And yet, there are a surprising number of people who squeeze, and poke and prod, trying to make them fit. And then wobble through life, practically crippled with hurt. But hey, the shoes sure are pretty...I say, get a comfortable Bible. Sit down, put your dogs up, and read His truth. There is no more beautiful sight in the world.
As long as we have the "but EVERYONE has Pradas. One billion people have Pradas and they say they are perfect, so they must be perfect, what are you going to say? ..."Hey Lady, those size 10s are just NOT going to get squeezed into a size 7...that's what you say.." lol! Truth, truth, truth. And let the arches fall where they may..
INDEED.
THANKS for your kind and reasonable reply.
So many of the posts of so many of the RC’s seem to be straight out of
ALICE’S WONDERLAND SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY AND REALITY MANGLING.
They seem to just love putting bald faced inaccurate, thoroughly wrong words in Proddy’s fingers, too.
It seems to me there are real differences worthy of discussion. I could mock the very proposition that Scripture teaches that heaven lies in this or that direction AND the interesting exegesis adduced to support the conjecture.
But what would be the point? The real issue would be the very different approaches to Scripture and to thought (what does it mean for heaven to be in some direction? is heaven a place in the Universe?, up north? do I have to be a Yankee to get to heaven? etc.)
I don't know how many years I have been doing apologetics for my, ahem, faith tradition (isn't that the latest correct phrase?) but I have RARELY seen my opponents display a real understanding of our teaching and maybe once has somebody stumped me with a really good argument. Once! If that.
What I HAVE seen is mostly astonishing ignorance of what is being attacked. Rarely has anyone attacking our teaching on the Eucharist been able to give a coherent account of what that teaching is. They don't understand it but they know it's wrong.
People talk about idols, and repeat the same verses of Scripture over and over again (as though we'd never heard them) but not one can give an account of the iconoclastic controversy and of John Damascene's thought. And when I attempt an account, it is largely ignored.
This, once again, leads me to wonder what exactly is this about, what's the purpose? Even if I'm desperately wrong, I am not the kind of person whose opinion will be changed by mockery.
It was a combination of experience and argument that led me to believe that my, 'faith tradition' had the right take and was the right response to the 'basic' data of Scripture. The experience of being mocked (before my surgery my feet were 10.5 EEEE by the way, no Pradas or even Tony Lamas for me) only strengthens my resolve. The confrontations with arguments that totally miss our point just tries my patience. The conjecture that maybe I, moiself, am different from "them" only makes me want to say, "Yeah, I'm a greater sinner, in need of saving grace second by second."
So I guess I am left wondering what this is all for. If we meet in front of Planned Parenthood to pray for Justice and Life, will saying that I believe in alchemy draw us closer to one another or to God? If we resolve to feed the hungry, will the mutual exchange of sneers make us more efficient or charitable?
'Tis a puzzle.