Okay...let's see...where was I...

Oh! Well, you guess wrong.

I don't think so.

Primative people started religions because of their fears....and fears seem to be the prime motivation behind them....

...and you just seem to me to be frightened out of your wits.

I think you are afraid of the unknown; I think you are terrified of death; and I think you fear your god...

...and I think that is why you keep sucking up to it.

Oh! Well, you think wrong.

But, I'm glad you don't believe what you think!

I'm glad you are glad.

Being "glad" may relieve some of that fear driving you.

I believe you are glad that I'm glad.

No need for you to "believe" that. I offered the information that I was glad....and you can "guess" that I am glad from that info.

No need to disguise something as innocuous as that.

Save your pretenses...or beliefs, as you like to call them....for your god.

fascinating exchange

Hi snood. How's it goin'?

Frank is a master of logical rhetoric and, as you can see, it is nearly impossible to trounce him. But I keep doing it anyway because he just won't stay trounced. :wink:

Well, it's nice to finally know what your objective is on this topic as it is certainly not clear by reading your posts.

Cheese! No foolin' you guys!

Probably not cheese, more like Velveeta.

Hi Dys, how's the chronic puffin' these days?

hey snood, keep up the good works.

I love you poor boobs who are constantly claiming victory.

Every argument you've made in this thread....and the other threads in which you post...have been shown to be baloney. Your arguments are, in fact, pathetic. As I mentioned...we've had some theists in this forum who were able to put together a sustained and reasonable defense of theism. They had some defects....and those defects, when pointed out, showed their arguments to be losers.

But you have not even come close to reasonable arguments....and logic, to you, apparently is simply something that must be twisted in order to try to shoehorn some pet "belief" into it.

But as I have said in the past...you provide a laugh a minute....and for that we must be thankful.

Hey Dys.

Had dinner with Joe last night....then a bunch of us got together over at the Frying Pan.

It was a spectacular night on the Hudson....and we all had a wonderful time. Several pictures were taken....and I wouldn't be surprised to see them posted at some point today.

Frank this should make your brain spin...

This is in regard to the nature and character of the God of the Bible.
If the Bible were as it seems a book on holiness and virtue then it would seem that it is a book of authority. Yet it seems that when one adds up the actions of the God of the old testament we find a rather curious God. We find a God that borders on evil. Where one can somehow reason that God must have his reasons because God is God, or is he?

There was evil in paradise because Lucifer fell. Yet Lucifer had no power in Eden. The only power Lucifer had in Eden was the power to get Adam and Eve to doubt and disobey God. Lucifer could not control the world and he had no kingdoms. He had fallen from his throne in heaven. Lucifer had the power to use light to attract and then he would lie. He used the light to make the lie somehow seem genuine. He used the knowledge he had as the angel of light to corrupt the truth of God.

Once the devil achieved the goal of obtaining dominion and power over the earth he could "attempt" to bring an end to the prophecies of Genesis. When the devil took dominion over the earth from Adam and Eve, along with it came a curse, "the messiah"... and, God's plan of redemption.


The image of God.
Adam and Eve had the image of God and this was what gave them dominion. When all the creatures and the four winds looked upon Adam in his mountain and Eve in hers they perceived God. When Adam or Eve spoke the animals believed it was God whom has spoken. Adam and Eve would speak through the clouds and terrify the creatures. They set edicts and seasons and carved them into stone. Adam and Eve resembled God so much that one could know God from their appearance. They bore God's character and resemblance.

All the earth paid it's tribute to Adam and Eve due to the image of God within... The snake did grudgingly pay tribute to Adam and Eve but the snake was old and had once known the true God and he knew Adam and Eve were just impostors posing as the true God, yet the four winds did stand in abeyance to the couple. Adam and Eve knew they were fakes and this terrifying the animals was getting old. They were unaware of the amount of evil embodied within the snake. They trusted the snake because they did not perceive it could be evil. They did not know the dark angel imprisoned within it's form. God disguised the snake and hid it within the grass to slither away and stealth fully reveal it's venomous bite. It is the bite that poisons the soul. It captures captivity. The serpent becomes the image of God as the human soul is plunged into darkness.

Thus Adam and Eve could no longer distinguish between the voice of God or voice of the serpent. The serpent stood in the image of God and the world could not tell that the serpent was not God. For the serpent was adorned with the image of God.

The serpent once the prince of light was now the prince of darkness. Yet the prince of darkness used techniques that he learned as the prince of light. So he used the image of God to draw the people into wars and self defeat.

The true God used the nemesis (christ) of the serpent to attack the serpents evil plan. God used the hope of the people to see beyond the dark fallen angel to the truth within. Yet the truth was mixed with lies. The kings and many prophets were unable to distinguish the truth.

At first Adam had listened to God before his fall... So Adam remembered what God had taught him before the fall. After the fall Adam could sense the evil in the world so he tried to repent. But it was too late the evil had sewn it's seeds into the world. Adam only had the memory of the true God now totally obscured by the image of God. God told them to multiply and Adam and Eve taught the truths the true God had taught them to their offspring. Yet one son listened to the wind.

Until Christ God chose various means to empower humans to see through the counterfeit and discover...

All of these means were temporary and did not exactly address the problem. At times some achieved the ability to hear through the noise and listen to,

"The Still Small Voice".

More later...

Interesting thought process here, Rex. I rather like the way your mind is working right now.

One thing that came to mind while reading your piece was...

....in a sense, by reacting the way the god of the Bible did to what Adam and Eve did....

...he handed Satan a great victory.

Prior to the terrible punishment...and banishment...all humans were "saved." After the puishment...Satan got permission to try to pervert as many souls as possible. (And according to the theists, is doing quite well at that!)

So...the god of the Bible put some people into jeopardy....without the knowledge to avoid the pitfalls....and with incredible temptation in the form of The Great Tempter....

...and then goes ballistic and sets up humanity for encounters with Satan and all the rest.

Lucifer won the war....right there in the first few verses of the first book of the Bible....and the victory was handed him on a silver plater by the god of the Bible.

The allegory of Eden...gets more and more stupid...the more one considers it.

Adam and Eve basically gave the devil, the true God's power of attorney...

God was powerless over Adam and Eve's free will decision... Yet, Adam and Eve would later be powerless to stop the free will decision of Jesus Christ.

This is why Jesus Christ is now, "the image of God".

Is the image of God, God?

This is profitable spiritual learning privy only to the Bible...

Ro 8:29
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Ro 1:23
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

1Co 15:49
And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

2Co 3:18
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Col 3:10
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Re 15:2
And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

Peace with God...

Job 4:12-17

12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?

I saw the image of God used to conceal an evil intent...