21 May 2012

Has damaged my trust in e sword

Responding here, because it pertains to all software.

I simply cannot understand why any Christian would wish to make available this or any other book from other religions or faiths or ways?

Despite the best efforts of Christians, there are people who do not consider Christianity to be the only way to salvation.  For those who wish to work with, and convert adherants of other religions and faiths, it can be extremely helpful to know the basic Sacred Texts, beliefs, teachings, and practices of those religions and faiths.

There are three basic approaches to witnessing, and converting people:
  • Bribery;
  • Argument;
  • Respectful Discourse;
Bribery works for as long as the person paying the bribe, keeps it up.  Something that Christian missionaries first discovered more than two hundred years ago, but some persist in doing.

Arguments do not convince anybody, of anything.  All they prove is who can shout the loudest, for the longest period of time, and impress the most people.

Respectful Discourse includes discussing the sacred texts, religious beliefs, teachings,  and practices with the potentical convert. Not trash-talk, a la Jerry Springer. It means squarely addressing issues which the potential convert percieves to be Christian teachings, beliefs, and practices, and also conflict with their sense of religious belief, practice, and teachings. 

By way of example:
  • A Hindu will never take their Japa Mala into a laundry room, kitchen, or bathroom, because those places are "unclean", and as such, it is disrespectful to Krishna, to do so;
  • A Muslim will never place the Q'ran on the ground, because doing so shows disrespect to Allah;
  • A Muslim will take two or so minutes, five times a day, to say a prayer to Allah, regardless of how easy it is to do so;
In Acts 17, Paul demonstrates how a knowledge of the religious beliefs and practices of the target group, can be used to convert them to Christianity.
has damaged my trust in e sword,

A resource made by a third party, distributed on a third party web site, damages your trust in e-Sword?

One of the issues in giving users the ability to create, and distribute content for their Biblical software, or any other software, is that users will create content and extensions that offends the sensibilities of the software developers.

This implicitly recognized by licenses which prohibit the use of the program "to criticize, undermine, subvert, or in any way question the accuracy and integrity of biblical Christianity".  and "may not be used anywhere but in a House of Christian worship".

Is faith in God so weak, that it can be damaged by reading that the "wrong" work is available?



16 May 2012

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The current estimate is that diagnosis will cost US$10,000. If the doctors find what they expect to find, then treatment should be in the US$25K - US$30K range. If something else is found, the treatment costs could be much higher. It is possible, but not probable, that the treatment costs will be lower.

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