analog

-Article-

Perhaps further pressings of The Bible should have something akin to the warning that bookends every episode of the stunt TV show Jackass.

"WARNING: The following book features stunts performed either by the Son of God, or under the supervision of God Himself. Accordingly, the writers must insist that no one attempt to recreate or re-enact any stunt or activity performed in this book."

In all seriousness though, what are your thoughts on this sort of thing? Do you find this kind of religious fervor impressive? Do you think it's silly, or plain stupid?

Even if your thoughts on organized religion, The Bible, Christianity, etc. relating to this story would normally make you laugh, are there any among you who will say they find the bold conviction, itself, intriguing? That's kinda what I'm curious about most... does anyone admire this level of commitment to personal religious beliefs, even if you have no (or different) beliefs yourself?

Ch'i

My father was a Lutheran pastor, so I grew up with alot of that classic church dogma. Frankly, I don't think highly of organized religion, especially Christianity as of late. You don't have to go to church and attend all the meetings to practice your faith, and those who speak to the contrary are blinded by theirs. I can appreciate the conviction this guy had, but attempting something like that seems more like an attempt at self promotion, than an act of humbleness before God.

Nice Bible by the way.

filtherton

Well, it certainly is a novel way to die for the lord.

I don't think dying for one's convictions, whether absurd or not, is anything to be laughed at. Sure, the guy was obviously mistaken about his god's plans for him, but whatever. It's no less absurd to me than the notion that there are people in iraq dying for my freedom.

Ch'i

The last thing I meant to do was to imply was that his death was in any way whimsical. I'll edit that out of my original post to avoid any confusion. My apologies.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said "How can you live if you have nothing worth dying for?" I think convictions are to be respected, but not to be confused with stubborness and unwillingness to admit fault.

Maybe his God thought it was time for him to leave this world.

filtherton

Apparently the lord works in mysterious ways.

The_Jazz

Call it fervor, an extreme amount of self-confidence, self-delusion or whatever, but I still find it fascinating. I could never work up that sort of belief in anything. He absolutely believed he was going to be fine and that the laws of physics would be suspended for him. Regardless of the outcome, I have to admit that I sort of envy that kind of belief in something in a wierd sort of way. I don't think I'd ever want to experience it myself, but it certainly is interesting to observe. The snake-handling Pentacostals seem very similar to me.

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guthmund

I wonder if we'd all still find it fascinating or admire his conviction if religion were taken out of the mix?

What if Franck Kabele were just an ordinary guy who believed he could manipulate fire like Pyro from the X-Men universe? I wonder when he eventually burned himself to death, would we all still applaud his absolute belief?

I don't know. I just think that if this were someone else from any other walk of life who did this for some other silly reason, the responses would be littered with sly sarcasm and more than few Darwin comments (not that it won't happen anyway, but I think you know what I mean.)

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rmarshall

A Darwin moment.

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Lady Sage

***The following is not meant to offend anyone***

I think its a good start. I have an extreme dislike for unintelligent people... reminds me of the joke about lawyers and 500 at the bottom of the ocean being a good start.

Willravel

God isn't a genie. Fucking idiot. You can't run out into traffic and say, "In the name of God I stop you, Buick!" and have a car stop. One of God's greatest gifts to us was the intelect to understand the world around us. I understand that I can't breathe water. God made water so that we can't breathe it. This idiot was going against God's laws of resperation and that's that. How do I know all this? I had a revelation last night. Another revelation said to buy Pepsi, but I think that was a commercial.

hiredgun

I think this qualifies for a Darwin Award.

I think Guthmund raises the most important point. Try forgetting that the man did this out of his belief in God, and I think you'll see his idiocy for what it really is.

The_Jazz

But if it does stop, you give the credit to God, not the good folks at Midas. Then again, that's because you're a raving lunatic.

My earlier point about some people having the ability to believe in something to this extent has been pretty well trod upon now, but I will restate that I do in some way envy people that are so certain in their conviction in their world view that they'll take their lives into their own hands. It's not limited to the religious, although they're the most likely suspects. For example, anyone who "went over the top" during WWI earns my same respect and envy.

