All Comments (39)

Listen we are not that sexy, because we can squat/lay and let any and every flesh lusting for attention satisfy our craving to stay young and active. Graduate from the cat alley, little child discoveries of sex play. It’s call immoral indulgence. That’s our one a day vitamin (pill) for the day to be sure we get the community terminal diseases OF THE DECADE. We do not need a sex partner to be healthy, feel young and be pursued sexually. That’s called: Sex-a-holic! I’m waiting and watching for a people that can feel great and good about themselves and it does not have to be about a bottle, a drug, sex and not even our gifts and talents. We know who we are and what we have and can live and enjoy the beauty of life in truth, joy and purity. That’s what will make it happen. Love, sex, lifetime partners, it is the true surgery waiting to plastic our hearts.

Yes desire a lifetime mate, but just because he/she makes great sex. Oooowe… cheap, cheap. Feel great, be healthy, look younger and eat proper with a renewed mind, because you are who you are. The rest is just a plus of excellence to add to your qualities. Say this and believe it: “I am everything I need to be with or without a mate or sex”. We don't need kinky, immorality or age to determine the worth of human excellence. Must we be dictated by sex the power of the mind to discipline ones self or depict our well being and life expectancies? Read my blog at www.24-7pray.org. Or write back P.O. Box 7, Baytown, TX 77522-0007.

Listen we are not that sexy, because we can squat/lay and let any and every flesh lusting for attention satisfy our craving to stay young and active. Graduate from the cat alley, little child discoveries of sex play. It’s call immoral indulgence. That’s our one a day vitamin (pill) for the day to be sure we get the community terminal diseases OF THE DECADE. We do not need a sex partner to be healthy, feel young and be pursued sexually. That’s called: Sex-a-holic! I’m waiting and watching for a people that can feel great and good about themselves and it does not have to be about a bottle, a drug, sex and not even our gifts and talents. We know who we are and what we have and can live and enjoy the beauty of life in truth, joy and purity. That’s what will make it happen. Love, sex, lifetime partners, it is the true surgery waiting to plastic our hearts.

Yes desire a lifetime mate, but just because he/she makes great sex. Oooowe… cheap, cheap. Feel great, be healthy, look younger and eat proper with a renewed mind, because you are who you are. The rest is just a plus of excellence to add to your qualities. Say this and believe it: “I am everything I need to be with or without a mate or sex”. We don't need kinky, immorality or age to determine the worth of human excellence. Must we be dictated by sex the power of the mind to discipline ones self or depict our well being and life expectancies? Read my blog at www.24-7pray.org. Or write back P.O. Box 7, Baytown, TX 77522-0007.

>>All revelations are false

Actually, the above is a false statement.

A revelation is merely a disclosure. Many disclosures are good, the same amount, perhaps more, perhaps less, are not so good.

One disclosure in scripture is coming to pass before our very eyes. Can anyone recall Nebuchadnezzars dream? The statue of gold, silver, bronze ...and at the very bottom (its toes) made of miry clay and iron (some strength, some weakness). Next do a study of all the Holy Roman Empires that have come and gone. Now, look at the final one coming together as we speak that most Americans could care less about. Herein lies the feet/toes of miry clay and iron. Pay special attention to what happens to that statue following the detail of the feet/toes of the statue.

Keep watching folks...the additional disclosures to come will be quite interesting.

ALL revelations are false.

It's that simple.

Just imagine if the peoples of the world were struck by an outbreak of religious amnesia -
Now that's an epidemic I could get behind!!

No religion is the true road to salvation......

Cool - it's aimed at Chuck.

Maybe you Pharisees could nail this guy to a cross and wait three days. That's how you found out for sure last time.

Roy:

Is that aimed at me, Schmoozealert, GaryD, or someone else?

It's absurd your narrow little mind would immediately rule out the possibility.

Of course, the line in the previous posting should read:

In the fullness of time, assuming the competing religious claims of the zealous do not destroy humanity in their quest for the end times, your belief in special creation will be looked on with the same level of amazement as most people look on the flat-earthers today.

Just shows that even multiple proof readings at 4 AM can be fallible.

