(May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Drich Wrote:

(May 16, 2016 at 9:44 am)pocaracas Wrote: How do you search for something that doesn't exist?

seriously?!?!?
Do I need to make a video to explain to you that in order to declare something does not exist in a particular frame work one must have complete mastery/understanding of everything in that frame work? For instance I can only say that squid meat is nonexistent in a Big Mac If Indeed know that a big mac only contains to all Beef Patties Special sauce Lettuce Cheese and a sesame seed bun, and I know what is in the 'special sauce.' There can't be any unknowns if I state something does not exist.

Where you fools believe you have complete mastery and knowledge of the whole universe, in reality there is only educated guessing based on observations made from a singular point in time, and from a fixed point in space. It is From this limited universal view, you stake your claim that God can not exist.

Otherwise your foolish question should have been phrased "How do you search for the unknown/unknowable given out current 'scientific methods?' Rather you infer complete knowledge of time and Space and claim God can not exist.

Ah... i can't believe I missed this! Really... I haven't been talking about this god stuff in so long that I miss doing it!

You're right.... sorry for the imprecise language.
Try again:

How do you search for something that doesn't likely exist?

(May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Drich Wrote:

Quote:How do you search for an idea?

It depends on the Idea. It all starts with research. First isolate and identify those who claim to have contact or knowledge with what you are looking for and then explore methods of contact.

Should I follow every type of idea? Every claim of contact with any entity?
Should I explore every method of contact proposed by everyone who ever makes a claim of contact with any kind of entity?!
Sounds like I could be wasting my time on an infinity of bogus claims.

(May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Drich Wrote:

Quote:How do you search for dragons? and faeries? and wizards?

There you start with a definition.
Dragons can be identified as reptiles, plants, or even women. Fairies could include gay men, birds, and even a lost race of humanity. Wizards could be an Adj the describes something wonderful, to a frequently asked questions tab on a software package, to the Greek use of the word that describes a pharmacologist.

Again, inorder to take an objective look at what may seem as the fantastic requires grounding both parties into a set of definations that outline what is the pair is looking for.

Now obviously when you say God we both can agree your idea of it does not exist as you've no doubt tried to sumon your idea of a deity and it has left you flat. Naturally you being the center of the universe as YOU know it assume when I say God we mean the same deity you have already dispelled.

My point here in this thread, is we are not talking about the same thing. Meaning all you've done you whole life to disprove God does not apply as your "tinkerbell" is not nor does it have anything to do with the ancient race of humanity I've discovered.

Wait, what?!
Ancient race of humanity?!
YOU've discovered?!

Care to share?

(May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Drich Wrote:

Quote:How do you search for a god?

You explore the claims the God makes in his holy books then you talk to followers. See if you qualify for a claim then follow through with it.

I thought holy books were written by people, not gods.
The claims therein are claims by people.
Could these people have found a way to exploit some psychological pathway to belief, without any requirement for a substantiation of that which is believed in?

(May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Drich Wrote:

Quote:Assume such a thing exists and then voilá, you're convinced it does.

Assume that what believers do and voila' you can shut your mind off to any unpleasant "thinking." perfect reasoning, huh?

Shut my mind off!?? Ah.... you're cute.
What happens if I'm right?

(May 16, 2016 at 3:31 pm)Drich Wrote:

Quote:I'm sure psychology is beyond your pay grade, but I'd invest in learning some about it.

As I am sure everything written here goes in one ear and out the other as it is not in youtube form, but still yet I give you the benfit of the doubt from time to time even though I know it is a waist of time.

Come now, Drich.... it's not a "waist" (or should it be waste?) of time.
It's all in good fun.

I am aware of how belief in the supernatural (and other beliefs) is just a psychological state.
I am aware of a few mechanisms to get there.
As such, I try to avoid falling prey to them. Thus far, I've been successful...

