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May 22nd, 2013
06:20 PM ET
This Oklahoma atheist isn't thanking the LordBy Jessica Ravitz, CNN (CNN) – Behind her were ruins, a tangled mess where structures once stood. Cradled in her arms, the mother’s 19-month-old son played with a snatched microphone, unfazed by the chaos swirling around him. And in front of Rebecca Vitsmun stood CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who – after asking her about the decision that saved her and her son's lives – had one more question: “I guess you got to thank the Lord, right?” he asked. “Yeah,” she mumbled, smiling and looking down. “Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?” he continued. “I, I, I,” the 30-year-old stay-at-home mom stammered before adding, “I’m actually an atheist.” She laughed, Blitzer laughed, and the moment passed seamlessly on live TV. Except it also became a clip heard across the Internet and social media – one that pointed to a reality about faith in America that exists even where, and when, people might least expect it. Vitsmun, who chronicled her decision to flee her house with her son on CNN iReport, is one of 13 million atheists or agnostics in America, according to a 2012 report by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. See Rebecca Vitsmun discuss her decision with CNN's Wolf Blitzer While only 2.4% of Americans are atheists, they fit into a broader category that is on the rise in the United States. Nearly 20% of adults – and a third of those under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated, the Pew report found. This group, which has grown by roughly 5% in five years, is often referred to as the “nones.” It is a term that extends beyond atheists, who believe there is no God, and agnostics, who believe it’s impossible to prove or disprove God’s existence. It includes a greater proportion of people who see themselves as nothing in particular, which means they might be secular, spiritual or believers – but simply don’t identify with an organized religion, said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. “When we ask people questions about their religious identity, when we ask them about their religious beliefs, there are relatively few who are atheists. But I’m speaking in percentage terms,” Smith said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t lots of them around. And they’re certainly all over.” Oklahoma included. In fact, when the Pew Research Center last drilled down to uncover the religious landscape of affiliations on a state level five years ago, 12% of Oklahomans were religiously unaffiliated. And just as the numbers ticked up nationally since then, it stands to reason that they did the same in Oklahoma. We tried to reach Vitsmun by phone Wednesday but were unable to connect. Her friend Waylon Flinn, however, shed some light on who she is. She and her husband, who Flinn said is also an atheist, aren’t the sorts who advertise their beliefs or throw them in people’s faces. When she agreed to go on camera, it wasn’t for that platform; she didn’t even see the Lord question coming. But that she responded to Blitzer the way she did is no surprise to Flinn, who opened his home in nearby Norman to Vitsmun’s family after theirs was destroyed. “She handled it in her style, which is very honest and true to herself,” he said. soundoff (2,486 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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Brothers and sisters livin’ in the path of fury
Mangles fences, coffee pots couch cushion photos movin’ in the air
Most don’t care, it’s rare, make a call make a text lay your soul to bare on a lawn chair
Kids dead mothers dead fathers dead grandmas dead from crushed head trauma bones and blood not from cancer not romantic and not a car crash not a fatal nigga taken life but nature
Players gonna rape, haters gonna hate can’t be upset too much smoke and debris to make my mind set
Some niggas gonna sniff around lookin for a free tv or something they can goof on pound and sound
Some niggas gonna fuck a family with a policy that wasn’t friendly and never helped just took they cash and called them trash
Give it up pick up a shovel rubble trouble is the business not usual and that pool not useable
Wolf – "We are standing here at what can only be described as the end of a rainbow. I see a woman coming though here with a child, let's ask her if she was able to catch the leprechaun and get his gold before he disappeared... Um, Ma'am, did you see the leprechaun who made this rainbow?"
Woman – "Um, no"
Wolf – "Do you think he was just to quick for us this time Ma'am?"
Woman – "No, I don't believe leprechauns exist or that they make rainbows."
Wolf – "What? Are you some kind of crazy person?!"
Woman – "Why would you think i'm crazy because I don't believe in magical little men?"
Wolf – "Well, because so many of the rest of us believe in them! That proves they are real!"
Woman – "So when so many people believed the earth to be flat, did that make it so?"
Wolf – "Of course not! But that has nothing to do with the fact that we know little green men make rainbows, I mean, what other explanation could there be?"
Woman – "Oh, I don't know, light refraction through the prism of a water droplet?"
Wolf – "Well now you're just talking crazy! No simple prism could make such a large and beatifully curved and "designed" rainbow! It has to be Leprechauns!"
Christian – "I'd like to jump in here and remind everyone what Genesis 9:11-13 says "11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth."
Woman – "So God made rainbows only after the flood? So light refraction did not exist until post-flood?"
Wolf – "Hey, we are getting way off topic here as it's obvious to anyone that it was leprechauns who make rainbows!"
Christian – "No! It was God!"
Woman – "sigh"
I have been at the end of two rainbows in my life. One in Kauai and one is Yosemite. No gold was found, but there is a strange greenish blur on my videos as yet unaccounted for...
that poor woman. i've tried using logic and reasoning when debating christians, too. never works. christians hate facts.
and speaking of rainbows in the bible...
as you can read in the passage you quoted, god made rainbows to remind himself that he made a deal never to drown all of humanity again. no, he won't drown you, like he did to those millions of people a few thousand years ago. he drowned babies, the elderly, the infirm, physically disabled, mentally challenged, etc. so whenever you see a rainbow in the sky, you should get a warm fuzzy feeling and be thankful you'll never have your lungs filled with water by god. but god can still smite you with lightning bolts, so watch out!
As a child raised in an evangelical household I never questioned the rainbow thing until high school. Then it struck me that unless the young earth theories are correct, it would mean this planet went through over 4 billion years of water evaporating and rising into the air, then condensating and falling to earth again without ever making a rainbow. The scripture clearly states that God specifically made rainbows post-flood. Did the physics of light refraction not exist pre-flood? Really? Or might it be that the book, one that also says God made the Sun stand still for an entire day that would require the entire solar system and earth rotation to be abruptly halted just so a small band of Jews could defeat their enemies, might be flawed? Maybe? Just maybe? I know just asking those questions throughout most of the last 2000 years would get you sentanced to death, but finally we are able to speak our minds without fear of reprisal.
@ Bootyfunk
You have a 3rd graders understanding and comprehension of the Bible. Yikes.
There is no "end of the rainbow." You can't ever "get there." Science is your friend.
@OMG
excuses. you dont' like what your holy book says, your embarrassed because it makes the bible look silly, so you attack me instead. try attacking the argument instead of the arguer.
OMG
"You have a 3rd graders understanding and comprehension of the Bible"
That would explain why so many Christians don't follow the Bible and ignore the Golden Rule. Or is it just because of HYPOCRISY for so many?
@Apple Bush............. "I have been at the end of two rainbows in my life. One in Kauai and one is Yosemite. No gold was found, but there is a strange greenish blur on my videos as yet unaccounted for.."
You sneezed on the lens....
"You have a 3rd graders understanding and comprehension of the Bible. Yikes."
Which sounds more like a 3rd grader speaking about the flood:
"In the flood God drowned babies, the elderly, the infirm, physically disabled, mentally challenged, etc."
