Part 39 of Post Your Tough Questions Regarding Christianity

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by Mitt Ryan, Oct 27, 2021.

  1. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    You gave your personal opinion on the morning star and so it is meani9ngless, you never responded to my question about “circumcision of the heart” (that one should be the easiest of all), and then in post 1459 I basically said that religionists’ (your) understanding of the bible has degenerated to the literal nonsense it is today, and surely you can’t be agreeing with that post.
     
  2. JET3534

    JET3534 Well-Known Member

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    In my opinion an imaginary construct.
     
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  3. Mitt Ryan

    Mitt Ryan Well-Known Member

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    Lol...that is so funny JET!

    Let's go even further and say werewolves, leprechauns, Loch Ness monster, tooth fairy, superman, spiderman they're all real too...lol..oh so funny!

    But truth be told, no one really cares about the Wizzard of Oz, werewolves, leprechauns, Loch Ness monster, tooth fairy, superman, spiderman but they do certainly care about the existence/non-existence of Almighty God.

    To an atheist and all other non-Christians, the idea that God existence is real is a definite threat to them...after all Scripture does tell us what God intends to do with the unbelievers after they die their physical deaths here on earth.

    But as long as the unbelievers live on this earth, they will never be convinced or satisfied that their view/belief that God doesn't exist is a fact.

    You can only rely on your faith that He doesn't exist. I rely on my faith that He does exist.

    I just like God's plan for the believers after their time passes on earth.

    We Read in Scripture:

    4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4 NLT

    That's definitely Paradise where we who are saved will live happily ever after in eternal bliss with the Lord.

    Ok thanks JET for you post, it was a pleasure for me to respond to it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 14, 2023
  4. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    Faith means belief. But a special kind. It means a faith that is a deep conviction. It also means holding fast to an idea. Religion is faith because it is a belief that is a deep conviction to which adherents hold fast.

    Atheism is not a belief. It is not faith. It is actually an absence of faith and belief in an idea, and that absence is due to a lack of convincing evidence. So atheism is not faith, but the absence of faith. It is not belief, but an absence of belief. As such it is a blank slate: “convince me with factual evidence” is what it says. And for 3000 years or more there is none.
     
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  5. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Why should it be a threat? We don't believe in God. What scripture says is irrelevant to us. The idea of god doesn't exist in our minds. What Scripture says causes us no problems. It's a threat Christianity has used for 2000 years to keep the sheep like yourself under control. Well, you are a sheep if Jesus is your shepherd. No Mitt. An atheist isn't afraid of death. It's a natural part of life. It's the only thing that's certain.
     
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  6. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Many competent scholars would deny the 'Historicity or our Lord Jesus Christ'. Many accept there was a man named Jesus. I do. But there's no evidence he was more than a Jew who preached Judaism. The suggestion of his divinity is in the Nativity stories, and they are a complete fabrication - contradicting themselves, Roman Laws, Jewish Laws in their 'making'. Roman Laws required Joseph to be at his property in Nazareth on which he would be taxed. To be in Bethlehem would bring consequences upon him. 1000 years since David had died. Bethlehem Ephratah had been through many trials, an exile, and the terrible conflict of the Maccabean kingdom. The chances of him having any property 90 miles away from Nazareth (at least 3 days journey for a man) is ridiculous. And the census was for tax on property. Why take Mary on a 4day journey (remember she was heavily pregnant) down a rough road camping on the roadside, cooking on the roadside, ablutions on the roadside when the Jews were sympathetic to women. They were excused travelling while pregnant and until the baby was weaned. Even excused from travelling to the Passover. How many people bother to think of this journey in terms of the conditions of the time. Joseph was a 'wage earner'. This trip would cost him 6 weeks wages/earnings if Jesus were born in Bethlehem because there would be certain Jewish procedures to follow including Mary's cleansing. Luke allows for that in his narrative and sends them back after these procedures to Nazareth. That was about 6 weeks after Jesus birth. There they remain while Jesus grows up. There is nothing in scripture to send Jesus to Egypt. Only the Christian addition of Jesus to Hosea 11:1. In doing that they immediately assign the rest of the chapter to Jesus - though they won't admit it. One verse out of context makes the Bible open to any interpretation. Either Jesus fulfilled the conditions of the whole chapter or none at all.
    Where was David born? We don't even know he existed apart from a phrase on a piece of stone.If he did it was only as a tribal leader. His suggested life story doesn't fit with the time or background. He was simply made a Hero the Hebrews needed.
    Try this article by a Jewish woman. Remember it's not necessarily true but a Jewish way of thinking.

