Weirdness Abounds (or the Idrissa Gana Gueye Thread)

[Cornish Steve]

13 hours ago, Palfy said:

I read it about 6-8 months ago, I thought he wanted to remain anonymous because of threats and reprisals. 

I used a pseudonym at the request of family members who didn't want me to be subject to abuse from radical evangelicals. The worst that's happened is that I was publicly mocked by someone I thought was a friend, and who therefore knew my views, which was quite revealing. I have no problem letting people here know that I wrote this book, and thanks to Mike for his very kind words.

[Palfy]

15 minutes ago, Cornish Steve said:

I used a pseudonym at the request of family members who didn't want me to be subject to abuse from radical evangelicals. The worst that's happened is that I was publicly mocked by someone I thought was a friend, and who therefore knew my views, which was quite revealing. I have no problem letting people here know that I wrote this book, and thanks to Mike for his very kind words.

I could vaguely remember you telling me something about why you used a pseudonym. I said it was over 6-8 months ago when I read the book, I checked that out and it was over 18 months ago life is just flying by it seems the busier I get the quicker it goes. 
I will be honest and say for me it was a challenge to read, not because it wasn’t well written but more because of the subject matter, having said that I did enjoy the parts where you wrote of people and incidents that had effected you and your beliefs, more because it gave me a more deeper understanding and connection to the author Cornish Steve that I thought I knew but didn’t know if that makes sense. My overall feeling when I was reading the book was that some of the Preachers and how they used religion to enforce their beliefs against homosexuality was pretty much standard for people who are homophobic, this confirmed in me my belief that no matter what these people did in their lives they would harbour the same views and would be homophobic even if they were not religious, now whether that was your intention I do not know, but that was my overriding feeling after finishing the book. That religion was wrongly used as the vehicle by some to express their own deep rooted hatred against others. 

[Matt]

7 hours ago, RPG said:

Aspects of the religion are rigid, whether you be Sunni, Shiah etc and there is also a noticeable tendency for all muslims to become more rigid in their personal approach to Islam as they get older. I have seen that first hand.

So we've gone from the religion to aspects. Progress

 

[StevO]

I have three friends who love nothing more than a night out with the lads, a load of ale and a few lines. Two of them still do their prayers and take breaks from work to do so. The one who I don’t think prays was on a stag do in Vegas last week, I’ll have to see if he had a bet while he was there. 
All still consider themselves faithful Muslims. 
Religion is personal and, to many, open to their own interpretations. 
 

Im catholic, and at my niece/goddaughters christening last Sunday I had to mumble the bits about believing in god. Didn’t want to lie in church, as a non believer it’s a weird emotion to feel. 
 

Honestly, hate the whole idea of religion. Mostly from the bad things that people do in the name of. 

[SpartyBlue]

1 hour ago, StevO said:

I have three friends who love nothing more than a night out with the lads, a load of ale and a few lines. Two of them still do their prayers and take breaks from work to do so. The one who I don’t think prays was on a stag do in Vegas last week, I’ll have to see if he had a bet while he was there. 
All still consider themselves faithful Muslims. 
Religion is personal and, to many, open to their own interpretations. 
 

Im catholic, and at my niece/goddaughters christening last Sunday I had to mumble the bits about believing in god. Didn’t want to lie in church, as a non believer it’s a weird emotion to feel. 
 

Honestly, hate the whole idea of religion. Mostly from the bad things that people do in the name of. 

Appreciate the honesty. You’d never get an accurate poll of course but I would guess there are a huge amount of people who would say they belong to a particular religion if asked who don’t really believe. 

[Hafnia]

2 hours ago, StevO said:

I have three friends who love nothing more than a night out with the lads, a load of ale and a few lines. Two of them still do their prayers and take breaks from work to do so. The one who I don’t think prays was on a stag do in Vegas last week, I’ll have to see if he had a bet while he was there. 
All still consider themselves faithful Muslims. 
Religion is personal and, to many, open to their own interpretations. 
 

Im catholic, and at my niece/goddaughters christening last Sunday I had to mumble the bits about believing in god. Didn’t want to lie in church, as a non believer it’s a weird emotion to feel. 
 

Honestly, hate the whole idea of religion. Mostly from the bad things that people do in the name of. 