You, on the other hand, from my point of view, have fallen prey to one such mechanism. It's a common occurrence, nothing to be ashamed of.
As a believer, you automatically accept that the thing you believe in is true (duh!). And fail to understand (maybe not the best word... realize?) how the minds of those who do not believe work. You seem to think we're simpletons who just "refuse to open our minds and let the truth shine in".... but nothing could be farther from what's going on.

Confronted with the multitude of beliefs out there, how is anyone supposed to decide which one is representing the real divine, if any?
How about we just wait it out? Just let the real MC please stand up... until he does... best not assume he wants me to think he's in the crowd. If there is one MC and he's hiding, why should I go out and assume he is there?

IATIA Wrote:Come now, Drich.... it's not a "waist" (or should it be waste?) of time.
It's all in good fun.

Exactly. That's never a waist of time.

Hourglass figures are a waist of time.

I was gone for over a YEAR! And when I came back, I was so happy to see this stuff was still happening! lol, get em!

I think we're better off believing in ourselves.
"Just in case" was never good enough for me.
I don't see how the notion of being watched and judged on that level doesn't distort any sort of genuine and reciprocal morality. I can't reconcile a being with that much power and knowledge being solely "good."
It's a concept on the nature of existence that arose when we knew much less than we do now.
We still know next to nothing considering we have only observed and explored an amount of the known universe so small we can't fathom it.

Haha, so now Drich is claiming to have discovered an ancient race of humanity?

No, Drich, what you've done is invented an ad hoc story to overcome the cognitive dissonance of your own incoherent beliefs.

Yay?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

(May 13, 2016 at 4:35 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: You don't teach 'biblically based' Christianity, you teach Drich based self-idolatry.  You are so in love with your own vision of things that you can't possibly imagine yourself being wrong.  That's love of self, not love of God.

I've been wrong most of my life. I know what wrong is, and I know that even now I know I do not know everything. However for me like anyone else there is grace to fill in the gaps.
We don't have to be 100% right to find this grace, we need only to know and follow Christ. The only think I am trying to communicate above and beyond anyother salvation message is a direct line between those who need 'proof' and God. In that 'proof' via the Holy Spirit is possible, but only if we humble ourselves and approach on his terms.

Not saying this has to be done in front of me a church nor anyone else. This is a measure that can be doone simply between you and God right now.

If that to you is wrong, then I am glad to be wrong.

You keep saying such things, but the only thing you have backing them is your own rather fallible interpretation of your life history.  A history, I might add, that you have no compulsion from changing at whim.  I've documented in the past how your stories change with each telling.  You're selling a bill of goods which is half imagination and reinterpreted memory.  So don't play the old 'humble me' card.  That type of dissonance springs from deep desires, and yours have precious little to do with God.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:The bible has as many meanings as there are interpreters.  The emphasis being that the meaning takes on the coloring of the interpreter's willing.  You don't read the bible, you read your own personal version of it, and you idolize that version!  You have the naivety of a school boy who thinks the meaning is all in the words and not in the reader reading them.  This is the view of a simpleton without the skills to appreciate what the text might be saying.  All you see in the bible is stuff that you in your ignorance put into your reading.  Again, that's self love, not love of God.  You talk about humility before God, yet everyone can see that you know nothing of humility.

-Or perhaps you do not understand what it means to be humble before God and yet boldly exclaim his message, His truth. We have been tasked to do this very thing. Did Jesus follow your version of Humility when he challenged the religious leaders of His day? Was He your version of Humble when He called them Snakes, vipers, fools, Hypocrits? Was He 'humbled' when he chased out the money changers with a cord of whips? Did He show humility when he taught the religious leaders as a Child on the temple steps?

Way to miss the point.  The point is that you construct the bible half out of your own imagination.  You claim that you experienced a hell that consisted of privation from God, and then later learned that this 'is what the bible teaches'.  There are multiple schools of thought on what exactly the bible teaches about hell.  You simply chose the one which conformed to your prior belief.  Or would you like to provide chapter and verse to back up your interpretation.

