LifeInTheFishBowl Is Going To Be One Awesome Dating Site

i tried to be christian for many years. i just got so bored of reading the same book every sunday.

your fellow primate,
angela hayden
art goddess

first.

can i have my 5 minutes back please for sitting through that video. And it’s interesting that the video doesn’t specifically say religion at all.

way too long a video if they want to get people excited about the site.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment.

http://www.eeoc.gov/types/religion.html

“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment.”

He’s right. That’s also illegal in Canada. I know that because I’m an employer.

You can discriminate if the job requires something. Like if a job requires perfect English, you could tell somebody that doesn’t speak it as a first language no, or if you are hiring models for the runway and a fat woman applies. But a board of directors job biased on religion, I do not believe that would fall in the guidelines even for a religious based website, because he is looking for technical advisory, not religious consultation as per his own job offer.

“Christian cults”?

It’ll likely pass muster for the same reason that his emphasis on “young” Lutherans will pass, despite this being age discrimination–he’s looking for the person to represent a viewpoint, the Young Lutheran, and this seems to be related to the primary mission of the company. It’s akin to how Catholic schools can prefer Catholic teachers, even for non-religion teachers, but probably not prefer Catholic janitors over non-Catholic janitors.

Fishbowl? Dating?
I don’t get it.

“It’ll likely pass muster for the same reason that his emphasis on “young” Lutherans will pass”

Nothing will happen unless a non-Lutheran applies and is denied the job on the board based on the fact that he is not Lutheran, and he can prove that he would have been able to do the job anyway. The burden of proof is always on the person making the claim.

2/3 vs 70% is only a 4% difference. That’s actually a pretty insubstantial difference.
Additionally, Lutherism isn’t a cult.
Lastly, if this is a religious 501c3, they can have religious stipulations, just like a church could require the pastor be a professing Christian, a mosque could require Islamic staff or am atheist group could require atheist leadership.

Chris R,
3 of the past 10 comments here are yours…

stop spamming, or you’ll go to hell

ha sounds like an Onion inspired post

“stop spamming, or you’ll go to hell”
Can I upgrade to business class though?

Beliefnet is not a Christian site its a spirituality site. There is a major difference.

From Beliefnet’s About:

“Beliefnet is the largest spiritual web site. We are independent and not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement. Our only agenda is to help you meet your spiritual needs.”

Aparently only white people use this site (not one non-white in entire video)

@Nathan Clark
Please define for us the difference between religion and cult. Second, Atheism is not a religion, as you imply through your statement. It is by definition a-theism or without theism; in other words it simply means lacking belief in the existence of a god or gods.

I like it. It’s an online social networking site that encourages users to get out from behind their computers and have face to face conversations. Revolutionary stuff!

And the emphasis on helping users get in touch with “house churches”, and helping “house churches” form official congregations is interesting. I could see this having a significant effect on Christian culture here in the US. I could even see other faiths imitating this model. For example, I’ve heard of small communities of Muslims forming their own “garage mosques” as an alternative to the more formal institutions. It won’t be long before they’re taking their communities online as well.

Mind your manners, young Michael. Life is too short to be purposefully offensive.

If anyone wants to develop my godblog.org domain name into a competitor, have at it and we’ll split whatever goes in the collection bowl. Email me. Contact form on my website (click my name). God bless.

there we go

there (sorry)

“Christian cults”?

Oh my Mike. You recently said you try to be correct and not worry about other people. I think you failed on both accounts here.

That’s cool. I wonder how it will work with the different denominations though. Can there be an online holy war?

hey, that’s a nice idea… different faiths can have their own social networks and I can chose my religion depending of which network has the hottest chicks!

techguy - the foreign policy of our country is being dictated by a small but vocal Christian minority. They got their war, it’s ok for us to make fun of them sometimes, too. At least until they amend the constitution, anyway.

you’re weird.

