Question for Christians

[JoeB131]

You don't even know what going on behind you. Matter of fact, oft people don't know what's going on in their own homes.

Says the crazy guy who reads Chick Tracks.

 

[JoeB131]

Thank you for proving my point. Bias confirmed.

Well, I'd call it a "test". But never mind... you guys aren't into that "science" stuff where you test something for proof.

 

[JoeB131]

Atheists: Are you joyful people (as a whole)? Are those who say God is an evil, homicidal maniac incredibly happy people in all their endeavors?

Except we don't say God is an evil homicidal maniac other than in a fictional sense.

It's like saying we think Hannibal Lector is an evil homicidal maniac- in the CONTEXT OF FICTION.

Drowns every baby in the world
Kills everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah for being gay
Kills Onan for pulling out early
Kills all the Egyptian First Born
Kills the guys who made the Golden Calf
Insists that Jephthah butcher his own daughter.
Kills King David's baby to show him adultery is bad, I guess.
Sends a couple of bears to kill kids who made fun of a bald prophet

This stuff is ALL IN YOUR BOOK.

How are we supposed to react to this fictional character?

I know atheists who had a very hard religious upbringing, while not claiming joy do say they now have peace in their lives--a peace like they had never experienced before. Many atheists I know feel that God has let them down--i.e., they have no trust in God. Perhaps trust in God is what opens doors for some to more fully experience God and/or recognize His touch in their lives.

Again, I think you are missing the point. My transition from being a Catholic to an Atheist was the trouble of deprogramming 12 years of brainwashing and guilt. Yeah, there were a whole lot of things in the story that didn't add up for me and still don't add up. But it wasn't until Mom got sick that I started to get it into my head that maybe there really wasn't a guy sitting on a cloud waiting for me to ask him for stuff really nicely.

Now, I'd have been happy to leave it at that, but I live in a country where the religious stupids are constantly trying to impose their stupidity on the rest of us.

 

[ding]

Thank you for proving my point. Bias confirmed.

Well, I'd call it a "test". But never mind... you guys aren't into that "science" stuff where you test something for proof.

I've probably forgotten more science than you ever knew.

 

[Hollie]

Thank you for proving my point. Bias confirmed.

Well, I'd call it a "test". But never mind... you guys aren't into that "science" stuff where you test something for proof.

I've probably forgotten more science than you ever knew.

You have forgotten more than you ever knew.

 

[ding]

Thank you for proving my point. Bias confirmed.

Well, I'd call it a "test". But never mind... you guys aren't into that "science" stuff where you test something for proof.

I've probably forgotten more science than you ever knew.

You have forgotten more than you ever knew.

Do you have a scientific background, Hollie?

Or are you just whistling Dixie out of your ass?

 

[JohnPrewett]

I remember Cheryl Prewitt winning the 1980 Miss American pageant for two reasons.
First, her last name is nearly same as mine.
Second, because Jesus lengthened her leg 2 inches.

"she survived it all -- survived the stitches, suffered through having one leg crushed in the accident which made it two inches shorter than the other. And through most of her high school years she walked with a limp. That was before she went to a faith seminar years later where she was healed and the leg grew, she says, two inches that very day."

Cheryl Prewitt's Born-Again American Beauty

Someone will be along shortly to try to dispute her testimony.

Yep. As Jesus predicted.
18 “Therefore listen to the parable of the sower.
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it,
the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

 

[JohnPrewett]

I remember Cheryl Prewitt winning the 1980 Miss American pageant for two reasons.
First, her last name is nearly same as mine.
Second, because Jesus lengthened her leg 2 inches.

"she survived it all -- survived the stitches, suffered through having one leg crushed in the accident which made it two inches shorter than the other. And through most of her high school years she walked with a limp. That was before she went to a faith seminar years later where she was healed and the leg grew, she says, two inches that very day."

Cheryl Prewitt's Born-Again American Beauty

There's no actual proof that this happened. She's just another con(wo)man. Man, you guys are SO gullible.

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called The Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, and put my finger in the nail prints, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.”

26 After eight days His disciples were again inside with the doors shut, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.”
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand here and place it in My side. Do not be faithless, but believing.”

