Wads4

Perhaps in Hell, there will be feasting on roast babies?

Wads4

But He says, and we say; "You shall surely put a difference between the Holy and the profane,....... My Name is YHWH"

Yes, well we don't accept him either,-whatever he calls himself. All of your preceding post describes quite well the human condition. The point is, it is the human condition only; adding YHWH to it does nothing to affect it either way.except to perpetuate the problems that this myth causes.

Wads4

"As one who believes in YHWH, and in His mercy, and that the Heavens exist, and are a far better place, it is my belief that these were by the mercy of YHWH, removed from further suffering of the cruelties of that age.
(even as all the millions of babies who are being exterminated in these days)
They are spoken for by The Head of the house-hold of faith, His Amen is spoken for all of whom are because of age, or infirmity of the flesh, or of the mind unable to speak for themselves. "

Yes, finally calling a halt to the suffering and exterminations on Earth by re-locating the victims to Heaven could I suppose be seen as an improvement. Pity YHWH could't do something to prevent it all in the first place. I am not sure I understand the rest of the post, it is descending into incoherent preaching mode.

Wads4

So here we go again-redefining the meaning of words so they mean something different from normal usage. Have you not heard that suffering, however you define it, also produces bitter twisted people, psychologically and physically traumatised by their experiences? In your imaginary world everyone seems somehow to benefit from being tortured and generally mistreated.

Wads4

Have you ever owned an animal? I currently own nine Boxers (dogs, not pugilists). They act just like humans, from the expression in their eyes and on their faces, their gestures and body-language, their obvious enjoyment of pleasure, their sense of humour, and their fear of pain or discomfort. The Christian denial of animal suffering is behind the animal atrocites such as cat-burning to amuse the mob in past centuries, religious vivisectors nailing dogs to a board by their limbs, so they could vivesect them to study the circulation of the blood. Do animals lack self -awareness when they scratch themselvs to relieve an itch? Surely having an itch is self-awareness, else why scatch it? Of course their suffering has meaning, why should it not?

Wads4

Rubbish! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedas

Wads4

One could plausibly claim that it was Buddhist and Hindu ethics that changed the world,--transmitted to the West by Alexander's contacts with India. Besides, the ethics of Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle were deliberately used by the Church, as well as some Stoic concepts.
Christians merely plagiarised these concepts and called them ''Christian ethics''. Christian ethics in in fact derived from the '''heathen'' Greeks. The vengeful, malicious, intolerant aspects of christian ''ethics' were adopted from Judaism.

Wads4

""God would have been overjoyed if they had, just as he was overjoyed when Abraham pointed out to him that he was wrong to destroy Sodom if there were any righteous people in it. Abraham directly questions the rightness of God's decision, and God agrees.''

What sort of an omniscient God is it that has to be talked out of certain course of action by mere humans? This is just silly.

''The bible is virtually silent on what heaven means,'--''

The reason for this is that in early O.T. history the Israelites/Jews did not have much of a concept of an afterlife at all, apart from the vague concept of Sheol. Eventually their 'thinkers' came to realise that there had to be some sort of reward and punishment system that God would mete out in an afterlife, as it was obvious to them that there was no justice in this one. So they invented one. That is why the Bible is silent about it until later times.

Wads4

''However, I have an acquaintance, who will again soon departing for Papua New Guniea to assist in the building of schools, and infrastructure (wells and electricity- eventually), and the delivering badly needed sanitation supplies (soap, bleach, and disinfectants) to a people who are trapped in a poor and geologically isolated country, where such simple everyday items are unavailable to the majority of the population.
If any of the "compassionate", "humanitarian atheists", here would like to actually DO something constructive to help the welfare of their fellow man, just send me a PM, and I'll gladly forward his contact information (No, he is NOT a member of my "religion", faith, or denomination, but a good work is worthy of the support of caring peoples);;

Ha, found it; however you are still sneering at us.

Wads4

''Originally Posted by Sheshbazzar
The Scriptures indicate that He intervened dramatically some thousands of years ago, that intervention is not -on a daily basis- detectable today. (or we wouldn't be in this debate) ''

That is what one load of Christians says; another load says he guides, intervenes and supports us on a daily basis.

Not so long ago, I went to an evangelist meeting just for fun. The highlight was when an óld'woman staggered and limped onto the stage, and was blessed by the master of ceremonies, -- whereupon she threw down her crutch and started leaping about in a most undigified an absurd manner yelling "" Yippee, I 'm cured, Jesus has cured me'. No gravitas at all, and quite painful for a serious Englishman like myself to have to behold.
I have also been asked by the local crack-pot creationist to come and witness his congregation speaking in tongues. I asked which tongues, but he did not seem to know.