On March 29 2009 14:48 KrAzYfoOL wrote: GrayArea if you were God, and one of your creations felt the need to test you, how would you feel? Do you think you'd oblige?
Sorry but, can you tell me where you're trying to go with this? I'm curious
On March 29 2009 14:33 inReacH wrote: Ok one more thing before I go sleep, are you telling me you grew up in a religious family and didn't pray until grade 10 and the first thing you prayed for was that some girl would say hi to you?
I call bullshit on that.. I don't think your really lying, you just want to have faith so much that you unconsciously forgetting the past. I'm betting you prayed to got a thousand times.. maybe this prayer was significant maybe not.. but if it was you were sure to keep it small and possible because you wanted a reason to have faith that badly.
Read the OP again buddy.
. Prior to that, I would pray with some uncertainty. Was anyone listening to me? Was I just wasting my time? There was no strong, central belief that allowed me to pray with my full heart.
I prayed many times before that, and for many things. This time was different because I was in a stage where I was questioning life and God in general. It's that reason I wanted to do a test, or experiment. It was also a more meaningful prayer to me.
To the guy who posted the "experiment" and testing my hypothesis thing. I didn't know there would be a hearing/vision test that day. What if it was part of the plan of answering the prayer that the hearing test happened on that day? [this is not likely, but whatever, just throwing it out there. the obvious flaw in this is that I am trying to explain empirical results with religion, which was what i was trying to prove in the first place, which leads you in a circle]
And your telling me if by coincidence(again) one of the times before this particular day your prayers came true you wouldn't have been affected because it wasn't test day?
Ok so we know god didn't intervene on any of your prayers that didn't get answered
1. We know god didn't intervene 2. On any given(reasonable) prayer there is a chance it will happen by coincidence
Therefore, if you pray enough times and for enough things, eventually the power of PROBABILITY will take over and god will be right for once.
So it was literally just a matter of time before you were "filled with the spirit of the lord"
The trick you pulled on yourself CAN NOT MISS.
I love it.
Notice that throughout all of my posts, and go back and read the OP again, I never blindly follow faith or god. The whole post is explaining an almost scientific experiment to test god after all. I am not gonna fight or try and prove to anyone that god exists or doesn't exists. I honestly don't know. What I do know, is that praying gives me some strength to follow "morals" or "ethics" or just trying my best to do good, and this is better than the alternative (for me). If that to you is stupid, or pointless, or worthless, then I don't know what to say to you.
On March 29 2009 13:06 GrayArea wrote: How I believe in God
Many people, especially on this forum, do not believe in God. After all, there is no proof, no actual evidence. Christians have the Bible which talks about Jesus and his life, Muslims have the Quran, Jews have the Hebrew Bible. Is what is stated in these books enough to justify the belief, the acceptance that some omniscient being exists in this universe who created us and watches over us?
Some people say seeing is believing. In my case, hearing was believing. I will never forget this day in my entire life, it was the day God spoke to me.
In ninth grade, a new girl joined our class. She was the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Our high school was relatively small (about 1000 people), so I knew she was new immediately and I would often see her around campus. I didn't have any classes with her, and whenever I saw her, I would just admire everything about her beauty. It was a typical high school crush. She never talked to me, and I never said a word to her that year.
Fastforward a year to tenth grade. I walked into first period Health class with my best friend, sat down, looked around, didn't notice anyone in particular and went through the class. The second day, as I walked into the room I noticed her sitting in the class and realized that I must have not noticed her on the first day. Naturally my heart jumped, I became super self-conscious, did I look cool? Was every single movement I did perfect? etc etc.
We still never talked, I would sometimes look at her and then when she turn her head to me I would suddenly look away to pretend I was looking at something else (lol, I would cringe on the inside and hope she didn't notice I was looking at her, so stupid). When we would pass in the hall, I would look at her also and sometimes she would notice me. I think she saw in my eyes that I liked her or something, don't know, don't care.
