In the dark, Light shines brightest! Keep shining John! Merriest Christmas to you and yours! Love💗, The Malicki Six (an every day fam w/children blessed to celebrate the birth of Jesus with a LIVE Nativity at a small Midwest church... super FUN!) Here's to a Merry Christmas AND Happy NEW YEAR for all! :) 🛐🤍🗽💯🎄🏡💗🏞🌄🌅🌄🎄💚
The all capitalization of your name indicates a "corporation" in all of our governments and in most businesses. I avoid it.
I am an atheist. However, I respect the "need and desire for Christians and Catholics to have Christmas cards depicting the Christian nativity scene.
Your difficulties for obtaining Christmas cards of nativity scenes exists because you are dealing with corporate idiots. Logic will not convince them because logic was not the cause of their derangement. It was emotions of public, corporate, governmental agency criticism or "ridicule."
Generally, I admire your honesty in your writing; your articles.
Yes, they do have options under "religious" but they have such secondary connections (like a star) that there is nothing really "religious" about them. Most importantly, none of them show any type of nativity scene.
Thank you! I loved this! Sometimes I think it’s just me, when I notice shifts in Christmas marketing. They can take away my “Christ”mas, but they can’t take the “Christ”-mas out of me. Merry Christmas! Let’s all have a better New Year! 💕
You’re so intelligent, are you sure you’re atheist? 😜 C.S. Lewis was an atheist & my most favorite author. “ Mere Christianity” describes how he transformed his thinking. It’s so good, I highly recommend it.
I was a Catholic. Around 25 yrs of age, I reasoned that the Catholic Church's history and belief system was corrupted: inquisitors who tortured people; at that time, claiming that only 12 men on earth could forgive sins: how could they serve the millions who lived on earth at that time?; and more. I reasoned that if I was a "morally good person"; then a god of the universe could not logically send me to "purgatory or hell" after I died. How could a god of the universe want "people" to suffer in a hell-fire forever? Is that masochistic? And would not a simple "snap of his fingers" make such bad people dissolve into nothingness? That would quicker, cleaner, cause not suffering. A smart god would do that. A god can not be stupider than my clear, simple logic. People believe in a "personal god" because they are taught beliefs when they are children. People also believe because this world has a tremendous number of bad people and hurtful circumstances. Those adult people, similar many children, wish that the bad people and circumstances would "disappear" or would be taken away by an all powerful, good person, such as a good parent or even a good god. I majored in psychology and learned a little about how the emotions cause illogical reasoning. Such emotions arise from situations in which the emotion originates. A statement-type of conclusion or even a simple "intuitive conclusion is formulated for that situation as a reminder to avoid such a situation; the simpler the better, we think. What do you, and other people who read this, think about what I wrote here?
Charles, I think that you do not deny God's existence -- the sine qua non of atheism -- but you reject God because you are angry that he allows evil to triumph, at least temporarily. This is indeed a mystery, especially to Christians. C.S. Lewis tried to sort it out; Mere Christianity is a good place to start. But if God prevented evil from triumphing, again temporarily, it would come at the cost of denying all mankind the freedom to choose. If we want to choose him, he gives us the ability to do so. None of us can make that choice based on our own reason or intellect.
Man is totally depraved, as your historic examples make abundantly clear. Do you know anyone who is perfect? But God's grace is sufficient to overcome all our faults. In the human person of Jesus, God bore even the pain of death for all mankind. And conquered it, which was kind of the point. (Yes, Easter is a different holiday, but it's all part of the same story.)
I am not amazed by the numbers of people who act in evil ways and reject God's grace. I am amazed that God offered grace to anyone, especially me, despite my total depravity. For those who accept God's grace, it is an irresistible and wholly undeserving gift, the best gift ever.
Read the lyrics of the first two verses of perhaps the greatest hymn ever written, and consider both the depth of despair from which it was written and the unquenchable joy of delivery:
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
I remember that hour, in August 1972. And all my fears were relieved, in the blink of an eye or the "snap of fingers."
In the dark, Light shines brightest! Keep shining John! Merriest Christmas to you and yours! Love💗, The Malicki Six (an every day fam w/children blessed to celebrate the birth of Jesus with a LIVE Nativity at a small Midwest church... super FUN!) Here's to a Merry Christmas AND Happy NEW YEAR for all! :) 🛐🤍🗽💯🎄🏡💗🏞🌄🌅🌄🎄💚
Thanks, John. I commend to you a short book by a biological scientist friend.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JM31NTS?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks&qid=1671145444&sr=8-1
John Droz Jr.