    Matthew tries to give us Jesus divinity in his story. Paul relates it to Jesus supposed resurrection. (Romans 1).

    If it's a matter of believing contradictions to maintain one's faithful I'd rather look to something straight forward
     
  7. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Here's an interesting point to follow my last post. Roman censuses were for taxes on property owned. This included buildings, land and all 'assets' ( including slaves).

    David is recorded as having 20 sons that we know of. David is 1000/900 years in the past. By the time of Jesus that family would have grown to tens of thousands - even into hundreds of thousands knowing the large families of the time - of people 'of the house and lineage of David'. All owning property In Bethlehem? Archeaology shows Bethlehem as a small town. According to Luke's theory it should have been a large city.
    That many descending on Bethlehem? No wonder there was no room at the Inn. An Inn which probably didn't exist owing to Jewish hospitality customs.
     
  8. Mitt Ryan

    Mitt Ryan Well-Known Member

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    From the moment of conception when the mother's egg and the father's sperm come together, God is forming a human being that has a soul.

    Let me present Scripture from Psalm 139 which is a Psalm from David who is referring to himself inside his mother's womb, he is essentially praising God. This Psalm illustrates personhood begins at conception.

    We Read in Scripture:

    13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
    I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
    You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
    You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
    Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
    The days of my life all prepared.
    before I’d even lived one day.
    Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
    God, I’ll never comprehend them! Psalm 139:13-17 MSG

    There is not any explicit teaching from the Bible on whether animals/pets have souls or whether they will be in heaven.

    But the primary difference between us humans and animals is that we were made in the image and likeness of God, while animals are not.

    No, sorry but you're wrong edna. Obviously, you must have misinterpreted Scripture somewhere. The church has always been against abortion and so it has always been pro-life.

    The Bible considers a fetus to be an unborn child that God is forming from the moment of conception a human being. So it doesn't matter what our human laws says or how socially or politically acceptable abortion is. God's law always takes precedence.

    And so, when a mother decides to abort her child, she is essentially making a decision to end another person's life, and that has always been the definition of murder.

    In the Psalm 139, David is referring to himself as a person in his mother's womb. Verse 13, he says, "Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb."

    Then in Verse 16, he says, "Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day."

    David is saying that God had all of his days planned out for him while he was still in his mother's womb. Again, this evidence points to personhood beginning at conception, rather than at the moment of birth.

    Also, we read in Scripture that God had a similar plan for the prophet Jeremiah.

    We Read in Scripture:

    5 “Before I shaped you in the womb,
    I knew all about you.
    Before you saw the light of day,
    I had holy plans for you:
    A prophet to the nations—
    that’s what I had in mind for you.” Jeremiah 1:5 MSG

    God loves all the little fetuses.


    Now a heavenly beautiful song to enjoy..."Too Much Heaven"




    Ok thanks JET and edna for your posts.
     
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  9. edna kawabata

    edna kawabata Well-Known Member

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    So when do you think the soul enters the body if not with the first breath and leaves with last?
     
  10. JET3534

    JET3534 Well-Known Member

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    As many as 15 million sperm cells in a single ejaculation. All tracked in real time by an invisible and undetectable God who instantly implants an invisible and undetectable soul when one of these sperm cells penetrates an egg?
     
