I Bet We Know The Answer

[Alex]

^Ok! Whatever floats your boat is cool with me.
Your right, of course " normal explanations" do not apply when it comes to Jesus.

" His body would have walked out of the grave".
Yeah. I suppose that could happen.  Happens every day. If your Dracula or the Frankenstein Monster or a zombie.
Do you understand what you said? If I said I was a Dracula, would you believe me?
Don't happen in the real world.

I corrected a statement which seemed flippant. You cannot distort someone's belief & then critique the distorted version.

No; I wouldn't believe you were Dracula. You offer no proof; not even a witness to say "Hey, that guy has no reflection!"

Dunno, the whole getting into heaven thing sounds a bit like someone giving you a disease, then saying the only way to get cured of the disease is to buy a cure from me and then expecting you to be grateful. I've never asked for or wanted his forgiveness.

In fact, I think the exact opposite should be happening. We should be getting asked for our forgiveness.

I'd agree with that if I He were merely human. If God created you, me, & known reality, He would have some right over us, & he would have some say in what we should & should not do.

Oh hell no. Just creating something does not mean you should have any control over them. If we could build people and then control them that would be called slavery. Oh and it would also go against the concept of free will.

[RCMerchant]

^Ok! Whatever floats your boat is cool with me.
Your right, of course " normal explanations" do not apply when it comes to Jesus.

" His body would have walked out of the grave".
Yeah. I suppose that could happen.  Happens every day. If your Dracula or the Frankenstein Monster or a zombie.
Do you understand what you said? If I said I was a Dracula, would you believe me?
Don't happen in the real world.

I corrected a statement which seemed flippant. You cannot distort someone's belief & then critique the distorted version.

No; I wouldn't believe you were Dracula. You offer no proof; not even a witness to say "Hey, that guy has no reflection!"

Dunno, the whole getting into heaven thing sounds a bit like someone giving you a disease, then saying the only way to get cured of the disease is to buy a cure from me and then expecting you to be grateful. I've never asked for or wanted his forgiveness.

In fact, I think the exact opposite should be happening. We should be getting asked for our forgiveness.

I'd agree with that if I He were merely human. If God created you, me, & known reality, He would have some right over us, & he would have some say in what we should & should not do.

And your proof? An ancient book?
I say I am Dracula, and you say their is a God in the sky.
Were on the same page.

Oh! By the way.

[Rev. Powell]

Question for anyone on either side of this religious argument: what do you think you can achieve by continuing?

[Alex]

An interesting debate on the merits of both sides.

[RCMerchant]

I'm not trying to achieve anything at all.

[Rev. Powell]

An interesting debate on the merits of both sides.

I hope you're right.

[Rev. Powell]

I'm not trying to achieve anything at all.

Raises an interesting question on whether anyone can undertake any voluntary action without hoping to achieve something.

[RCMerchant]

I'm not trying to achieve anything at all.

Raises an interesting question on whether anyone can undertake any voluntary action without hoping to achieve something.

If I sit on a toilet, I achieve to empty my bowels.
I don't see me achieving anything by arguing about 'God'. It never got anybody anywhere, except fighting people you don't know.
I don't see atheists starting Holy wars.

[ER]

See, I enjoy topics like this, and in the '10s I used to have a friend, Dan, a Talmudic scholar with whom I could go deep with these subjects and he never treated any of it with enough passion to become angry over any philosophical musings on G-d, his religion, or much of anything metaphysical. (Alas he got a brain tumor and it changed him for the worse, poor man....)

I've always felt that to debate the existence of God, though, is rather pointless except as a logical exercise, as God either is or God is not, God is either active in human life, or God isn't, and neither position can be proven with what we have at our disposal, and each side can make good points on the matter. I'm willing to entertain the idea that God may be a human construct, but it's not what I think is likely, since both science and religion address the question of origin by saying at some point there had to have been an uncreated creator, and this would seem in my mind to define God, an omnipotent force that had no personal genesis.

To discuss the doctrines and claims of a specific religion, however, is no different than discussing the rule book that came along with a board game. There you can often show right or wrong in people's opinions on dogma, and reveal that a lot of people don't know as much about their own faiths as they think they do. 

Believing in God is hard for me and only comes through logic, frankly, and some of the best arguments against there being a God do often register  with me. Alex's post today was intriguing to consider.

I mean this one:

"Oh hell no. Just creating something does not mean you should have any control over them. If we could build people and then control them that would be called slavery. Oh and it would also go against the concept of free will."

All I can think to say to that is that if God exists then God feels a right to do with us whatever God wishes, and an argument can be made that this is both anti-free will and tyrannical, but if God is real, then there isn't much we can do about this allegedly all-powerful entity doing whatever is deemed fitting. We can also say maybe God's broader perspective means God's works are ultimately just and merciful, despite how they seem to us with our limited perspective.

In this life we cannot know, which means we may never know.

[ER]

Why is it that the air outside smells so nice in the pre-dawn?

[claws]

Because fart gas is heavier than air and lingers on the ground during the night. Once it is exposed to sun light fart gas floats up when the air heats up, and the air doesn't smell too nice then.

[ER]

Because fart gas is heavier than air and lingers on the ground during the night. Once it is exposed to sun light fart gas floats up when the air heats up, and the air doesn't smell too nice then.

Isn't that also Axe body spray is made?

[Alex]

Because fart gas is heavier than air and lingers on the ground during the night. Once it is exposed to sun light fart gas floats up when the air heats up, and the air doesn't smell too nice then.

Isn't that also Axe body spray is made?

The Cranberries did a song about that. Do you have to let it linger?...

[ER]

Well, gee, now my delicate sensibilities have been offended.

Annnniewaay, the pre-dawn air outside smells nice.

[claws]

That's where the old saying "Smell ya later" comes from.

My theory is that fart gas causes acid rain but no one believes me.