28 Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have yet believed.”
The Purpose of the Book
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.
31 But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

 

[RodISHI]

I remember Cheryl Prewitt winning the 1980 Miss American pageant for two reasons.
First, her last name is nearly same as mine.
Second, because Jesus lengthened her leg 2 inches.

"she survived it all -- survived the stitches, suffered through having one leg crushed in the accident which made it two inches shorter than the other. And through most of her high school years she walked with a limp. That was before she went to a faith seminar years later where she was healed and the leg grew, she says, two inches that very day."

Cheryl Prewitt's Born-Again American Beauty

Someone will be along shortly to try to dispute her testimony.

Yep. As Jesus predicted.
18 “Therefore listen to the parable of the sower.
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it,
the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

Yup and the only thing that will grow in a piss saturated feedlot is worthless weeds until the ground is not so over satiated with piss and crap. Plus that feedlot can pollute the surround waterways and do damage there too. The great thing is in time if not overloaded with shit those same areas will grow some of the most vibrant and beautiful flowers you have ever seen. I can picture it in my mind when that turning point happens.

 

[Moonglow]

God can do anything, if He wants to.

He's a pothead?

 

[yiostheoy]

God can do anything, if He wants to.

He's a pothead?

Much of Colorado has gone to pot too.

Colombian drug lords are buying up real estate there like at a fire sale.

 

[yiostheoy]

Atheists: Are you joyful people (as a whole)? Are those who say God is an evil, homicidal maniac incredibly happy people in all their endeavors?

Except we don't say God is an evil homicidal maniac other than in a fictional sense.

It's like saying we think Hannibal Lector is an evil homicidal maniac- in the CONTEXT OF FICTION.

Drowns every baby in the world
Kills everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah for being gay
Kills Onan for pulling out early
Kills all the Egyptian First Born
Kills the guys who made the Golden Calf
Insists that Jephthah butcher his own daughter.
Kills King David's baby to show him adultery is bad, I guess.
Sends a couple of bears to kill kids who made fun of a bald prophet

This stuff is ALL IN YOUR BOOK.

How are we supposed to react to this fictional character?

I know atheists who had a very hard religious upbringing, while not claiming joy do say they now have peace in their lives--a peace like they had never experienced before. Many atheists I know feel that God has let them down--i.e., they have no trust in God. Perhaps trust in God is what opens doors for some to more fully experience God and/or recognize His touch in their lives.

Again, I think you are missing the point. My transition from being a Catholic to an Atheist was the trouble of deprogramming 12 years of brainwashing and guilt. Yeah, there were a whole lot of things in the story that didn't add up for me and still don't add up. But it wasn't until Mom got sick that I started to get it into my head that maybe there really wasn't a guy sitting on a cloud waiting for me to ask him for stuff really nicely.

Now, I'd have been happy to leave it at that, but I live in a country where the religious stupids are constantly trying to impose their stupidity on the rest of us.

I thought about a reply to all this crap but then I concluded just moving you onto the iggy list is better.

 

[yiostheoy]

Do you believe God can heal anyone/anything?

If so, why are there no miracles of limbs miraculously being replaced/regenerated?

Because god is also a douchebag.

I once had 2 Protestant bible bashers knock on my door and then start insulting The Virgin Mary.

I told them they better hope She does not hear them.

Same is true of you about God.

 

[yiostheoy]

Do you believe God can heal anyone/anything?

If so, why are there no miracles of limbs miraculously being replaced/regenerated?

Because god is also a douchebag.

Just more testing of our faith I suppose...not sure what people would think if it actually happened...

There is also a lot of written crap about God that is simply not true.

There is crap in the Bible that has been mistranslated out of Hebrew and Greek that morons believe in English and Latin etc.

So you have to give God a break.

He/she/they has/have not made an appearance in thousands of years.

To Moses in 1450 BCE yes.

To Mary Of Nazareth in 8 BC yes.

To Peter, James, and John on the Mount Of Transfiguration in 33 AD yes.

Short list.

 

[yiostheoy]

Or, God loves gullible people and not the arrogant. So to hell with you!

No, but the poor in spirit are among the blessed. Poor in spirit does not mean listless, but rather is aware that he is lacking and therefore puts his trust in God. In essence, this beatitude is saying, Joyful is the person who trusts in God.

Happy is the person who trusts there is a God who is both good and loving.