 

The bad that people do in the name of religion - stems from people who have manipulated religion for their gain. Religion is a personal thing, an interpretation of religion that results in death to another person is not what God would want. 

joe Stalin,mao, pol pot, atheists…. Hitler stated that they only need to believe in Germany.  Talking 100s of millions of people massacred.  It’s a convenient argument used by atheists.  People will kill/die for something they believe in - politics, religion, patriotism, greed, ego. 
 

the neo atheists like to use science and proof as their means of doubting God, it’s a bit self celebratory like it’s some sort of Mensa certificate and they can use carbon dating and dinosaurs to debunk theories.  That’s the difference between faith and proof, you believe despite people telling you reasons not to.  Gregor Mendel is one of the greatest scientists ever and was as religious as they come. If a genius can have true faith along with a brilliant scientific mind then for me  that’s good enough for me to accept science has been a sufficient argument against the existence of God. 

Quantum physics is beyond my understanding but for many people far brighter than me is a scientific answer that God exists.  All physical matter is essentially made of light. All life comes from light.  The reality is we know very very little and it’s extremely arrogant to think that the human brain knows the answers to everything.

until someone can tell me how a person who has been pronounced as being dead, can specifically detail things that happened around them when they were lying there dead…. To medics who had tried to revive them then I will continue to believe that humans know very little about the existence of life outside the physical form. 

 

[Cornish Steve]

57 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

 

The bad that people do in the name of religion - stems from people who have manipulated religion for their gain. Religion is a personal thing, an interpretation of religion that results in death to another person is not what God would want. 

joe Stalin,mao, pol pot, atheists…. Hitler stated that they only need to believe in Germany.  Talking 100s of millions of people massacred.  It’s a convenient argument used by atheists.  People will kill/die for something they believe in - politics, religion, patriotism, greed, ego. 
 

the neo atheists like to use science and proof as their means of doubting God, it’s a bit self celebratory like it’s some sort of Mensa certificate and they can use carbon dating and dinosaurs to debunk theories.  That’s the difference between faith and proof, you believe despite people telling you reasons not to.  Gregor Mendel is one of the greatest scientists ever and was as religious as they come. If a genius can have true faith along with a brilliant scientific mind then for me  that’s good enough for me to accept science has been a sufficient argument against the existence of God. 

Quantum physics is beyond my understanding but for many people far brighter than me is a scientific answer that God exists.  All physical matter is essentially made of light. All life comes from light.  The reality is we know very very little and it’s extremely arrogant to think that the human brain knows the answers to everything.

until someone can tell me how a person who has been pronounced as being dead, can specifically detail things that happened around them when they were lying there dead…. To medics who had tried to revive them then I will continue to believe that humans know very little about the existence of life outside the physical form. 

 

This will be the topic of one of my next books, as it happens. Quantum physics has changed everything. Nothing in our world exists until we observe it. That tree that falls in the forest with no-one around: it doesn't exist. If you read any of the great quantum physicists, you'll begin to understand that it completely undermines classical physics: We can no longer assume that what we observe is all there is, since it depends on our observation. Indeed, we must consider realms and dimensions of existence other than those we observe. It sounds weird, but modern physics implies the following two strong possibilities: (1) We actually exist in a different brane (Google it!), and our existence here is rather like a haptic hologram; (2) There are an untold number of parallel universes, and we move from one to another whenever we make a conscious choice. Philosophically, these two conclusions lead to some extraordinary and rather comforting conclusions. (As you can see, as both a Christian and a former research physicist, I've wrestled with the compatibility of the two for a lifetime; the more I study, the more I realize they are two sides of the same coin. While it's often not mentioned in the popular press, leading scientists are increasingly people of faith - thankfully not of the bigoted kind - which has been true for centuries.)

Whoever would believe that Gana would take us down this line of conversation?!

[Cornish Steve]

1 minute ago, RPG said:

But, at the end of the day, I think we are agreed that nobody should be, or made to feel, pressured to support something in public that violates their private beliefs - be it on moral, religious or any other grounds. This is where PSG went wrong and let the genie out of the bottle.

I do agree with you on this.

Heaven forbid that we choose players based on their politics or their faith. That would limit the pool of players rather quickly. And let's not publicly pressure players in an attempt to root out opinions with which we mostly disagree.

[Romey 1878]

 

[Formby]

1 hour ago, Hafnia said:

 

joe Stalin,mao, pol pot, atheists…. Hitler stated that they only need to believe in Germany.  Talking 100s of millions of people massacred.  It’s a convenient argument used by atheists.

Stalin (Orthodox Church) and Hitler (Catholic Church) had a religious background; Pol Pot had a Buddhist / Catholic upbringing. Even if they all came to atheism, as you say, the atrocities they perpetrated were not committed in the name of atheism. Indeed, I don't know of any crime committed in the name of atheism. Quite the opposite is true of religion. There lies the difference, I think.