SCHMOOZEALERT:

A couple of things - first, I never said that I expected the "sky daddy" to intervene. This would indeed be very inconsistent of me. What I did say was that all improvements to the human condition have been the result of human ingenuity and that, in general, religion has been hostile to scientific progress. Your anti-evolution digression at the end of the post is just another argument from personal incredulity. No biologist expects an amoeba to become something else on a work bench. By the way, an amoeba IS a wonder of the universe - just as it is. However, since all life on earth evolved from simpler forms, perhaps in a few million or billion years [a light year is a measure of distance, not time], they might evolve into something that could contemplate their existence and dream up a new version of the creation myth. But again, you have willfully ignored or misconstrued the point of the original post - just apply the same level of skepticism to your belief system that you believe should be applied to atheist postings. I know that you are not the original poster [GaryD], and that you did not write that statement, but since you have jumped into the issue, I am extending the same point to you. Just take a look at the world without your "biblical" glasses on. It is a marvelous and exciting place, and does not require any sky daddys, redeemers, holy wars, etc, etc, etc, to make it fabulous. If anything, at least for me, removing the glasses has resulted in a far greater appreciation of just how precious our lives and experiences are. I agree that an 8 month old baby is a wondrous thing, but it is at least as wondrous if she took 3 1/2 billion years to come into being than if she is somehow the result of an act of individual creation by a supposedly loving god. In the fullness of time, assuming the competing religious claims of the zealous to not destroy humanity in their quest for the end times, your belief in special creation will be looked on with the same level of amazement as most people look on the flat-earthers today. It doesn't really matter in the long run what the clock stoppers believe based on some holy book written by men who would be considered hopelessly ignorant today. Descent with modification IS how we came to be here - this is not guess or surmise, just a fact. And no amount of confusing the scientific meaning of theory with the common meaning [just a guess] will make it so. You are, of course, entitled to wrap yourself up in your faith and blind yourself to the truth, but I think that you have traded a worn out fairy tale for the delicious and glorious wonder of the universe just as it is - without faith or any other sort of theistic overlay.

PurpleMartin..

Perhaps you may look at it this way (as a believer in God sees it).

One human flesh made in the image of one God...

...not...

Abrahams God made the eyes
Buddah made the nose
Zeus made the toenails
Pegasus made ?????
etc
etc
yada yada yada

>> but the great sky daddy has not been a lot of help in the last 2000 years or so

Who, pray tell, has wanted Him to help?

You?

Remember, my friend, you are a free moral agent.

Those that have come before you, as a whole, reject the 'sky daddy' ...all the way down to you? (A question, not a judgement)

It is hard to comprehend why those who dont believe in a creator God tend to ask why He doesnt intervene. Seems like a oxymoron, on their part.

Today, I pondered the phenomenal excellence of an 8 month old baby girl that my wife has in her preschool/child care. The wonder of all of their senses (seeing, hearing, smelling), how they are eager to learn, to love, to laugh, smile, cry and hunger for all they can grasp at such a tender young age. I then pondered the theory of a big bang and how some think things just 'came together' that way initially and then a natural progression of 'evolving'...........

....and then I thought of the latter.........bunk.

To the disbelievers, I say...put an amoeba on your work bench and explain to me how it will become a wonder of the universe in say, 10-20 light years...perfect in how every cell, organ, nerve and brain cell function in totally harmony and you are able to explain how that harmony is even possible.

Good luck.

Jihadist: "God works in mysterious ways. If man can change his mind, why not God?"

Sure, God can change his mind. Look how Abraham stood up to him when he was getting ready to fry Sodom, and je ... er, bargained him down from "fifty righteous men" to "ten" and the city would be spared. (And then they still couldn't come up with the quota. What a buncha stiffs.)

One of my favorite bible stories -- Genesis 18:22-33

Funny cartoon in the Post the other day: God sitting on a cloud musing, "Boy, that wrath-management class I took has sure made a difference!"

Brian,

{Witches hat on}

Yes there is a subconscious, one that connects with symbols and signs, colors and even scents...it does not understand words, it doesn't know the gospel from Doonesberry. That is where the sea of emotion lies. But first you must cross the Threshhold, that is where you go to meet your other self...the one that you hide. The mask you wear is stripped away and you see your truth. That is where, if not prepared, you can lose your identity.
It has nothing to do with speaking in tongues as language means nothing to the subconscious. It is owning your self. Knowing yourself.

It is where the sounds of words lose power and what they mean gain meaning.Where symbols and signs can connect with words and within itself form pictures of meaning...poetry and music.