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  11. Mitt Ryan

    Mitt Ryan Well-Known Member

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    No, sorry trev, it is not an allegory, nor was it adapted from the story of Oannes. But this story of Oannes actually serves as a corroboration of the Jonah story. You like to say you have background info, well I too have background info that is in my view highly credible.

    I got background info to share that essentially refutes your statements above and gives credence to what is written in the Bible as it pertains to the story of Jonah.

    It answers the question: Was Jonah truly swallowed by a whale?

    The book of Jonah recounts the story of a disobedient prophet who, upon being swallowed by a whale (or a “great fish”) and vomited upon the shore, reluctantly led the reprobate city of Nineveh to repentance. The Bible’s plain teaching is that, yes, Jonah was truly swallowed by a whale (or a great fish).
    The biblical account of Jonah is often criticized by skeptics because of its miraculous content. These miracles include the following events:

    • A storm is summoned and dissipated by God (1:4–16).
    • A massive fish swallows the prophet after he is thrown into the sea by his ship’s crew (1:17).
    • Jonah survives in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights—or he dies and is resurrected, depending on how you interpret the text (1:17).
    • The fish vomits Jonah upon the shore at God’s command (2:10).
    • A gourd is appointed by God to grow rapidly in order to provide Jonah with shade (4:6).
    • A worm is appointed by God to attack and wither the gourd (4:7).
    • A scorching wind is summoned by God to discomfort Jonah [4:8]

    God’s use of a whale or great fish as Jonah’s mode of transportation was sure to capture Nineveh’s attention, given the prominence of Dagon worship in that particular area of the ancient world. Dagon was a fish-god who enjoyed popularity among the pantheons of Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean coast. He is mentioned several times in the Bible in relation to the Philistines (Judges 16:23–24; 1 Samuel 5:1–7; 1 Chronicles 10:8–12). Images of Dagon have been found in palaces and temples in Nineveh and throughout the region. In some cases he was represented as a man wearing a fish. In others he was part man, part fish—a merman, of sorts.

    Orientalist Henry Clay Trumbull observes: “What better heralding, as a divinely sent messenger to Nineveh, could Jonah have had, than to be thrown up out of the mouth of a great fish, in the presence of witnesses, say on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish-god was a favorite object of worship? Such an incident would have inevitably aroused the mercurial nature of Oriental observers, so that a multitude would be ready to follow the seemingly new avatar of the fish-god, proclaiming the story of his uprising from the sea, as he went on his mission to the city where the fish-god had its very centre of worship” (“Jonah in Nineveh,” Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 2, No.1, 1892, p. 56).

    Some scholars have speculated that Jonah’s appearance, bleached white from the action of the fish’s digestive acids, would have been of great help to his cause. It could be that the Ninevites would have been greeted by a man whose skin, hair, and clothes were bleached ghostly white—a man accompanied by a crowd of frenetic followers, many who had witnessed him being vomited upon the shore by a great fish. Given the piscine nature of Jonah’s arrival, Nineveh’s repentance follows from a logical progression.

    Apart from the Bible, there is no conclusive historical proof that Jonah was ever swallowed by a fish and lived to tell about it; however, there is some provocative corroboratory evidence. In the third century BC, a Babylonian priest/historian named Berosus wrote of a mythical creature named Oannes who, according to Berosus, emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to men. Scholars generally identify this mysterious fish-man as an avatar of the Babylonian water-god Ea (also known as Enki). The curious thing about Berosus’ account is the name he used: Oannes.

    Berosus wrote in Greek during the Hellenistic Period. Oannes is just a single letter removed from the Greek name Ioannes, which happens to be used in the Greek New Testament for Jonah. As for the I being dropped from Ioannes, Professor Trumbull writes, “In the Assyrian inscriptions the J of foreign words becomes I, or disappears altogether; hence Joannes, as the Greek representative of Jona, would appear in Assyrian either as Ioannes or as Oannes” [ibid., p. 58]

    Nineveh was an Assyrian city. What this essentially means is that Berosus wrote of a fish-man named Jonah who emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to man—a remarkable corroboration of the Hebrew account.