Quote:The word the Bible uses to describe a burning hell—Gehenna—comes from an actual burning place, the valley of Gehenna adjacent to Jerusalem on the south. Gehenna is an English transliteration of the Greek form of an Aramaic word, which is derived from the Hebrew phrase “the Valley of (the son[s] of) Hinnom.” In one of their greatest apostasies, the Jews (especially under kings Ahaz and Manasseh) passed their children through the fires in sacrifice to the god Molech in that very valley (2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Jeremiah 32:35). Eventually, the Jews considered that location to be ritually unclean (2 Kings 23:10), and they defiled it all the more by casting the bodies of criminals into its smoldering heaps. In Jesus’ time this was a place of constant fire, but more so, it was a refuse heap, the last stop for all items judged by men to be worthless.

http://www.gotquestions.org/fire-and-brimstone.html

The word Gehenna is that used for hell in the New Testament.  If hell was not meant to be likened to this burning refuse heap, then why is it used as the name of hell?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Jormungandr Wrote:Are you really this simple?  You sold yourself on your own personal vision without reservation, and now what you're selling is your own obsession with that vision.

If they/you have your own telling experience, was it me who convinced you or was it the experience?

And if half that experience is falsified in the retelling, then what exactly are you selling?  You're selling your own egotistical revisioning of your life.  It's nothing more than empty evangelism.  You pick things from your life, dress them up, and parrot it back to those listening.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:The reason you didn't soften your approach is because you're a jerk.

seriously, define Jerk... How does my 'jerkieness' add or detract from the truth? Truth is truth no matter the source.

This from the person who embellishes his anecdotes.  That's fucking funny.  You aren't in a position to say what is and isn't truth with respect to God.  You've only got your warped interpretation of the bible.  

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:  Quit trying to depersonalize the situation.  No wonder you can love yourself so much, if you never own up to any of the bad.  I've seen you rationalize away the arrogance of your behavior countless times.  You have even compared yourself to Paul in attempting to excuse your lack of humility.

Now Jesus. Point being there is strong biblical precedent to the way I work, even if it flys in the face of conventional traditional 'Christian' stereotypes. Which if those conventional methods worked with you guys none of us would be here, would we?

The haughty never find fault in themselves.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:You can't offer what you don't have.

And in turn I can if I do.

Har har.  You're claiming to have the path to salvation.  That's a boastful claim when you can't even prove the truth of the bible which you claim to rest your belief upon.  Care to tell us why we should believe the bible at all, much less your version of it?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote: All you have is a twisted misunderstanding of the bible and a bunch of confirmation bias, accompanied by a heaping helping of self idolatry.

Can you demonstrate this, or have you been reduced to empty name calling?

I've pointed out errors in your exegesis in the past.  Your Genesis day 3 being a prime example.  You are so blinded by your own confidence in your version that you completely ignored what was plainly written in the text.  It's like you're in a frenzy in which the only words you hear are your own.  Don't bother protesting if you're incapable of actually examining the evidence.  

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:  You're the last person that someone should turn to for answers.  

Why? because I don't fit your mold? Your specific idea of how answers should be given? If I did that then wouldn't you have topical counters to everything I did and said? Or is this what your pipping up here is all about?
You can't topically destroy my answers.. So you are trying to kill the messenger with all your empty 'self idolotry talk?'

I've done that in the past.  You get to a point where you're in a trance of some sort and keep repeating your previous answers, even after they've been shown to be wrong.  You are constitutionally incapable of accepting correction, so what would be the point in taking you on topically?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: You are a venom-less snake if you can't support your charges. Lets see some book chapter and verse that countermands what I've said about god or how I choose to bring you His message.

As if.  I've already explained why talking to you about what is in the bible is pointless.  But if you really want to go that route, show that, biblically, hell is not a place of corporeal suffering.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:and a complete ignorance of how your own psychology contributes to your beliefs.  

IDK I seem to be swabbing the deck with the one making those charges.