It was in 10th grade that I began to question life. "What is the purpose of life?" was a question that was incessantly bothering me so deeply for such a long time. I would ask my friends what the purpose of life was, and they would respond with "I don't know" "To die" "I haven't thought about it yet" etc. I wasn't satisfied. I come from a religious family, so the fact that God exists was a possibility.
One day, during one of my deep reflections, I was contemplating Gods existence. I closed my eyes and prayed/said to myself that if God really did exist, then tomorrow that girl would say "Hi" to me at school. Basically I was offering a test to God, if God existed he would make this near impossible thing happen.
Next day was a hearing/vision test at school. They test the hearing and vision of every student and determine whether or not that student has any weaknesses. It was during first period health class that we had our test. Along with several other classes, we went to line up outside the trailer where they would test our hearing. Finally, when my turn came, a group of us students went in (like 11 of us). In that group was her. Because it was in the trailer type of thing, the seats were faced such that two rows were facing each other and each seat had side panels (like a booth). I was at the second seat from the end of one row, she was at the opposite row at the end (so like 4 seats distance). We were waiting for the test to begin. Some of the students were talking with each other. I was just sitting forward in my seat. Randomly, from the right, I hear "Hey GrayArea." I didn't look at her, nor did I say anything or make any change in my expression. Again I hear, "Hey GrayArea, did you really have an A in Hilmerson?"I turned my head to face her, saw she was looking to me, and then I turned my face back straight without saying anything and sat back in my chair so she couldn't see me. She asked the question again, this time I told her yes.
After the hearing test was the vision test. Our group was the last group to go in for the vision test. For some reason, mine and her tests took longer than the other peoples'. Because of this we were the only two still taking the test while everyone else went back to class. Finally, my test finished before hers, and I walked out and was heading back to class. Suddenly I hear, "Hey GrayArea, wait for me!" I looked around and noticed her running towards me as she tried to catch up. I slowed down so she could reach me, and we walked back to class together. I asked her if what grade she had in Hilmerson (Hilmerson is the name of a really hard English teacher that taught 10th grade). She said she had a B. That was all we said to each other, but for some reason I felt my attraction to her go away. I had gotten my impossible answer from God and was blown away.
Why was it that over the period of 1 and half years that this girl didn't say one single word to me, that on this very day she said Hey to me? Why was it that on she happened to talk to me on the very day that I had asked God to make her talk to me? Coincidence? Maybe. Culmination of all the times I looked at her and she noticed? Maybe. Luck? Perhaps. I don't know. What I do know is that from this day I realized God had responded to me, and that somehow, somewhere I knew someone/something heard me.
I don't consider this event to be the sole experience which verified to me that God existed. That would be pure stupidity. After all, like I said, it could have been coincidence. But, it provided for me the stepping stone I needed to take the leap of faith of believing in God. Whenever I prayed, I prayed with a sense of knowing someone was listening. I could feel something inside which felt as though God was within me. Every time I would close my eyes and pray to God, some energy would burst from within me filling me with this warmth.
Why? Because I prayed with the genuine belief that I knew God existed. Prior to that, I would pray with some uncertainty. Was anyone listening to me? Was I just wasting my time? There was no strong, central belief that allowed me to pray with my full heart.
What is God? Is God some external being that exists somewhere far away in space and is viewing the world somehow? Does he exist in heaven (where is heaven though in space?)? Is God some kind of essence that resides within our bodies? Is God just an idea created by our minds in order to help make us feel as though we have a purpose and place in this world and that someone is watching over us?
I can't answer any of these questions. What I can tell you though is that God to me is someone who is the source of that energy I feel when I pray, listens to me, and has an effect on my life and the world around me.
Many people at some point have questioned what you questioned and done the same exact thing and you know what happens? Nothing. They get spat on by your "God."
I do envy you, that you think your special enough for God to go out of his way to make something completely meaningless give you meaning. I wish I could have faith.
That being said, 2 stars.
this is one of the stupidest things I've ever read. You believe in something that is part god part genie.
lool
That's not how it works with (most) faith based religions.
