Your Turn
By Carl S ~
Notes! I have notes of importance to write about lying around, from every which way to never. Like musical notes looking for a melodic format, they haven't found their longer extensions. (As a consolation, I tell myself that Beethoven did the same thing with his musical themes, and he was a whole lot messier than I could ever be.) Because there are others who could enlarge on these ideas, I'm distributing them to you, readers, to think, argue about, and discuss. They're in no particular order.
Where are the dragon fossils? Dragons are mentioned in the bible, they're depicted on Chinese walls, plates, statues, etc. They're even in Christian stained-glass windows, etc. Did they perish with the dinosaurs? Surely, with all the belief in them, they must have existed! Has anyone searched for them, like they do for the Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Noah’s ark?
If you absolutely know what the future brings, there is nothing you can do to change it. If you could, it wouldn’t be the future you know. If, on the other hand, you create the future, then you can somewhat manipulate things beforehand according to your plans, using the best of your presently acquired knowledge and the possibilities of your tools and materials on hand. If you are all powerful, you can also manipulate those of your creatures who think they have free will in making their decisions; for your own ends, of course.
There is no free will involved in knowing the future. It is what it is. If you can change what may happen, through preparation, planning, and determination, then you may make it better or worse than it is. It is only because you have free will that you are able to do so. Big deal. Even squirrels, chipmunks, crows, and many other creatures have such free will. And there are neither absolute guarantees nor assurances your efforts will live up to your desired expectations - with one exception - if you are a believer, of course, in which case they MUST live up to "God's plans."
Since it takes time to create, time is a precondition for creating. For someone to create, someone must exist in time. Since time began with the Big Bang, then so must the Creator have begun. If you claim the Big Bang was created by some creator, the creator was also created from nothing.
As Goethe said, "Even God cannot change the past." God is also unprepared for disasters.
The Universe was created from nothing just as God was created from nothing. And then men's minds created that God along with thousands of others. God is the ejaculation of material matter.
Support the human tumor's right to life. Stop the abortions of tumors. Human tumor life begins at conception.
Churches, huge temples of many cultures, including beautifully elaborate mosques, and soaring, sky-piercing cathedrals, are powerfully impressive structures whether they're intact or in ruins. They exist to remind us that humans want to believe some things so strongly they will force these beliefs, through structural shouting, in your face, because they aren't able to reasonably explain with clarity what the hell they're talking about. Nazis, too, shared rituals, structures, enthusiasm and absolute convictions. Houses of worship are testaments to the fact that they can't prove their deities exist, after thousands of years. They are contradictions to natural reason, proving to you that people will believe anything.
Question for a churchgoer: How would Charity Navigator rate your church? One star?
Pastors are focused on psychology and sociology, not theology. There's no payback in theology, unless it’s used to manipulate the customers who buy their product. Pastors habitually study human nature, while claiming knowledge of "God's nature." They know that there's theology, but then there's reality.
Have you seen the "Coexist" symbol? Ironic, isn't it, since religions are major causes of divisiveness and wars?
One host of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," described the show as "the most pressure-packed trivia event." Aren't there millions of believers who live their lives with frequent pressure-packed events, trying to reconcile an absent uncaring god with their "proofs" he isn't absent? Talk about pressure-packed trivia! Religious faith is the most pressure-packed trivial pursuit on the planet.
Where are the dragon fossils? Dragons are mentioned in the bible, they're depicted on Chinese walls, plates, statues, etc. They're even in Christian stained-glass windows, etc. Did they perish with the dinosaurs?Carolyn Hyppolite, in her book, "Still Small Voices," mentions something we might say to a believer who talks about the "resurrection." She proposes Jesus didn't die, but was in a coma, and came out of it. This interpretation jibes with known medical and historical evidence. Ask a believer to think about this and get back to you when he or she can prove otherwise. Carolyn also makes the observation (she’s assuming if Jesus/God were to exist, of course), the suffering-and-death-weekend of that god would be a speck in that god's eternity of billions of years, so where's the sacrifice? She asks, why should we owe our lives and free wills in paying him back for THAT, for all our lives, with gratitude and servitude?