~"It’s said there are invisible threads of energy binding all the shamans of the world to one another.... and something connects each of us as well: the empathics and sensitives who dwell on the edge, who hear the calling, and keep the pledge. Practitioners of authenticity and wholeness, reinhabiting sacred self and sacred land. Seekers of significance and purpose, the last to give up the ancient ways, and the first to explore the new. Those its said may cry too hard, or laugh too loud.... that dare to care, so much! Each an integral component, of a lineage of place holders: unbridled children and wizened elders, willful wilders, wiccans and wizards on whose souls rest the responsibility to invoke a new/old Earth, an Earth once again green and growing, dynamic and diverse, feral and free. Our shared ministry is this most insistent calling. And our liturgy.... is our love.~
Exerpt from- The Enchanted Loom
(words & music by Jesse Wolf Hardin with Loba)

terra

GaryD, what?, schmoozealert, Chuck Colson,

I'm in 99.9% agreement with you. That is, I believe there's insufficient evidence to support the existence of 1,000 different gods and religions. You believe there's insufficient evidence to support the existence of 999.

Please accept my sincere best wishes that you manage to gain that last one-tenth of one percent understanding. I'll cheerfully accept your best wishes that I receive evidence that would let me believe that your 1 of 1000 gods proves true, however unlikely I think that may be.

/puts his preaching hat on/

When it comes to emotional experiences, people fall in two general categories: ships and submarines, row boats and diving bells. The world of emotions is like the sea - some people are open to it on the outside, and some people are open to it on the inside. Ship people deal with storms by a good compass - to avoid storms, good anchors - to endure storms, or good sails - to ride storms.
Submarine people dive in the deep, far enough beneath the waves to a place of perfect calm.
People can be both, in different periods of their lives.

The sea is the world of the unconscious. The private unconscious is the part of the ship that is beneath the surface and the private conscious is what is above the waves.
The depths of the sea are the depths of the sky. This is the divine world - the collective unconscious.
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/synchronicity.gif
Submarine people who dive too deep risk drowning and suffocation, the same applies to shipwrecked ship people. This is madness, or as the ancients called it - demonic possession, the moment when the dark waters come rushing in.
Should this happen at moderate depths one is possessed by his own subconscious, loosing normal ego-consciousness. Deeper down, one can get possessed by the collective unconscious which is even worse - "my name is Legion" describes it best.

Miracle men, prophets and shamans are submarine people who have reached the depths of the collective unconscious without drowning. This is a world of signs and symbols.
Whereas the world above the waves is perceived as physical interactions and events are manifestations of physical laws, deep down the world is entirely composed of the emanations of the collective unconscious. Both worlds are one and the same world - these are the two semitransparent layers of reality.

People who have experienced these depths and lived, tell different stories. Some see the signs as the work of a vast external force (God), others consider them to be miracles that they wrought themselves. Both views are correct.
The submariner who finds himself at those depths has aligned himself with the collective unconscious - they are at the same level. The submariner's self is equivalent to the collective unconscious, and everything that he does or says is as much a sign as the surrounding reality.
This is what the gospels mean by "speaking in tongues". Speaking in tongues is the sign language of the depths, poetry without form, words that connect on a spiritual level rather than on a logical syntax level. This is also the language of prophecies and in some part of the gospels themselves.
Miracle making, in this context, is nothing but taking other people to those depths, which reveals the emanations of the collective unconscious to them. This gives the submariner a god-like status, but what looks like miracles is in fact signs; sign events appear to have been aimed for and consciously brought about by the submariner only because the submariner's self becomes a sign emanation, which fits in the larger scale of things - the collective signs.

Revealing this world to people who have become heavily detached from it can be extremely dangerous. This is best illustrated by Jesus's foray into Jerusalem - a spiritless nest as it was at his time. This is akin to kicking a sleeping beehive - the bees do wake up to the deeper reality, but their first impulse is to sting the disturber. Jesus did not get crucified on a piece of wood on a hill. He was nailed to the cliff face of the Marianas Trench at the bottom of the ocean.
This is a defining moment in Christianity. He did bodily die, but his followers saw him risen from the grave. One has to bear in mind _where_ this happens - deep in the collective subconscious. He did rise in the spirit, a transfigured body - but this was the body of a fish. Hence from then on, all who die in Christ - live in Christ; but they live as dolphins at best.
So ultimately, Christianity saves wrecked ships and drowned submarines by turning people into fish.

