Atheists... Your life is pointless

And how can you possibly know you are not deluding yourself?

Your question is: Why am I convinced that IF I WERE GOD I and IF I WANTED TO MAKE MYSELF KNOW...that I could do a better job of making myself known than the god you worship has done.

or we will be wasting each other's time.

If you were convinced that you were thinking the above...Do you think you would know if you are deluded in your own thinking? Or would you say there is no way for you to know if you are deluded in your own thinking? If you would say that you think you would be able to know, how would you self explain that you think you would be able to know you are deluded?

Yup. I'd ask what ambrosia and nectar taste like.

And then ask why he chose a bull for an Earthly form.

Re: Frank Apisa (Post 5294415)
Do you know what you would ask God if you could?

Quote:
Yup. I'd ask what ambrosia and nectar taste like.

Are you saying that you are convinced you would ask him to explain one answer for your satisfaction, and it could be any single question?

Quote:
And then ask why he chose a bull for an Earthly form.

Are you saying that you are convinced that what Christians call "God" is actually what Christians call "the Devil"?

Not only would I consider that I might be deluding myself...I am sure that almost any psychologist or psychiatrist I consulted would suggest that the probability that I were deluding myself IS MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH greater than that I the conversation was real. (Feel free to add as many more "much's" as you want.)

So...have you considered that you might be deluding yourself in thinking that you have been having conversations with the GOD that made this entire universe?

No, Spade. Now I am demanding some respect from you.

You asked a question (three actually) and I answered. Let's discuss the response and any other reasons for that question...then we move on to others.

OK...so you are saying that you are convinced that anyone who believes in God is someone that is "mentally sick"?

At no point have I suggested mental illness.

From this point until you finally show respect for me, I will take only your first question when you offer a series.

Have you considered that you might be deluding yourself in thinking that you have been having conversations with the GOD that made this entire universe?

From this point until you finally show respect for me, I will take only your first question when you offer a series.

"Do you think the church itself never chosen, then?"

"_Never_ is a black word. But yes, in the _never_ of conversation, which means _not_ _very_ _often_, I do think it. For what is to be done in the church? Men love to distinguish themselves, and in either of the other lines distinction may be gained, but not in the church. A clergyman is nothing."

"The _nothing_ of conversation has its gradations, I hope, as well as the _never_. A clergyman cannot be high in state or fashion. He must not head mobs, or set the tone in dress. But I cannot call that situation nothing which has the charge of all that is of the first importance to mankind, individually or collectively considered, temporally and eternally, which has the guardianship of religion and morals, and consequently of the manners which result from their influence. No one here can call the _office_ nothing. If the man who holds it is so, it is by the neglect of his duty, by foregoing its just importance, and stepping out of his place to appear what he ought not to appear."

"_You_ assign greater consequence to the clergyman than one has been used to hear given, or than I can quite comprehend. One does not see much of this influence and importance in society, and how can it be acquired where they are so seldom seen themselves? How can two sermons a week, even supposing them worth hearing, supposing the preacher to have the sense to prefer Blair's to his own, do all that you speak of? govern the conduct and fashion the manners of a large congregation for the rest of the week? One scarcely sees a clergyman out of his pulpit."

"_You_ are speaking of London, _I_ am speaking of the nation at large."

"The metropolis, I imagine, is a pretty fair sample of the rest."

"Not, I should hope, of the proportion of virtue to vice throughout the kingdom. We do not look in great cities for our best morality. It is not there that respectable people of any denomination can do most good; and it certainly is not there that the influence of the clergy can be most felt. A fine preacher is followed and admired; but it is not in fine preaching only that a good clergyman will be useful in his parish and his neighbourhood, where the parish and neighbourhood are of a size capable of knowing his private character, and observing his general conduct, which in London can rarely be the case. The clergy are lost there in the crowds of their parishioners. They are known to the largest part only as preachers. And with regard to their influencing public manners, Miss Crawford must not misunderstand me, or suppose I mean to call them the arbiters of good-breeding, the regulators of refinement and courtesy, the masters of the ceremonies of life. The _manners_ I speak of might rather be called _conduct_, perhaps, the result of good principles; the effect, in short, of those doctrines which it is their duty to teach and recommend; and it will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation."

"Certainly," said Fanny, with gentle earnestness.

You have said things about people who believe there's a God and people who believe there is no God which constitute accusations of mental illness. Many times. You might not have used the term "mentally ill" but that means nothing.

It does not matter who is deluded. What matters are the rules of conduct which the delusion inspires. And you reject some of those rules. Very important ones. So you reject the delusion which inspires them. And it is so, so commonplace to do that. So much so it is vulgar. And it insults our intelligence that you think we don't know what it is you are up to.

Spade rejects some of the rules as well.

If I understand your question the way I think you are asking it, or would like me to answer it...from my own perspectives...

The _manners_ I speak of might rather be called _conduct_, perhaps, the result of good principles; the effect, in short, of those doctrines which it is their duty to teach and recommend; and it will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation."

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