In Christianity, for example, I know that it's about Faith. Faith isn't about "Oh, if I pray, he will do what I say."
Faith is about "If I pray, and I'm not magically cured, I will take faith in him anyway, and continue to pray, and maintain my faith in that which cannot be shown to me."
If he is openly revealed to you, it wouldn't be faith. It would be belief based on empirical evidence.
Yeah it's the fucking no-lose for god..
If you pray and I grant your prayer > It is divine intervention If you pray and I don't' do anything > Wait a little longer
Precisely. It's not supposed to be easy to have faith. That's why it's so hard for a lot of people, like you, to understand.
Hmm answer this..
Say just for fun religion was created by a person to control other people, don't you think he would put in some clause that god will not prove himself to test your faith?
And you morons just eat it up like durrr yeah that makes sense.. if I can't rationalize it then my belief is that much stronger.
It's just so fucking obvious, the whole thing, but gullible idiots like you gobble it up and it's fucking abhorrent.
Yes they would. But so would God. It's so fucking obvious, the whole thing, but silly people like you just gobble up your naive and empirical lives and it's fucking abhorrent. rofl possum?
Nope not the same lol
Adding what I added to my previous post:
EDIT: Ok I'm sorry I shouldn't start flaming people, I'm sure you were born into a religious family and brainwashed and had no choice.. You know you could take a baby and teach him that all children kill themselves on their 10th birthday and if you do a good enough job he will do it without questioning you?
But religion is that much easier because everyone wants to believe in something larger than life.
You've been brainwashed.
Rofl. See how prejudice you are? of course you don't "you've been Brainwashed." By whom? Do you know who I am or my story? No? You mean you're judging me based on the fact that you know I consider myself "christian"?
Really a terrible representative of your view point.
No I am not. I was raised catholic until I questioned my faith and left. Then my family did. It wasn't until my entire family lost their faith that I started my spiritual exploration and discovered it by myself. Thanks though, you ignorant creep.
Much like you probably discovered your own beliefs with exploration and experimentation and research, so did I. The only difference is, I was "brainwashed."
Seriously, what? Regardless of what my specific beliefs are, you believe I am brainwashed because it is different from yours.
Let me guess, you're the type of person to blame the religious right for their prejudice and close mindedness. That kind of hypocrisy always gets a laugh out of me. (Though I may be wrong with my assessment.)
You talking to me about you making a personal choice to have faith after research is like someone coming up to you and telling you they've decided they don't believe in addition.
If you truly care about the validity of your faith watch this lecture and if you would rebuttal all of his arguments. There are 6 parts but it seems like a short amount of time when compared to the possibility of a lifetime of misguidedness.
I've actually listened and read RD. I've studied him quite a bit. Thanks though. You're so cute with your assumptions.
(I don't need to convince you that what I believe is right. You seem to think you need to convince me that your beliefs are... -_-)
On March 29 2009 14:48 KrAzYfoOL wrote: GrayArea if you were God, and one of your creations felt the need to test you, how would you feel? Do you think you'd oblige?
First, I have to say that it is not possible to try and put yourself in God's position, I'm not saying this out of faith or anything, just saying it scientifically. You can't know what God would do and for what reason.
But to answer your question, if it would help a person who is questioning, and wavering on their path (whatever it may be, and however you define it), then maybe its possible?
Ok then if God loves us all and wants us to enter his kingdom, why not waver everyone's path so that they believe in him? Where do you draw the line? Because in your particular instance, your free will was compromised by God.
My god, you're trying to tell us that you decided to believe in a god because you conducted a fucking retarded experiment that meant absolutely nothing in terms of philosophy, spirituality, or theology.
Many people at some point have questioned what you questioned and done the same exact thing and you know what happens? Nothing. They get spat on by your "God."
I do envy you, that you think your special enough for God to go out of his way to make something completely meaningless give you meaning. I wish I could have faith.
That being said, 2 stars.
