Atheists... Your life is pointless

It's obvious that Pookie's cooky.

I wish I could say it was simple. But I have never been so challenged in my life. I do a lot of reading and studying, trying to understand how God wants me to witness to the people in my life. I try and fail over and over. But I wouldn't go back to the self centered life I used to live for anything.

Nah; I disagree. You have chosen the simplistic path, one in which the ultimate answers are provided for you by some nebulous book and things that may or may not have happened long ago.

It's an abandonment of the search for truth, and to me that is very sad. Instead, you choose to focus on how to convince others to give up the search for answers as well. Double sad.

Cycloptichorn

But you are living a self centered life in this you are trying to convince others that your ways are better.

I believe there is ample evidence for a creator.

And from the creation of the Jewish state many innocent Palestinian families were kicked off their land (which had been theirs for millenia) and are now summarily killed by Israeli forces everyday (that's Ok though, they have a different God. Which is why you hear nothing of it on CNN). Was that part of God's plan? Or is it all in fact just human history, made by humans without a grand design?



One. He has to do one miracle. He hasn't actually even done one yet, has he? Tell me one. If you can, I'll convert right now.

Hey, Cyclo, how come we are using the very same words?

You know what they say about Great minds.

Btw, I'm strongly considering traveling to France next year. A friend of mine just returned from a trip to Paris and the south coast and he's damn near convinced me to go.

Cycloptichorn

Not that you needed to be convinced, you were thinking of doing so already.

You will be welcome.

Your own happiness of course...... Can I infer from that, that you put yourself first ?
God wants us to put Him first, then other people, then ourselves. That keeps the focus off ourselves and discourages the sinful emotions of : hatred, self-pity, and anxiety. The ones that cause so much trouble in the world.
I have just started reading in earnest the Old Testament and I am finding that the vengeance of God usually came after His people turned away from Him and started worshipping false gods, sacrificing their babies to them on altars and engaging in the nastiest debaucheries imaginable. I am not God but I can imagine that I would have been extremely grieved by this.

I too live my life for the now, like right now with you on this blog.
But what we do now is so important and tied to our time in eternity ahead.

You are entitled to your opinion of course

I struggle daily with being self centered. It is a normal thing to do. But the last thing Christ said to His disciples was to: 'Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.'
I am trying to be obedient.........Now I have said another word that will set off a firestorm of replies. Obedience is so contrary to the thinking of the Radical Individualism of the world today. We rise up and say " I will not obey"
that is your choice. Obey your own desires though.......right?

If the holy springs in Lourdes could heal amputees, and if the Catholic Church could demonstrate it to independent doctors under laboratory conditions, that would be enough of a miracle to get my attention.

I suppose the general rule would be the one David Hume laid down in his Essay on Human Human Understanding: An event counts as a miracle if, and only if, it is so well documented that it would be an even greater miracle if the event hadn't happened, given the documentation.

No, desires have to obey an individual set of values, which have nothing to do with blindly following those set by some fairy book.

But obviously, living on his own, with personal morals, is not for the weak..

To answer that you would have to read the story of Abraham and Sarah and their two sons , Ishmael and Isaac. Then you might understand how the Arabs and Jews came to be such enemies. Then you would have to read the story of Moses and how he and Aaron were brought to the land in question and given it by the Lord. I see these events from a different perspective than you. Which I got from reading the Bible. We will never agree anytime soon.

He raised Lazarus from the dead. That's one. Are you converted? Not likely. I assume you meant that He would have to do one right in front of your eyes?
You would be able to explain away any miracle that God could ever do. Some people just do not want to believe. I agree it is difficult to be the object of mockery and disdain, but whatever, I have thick skin and I don't take it personally.

Do you have any evidence of this?

No?

Then no, people aren't likely to be converted. Surely you understand that.

Cycloptichorn

So tell me , where exactly did your morals come from?

Says who?

Raises hand, and answers the question.

We learn our morals from learning what is right and wrong. Morals comes from how one treats other humans, not from religion. If that were so that morals came from religion, why is it that many of the world's inhumanity have come from people of religion on countries with religion?

Why is the US with over 80% who believe in one religion or another has so much crime? Has religion made any difference? Show us evidence that it has.