[SpartyBlue]

9 minutes ago, Formby said:

Stalin (Orthodox Church) and Hitler (Catholic Church) had a religious background; Pol Pot had a Buddhist / Catholic upbringing. Even if they all came to atheism, as you say, the atrocities they perpetrated were not committed in the name of atheism. Indeed, I don't know of any crime committed in the name of atheism. Quite the opposite is true of religion. There lies the difference, I think.

This hits it. None of the atrocities committed by these men were done in the name of atheism. 
 

 “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” ― Steven Weinberg

[Hafnia]

8 minutes ago, Formby said:

Stalin (Orthodox Church) and Hitler (Catholic Church) had a religious background; Pol Pot had a Buddhist / Catholic upbringing. Even if they all came to atheism, as you say, the atrocities they perpetrated were not committed in the name of atheism. Indeed, I don't know of any crime committed in the name of atheism. Quite the opposite is true of religion. There lies the difference, I think.

Stalin tried to eradicate religion, militant atheism and communism. Not getting into the finer points of the others. 
 

if someone chooses not to believe then fine, just try not to make out that it’s religion that’s the issue, it’s a militant approach to anything be it religion, politics, ethnicity that is the cause of deaths. 

[Hafnia]

9 minutes ago, SpartyBlue said:

This hits it. None of the atrocities committed by these men were done in the name of atheism. 
 

 “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” ― Steven Weinberg

Well that’s just nonsensical bollocks. A person can’t be good if they do evil. Simple as that. 

[SpartyBlue]

6 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Stalin tried to eradicate religion, militant atheism and communism. Not getting into the finer points of the others. 
 

if someone chooses not to believe then fine, just try not to make out that it’s religion that’s the issue, it’s a militant approach to anything be it religion, politics, ethnicity that is the cause of deaths. 

People don’t blow themselves up in a crowded market in the name of atheism. They don’t force conversion therapy for gays in the name of atheism. They don’t start wars because they believe in a different god than another.  Evil men and women may do terrible  things regardless of if they have religion or not but it is not a driving force for non believers. It is the belief system itself (distorted or not) that is the catalyst for this behavior. Yes, people may abuse human rights in the name of politics or bigotry or other things but it is undeniable that religion has been used as justification for hundreds of millions of deaths and other destructive acts. The same is not true for atheists because atheism is not a system of belief.

[SpartyBlue]

3 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Well that’s just nonsensical bollocks. A person can’t be good if they do evil. Simple as that. 

A good person can be coerced into doing bad things if they believe it is the will of their god. I’ll take the example of conversion therapy for gays. They have been led to believe that homosexuality is an abomination and that it is a choice. So they sign their children up for these programs. It is an evil thing but I would argue that these people are not. Same as any religious war. They’ve been convinced that the other side is wrong, evil, whatever and so they go to arms. I do not believe that makes them evil, just indoctrinated.

[Goodison Glory]

So is Gana signing then

[Hafnia]

34 minutes ago, SpartyBlue said:

People don’t blow themselves up in a crowded market in the name of atheism. They don’t force conversion therapy for gays in the name of atheism. They don’t start wars because they believe in a different god than another.  Evil men and women may do terrible  things regardless of if they have religion or not but it is not a driving force for non believers. It is the belief system itself (distorted or not) that is the catalyst for this behavior. Yes, people may abuse human rights in the name of politics or bigotry or other things but it is undeniable that religion has been used as justification for hundreds of millions of deaths and other destructive acts. The same is not true for atheists because atheism is not a system of belief.

So when men were drafted into the army, flown into Vietnam and they shoot people, not just soldiers and they are conditioned to hate the enemy, was that religion? Or were all American soldiers evil? 

 

[Formby]

29 minutes ago, Goodison Glory said:

So is Gana signing then

Perhaps a compromise shirt could have been offered him?

 

[dunlopp9987]

I haven't watched much of any of PSG the last couple seasons, but aren't we in need of an all-action defensive mid? isn't the whole reason we're looking for one is because Allan's legs have gone?

So why are we going out and filling that void with a 32 year old?

[Romey 1878]

Just now, dunlopp9987 said:

I haven't watched much of any of PSG the last couple seasons, but aren't we in need of an all-action defensive mid? isn't the whole reason we're looking for one is because Allan's legs have gone?

So why are we going out and filling that void with a 32 year old?

