Personal Questions

[RCMerchant]

 You tell John to open his mind? Open YOUR mind.
What if a GOD doesn't exist- and the whole concept of some unseen enity created the universe is myth?
An unseen being looks over us and rules us? Determines my destiny and controls my life even after I'm dead? Will send me to hell? If I don't love him? THAT is EVIL.  Dumbest s**t I ever heard.  I'm sorry. I don't try to s**t on your weird imaginings. But DON'T mock folks who don't follow that party line. I'm a hardcore atheist- I get mocked all the time. Like I'm evil. I'm not evil.
And you think it's enjoyable to watch people die? f**k that.  
God is strange. Bulls**t. If there was a God- he's a scumbag.

[RCMerchant]

OK! Being I'm on this stupid rant- Do you believe in a God?

[Trevor]

OK! Being I'm on this stupid rant- Do you believe in a God?

Dad was raised in the Jewish faith, Mom was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church and I was raised Presbyterian after Dad converted from Judaism in order to marry Mom as her Dad said that he didn't want his youngest daughter marrying someone who was Jewish.

I was raised to believe in God and I still do but man, my faith has taken a serious knock since 1997. I haven't been to church since 2008 when Dad passed. 

[RCMerchant]

^ Hey man. I feel for you. I can understand folks who have faith. I'm sorry for your pain. My Ma, my little brother Richie, my Dad, Tara Sue. I wish I could help more than just being an a***ole on the internet.
Thing is- your strong, man. Have faith in yourself.

[indianasmith]

I think you know my answer to that question!
Yes, I believe there is a God because that makes more sense than there not being one.
I believe the God of the Bible is real because I believe the Gospels are accurate works of history about a remarkable moment in human history when God walked among us.

[RCMerchant]

^ That's cool, Indy. I respect you, my friend, because you do good work. You follow the Word, and don't use it as a tool for power. Your a good man.

[RCMerchant]

I hope I'm not coming across as anti religion. You can believe Mickey Mouse is a God- that's ok with me. It's when people start killing one another because they have different faiths. That is evil. That is religion- used as an excuse to control and kill those you fell "unworthy". That's politics.
It ain't cool, man.

[ER]

Again, Ronny, I think you confuse religion with God. One is a human construct, the other may exist and be outside of human comprehension. One is an attempted path to the other. I am not a great fan of one, but I do try to figure out the other, even though I know it is a futile quest and I will die no more enlightened than I began.

You often attack me for things I never even said, including in this thread, and when you do I try to take it as revealing of yourself, in sometimes sad ways, as someone should be able to face most ideas without sliding into an enraged response. I think anger has been your shield and companion for so long it's left you closed-minded and hostile to some contemplations, and you blame religion for what's really human nature, tribalism, xenophobia, things like that, showing that your hatred of God is rooted in a lot of hurt more than it is in disbelief.

I'd say never close your mind to possibilities, including the fact there may be a creator of everything, or there may not be. Actually I'd agree, if there is a God, God is a scumbag. (Or "strange" as I more tactfully put it, lol.)

I'd also say unless your life is working to the point it is making you happy, don't close off avenues for improvement. In any case, we should all do our best to be polite to one another and not stifle ideas, like the Nazis did, don't you agree?  

[RCMerchant]

My" hatred" of God?    I hate the way folks weaponize it.
And yes, Ma'am, I do agree on many points. Is their something after death? It's arrogant to think we insects in the universe know wtf is really going on.



"- and all is one and one is all- is aaalll-!"  
If there is a God, I reckon I'll find out when I die. Easy as that.

[RCMerchant]

Ok. Do you have favorite authors?
Mine would be Shirley Jackson-#1.

[Trevor]

Ok. Do you have favorite authors?
Mine would be Shirley Jackson-#1.

She's great. 

The American ambassador's home in Pretoria is called Hill House, believe it or not 

[RCMerchant]

^ I ain't going there! 

[Alex]

I don't think I could pick a single favourite author.

[RCMerchant]

I don't think I could pick a single favourite author.

Well, you know, an author you enjoy.

[Rev. Powell]

Vladimir Nabokov.