Whoa there, Michael. Lumping all Christians together with the warmongering Neo-Conservatives is no smarter than lumping all the Muslims together with the terrorists. Never mind the fact that many of the Neo-Conservatives were not Christian.

Perhaps you missed the many Christian leaders, including the Pope, who frequently and loudly objected to the invasion. Perhaps you missed the many leaders of other faiths who asked our government to use reason and intelligence rather than mindless violence. Perhaps you missed the millions from all around the globe, representing every faith on the planet, who organized the world’s largest anti-war demonstration in the weeks prior to the invasion.

Perhaps you were sleeping.

I’d advise you to stick with the Tech issues, Michael. When you comment on political, social or historical issues you sound like Duncan Riley. And that’s not a compliment.

I don’t get it- what’s with TechCrunch’s writers today? First Mike disses Christians, then Duncan disses 50 Cent. I’m looking for tech news here, not to feel bad that I’m a Christian 50 Cent fan.

Michael, your war comment is absurd. As a devout Christian entrepeneur (and big TC fan), I never endorsed a war. Don’t confuse the “religous right” lobby with everyday people who simply want to be like Christ.

Now, about your “cults” comment. Weren’t you blasting digg recently for not managing racist comments? But now you’re making anti-christian jokes. Nice.

I’m still a fan, though. I have tough skin. Just think it was in bad taste.

sounds good in theory, but these dating sites never work. it won’t be long before the fake profiles pop up. i tried yahoo and match and true in the past and it was all the same. the attractive girls are fake and the not so attractive girls are real. on the flip side, if facebook really is 2/3 female, sign me up.

Michael: In the words of Laura Ingraham, “shut up and sing.” The “Christian cult” crack was bad enough, the comments about the war even more out of place. I’ve unsubscribed.

Michael: What “cult” do you belong to?

Reminds me of Hotenough.org. Trying to divide people on superficial grounds seems like a bad idea to me.

I knew that would get you guys all fired up. I’m been reading too much Richard Dawkins latey. I’m sure I’ll settle down in a couple of months.

Oh come on guys, at least once in a while you need to refresh your minds on things like this and it’s good to know that Christians are now offering online resources.. very nice idea, especially if they want to reach those hard to reach places.

Nhick
http://www.itrush.com

Consider me unsubscribed; if I wanted to read about politics or religion, I’d find it elsewhere.

I love this “let’s openly discuss evolution etc” BS, the problem is that it isn’t UP FOR DISCUSSION, it’s a fact that they choose to ignore.

They are only as open as their bible says they are - I think the fishbowl analogy is very apt in this case. I hope they enjoy living in a closed-minded and brainwashed state with their fellow close-minded and brainwashed associates.

I am happy that most Christians are open minded enough to realize how great the story of the bible is, when not taken literally. It is as valuable as the Koran, it’s only the fractional vocal minority that make the rest look bad.

Jon

God brought Google.
Atheist brought Yahoo.
Satan brought Facebook.

What’s God revenue for Internet 3.0?
What’s Satan revenue for Internet 3.0?

Christian chick are hot, don’t you think?

Why is Evolution theory keep f*cking people’s brains out?

Half of students drop out college and got depresss. My closest friend who is christian and scientist. He discover SARS isn’t God made disease engineering. It’s not cause by mutate animals, mutate genes. He told me It’s military style redtape. They use to unlock bank accounts.

You can modify DNA, human blue print, and alter it.

“christian cults”

Could you possibly be more insensitive? I am absolutely disgusted. You are not clever. You are unbelievably ignorant. Comments like this make me think that free speech isn’t worth it.

I have been reading TC for about a year but right after I click submit, I am taking this feed off of my reader. I feel sick to my stomach.

Take a cheap shot (one that makes absolutely no sense) at 1/3 of the entire world population, not to mention to the man who was crucified to save you from your sins.

Yet somehow, He still loves you. I’ll pray for you when my anger subsides. But I won’t be resubscribing.