    Berosus claimed to have relied upon official Babylonian sources for his information. Nineveh was conquered by the Babylonians under King Nabopolassar in 612 BC, more than 300 years before Berosus. It is quite conceivable that record of Jonah’s success in Nineveh was preserved in the writings available to Berosus. If so, it appears that Jonah was deified and mythologized over a period of three centuries, first by the Assyrians, who no doubt associated him with their fish-god, Dagon, and then by the Babylonians, who appear to have hybridized him with their own water-god, Ea.

    Jonah was not an imaginary figure invented to play the part of a disobedient prophet, swallowed by a fish. He was part of Israel’s prophetic history. Jonah appears in the chronicles of Israel as the prophet who predicted Jeroboam II’s military successes against Syria (2 Kings 14:25). He is said to be the son of Amittai (cf. Jonah 1:1) from the town of Gath-hepher in lower Galilee. Flavius Josephus reiterates these details in his Antiquities of the Jews (chapter 10, paragraph 2).

    The city of Nineveh was rediscovered after more than 2,500 years of obscurity. It is now believed to have been the largest city in the world at the time of its demise (see Tertius Chandler’s Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: An Historical Census). According to Sir Austen Henry Layard, who chronicled the rediscovery of Nineveh, the circumference of Greater Nineveh was “exactly three days’ journey,” as recorded in Jonah 3:3 (A Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh, New York: J. C. Derby, 1854, p. 314). Prior to its rediscovery, skeptics scoffed at the possibility that so large a city could have existed in the ancient world. In fact, some skeptics denied the existence of Nineveh altogether. Its rediscovery in the mid-1800s proved to be a remarkable vindication for the Bible, which mentions Nineveh by name eighteen times and dedicates two entire books (Jonah and Nahum) to its fate.

    It is interesting to note where the lost city of Nineveh was rediscovered. It was found buried beneath a pair of tells in the vicinity of Mosul in modern-day Iraq. These mounds are known by their local names, Kuyunjik and Nabi Yunus. Nabi Yunus happens to be Arabic for “the prophet Jonah.”

    As for the whale or great fish that swallowed Jonah, the Bible doesn’t specify what sort of marine animal it was. The Hebrew phrase used in the Old Testament, gadowl dag, literally means “great fish.” The Greek used in the New Testament is këtos, which simply means “sea creature.” There are at least two species of Mediterranean marine life that are able to swallow a man whole. These are the cachalot (also known as the sperm whale) and the white shark. Both creatures are known to prowl the Mediterranean and have been known to sailors since antiquity. Aristotle described both species in his fourth-century-BC Historia Animalium.

    Skeptics scoff at the miracles described in the book of Jonah as if there were no mechanism by which such events could occur. That is their bias. We are inclined, however, to believe that there is One who is capable of manipulating natural phenomena in such supernatural ways. We believe that He is the Creator of the natural realm and is not, therefore, circumscribed by it. We believe God sent Jonah to Nineveh to bring about their repentance and that, in the process, Jonah was swallowed by a whale or great fish.

    Jesus spoke of Jonah’s ordeal as a real historical event. He used it as a typological metaphor for His own crucifixion and resurrection: “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here” (Matthew 12:40–41.

    The evidence is such that any Christian should have confidence to believe that Jonah was truly swallowed by a whale, and any skeptic should think twice before dismissing the story of Jonah as a fairy tale.

    https://www.gotquestions.org/Jonah-whale.html

    Ok thanks trev for your post, did you find my background info as thorough as it was, highly credible? Well anyway for me, I found it to be an explanation very thorough, so it was very convincing and highly credible.
     
