Why be good?

[SteelCurtain]

The slinking dog with its tail tucked looks a lot like a bag of popcorn.

[Exian]

It's really telling, Randy, that you decide to spectate when caught in a lie. Shit poster. Troll. Go away. Eat your bag of troll feed somewhere else.

Stop feeding this fucker and ban him. He proselytized, disrespected, and (with the popcorn posts in multiple threads) blatantly trolled. He has shown his true colors. Put us out of his misery.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Nah, he's a decent punching bag when you want to warm up for a real discussion.

[Randy Carson]

What on earth does that have to do with the assertion that we were responding to?

Or can you just not help yourself when presented an opportunity to proselytize?

Go fuck yourself, Randy.

The only response I have for people who insult my integrity is scorn and contempt. Violence certainly doesn't enter into it, unless they don't like being told to fuck off.

How that is germane to the veracity of the NT escapes me ... probably because it isn't.

The slinking dog with its tail tucked looks a lot like a bag of popcorn.

I started that set up at 8:00am this morning, I checked all the way to the river. I played my hand perfectly. You were all in, and I took your stacks.

Now, if you begrudgingly get that, then a tip o'the cap out of respect, ya know? 

While you're still cursing me, you haven't even begun to address the implications of the analogy I just suckered you into. You folks make all kinds of truly pathetic arguments against the gospels, but when I turn the tables on you to demonstrate dramatically how and why your arguments fail (and more importantly, why we can believe the gospels), you have nothing but epithets. And no chips.

But if you don't get it, then I suggest you read the post where I turned over my cards again. And again. Until you do. 

The four gospels were written by folks who were being just as sincere and and honest as all of you were when you wrote about your personal experiences with "atheists in foxholes". And just as I can believe what you wrote is true - just as anyone else can believe what you wrote is true - with a degree of probability, so can you believe the writing of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Making that point is what this was all about.

+++

A final note: Mike, yes, I did misread your post when you wrote, "Yes, if I deemed the threat (which you proposed) to be real."

I was being pressured by several people (including CD and Stimbo) to get to the point, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could maintain the tension. So, I read your post quickly and mis-characterized your position, and while I don't think that undermines the overall points about general reliability and believing the eyewitness accounts that people write about their experiences, I do regret the error. Please accept my apologies. I should point out, however, that the apostles refused to deny what they knew to be true, and it cost them their lives.

[The Grand Nudger]

-In response: Meh. If you're trying to tell us that we can trust the gospels as much as we can trust the diaries of our neighbors (or -any- human being)....I think you're barking up the wrong tree. I would agree wholeheartedly, personally.

[Exian]

You didn't set shit up. The parallels you drew we're as transparent as a Micheal Bay flick. And, by the way, you didn't draw jack as a parallel; you'd need just a few more degrees of separation than straight from horses mouth, and for the claims to be a little more supernaturally extraordinary, rather than just normal human level extraordinary (thank you for your service gentlemen, sincerely ).

[Goosebump]

This has probably been said, its a long thread and I just discovered it, but why does it have to be a choice? Doesn't the statistics show its a predisposition to not be criminal? Can't it be biology? So kind of reward system, satisfaction, ego building, warm and fuzzy feeling when we behave in a non evil, detrimental way?

Those that do are outliers, psychopaths, heat of passion (madness), or any number of other mental or biological illnesses?

[Exian]

I'm good because I don't want my mom to yell at me.

[Jackalope]

While you're still cursing me, you haven't even begun to address the implications of the analogy I just suckered you into. You folks make all kinds of truly pathetic arguments against the gospels, but when I turn the tables on you to demonstrate dramatically how and why your arguments fail (and more importantly, why we can believe the gospels), you have nothing but epithets. And no chips.

You're completely full of shit, Randy. I've never made any such argument to you, in whole, because I have no interest in discussing the topic.

What I *was* discussing was your ludicrous assertion that, in a moment close to death, that all atheists would "make it right" with God. I notice that you haven't admitted that you're wrong about that.

So, again, go fuck yourself, you dishonest bucket of shit.

[SteelCurtain]

Hahaha suckered into? Every single person here knew exactly where you were going with that transparent bullshit. We just were hoping you weren't that stupid.

You are a case study for the Dunning-Kruger effect.

ETA: A perfect capstone for your blatant bullshit is you blaming CD and Stimbo for your fuck up. You really are a class act. And your credibility on this forum is in the red.