Like Mike gives a shit about you losers who unsubscribe, who cares.

“other Christian cults” - I love it as that is exactly what they are, well said!

It’s quite disappointing to see M. Arrington’s narrowmindedness & scapegoating.

Regarding the Lutheran issue, this is from their “About” page:

“The Fishbowl is a mission of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.”

They’re almost certainly a 501c3, which means they can hire only Lutherans if they want.

Also, Michael, do stick with technology. It’s far better than your politics. Those nefarious neoconservatives (among whom I count myself four days of the week) who are controlling our foreign policy could hardly be characterized as members of the religious right (which, to the extent that it exists, I am a member of).

And if you’re view of Christianity is taken from Dawkins, well, then…..I apologize. There are far more sophisticated critiques in the world than those offered by the so-called “new atheists.”

I’m going to descend back into my nerdy intellectual hole and shut up know.

Doh!

The last word should be “now.”

Credibility………..ruined. Alas.

Do any of you upset Christians even know what a cult is? Here’s a tip, look it up in the dictionary.

http://m-w.com/dictionary/cult

I fail to see how “Christian cult” is such a bad term.

@Chris (#46) - This might help explain it for you:

http://m-w.com/dictionary/connotation

Fuck Richard Dawkins.

Mike, here are a couple links for you in case you want a more balanced case for theism.

http://www.christianitytoday.c...../1.21.html
http://www.reasonablefaith.org.....mp;id=5493
http://www.reasonablefaith.org.....me=q_and_a

I recommend reading these books:

http://www.amazon.com/Dawkins-.....ATZ18E1T67

http://www.amazon.com/Dawkins-....._b_title_2

On the existence of God:

http://www.amazon.com/Reasonab.....amp;sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Existenc.....amp;sr=1-2

Deleting comments, Arrington? I could see it if my comment had been a flame, but it wasn’t. Whatever- it’s your blog.

I guess you can dish it out, but you can’t take it. Too bad.

Hey - I’m all for God. Big believer, or at least very, very hopeful. Its religion that scares the hell out of me. They get all riled up and start killing things.

My apology. I *did* refresh first. I stand corrected.

Reminds me of one of my favourite bumper stickers: “Jesus, save me from your followers.”

“more people have died in the twentieth century’s secular wars than in the preceding fifty centuries of fighting combined…. No religious war in history, not all the religious wars of history added together, did as much damage as this century’s wars of nationalism and ideology.”

Most people can only speak for the religion they know and grew up with. I’d encourage anyone seeking for some guidance to pick up a Quran and read it for themselves…and base your opinion on the final testament.
http://www.freequran.ca/

Facebook is the best place for Christians to be. But lots of Christians prefer to stay in the church (or Christian websites) and be of little effect to God’s work.

And Michael is right. Religion is scary. A relationship with God is awesome.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the controversy over religion simply feeds back into the machine.

There is no such thing as bad publicity.

Mike,

Richard Dawkins is a smart man but at the same time he sometimes is very naive and is close minded to certain things.

If you can’t explain something it doesn’t mean that it does not exist. Check this guy out (Proof of God’s existence in 3 minutes) a pretty awesome video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEXGKzH0F9c

As for religion, there are good religions and then there are those that screw it up for everybody else… good, Bible based religion in itself is a good thing as it promotes, peace, non violence, respect, love for others, great values and a lot of other great things and in times when our young generations is growing up value-less and disrespectful to anything and everything how is this a bad thing?

Remember initially USA was founded on Biblical principles and all was good. Heck even 50 years ago the divorce rate was less than 5% now it’s at more than 50%, kids did not shoot at schools and colleges, did not do as much drugs and overall were growing up with good, moral values prepared for the life ahead, now everything changed and I have no idea what awaits us with the way things are moving… we became a society of whiners that whines about everything instead of actually getting our ass up and actually doing something good to change the world. It’s not the religion that should scare us but rather it’s absence.