Nope, no ego there.  How exactly are you swabbing the deck except in your own fevered imagination?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote:

Quote:As I said, you cannot offer what you do not have, and what you have isn't truth

Says what??? Your personal confirmation bias? What have you done to disprove or vet what I have said? Wish it weren't so?
Are you so foolish that you do not know you swing a double edged sword here? That everything you claim against me in my belief I can counter claim against you in your disbelief? Or is that what this is a red herring designed to take me off topic?

Patiently waiting for you to demonstrate that what is written of in the bible is truth.  Until you do, the only backing you have for the truth of A/S/K is your own revisionist history.  By the way, why do you abbreviate it as A/S/K when the order of events in the story is SEEK, then KNOCK, then ASK?

Matter of fact, Jesus doesn't even mention 'knocking' in the parable. Only that by being a pest you will get what you have sought.

Quote:5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity[a] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

Luke 11:5-13

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: It does not have an impact because I know it's your job, and I anticipate push back from those who don't want me walking down this path.

Check your martyr card at the door.  The path you are walking down is filled with self-deceit.  There's good reason you should be opposed.  You know only the Siren's song.  Your path is not what you are advertising here.  Your 'path', such as it is, exists only in your imagination.  I debate with you also to show others your flaws, of which you are wholly ignorant.

(May 16, 2016 at 7:15 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote:

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: I've been wrong most of my life. I know what wrong is, and I know that even now I know I do not know everything. However for me like anyone else there is grace to fill in the gaps.
We don't have to be 100% right to find this grace, we need only to know and follow Christ. The only think I am trying to communicate above and beyond anyother salvation message is a direct line between those who need 'proof' and God. In that 'proof' via the Holy Spirit is possible, but only if we humble ourselves and approach on his terms.

Not saying this has to be done in front of me a church nor anyone else. This is a measure that can be doone simply between you and God right now.

If that to you is wrong, then I am glad to be wrong.

You keep saying such things, but the only thing you have backing them is your own rather fallible interpretation of your life history.  A history, I might add, that you have no compulsion from changing at whim.  I've documented in the past how your stories change with each telling.  You're selling a bill of goods which is half imagination and reinterpreted memory.  So don't play the old 'humble me' card.  That type of dissonance springs from deep desires, and yours have precious little to do with God.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: -Or perhaps you do not understand what it means to be humble before God and yet boldly exclaim his message, His truth. We have been tasked to do this very thing. Did Jesus follow your version of Humility when he challenged the religious leaders of His day? Was He your version of Humble when He called them Snakes, vipers, fools, Hypocrits? Was He 'humbled' when he chased out the money changers with a cord of whips? Did He show humility when he taught the religious leaders as a Child on the temple steps?

Way to miss the point.  The point is that you construct the bible half out of your own imagination.  You claim that you experienced a hell that consisted of privation from God, and then later learned that this 'is what the bible teaches'.  There are multiple schools of thought on what exactly the bible teaches about hell.  You simply chose the one which conformed to your prior belief.  Or would you like to provide chapter and verse to back up your interpretation.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: If they/you have your own telling experience, was it me who convinced you or was it the experience?

And if half that experience is falsified in the retelling, then what exactly are you selling?  You're selling your own egotistical revisioning of your life.  It's nothing more than empty evangelism.  You pick things from your life, dress them up, and parrot it back to those listening.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: seriously, define Jerk... How does my 'jerkieness' add or detract from the truth? Truth is truth no matter the source.

This from the person who embellishes his anecdotes.  That's fucking funny.  You aren't in a position to say what is and isn't truth with respect to God.  You've only got your warped interpretation of the bible.  

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: Now Jesus. Point being there is strong biblical precedent to the way I work, even if it flys in the face of conventional traditional 'Christian' stereotypes. Which if those conventional methods worked with you guys none of us would be here, would we?

The haughty never find fault in themselves.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: And in turn I can if I do.

