The person’s question is flawed from the outset. The first part of his question “Do you believe in God?” attempts to bait Lee and Jim into establishing themselves as spiritual authorities. Belief in something doesn’t necessarily make one an authority in that thing. If I beleive in Santa Claus, it doesn’t give me license to declare Jim “naughty” or “nice.”

The other assumption is that a belief in God must also entail a belief in spiritual reward or punishment. Once again, the person is trying to bait Jim and Lee into setting themselves up as judges. Of course, this violates a basic Christian principle, that we should refrain from passing judgement on other people. Judgement is reserved for God. Therefore, if one believes in God, Heaven and Hell, one must also recognize that it’s up to Him to sort us all out. This leaves Jim and Lee with no way to answer the question without coming off badly. 

There are some people who believe that Jesus is some sort of clone, and that when we die our spiritual energy gets beamed into a cloned body that’s waiting for us on some other planet. (Really. Check out the Raelian religion if you don’t beleive me.)So, I ask you this, Lee, in the spirit of this thread:

Do you think Moore’s cloned body will be as slovenly and disgusting as the one he’s inhabiting now?

Lee, I’m also not religious so I’ll be right next to you. I’ll bring the guns and fireworks and maybe some chips, if you’ll bring try to bring the dip and maybe a hoagie and/or veggie tray. We’ll have a blast.

Of course that is assuming there is a heaven or hell. I ain’t counting on it, so living life to it’s fullest in the here and now is my plan FWIW.

Will Michael Moore go to heaven continuing doing what he’s doing? If not, what will happen to him?

For making lousy pseudo-documentaries, Moore will be doomed to watch a continuous loop of “Reefer Madness” for all of eternity.

Everybody believes in something, me… I believe I’ll have another beer.

Belcatar nailed it on all fronts.  It’s not our place to presume the fate of others, rendering the entire line of questioning (and its underlying motive) meaningless.

I agree with the C.S. Lewis school of thought on salvation--it’s a dynamic choice, not a static one.

That being said, just because one says they believe in Christ as an altar boy doesn’t necessarily mean that the same person is automatically going to heaven.  I can’t get into all of the specifics of it that Lewis went on about, just read “The Great Divorce”.  It’s a short novel, I didn’t find it preachy, and Lewis makes his point well in it.

I agree, it’s not my job to decide who gets in and who doesn’t, thank God.  I only get to choose for myself.

If Mikey burns in hell, he’s gonna burn like a tire dump.

There goeth the last of the ozone…

Eh, it’s just an attempt to bait Lee and Jim into lashing out. As we all know, everyone that opposes Moore is a far-Right whacko conservative religious nut neocon, so he wanted to get you ranting about how Moore was going to Hell so he could try and work off of that.

I couldn’t imagine spending an extended amount of time together with Moore under any circumstances.

If you believe in the Dante’s Inferno version of Catholic Hell there are many places for Michael Moore.  Like the Third Circle for gluttons, or the fourth circle for the avaricious or miserly.  There is also the Eighth Circle where the fraudulent hang out including the panderers, and the flatters who walk in human excrement.  The Eighth Circle also has the false prophets who have their heads twisted around on their bodies backward, so they can only see what is behind them and not into the future.  These could all fit Mike.  There were, after all. Popes and famous figures in Dante’s Inferno. Mikey would feel right at home.

It seems that common assumption that anyone with any rightleaning views anywhere has to be religious, and Christian in particular.

Last March when I counterprotested an Iraq war protest I was asked if I was Christian, which I’m not. They didn’t seem ready to figure out how to deal with that.

Last March when I counterprotested an Iraq war protest I was asked if I was Christian, which I’m not. They didn’t seem ready to figure out how to deal with that.

Which is to me the most infuriating thing about talking to “progressives” and “liberals”. Its not that they hold views that differ from my own; it’s that they insist I defend the strawman mischaracterizations of my positions and refuse to recognize that the motivation for any position with which they disagree is something other than what they claim. If you take a position that deviates in the slightest from “progressive” dogma, you must be a “knuckle dragging Christian radical republican"--and that gem came from my dad, who knows I’m as hard line an atheist as they come. 

I understand the resistance to the term atheist, and think I understand the motivation behind describing it as a religious label. However, I choose to self label as an atheist because I find the concept of disbelief, in gods or anything else, to have no descriptive power in and of itself--atheist, simply refers to lack of belief rather than to belief in an alternate possibility. My world view requires that until satisfactory evidence supporting a statement is presented, the statement should not be assumed to be true. When I describe myself as atheist, I’m simply saying that as of yet, I’ve not seen enough evidence to support the existence of gods. In that context disbelief in god can not be considered a religious position any more than disbelief in any other thing can.

I’d be interested to know the motivation for the question posed in this message, assuming its author is still around.

BTW, if we’re doing this whole party in hell thing, I’ll bring the black tar heroin and shemales. I figure screw it, we’re already in hell.

vermin, atheist was exactly what i told them. and for the exact reason you said… its not a belief for me, its just that i’ve not had reason to believe in anything theistic.
which led to them talking to asking why i supported bush then (i don’t) and how bush has forced his christian views on the nation by having banned abortion.

Banned abortion.  There’s a laugh riot.  Talk about overstating your case.

They also complained how bush is a dictator because once he vetos something, there’s nothing that can be done about it.
So yeah, these guys didn’t really know what was going on.

Once he vetoes something.

Has he vetoed ANYthing other than bills with withdraw dates attached?  The guy will spend money on ANYthing they send up the hill.

Your friends are hilarious, Lowbacca.  They belong in the Hyperbole Museum or something.

He’s vetoed stem cell bills before too.