Is this your thread Englishmajor?
exactly. but they all dropped out of school in third grade, so what to do?
No. Nor have I insinuated that. You did.
Englishmajor and C.I. certainly are busy stirring up their brand of stimulating discussion, huh?
All they need now is their guru drummajor Apisa to come pick up their wretched drumbeat for them.
It's funny - but uniform throughout every one of these threads (some started by them, most not) that they foul with their self-centered nastiness against any kind of faith or belief, they have a very evident blind spot that prevents them from seeing that they are the source of all the negative contention. Englishmajor thinks she's being persecuted by Christians. Apisa thinks he has some kind of twisted mission to convert everyone to Agnosticism. C.I. thinks - er, well I'm sure he thinks something; whatever it is isn't evident except for he will agree very eagerly with anyone railing against persons of faith.
I think the forum and the whole world would be better off without their kind of "intellect". Just my opinion.
cicerone imposter wrote:Why not? If he's the grand mover of this planet, it would seem, at least to christians, that the only answer is god. He created this planet and all its blemishes like storms, huricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, landslides, and "everything."
Either he made everything or he made nothing. I go for nothing.
Do not presume for Christians. You have enough trouble presuming for yourself.
Snood, you are very perceptive :-)
englishmajor wrote:I am always amused at the presumption that Christians think they know what God thinks.
What fools these mortals be........(no, it's not from the Bible, but it applies).
I think God/energy/whatever has better things to do than sit around and listen to human beings whinings/beggings/pleadings. I think he created the universe and then went off to amuse himself elsewhere. I mean, wouldn't you be bored to death watching us kill each other century after century?
I am always amused at the presumption of some non-believers thinking that they know what Christians, and indeed God, think.
englishmajor wrote:God Bless America!
Another complete presumption! Why would God bless one part of His creation over another? Why would he not bless the Muslims, etc, as well?
I say, God Bless America
Because No One Else Will
Do you always take a figure of speech and turn it around to suit your own misled agenda? God blesses all those who know Him and follow Him. It is through His grace that we exist at all.
englishmajor wrote:thanks, c.i. at least there is someone here with a brain. watch out! You'll get labeled! I'm labeled as 'nasty' (after they derided me for labeling) because I don't agree with them. Buncha hypocrites.
Funny, you don't write like an English major.
Most people have a brain. Some of us even know how to use it. Do you like to label everything and have it pigeon holed? Do you like to lump everyone into your own little idea of labels? Don't you agree that nasty is a mild label for someone who spouts vile adjectives at innocent posters who are trying to have an intelligent discussion? Perhaps you are too caught up in the mudslinging to see clearly.
englishmajor wrote:exactly. but they all dropped out of school in third grade, so what to do?
You are an adult, right? Just asking.
...and not presently locked up or on medication for schizophrenia, right? Just asking...
If ya'll could stop sniping, please, and chew on this for a minute or two.
Seeking the hope.
It is an old fiction, far older than any of the merely two thousand year old texts cited here, older than the Upanishads, older than the scripts of Ur, or even the bison/bear altars of the caves of present day France. The fiction has remained the same, only the names of the gods and spirits have been changed. For 30,000 years, give or take a millennium or two, humans have embraced the hope that there is something more than Nature and they have looked for signs of it everywhere.
Shamans stared at beans and smoke streams, priests of the Aztec examined the entrails of birds and monkeys, witchers gazed through ambers at the world. From these and many others rituals and incantations they tried to find the thing beyond Nature, the thing that could perhaps make the bear come or make the bear go, could bring saving rain to parched fields or make a particular tribe invisible to their enemies. By some strokes, such things did occasionally happen and they ate well on bear and barley while their enemy passed by them and their tale has come down to us intact. We have not heard from the others who were eaten by their dried out fields, by either their enemies or the bear or both, so we stick to the fortuitous tale of hope delivered to us by the lucky ones.
Whole civilizations have been built upon this fiction, this hope of something existing beyond Nature and when, as happens often, bad things happen there is a struggle of rationality versus belief and we are preached to about notions of God's Will and Free Will, of the Almighty's powerlessness -a contradictory notion of immense proportions- and how, although we are just in praising the Lord for everything from a medical recovery to winning the lottery, we have only ourselves to blame when things do go bad. Some modern versions of the myth make it that we must suffer these setbacks in order to receive eternal life after our deaths, a distant and faint hope if I've ever heard one.
In the end, as it was in the beginning, there is only what there is. What there is is wonderful and fine and full of life and, when lived in as a thinking feeling human being, Nature, as full of dangers as it is, is not a place to hide behind a fiction, but a place to explore and understand and be alive.
When you put aside the fiction, you begin to live.
Joe(take a deep breath)Nation
englishmajor wrote:I am always amused at the presumption that Christians think they know what God thinks.
What fools these mortals be........(no, it's not from the Bible, but it applies).
I think God/energy/whatever has better things to do than sit around and listen to human beings whinings/beggings/pleadings. I think he created the universe and then went off to amuse himself elsewhere. I mean, wouldn't you be bored to death watching us kill each other century after century?
How is your opinion about what God
does any less presumptuous than the Christian's opinion about what God
thinks?
I
The difference is that those who have experienced God know with certainty that he exists. Those who have not experienced God, at least in a way that they recognized, may presume that God does not exist.
Some on both sides seem to resent when the other preaches its views on the matter. But it is understandable that those who have experienced God and know the blessings in that would like to share that with others. It is more difficult to understand how those who believe in the non existance of God are just as committed to spreading their belief.
to paraphrase Thomas Merton "if you can explain your religion, you don't understand your religion" I have always found this idea fascinating.
Good morning Everyone! How is everyone today! It's a beautiful day here and I hope it is for you also!
Foxfyre is so right! When you experience God in your life then you just know there is God. How can you explain something so awesome?
I know many do not understand. I wish there were a way that you could understand. I, as a Christian, want to share God because of the joy I have found with Him in my life and I want that for others.
It's in the behaving like a Christian and loving and being kind and forgiving that she show God to others.
I hope you all have a magnificent day!
Joe,
The only thing is, where is the hope? From that article, it seems there is no hope. Man has nothing to look forward to, nothing to live for, no hope.
Sad.