Personally, I admire the Pentacostals that I mentioned before that handle snakes every Sunday as a part of church services. I would never do it myself, I don't share many beliefs with those folks and I really don't care for most of the Pentacostals that I've met, but I do find it fasicnatiting that they do it.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

MSD

I'm intrigued by the fact that anyone can be so deluded by superstition that they would rely on something not only unproven, but unprovable, to save them from certain death. The only question I have is whether it was insanity or idiocy that led him to do it.

filtherton

Only mathematical things can be proven, and only then under often very strict conditions. Your entire existence is unproven and unprovable.

Not that i care for evangelicalism, but why are idiocy and insanity prerequisites for religious conviction?

healer

I think the words wackjob, idiot, and dumbass would've been alot more prevalent in that case.

I'm intrigued by people who can believe in something so blindly. Probably because I can't understand how faith can make logic fly out the window.

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analog

I believe that, in this case, he was speaking specifically on the man's primary motivation to attempt to defy physics, not all religious people's motivations for being religious in general.

This is what I was driving towards, thank you. Because if your example was the case, this thread would have been about another "darwin award" winner. As it contains a religious aspect for motivation, we have mixed feelings in the replies. I find this awesome, and that was the intent here.

spindles

It certainly made me laugh... he did not die for freedom, he died because he was a dumbass.

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filtherton

Sometimes there is little difference.

Val_1

Oh, yeah, he died for a good cause. He died to teach other people not to be this arrogant.

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guthmund

I can be quite thick at times...

A few of you have mentioned that you admire their conviction; that you find it fascinating that they can throw out all logic and reason in the face of such belief. I'd like for you guys to clarify it a bit more for me, if you don't mind because I don't understand how you can admire the conviction without admiring the reason behind it.

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Sultana

Having been raised in an atmosphere of admiration and encouragement for those who value "faith" over the reality of physical laws, there is nothing I admire about this. Nor am I intrigued. It's very plainly either a form of insanity or self-delusion.

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Seer666

ROFL! Ah, I love hearing stories like this. Be it an X-men wanna be or a a man of the cloth, hearing about stupid people removin themselves from the planet always brings a smile to my face. If I ever die in such a stupid manor, I fully expect people to laugh at me. I'd be disapointed if they didn't. this guy was eiher a moron, or insane. Either way, I'm glad he's gone. Oh, and people dieing for their faith in god does not inpress me one bit. After all, they are going to heaven, and who wouldn't want to go there? The people that seek to LIVE and delay paridice to help others here are the ones that impress me.

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dlish

he could have had a trial run before he went..no need to have an audience.. or is that having 'no faith'?

i guess he made a martyr of himself?...


this has dumbass written all over it.

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Tirian

I'd have to say that willtravel has reflected my thoughts on the subject more or less already.

The pastor also needed to study a bit further. Some will argue that the bible itself teaches not to treat faith in this manner. Deu 6:16 reads--"You must not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah" .NET bible has the following study info.

"The place name Massah (מַסָּה, massah) derives from a root (נָסָה, nasah) meaning “to test; to try.” The reference here is to the experience in the Sinai desert when Moses struck the rock to obtain water (Exod 17:1-2). The complaining Israelites had, thus, “tested” the Lord, a wickedness that gave rise to the naming of the place (Exod 17:7; cf. Deut 9:22; 33:8)."

Perhaps in time of need, this pastors faith may have allowed for a water walking miracle, but not as a spectacle of some sort.

CSflim

Since nobody else seem to be prepared to laugh at this idiot, I will: that article is the funniest thing I have read all day

There is nothing noble about dieing in such an idiotic way. Would a similar level of respect be shown for a cult who commit mass suicide because they believe the mothership flying to earth inside a comet is only moments away? I doubt it somehow. Pity maybe, but hardly respect.

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Willravel

Very eloquently put. In order to be God's servant all one needs to do is to spread the truth (and this is coming from an athiest, why is it I know this and Pastor Franck Kabele doesn't?). The time for illusionists, spellcasters, and mieacle workers passed when Jesus ascended into heaven, and Pastor Franck Kabele was truely hypocritical or terribly misinformed about the nature of faith. I am very sorry he died. He is neither a miracle worker nor a maryter.