Har har.  You're claiming to have the path to salvation.  That's a boastful claim when you can't even prove the truth of the bible which you claim to rest your belief upon.  Care to tell us why we should believe the bible at all, much less your version of it?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: Can you demonstrate this, or have you been reduced to empty name calling?

I've pointed out errors in your exegesis in the past.  Your Genesis day 3 being a prime example.  You are so blinded by your own confidence in your version that you completely ignored what was plainly written in the text.  It's like you're in a frenzy in which the only words you hear are your own.  Don't bother protesting if you're incapable of actually examining the evidence.  

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: Why? because I don't fit your mold? Your specific idea of how answers should be given? If I did that then wouldn't you have topical counters to everything I did and said? Or is this what your pipping up here is all about?
You can't topically destroy my answers.. So you are trying to kill the messenger with all your empty 'self idolotry talk?'

I've done that in the past.  You get to a point where you're in a trance of some sort and keep repeating your previous answers, even after they've been shown to be wrong.  You are constitutionally incapable of accepting correction, so what would be the point in taking you on topically?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: You are a venom-less snake if you can't support your charges. Lets see some book chapter and verse that countermands what I've said about god or how I choose to bring you His message.

As if.  I've already explained why talking to you about what is in the bible is pointless.  But if you really want to go that route, show that, biblically, hell is not a place of corporeal suffering.

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: IDK I seem to be swabbing the deck with the one making those charges.

Nope, no ego there.  How exactly are you swabbing the deck except in your own fevered imagination?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: Says what??? Your personal confirmation bias? What have you done to disprove or vet what I have said? Wish it weren't so?
Are you so foolish that you do not know you swing a double edged sword here? That everything you claim against me in my belief I can counter claim against you in your disbelief? Or is that what this is a red herring designed to take me off topic?

Patiently waiting for you to demonstrate that what is written of in the bible is truth.  Until you do, the only backing you have for the truth of A/S/K is your own revisionist history.  By the way, why do you abbreviate it as A/S/K when the order of events in the story is SEEK, then KNOCK, then ASK?

(May 16, 2016 at 11:15 am)Drich Wrote: It does not have an impact because I know it's your job, and I anticipate push back from those who don't want me walking down this path.

Check your martyr card at the door.  The path you are walking down is filled with self-deceit.  There's good reason you should be opposed.  You know only the Siren's song.  Your path is not what you are advertising here.  Your 'path', such as it is, exists only in your imagination.  I debate with you more to show others your flaws, of which you are wholly ignorant.

Drich thinks they are the only one who would suffer pushback from family and friends if they start having doubts. What a load of "poor me" garbage. You think that would be bad Drich? Try expressing doubt in Iran or Saudi Arabia like Atlas. And even if you don't a have any doubts Drich, in many places in that part of the world merely talking to a perceived enemy can get you murdered. 

We really don't want to hear it Drich, I have been at this 15 years and cannot tell you the countless stories of especially teens at home, who live in fear of being thrown on the streets. How many get shouted at and some sent to "therapy" because of "concerned" family. And I am sure the transgendered here can tell you the harassment and fear they have to go through.

You aren't getting anything but a "bullshit" from us. Nobody here wants you dead, nobody is going to have you arrested for merely saying things we think are crazy. And you have been on this board for YEARS, so your "poor me" act isn't going to wash here.

WE do want you going down that path, no, not a path to depression, or addiction, or lawlessness, just REASON. And yes, some family and friends wont understand at first, but if you play your cards with them right and don't start fights over it, the ones who really love you do adjust.

My younger sister came out 4 years ago and for a while our biological family flipped out, but have since calmed down and simply don't discuss it but talk about other things.

Our problem has never been with every theist of every religion in the world, but the idea of it itself, and the idea that old mythology is still relevant in our modern world. What screws up human logic, isn't that religious people cant have empathy, but they base their logic on old antiquated social norm and refuse to adapt to changing times.