"In the flood God washed away the bad people."
@Observer
@ That would explain why so many Christians don't follow the Bible and ignore the Golden Rule. Or is it just because of HYPOCRISY for so many?
Probably hypocrisy. Christians are human just like ther rest of us.
♪♪♪I've got a big butt and I can not lie, AtheistMoron is my guy.♪♪♪
....yet believers claim atheists spew hate and divisive comments...
The entire situation with this article was born from Blitzer's arrogant presumption. The woman even tried to politely ignore him the first time. So whose really guilty of poor thought?
♪♪♪when phony HS walks in with an itty bitty dick and the real HS's cameltoe in his face, he gets sprung♪♪♪
♪♪♪oh baby i wanna make a b-line, yes with your feline♪♪♪
keep it going, this is fun!
♪♪♪The real Tom Tom tried to warn me, but her ad hominems make me me me, so horny.♪♪♪
Tom, describe yourself under your own handle. Or, you can tell it to your make believe husband.
♪♪♪oooh! Bootyfunk's skin is getting a rubbin down with my hands♪♪♪
Cough, Cough Excuse me, excuse me, but this ain't your average doo-bie
let's thank the courageous and hard-working first responders - not an invisible sky fairy that doesn't exist.
One of the pet peeves of doctors, and especially E.R. doctors and nurses is that after lots of hard work that took them years to develop the skills for, the patients and their families will thank god and leave without thanking the people who actually did something.
YOU are giving dialectical choices?? That's speakin' like a dragon, the original copycat. Does God give that choice, Your Royal Obliqueness??
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit injecting meth.
lol??
take your right hand off your junk and type with both hands - it'll make your posts much more comprehensible.
christianity is a cult. ALL religions are cults. when a cult is accepted by society, it becomes a religion. when a religion has no more cult members, it becomes a mythology.cults are bad for you. cults teach you to turn off you brain. lol??, you seem to have been fully lobotomized.
My personal opinion of Blitzer went down a fistful of notches when he just had to let drop on his CNN show that he had a date with Mila Kunis.
Get real Gramps.
Sounds like it was one date because you just ain't that good.
What an ego to put someone on the spot and controversy after such a catastrophe.
Poor Mila must have lost a bet.
Our Hearts & Prayers Go Out To Moore, Oklahoma
following link posted for image on top
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/21/who-hears-prayersforoklahoma/
. . . where God did some serious ass-kicking!
a beautiful reflection suffices:
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130522105830-oklahoma-praying-story-top.jpg
Panic drives the emotionally driven and stress hinders those spiritually blinded on both sides of the fences. Let go and let God's unknowable wisdom be one's spirited guide: provided one can see the clarities of dumbfounded vainness tripping ever upon one’s own mindedness shadow of doubtfulness. A sober man might not ever have imbibed of the drunkenness but a drunken man knows well the 12 drinks' drank in drunken revelries of their long owned 10 fallacies of dirtied emotionalisms.
Therefore, try to treat one and another with kindness filled ‘indignities’ and pleasing vetted aromas along with nurtured emblematic voiced and/or written abundances. Suffer toward others not, lest you are among the suffering also, for nothing but tempered goodness is availed unto humanisms' suffrages of cooperative understanding issuances. God hears not the lowly mumblings of human suffrages and is not moved nor swayed by the conditional e c u m e n I c a l swerves as being nothing but filtrated background noises. God is as a tempest teapot and we are the waters inside the teapot waiting ever to be vented!
I always get a giggle out of LaLa's hubris in writing so foppishly and thinking he is poetical and brilliant.
Your mental state has been compromised by Christianity, therefore your argument is invalid.
LL does that both foppishly and fappishly too, hey Danny 🙂
Check it
Check it
This story unbelievable wolf crossing lines and getting answers he expected all the time and
pretending he's surprised while baiting this victim baby and
she humors with a bit about belief and
the internet fall apart with fun and fury and
can't dig it can't live can't say it can't do it won't change it won't phase it won't play it won't pay it
Uh, uh uh
everybody sayin' where's my house where's my house yo
everybody sayin' thank the lord thank the lord yo
stupid niggas thanking god for destruction yo
stupid niggas brainless motherfuckers playin' games with peoples brothers
fuck it get a shovel be a player not a hater give a hand to any neighbor. Peace.
At first glance, I didn't like this... but after reading it a few times with a little beat going in the background... I have to say it's no more offensive in language than any other rap song... and the message is clear and strong... "Fight the Power!"
Right on my brother.
@richunix "I get sick-and-tied of Religious folks, quoting the Bible as extant, yet most are clueless about it’s origins"
=>The bible is indeed an astounding doc with an astounding history, an objective examination reveals there simply is no equal to it in any ancient historical doc.
The NT for example:
The New Testament has been preserved in more than 5,800 Greek manuscripts, 10,000 Latin manuscripts and 9,300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages including Syriac, Slavic, Ethiopic and Armenian. Even if the original Greek versions were lost, the entire New Testament could still be as sembled from the translations.In addition, there are so many quotes from the New Testament in early church docu ments and commentaries that the entire New Testament could also be as sembled from these alone.
There are far fewer witnesses to cla ssical texts than to the Bible, and unlike the New Testament where the earliest witnesses are often within a couple decades of the original, the earliest existing manuscripts of most clas sical texts were written about a millennium after their composition. For example, the earliest surviving copies of parts of the Roman historian Tacitus' main work, the Annals of Imperial Rome (written in 116 AD), come from a single manuscript written in 850 AD, although for other parts of his work, the earliest copies come from the 11th century, while other parts of his work have been lost.[109] The earliest copies of The Jewish War by Josephus (originally composed in the 1st century AD), in contrast, come from nine manuscripts written in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries.[109]
After the Bible, the next best preserved ancient work is Homer's Iliad, with 650 copies originating about 1,000 years after the original copy.
Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War (written in the 50s BC) survives in nine copies written in the 8th century.[112] Thucydides' history of the Peloponesian War and Herodotus' history of the Persian War (both written in the 5th century BC) survives in about eight early copies, the oldest ones dating from the 10th century AD.[112] Biblical scholar F. F. Bruce has said "the evidence for our New Testament writings is ever so much greater than the evidence for many writings of clas sical authors, the authenticity of which no one dreams of questioning...It is a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament records than have many theologians."
You tell 'em Chad. Wave that little => for everyone to see. That's me boy 🙂
To funny NOT Chad
Atheists Fight Gideon Bibles With Books By Christopher Hitchens And Richard Dawkins In Georgia State Parks
http://www.ibtimes.com/atheists-fight-gideon-bibles-books-christopher-hitchens-richard-dawkins-georgia-state-parks-1271125
RDFRS: Florida Teen Fights Back Against Bible ... – Richard
http://www.richarddawkins.net/news_articles/2013/1/22/florida-teen-fights-back-against-bible-distribution-at-his-school#
May 23, 2013 at 12:46 pm | Report abuse |
We can toss out the bible entirely with one question: why does an omnipotent creature need to use a book to present its story and do its marketing?