The all capitalization of your name indicates a "corporation" in all of our governments and in most businesses. I avoid it.
I am an atheist. However, I respect the "need and desire for Christians and Catholics to have Christmas cards depicting the Christian nativity scene.
Your difficulties for obtaining Christmas cards of nativity scenes exists because you are dealing with corporate idiots. Logic will not convince them because logic was not the cause of their derangement. It was emotions of public, corporate, governmental agency criticism or "ridicule."
Generally, I admire your honesty in your writing; your articles.
He is referring to a Substack formatting element that you cannot edit.
Charles: TY for your comments. I am puzzled by the "all capitalization of my name" part, as I don't see that anywhere...
Happy Holidays is so generic and widely accepted. I always respond Merry Christmas as a gentle reminder.
Wow, I also use Visaprint for our family Christmas card. But will now go elsewhere. And btw, this is total discrimination.
I just browsed the the website and they have a couple under "religious ". Could it be they added because of your complaint? Just ridiculous.
Yes, they do have options under "religious" but they have such secondary connections (like a star) that there is nothing really "religious" about them. Most importantly, none of them show any type of nativity scene.
Thank you! I loved this! Sometimes I think it’s just me, when I notice shifts in Christmas marketing. They can take away my “Christ”mas, but they can’t take the “Christ”-mas out of me. Merry Christmas! Let’s all have a better New Year! 💕
This was removed as it was a duplicate of the Charles \-Louis Labianco comment above.
You’re so intelligent, are you sure you’re atheist? 😜 C.S. Lewis was an atheist & my most favorite author. “ Mere Christianity” describes how he transformed his thinking. It’s so good, I highly recommend it.
I was a Catholic. Around 25 yrs of age, I reasoned that the Catholic Church's history and belief system was corrupted: inquisitors who tortured people; at that time, claiming that only 12 men on earth could forgive sins: how could they serve the millions who lived on earth at that time?; and more. I reasoned that if I was a "morally good person"; then a god of the universe could not logically send me to "purgatory or hell" after I died. How could a god of the universe want "people" to suffer in a hell-fire forever? Is that masochistic? And would not a simple "snap of his fingers" make such bad people dissolve into nothingness? That would quicker, cleaner, cause not suffering. A smart god would do that. A god can not be stupider than my clear, simple logic. People believe in a "personal god" because they are taught beliefs when they are children. People also believe because this world has a tremendous number of bad people and hurtful circumstances. Those adult people, similar many children, wish that the bad people and circumstances would "disappear" or would be taken away by an all powerful, good person, such as a good parent or even a good god. I majored in psychology and learned a little about how the emotions cause illogical reasoning. Such emotions arise from situations in which the emotion originates. A statement-type of conclusion or even a simple "intuitive conclusion is formulated for that situation as a reminder to avoid such a situation; the simpler the better, we think. What do you, and other people who read this, think about what I wrote here?
Charles, I think that you do not deny God's existence -- the sine qua non of atheism -- but you reject God because you are angry that he allows evil to triumph, at least temporarily. This is indeed a mystery, especially to Christians. C.S. Lewis tried to sort it out; Mere Christianity is a good place to start. But if God prevented evil from triumphing, again temporarily, it would come at the cost of denying all mankind the freedom to choose. If we want to choose him, he gives us the ability to do so. None of us can make that choice based on our own reason or intellect.
Man is totally depraved, as your historic examples make abundantly clear. Do you know anyone who is perfect? But God's grace is sufficient to overcome all our faults. In the human person of Jesus, God bore even the pain of death for all mankind. And conquered it, which was kind of the point. (Yes, Easter is a different holiday, but it's all part of the same story.)
I am not amazed by the numbers of people who act in evil ways and reject God's grace. I am amazed that God offered grace to anyone, especially me, despite my total depravity. For those who accept God's grace, it is an irresistible and wholly undeserving gift, the best gift ever.
Read the lyrics of the first two verses of perhaps the greatest hymn ever written, and consider both the depth of despair from which it was written and the unquenchable joy of delivery:
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
I remember that hour, in August 1972. And all my fears were relieved, in the blink of an eye or the "snap of fingers."
LOVE❣️Yes and Amen❣️Blessings, friend❣️