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  12. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    'The Bible considers. The Bible says. We read in scripture' . If the Bible says it it must be true.

    We have no proof that David lived. One Psalm is attributed to an imaginary Moses and others names in the imaginary story of David. The psalms have been 'attributed' to various people by the Babylonian Talmud
    6th century CE. Earlier the Midrash Tehellim had a slightly different version. Although the Psalms have been traditionally associated with David, for scholars today the question of the origin of individual psalms is more difficult and often unclear.
    Judaism and the religion of Ugarit share much similarities and often share ceremonies and similar psalms.
     
  13. Injeun

    Injeun Well-Known Member

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    Are you suggesting that it's a miracle that something that never even happened could have such an impact on the world, even two thousand years later? Is it evil to counsel to love, forgive, repent, and worship God? Would it be more wise to worship our vices and our own creations?

    Who are we and what is our greatness if we are subjects of death. Is death our God? If so, then why do we live? Is mankind and are all living things an aberrant mockery of the rule. Of life and death, which is greater that we spring up in defiance like a living well.

    Death pulls us down, while hope lifts us up, and we are carved away to excellence. But to what end if not a nether thing and higher purpose. So if neither our living nor our dying is God. Then our living and our dying must be in God. And we are his seed. So may then the whole earth sing to him.

    Is it an insult to our dignity to worship God? If he has put away his glory and dignity, going below all things for our retrieval, and suffering even every form of mockery and death to that end. Then where is our shame in worshipping that personage who has already done the same labor by putting away his majesty and place. He asks for no more than he has given, which is his all. Have we not a common cause? Is he not there at our every bruise, cut, bleeding and stumble, to take our hand and see us through to the end as his Father did with him, if we are so inclined to follow.

    And what is this great, unattainable, monumental task to which we are called but to merely love, repent, forgive, and put our trust in Jesus Christ who has established the way. We are his work and glory. And in the end he gives to us ourselves, or what we together have made of ourselves.
     
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  14. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So I was right. Jonah didn't exist.

    Apart from the Bible, there is no conclusive historical proof that Jonah was ever swallowed by a fish and lived to tell about it; however, there is some provocative corroboratory evidence. In the third century BC, a Babylonian priest/historian named Berosus wrote of a mythical creature named Oannes who, according to Berosus, emerged from the sea to give divine wisdom to men. Scholars generally identify this mysterious fish-man as an avatar of the Babylonian water-god Ea (also known as Enki). The curious thing about Berosus’ account is the name he used: Oannes.

    .If the story was known by Berosus and it was Enki/oannes the story was copied. Enki /Oannes was known as far back as the creation story in Babylon.

    The agreed facts are that Berossus wrote his Babyloniaca in three books, and that genuine excerpts are quoted in Josephus and Eusebius, though these may not be the ipsissima verba of the author, having perhaps been taken from some sort of digest made by Alexander Polyhistor. The original work seems to have had a remarkably limited circulation in antiquity. These excerpts deal with mythology, legend and history relevant to the Old Testament.

    The mound Nabi Yunus was named so by Islam as they name everything with Islamic names. There is no suggestion that this mound was so named 2500 years ago. For many centuries Tell Nebi Yūnus, the smaller mound of Nineveh, has been revered as the burial place of the prophet Jonah. This Islamic shrine, at one time part of a Christian monastery but now contained within a mosque, and the surrounding village, now a suburb of Mosul, have hitherto restricted archaeological activities on this site
    Kuyunjik is arabic for sheep.

    Skeptics scoff at the miracles described in the book of Jonah as if there were no mechanism by which such events could occur. That is their bias. We are inclined, however, to believe that there is One who is capable of manipulating natural phenomena in such supernatural ways. We believe that He is the Creator of the natural realm and is not, therefore, circumscribed by it. We believe God sent Jonah to Nineveh to bring about their repentance and that, in the process, Jonah was swallowed by a whale or great fish

    And survived 3 days. Then he was spewed out and made his way to Nineveh. The great fish having gone round Africa in 3 days. Jesus simply quoted Jonah because this was what he had been taught from an early age. Not because it was true. Christians and Muslims are taught what is true and what to believe. It's called indoctrination.