[quote]
lool
That's not how it works with (most) faith based religions.
In Christianity, for example, I know that it's about Faith. Faith isn't about "Oh, if I pray, he will do what I say."
Faith is about "If I pray, and I'm not magically cured, I will take faith in him anyway, and continue to pray, and maintain my faith in that which cannot be shown to me."
If he is openly revealed to you, it wouldn't be faith. It would be belief based on empirical evidence.
Yeah it's the fucking no-lose for god..
If you pray and I grant your prayer > It is divine intervention If you pray and I don't' do anything > Wait a little longer
Precisely. It's not supposed to be easy to have faith. That's why it's so hard for a lot of people, like you, to understand.
Hmm answer this..
Say just for fun religion was created by a person to control other people, don't you think he would put in some clause that god will not prove himself to test your faith?
And you morons just eat it up like durrr yeah that makes sense.. if I can't rationalize it then my belief is that much stronger.
It's just so fucking obvious, the whole thing, but gullible idiots like you gobble it up and it's fucking abhorrent.
Yes they would. But so would God. It's so fucking obvious, the whole thing, but silly people like you just gobble up your naive and empirical lives and it's fucking abhorrent. rofl possum?
Nope not the same lol
Adding what I added to my previous post:
EDIT: Ok I'm sorry I shouldn't start flaming people, I'm sure you were born into a religious family and brainwashed and had no choice.. You know you could take a baby and teach him that all children kill themselves on their 10th birthday and if you do a good enough job he will do it without questioning you?
But religion is that much easier because everyone wants to believe in something larger than life.
You've been brainwashed.
Rofl. See how prejudice you are? of course you don't "you've been Brainwashed." By whom? Do you know who I am or my story? No? You mean you're judging me based on the fact that you know I consider myself "christian"?
Really a terrible representative of your view point.
No I am not. I was raised catholic until I questioned my faith and left. Then my family did. It wasn't until my entire family lost their faith that I started my spiritual exploration and discovered it by myself. Thanks though, you ignorant creep.
Much like you probably discovered your own beliefs with exploration and experimentation and research, so did I. The only difference is, I was "brainwashed."
Seriously, what? Regardless of what my specific beliefs are, you believe I am brainwashed because it is different from yours.
Let me guess, you're the type of person to blame the religious right for their prejudice and close mindedness. That kind of hypocrisy always gets a laugh out of me. (Though I may be wrong with my assessment.)
You talking to me about you making a personal choice to have faith after research is like someone coming up to you and telling you they've decided they don't believe in addition.
If you truly care about the validity of your faith watch this lecture and if you would rebuttal all of his arguments. There are 6 parts but it seems like a short amount of time when compared to the possibility of a lifetime of misguidedness.
On March 29 2009 13:38 KrAzYfoOL wrote: Thor just spoke to me and told me you're full of shit.
Hi Krazyfool. In all friendliness, I want to ask you, what is the reason behind saying something like what you just said. Do you feel some gratification or some sort of boost of ego from saying this? Because I honestly can not see what reason would be behind you making this statement.
I assume you would know that this negative statement does absolutely nothing much put someone down. Why is it that the first thing that comes out of your mouth after reading someone's post is something like this.
I want to ask this question to all those who has ever had an aggressive post like this that serves absolutely no purpose what so ever. I want to ask you, if you are speaking to someone face to face, would you say something like this to them? Is this someone you would say to a friend, family, the man who is interviewing you for a job?
I guess we can't expect everyone on this world to treat each other with respect, help each other and be encouraging with their words. A comment like the above is not only meaningless small talk, but a very negative sarcastic statement that is discouraging. The fact that one would take the time to use their energy to post something that isn't a question (so that they can learn something), or a word of encouragement (for the edification of another person) but something aimed at being discouraging, makes me wonder, what brings someone to do this?