Why not instantly just get the message into us with less than a thought? The reason, of course, is that Christian god does not exist. People like Chad/Rachel will find myriad ways to blab about their beliefs and try to sell others on them, but at the end of the day, Christianity is a giant farce.
Of course, there are many other problems with the bible and Christianity, but it helps to keep Christians focused on one so they don't do their usual dodges and you can yank them back to the topic.
God is invisible and undetectable, and therefore, irrelevant. Just think if humans the world over were as certain of god's attributes as they are of the principles of math and chemistry! Without anything to measure, god is just empty conjecture and arrogant philosophy. Tinkling brass and sounding cymbals.
@Gordo
@Why not instantly just get the message into us with less than a thought?
Why didn’t God just make us robots?
Why doesn’t God just force us to adore and worship him?
Because that wouldn’t be love.
God wants our hearts, not our brains. He doesn’t need our brains.
That is why we talk about having a relationship with God. That is what we are created for.
Open the Bible and start reading: the first thing you get is a creation story. The next thing you get is a different creation story. The ole bullshit detector should go off right then and there.
If you can stand the absurdity to get that far, you will find four totally different and incompatible resurrection stories.
There's more, but the point is obvious: you must be very very very gullible to read it and think it must be true.
@Gordo "We can toss out the bible entirely with one question: why does an omnipotent creature need to use a book to present its story and do its marketing?"
@Chad "you probably didnt realize that the bible is actually just a written account of the interactions that God has had with man over the course of ~2500 years, culminating in the death/resurrection of Jesus Christ.
A lot of people who have never read it as sume it is some kind of owners manual or something..
===
@Gordo "Why not instantly just get the message into us with less than a thought? "
@Chad "A. Actually that is exactly what happens to Christians with the indwelling Holy Spirit.
B. how would you have done it? Remember, no interfering with free will, you wouldnt do that with your wife (make here love you), so dont have God do it with us. 🙂
@ Cpt. Obvious
Sounds like you want a God you can control and manipulate. Good luck with that.
Here is the good news: You need a God who is bigger, more nimble and mysterious than your ability to understand God.
And that God exists.
Not everyone uses math or chemistry or even cares about the principles. The same would be true of god if he made himself as obvious and testable as the proven results of math and chemistry; people would choose to ignore his will just as they currently choose to remain ignorant of the powerful principles of math and chemistry.
the bible has unicorns, dragons, satyrs and c.ockatrice in it. there are talking donkeys and talking snakes. a guy lives in the belly of a whale for 3 days. the bible would be the silliest book ever written if it wasn't for the violence and bigotry also sown in. there is more wisdom in any dr seuss book than in all of the bible.
@ Representative of the Lollypop Kids
You found a flaw in the Bible. Somebody should edit that out before more smart atheists like you catch on...
...or maybe there is something more to this origin story.
Maybe you need to close one eye, tilt your head and look at it from a different angle.
God is speaking to our hearts – not our mind.
Our minds do not impress God – he created the universe – but you can love like he does.
Everyone controls and manipulates their god – because it is just your imagination. That's why God always agrees with you and disagrees with the people you disagree with.
No, OMG, I don't, but I expect people to treat god the way he presents himself: as invisible and undetectable. I have an invisible and undetectable diamond, that's as big as a refrigerator, in my garage and the bank keeps treating it as non-existant. Hmmmm..
@ Danny Boy
That’s not God.
When people like OMG tell me that God does not want me to use my brain, it's safe to say they are selling snake oil.
Chad...Public Announcement
Chad is a liar, waste your time if you wish but Chad is a liar.
Sorry Chad, it's impossible to be a christian and believe in free will. Try again.
@Captain Some people wouldn't understand Math and Chemistry thus not able to explain it, which is exactly what is happening in this blog, and for the unbeliever.
God is real – there are very intelligent and sound minded individual with wonderful testimonies about how they have detected God in their lives.
You mention math and chemistry – I can point out some Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. geniuses in math and chemistry that believe in God. They believe they are studying God's creation.
God's ways are not our ways.
"After the Bible, the next best preserved ancient work is Homer's Iliad, with 650 copies originating about 1,000 years after the original copy."
And likewise Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are not taken a face value, especially the supernatural parts like Apollo causing a plague and bags of winds. Even whether Homer actually wrote them is disputed.
@ Representative of the Lollypop Kids
God gave us a brain to use – I imagine he wants us to use it.
I didn't say God doesn't want you to use your brain.
I said God isn't impressed by your brain.
BIG difference.
"God is real"
The believers of every religion say that about their god. They also say everyone else's god is not real.
And not one has the tiniest shred of evidence.
OMG...Public Announcement
It appears that OMG is also a liar, carry on.
OMG, smart people don't disagree about math and chemistry, they disagree about god. Now do you get it?
Do people gather 1-7 days a week and read from "Homer's Iliad"?
Do they sing together, love each other and help other people in the name of a god from that book?
Does this happen all over the world – even in places where doing so is illegal and punishable with death?
How would you know what impresses God? Here's a hint: imagination.
OMG is working very hard to portray itself to be a Christian, it is not a Christian.
Actually, OMG, 2,500 years ago they DID do all that. Ancient Greeks believed those tales just as truly and fervently as you believe yours. Socrates was executed in part for supposedly questioning them.
@OMG
They get together like that over the Koran. Are you saying that the Koran is true?
JMEF
I do lie sometimes.
You don't ever lie?
What are you, some kind of saint?
Post by 'OMG' contains instances of the Ad Populum Fallacy.
http://fallacyfiles.org/glossary.html
@ Representative of the Lollypop Kids
Because God created us to be in a relationship with us. He is our Heavenly Father – we are his children.
Jesus said God's most important commandments are : Love God (our creator) and Love Others (our brothers and sisters).
What Jesus preached was very spiritual and action oriented.... not material and belief oriented.
That's what I imagine.
@ Fallacy Spotting 101
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2010/06/20/inside_the_mind_of_the_anonymous_online_poster/
Inside the mind of the anonymous online poster
These users comment on everything from today’s news to hotel rooms. Many are harmless. But some are ruthless. Who are they exactly, and why do they do what they do?
OMG
I am not Christ like (see Chad for that), I am more like the anti-Christ we do not except your ideas of "sin", no turn the other cheek in our crowd, that is supposed to be your gig even though you Christians suck at it . Perfect in the sense that I do not need some crutch to live by, yes I guess I am.
@ Cpt. Obvious
@ They get together like that over the Koran. Are you saying that the Koran is true?
Do they help those in need?
OMG, it is just an imagining that you have. I can imagine a Giant Purple Raccoon in the distant universe that controls us all and is about to make you drink ten gallons of prune juice while you are prostrate on the floor clipping the toenails of salamanders, but that doesn't make it true. You are missing having the evidence, as usual, and your god stories contradict themselves.
Come on, open up and drink that juice...only 20,000 more salamanders to go...
Yes, they do, as do most religions with "holy book"s.
JMEF
Some people need a crutch. We aren't perfect.
