how loving christians are!

[Blackleaf]

doorknob,

I haven't really giving my opinion on a definition of humility actually.

Please quote where I described atheists (which I was for over 20 years, easy) as not doing good for the sake of it, or not having a moral compass, or not having a conscience. I most definitely didn't say that atheists in general were more selfish than theists in general. Then you throw in homosexually for good measure? This is beginning to feel like a political debate. Please have the decency to either back your claims about pretend assumptions you claim I hold to, anywhere on the internet, or please stop making said assumptions or stereotyping me, or whatever it is you call yourself doing.

Again you assume too much( any is too much if you were curious). I was an actual athirst for over 20 years. I have a firm grasp of on what it is to not believe in a god. More blind assertions premade for someone else evidently.

Woe....hold on....did you really just say that my misconception of atheism is based on my reading of the bible? Firstly; the bible was not the cause of my faith and was even not the first or second core religious writing I read....about a year ago....there goes that misconception. By the way; the bible doesn't so much speak about the heathen so much as the hypocrite when it refers to the nonbeliever or equivalent. Your actually making me smile...genuinely. I can't take you seriously. Is this really scripted on your part? I know people are coached on how to debate an orthodox Christian, but that mold isn't nearly the right shape or size to contain what I speak of. Not once have I ousted an atheist as evil or less moral or less giving than any other person. These false, wild, distinctions you are making are, well, not based on evidence, but your own presupposition...you know; that thing your attempting to accuse me of? I had no clue atheists were humans too. Learn something new every day.

Wow you are still shitting out of your mouth...let me know if and when you can at very least be sincere to some level.

Sorry, not too humble there, I suppose. Seemed needed though.

Don't be an f'n hypocrite, all while attempting to insult me and perhaps we can enjoy leveled conversation. Oh wait; we are...you decide the playing field.

Peace friend, with sincerity...every word.

I find this funny coming from someone who hasn't given any support for his assertions. And no, being an ex-atheist does not mean that you know how the rest of us think. This is especially made evident when you equate our lack of faith to your faith. We do not need to prove you wrong. We are not the ones making assumptions. The burden of proof is on the believer, not the skeptic.

[Cavebear]

Being an ex-anything does not mean you have some special understanding of what you were.    If anything, it means a lack of it.  Since I was never actually a theist I am AMAZINGLY PURE in this regard!  ;)  (koff, koff)

[Baruch]

Puritans burn heretics using Puritan brand vegetable oil ... or are branded as heretics!

Yes, true believers exist in both theist and non-theist groups (let's call it ideology).  Not all theists fit the cookie cutter, nor to all atheists fit the anti-cookie cutter.  Except those that do, that are repeating scripted thinking over and over (like most people).  Most people never think at all, they are simply tape recorders on playback.

Popsthebuilder ... as you probably realize, I believe that you are thinking for yourself, that you have wide experience of life and of different cultures (patterns of thinking).

Cavebear ... proud of being a one string banjo?  Don't forget the washboard percussion section.

[Cavebear]

Assumption from ignorance, thankfully.

Loving GOD, which is to say; being devout to what can be known of GOD within our life effectually negates self loathing tendencies. I am speaking from personal experience.


humbly,
peace

Sent from my Z988 using Tapatalk

That doesn't seem to make any sense.  What about a deity "negates self loathing tendencies"?

[Baruch]

Self loathing tendency ... is a Jewish trait.  Comparing self against some perfect paradigm.  Gentiles don't have that problem, they are happy in their sins ;-)

[popsthebuilder]

I find this funny coming from someone who hasn't given any support for his assertions. And no, being an ex-atheist does not mean that you know how the rest of us think. This is especially made evident when you equate our lack of faith to your faith. We do not need to prove you wrong. We are not the ones making assumptions. The burden of proof is on the believer, not the skeptic.

I didn't say I knew how you all think. Everyone is an individual.

I gave a brief list that, to the unbiased mind, is not evidence of GOD, but does lend credence to the possibility of GOD.

I have noticed one similarity between you. A majority of you seem to think that believing GOD doesn't exist isn't a belief. But it is, and even more so; one based on faith. Whats worse is the fact that it isn't supported by anything whatsoever except for preconceptions.

We are both making claims. I've offered up some sort of support for mine though.

Peace

[popsthebuilder]

Puritans burn heretics using Puritan brand vegetable oil ... or are branded as heretics!

Yes, true believers exist in both theist and non-theist groups (let's call it ideology).  Not all theists fit the cookie cutter, nor to all atheists fit the anti-cookie cutter.  Except those that do, that are repeating scripted thinking over and over (like most people).  Most people never think at all, they are simply tape recorders on playback.

Popsthebuilder ... as you probably realize, I believe that you are thinking for yourself, that you have wide experience of life and of different cultures (patterns of thinking).

Cavebear ... proud of being a one string banjo?  Don't forget the washboard percussion section.

I have noticed...and though it is apparent from some of your posts that you take the teachings of the Christ as wholly metaphorical or even made up; you do seem quite capable of extracting knowledge of some kind from those teachings.

Not trying to ramble....just attempting to say that I appreciate both your stance and your knowledged opinion.

Peace friend

[Baruch]

I have noticed...and though it is apparent from some of your posts that you take the teachings of the Christ as wholly metaphorical or even made up; you do seem quite capable of extracting knowledge of some kind from those teachings.

Not trying to ramble....just attempting to say that I appreciate both your stance and your knowledged opinion.