Krazyfool, can I please encourage you to look at what you wrote, and take a moment to reflect. If there something you are unhappy about in your life, or something that makes you angry, please share it with me,. I want to be an encouragement to you. From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the last thing we want in this world is for more and more people to have the desire to hurt others because they are hurt them selves deep inside. Are you are Sydney sider? If you are I would love to sit down to a cup of coffee with you. Maybe you can be an encouragement to me too ^.^.
I pray for peace upon you mate. And I pray for all those who are not at peace.
Nah, i reside in Melbourne. I used to be just like you though . Not long ago if someone put a gun to my head and asked me if i believe in God, or even took one step further and asked me if i accept Jesus as my savior, and would pull the trigger if i said yes, I'd do it without even batting an eye.
No offense though, if heaven meant spending an eternity with people like you, send me the fuck to hell!
On March 29 2009 14:33 inReacH wrote: Ok one more thing before I go sleep, are you telling me you grew up in a religious family and didn't pray until grade 10 and the first thing you prayed for was that some girl would say hi to you?
I call bullshit on that.. I don't think your really lying, you just want to have faith so much that you unconsciously forgetting the past. I'm betting you prayed to got a thousand times.. maybe this prayer was significant maybe not.. but if it was you were sure to keep it small and possible because you wanted a reason to have faith that badly.
Read the OP again buddy.
. Prior to that, I would pray with some uncertainty. Was anyone listening to me? Was I just wasting my time? There was no strong, central belief that allowed me to pray with my full heart.
I prayed many times before that, and for many things. This time was different because I was in a stage where I was questioning life and God in general. It's that reason I wanted to do a test, or experiment. It was also a more meaningful prayer to me.
To the guy who posted the "experiment" and testing my hypothesis thing. I didn't know there would be a hearing/vision test that day. What if it was part of the plan of answering the prayer that the hearing test happened on that day? [this is not likely, but whatever, just throwing it out there. the obvious flaw in this is that I am trying to explain empirical results with religion, which was what i was trying to prove in the first place, which leads you in a circle]
And your telling me if by coincidence(again) one of the times before this particular day your prayers came true you wouldn't have been affected because it wasn't test day?
Ok so we know god didn't intervene on any of your prayers that didn't get answered
1. We know god didn't intervene 2. On any given(reasonable) prayer there is a chance it will happen by coincidence
Therefore, if you pray enough times and for enough things, eventually the power of PROBABILITY will take over and god will be right for once.
So it was literally just a matter of time before you were "filled with the spirit of the lord"
The trick you pulled on yourself CAN NOT MISS.
I love it.
Notice that throughout all of my posts, and go back and read the OP again, I never blindly follow faith or god. The whole post is explaining an almost scientific experiment to test god after all. I am not gonna fight or try and prove to anyone that god exists or doesn't exists. I honestly don't know. What I do know, is that praying gives me some strength to follow "morals" or "ethics" or just trying my best to do good, and this is better than the alternative (for me). If that to you is stupid, or pointless, or worthless, then I don't know what to say to you.
This is fine, I said once already if it helps you live a happy life then good for you but don't mistake this for enlightenment.
This thread has been derailed so badly. The blog is about "How," not "Why." If this were about a non-religious topic, people who disagreed would have probably let it slide; but with religion as the focus, people seem so quick to incite those with opposing beliefs. Regardless of whether or not I agree with the OP's beliefs, I still think the post was a nice read.
On March 29 2009 13:38 KrAzYfoOL wrote: Thor just spoke to me and told me you're full of shit.
Hi Krazyfool. In all friendliness, I want to ask you, what is the reason behind saying something like what you just said. Do you feel some gratification or some sort of boost of ego from saying this? Because I honestly can not see what reason would be behind you making this statement.
I assume you would know that this negative statement does absolutely nothing much put someone down. Why is it that the first thing that comes out of your mouth after reading someone's post is something like this.
I want to ask this question to all those who has ever had an aggressive post like this that serves absolutely no purpose what so ever. I want to ask you, if you are speaking to someone face to face, would you say something like this to them? Is this someone you would say to a friend, family, the man who is interviewing you for a job?