    Belief v reality.

    You neednt have gone to all that trouble Mitt of choosing what suits your belief. You should look around and see the opposition. A balanced view prevents wrong conclusions.

    Look up the answers for my previous questions.
     
  15. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Do you think then that Mohammed had all those visits from Gabriel? I don't, yet look at the Muslim world today. People can be fooled into believing anything if they really want something. How about modern sects built on visions?

    It's certainly not evil to forgive and love. But that is not confined to the religious. We atheists can find compassion, forgiveness etc. I've had to in my life.

    As to putting our trust in a supreme being, other peoples put their trust in other gods. Neither your god or theirs has ever shown themselves. They will claim similar experiences as yours. Who is right? Everyone has similar experiences in life. How we interpret those experiences will depend on what we desire, often subconsciously. I firmly believe we have evolved - not been created.

    You put your trust in believing what the Bible says - even with the experience you had. Yet the Bible has been proven unreliable in many things. Christianity is failing because it cannot trust the Bible or what has been indictriinated down the centuries. Islam i progressing by using the tactics Christianity used in it first millenia. Physical and mental enforcement.
     
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  16. JET3534

    JET3534 Well-Known Member

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    With both religions no empirical evidence is presented for supernatural claims.
     
  17. JET3534

    JET3534 Well-Known Member

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    Here you go again claiming that because there is some accurate mention of geography in the Bible supernatural claims in the Bible must be true. You use the same "logic" that proves the wizzard of Oz is real because Kansas is real. You consistantly fail to produce any empirical evidence of supernatural claims. All of your scripture regarding the supernatural are circular logic claiming your scripture is the word of God because it says so. I am reminded of the Peter Sellers Pink Panther movie where Inspector Clouseau tells his boss the lookout in a bank robbery was blind. When Clouseau is asked how he knew the man was blind his response is, "he said he was blind." Of course the man was not blind.

    Ever consider that when the truth of the universe was revealed to Bronze Age goat herders, they were provided zero knowledge of technology? Wonder why? lol

    You say that skeptics scoff, whereas anyone with critical thinking would expect empirical evidence to support supernatural claims.
     
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  18. Jolly Penguin

    Jolly Penguin Well-Known Member

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    God isn't who threatens us with anything. Christians are. I have zero concern about your God doing nasty things. It is you who I fear doing nasty things in the name of your God.
     
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  19. JET3534

    JET3534 Well-Known Member

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    Why did God create the polio virus?
     
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  20. The Wyrd of Gawd

    The Wyrd of Gawd Well-Known Member

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    Why did God create the polio virus? So that the believers could demonstrate their faith by anointing the afflicted person with oil and lay their hands on him and pray and the person will recover.

    It says so in Mark 16:17-18 (CEB) "17 These signs will be associated with those who believe: they will throw out demons in my name. They will speak in new languages. 18 They will pick up snakes with their hands. If they drink anything poisonous, it will not hurt them. They will place their hands on the sick, and they will get well.”

    &
    James 5:14-15 (CEB) = "14 If any of you are sick, they should call for the elders of the church, and the elders should pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Prayer that comes from faith will heal the sick, for the Lord will restore them to health. And if they have sinned, they will be forgiven."

    You can really save on medical bills if you do that. And when it works it will prove that the biblical God is real and that you will have eternal life in heaven. I don't know why the Pope is always getting sick when the cardinals can easily cure him with some oil and prayer.
     
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  21. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Mitt didn't bother to consider what was actually being said in the article. But there you go.
     