I was taught in elementary school not to make fun or treat someone differently who is using a crutch. That was literally, speaking of someone who is disabled.
But really, what is the difference.
Emotionally, spiritually, physically... we all may need a crutch to get through this life.
At least I belong to a church where they welcome me and say that it is ok.
It is ok to have a crutch.
OMG, FS101 nailed you plain and simple. You got PWNED big time, sonny.
Ernest T Bass
He said 1 post – demonstrated that.
But he failed to illustrate his point. He just posted anonymously and didn't describe what he meant.
Can you explain what he meant?
OMG is sort of making progress. Seems to be admitting that his god story is just a crutch, anyway. One small step forward...
OMG, a crutch is not a good thing if it leads you to wrong actions, such as the bible does. Don't eat those shellfish...and watch out for those cloven talking snake virgins...or was that hooves...
@OMG, "he just posted anonymously" -They did provide an http.
=>how is 'OMG' not anonymous??? Never met anyone with that name before.
Barry
The Bible is not my crutch. The bible is a collection of stories, genealogy, poetry, songs, fiction, parables, ancient wisdom, testimonies –
The Bible certainly is not my GOd. It points to God... other books do this, too. I don't worship the Bible.
God is my crutch. God is alive and helps me every day.
He can help you to.
OMG
Do I have empathy/sympathy for someone physically disabled, of course. You may have noticed that scientific advancement are making great strides in prosthetics and making life easier for the disabled and I have yet to hear of anyone praying to god to have a limb replaced and eureka, it grew back. As for those that need help with mental disorders or addicts or whatever, I maintain getting professional help is far more effective than the god crutch, delusion is just delusion. I did not realize it until you asked but I am pretty damn perfect, like Chad, I have never been wrong in my own mind, such as it is.
OMG
Can you explain John 14:6 ?
Yes, nicely put.
Before I had God – my crutch was alcohol. Or sax. Or my self-righteousness.
And then my crutch was 'professional help'. That got expensive.
And then learned about God's will...
There is something about getting on my knees, honestly admitting my shortcomings and asking God for help.
God has never failed me. I can't say that about anything else.
Chad "After the Bible, the next best preserved ancient work is Homer's Iliad, with 650 copies originating about 1,000 years after the original copy."
.
Do you believe everything in Homer's Illiad?
@ Chancellor John 14:6
Jesus is talking to his disciples. They are full of fear and apprehension. They don't seem to have any faith in anything that Jesus has said or done.
Jesus tried to comfort them – preparing them for his death and resurrection.
He was asked a question by (doubting) Thomas:
“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered Thomas' question:
(this was a private conversation – not a preaching Jesus did in front of the masses)
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Thomas still doubted. He asked Jesus to show him God.
And then Jesus tells him about God – and the holy spirit.
OMG
What is a private conversation versus a conversation for the masses?
OMG
You said "The Bible certainly is not my GOd. It points to God... other books do this, too"
Which other books are you talking about?
@ What is a private conversation versus a conversation for the masses?
He was answering a question asked of him.
A lot of people reference that verse out of context.
@ Which other books are you talking about?
I find "The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus Christ" by Peter Gomes helpful.
Also, lots of secular literature.
That the meaning of parts of that absurd collection of mostly fables know as the bible is even in dispute, is further evidence that the book itself, and the religion that it is used to prop up, is a complete steaming pile of bull manure, entirely man-made and not some divine or divinely inspired thing. Christianity is a giant ponzi scheme and self-perpetuating meme, successful in weak and gullible people, but with no substance and no reality to its absurd claims.
That the meaning of parts of that absurd collection of mostly fables known as the bible is even in dispute, is further evidence that the book itself, and the religion that it is used to prop up, is a complete steaming pile of bull manure, entirely man-made and not some divine or divinely inspired thing. Christianity is a giant ponzi scheme and self-perpetuating meme, successful in weak and gullible people, but with no substance and no reality to its absurd claims.
@ Bob
You need to look up the definition of ponzi scheme.
Jesus Christ pretty much says you will be financially poor and hated if you follow him – not rich.
That the meaning of parts of that absurd collection of mostly fables known as the bible is even in dispute, is further evidence that the book itself, and the religion that it is used to prop up, is a complete steaming pile of bull manure, entirely man-made and not some divine or divinely inspired thing. Christianity is indeed a giant ponzi scheme and self-perpetuating meme, successful in weak and gullible people, but with no substance and no reality to its absurd claims.
That the meaning of parts of that absurd collection of mostly fables known as the bible is even in dispute, is further evidence that the book itself, and the religion that it is used to prop up, is a complete steaming pile of bull manure, entirely man-made and not some divine or divinely inspired thing. Christianity is indeed a giant ponzi scheme (note the promises of future profits, OMG, you moron) and self-perpetuating meme, successful in weak and gullible people, but with no substance and no reality to its absurd claims.
Hey, Bob –
What you say doesn't align with what Jesus says – sorry.
Can you post some proof to your ideas?
MG
The book the scandalous gospel... is in direct contradiction with what the Bible teaches about the divinity of Christ and Christ as God.
John 14:6 is an exclusive statement that Jesus makes of Himself as the only true path to God, irrespective of who he was addressing to at that time, in this case it was Thomas.
Jesus is addressing Thomas and everyone who has heard His name, He is making available the path to salvation to anyone that believes in Him. There is nothing private about this conversation.This is the path of salvation offered by God to reconcile God with man.
Unless we believe in the atoning sacrifice that Christ made for us and repent of our sins and accept Him as our Lord and Savior there is no salvation and eternal life, just as Jesus Himself said in the Bible.
There is only one God and that is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible.
There is only path to salvation and that is through Christ Jesus.
Chancellor
@ The book the scandalous gospel... is in direct contradiction with what the Bible teaches about the divinity of Christ and Christ as God.
According to who?
-----
"Christian exclusiveness, for that is what the lack of charity suggests, cannot face the requirements of modesty, the notion that all is not known and that we do not know all. When devout Christians believe that only Christians of a particular doctrinal stripe have access to God, that, for example, God hears their prayers only, they stand in cosmic immodesty. The Christian Bible more than once makes the point that God’s ways are not our ways, and that the mind of God is vastly different from our own minds. Thus, when Christians state categorically that Jews, or Muslims, or believers in other faith systems are outside the provisions of God, they utter arrogant nonsense. A respectful agnosticism is called for when often there is offered in its place a self-interested certainty. If God is the God of all, and not just a tribal deity, then God has made provision, not necessarily known to us, for the healing and care of all his creation, and not simply our little part of it.
J. B. Phillips observed many years ago that one’s God is too small if within God’s providence there is no care and awareness of the other. This is what the hymn writer F. W. Faber meant in “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” when he said:
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind:;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
If there is any good news that is truly good news for everybody, and not just for a few somebodies, it is this: God is greater and more generous than the best of those who profess to know and serve him. This is the radical nonconformity with the conventional wisdom that Jesus both proclaimed and exemplified, and, alas, it cost him his life. Will we hope to fare any better, as disciples of his nonconformity?"
