(September 5, 2010 at 3:37 am)chatpilot Wrote: AngelThMan when you find "evidence that God exists" I would love to see it, so far you haven't shown me any in this entire thread.

Don't bother asking. He won't be able to come up with any. No theist can. It's either always the bible or their own personal experience. None of which count as evidence.

DiRNiS the day that a theist could provide evidence that his god exist will be the day that he/she will have negated faith. Once there is evidence there is no longer a need to believe the unbelievable. What gets me the most about Christianity is that they don't see how ridiculous their beliefs are, to think that someone (if he existed at all) who lived 2,000 plus years ago is expected to come back is outright insane.

To even believe in the so called resurrection is a huge stretch of the imagination, this to me is nothing more than primitive thinking based on superstition.

And wishful-thinking, CP.

I know Min it's incredible that this nonsense continues to be so popular even in today's day and age. You'd think with the advent of science that we as a species would be over this childish and primitive mentality. The only confirmed miracle that I can think of is that this garbage has lasted as long as it has.

Some humans apparently still have an egotistical need to imagine that they are so important that they must continue in some form.

They are wrong, of course, but that doesn't stop them from concocting fantasies.

(September 5, 2010 at 12:49 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Some humans apparently still have an egotistical need to imagine that they are so important that they must continue in some form.

They are wrong, of course, but that doesn't stop them from concocting fantasies.

The are very elaborate fantasies too with seemingly a great amount of detail about what happens 'after death' until you call them on it and then it gets all vague.

(September 5, 2010 at 1:00 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote:

(September 5, 2010 at 12:49 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Some humans apparently still have an egotistical need to imagine that they are so important that they must continue in some form.

They are wrong, of course, but that doesn't stop them from concocting fantasies.

The are very elaborate fantasies too with seemingly a great amount of detail about what happens 'after death' until you call them on it and then it gets all vague.

It even has been said that the greatest Christian of all time, Jack T. Chick who is so christian that he even outcrists Christ, contradicts himself on this question
http://www.chick.com/default.asp

Among other sites this is discussed at the snopes com forum
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/u...4;t=000556;p=1

Read a small example from there :

Quote:QUESTION :
While we're all on the subject of Chick, it seems to me that Chick at times contradicts himself (one of the other posters suggested something like this in one of the earlier Chick threads).

For example: What happens to the "unsaved" (i.e., people who are not "Chick Christians")?

There seem to be at least three possibilities, each from a different tract:

(1) They go to hell, "minutes later" (Gun Slinger)

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0037/0037_01.asp

(2) They go somewhere temporarily (apparently not hell) and will be judged on Doomsday: (Somebody Goofed)

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0003/0003_01.asp

(3) They lie unconscious in the grave until Doomsday (This Was Your Life!)

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0001/0001_01.asp

ANSWER :
I'm a Jack T. Chick inerrantist, so I'll explain this apparent contradiction.

In Somebody Goofed, it is explained that the unsaved dead go to a holding place (not Hell) to await judgment. Judgment is pretty straight-forward, as everyone who is judged is sent to Hell.

In This Was Your Life, the unsaved man is shown awaking from his grave on Doomsday. Some skeptics argue that this contradicts the account given above. However, the tract does not state that he was asleep from death until Doomsday. Obviously, right before judgment, unsaved souls are transported from the holding place, into their graves, ready to be awakened for judgment.

Finally, in Gun Slinger we see an Old West marshal dying, and then "minutes later" being in "Hell". If this is the best contradiction skeptics can come up with, they must be truly desperate. Obviously, this isn't really our Old West. Instead, this is set in the near future, where, during the end times, a small section of post-collapse America resembles the Old West. Surely, however these people are better off than most during the reign of The Beast! The marshal is in Hell only minutes later because he died on Doomsday, and was awoken from his grave, and finally judged all within minutes. So where's the contradiction?

Very interesting subject, this Jack Chick contradiction science

(September 3, 2010 at 4:16 am)Ace Wrote:

(September 2, 2010 at 10:26 pm)AngelThMan Wrote: I've experienced the presence of God.

...I know where those feelings are coming from. They come from you.

But it could also be God, couldn't it? A lot of atheist tell me that they accept that there could be a God, but they don't believe in him because there's no evidence he exists. So let's, for argument's sake, say that God does exist. In that case, couldn't it have been God that I experienced rather than my own feelings? Atheists who think there could be a God should also be able to accept that what I experienced could've been God. Right?

Quote:But it could also be God, couldn't it?

No.

AngelThMan when I was a Christian fundamentalist I too thought that I felt God's presence around me all the time, I was constantly praying in my mind and thought I was in touch with God at all times. I later came to the conclusion that what I was experiencing was not God but rather my own mind stimulating my body through the use of emotionalism coupled with my unwavering beliefs. Many religious groups outside of Christianity claim to feel the deity of their choice in various ways, they all claim the feeling of the divine. But in the end it is nothing more than psycho-emotional.