think there was something better than the squalid/dangerous/meaningless life they currently had.
Ben Dunne insists that I take the theological Jesus into my heart. I insist he watches all recorded seasons of Barney and Friends.
The same message, and both performed by a fictional creature.

For me, Jesus is a real person. He is hope, not dependence on a desperate desire for more than life on earth, and a need to have more, but a way of life, for me here today. He is love, instead of hate and fear, and as much as I mess that up on a daily basis, He can still pick me up and keep me going, allowing me to help people in my life and do the right thing without fear of what will happen to me. That is what my religion is about.

If you don't believe the same thing as I do, that's absolutely fine. But we have religious freedom (for now :0) in this country. So, as long as my believing what I believe doesn't infringe on your rights (which it doesn't), please stop criticizing other people's religions.

Oh, and Jesus, as you said, is a historical person. Barney isn't.

grindle

Soundbraid wrote: »

Already, EU-pushed laws pave the way for wearing of crucifixes, and prayer in public, to be made illegal.

Did you listen to his rant? He was telling the 15% they were doomed just as much as he was telling the 85% to "hold on to Christ".

Anyway, I'd defend your right to wear a crucifix as long as you'd defend the right of a satanist to wear the same crucifix inverted, or a disaffected teen's right to wear whatever blasphemous Cradle of Filth t-shirt's doing the rounds these days (ah, "Jesus is a Cnut" indeed).
Otherwise, your claims of persecution are one-sided.
Not sure why you'd want to pray in public. Is prayer not supposed to be a one-on-one with a god? I wouldn't be allowed to rant in the street or make a nuisance of myself, so why should ye?

awec

Soundbraid wrote: »

For me, Jesus is a real person. He is hope, not dependence on a desperate desire for more than life on earth, and a need to have more, but a way of life, for me here today. He is love, instead of hate and fear, and as much as I mess that up on a daily basis, He can still pick me up and keep me going, allowing me to help people in my life and do the right thing without fear of what will happen to me. That is what my religion is about.

If you don't believe the same thing as I do, that's absolutely fine. But we have religious freedom (for now :0) in this country. So, as long as my believing what I believe doesn't infringe on your rights (which it doesn't), please stop criticizing other people's religions.

Oh, and Jesus, as you said, is a historical person. Barney isn't.

Actually, I think you'll find that they stopped making new episodes of Barney in 2009.

Diabhal Beag

I'd need cocaine to get through all the paragraphs of religious talk.

grindle

Soundbraid wrote: »

For me, Jesus is a real person...

...and Jesus, as you said, is a historical person. Barney isn't.

Contradiction. Jesus is dead.
The historical Jesus, was probably a real person. The theological Jesus was never ever ever a real person, unless he was some kind of David Copperfield-style illusionist.
Barney's teachings were also less tainted by the mentally unhinged elements of Jesus'.
You're playin' for the wrong team.

philologos

Dave! wrote: »

You've not addressed the poster's central point, which was that the developing nations where Christianity is on the increase generally don't have as ready access to information as we do in Europe and North America. Their point I gather is that exposure to alternative views, information, research, arguments, perspectives, philosophies, etc., is playing a big role in the decline of Christianity in the west.

The poster noted that access to the internet would be significant.

I'm interested in this. I'm someone living in a Western society that has decided to follow Jesus on the basis of how reasonable I found Christianity to be.

Surely if there was some material online it should have much the same effect to my faith as opposed to anyone elses. I don't believe for a second that there is anything online that would destroy my faith in Christ. So I'm not entirely sure if that washes.

One can quite reasonably hold to what natural science says about the universe while believing in God. It's really not that difficult, indeed, it makes perhaps quite a bit more sense to do so.

Also, there is no guarantee in the case of any people group that they will receive Jesus. I don't actually believe that it is any more likely than in any other region. Regions increase and decrease in respect to their adherence to belief systems. Europe is currently on a downward trend. I wouldn't say never to it making a resurgence, perhaps long after I'm dead.

The idea that since we've got so much information that people don't perceive the need to follow Christianity is absurd IMO. What more likely is the case is that people think that they can do everything themselves (materialism for a start), the reality is that they can't and ultimately according to the Gospel, they need a Saviour.

MickelRants

Why are the public paying for over 10 million euro worth of free adverting in the single most expensive advertising slot on public television? And advertising for an organisation that systematically abused our children over its entire history?

RTE charge about 10k for 30 seconds at this spot... that 20k a day...just for the angeles... that not includeing the thought for the day...which sneaks in catholic doctrine and the cross in every broadcast...

What next? will we have the one minute message for the wonders of leprechaun hunting? Or one minute message asking us to save the unicorn from extinction (its mentioned 9 times in the bible btw... the magic of the unicorn ehh? lol)

And why are our children being subjected to religious education in the form of indoctrination of one single religion (christianity and catholoisism) when philsophy will do a better job?

Replace religious education with philosopy and modal logic... theology as a ideology can be discussed there...

There are plenty of empty churches in this country... populated (when they are) by peple predominantly over 60. If parents want religious education for their kids...thats the place to do it. Plenty of priests would be real happy to see donation generating bums on seats in any of those empty churches ...assuming young peple wouldn't upset the current population of geriatric patrons. Just don't send your kids to a church unaccompanied... you'd be safer leaving them in the capable hands of a well baked junkie.

