Joel Osteen was one of Barbara Walter's 10 most fascinating people of 2006

[Annie]

I just thought it was cool. I really like him because he speaks the truth. And he is cute! And smiley!And he is the same age as AXL!

[Where is Hassan Nasrallah ?]

who's .dat ?

[Mal Brossard]

who's .dat ?

He's one of the few semi-decent televangelists out there.  The calm branch of the Religious Right, if you will.

[Axl4Prez2004]

Hey Annie, I respectfully disagree with you.  I do believe he's a major tool.  Sorry.   

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

I'm a disillusioned youth who hates all sorts of organized religion.  ESPECIALLY the bastards on TV!

Annie...the cute one's are the most dangerous one's!  Don't fall for his baloney stories. 

[Axl4Prez2004]

Thank you Garry, you just took the words out of my mouth!  I just spent the last half hour trying to find this snake-oil salesman's stance on evolution.  Couldn't find it anywhere.  He's slick enough to dodge this one eh?  If he denies evolution, he's a moron who can't be taken seriously by anyone with an iq over 90...and if he accepts evolution, he will have an audience of 300 instead of 30,000.  Best way out?  You got it, duck and dive, avoid the big questions and preach niceties. 

Annie, be a good person.  That means imagining yourself in the shoes of others, and treating them the way you'd want to be treated.  Live this life enjoying every damn second you can because there's 0 proof of anything after it's done.  That doesn't mean living the "Reckless Life" 24/7, it means take the time to appreciate the little things in life.  Make your true joys in life those things that are completely free.  Strive to learn something new every day.  Discover the wonderful world of science where the answers to life's big questions aren't answered, "Because God made it so,"  A life of blissful ignorance does you and those around you a disservice.

    

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

You know what pisses me off Axl4Prez?  That all these thiefs sell out arenas and stadiums, yet Axl is playing to half-full arenas. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY? 

If you have DIRECTV...go to channel 369 and up, to see what these people are made of.  You see these "rallies" with people gyrating and undulating on the floor, it's pathetic!

God would not want that.  I know, who am I to say what God would want?  But I'm just saying. 

[Axl4Prez2004]

You know what pisses me off Axl4Prez?? That all these thiefs sell out arenas and stadiums, yet Axl is playing to half-full arenas. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??

If you have DIRECTV...go to channel 369 and up, to see what these people are made of.? You see these "rallies" with people gyrating and undulating on the floor, it's pathetic!

God would not want that.? I know, who am I to say what God would want?? But I'm just saying.?

Ha, actually 3/4ths full, don't believe the hype.  The haters love to say half-full, and they're ticking me off tonight.   

Yeah, these evangelists disgust me.  It wouldn't be so bad if it was a message that didn't contradict common sense.  No holy book is any better than any other holy book.  Case closed.  Take your pick, be what you wanna be, just don't compromise your common sense and check your brain at the church/temple/synagogue entrance.  There should be a little sign at the doors that says, "Ripping off the elderly and feeble-minded since Year 1."   

Can't people just be good without the carrot of heaven dangling from the stick?  For fuck's sake!   

[Layne Staley's Sunglasses]

Amen to that brother.

[SLCPUNK]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4Hv0LQiIA

[Hysteron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4Hv0LQiIA

Bahhhhhhh! Crazy Yanks.

[Natasha23]

I definitely don't consider myself a Christian anymore (raised in a southern baptist church AND went to catholic school for 12 years) because to me Christianity in America represents conservative, christian right philosophy and all that narrowmindedness and bigotry that SOME Christians exhibit (i.e. your Jerry Falwell types), but Joel Osteen is not a hardcore as that.  I'm sure if you pinned him down on it he probablly would be against evolution and gay marriage, but his sermons really do have good, useful messages in them.  It's not so much about repent now sinners... he's more into how people can be prosperous and happy now.  I read his book Living Your Best Life, and seriously, take the religious stuff out of it, and you've got a nice self-help book with a lot of useful info.
If someone doesn't like him that's fine, but he definitely should not be lumped in with the others in the evangelical right.  I believe he's made a point to NOT include himself in that group.

[Annie]

I am no born again Christian. I talk to dead people, LOVE GNR, believe in reincarnation, and study metaphysical things. It's just for a televangelist, he seems sincere. I just find his show inspirational when you edit out the born again BS. I have studied with a great spiritual teacher named Doreen Virtue who teaches about angels, and one of Joel's sermons about angels was totally describing Archangel Michael. He keeps politics out of his sermon. I don't attend church, but I do like to tune into to him when I have time. And yes the cute ones can be dangerous, but like Gwen Stefani, I have a fatal attraction to cuteness!

