Stormy

No its not. It is a discussion forum.

King Rat

He's still around, I tangled with him last week I think. At least Magus55 pretends to answer questions. I don't think this Stormy person has ever been challenged before. What good is faith if it can't stand up to scrutiny? Doesn't he/she realize that god can see right through his/her diaphanous faith?

Nowhere357

:notworthy

Although Merriam-Webster would say that discussions are informal debates; still, good comeback.

Main Entry: dis·cus·sion
Function: noun
1 : consideration of a question in open and usually informal debate
2 : a formal treatment of a topic in speech or writing

Nowhere357

Imo, regardless of a theist's position and critical thinking skills, any who continue to play the game in this lion's den deserve at least a modicum of respect for that.

It cannot be easy for them. I know it's not easy for a skeptic to hang out an a Christian board, even with the full weight of scientific knowledge and philosophical reasoning as support. Christians have little more than a Bible full of myth, legend, dogma and rhetoric, complete with logical and scientific fallacies, inconsistencies, outright contradictions. And that hasn't touched the immoral nature of a god which creates a hell, murders children to influence a mortal, commits the greatest single act of terrorism in the history of life, promotes divisiveness, exclusionism, and warfare among humanity, and I think I'll shut up now.

Jogyo

How about karma?

King Rat

Good point.

I'm curious as to why they don't come prepared? If I was heading into a lions den I'd sure as shit have some pretty formidable weapons.

AJ113

With respect, you do not know this because it is not a fact.

But God has placed us where our frail bodies are exposed to harm............

Once again, unproven.

Makes me extra glad that I have a soul. .....

You know, you would attract more credibilty if you remained with the facts instead of making unproven assertions that amount to nothing more than proselytising.

wildernesse

Why would theists who post on here be looking for a fight in the first place? Why can't we just be interested in how other people view their experiences--without having to adopt them for ourselves?

I didn't start posting here to fight tooth and claw over what I believe and convert anyone (or be converted, for that matter)--I began posting here and continue to post here because I enjoy the usually intelligent conversation and learning about other people's views. Other people are fascinating to me.


As long as we're talking about silliness, can I talk about Libertarians? I'm not going to address your Bill Gates example, because I don't have anything to say about it. Other people who agree with the premises can tell you what they think of it.

You have no ability to tell me what a waste of my time is, unless you know what my goals are. I might think that learning Swahili is a total waste of time--or creating abstract sculptures, but that doesn't mean that people who find value in these activities are wasting their time. Now, if they made me learn Swahili or carve random stuff then it would be a waste of *my* time.

Also, you have very little ability to judge how I better my life or even if I should. All told, my life is extremely close to perfection--in fact, I don't think that I could actually count on one hand things that are imperfect, much less not good about my life. Of those things, I'm pretty sure that prayer is not an obstacle to my overcoming those things.

Saying that you defintively know what would make someone's life better, is very close to Christians who say your life would improve once you were saved. If you don't like it when people imply that you don't know what's best for you, then why would you do likewise?

--tibac

Nowhere357

But wouldn't that mean the dead kids deserved their fate?

By the generic definition, karma suggests that the nature of our afterlife (or perhaps reincarnation) may be determined by our morality; it does not suggest that karma causes things to happen in this life.

But I see karma as "what goes around comes around". How do you see it?

Main Entry: kar·ma
Function: noun
Etymology: Sanskrit karma fate, work
1 often capitalized : the force generated by a person's actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person's next existence
2 : VIBRATION 4
- kar·mic /-mik/ adjective

Carrie

Hey wildernesse - It's good you're not here to convert anyone, becasue THAT would be a waste of time eh? If you're really just interested in other people, that's cool. Don't take me too seriously about the fighting part. I do like to debate though. We'll call it that, a debate. Definately more than a discussion though, because a debate is where you challenge others. And I see nothing wrong with challenging someone else to think about what they believe, and you can challenge us just the same.

As for praying, I think it's a waste of time if you're expecting that a God will hear you and maybe even give you an answer, but that's just what I think. And I just don't think people should sit around and expect that God will take care of everything because they prayed about it. For example, I have friends that don't prepare for retirement (haven't set up a 401K after 5 years of suggesting they should do that), and they just assume everything will be fine, but when they want to retire, if they don't have much of a retirement fund, they are going to have a hard time, and then all they can do is try to be happy and grateful to God in their impoverished situation. If you don't think like this, good for you. If you feel praying helps you, great. I wish you happiness however you find it.