Further thoughts on the alleged resurrection of Jesus: Let's say you're a believer so you take what the alleged gospel writer guys say as true. Well then, they say that the whole town already knew that Jesus raised people from the dead. Jesus made Lazarus a celebrity by raising him from being dead; and he was indisputably, stinkingly, dead. And then we have the dead who dug themselves out of their burial holes when Jesus died. They were seen walking about in town. Did they return to their homes, families, neighborhoods? No further info is available on them, so we must assume they blended back into society without further need for follow-ups. With all these examples, it's not difficult to envision why the common people weren't astounded (as in, "holy crap! You're shittin' me!"), to encounter yet another re-animated dead body walking around. Under the circumstances, the miracle would be that they were surprised. But we're supposed to be respectful about this ludicrous belief?
Unsettling questions are ways to separate the truth from B.S.
Old adage: "Honor those who seek the truth. Distrust those who claim to own it."
Isn't "We believe" an inappropriate response to a logical question? Isn't belief an admission you don’t know what you're talking about? Isn't "inspiration" the same as "fabrication?" Doesn't "faith" mean, "I understand it because I can't explain it?"
When the next child is kidnapped, THEN will God do something to save it from being murdered?
If another major war comes, it will be between forces which act on absolute faith with absolute conviction.
How can I tell you what the nature of God is? I don't even know what it's like to be obese, or a woman, or psychopathic!
In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Thomas vs. Review Board: "religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection." Just think about that for a minute! Religious beliefs can be unacceptable, illogical, inconsistent, and incomprehensible. At the present time, those beliefs are a force claiming special “protections" from obligations the electorate in a democracy must abide by, through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act! Does the Court's interpretation of "religious beliefs," describe the "insanity defense?"
Well no, I can't possibly relate to your God. I have empathy.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence: "State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights... erecting a wall of separation between church and state therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society
Wherever belief is equated with virtue, the non-believer will be looked upon as evil. Such belief is dangerous.
As long as there are religions, there will be victims of religion.
Where are the dragon fossils? Dragons are mentioned in the bible, they're depicted on Chinese walls, plates, statues, etc. They're even in Christian stained-glass windows, etc. Did they perish with the dinosaurs? Surely, with all the belief in them, they must have existed! Has anyone searched for them, like they do for the Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and Noah’s ark?
If you absolutely know what the future brings, there is nothing you can do to change it. If you could, it wouldn’t be the future you know. If, on the other hand, you create the future, then you can somewhat manipulate things beforehand according to your plans, using the best of your presently acquired knowledge and the possibilities of your tools and materials on hand. If you are all powerful, you can also manipulate those of your creatures who think they have free will in making their decisions; for your own ends, of course.
There is no free will involved in knowing the future. It is what it is. If you can change what may happen, through preparation, planning, and determination, then you may make it better or worse than it is. It is only because you have free will that you are able to do so. Big deal. Even squirrels, chipmunks, crows, and many other creatures have such free will. And there are neither absolute guarantees nor assurances your efforts will live up to your desired expectations - with one exception - if you are a believer, of course, in which case they MUST live up to "God's plans."
Since it takes time to create, time is a precondition for creating. For someone to create, someone must exist in time. Since time began with the Big Bang, then so must the Creator have begun. If you claim the Big Bang was created by some creator, the creator was also created from nothing.
As Goethe said, "Even God cannot change the past." God is also unprepared for disasters.
The Universe was created from nothing just as God was created from nothing. And then men's minds created that God along with thousands of others. God is the ejaculation of material matter.
Support the human tumor's right to life. Stop the abortions of tumors. Human tumor life begins at conception.
