Choosing a faith

False dichotomy. It is possible to believe AND think - both at the same time, even.Thinking, and following the evidence (which is NOT "vague", by the way) protects us from some of the stupid ideas that you claim to believe. It isn't very often that marriages are "merely cast aside". It's funny how "True believers" consider themselves "skeptical" of good evidence. Their "reasonable doubt' is definitely UNreasonable.They fervently believe the defendant is innocent because, "He's a good boy. He wouldn't do that," yet they have "reasonable doubts" about the video of the good boy committing the crime. Atheists don't care about moving you. Thanks for the compliment. Jesus was an emotionally passionate humanist too. There's no need to "masquerade". Nobody gives a flying fuck about your beliefs.

EVERY religion makes the same claim. Discuss ANYTHING. I've been breaking my back for years trying to get you to discuss ANYTHING. You HAVE thrown the book away. You say you don't "limit" yourself to the book. You flat-out DENY much of what Jesus said in the book. I think most of us expect that nothing will dent that block of stone that you call a mind. And I have always told you that that's a stupid thing to say.YOU are the one who falls for anything that YouTube says. Your fruits don't show it. You have no faith in God's ability to take care of you. You insist on relying on your own massive ego.

So, every religion is subject to the same scrutiny. Every religion has the same requirement to back up its claim. Nobody gets a free pass. And every contestant on To tell the Truth was required to back up his/her claim. Nobody got a free pass. Yes. Neither did Jesus. Some people spoke about Him a century later. When do I ever make fun of apologists? I call them flat-out liars. What's funny about that?(And how come it's "good advice" when dwise1 says it but not when I say the exact same thing?) And that, yet again, has nothing to do with what I said. FYI, "hypocrisy" means saying one thing about beliefs, etc. and then doing something else. How does that apply to me? When did I ever profess belief in the alternative gods? And still you don't start.I keep asking you to respond to what I say and STILL you don't do it. You bring up the wedding feast parable, which we were not talking about. Of course it is. It SAYS it's about the kingdom of heaven. It DOES say word-for-word that it's about the kingdom of heaven. Ask questions about what we're discussing. Don't gallop off in all directions, Gish. Fuck THAT parable. You DO deny, repeatedly, that Jesus told His followers to give up everything when they followed Him. Respond to what I SAY. How could anybody believe you when you deny what it says? The Son is not the word. But you refuse to discuss that.Your fruit displays no sign of "communion". But you refuse to discuss that."Whosoever believes" is whosoever DOES. But you refuse to discuss that. Who would that be? I don't listen to "mythicism", whatever you think that is. Well, duh. Critical thinking reminds you of critical thinkers. How enlightened you must feel. What next? Dogs remind you of dogs? No True Christian? Seriously? Were they all Scottish Christians by any chance? Why don't you start your argument by appealing to authority or appealing to popularity? I don't know what that means. is that some catch-phrase you got from YouTube? Why is it in quotes. It isn't something I said, is it? You say that as if it was two different things. Yes, read the book. And no, don't make up your own meaning. Read what it actually says. That block of stone doesn't have to be your head. Nope. nothing about revelation in there. That's what I mean about making up your own meaning. Yes. that's what it says. A rock of reality. A rock of evidence. A reliable rock. ANY belief that is not based on reality. ESPECIALLY any belief that DENIES reality. An ex-Christian is one who got rid of the shifting sand, the empty belief, and dug down to the bedrock. STARTING a course on critical thinking doesn't make you a critical thinker. So don't be "true to yourself", whatever you think that means. Be true to reality.Now respond to what I said.

I, for one, have never rejected Christianity. I espouse Christianity much more than, say, Faith or Phat. I take the words of Jesus pretty seriously, even though He himself never existed.I do emphatically reject Christian doctrine, particularly nonsense such as "dying for our sins", and the resurrection. It's not a belief. It's a conclusion. You and Faith and Phat have convinced me.

So if we want to find a Higgs boson, we need to examine Higgs? I don't follow that logic. Stop it. Really, stop it.That stupid idea has been refuted sooooooooo many times.People give up their lives to climb Mount Everest - and it's hard to think of any reason LESS important than that. People often give up their lives for stupid "reasons" or stupid causes. Get over it. And stop making that stupid statement too. I do not believe Jesus ever existed Why would I do anything He said? And why don't you ever answer that question?

Which proves you have no more faith than we do.
​ STOP it.NOBODY has suggested anything about government legislating anything. That's strictly your delusion. I watched Stagecoach (1939) again yesterday for the umpteenth time. The thieving banker sounds just like you:

quote:

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I don't know what the government is coming to. Instead of protecting businessmen, it pokes its nose into business! Why, they're even talking now about having *bank* examiners. As if we bankers don't know how to run our own banks! Why, at home I have a letter from a popinjay official saying they were going to inspect my books. I have a slogan that should be blazoned on every newspaper in this country: America for the Americans! The government must not interfere with business! Reduce taxes! Our national debt is something shocking. Over one billion dollars a year! What this country needs is a businessman for president!

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{Bearing in mind that he has just stolen $50,000 from his own bank.)Yes, we know you'll vote for Trump.

Is it physically painful for you to answer a question directly? Or are you just congenitally dishonest?

How would the village idiot know when an argument was shot down?

I think that is the basic problem. He can convince himself that he knows better than anybody else. He can convince himself that we are all controlled by demons.Conspiracy theories are very thorough.

He keeps quoting Jesus, "For ye have the poor always with you...." (Matt. 26:11) He seems to interpret it in a Calvinistic way.

People do that. We're ALL "dysfunctional" when we enter the world. "Paying our way" is a generational thing - our parents pay for our generation and we pay for our children's generation. Everything isn't about getting a return. Reparations are about paying your bills.Your father was a house-builder, wasn't he? When he was alive, you expected people to pay for the houses he built, didn't you? And after he died, did you not expect the people who owed him to still pay his estate?Why is that a "stupid idea" when it applies to debts owed to the estates of slaves? What return did we get from helping France, Belgium, the Netherlands? (Aside from not having to look in the skies over Denver for Nazi bombers?)

Predestined.

I saw a two-story outhouse in Calgary once. So much for the wonderful, magical "transformation" that Christians undergo when they are "saved".

That has nothing to do with what I said about reparations. YOUR bill is YOUR bill to pay. No you would not. That's why we have a federal government, so the WHOLE federation gets the same standards. In Canada, we have explicit equalization payments from the federal government to make ALL provinces (hopefully) equal. Again, nothing to do with what I said about reparations. You are being billed for YOUR country, which was built on the backs of slaves. You owe their heirs. And my father never directly stole land from the indigenous people but I get the benefit from that land in many, many indirect ways, so I AM responsible for paying for it. Don't fixate on cotton. Slaves built roads. Slaves built SCHOOLS, for fuck sake, schools that they were not allowed to attend. Slavery was the backbone of the economy that got you where you are. Your argument certainly is ludicrous. Pay your bills! We certainly do. How could you argue otherwise? If it's a way of life that depends on racism, yes it is racist to defend it. Stop saying that. The government IS your authority to collect your taxes and spend them as the nation as a whole sees fit. Of course you're involved. If you inherit an estate, you are responsible for the debts of that estate. How can you even say things that are so blatantly wrong? I don't think they need me to "rile them up". They're riled up already, and rightly so, by the whips and the chains. I'm not trying to do their culture any "service". I'm just saying they should be given what's owed to them. Their ancestors already did the work.

Ask your god to grant you the serenity to accept the things you can not change.