Hired Gun

I don't care if my responses are posted for a debate; debate is my hobby and I actively seek it. Personally, I wouldn't post someone else's argument without telling them unless my points were to weak to withstand a debate. This is what you did; you posted my arguments without informing me of the debate so that your rebuttal could go unchallenged.

I was never offended by your posting of my e-mail response. I simply called your action 'cowardly' because you did not inform me. I always sign my name to my posts and therefore have no need for others to 'tell everyone' who I am.

Talk about fantasy land.

Hired Gun

Yeah, yeah, and using your same logic, Dan Barker and Farrell Till were never Christians in the first place.

"Oh but that's different!" you protest. No, the only difference is that you are blinded by your own position. People can experience change in their philosophies, that is a fact. Deal with it.

A.S.A. Jones

atrahasis

I can see you are close!:notworthy Yuo managed to take rainbow walking down, so this should not be problem 4 u.

Afterall u r one of think tanks around here. ama?

4 some its impossible coz of something we call IQ, so u give up if some cant even understand want u r talking about.


Finally she is "through".. so ..... u know what im saying? AMA??

sorry guys if u dont get what the h*** im talking about... ionmonkey knows...

Ted Hoffman

True, true, people change their philosophies and perharps you did - for good reasons that I am unaware of (it would be charitable of you to share with us your main reasons for deconversion - were they philosophical?).

But Robert Turkel is a monument of stupidity and its inconceivable to me that a sober person would want to be associated with him with his silly website where he insults, jeers, caricatures and mocks people in the name of debate, he represents the crappiest and nastiest and shoddiest debater on the net.

He actually makes idiocy look like a gift. He has a knack of taking a good argument, pasting it with shit and sticking the crap under peoples noses. He is evidence that nasty, loquacious, mealy-mouthed, foul-thinking idiots too have a place too in the net. And he is the loudest of the lot.
I think its a pity that even unpleasant imbeciles can inspire people. Has the world become so bankrupt of role models?

But if he is an inspiration to you - MORE POWER TO YOU!

Just remember, to convert to a theistic system and claiming inspiration from a psychotic character like Turkel is evidence that something is amiss. Why were you an atheist in the first place and what changed? Did you discover God? Please indulge us. We have a huge appetite for the story you have.

Xisuthros, hello there - relax I will get to you soon.

Hired Gun

Ha ha! Yep, all very true. J.P. is a jackass, no argument there. But I find his arguments to be credible; his ego is so big that it would kill him to present shoddy research.

It's a strange world.

Ted Hoffman

Why dont we see how serious you are:
Which arguments do you find to be particularly credible?

Ted Hoffman

Doesn't the bible advise against keeping the "company" of a proud, foul-mouthed man?

Hired Gun

I decline the invitation to debate J.P.'s positions. I would consider such an endeavor as pointless, since he already has, and is willing to, debate his own arguments. I would end up agreeing with him and you would end up disagreeing. There is no introduction of new information that would benefit further discussion, as far as I am concerned.


In addition to its written 'advice' and laws, the Bible also generates a 'spirit of the law', which one can only know by being familiar with the mind and personality of Christ, as it is presented in the text. The Bible demonstrates that the written law, by itself, is an insufficient means by which to govern our behaviour. Instead, it is only through the spirit of Christ that we can receive God's grace.

The spirit of the law tells me that God would prefer that I keep the company of a proud, foul-mouthed brother, rather than associate with a brood of polite and well-mannered vipers. Besides, how 'proud' is a man who can humble himself to God?

A.S.A. Jones

Jinto

I wouldn't consider that humility: after all, in the face of an omnipotent being, even the proudest man in the world would bow if so ordered. I think that the ultimate sign of humility would be someone who CHALLENGED God, for only someone who thought so little of himself that he considered himself to be expendable would dare such a task.

Derec

I agree. The Bible tells as a lot about the nature of people who wrote it and the cultures in which the books were written. It also tells us a great deal about the god they made.

UMoC