That wasn't an insult directed at you and I am sorry you took it that way. I was just using the term that had already been used in the thread. I've never heard it before. At the same time, you can't expect me to show reverence to something I don't believe in. I certainly have no right to expect you to show reverence to the things I hold sacred. I certainly wouldn't be offended if you didn't. If you think something is a miracle and I don't, that is just one way you and I differ. If you think that there is some white bearded guy sitting on a cloud dictating everything we do, that is just another way we differ. I see no reason to be offended by our differences. Why do you suppose that this bothers you so much? I wouldn't have given this any more thought than someone else calling Rachel Maddow blinky. Who cares?
You just keep believing in things that aren't real TC. There are a lot more Donald Trumps in your future. I'd call you shortsighted but you'd have to not be blind in the first place.
I assume you are of the opinion that what I quote is not an insult to the belief of another person. Nope. Not at all. How did you become so bigoted? Yet you have the gall to apologize for the way a person interprets your post, yet you continue to do so, again? That is ignorance.
There we are, again. Your trump card to explain your enlightened superiority to all, is .....trump. How sad, that you can not mentally exceed your own self imposed limitations.
Let me make this clear for anyone that might be new or may have forgotten hearing this from me. I do not believe in if God. The good news is that I do not believe in the Satan either. To me, worshipping either is just an exercise in mysticism. Is there goodness and evil in the world? Plenty of both for sure. But I attribute both to people, not some divine or malevolent force. It's just people being people. Attributing these behaviors to anything else is just shifting the blame and responsibility away from us and toward something that is a convenient scapegoat. WE are evil or WE are good. Now, is it possible that there is some unknown omnipotent force that is so far beyond our capability to grasp that we are mere microorganisms in it's universe? Possibly, but why would such a being want us to sit around and worship it? Why would a being of such greatness take any notice of us at all much less demand that we pay homage to it? It makes no sense. Is there an afterlife? I'd go with yes more often than no. I happen to know two people that had horrible accidents and both reported seeing things after they were clinically dead. I believe them. Remind me to tell you those stories some time. Am I afraid of death. No. It's just the next step. So ridicule my beliefs all you want. I will not take offense.
From Darwin to COVID the church has been wrong. It's really about fear among the Christian faithful when they turn away from science. Even scientific theory is dismissed out of hand by the church because of a fear that somehow science will prove that God does not exist. As the pandemic spreads from one church to another and global warming continues to be ignored by the evangelical movement, it is clear that practitioners of the current Christian faith have not evolved from their ancestors who condemned Galileo and Darwin. This is why it has been so difficult to get evangelicals to accept things proven by the scientific community. You have probably noticed that many Republicans still will not confirm that climate change is even a thing. They almost certainly know better but are spineless, too afraid to alienate their hardcore Christian constituency, despite the clear ignorance behind the evangelical understanding of the climate crisis. As I said, this is about fear. Understand that for many people of faith it has become very challenging to hold onto that faith. Christians are asked to believe in an invisible being in the sky who keeps score of all our sins, and in the literal truth of a giant book put together over thousands of years that describes people rising from the dead, seas parting and water becoming wine. Because of this intense insecurity, which they cannot admit, some Christians cannot tolerate any information that weakens the case for the existence of God. (The more liberal Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church have made some progress in this area, although even there the relationship to science remains uneasy.) When science becomes the enemy, something like a vaccine cannot be trusted — because it was created by the same people that are trying to destroy God. If Darwin is correct, then Adam and Eve never existed. If Adam and Eve never existed, then the lineage from Adam to King David (of David and Goliath fame), and then to Jesus Christ must be questioned. Many Christians simply do not want to ask those difficult and complicated questions. If dinosaurs were real (I know it is not if — just bear with me) then God never created anything in six days and then rested on the seventh. Science has proven that the earth is a few billion years old, instead of just a few thousand years old as the Bible would indicate. Science appears to the evangelical Christian to be a relentless hunter of their faith. But science is just science. It has no agenda except to discover the truth. That is precisely the problem it presents for the faithful. To a person of faith, at least in the evangelical or fundamentalist tradition, only God is truth. Only God can be trusted. There is no theory or scientific method to discovering one's faith. A person either decides to accept the truth of God's existence or reject it and be condemned. The scientific evidence around the climate crisis has become a threat to many evangelicals because it suggests that God's ultimate plan for his creation is not working. You see, according to the evangelical reading of the Bible, after the time of Christ there is a distinct calendar of events that follows, culminating in Armageddon. Evangelicals are usually pretty excited about this idea. Those nasty non-believers finally get what's coming to them and the good Christians get to win the battle against evil. In that context, a warming planet cannot be understood as a real concern. Potentially, it is even a signal of the return of Christ — why would a true believer do anything to stop that? This brings us to the COVID vaccines and the fact that evangelicals have a culture and a long history of rejecting science. Somehow this vaccine has become a symbol of government overreach, but what's even more important to evangelicals is the idea that science is telling people of faith what is true. No matter how many evangelical leaders encourage their followers to get the vaccine, this rejection of scientific data is completely ingrained in the church, dating as far back as Galileo. It is and has always been about the fear of losing their faith. I have never understood this fear, and in my view neither should any other person of faith. I go out of my way to read theories I disagree with, to listen to preachers I deem heretical and to attend seminaries that are in direct opposition to my political and social beliefs. This is how my faith grows. Reading a book like "The God Delusion" should be required by all Christian leaders. Not because the book expresses the words of the enemy but because we all must explore our own doubt. The leap is a leap for a reason and people of faith should lean into it, not run away from it. There is nothing to fear from scientific data and proper research. There is something to fear from the fearful and ignorant. Anyone who is not willing to question their own belief structure, or anyone that remains in their own echo chamber, is dangerous. That is why there is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. It is expressing the fear of people who claim to have none. It must be addressed, but that will not be easy. https://www.salon.com/2021/08/28/ev...vaccine-refusal-is-built-on-deep-seated-fear/
Good post. Unfortunately work comes real early, I’d love to participate in this line of conversation. Maybe I’ll have some time tomorrow evening.
Another admirable humblebrag, with an added I am the victim speech. Well done. Ridicule your beliefs? No. Members have replied to your constant ridicule and insults toward others that have beliefs or ideas or disagreements with your posts, yes, but the posts don't reach the level of offense your words do. I for one, don't care if you take offense. I do not see a reciprocal manner of conversation toward others, by you. You do not have to explain that you do not believe in a higher power. That has certainly been the loudest shouting from the rooftops that make up your posts. That is not the point. You may believe or not in anything or non-thing. That is not the judgement of a person. Maybe we can start with a simple exercise Joe. Do you believe in gravity, Joe? Why? Considering that science has been studying gravity for a hundred years, it is still unknown what it is or how to explain the phenomenon of gravity. We know a lot more about the Black Hole. Do you have faith in gravity, Joe? I will assume you grasp the parallels the exercise affords. Sometimes, the loudest naysayer is the best supporter, without being aware they are. May I suggest a wonderful reading exercise? "WITNESS TO HOPE".
By the way, if you refer to a Christian's God as Sky Daddy, what does FryDaddyJr connote . . . the son of Lucifer?
Absolutely JN. If you tell someone you're atheist a lot think "oh no a Satan worshipper". I don't believe in either but unicorns and the tooth fairy are real.
