Unbelievable

[Norman Humann]

Damn, late again.

[robvalue]

I just had another encounter with jesus myself. I've been waiting hours for him to re spawn. The thing is, I'm not getting much XP any more from killing him, does anyone know a dungeon I can go to with tougher enemies? I'm a level 48 Chainsaw Paladin.

[Spooky]

Now I feel a little bad that we didn't give him/her a warm fuzzy welcome.

...but it does say "Atheist" up there

[JuliaL]

The malfunction is in thinking. I've heard voices I can't find in the house and seen people in my own back yard that turned out to be tree stumps.

You are so right.
Priming is a really powerful thing too.
There are always more scary shadows lurking in the dark rooms of my house just after I've viewed a scary movie.
These fears are real and probably throw back to a time when there were actual existential dangers hanging about just outside the campfire light. Those of us who didn't feel them and wandered into the woods at night really did get eaten.
Religions just co-opt that fear for their own ends.
The trick is in figuring out when your mind is feeding you bad conclusions. This is really hard: It is your mind that is fooling your mind- it has a privileged position to do that.

[Mister Agenda]

One observation I can make about the atheists that I have met is that they love the idea of having the truth and they hate liars.

Welcome to the forum. I hope your stay here is productive.

I am Christian. It is too late for me to convert to atheism for I have had that personal encounter with Jesus Christ, that so many people talk about. He has spoken to me. I could only become an anti-Christ at this point.

You should probably stay Christian, then.

I had long misunderstood what Jesus meant by "the meek shall inherit the Earth", because I understood the word, "meek", to be along the lines of submissive, yielding, gentle but in regards to my relationship with fellow humans. What he meant was that those who are formed by God will inherit the Earth. So blessed are those that can be molded by God.

Perhaps you can write a new New Testament, since you're in touch with Jesus. It's overdue for an update, IMHO.

I have no idea if it rare for God to speak to someone.

Seems to be pretty rare, given that most of the people who who say God speaks to them can't agree on what he's saying.

For all that I know he speaks with his people on a regular basis. He spoke with me in secret. He gave me no material evidence that I could show to others.

That does seem to be his M.O.

I don't feel the need for others to believe that this occurred or even that anyone know that such a thing transpired.

That's a very reasonable position, under the circumstances. Anyone can claim any personal experience, and I can see how the person experiencing it might find it compelling, but a rational person recognizes that their subjective internal experiences are unlikely to be compelling to others.

It was a personal blessing and a reward. Not for being perfect. Even knowing that God exists did not stop me from my future sins just like knowing God is real didn't save anyone else, that heard him, from sinning. It is a comfort, don't get me wrong. I enjoy being beyond the debate even if makes no difference to anyone. But it didn't change me instantly into a better person. Anyway, that's the thing I was going to illuminate for someone. Maybe no one. Even if God proved his existence you might be surprised by how little it moved you to significant behavioral change.

I do always find that surprising.

Even Jesus, the one begotten by God, was killed for a charge of blasphemy and for all intents and purposes they were speaking directly to God and God was speaking directly to them.

At any rate, I'm sure most of you have your humanity to your own degree, no matter what you believe in.

That's decent of you. You'd be surprised how many people don't give us that much credit.

But still you have some humanity. There are worse ways to be. I have no proof of it, of course, but the God of hosts, has stopped a great many people from losing their humanity and helped many people recover it and in this way he has prevented a great deal of evil. It's a world of good and evil where God raises human beings. He knows few people will find him. He said so himself. But the truth be told, if God so chose, he could take any one of you decent human beings and make a son of God out of you.

Speaking for myself, if he exists, he is more than welcome to do so.

And if he doesn't, and you somehow found out he didn't write your name in his book of life, I wonder, would you hate him for not making it easy enough for you too.

It's probably hard to focus on things like that (or anything) when you're writhing in eternal agony.

But really, have you done anything wrong for trying to be scientific and go about life like a detective, gathering the evidence, weighing and measuring things just like you've been taught to do? Nope. And the effect of your sins upon your life's spirit. Your joy, hope, love, etc. etc. For all we know it could be much worse except for the efforts of God. We might all be starring off in the distance drooling little pools of spit. At least we have enough spirit to be angry and take God's name in vain. Praise be to God for the sacrifice he gave by sending his Son, Jesus, into the world, to give us life more fully, and for his mercy from the cross, who did not call down wrath upon his enemies but did the will of the Almighty, throughout his bodily and his own personal experience with human beings.

Thanks for sharing.

[FatAndFaithless]

"You should thank God because you have the ability to not believe in God because you could have been so much worse off than you are currently, and it's only thanks to God that you have the mental capacity to question God".

This is some Sye Ten Bruggencate shit.

[Mister Agenda]

You never know, I might have been just having a brain malfunction. It was a few years ago. At any rate, my friend was pissed about some of the stereotyping that was going on towards agnostics and atheists and after hearing her, I sympathized, and thought I would post a few words about it which I put into another topic called "Stereotyping and morality".

Thanks for the sympathy. We get so much of the stereotyping that often our initial responses are defensive.

I am sure most people can shrug off some claims that religious people make without resorting to counter stereotyping but in case anyone was not able to, i posted what I thought was relevant about it. I personally believe that knowing what is true and why can be a benefit.

True enough.

[Lek]

Welcome to the forum. As you can see, you're playing to a tough audience here.

[Angrboda]

I used to hear what sounded like a radio, playing very quietly. However when I'd try to locate the source of the sound, I could never pin it down. But then, I'm verifiably mentally ill. But it's not unusual for people without illness to have the experience of hearing things. That's just the way the mind works.

[downbeatplumb]

Did anyone ask what did he say yet?

Apparently he asked how you were doing.