What’s the difference between a religious cult and a corporate cult? You’re either a puppet or a puppeteer.

Keep God out of it.

If you want to make money, do NOT make money off vulnerable people with strong faith.

It is WRONG, and UNETHICAL.

Please go home, change it into a Non-Profit, or people will call politicians to shut it down!

I agree…christianity is not commerce.

Religion is big business, who you kidding??? The Vatican is worth billions.

“The Vatican has large investments with the Rothschilds of Britain, France and America, with the Hambros Bank, with the Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. In the United States it has large investments with the Morgan Bank, the Chase-Manhattan Bank, the First National Bank of New York, the Bankers Trust Company, and others. The Vatican has billions of shares in the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc. At a conservative estimate, these amount to more than 500 million dollars in the U.S.A. alone”

yawn :-/

@Holly - ORLY? Where have you been for the last 2000 years?

Yeah, Christians belonging to one denomination or another are not in cults - that is our faith and it’s extremely offensive for you to refer to it as a cult. Show some respect, Michael.

I’m surprised no one thought of this earlier!

I’m a dedicated Christian that gives 25% of my time and income to take care of Orphan children with AIDS in Africa (of another race, by the way - I’m not part of a “christian cult” and I’m not a bigot either).

I’m really tired of reading comments on blogs that attack Christianity. Christians provide more humanitarian aid around the world than FEMA and the Red Cross COMBINED.

We don’t require anyone to convert to Christianity to receive assitance. We don’t even distribute conversion literature or anything. We just love people and give up our lives to help them. And we rarely (if ever) run into a secularist / agnostic / atheist.

I’m surprised at all the negative, hateful comments by people who have the free choice to participate in a religion or not.

I feel like I’m living in pre-1940’s Germany.

“more people have died in the twentieth century’s secular wars than in the preceding fifty centuries of fighting combined…. No religious war in history, not all the religious wars of history added together, did as much damage as this century’s wars of nationalism and ideology.”

I am sick to death of this “argument”. Are you actually suggesting that you can prove the existence of god by doing a body count of various ideologies? There are a couple of things you need to consider:

1. At the very least, normalize the killings. Who knows how much bloodier the crusades would have been had they access to 20th century killing technology. I’m sure Jerusalem would have been carpet bombed a few times. This argument will stop once the first modern terrorist sets off a nuke in New York for the greater glory of god.

2. No one ever started a war on behalf of atheism. Hitler was a Christian - read Mein Kampf. Stalin though (and taught) that he was god. In North Korea worships the Dear Leader. True secular regimes are more than rejection of god, they represent the installment of rational thought and reason. This means no god, no nationalism, no ideologies, nothing that asks you to turn off your brain. America was intended to be such a country, read the constitution and the writings of the founding fathers sometimes.

> “Remember initially USA was founded on Biblical principles…”

“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” - John Adams

“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry….” - Thomas Jeffersion

“All natural institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” - Thomas Paine

“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise….During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.” - James Madison

Dear Christians: if you don’t like what Michael’s saying about Christianity, why not forgive him?

Dear Christians who are pissed about Michael’s ignorant remarks,

You must be new here.

Thanks,

Cameron

With regard to the question of origins, either:

Existence precedes Essence
(the universe simply exists, and we make up a reason after-the-fact)

…or Essence precedes Existence
(there is a pre-existant purpose for which the universe exists)

It’s reasonable to take either position. However, it’s not reasonable to take the former position and yet still hold that there is any truth in values. The atheist position necessitates that values are subjective rather than objective, and as such, an intellectually honest atheist would come to the conclusion that whether one follows a “cult”, a “religion”, or rejects the divine altogether, it is of no consequence. The quest for knowledge itself is a meaningless endeavor.

Who cares if he only wants young Lutherans for his BoD. If you’re neither, why would you want to be on his board? Surely there are more important causes to fight.

