"Trying to alter the argument in midstream, eh? You replied to the remark, “This is a uniquely Catholic thing and I'm not sure why,” by saying “They (Catholics) use imagery in their stories, which largely come from the imagination, not reality ."
My comment referred to see visions in various random patterns on things, such as cheese sandwiches, tears from statues, and water stains on plaster walls, or ceilings, and attributing these things to God. They are not from God. The connection to God is in the imagination. They are not miracles and signs.
Re: I said Photoshop on this one, because it is. The whole beam of light and smoke was applied to the photo. Just like the CtoC folks, they like to promote the illusions.
"(Catholics)"
You stuck the word (Catholic) in there, to describe "they", and it was completely inaccurate. "They" refer to those Catholics, that actually attribute the result of random patterns to miracles and signs from Heaven, AND create them themselves. The image in the story is a fraud, the characters in the story claim to be Catholic. It is frauds such as this, in combination with the claims about random patterns on concrete, grilled cheese and tears from statues that evidence what I said.
"Only ignorance can support such arrogance."
Whatever.
"he bigoted, offensive, and false statement to which I referred is just above, that “…they (Catholics) like to promote the illusions."
There's no bigoted comment in anything I said. Your reading comprehension was simply effected by what you imagined I said, not what was actually said. If you found offense in my conclusion, that these alleged miracles and signs are nothing more than a combination of random outcomes of physical processes, and imagination, or outright fraud, tough.
Now some people, who are Catholics, will say they are miracles. Others, who are Catholics also, will simply say that they might be and take them as serious mysteries and revere, such things as random patterns of physical processes, as if they were relics of a miracle. Others who are Catholic, will say they are not. The thread was posted as a mystery and treated as a possible miracle, which simply adds to the evidence that these visions are promoted as micacles, and the imagination involved in creative story telling is definitely being promoted. Mystery is promoted, reality is not.
Re: “No comprende, and too busy to translate it.”
" That sort of intellectual laziness probably accounts for a lot."
Busy does not equal lazy. Speak English.
"You posted a bigoted, offensive, and false slur of Catholics, and your intellectual laziness shows how you got that confused in the first place."
Whatever. The photo from the former cop, who is Catholic, is a Photoshop fraud in the form of a low resoltion jpg to make it appear real. It is deception, and it was done to further the lengthy list of fictional stories claimed to be miracles, that inspired it in the first place.
“My comment referred to see visions in various random patterns on things, such as cheese sandwiches, tears from statues, and water stains on plaster walls, or ceilings, and attributing these things to God. They are not from God. The connection to God is in the imagination. They are not miracles and signs.”
Our dispute had nothing to do with that proposition. However, we can bring that in if you like.
“Re: I said Photoshop on this one, because it is. The whole beam of light and smoke was applied to the photo. Just like the CtoC folks, they like to promote the illusions.”
Right there. Once again, you have made the hateful, closed-minded, and totally unjustified comparison of Catholics with the loony-toon whackos that listen to CtoC.
“You stuck the word (Catholic) in there, to describe "they", and it was completely inaccurate.”
On the contrary, by every rule of English usage, your “they” indicates “Catholics.”
“"They" refer to those Catholics, that actually attribute the result of random patterns to miracles and signs from Heaven, AND create them themselves.”
There are two problems with that.
(1) That may be what you intended to say, but it is not what you said. However, I will accept your explanation that you are inept at expressing yourself.
(2) You are inferring that Catholics *frequently* “create such things themselves,” when in actuality a sincere Catholic acting from Catholic motives would never do that. A Cheech Marin Catholic might, and a fallen-away Catholic might, but a genuine Catholic would not. In the final analysis, you are implying that *many* Catholics are whackos of the CtoC variety.
“It is frauds such as this, in combination with the claims about random patterns on concrete, grilled cheese and tears from statues that evidence what I said.”
It is very bigoted to lump all such phenomena together and dismiss them. I repeat, only ignorance can support such arrogance.
“There's no bigoted comment in anything I said.”
That reminds me of the 1950s in Oklahoma: “I ain’t pej’diced. N*ggers rilly *is* infer’or. A’hyuk, a’hyuk.” Your whole outlook toward Catholics is bigoted, from soup to nuts.
“Your reading comprehension was simply effected by what you imagined I said”
My reading comprehension is in the top one-third of the top one percent of college graduates headed for graduate school or law school. I interpreted what you wrote correctly. Now you say that you didn’t intend to tar all Catholics with the same brush. You only intended to tar a very large number of them, and to lump all supernatural phenomena—including those that are very well documented—into the same whacko bin.
“If you found offense in my conclusion, that these alleged miracles and signs are nothing more than a combination of random outcomes of physical processes, and imagination, or outright fraud, tough.”
No, I accept your God-given freedom to be wrong about that. I also reserve the right to take offense when you safari into bigot country. (By the way, one doesn’t “find offense.” One “takes offense,” or “finds something offensive.”)
“Now some people, who are Catholics, will say they are miracles.”
Actually, no. This sort of thing would be called an apparition. You should take the trouble to learn a little about something you plan to be bigoted against. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15477a.htm
“The thread was posted as a mystery and treated as a possible miracle, which simply adds to the evidence that these visions are promoted as micacles, and the imagination involved in creative story telling is definitely being promoted. Mystery is promoted, reality is not.”
Very confused thinking, all through this paragraph. Your major malfunction seems to be your a priori assumption that reality excludes the supernatural. In addition, you seem to have some misconception that the Catholic Church “promotes” apparitions. In fact, short of those who closed-mindedly exclude from consideration all manifestations of the supernatural, the Catholic Church is the strictest skeptic extant.
“Busy does not equal lazy.”
However, “too busy” usually does, particularly when one can simply paste the phrase into Google and have a translation in a couple of seconds. Less than a second with a broadband connection.
“Speak English.”
Unlike the traitorstream media, I refuse to dumb down my writing for the lazy.
“The photo from the former cop, who is Catholic, is a Photoshop fraud”
Prove it, or stand guilty of bearing false witness.
There are a number of possible explanations that don’t involve the supernatural, but you are just jumping from a bigoted assumption that it couldn’t be true to an unjustified conclusion that it was malicious fraud. Flag on the play.
“It is deception, and it was done to further the lengthy list of fictional stories claimed to be miracles, that inspired it in the first place.”
Boy, you God-haters are really something. Of all the possible explanations, you have to seize on the one that reflects the greatest discredit on belief, without even bothering to make a case for it.