I guess we can't expect everyone on this world to treat each other with respect, help each other and be encouraging with their words. A comment like the above is not only meaningless small talk, but a very negative sarcastic statement that is discouraging. The fact that one would take the time to use their energy to post something that isn't a question (so that they can learn something), or a word of encouragement (for the edification of another person) but something aimed at being discouraging, makes me wonder, what brings someone to do this?
Krazyfool, can I please encourage you to look at what you wrote, and take a moment to reflect. If there something you are unhappy about in your life, or something that makes you angry, please share it with me,. I want to be an encouragement to you. From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the last thing we want in this world is for more and more people to have the desire to hurt others because they are hurt them selves deep inside. Are you are Sydney sider? If you are I would love to sit down to a cup of coffee with you. Maybe you can be an encouragement to me too ^.^.
I pray for peace upon you mate. And I pray for all those who are not at peace.
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
On March 29 2009 15:13 KrAzYfoOL wrote: Ah I'll stop now and remember one of my favorite quotes from House. "If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people."
On March 29 2009 13:38 KrAzYfoOL wrote: Thor just spoke to me and told me you're full of shit.
Hi Krazyfool. In all friendliness, I want to ask you, what is the reason behind saying something like what you just said. Do you feel some gratification or some sort of boost of ego from saying this? Because I honestly can not see what reason would be behind you making this statement.
I assume you would know that this negative statement does absolutely nothing much put someone down. Why is it that the first thing that comes out of your mouth after reading someone's post is something like this.
I want to ask this question to all those who has ever had an aggressive post like this that serves absolutely no purpose what so ever. I want to ask you, if you are speaking to someone face to face, would you say something like this to them? Is this someone you would say to a friend, family, the man who is interviewing you for a job?
I guess we can't expect everyone on this world to treat each other with respect, help each other and be encouraging with their words. A comment like the above is not only meaningless small talk, but a very negative sarcastic statement that is discouraging. The fact that one would take the time to use their energy to post something that isn't a question (so that they can learn something), or a word of encouragement (for the edification of another person) but something aimed at being discouraging, makes me wonder, what brings someone to do this?
Krazyfool, can I please encourage you to look at what you wrote, and take a moment to reflect. If there something you are unhappy about in your life, or something that makes you angry, please share it with me,. I want to be an encouragement to you. From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the last thing we want in this world is for more and more people to have the desire to hurt others because they are hurt them selves deep inside. Are you are Sydney sider? If you are I would love to sit down to a cup of coffee with you. Maybe you can be an encouragement to me too ^.^.
I pray for peace upon you mate. And I pray for all those who are not at peace.
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
On March 29 2009 13:38 KrAzYfoOL wrote: Thor just spoke to me and told me you're full of shit.
Hi Krazyfool. In all friendliness, I want to ask you, what is the reason behind saying something like what you just said. Do you feel some gratification or some sort of boost of ego from saying this? Because I honestly can not see what reason would be behind you making this statement.
I assume you would know that this negative statement does absolutely nothing much put someone down. Why is it that the first thing that comes out of your mouth after reading someone's post is something like this.
I want to ask this question to all those who has ever had an aggressive post like this that serves absolutely no purpose what so ever. I want to ask you, if you are speaking to someone face to face, would you say something like this to them? Is this someone you would say to a friend, family, the man who is interviewing you for a job?
I guess we can't expect everyone on this world to treat each other with respect, help each other and be encouraging with their words. A comment like the above is not only meaningless small talk, but a very negative sarcastic statement that is discouraging. The fact that one would take the time to use their energy to post something that isn't a question (so that they can learn something), or a word of encouragement (for the edification of another person) but something aimed at being discouraging, makes me wonder, what brings someone to do this?
Krazyfool, can I please encourage you to look at what you wrote, and take a moment to reflect. If there something you are unhappy about in your life, or something that makes you angry, please share it with me,. I want to be an encouragement to you. From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the last thing we want in this world is for more and more people to have the desire to hurt others because they are hurt them selves deep inside. Are you are Sydney sider? If you are I would love to sit down to a cup of coffee with you. Maybe you can be an encouragement to me too ^.^.