[Izzy]

I talk to dead people

I....see

Hows that going for ya, is Ghandi really the great dancer the ther ghouls say he is?

[mikesc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD7jZIQWXuE

[Axl4Prez2004]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok4Hv0LQiIA

SLCPunk, you fucking rock!  That clip was hilarious!  It is definite proof there are some stupid-ass mf'ers out there.  That my friends is where da munny's at!   

[Axl4Prez2004]

I have studied with a great spiritual teacher named Doreen Virtue who teaches about angels, and one of Joel's sermons about angels was totally describing Archangel Michael.

Annie, you sound like a chick with a good head on her shoulders.  If you ever meet up with Ms. Virtue again, can you please ask a few questions for me?  Earth is about 4.3 to 4.5 billion years old.
Now, 4,500,000,000 years ago when the Earth was a newborn baby, and no life existed...what were angels up to?  Were they influencing the slow development of our single-celled ancestors 4 billion years ago?  We humans have been here on Earth for a very, very small fraction of that time.  The oldest humanlike organism found is dated at 4.4 million years old.  Were the angels just hanging out in heaven playing the harp waiting for us to develop?  Did the bacteria, fungi, trilobytes, and dinosaurs have guardian angels?  What about the dinosaurs' souls??   Did the angels  hover around other planetary systems that already fielded complex life??  I'm just curious. 

The universe is about 13 billion years old.  Did the angels exist prior to the origin of our universe?  As you can tell, I could best be labeled a cynic, but I really do think about these things all the time.  I am constantly amazed how folks take their collective imaginations, bundle them together as chapters in a story, and accept them as fact.  Fascinating stuff.  Confounding, yet still fascinating!

     

[Axl4Prez2004]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD7jZIQWXuE

mikesc, that was totally kick-ass, thank you.     The song itself musically is disappointing considering the fact Phil Collins had/has some pretty damn good songs.  I liked the lyrics though.  The concept was very ahead of its time.   

[difleha]

I have studied with a great spiritual teacher named Doreen Virtue who teaches about angels, and one of Joel's sermons about angels was totally describing Archangel Michael.

Annie, you sound like a chick with a good head on her shoulders.  If you ever meet up with Ms. Virtue again, can you please ask a few questions for me?  Earth is about 4.3 to 4.5 billion years old.
Now, 4,500,000,000 years ago when the Earth was a newborn baby, and no life existed...what were angels up to?  Were they influencing the slow development of our single-celled ancestors 4 billion years ago?  We humans have been here on Earth for a very, very small fraction of that time.  The oldest humanlike organism found is dated at 4.4 million years old.  Were the angels just hanging out in heaven playing the harp waiting for us to develop?  Did the bacteria, fungi, trilobytes, and dinosaurs have guardian angels?  What about the dinosaurs' souls??   Did the angels  hover around other planetary systems that already fielded complex life??  I'm just curious. 

The universe is about 13 billion years old.  Did the angels exist prior to the origin of our universe?  As you can tell, I could best be labeled a cynic, but I really do think about these things all the time.  I am constantly amazed how folks take their collective imaginations, bundle them together as chapters in a story, and accept them as fact.  Fascinating stuff.  Confounding, yet still fascinating!

     

BTW, were you there 13 billion years ago? I find that hard to believe. You just said life didn't exist back then...

[Axl4Prez2004]

I didn't live 50 years ago, yet I know life existed.

I didn't live 10,000 years ago, yet I know humans lived in small groups as hunter-gatherers.

I didn't live 65 million years ago, yet I know there was a massive world-wide extinction and the dinosaurs bit the dust...(btw, there were no humans around at the time, not even close.  our mammalian ancestors were very small at the time and ran around on 4 legs)

I didn't live 4.5 billion years ago, but I know that the oldest known radiometrically dated rocks came from that time.  Remarkably, meteorites that were also formed around the time our solar system formed are the same age as our oldest rocks. 

Here's a refresher course:  http://members.iinet.com.au/~drage/index.php?p=p3

For those fed creationist nonsense all their lives, this must be mindblowing stuff.  I challenge those unfamiliar with science to expand your horizons and enter the scary world absent of blissful ignorance.  Science will forever seek the truth.  Organized religions will forever try to obscure your view of the world.