User talk:Signaj90

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Welcome!

Hello, Signaj90, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome! -Razorflame (talk) 15:59, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

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[edit] re:Clan Johnstone

Hi Signaj90. As far as i can tell the clan isn't an Armigerous clan (a clan registered with Lyon Court, but without a chief granted Arms by Lord Lyon). It has a chief, he appears on the burkes peerage website and also in the main wiki article on Scottish clans. The list in the Armigerous clan article doesn't have any references cited so i don't know about the Maxwells, but i guess they don't have a chief.

You should take a look at Wikipedia:Manual of Style. Capitalize the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns in headings, but leave the rest lower case. Thus "Rules and regulations", not "Rules and Regulations". Actually i guess the electric sctland link should go back in for now, but the scot clans site is just a commerical website and the info on there is pretty much already covered in the article (or atleast should be). See the Manual of Style bit on External links, or Wikipedia:External_links: Links to be avoided -> 1.Any site that does not provide a unique resource beyond what the article would contain if it became a Featured article. 5.Links to sites that primarily exist to sell products or services.--Celtus (talk) 05:47, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Signaj90 sandbox1

Hi! Having your own sandbox is fine, of course, but it needs to be a user subpage rather than an article in the main namespace. I have moved it from Signaj90 sandbox1 to User:Signaj90/sandbox1. Thanks! —Caesura(t) 14:50, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pat on the Back

I see that you've been arguing whether or not Christianity is monotheistic, and I just wanted to give you a bit of encouragement. I don't know where else you may work or debate, but I saw that you are a pastor, and wanted to say, keep going. Rely on God, not yourself, and you'll do fine.

The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few. (ApostleJoe (talk) 02:11, 21 December 2007 (UTC))


[edit] Criterion for evaluating Christians

You wrote at Talk:Christianity#The_image_.22Christianity_percentage_by_country.22:

"However, I am still waiting for a satisfactory set of criteria for evaluating whether someone is a Christian or not. I'll suggest attendance of a worship service four times a year as a crude but effective measurement. Membership in a church and zero participation in a church for years at a time flies in the face of most of this article's assumption that the life of a Christian involves participation in the Church."

It's probably really dumb of me to get involved in this conversation, but I'd like to take exception to the criterion you propose (regular church attendance). This question of "official" but non-practicing membership in national Christian churches has always complicated counts of Christians, and continues to be a problem on Wikipedia. I don't really think that we can do anything to resolve this.

We can easily imagine scenarios in which a person would not be able to attend worship services (Person is severely disabled; Christian services are frowned upon by the government of his/her country), and we certainly wouldn't want to deny that a person is a Christian on that basis.

--- Personally, I would argue that acceptance of a Credo such as the Nicene Creed or Apostle's Creed is the best criterion for identification as Christian / non-Christian. But as C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity (p10),

"It is not for us to say who, in the deepest sense, is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men's hearts. We cannot judge, and indeed are forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say any man is, or is not, a Christian in this refined sense." [1]

For purposes of Wikipedia at least, presumably the only possible criterion we can use in cases like this is self-identification, i.e., if a person says that he or she is a Christian, then we have to consider that person a Christian. To do otherwise is to make doctrinal judgements, which we may not do on Wikipedia, and IMHO should be very wary of doing in ordinary life.

- Respectfully -- Writtenonsand (talk) 14:14, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I understand (and oftentimes share) your trepidation in getting into certain arguments. Consequently I'll do us both a favor and respond briefly without making a big deal about it.
Self identification is, of course, a fair tool, especially in view of the issues posed by so many litmus tests (which I often balk at myself). I'll concede that your criticisms of my position are valid, and that I was somewhat overzealous in my own comments. I think, however, the following:
1. In the case of Scandanavia, the argument (which I was addressing) that membership = faith doesn't hold water. My attendance argument blows that out of the water, regardless of one's opinion of how far you can go with that.
2. Christianity is not an ontological reality but a living breathing tradition. Consequently, it can and does change over time. Self identification with a tradition means you have a say in that tradition. However, that tradition also has something to say about you. Mormons would be an example - they can claim they are Christian until the cows come home, but the democracy of the dead as well as the living tradition today has the right to challenge that claim, and they are consistently refused legitimacy by a majority of Christians. Self identification doesn't even register this issue, so it is limited.
The constraints of Wikipedia are valid, and in this case I'll concede the high ground to you. However, attendance has always been important in Christian history, regardless of notable exceptions (which themselves are so rare that they prove the rule).
I've said my piece. I'll just leave it be, because there is other important work to do here. Sincerely --Signaj90 (talk) 23:08, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
You are almost embarassingly reasonable!  :-) I'll just comment that I don't feel that I have (nor seek) the "high ground", but simply wish to say, "You stand on your ground, and I on mine; things look different from my ground than from yours; let us compare our observations and we may both learn something thereby."
Best wishes -- Writtenonsand (talk) 16:38, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Christianity Newsletter

The Christianity WikiProject Newsletter
The Christianity WikiProject Newsletter!
Issue IV - April 2008

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[edit] WikiProject Christianity Newsletter

The Christianity WikiProject Newsletter
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Issue V - May 2008
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  • Our membership continues to expand. It is currently at 223 users. 39 new users have joined the WikiProject in the month of April 2008. Please make them feel welcomed!
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[edit] WikiProject Christianity Newsletter

The Christianity WikiProject Newsletter

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The Christianity WikiProject Newsletter
Issue VI - June 2008
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Welcome to the Sixth issue of the WikiProject Christianity newsletter! Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

Luckily, you all won't have to see my comments very often, as very little I have to say is really that important. But I would like to take the opportunity to say that I hope everyone finds the new General Forum page useful for discussing ideas relevant to Christianity in general, and feels free to make any additional comments regarding general Christianity there. Also, if any of you feel that you want to place a comment here in the future, please let us know what you want included. We would encourage all members to get more involved and if you are wondering what with, please ask. Use this newsletter as a mechanism to inform yourselves about progress at the project and please be inspired to take more active roles in what we do.

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