Yes, leaving any religion has social consequences especially within a right wing family in a right wing society, and all religions have their conservative pockets up to entire nations. Babies are NOT born with a religion, the adults pass it down to them. Most humans simply adapt the the religions of the societies they are born into. 

There is no cosmic sky dictator that will reward you or punish you with the revenge of eternal torture. You CAN live a very happy life, yes you would still have ups and downs, and yes, even some family and friends might leave you. But living in a mental prison is what we refused to do. It was tough for many of us, I was relatively lucky myself, because my mom merely thought it was a phase. But I have lost friends and even my biological older brother because of their attitudes to me. I have been shouted at on a couple of occasions and even had a guy try to fire me.

Atheist families have had their kids kicked out of school, I knew a guy who got kicked out of his apartment. But in the Middle East in many places, they would murder BOTH you and I for even a peep.

We don't want you dead, or even depressed. All we have been trying to do is pull your head out of that book and think for yourself for once. But your pity party act wont work here and you should know that by now.

Quote:Drich: How about him telling me "the girl your in love with.. You will have one chance with her, and you will pass it up, and what's more you will know this is your only chance and you will pass it up anyway." A year later this very thing happened. She broke up with her BF and approached me, but I was exhausted from work, and she wanted to go out on a Sunday night. I told her I was tired, but I was going to go. She said we can just go out friday. Then I told her about this very 'angel experience' and what he said, and was worried this was my 'one chance.' She said don't worry about it go and get some rest. Come Friday she had gotten back together with that guy (she married)
He also told me I would have a second chance latter but that it would not count as i would be dating my future wife at that point.
A year after that she came to me after my first date with me wife and told me she was done with him again, and this time I got to tell her no.

I am not f***** surprised.

(May 16, 2016 at 10:14 am)Drich Wrote: How about him telling me "the girl your in love with.. You will have one chance with her, and you will pass it up, and what's more you will know this is your only chance and you will pass it up anyway." A year later this very thing happened. She broke up with her BF and approached me, but I was exhausted from work, and she wanted to go out on a Sunday night. I told her I was tired, but I was going to go. She said we can just go out friday. Then I told her about this very 'angel experience' and what he said, and was worried this was my 'one chance.' She said don't worry about it go and get some rest. Come Friday she had gotten back together with that guy (she married)
He also told me I would have a second chance latter but that it would not count as i would be dating my future wife at that point.
A year after that she came to me after my first date with me wife and told me she was done with him again, and this time I got to tell her no.

You do know what a self fulfilling prophesy is, do you not?

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.

(May 16, 2016 at 9:12 pm)IATIA Wrote:

(May 16, 2016 at 10:14 am)Drich Wrote: How about him telling me "the girl your in love with.. You will have one chance with her, and you will pass it up, and what's more you will know this is your only chance and you will pass it up anyway." A year later this very thing happened. She broke up with her BF and approached me, but I was exhausted from work, and she wanted to go out on a Sunday night. I told her I was tired, but I was going to go. She said we can just go out friday. Then I told her about this very 'angel experience' and what he said, and was worried this was my 'one chance.' She said don't worry about it go and get some rest. Come Friday she had gotten back together with that guy (she married)
He also told me I would have a second chance latter but that it would not count as i would be dating my future wife at that point.
A year after that she came to me after my first date with me wife and told me she was done with him again, and this time I got to tell her no.

You do know what a self fulfilling prophesy is, do you not?

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true. This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.

yup, I can't *possibly* imagine why a girl would decide against going out with you after you'd told her you feared it was your "one chance"... no possible natural explanation for that is there?

Anyway, my reason for not believing in God, is because I was never brought up to believe such things, and therefore the idea of claiming the contents of a particular extremely boring and ridiculous book are divine and True just seemed preposterous. Since then I have done copious amounts of reading and research, and determined that I am simply not capable (i.e. gullible enough) to "open my mind and let Him in". I have no need to believe. It serves no purpose for me. Any apologetic argument is so clearly baseless, and it just became amusing to me to see the contortions employed by religious folks to try and make things fit.