– Peter Gomes
To know about what Christ said and who Christ is, all you need is ,to read the Bible. Simple as that.
There is only one God and that is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible.
There is only path to salvation and that is through Christ Jesus
@ To know about what Christ said and who Christ is, all you need is ,to read the Bible. Simple as that.
I don't think so. Some people can't read. Some have learning problems or are blind. Are they outside of God's provisions?
Some people need help – they need to understand the context of what the Bible says. It is important to have a good teacher and be in a community that can help teach you about the Bible.
Is God not the God of atheists, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Native Americans, etc?
I don't think I want to limit God with my poor understandings.
I'll let God be God... I'll be "OMG".
@OMG
I think you just pointed out a major flaw in gods plan. If his message is supposed to be spread through the bible and there are blind or illiterate people out there, those people are relying on the bias opinion of man to relay the important parts.
You would think god, in his infinite wisdom, would product something that everyone, regardless of station in life, would be able to receive the word perfectly direct from god to you.
Makes you wonder huh.....
I don't think the message is supposed to be spread solely by the Bible.
I don't understand God's ways. They are different from human ways.
I do know God is real and alive. I've been encouraged to look at the Bible as pointing to something happening right now – not just something that happened thousands of years ago.
@OMG
I rolled my eyes so hard they are still spinning in my head. What you just said was pretty much a way to trick yourself into rationalizing why a perfect god has so many imperfections. You want to believe so hard that it's us, not god, who are spreading his message wrong.
Please, please, please, please, think about this for a moment.
If we aren't supposed to get our message from god from the bible, then how are we supposed to? By man? Have you ever played telephone? Have you ever played it across many miles? what about over the course of many years? Generations? Think of how much a message can warp when it's being passed down from person to person.
"You would think god, in his infinite wisdom, would product something that everyone, regardless of station in life, would be able to receive the word perfectly direct from god to you. "
Prayer and meditation.
God has given us the free will to choose the path to eternal life
Each individual is responsible to make that choice for themselves, there is no coercion in belief.
He is a God of love and he yearns to have a relationship with all of mankind, it is up to man to chose or reject the path to life offered by him.
omg-If you choose to remain a pantheist, so be it! you must have peace with the decision you made for yourself? right? Then make your belief known, don't go around beating the bush, you are just fooling no one but yourself.
@ rationalizing why a perfect god has so many imperfections.
How can an imperfect being (a human being) declare what a perfect being 'should' do?
@OMG
Really? That's it? Just prayer and mediation? You think that's actually the best way that god could reveal himself?
Prayer implies you have to believe in god first. I'm sure you agree with me that if I tried to pray right now to your god believing full well he doesn't exist, nothing would happen. Same stands to reason for the aborignals in Australia, or African tribes, etc...
Meditation is only slightly different but considering the amount of meditation that buddhists and hindus do on a daily basis and yet still stay in their respective religions kind of nips that idea in the bud don't it?
I think you're going to have to try again, but please think about it this time.
@OMG
If perfection is having a Tornado sweep into OK and kill dozens of people, then I guess I'd rather stay imperfect.
If a perfect being with unlimited powers of creation made cancer, I would rather believe in an imperfect benevolent god who sees how horrible cancer is and doesn't make it in the first place.
As an "imperfect being", why shouldn't I have the ability to point out imperfections, especially when they aren't supposed to exist in the first place? Again, you are trying to pass the blame and guilt onto yourself and man rather than understand the multi.tude of issues surrounding a supposed omnipotent, perfect being.
Ron –
Jesus Christ asks me to love God and to love other people.
Jesus loved those people in His time that the religious and anti-pantheist people at the time thought were outside of God's provision.
Why would Jesus Christ stop loving someone if they died as a pantheist?
Is Jesus Christ trying to save God's whole creation – or just those who believe in the right thing. Jesus is like a magical puppy in the pound – and if you just choose and believe correctly – you will be loved by God.
But if you are a pantheist, God can't help you?
@ Chuckles
God's creation is imperfect, that is why we have tragedies like tornadoes.
God gives us the strength to endure these tragedies.
I love God. I am grateful to be a part of God's creation. And I will follow his light through this valley of despair.
He promises death is not the final outcome. He promises all our pain and sorrow will be healed.
Prayer and meditation works.
We call that our conscious contact with God.
Millions of people practice it every day.
@OMG
Ok.... so, now we have a perfect being creating an imperfect creation so more of his imperfect creations can suffer so they can ultimately die and go to the perfect place? Any you accept all this without hesitating because ..... well I guess just because huh.
God has given every body the free will to choose him. He loves all human beings equally. Pantheist or not, doesn't matter to him. He loves everyone equally.
It is up to an individual who has heard the gospel to accept the him or reject him.
If you made the choice to reject him, it is ultimately your choice to reject Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, he came to this world with a plan and that plan was to redeem mankind from eternal separation. All he asks is to repent of the sins and accept him as Lord and savior, there is no other way to heaven, but through him
As someone already pointed , the one true God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This God offers his love to all who accept him.
@OMG
Prayer obviously does not work. If you pray for an outcome, it either happens or it doesn't but there was no third party involved. Just because you want to attach a "god said no in this case and said "yes" in that other case" only makes sense in a vacuum. Can you explain why god cares if the 49er's win a football enough to answer yes but sees a starving child in the street and says "naw, forget about it"
Meditation "works" how exactly? Buddhists monks are meditating almost all day everyday, how many have converted? .... Looks like meditation works, but only for buddhists, and hindus I guess.....
OMG
"God's creation is imperfect, that is why we have tragedies like tornadoes."
If it can't get creation right why do you trust it to guide you through life and to get you to heaven for the afterlife you believe in?
@ Ron
What is the Gospel?
It didn't even seem like Jesus' disciples knew what was going on when Jesus died (they all ran away) and was resurrected (they doubted) and ascended into heaven (they began to debate who and who wasn't in God's provision).
Do you know more than the people that knew the living and breathing Jesus?
@ Chuckles
If I pray for knowledge of God's will for me and the power to carry it out – it works.
Prayer works. Not in the way you want it to.
Better. In God's way.
@ Santa
Who says God didn't get it right?
It is just not perfect.
God created imperfect human beings.
He seems to love imperfect beings.
Otherwise he would of just built robots that obeyed his commands.
@OMG
Show me one time where prayer has actually, physically worked. I'm not talking about asking for "strength" and then getting it. I'm talking about you'r strolling along on a beautiful sunny day, there's not a single cloud in the sky, you pray for rain and BOOM rain immediately starts to pour.
Prayer does not work. If it did, then have a go at it, pray to your god right now to convert me.
I said prayer
– not granting my demands.
I don't think having a good that fullfills my every want and desire is a good thing for me.
God gives me everything I need – not what I want.
Can you name 1 thing I lack that I need?
(prayer – A solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.)
@OMG
You didn't answer my question, when has prayer every physically worked.
You've also brought up another issue then altogether though. If prayer is god giving you what you need and not what you want, why do you have to go through the motion in the first place? Why wouldn't god just send what you need when you need it, or even better, before you need it?