This will continue to be the case until the sea and the sky are reunited, and become one. This is when those who die in Christ will rise in Christ; not as the lamb he was in his death, or the fish he was in his resurrection, but as the Cosmic Man he was in his life.

/hat off/

PS. All of the above is, off course, influenced by J. Campbell's "The Hero With A Thousand Faces", that I read recently.
http://www.truly-free.org/e/n/Campbell,%20Joseph%20-%20The%20Hero%20with%20a%20Thousand%20Faces.zip

SCHMOOZEALERT:

One simple question [from a simpleton]. On what objective basis does your claim that the bible is the Word of God rest? Not feelings, not teaching, etc. How do you know that the bible came from god and not from some self-serving humans? If you have no objective basis, then how did you choose between say Islam and Christianity? By the way, it was man and not god that has improved the lot of man in the last 1000 years. Religion generally has been responsible for retarding scientific advances, not encouraging it. If there is a way out of all the evil you see in the world, mankind will just have to muddle through - like we have all along. We may fail, there are no guarantees - we may make ourselves extinct, but the great sky daddy has not been a lot of help in the last 2000 years or so, and to expect a deus ex machina to come out of the sky in fire and glory to smite the ungodly is a vain expectation. After all, even Jesus expected it to happen within the lifetime of some of the people living 2000 years ago. People have been expecting it almost daily ever since.

SCHMOOZEALERT:

Simpleton? I've been called a lot of things, but this is a new one. Pretty touchy aren't you? There is NO evidence that the god of the bible even exists. The fact that someone "believes" it did without evidence is just fine, but it doesn't make it true. I think it pretty interesting that you felt it necessary to resort to name calling. On the other hand, maybe I am intellectually challenged since I don't really see the point of your post. I'm not claiming to be the son of god or anything special at all. I don't expect anyone to know or care about the fact that I did or did not exist [assuming that I am indeed a computer program] within far less than a century after I die, and I'm fine with that, since I won't care anyway. My whole point was to respond to GaryD's assertion that we should view the comments of atheists with skepticism. I agreed with him - we should. But, I think this needs to be broadened to include all assertions. Those without adequate proof should be tossed - atheist and theist alike. What could be more even handed than that? I'm willing to examine all assertions in that light. But instead of a reasonable answer, you and GaryD chose to insult. Not much of an answer - even to a simpleton.

>>On what basis does one decide that one religion or religious leader is correct?

BINGO! Now youre gettin' it. The family of man cant decide. They have been concocting their own different versions for 6000 years. Hence, religious confusion...an invention of man.

One God. One way to follow God.

Stay tuned...the time's a coming when real enlightenment will fill the earth. The headlines will no longer be dearth.

....All will see. Read the book folks...its all there.

Its quite exciting and, especially, encouraging.

Regards to everyone

Mr. Charles Colson,

Thank you for your essay.

You stated : "It is absurd to think that someone could countermand the plain teaching of Scripture concerning His return, and have others still believe in that person’s claims."

God works in mysterious ways. If man can change his mind, why not God?

Thank you and best regards

"J"

>>...riddled with errors and displaying some of the worst behavior imaginable

Are we talking about God....or mankind here.

Oh, God you say?

Funny...the quote above certainly applies to the headlines these days too.

Only thing is, God can create man and can also give him a second chance when the time comes that our lessons (not the lessons refered to by Mr. Mark) are complete. Its all in the book, folks.

Man, on the other hand, cant do didly...oh, except blow us all up and then some.

Sorry...aint gonna look up to the latter. Fact is that there is something better out there than we. Otherwise, we be doomed.

Read the book. Look at the end of the story. There are choices folks. It gets better after a bad time. And it aint in heaven forever and it aint and hell forever either. Man is the author of religous confusion....not God.

>>Your assertion that you have all the evidence is laughable. There is no clear evidence that Jesus is even a historical reality.

..and there is no clear evidence that the origin of the above comment wasnt in fact generated by some computer program. In 2K years, all will suppose that something tagged from 'AGATHODEMON' is some kind of code word for a computer program gone bad in the matrix...

..simpleton...

Interesting how some of those who deny a Creator God on this thread come in here with such childish retorts such as '..our next lesson, class' or 'he cant be Jesus...Im Jesus!!'

And some of them have been doing this for months...yea, years.

..And still havent convinced those, who beleive in an excellence of human life attributed to a Creator God, to deny their faith. I havent seen one succumb to their delusion that they are right.