No other organisation gets this handout of free resources ...a tax free handout to start with, followed by millions in free advertising... followed then by a sizable chunk of our childrens education time. Nah sorry this is clearly nonsense.

The answer is real simple stop investing the tax payers resources in the mostly inaccurate, often vile and patently immoral teachings of a bunch of misogynistic, child abusing men in frocks and women who like to dress up as penguins whilst the entire population of this organisation ducks and dives from the law as if they were the mafia.

We'd be far better off giving these resources to people who do indeed have an altruistic intent. NGO's, charities or perhaps philanthropists... philosopers, or anyone who might engage our kids and the 6pm audience with the true meaning of life. To live, be happy, do onto others as you would have them do unto you... not say all those things then bugger your kids, steal your money and your mind, and then hide from the law proclaimig they didn't know child abuse would hurt children (yes that was their excuse). Whilst all the time burning and hiding any information that might implicate them...and continuing to do that even after being caught...you can be guarenteed they are still at it as I type.

Anyone that wants to be religious can be... but why my tax money has to be spent on someone elses crazy ideas of world wide floods, talking snakes and Jewish Rabbi's who's name we don't even know I have no idea.

[We don't actaully know Jesus's name btw...the word Jesus and Christ are in fact titles... Jesus only came about in the third century AD and translates as 'anointed' and christ is the title of the chief pharasee of judea...a post the actaul Jesus, assuming he existed didn't have]

MickelRants

Soundbraid wrote: »

He's trying to speak to those who are Christian in this country (about 85percent of the population) who have forgotten about Jesus, the real living person and hope in our Church, the main character!!

Would that be why the churches are empty on Sunday and every other day...and when they are populated its by people predominantly over 60 (including the priest)?

Y'see the way I see it you are calling on the 85% of people you 'think' are in fact Christian... but the catholic church counts anyone that was baptized as being catholic....Muslims count anyone who has one parent that was muslim...often a grandparent will do! So they are in a worse boat inflating figures.

Last time I looked nobody can remember their baptism... the vast majority of people I know go to church for baptisms, marriages and funerals...they practice 'cultural' observance of religious rituals...very few think it has any validity...even fewer know what the hell its supposed to signify. And after those rituals we all then off to the pub or the afters for a drinking session... not one of those people would remember a single thing said in the church by the priest...and wouldn't give its validity pissing time in their mind.

If you are really depending on that 85% to stand up for their belief in fairy tales I wouldn't be holding my breath. But hey...you are perfectly free to delude yourself into thinking they are all behind you.

85% of this country is a whopping 3.7 million people... there are nowhere near 3.7 million church seats to begin with... and on Sunday they are mostly empty. I'd say you'd be lucky to see 400k people in the churches on Sunday...and if you asked them 30-40% of those people would say they don't know, don't care or actively don't believe there is a god. Not terribly good Christians ehh? As per surveys in Wales, N.Ireland, England and Scotland.

Nobody gives a rats ass about this 85% except that minority of actual christian... everyone else including me and my family is included cos you like the sound of 85%.

So try not to talk for this 85%... like Christianity its all a mirage...

Except for one itsy bitsy little thing you are forgetting... when it comes time for the 85% to be counted...are they 'really' christian? really? will they really give a care about your crazy notions of magic men in the sky? Are you including me in that 85%? I was baptized... according to my father it was a day out... he was an atheist...so am I, as is my partner.

Are we all part of your 85%... the people Ben Dunne is referencing there...


Funnily enough as a vile immoral and clearly doomed atheist I managed thus far in my life to avoid hiring prostitutes, I don't drink, or smoke, I've never even seen any form of drug let alone partaken of any. I value my mind and body (the only ones I have) far too much to screw them up! So you'll forgive me if I treat with some disdain the mutterings of a baked out millionaire who claims he 'got assurances' from the government about the 'angeles' not being withdrawn...who does he think he is?


Your counting on an 85% that isn't there... but long may you continue to think its a real figure. Because in the absence of facing up to the real demographic you make the whole secularization of Ireland so much simpler than having angry Catholics out beating their chest making a nuisance of themselves.

Keep up the idea of the 85%....

ThinkingTom

Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua, which means 'Yahweh Saves'. It was a personal name not a title, A common name at that.

Christ is a title, the Greek form of Hebrew Messiah, which means 'Anointed'.

Anointed in the Jewish context or Messiah had the sense of God's chose, appointed and anointed KING. Hence Jesus was crucified for not so much his teachings etc... but for his Identity as 'King of the Jews' which was seen as affront against the worlds ruler and Emperor of Rome.

Please get the title right MickelRantl- even in a rant, As to the 85% it's to do with what people put down in the national senses. I was surprised, very surprised. I am a 'Believer' but not Roman Catholic. So even if the 84% plus another 2% or 3% have many nominal persons, they still rather think of themselves as believing in some God and Christian faith and not Atheism.

Cheeky_gal

I love Ben Dunne I think he's hilarious !

Every time I hear one of his ads "BEN DUNNE HEREEEE!" I actually laugh out loud like a lunatic!

And to whoever said it's "saggy old women that dry downstairs with the hairdryers after walking 30 minutes on the treadmill to burn off a pack of malteasers" you're very wrong, it's the Eastern Europeans that do that, no shame