Salvation comes to man by no one other than Christ. You have to repent of your sins and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and obey him to have eternal life. There is no other path set by God for salvation. Christ is the ONLY WAY to eternal life.
@ You didn't answer my question, when has prayer every physically worked.
What do you mean physically worked?
Like a medical miracle?
@ You've also brought up another issue then altogether though. If prayer is god giving you what you need and not what you want, why do you have to go through the motion in the first place? Why wouldn't god just send what you need when you need it, or even better, before you need it?
God created us to be in a relationship with Him.
The Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – it is all about a relationship.
@OMG
1. Any medical miracle would do, anything that happened in direct effect from a miracle. Just one instance where it was clearly prayer, and only prayer that intervened and created an outcome that would not have already happened had no one prayed.
2. That one blew right past you huh? I guess what you're trying to say is that god wants you to keep asking him for stuff because he would rather you constantly talk his ear off just to have someone to talk to rather than give you what you need without asking? This really makes sense to you? If you would apply this to the real world, with a different person, you would be ok with this? Have you ever had someone control all of your finances and would rather be constantly badgered about asking for money and doling it out every so often vs. just letting you control your own finances and still having the relationship without all the giving and taking.
C'mon OMG, please show you are actually thinking about this.
@Ron
How does God want you to carry on the good news of Jesus Christ?
Chuckles –
2 That one blew right past you huh?
"You've also brought up another issue then altogether though. If prayer is god giving you what you need and not what you want, why do you have to go through the motion in the first place? Why wouldn't god just send what you need when you need it, or even better, before you need it?"
RELATIONSHIP.
That is why God wants us to pray and ask for what we need.
HE WANTS TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP FOR US. THAT IS WHY HE CREATED US.
I don't know why He wants it that way.
You can't make someone love you. That isn't love.
An imperfect beings love for his Creator may be the greatest thing in all of the universe.
God says love will never die – the Earth, the stars, The United States – all of these will have an end.
Love knows no end.
Salvation is available to all those who confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, repenting of sins and acknowledging him as Lord.
1. God's will, not mine be done.
Now, you have the free will to choose Jesus Christ as your lord, repent of your sins or walk away and be separated from him for eternity, that choice is totally yours to make.
@OMG
Ugh, I guess you'll never actually tug at the thread to unravel this whole sweater. I seriously urge you to consider what you've written so far and apply it to reality. This idea of a "relationship" where "love" exists in the form of "love me or burn" is not true love and does not make sense.
Why god would create an imperfect creation to love him doesn't seem strange to you? We're getting close to achieving true artificial intelligence, we could even program the robots to love us, but will we? Probably in the most cosmetic sense for the people who are socially awkward and year for love and can't find it among the living, but why would god need love?
C'mon OMG, please for the love of Odin, think!
Chuckles –
It seems like since God doesn't do things your way – he is doing it wrong.
Maybe He knows better than you.
I don't know.
I have serenity in my life today. I trust and love God.
I think, God loves me, too. Warts and all.
Anyway, I'm tired of your insults. Later.
@OMG
Riiiight, that must be it. If I had "my" way, cancer wouldn't exist. How awful of me. If it was up to me and I had omnipotence, I would create a world where evil didn't exist. How silly of me to question the being that supposedly does have this power. Silly Chuckles.
It's nice to pretend that something loves you, regardless of your faults, doesn't make it any more real, it just makes you feel a little better.
But hey, I guess I'm insulting because I thought you were capable of thinking and applying what you were typing to reality. I'm awful right?
@ Ron
This sound very much like "cut and paste" info.
Before I was a Christian – something like that meant absolutely nothing to me.
It sounded like God was small and only loving towards those that were born into the right family.
Can you say why you personally trust in Jesus? From your heart?
Sometimes our trials and setbacks make us stronger people.
If I got everything I wanted – I'd be a spoiled brat.
@OMG
Well I'm glad then that a friends mother had to die from cancer so she wouldn't be a spoiled brat. I guess there wasn't any other way right? I mean, how spoiled of her to want her mom around when she graduated from college, or got married or had her first kid, as long as she's safe from being spoiled I guess it was worht the agonizing year and a half of chemo and inevitable death of her mom....
Sorry if that laid on the sarcasm a little thick, but again you are thinking when I say "pray for x" you are inserting xbox instead of what I think is more nobel, like world peace.
Why accept Christ? the answer is for Salvation.
Again, the message of the salvation is this ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, repent and accept him as Lord and savior for eternal life. There is no other path to salvation and eternal life other than through Jesus Christ.
Look at the big picture –
Scripture promises life will be hard. There will be ups and downs. Good times and bad times.
We live in a fallen world – one that has failed to live up to its ideals.
Sitting around hoping for only good times – not a good idea.
God can help us through these tough times.
@OMG
Yes, we live in a fallen world because god allows it. He could pick up this world at any moment but chooses to keep it fallen because.....
You are right that sitting around and doing nothing helps no one, and yet at my friend's moms funeral there were two types of people. One group who said "I'll pray for you" and then the helpful people who brought food, companionship, friendship and anything else they could do to take action. At no point did my friend need god to help her, she did it on her own.
Wallowing and allowing yourself to believe that bad things happen because god is trying to teach you something is rationalizing something that makes no sense. A benevolent god wouldn't cause the murder and mayhem that's been present in the world for the entireity of human history. A benevolent god wouldn't have allowed the holocaust, the crusades, the inquisition, the genocide in rwanda, the bloodshed in syria to teach some people lessons. Trying to rationalize these events has god knowing better than you is about the worst thing you can do for your fellow man, believing there is good in the murder of innocent people.
@ Again, the message of the salvation is this ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins, repent and accept him as Lord and savior for eternal life. There is no other path to salvation and eternal life other than through Jesus Christ.
Sorry, but you sound very over-churched.
The message of Christ is to love other people. Not copy and paste your theology.
If you are a pantheist you would think that good works will lead you to heaven. What good works? how much good works? How many time is life going to recycled? Is anyone perfect for this cycle of reincarnation/ rebirth to end to take them to heaven?
The Bible very clearly says , all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, you have to be perfect to go to heaven and no man can ever be perfect, that is why God paved the way as the reconciliation between fallen man and God and paid the sin debt of man in full on the Cross, he bore the sins of the world. Everyone that believes in him will not perish but have life eternal.
Why would anyone want to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord? their eternity depends on accepting Christ Jesus as their savior and repenting of their sins.
@ "Yes, we live in a fallen world because god allows it. He could pick up this world at any moment but chooses to keep it fallen because....."
he still loves us?
it will get better?
there is still hope?
evil will not win?
@OMG
None of those were answers, they were hopeful rationalizations why an omnipotent god wouldn't mend the world to make it whole again and allow his creations who he supposedly loves, to suffer.
@ Ron
I don't consider myself a pantheist. You labeled me as that.
Jesus Christ is my Lord.
I don't believe my good works will get me into heaven.
I'm not trying to get into heaven –
I'm trying to do what Jesus asks us to do: Love God and Love Others.