For you see, the deniers, their trust is in man...who by the way, lest we forget, has created the means to blow you and me and the next person off the face of the earth until we are no more.

Real enlightenment, folks.........NOT

GaryD

Your answer is pretty much what I expected. When did you yourself actually hear the deity say anything? Not as a report from someone else, or something written in a book. You admit that there is no proof, therefore why should anyone take your god's assertions on faith. I mean, he used to do miracles to convince the unbelievers and back-slidden. He seems to have gone out of the wholesale miracle business about 2000 years ago. So we are to take the unsubstantiated claims of a 2000 year old book riddled with errors and displaying some of the worst behavior imaginable [on the part of god and at his command] and believe that this is the Word of God? Back to your original posting and my original - without the snide comments - why not apply the same skepticism that you are encouraging against atheists to your own beliefs? If done sincerely and rigorously, you might be surprised at the results. Not that I expect you to actually to this.

Sorry I didn't hit the 's' hard enough for you. I said sir that I have all the evidence I need not all the evidence there is.

There is little evidence that Sophocles is more than a pen name. Or that any of Jesus' contemporaries were real. By the way I would expect that a Deity who states categorically that salvation is by grace and grace alone to be neither provable or unprovable by human logic or salvation could not be by grace and grace alone.

GaryD

Your assertion that you have all the evidence is laughable. There is no clear evidence that Jesus is even a historical reality. By the way, I am a native speaker of English and know enough to use a plural form [atheists instead of atheist] in your original posting. I am frankly unmoved by your blithe assertion that you are in possession of all the evidence needed. If it is so clear and straightforward, why not share it and put us philosophical naturalists in our place.

Agatho, I have all the evidence I need. And if you found my previous post incomprehensible please tell me what your native language is and I will endeavor as best I can to translate.

GaryD

I assume that your somewhat incoherent posting is a warning against atheists. I agree that one should be skeptical toward atheists [and everyone else]. Accept nothing without proof, believe nothing without evidence. If one applies this kind of skepticism, where does it leave religion? No proof, no evidence, no basis in fact, etc. By all means, please be skeptical - take nothing on faith - not even faith. See where that gets you. Probably [assuming I understood the point of your posting] you will not be willing to apply the same skepticism that you are recommending to your own beliefs.

How can THAT guy be Jesus??????

I'm Jesus!!!!!!

Colson, who has clearly been deluded all of his life, illustrates here the Delusion of all others who beiieve, on just as reliable evidence as you have that I am a Unicorn (or Jesus), that the original Jesus, if there was one, was Truly the Son of God.

It is, as Mark points out, a Mass Delusion. Amazing.

Even allowing for the historical reality of Jesus [by no means a slam dunk], using one unsubstantiated fictional account to negate another delusional account seems pretty weak. On what basis does one decide that one religion or religious leader is correct? This guy sounds delusional, but then again they thought that of Jesus too. Apparently one person's delusion is another's holy religion, and one person's fantasy account is another's holy writ. However, I do agree with Chuck, this guy is not the reincarnation of Jesus - just not for his reasons.

One should hold any claim of logic and reason among atheist with the highest degree of skepticism.

Wow, a Russian David Koresh, how quaint.

Jesus has said that when someone tells you Jesus is here or there, don't believe them.
When Jesus returns all will know it, and there will be no doubt.

mark

It is absurd to think that those old scriptures are true.

Who are you to say he isn't Jesus reincarnate?

The Russians are well known for producing messiahs and this is not the first - we dismiss it out of hand as deluded hyper-religiosity & believers are never in short supply anyway.

However, the devout Christian should be wondering if it's really any less likely than the 'original' highly acclaimed messianic appearance of some 2000 years ago - and if so, why so??

Not to mention that a generation did not pass between his first and second coming. Which places it more than 19 centuries ago.

How can we tell? Failure to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior can have terrible consequences. What if he really is Jesus Christ?

Where is Pascal when we need him?

"Sound reason requires that all such claims be evaluated in the light of reliable source material: the Scriptures and the witness of the Church throughout history."

Class, I'd like you all to read Chuck's statement over a couple of times. Tomorrow, we'll have a discussion on the meaning of the words "sound," "reason" and "reliable," and whether the use of such words is ever apropos in a religious discussion- ANY religious discussion.

On Friday, we'll tackle the topic of the reliability of eyewitness testimony, as well as the phenomenon of mass hallucination and group delusion.