Churches, huge temples of many cultures, including beautifully elaborate mosques, and soaring, sky-piercing cathedrals, are powerfully impressive structures whether they're intact or in ruins. They exist to remind us that humans want to believe some things so strongly they will force these beliefs, through structural shouting, in your face, because they aren't able to reasonably explain with clarity what the hell they're talking about. Nazis, too, shared rituals, structures, enthusiasm and absolute convictions. Houses of worship are testaments to the fact that they can't prove their deities exist, after thousands of years. They are contradictions to natural reason, proving to you that people will believe anything.
Question for a churchgoer: How would Charity Navigator rate your church? One star?
Pastors are focused on psychology and sociology, not theology. There's no payback in theology, unless it’s used to manipulate the customers who buy their product. Pastors habitually study human nature, while claiming knowledge of "God's nature." They know that there's theology, but then there's reality.
Have you seen the "Coexist" symbol? Ironic, isn't it, since religions are major causes of divisiveness and wars?
One host of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," described the show as "the most pressure-packed trivia event." Aren't there millions of believers who live their lives with frequent pressure-packed events, trying to reconcile an absent uncaring god with their "proofs" he isn't absent? Talk about pressure-packed trivia! Religious faith is the most pressure-packed trivial pursuit on the planet.
Where are the dragon fossils? Dragons are mentioned in the bible, they're depicted on Chinese walls, plates, statues, etc. They're even in Christian stained-glass windows, etc. Did they perish with the dinosaurs?Carolyn Hyppolite, in her book, "Still Small Voices," mentions something we might say to a believer who talks about the "resurrection." She proposes Jesus didn't die, but was in a coma, and came out of it. This interpretation jibes with known medical and historical evidence. Ask a believer to think about this and get back to you when he or she can prove otherwise. Carolyn also makes the observation (she’s assuming if Jesus/God were to exist, of course), the suffering-and-death-weekend of that god would be a speck in that god's eternity of billions of years, so where's the sacrifice? She asks, why should we owe our lives and free wills in paying him back for THAT, for all our lives, with gratitude and servitude?
Further thoughts on the alleged resurrection of Jesus: Let's say you're a believer so you take what the alleged gospel writer guys say as true. Well then, they say that the whole town already knew that Jesus raised people from the dead. Jesus made Lazarus a celebrity by raising him from being dead; and he was indisputably, stinkingly, dead. And then we have the dead who dug themselves out of their burial holes when Jesus died. They were seen walking about in town. Did they return to their homes, families, neighborhoods? No further info is available on them, so we must assume they blended back into society without further need for follow-ups. With all these examples, it's not difficult to envision why the common people weren't astounded (as in, "holy crap! You're shittin' me!"), to encounter yet another re-animated dead body walking around. Under the circumstances, the miracle would be that they were surprised. But we're supposed to be respectful about this ludicrous belief?
Unsettling questions are ways to separate the truth from B.S.
Old adage: "Honor those who seek the truth. Distrust those who claim to own it."
Isn't "We believe" an inappropriate response to a logical question? Isn't belief an admission you don’t know what you're talking about? Isn't "inspiration" the same as "fabrication?" Doesn't "faith" mean, "I understand it because I can't explain it?"
When the next child is kidnapped, THEN will God do something to save it from being murdered?
If another major war comes, it will be between forces which act on absolute faith with absolute conviction.
How can I tell you what the nature of God is? I don't even know what it's like to be obese, or a woman, or psychopathic!
In 1981, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Thomas vs. Review Board: "religious beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others in order to merit First Amendment protection." Just think about that for a minute! Religious beliefs can be unacceptable, illogical, inconsistent, and incomprehensible. At the present time, those beliefs are a force claiming special “protections" from obligations the electorate in a democracy must abide by, through the Religious Freedom Restoration Act! Does the Court's interpretation of "religious beliefs," describe the "insanity defense?"
Well no, I can't possibly relate to your God. I have empathy.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence: "State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights... erecting a wall of separation between church and state therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society
Wherever belief is equated with virtue, the non-believer will be looked upon as evil. Such belief is dangerous.
As long as there are religions, there will be victims of religion.
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