You're fighting a losing battle mate, ive been pissing in the wind myself. We may as well give up .

[Shukes]

26 minutes ago, dunlopp9987 said:

I haven't watched much of any of PSG the last couple seasons, but aren't we in need of an all-action defensive mid? isn't the whole reason we're looking for one is because Allan's legs have gone?

So why are we going out and filling that void with a 32 year old?

I’ve watched a good few of there matches mate, just because I was a Gana fan. And to be honest the reason we’re looking at him is because he is the exact player you have described.

Biggest worry is, how are his legs holding up at 32?

[Shukes]

Back on topic though.

Im extremely religious. More than most who would class themselves as a follower.

I believe I know what is right and what is wrong and strive my hardest to make sure my own decisions follow those beliefs. I make mistakes. 
But I believe I can honestly say that my wrong decisions are usually made in the spirit of the moment or as a knee jerk reaction. When I have time to think, I generally make the one that suits my beliefs.

I don’t believe in any god. 
 

@Cornish Steve

I have a deep interest in quantum Physics and would love it if you could let us all know when you release your next book. I will certainly purchase a copy. 

[duncanmckenzieismagic]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/breaking-idrissa-gueye-everton-transfer-24631002

[London Blue]

4 hours ago, Cornish Steve said:

This will be the topic of one of my next books, as it happens. Quantum physics has changed everything. Nothing in our world exists until we observe it. That tree that falls in the forest with no-one around: it doesn't exist. If you read any of the great quantum physicists, you'll begin to understand that it completely undermines classical physics: We can no longer assume that what we observe is all there is, since it depends on our observation. Indeed, we must consider realms and dimensions of existence other than those we observe. It sounds weird, but modern physics implies the following two strong possibilities: (1) We actually exist in a different brane (Google it!), and our existence here is rather like a haptic hologram; (2) There are an untold number of parallel universes, and we move from one to another whenever we make a conscious choice. Philosophically, these two conclusions lead to some extraordinary and rather comforting conclusions. (As you can see, as both a Christian and a former research physicist, I've wrestled with the compatibility of the two for a lifetime; the more I study, the more I realize they are two sides of the same coin. While it's often not mentioned in the popular press, leading scientists are increasingly people of faith - thankfully not of the bigoted kind - which has been true for centuries.)

Whoever would believe that Gana would take us down this line of conversation?!

I am a committed Christian and have a real interest in physics, like you (although on a vastly lesser level) the more I learn the more I believe that religion and science are different sides of the same coin. I think the best quote I can come up with is that "Science answers the how and religion answers the why"

I love the way we can learn and debate and expand our consciousness and understanding for me God is the anchor that keeps me grounded.

[Palfy]

1 hour ago, Shukes said:

Biggest worry is, how are his legs holding up at 32?

Not very well I hope

[Wall Writer]

4 hours ago, Cornish Steve said:

This will be the topic of one of my next books, as it happens. Quantum physics has changed everything. Nothing in our world exists until we observe it. That tree that falls in the forest with no-one around: it doesn't exist. If you read any of the great quantum physicists, you'll begin to understand that it completely undermines classical physics: We can no longer assume that what we observe is all there is, since it depends on our observation. Indeed, we must consider realms and dimensions of existence other than those we observe. It sounds weird, but modern physics implies the following two strong possibilities: (1) We actually exist in a different brane (Google it!), and our existence here is rather like a haptic hologram; (2) There are an untold number of parallel universes, and we move from one to another whenever we make a conscious choice. Philosophically, these two conclusions lead to some extraordinary and rather comforting conclusions. (As you can see, as both a Christian and a former research physicist, I've wrestled with the compatibility of the two for a lifetime; the more I study, the more I realize they are two sides of the same coin. While it's often not mentioned in the popular press, leading scientists are increasingly people of faith - thankfully not of the bigoted kind - which has been true for centuries.)

Whoever would believe that Gana would take us down this line of conversation?!

Definitely my kind of read. Looking forward to it @Cornish Steve

[London Blue]

Parallel dimensions would explain the lack of gravity and matter in the universe.

[MikeO]

2 minutes ago, London Blue said:

Parallel dimensions would explain the lack of gravity and matter in the universe.

42, all the science I need.

That's my final word on the matter (and antimatter come to that).

[London Blue]

9 minutes ago, MikeO said:

42, all the science I need.

That's my final word on the matter (and antimatter come to that).

Marvin is that you? 

[MikeO]

9 minutes ago, London Blue said:

Marvin is that you? 

Well I do have a brain the size of a planet