Teach children about Jesus at a young age,

[Huggy Bear]

Yeah, very true.

I've been in bubbles as well, of various kinds. Living with a semi-delusion. For example, really bad relationships I've been in. Everyone around me was telling me the plain and obvious facts, but I wouldn't listen. I knew best. Until we broke up, and I looked back on how my mind had been clouded with much embarressment.

So I do have a tiny idea what it might be like. But with something so fundamental, I can't really imagine the extreme pressure the mind puts on itself to maintain the status quo of beliefs. One more (possibly subconscious) lie to the self is far easier than considering you might actually have been very wrong, for a very long time.

I think it's probably more due to the sheer length of indoctrination and the level of pressure, combined with, as you say, the consequences (imagined) of not believing.

The sheer number of qualifiers, dogmas and rules either imposed by others or self imposed eventually just takes its toll I guess. The freedom to believe what you want is taken away from you, and even when you begin to break through those restrictions, the consequential aspect of the belief eventually weigh you down.

I'm lucky enough to have never been indoctrinated, so in those terms I can't really empathize.

Aww, what happened Pandy? gave up so soon? I'm dissapointed; usually your tomfoolery lasts at least 10 pages.

I'll come back periodically to check and see how you're doing...

Meanwhile you may want to "indoctrinate" yourself with a dictionary.

*edit*
I'll also include Robvalue and Stimbo right along with you since they were quick to kudos your wild display of ignorance.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

If you want to try and bait me you can. I have no time or use for failures in life like yourself, so please check in as much as you want and as often as you can, so I know that you are wasting this one life caring about what I do/don't say about someone as irrelevant and inconsequential as you.

The entire forum can read your idiocy every time you post, so if I needed to derive some weird sense of sycophantic pleasure in engaging with you as you clearly do with me and several others (because you're rather weird and quite bizarre), then I'd be happy enough with that.

Ok kid?

I mean look at how fucking strange you are. I post and then you're on the thread straight away. Fuck me man, get some perspective.

[Huggy Bear]

If you want to try and bait me you can. I have no time or use for failures in life like yourself, so please check in as much as you want and as often as you can, so I know that you are wasting this one life caring about what I do/don't say about someone as irrelevant and inconsequential as you.

The entire forum can read your idiocy every time you post, so if I needed to derive some weird sense of sycophantic pleasure in engaging with you as you clearly do with me and several others (because you're rather weird and quite bizarre), then I'd be happy enough with that.

Ok kid?

Yeah, I'm so "irrelevant and inconsequential" that you hang on my every word hoping that I've made some error that you can expose, except your schemes always backfire like Wile E. Coyote.

I'm so "irrelevant and inconsequential" that you feel the need to document what I say in the 'AF Hall of Shame' thread.

I mean look at how fucking strange you are. I post and then you're on the thread straight away. Fuck me man, get some perspective.

LOL

As soon as I made my post 2 hours ago, educating your knuckle-dragging behind, You were in the thread reading it for about 10 minutes, probably trying to form a coherent thought...

Look, I was being nice when I corrected you the first time, but NOOO you had to press the issue, you have no one to blame but yourself, BUT if you admit you were wrong and include an apology, I'll leave it alone.

Deal?

Btw, it's 5 in the morning here on my day off, I've got all day.

*edit*
Funny how you were the one trying to find a problem where there was none, and after you get exposed all of the sudden you're trying to take the high road.

You're a joke

[Godscreated]

states Billy Graham.

Well, duh, how else are you going to indoctrinate the next generation?

Evangelist Billy Graham said that introducing children to Jesus and the Christian faith at a young age will help strengthen their faith later on.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/b...g-age.html

By your reasoning teaching evolution to children is indoctrination. As for your view of God being imaginary, dark energy and dark matter have been tested for for over 40 years and no evidence has ever been found, yet it is taught as fact, why do you acept these things with no proof yet not God???

GC

[Fidel_Castronaut]

states Billy Graham.

Well, duh, how else are you going to indoctrinate the next generation?


http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/b...g-age.html

By your reasoning teaching evolution to children is indoctrination. As for your view of God being imaginary, dark energy and dark matter have been tested for for over 40 years and no evidence has ever been found, yet it is taught as fact, why do you acept these things with no proof yet not God???