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  22. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Cause without pain... there is no pleasure ... without suffering .. no joy .. without darkness .. no light .. no chains no freedom .. no Sinner no Saint .. No Good without Evil .. no bi without sexual .. no positive without negative .. just a whole lot of nothing ..

    And now you understand at least something .. about the mind of God .. so in a world of free will .. do you choose something or nothing.. which brings us to the "I AM" moment in history .. or better put by good friend Monty "I Drink therefor I Am" .. as did Moses at the burning Bush .. drunk from the "Fire of the Lord" he was :)

    small digression from the "I AM" moment there .. my apologies .. is important distinction this one .. think they developed a science .. or rather named a science after it did they not "eshatology" pops into head .. something like that ... the study of the beginning or some such thing or rather .. "The Study of Being" .. now is comming to me .. har har har
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2023
  23. Mitt Ryan

    Mitt Ryan Well-Known Member

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    First let me present the definitions of the words atheism and faith below:

    Nope, that's not the definition. Ironically though, even if we use your manipulated definition, it still includes faith/belief in atheism, for it is a special kind of faith/belief, for it distinguishes itself among all the other myriads of different belief systems known to mankind. We can say each faith is a special kind of faith of their own.

    But anyway, the definition of 2 b (1) fits perfect for atheism.

    It states: firm belief in something for which there is no proof.

    Atheism believes God does not exist for which there is no proof.

    Definition 3 states: something that is believed especially with strong conviction.

    Well, that could of course include atheists who have a strong conviction that God doesn't exist.

    Yep, that's what atheists do just like theists, they hold fast to an idea. For the atheists the idea that God doesn't exist.

    Atheism is also faith because it is also a belief that is a deep conviction or a strong conviction to which adherents hold fast.

    Atheism is a belief that God does not exist, without providing any proof of it and so one needs faith to believe in something where there is no proof. So therefore, atheism is indeed a belief, and it is indeed a faith.

    Atheism believes God doesn't exist, so it's an idea, are you now saying atheism is an absence of faith and belief in the idea that God doesn't exist?...lol

    But atheism has itself a lack of convincing evidence that God doesn't exist, and so a person could say they have an absence of faith in atheism due to a lack of convincing evidence provided by atheism...lol

    No, you're wrong because atheism is a faith, it's just that you and others weren't aware of it all this time...lol

    The definition of atheism in 1b states: a philosophical or religious position characterized by disbelief in the existence of a god or any gods.

    So, atheists are philosophical religious people...lol

    But anyhoot I'm going to now present what I presented last Dec just for you Kode. What you're about to read will make you pause and think for a moment or two after you're done reading it and perhaps come to the realization that you've been wrong all this time but now you've finally been awakened to the truth and nothing but the truth.

    Here is some soothing music to enjoy after reading a long-drawn-out post by me to calm any nerves if any had been frayed. Just image yourself in Moscow at midnight.




    Ok thanks Kode for your post, I hope you now realize that atheism is indeed a religion. If you still don't believe it, go ask the jolly good fella he knows it is, he was educated on koko's thread regarding the religion of atheism.
     
  24. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    You’re having trouble reading I see.

    Right. There is no proof of god. You got that right.

    Other than that and in addition to that, your statements contradict each other and are horribly confused, which is common to religious fanatics, too. According to your statements belief=no belief.

    You clearly have nothing to offer if you only offer such confusion. Bye.
     
  25. trevorw2539

    trevorw2539 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Mitt just brings up old arguments. The original meaning of atheism is lack of belief in a god. In Mitts argument lack of belief in the sun is a religion. Lack of belief in anything is a religion. So we are all religious, whether we like it or not.
     
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  26. Injeun

    Injeun Well-Known Member

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    Whatever course Jonah took, he still delivered his Gods message. And whether God spoke to Job from a whirlwind, or he discerned Gods voice in the furious round and round debate with the Priests who had come to sit with him in his misery. The message was delivered.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2023
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