I pray for peace upon you mate. And I pray for all those who are not at peace.
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
Dude I may be self righteous but not believing in some supernatural flying man in the sky isn't ignorant.
On March 29 2009 13:38 KrAzYfoOL wrote: Thor just spoke to me and told me you're full of shit.
Hi Krazyfool. In all friendliness, I want to ask you, what is the reason behind saying something like what you just said. Do you feel some gratification or some sort of boost of ego from saying this? Because I honestly can not see what reason would be behind you making this statement.
I assume you would know that this negative statement does absolutely nothing much put someone down. Why is it that the first thing that comes out of your mouth after reading someone's post is something like this.
I want to ask this question to all those who has ever had an aggressive post like this that serves absolutely no purpose what so ever. I want to ask you, if you are speaking to someone face to face, would you say something like this to them? Is this someone you would say to a friend, family, the man who is interviewing you for a job?
I guess we can't expect everyone on this world to treat each other with respect, help each other and be encouraging with their words. A comment like the above is not only meaningless small talk, but a very negative sarcastic statement that is discouraging. The fact that one would take the time to use their energy to post something that isn't a question (so that they can learn something), or a word of encouragement (for the edification of another person) but something aimed at being discouraging, makes me wonder, what brings someone to do this?
Krazyfool, can I please encourage you to look at what you wrote, and take a moment to reflect. If there something you are unhappy about in your life, or something that makes you angry, please share it with me,. I want to be an encouragement to you. From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, the last thing we want in this world is for more and more people to have the desire to hurt others because they are hurt them selves deep inside. Are you are Sydney sider? If you are I would love to sit down to a cup of coffee with you. Maybe you can be an encouragement to me too ^.^.
I pray for peace upon you mate. And I pray for all those who are not at peace.
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
Ignorant self righteousness isn't a bannable offense is it?
Dude I may be self righteous but not believing in some supernatural flying man in the sky isn't ignorant.
It's alright if you're self-righteous because you think you're right. It's not alright for someone else to be self-righteous because they think they're right? Or are you both allowed to be? Whichever one it is, pick a side and keep things fair. Denying others the same rights as you is really bordering on some scary shit.
Ignorant.. like the word ignore.. like you're ignoring everything that science and math have proven over and over and over for the last X centuries.. YOU ARE IGNORING IT
Don't you see that for you to make your argument as strong as possible you have to steer the conversation clear of any science For me to strengthen my argument I could cite any number of the hundreds of contradictions and fallacies in the bible..
On March 29 2009 15:14 Descent wrote: This thread has been derailed so badly. The blog is about "How," not "Why." If this were about a non-religious topic, people who disagreed would have probably let it slide; but with religion as the focus, people seem so quick to incite those with opposing beliefs. Regardless of whether or not I agree with the OP's beliefs, I still think the post was a nice read.
Just my opinion.
I agree with you, it's a story of my How not Why. Many people were asking questions, and I kinda got derailed a bit. Some people are still talking about kingdom of god (i am not Christian), and god loving me (i never said he did or didn't), and my basing my whole faith on this one experience (which i bolded in the original post is not the case), and so many other things that people just talk about naturally in a religion thread. Anyway, I thanks for your compliment.
I just want to say that from the perspective of someone very very interested in the psychology of belief and sociology of religion, this whole thread has been fascinating. Maybe the most fascinating of those I've read on TLnet (which is saying a lot, they're great around here).
That's all. I'm not speaking as someone who thinks he really "gets it" and is just laughing at the lower-downs trying to figure it out, in case I give that impression. I just find this all very fascinating.
. Not long ago if someone put a gun to my head and asked me if i believe in God, or even took one step further and asked me if i accept Jesus as my savior, and would pull the trigger if i said yes, I'd do it without even batting an eye.
EPT