Atheists: Are you joyful people (as a whole)? Are those who say God is an evil, homicidal maniac incredibly happy people in all their endeavors?

I know atheists who had a very hard religious upbringing, while not claiming joy do say they now have peace in their lives--a peace like they had never experienced before. Many atheists I know feel that God has let them down--i.e., they have no trust in God. Perhaps trust in God is what opens doors for some to more fully experience God and/or recognize His touch in their lives.

"Poor in spirit" means those who understand and comprehend how evil and worthless humankind really is.

There are a few good ones here and there.

But for the most part the entire species is a complete failure of an experiment by God.

 

[yiostheoy]

Apologists, they have an excuse for everything.

Yes. Much like a repairman has an "excuse" for everything. He can explain why refilling windshield wiper fluid will not fix the brakes.

In the gospels Jesus heals the physically ill. Go and sin no more. Are you trying to say the ill are sinful and or have demons?

Dear Penelope
Unforgivness is a sin. And yes we all have things we can't forgive since we are human
and are designed with defense mechanisms such as fear and learning from experience to avoid danger or risks. This is what it means for Christian to say all humans are sinner,
we are not perfect in our forgiveness, and there are going to be things we refuse to forgive because we are too hurt or too afraid. We are going to fall short of perfect love that God represents. None of us is that selfless that we can forgive and understand all things that happen.

*Some* illnesses are not able to heal because of unforgiveness or demonic blockages.
Not all, but SOME rely on removing the source of unforgiveness emotional blocks first,
before the person can be healed.

1. if someone can't forgive their parents for abuse, and keep drinking and smoking
to harbor and suppress the resentment, that can cause both mental addiction and physical diseases.
These cannot be fully healed if the person keeps holding onto the resentment fueling the addiction
and blocking their mind and body from healing.

it's not their fault they were abused by others, but the unforgiveness
is like "swallowing poison while waiting for the other person to die"
it harms the victim and prolongs the sickness.
this is how child abusers take their own abuse and pass it on to other victims.
so they infect other people with self-blame and loathing that keeps them stuck.

forgiveness can break this cycle and that's why spiritual healing or similar methods (such as AA mixed
with either Christian faith or Buddhist meditation) has worked for people I know.
the common key to healing and recovery is forgiveness.

2. and it's the demonic influence that most often obstructs that forgiveness
with anger, blame, jealousy, resentment, fear, any number of negative ills
that keep the mind stuck where it is. so the "demonic" energy can keep
feeding on the NEGATIVE energy like a parasite invading a host.
it's like rats or roaches wanting to keep feeding on garbage so they don't want the
rotten food to be cleaned up but to keep piles of it around so they can feast on it.

If you want to read two observations of the use of exorcism to confront
"demonic" voices or personalities in schizophrenic patients, I recommend
"Glimpses of the Devil" by Scott Peck.
Peck did not believe these "demonic obsessions" were real but just mental delusions
from chemical imbalances and dysfunctions in the brains of his patients.
He made a bet with his friend, the priest Malachi Martin the Exorcist was based on,
that as a scientist, he could prove that this demonic nonsense was all mental delusion and hallucination.

So the priest sent 2 patients to Peck to observe, to see if this would change his mind.
Within the second interview, after one of the patients verbally attacked Peck
with knowledge of his unconscious memories and fears, he was convinced
this had to be psychic or spiritual forces because the patients had no conscious knowledge of Peck's past.
From there, the patterns of these "demonic" forces escalated and followed
the same methods and stages that the priest had been teaching and practicing for years
to deal with sick patients suffering from 'demonic obsessions and voices" or personalities taking over their own mind and will.

Peck was able to follow the process and see one patient completely
healed of the demonic personality and voices, where she returned to normal,
completed the treatment that she had previously rejected because of her 'demonic rebellion'
that had rendered her dysfunctional and unable to comply or receive any help.
She even gave up religion and turned to medical science because she was intrigued
by getting her free will and reason restored, where she could follow the same "scientific method"
that Dr. Peck used to study her condition, apply therapy, check if it worked, then take more steps until
all the problems were solved. She decided to study some field of medicine and lost interest in religion.