Yes, Christ message is about love, every Christian strives to love their neighbor as themselves.
Above all else, the purpose for Christ on planet earth was to offer SALVATION to mankind, this salvation is available to all those who believe in him as their Lord and Savior and repent of their sins and obey him. That is why he commanded all his disciples to reach out to all mankind in love and share the message of salvation to the ends of the earth.
@ Ron
@If you are a pantheist you would think that good works will lead you to heaven.
How are these not 'good works'?
– Asking Jesus to forgive your sins?
– Repent?
– And accept him as Lord and Savior?
You do these 'good works' and you will get into heaven.
Your 'good works' are better than the pantheists 'good works'?
Explain please?
Looks like you are having trouble with this
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the father except through him.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him, will not perish but have eternal life.
Look, it is very simple SALVATION cannot come from good works, neither mine nor any one else. It comes from believing in Jesus Christ as Lord, it comes from God who was supreme sacrifice on the cross, who paid the sin debt in full on the cross for all of mankind.
No man can ever be perfect, that is why we cannot go to heaven by good works. The only path to heaven is by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as savior, repenting of sins and obeying him. A Christian is no more perfect that anyone else, it is purely the redemptive power of Christ that saves a Christian from eternal separation from almighty God.
But you keep listing good works:
Ask, repent, accept – these are works.
You are earning something (heaven) by doing these good works.
No?
Jesus Christ – that is good news for some.
But bad news for those born in the wrong country?
Bad news for a boy molested by his priest that suffers from PTSD whenever he thinks of Jesus.
Bad news for somebody who does ask for Jesus when being attacked by a street gang – and nothing happens and suffers brain damage. He can't comprehend what you mean by "God sent His only son"
Are you sure Jesus can't love other people – outside your understanding of God?
Your God sounds smaller and less loving than my God.
My God sent Jesus Christ.
For His whole creation. Not just the people that happen to join the correct church and say the magic words.
OMG, we can see here that even your fellow god fraud sellers interpret your book of horrors differently than you do. So, again, that the meaning of parts of that absurd collection of mostly fables known as the bible is even in dispute, is further evidence that the book itself, and the religion that it is used to prop up, is a complete steaming pile of bull manure, entirely man-made and not some divine or divinely inspired thing.
Your whole religion is also based on false premises regarding sacrifice, and you simply lack the guts to live without your sky fairy beliefs, so you will go to great lengths to prop them up. Same as others of your sorry, fraudulent blood cult.
Salvation cannot be earned, it is a gift that you receive from God when you choose to believe and accept the path to redemption and eternal life in Christ Jesus.
It is not by works or good works.
When a Christian accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior ,repenting of their sins and obeying him, God assures them of eternal life.
The last sentence should actually read as,
When a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior ,repenting of their sins and obeying him, God assures them of eternal life.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved and it comes from Jesus Christ.
Where is the love for neighbor in what you say?
Your theology sounds like a guide to getting into heaven – I think you missed Jesus' point.
Why the parables – why didn't he just say what you simply said?
--
Matt. 25:31-40
Jesus gives us faith to get through this world.
When we die – and meet Jesus face to face, we won't need faith anymore.
And if he is who he says he is – he will be there when we die.
And not just for the people who 'choose' correctly.
Jesus forgave people of their sins – even though he knew they would sin again. He forgave them of their future sins.
I cannot believe in Jesus because I do not believe in zombies.
The good news is, most people don't believe in God anymore. How could they? It is absurd!
Somebody told me the largest Christian revival in the history of the world is happening right now in China.
Wait what..More than 9 in 10 Americans still say "yes" when asked the basic question "Do you believe in God?"; this is down only slightly from the 1940s, when Gallup first asked this question.
Excellent breading ground. It should make them sufficiently extreme and violent to fight future wars. And there will be wars with China.
Mark, people answer yes to fit in and not be rejected. People lie. Christianity is far to stupid for average people to actually embrace. It is just a social habit.
The Good News is Jesus Christ
Its a gallup poll they don't get rejected and it is anonymous. Quit making thongs up!
Things...or maybe thongs in your case.
Help, I'm being brainwashed!
My mom makes me go to church every Sunday... there is this middle aged house wife with 2 kids – Karen – she 'teaches' my Sunday school class. Last week she taught about a parable attributed to Jesus about a fig tree.
Karen is torturing me and has threatened to kill my family if I don't believe like she does. She hasn't actually said this, but... you know what I mean.
Help!
The fundamental reason I am not a Christian is most likely Bible School. Common Sense told me that if there was a God, this is not what it had in mind for children to be doing. Torture and lies.
You'll survive. Things could be much worse. How about this: Take a notebook and write down all the stupid sh!t they teach and write, edit, revise, share your great essays with others. What others plan for "evil," turn to good.
I, I, I'm an atheist
I, I, I'm an atheist
I, I, I'm an atheist
I got brain power
by the hour
like a flower
brains have power and I don't mean bullshit
I got god hangin' on a rusted chain just like a tin can in a wet storm drain now
The lord he ain't nothin' see?
It tried to kill us see?
Get out the way
Don't got time to play
winds try to get me they can't get me I'm a thinker yo
Apple Bush
And rain = tornado no ?
Peace
I am a Christian. I have been raised and am a practicing Roman Catholic. That said, I think many (most) posting here have missed the point. We all need to find a way to be happy in this life – not the next. My faith has added to my life and made me a better person. If your faith is athiesm, does it serve you? If you can answer yes, then you are lucky and should be greatful. It is certainly understandable why someone might take comfort in believing that all is only that which can be seen or measured. One faith is not better than the next. Anyone with a shred of spirituality has be see that we are all interconnected, the same, equal, and struggling just the same with our lives and our attempt to either prove or disprove the existence of an inteligence that exists (or doesn't) outside of our ability to sense. I believe in God but I believe more strongly in the teachings of Jesus. Love, not just your family and neighbor, but your enemy too. This is not exclusive to those that beileve in a God but it is also available to those that call themselves athiests.
You are committing the Fallacy of Equivocation: atheism cannot be a faith.
Personally I have no need to prove or disprove any of the gods since they are all equally irrelevant. DOn;t assume that other people believe in your sprituality at all. .
Very few people who consider themselves Christians actually believe, care or even know what the purported Jesus said.
I often think that is because subconsciously they aren't really prepared to accept the advice of a brown-skinned bronze age Jew.
Sadly based on historical understanding, The man Jesus was executed for treason against Rome, by the Romans. Sorry, but during the time of Jesus, the Jewish courts had the power to execute a criminals and religious crimes without the approval of Roman Governor. Rome only became involved if the crime was against Roman interest, much like the modern David Koresh. Christianity sprung up around this man who was an Ebonite. Christianity has less to do with the person (Jesus) more to do with Religion and the belief and power to maintain the religion.
Your sons and daughters will plant doctrines in that atheistic ground. It will be creation orientated.
I like Christians – they make it so easy for me to point out and talk about their flaws and defects – and then I don't have to look at my own.
Mama earth, not Father God.
"atheistic ground?" What is that supposed to mean?