Peace friend

People love their iron hard ideology.  That way they never have to consider that they might be wrong.  Personality and society are a house of cards though.  If you push either too hard, they collapse.  And I don't want to collapse anyone, no matter how jury rigged they are.

Like what happened in the early 600s ... the Byzantines and Sassanids thought they would be top dog forever ... and then along came Muhammad, nobody expected him ... and people's entire society and individual destiny were changed.

[popsthebuilder]

That doesn't seem to make any sense.  What about a deity "negates self loathing tendencies"?

Being sincere and devout to what one knows is right at all junctions negates self loathing. If one not only knows of what is right in their own life, but strives to act accordingly, then this does indeed, if slowly, remove that hate that permeates ones sense of self while in knowing misdirection.

Hope that helped to explain. If not, feel free to ask for further clarification, and I will attempt it.

Peace

[Baruch]

I have noticed...and though it is apparent from some of your posts that you take the teachings of the Christ as wholly metaphorical or even made up; you do seem quite capable of extracting knowledge of some kind from those teachings.

Not trying to ramble....just attempting to say that I appreciate both your stance and your knowledged opinion.

Peace friend

I don't require anyone to be historical ... since history is only propaganda.  But the texts from-of-old exist ... and they act as a corrective to the present group think.  Of course a text is interpreted, even by literalists.  Reading is a part of my human experience, as much as anything else.  But I find it marvelous, even if only one-directional, that by reading old writings, you can hear the thoughts of people long dead, who lived in a world that was both very different and very similar to ours.

I greatly appreciate the NT ... as a Jewish Hellenistic anthology ... a community that was almost entirely destroyed in the 2nd century along with the Jewish Palestinian society.  But my reading is much broader than the Bible ... and I base my axioms on lived life, not my tenuous interpretation of ghosts, holy or not.  I would speak more on this, but this isn't the web site for it.

[Baruch]

Being sincere and devout to what one knows is right at all junctions negates self loathing. If one not only knows of what is right in their own life, but strives to act accordingly, then this does indeed, if slowly, remove that hate that permeates ones sense of self while in knowing misdirection.

Hope that helped to explain. If not, feel free to ask for further clarification, and I will attempt it.

Peace

To know "self loathing" or "pride" requires that we have experienced them ourselves.  This is why so many people say "such and such" is only words.  This is why White people who have always been at the top of the food chain (not all Whites) have no understanding of African-Americans.

Messianic Judaism (not Christianity) was an attempt by Hellenistic Jews to escape this self-loathing, was exemplified by Paul's latitudinarianism.  Paul tried to be neutral, but the Zealots overshot into pride.  Some Hellenistic Jews avoided circumcision, so they could better associate with the Greco-Romans (at the gymnasium where men exercised in the nude).  And some, in self loathing, actually had a prepuce artificially and surgically re-attached as a disguise.

[Cavebear]

Being sincere and devout to what one knows is right at all junctions negates self loathing. If one not only knows of what is right in their own life, but strives to act accordingly, then this does indeed, if slowly, remove that hate that permeates ones sense of self while in knowing misdirection.

Hope that helped to explain. If not, feel free to ask for further clarification, and I will attempt it.

Peace

So, a belief in magical thinking somehow gives you a sense of reality in this world that you want to be free from eventually. 

[popsthebuilder]

So, a belief in magical thinking somehow gives you a sense of reality in this world that you want to be free from eventually.

I'm sorry, but that made no sense to me. Could you reword it?

Peace

[Cavebear]

Through religious beliefs, you are engaging in superstitious thoughts and unfounded beliefs.  Religions are based on magical thinking about powers that do not exist.  Is that clearer?

[Blackleaf]

I didn't say I knew how you all think. Everyone is an individual.

Yes, you do have a habit of saying a lot without saying anything at all.

I gave a brief list that, to the unbiased mind, is not evidence of GOD, but does lend credence to the possibility of GOD.

How does it lend credence to the possibility of GOD? You're not reading between the lines, you writing between them. One could do the same thing you're doing to claim that the universe leaves open the possibility that everything is just a computer simulation. There's no reason to consider your explanation any more credible than any other we can make up.

I have noticed one similarity between you. A majority of you seem to think that believing GOD doesn't exist isn't a belief. But it is, and even more so; one based on faith. Whats worse is the fact that it isn't supported by anything whatsoever except for preconceptions.

If you want to be taken seriously here, you need to learn the difference between belief and non-belief. Belief is a claim. Non-belief is not. You claim to know that God exists. We do not make a claim that God doesn't exist. If I make the claim that tyrannosaurus rex used to dance to disco music, can I say that you have a belief that they DIDN'T do that? No. That would be stupid. It would be on me to prove that my claim is correct or at least plausible, just as it is your responsibility as a theist to prove that God is real or plausible.

We are both making claims. I've offered up some sort of support for mine though.

Peace

Let me quote something you said two paragraphs earlier, "I gave a brief list that, to the unbiased mind, is not evidence of GOD, but does lend credence to the possibility of GOD." Now you're doing the old switcheroo and saying that your list is evidence. You walk between the lines of saying two opposite things so that when someone calls you out on something, you can say, "I didn't say that." I don't know if you've ever done scientific research of any kind, but I have. Support = evidence. Not that someone needs a background in research to understand that, but since you don't seem to understand that, I spelled it out for you.

All you have done was make a claim and then turn around and use your claim as evidence for itself.