For the other patient, the influence was not completely removed, and the damage and diseased
conditions were too far gone from years of abuse, from self-destruction all her adult life,
that she died of other complications. Peck concluded that the deliverance to remove the
demonic influence obstructing and hijacking the person's mind had to be done EARLIER on.
So I compare it to cancer, that the earlier the treatment the better chances of success before
it "metastasizes" and fully invades the whole person.

My atheist friend who underwent this procedure also complained it "felt like rape"
it hurt like hell because it is like chemotherapy killing off all the good and bad cells together,
scraping out all your insides, and starting over. So all the attached memories and
feelings you had about the abuse and addictions that followed, all that gets SCRAPED out of you.

But after this is removed, then the person regains the ability to
say NO to the demonic impulses that can no longer hijack their will.
They are able to choose to block out and not let those negative influences
take over. So forgiving the negatives takes away their fuel source.

3. Penelope Not All illnesses are caused by demons.
Not all sicknesses are caused by biohazardous pathogens as Ebola is.

It's just that when you have a case of Ebola, you cannot treat it as you would a common cold.
There has to be a special antidote that especially kills the Ebola Virus or the person dies.
The sooner you remove it the better chances of living and recovering.

With demonic sicknesses, if there is such a demonic "virus" causing the sickness
the normal human immune system may not be strong enough to fight it off alone.
That's why the spiritual healing ministers pray to IDENTIFY what type of virus
or infection is causing the sickness. And treat and remove that first. then the person can heal naturally.

So for normal colds, no we do not need mass surgery to remove the cause
like we might for cancerous tumors that have to be cut out.

With spiritual and mental ills, it depends on the cause, which determines the cure.

What we call mental illness today was called demons in ancient times.

And who of us is to stay it is indeed NOT caused by demons ??

Nobody can say that. We simply do not know.

You cannot put a demon under a microscope.

 

[yiostheoy]

Or, God loves gullible people and not the arrogant. So to hell with you!

No, but the poor in spirit are among the blessed. Poor in spirit does not mean listless, but rather is aware that he is lacking and therefore puts his trust in God. In essence, this beatitude is saying, Joyful is the person who trusts in God.

Happy is the person who trusts there is a God who is both good and loving.

Atheists: Are you joyful people (as a whole)? Are those who say God is an evil, homicidal maniac incredibly happy people in all their endeavors?

I know atheists who had a very hard religious upbringing, while not claiming joy do say they now have peace in their lives--a peace like they had never experienced before. Many atheists I know feel that God has let them down--i.e., they have no trust in God. Perhaps trust in God is what opens doors for some to more fully experience God and/or recognize His touch in their lives.

Atheists are simply anti-God people. Their faith system requires the acceptance of a negative -- which is illogical according to the philosophical rules of good logic.

In my own experience atheists are either (1) severely traumatized and they blame God for it or the opposite extreme (2) born with sterling silver spoons in their mouths.

 

[yiostheoy]

God can do anything, if He wants to.

gipper
Can God turn an Elephant into an Alligator?
Or is this only because "God doesn't want to?"

I suppose that God turned protists (single celled plants and animals) into trees and humans and whales eventually -- but it took several billions years to do it.

 

[buttercup]

In my own experience atheists are either (1) severely traumatized and they blame God for it or the opposite extreme (2) born with sterling silver spoons in their mouths.

I've also noticed that a lot of them had a bad relationship with their father. Often, our relationship with our father has a lot to do with how we think about God and faith.

 

[yiostheoy]

Or, God loves gullible people and not the arrogant. So to hell with you!

I think gullible people are the unintended consequence of Religion.

In history, the original purpose of Religion was as an opiate for the masses (roughly quoting Marx) to keep them in line politically. Hence the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt and the Caesars of Rome pronounced themselves gods or sons of gods.

Same was true of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Judea in Roman times.

Jesus Of Nazareth seemed to take advantage of this to get himself killed. That is the impression given by him in his talk with Pontius Pilate. The man wanted to die. It was his purpose and mission. So he pissed off the Jewish Sanhedrin to the max.

As for modern Religion, aside from it's original purpose which is still in force in Jewish and Arab and Persian and Japanese lands, we have corrupted forms of ancient religions like Christianity and Buddhism among us which started out with good intentions but thousands of years have changed all that.

And the various Protestants and Mormans have tried to reform Christianity but they have just fokked it up even more.