GC

Evolution and DM/DE are based on actual evidence and theoretical inference (like the Higgs Boson) respectively though. How are they the same to an unevidenced non-descript 'god' which everyone seems to have a different view/opinion of?

I'm not sure that people teach the latter necessarily as fact, though. I thought it was more, again, as an inference based on the theoretical and mathematical paradigms that seek to explain the rather large unknown in mass/energy that exists which cannot be accounted for using 'physical' matter?

[Huggy Bear]

That aside, let's cut the shit while we're at it; the Christian belief system cannot simply be boiled down to the golden rule -as if it isn't a staple in most belief systems religious or otherwise- and you are assuredly aware of that as a Christian yourself. I'm not speaking for you, but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.

Can you get to heaven through love for your neighbor, or do you have to wholeheartedly believe in woo while you're at it? 

Twit.

*emphasis mine*

Matthew 25
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Clearly the people in the emboldened part weren't religious, or else why are they acting surprised when they are about to be let into heaven? Now this wouldn't be the case for those that heard the gospel and rejected it, it's for those that never had the opportunity to hear the gospel yet were good people. Hence the separation of the sheep from the goats; in other words the good from the bad.

Moral of the story? Love everyone, that's the best lesson you can teach a child.

Hebrews 13
2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

[Minimalist]

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

You fucking jesus freaks better go back to the drawing board on that shit.

[Huggy Bear]

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

You fucking jesus freaks better go back to the drawing board on that shit.

---

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Take a long look at my avatar. Do I look like I'm in the conservative demographic? Did not the white supremacists come out and endorse trump?

the funny thing is that Abraham's ancestors were Kushites (Ethiopian)
http://www.taneter.org/ethiopia.html

Prior to Greek history, Ethiopia was known as "Kush" by the ancient "Egyptians." The Buhen stela (housed in the Florence Museum), which dates from the reign of Sety I (1294-1279 BC), refers to this region as "Kas" and "Kash." Kush is also mentioned as "KSH" in other texts dated between 1550 - 1069 BC.

Ethiopia was an empire originally situated between Ta-Seti in Lower Kemet and the confluence of the White and Blue Niles. Centuries later, however, the name became synonymous with a much larger region that included the present-day countries of South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Central African Republic, Chad, etc.

Ethiopia is the English transliteration of the Greek word "Αιθιοπα" (or Aithiopia) which originates from the Greek word "Αιθιοψ" or "aithiops" which literally means "charred or burnt." "Aithiops" is in fact composed of "αιθιω" (meaning "I burn") and "ωψ" (meaning face or complexion).

You think the conservatives will accept a black Jesus?

[Huggy Bear]

Ignorance is bliss, Rob.

When you've cocooned yourself in a bubble of denial, it must be hard to realise that the only person you're deceiving is yourself.

Oh, the irony...

It seems the coward has nothing to say, I'd at least have a modicum of respect if he owned up to his mistake.

Like I always tell you atheists, if you fail to accept that you're wrong and change your way of thinking on something as simple as the usage of a word, which is easily proven by looking in a dictionary; do you honestly believe you have the capacity for accepting God, even if it was proven to you?

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" - Luke 16:31

[drfuzzy]

---

Ignorance is bliss, Rob.

When you've cocooned yourself in a bubble of denial, it must be hard to realise that the only person you're deceiving is yourself.

---

Oh, the irony...

It seems the coward has nothing to say, I'd at least have a modicum of respect if he owned up to his mistake.

Like I always tell you atheists, if you fail to accept that you're wrong and change your way of thinking on something as simple as the usage of a word, which is easily proven by looking in a dictionary; do you honestly believe you have the capacity for accepting God, even if it was proven to you?

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" - Luke 16:31

And as people have said thousands of times in this forum, if there was PROOF of god, I would readily accept the existence of god.  If god actually was worthy of worship (unlike the asshole described in your wholly babble), I might even end up worshipping.  But a LOT of proof would have to be given first.  Scientific, measurable proof.