You do know that 80+% of other xtians don't think RC's are xtians....
You don't need spirituality to see that we are all interconnected, the same, equal, and struggling just the same with our lives. All species evolve to propagate themselves–as a species, not as individuals. To do so requires cooperation and connectedness. It is very simple and doesn't require any supernatural explanation.
Pentagon retreats from Bible ban in U.S. military hospitals, but ...
blog.beliefnet.com/news/2011/12/pentagon-retreats-from-bible-ban...One day after an outraged Congressman denounced a Pentagon ban on Bibles or any other religious literature in U.S. military hospitals, the Obama Administration has ...
Atheists Fight Gideon Bibles With Books By Christopher Hitchens And Richard Dawkins In Georgia State Parks
http://www.ibtimes.com/atheists-fight-gideon-bibles-books-christopher-hitchens-richard-dawkins-georgia-state-parks-1271125
RDFRS: Florida Teen Fights Back Against Bible ... – Richard
http://www.richarddawkins.net/news_articles/2013/1/22/florida-teen-fights-back-against-bible-distribution-at-his-school#
Honestly why would there be Bibles in the hospital in the first place? If someone is in the hospital and is religious I am sure he or she can bring their own Bible that they probably already own.
@AH – What a stupid post
Genesis 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh.
Allow me to reiterate> using scripture to convince people who think scripture is idiotic and unbelievable, well, it's just not as effective as you might think
Your argument is invalid.
Loinlamb,
Question, How many creation stories are in the Bible and who was Adam first wife?
Eggers 2002:125, "At a snack bar we bought ice cream. The woman at the counter had hair like a backup dancer and was watching dolphins on TV."
richunix,
I'm not really sure as to just how many Bible 'Creation" stories are written within biblical theologies. I am aware of a 'parable' foretelling that Adam's 1st wife was named 'Lilith'.
Adam's first wife was Lorraine, but he caught her in bed with the pool man, and eventually became engaged to Camilla Rhodes, who her former lover Diane Selwyn has a contract put out on in a fit of jealous betrayal, but Diane was driven to suicide by creepy surrealistic tiny old people, but it all might just be a dream anyway, so who knows?
More nonsense.
When is the bible getting banned? And why hasn't it happened yet?!?!
They tried and failed.
Who is "they" and exactly when did they try this?
Who would want the bible banned?!? Not me! It shows how ridiculous are its claims and its god. I wish everyone would read it courageously and critically and learn what it has to offer-–that even though its god is described as vindictive and childish, really its god is invisible, undetectable, and irrelevant
Bible banned in:
China
Indonesia
Nigeria
North Korea
Pakistan
Sudan
Cuba
Colombia
Morocco
Mauritania
Algeria
Libya
Egypt
Somalia
Turkey
Syria
Kuwait
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Yemen
Oman
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Iran
Iraq
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Afghanistan
Nepal
India
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka
Bhutan
Burma (Myanmar)
Malaysia
Laos
Eritrea
Maldives
Tibet
Actually, the Bible is not banned in most of those places.
Yea – you are right.
If you are going to do it, do it right.
Do not ban the bible, but move all religious books to the Fiction section.
@Religious kooks unite
Sorry for being so wordy, but I get sick-and-tied of Religious folks, quoting the Bible as extant, yet most are clueless about it’s origins
Again, thank you for making me put my feet back on earth
2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Your argument is invalid.
Maybe if god wasn't so invisible and undetectable the devil wouldn't be able to beat him so easily. Stupid god. Nice that he's completely irrelevant, though.
You know, using scripture to convince people who think scripture is idiotic and unbelievable, well, it's just not as effective as you might think
@Atheist Hunter,
Of the 13 Epistles letter are consider Pseudepigraphic (only 6) . Hint one of the six “Hebrew” is pseude-annonymous. So before you start quoting known works that have shown to be highly questionable.
Atheist Hunter,
You don't believe and support everything in Corinthians so why quote it?
Worship the Creator or worship creation.
No thanks
Worship creation and try to figure out how it came about without blindly accepting often irrational stories from thousands of years ago.
Say that to the warden in a gubmint prison, Cap'n Oblivius. Black, white, or a latino gang. Choose up.
When I say stuff like that, it seems to make sense, but when I look at it again, I can't figure out what I meant either.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!
Why worship at all? No need to worship anything...!
Worship nothing and no one.
He is the true and living God the messiah Jeremiah 10:10. He says I am the Alpha the Omega the beginning an the end says the Lord, who is, and was, and who is to come, the Almighty Revelation 1:8. He also says there will be no other gods before me Exodus 20:3 Deuteronomy 5:7. And there are many scriptures that the Bible gives that there is only one true and living God. And many will say that man wrote the Bible but scripture backs that up to. 2 Peter 1:20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation of things. Look everyone even the non-believers please please please pray and ask God to forgive you and learn and know him. There is a life after this Heaven or Hell it depends on your choice. Look at the books that people write about Heaven and God a good one is "Proof Of Heaven". God gives us so many examples for us to know he is real and that no other god does anything like he does and has done. He gave sight to the blind and raised Lazereth from the dead. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace God saved them and not a piece of them or there clothing was burned. Please world wake up look and the weather God said in the last days you want be able to tell the times of the seasons. And for the ones that don't believe God already knew that there would be some. 1 Corinthians 15:34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God–I say this to your shame. And Jeremiah 9:3 They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me, declares the Lord.
I Love everyone no matter what you choose but you owe to God to give him a chance he created us all and think that's fair. Never stop loving.
tldr O_o
Bullsh!t. Unproven crap.
lol
You owe it to Thor to discover the truth of his creation.
You owe it to Vishnu to discover the truth of his creation.
You owe it to Zeus to discover the truth of his creation.
You owe it to Allah to discover the truth of his creation . . . then to detonate somewhere.
You owe it to Pele to . . .
Are Christians given special English classes so that they all can write like illiterate nincompoops?
Rudy,
There is no "proof" of heaven, there is no "proof" of your god. In fact there isn't even any reliable evidence that either of those exist. Until you can provide some reliable evidence then please refrain from your ignorant assertions.
Hopefully some day we will be able to cure cancer and irrational religious belief.
Some of us gave your god his shot, and he failed some basic tests.
Not everyone who does not believe as you do has never studied your faith.
Considering the fact that studies show that atheists tend to know more about religion than religious people, it is safe to say God was considered and rejected.
Will it be a victory today with the removal of the ban on openly Gay scouts I wonder.
Do you combine boy and girl scouts?? Stop being stupid.
Could someone please teach me how to make sense?
You sir are a bigoted idiot.
When the hormones are flowin' ya gotta give em a chance, stupid.
This making sense stuff is just so hard!
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit chuffing spray paint.
@lol??
Scout Troop 129 in Toronto, Canada is open to gays and heterose.xuals, and 12 people have signed on so far. All have identified themselves as gay or transgender. Thanks to a coeducational policy introduced by Scouts Canada last year, seven members are women.
Wrong article dip wad.
Doc, that sounds like a science experiment and a lack of maturity from the gay community.