Classy, Arrington. Very classy. It’s too bad, you show yourself savvy and the owner of seriously good instincts so many other times.

80% of the people in the United States declare themselves as Christians. I’m not sure why someone would want to alienate 80% of potential viewers.

I’m sure that some of you brilliant agnostic/athesists will come up with a worthy response to this. You hate facts, and love to post angry, irrational responses. Go for it.

*blinks and reads that again*

“So if you are Christian, or want to pretend you are Christian to date women, sign up for LifeInTheFishBowl now.”

That would seem to be….slightly un-christian behavior, but is however, very, very funny.

@Richard Because truth is more important than visitors? Atheists hate facts and love angry, irrational responses? Please, tell me one rational argument for belief in gods. Head over to http://www.iidb.org, we’d love to have you.

I’m a Jesus loving Christian, you might be supprised at some of my thoughts;

1. The word cult has negative connotations but isn’t necessarily that bad, then again it is; ever heard of the cult of Yahweh? To me the term cult is represents either a group with a twisted truth or a group with major devotion to a person or topic. The word Christians was actually a derogatory term after the death of Christ which meant “little Christ” and is hardly used in the New Testament.

2. Mindless religion tied up in tradition is “scary and dangerous” but a relationship with Jesus is “awesome” and freeing. Why? Because we are under his grace which removed the need to be religious to the law as documented in the Old Testament. Christ came and died so that we wouldn’t have to do a regular animal ritual; this freedom is expressed in the New Testament.

3. Like God Tube, Fishbowl’s hearts are in the right place but it does seem rather complicated, I’m not sure if it is going to work.

FYI, there is a web designer and developer on board to build the site.

Please ignore the blog. As you can see, it really isn’t anything at this point and what you see there is not what the site will be.

I’m completely surprised that anything was posted here about this.

Thats ludc and creative.

att,
Marcelo

Michael,

I am a big fan of the site, however not so much at the shot fired at the direction of Christians. Seems to me there was not much upside in firing that shot.

Tim

so why to choos a religoun to date?? its free world ?

I have to agree with Tim Kost. I read TechCrunch at least once a day, it has become part of my ritual when getting to work. I will really have to rethink this. Had it come from one of the other writers I might have been able to look past it as a mistake by an individual. But this is from “the man” himself who make me think he doesn’t want the readership from a “Christian Cult” member.

Michael: Comment 50 “Hey - I’m all for God. Big believer”.

The devil also believes in God Michael….. It is appointed unto all men to die once, and then face judgment…(Heb 9:27)

You wont be writing posts forever and there will come a time when you will die and have to face a Holy God on judgment day.

When you stand before a Holy God on judgment day He will judge you based on the 10 commandments. If you have ever told a lie, stolen something (even if it is small), or even looked at another women in lust (Mathew 5:27-29) then you are a lying, thieving adulterer at heart and you will be found guilty.

This God which you candidly speak about will find you guilty and your punishment is an eternity in hell.

Don’t you think it might be a mistake not to think about this a little more intently? Everything you do in this life will mean absolutely nothing when you stand before Jesus on judgment day and say “Lord, Lord”….See Mathew 7:21-23 for Jesus’ answer

You a great writer Michael, I do hope God will open your eyes…..

Christian Cults? That is really rude. Love this blog, but come on man. They are called denominations.

I am nothing but saddened. I will keep reading, but you should not make comments like that. You knew exactly what you were doing. “Got our war” that just shows how deluded you have become.

Oh, and please stop reading Richard Dawkins. Tolerance and coexistance are the way for us all to get along, not militant anti-theism.

ok ok i gotta bite with the ‘christian cult’ jibe. and then i read the ‘christians love war’ comment (OK I paraphrase and generalise - probably making me guilty of what you did).

i am a geek. i am a christian. i am quite a lefty. i dont like being lablelled.

rock on dude!

Christian cults? Really? I wonder which cult President Bush belongs to, Or which cult Billy Graham belongs to.