Dajah

which obviously he doesnt....

WWSD

Hi Dajah,

David is a strange case. He claims a lot and yet has nothing to back up his claims besides hand waving and thinly veiled insults. He cannot answer questions and will not answer them if he knows that the answer will disqualify his assumptions.

It is best to simply ignore him. He enjoys baiting people and enjoys the attention he recieves.

He will try to bait you, to irritate you, to, as he puts it "push your buttons." Unfortunatly for him, many here have realized his little game. Some of us like to play along for fun.

Tricia,

Forget David. Look for another theist on these boards who you might want to talk to.

David will only give you smoke and mirrors, as he is a dishonest person.

Don't let him bait you, he enjoys it.

BTW how are you? Good I hope.

David,

I'm going to ask you here because I'm not sure if you have missed my question in the other threads.

Are you omniscient? A simple yes or no will do.

Thanks.

edited for television

[ July 20, 2002: Message edited by: WWSD ]</p>

Queen of Swords

Originally posted by WWSD:
<strong>
David will only give you smoke and mirrors, as he is a dishonest person. </strong>

Exactly. Notice how he avoided the issue of his own hypocrisy when I brought it up.

David Mathews

If Tricia is really a Christian she wouldn't be seeking spiritual guidance on an atheist bulletin board. Isn't there a preacher or pastor there whom you can rely upon to answer your questions and doubts? I have fulfilled my obligation to Tricia. If she is a Christian, she will follow my advice.

EDIT: Sorry, I accidentally hit the edit button instead of the quote button. I'm sorry if you lost anything.

[ July 21, 2002: Message edited by: Sephiroth ]</p>

Krieger

Hey Trish! Just remember that your friends, me and Kally, will always care about you, and we're *real* unlike Jesus or Yahweh.

Sephiroth

Hmm, could it be because she wants to try to understand both sides of the issue? Geez, who woulda thunk . She was here for about a year and for most of that time she was debating as a Christian. If I remember correctly she already mentioned that she talked to one in another thread. That's it? Remind me to never hire you.

PS: I'm sorry for accidentally messing your post.

[ July 21, 2002: Message edited by: Sephiroth ]</p>

RufusAtticus

Starspun,

I hope you enjoy it when you go to Hell and Satan makes you his bitch. If you would just open your heart up to Jesus, you can save yourself an eternity of torture. "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" I know you don't what to hear this, but the truth hurts at times.

[ July 21, 2002: Message edited by: RufusAtticus ]</p>

not a theist

This post is really very revealing about the character of David Mathews. Notice the certainty that David is attempting to convey to us here. He takes great pains to do this...
...only to end up completely botching his assessment!
For the record (and this is a fact):
Trish used to post here under the name of Lil. She vehemently defended her Christian beliefs even when under extremely heavy criticism.

Trish may or may not be an atheist and is most of all very confused right now. I doubt that she even knows what she believes.

Trish is female, and IIRC plays for the girl's volleyball team at her school.

And the thing that David says he know "certainly", that Trish "is not fifteen years old", is also incorrect. Trish is most certainly this old unless she recently had a birthday.

It is only David Mathews self-centeredness and self-absoption that prevented him from seeing these very obvious facts. A simple use of the Search function would have revealed much of this to him yet he chooses instead to rely on his intuition about the character of someone whom he seems to be completely unfamiliar with.

So I ask, why should we believe him when he makes assessment of the character of atheists or when he, better still, tries to explain the mind of God to us when he fails at such a simple task?

I've been here since well before Trish arrived and have watched the exchanges that have taken place with her. If these are not facts, she has wasted much time setting up and elaborate and pointless ruse. But perhaps someone such as David Mathews is projecting here.


Once again David Mathews claims to know what is in the mind of others after having failed to even get his basic facts straight about their profile. Further, how can he know Tricia's subconscious reasons for initiating this thread, even if he thinks she didn't consciously initiate this thread for that reason?

And even when it is staring him in the face, he fails to pick up on the most obvious: Content is the very last thing that Tricia is!


At least he manages to get something right. (Maybe.)

[ July 21, 2002: Message edited by: not a theist ]</p>

HelenM

Hi Dajah

You are Tricia's best friend??? Wow, it was nice of you to join here. It's a tough place for Christians.

Since you are a Christian and her friend, is it ok if I make a few suggestions? I might be wrong but I think Tricia really needs friends right now. And I think she needs Christians willing to say "I don't understand what you are going through but I still want to be your friend - if you can't believe much else, please believe that".

Christians can really hurt Christians who are struggling by thinking they have the answers - such as "pray more" or "read the Bible more" or "confess and renounce the secret sin which is causing you all these problems"

If you look here, you will see that the people here are being very accepting and understanding of where Tricia is at. There's no blame and no judgement. They aren't trying to push her in a certain direction even though they do think her lack of faith is more realistic than her faith she professed when she joined here.

I wish Christians could be equally accepting in that they would be very supportive of Christians who are struggling in their faith (or life in general) and not blame or judge them; and not over-advise them.

I think Tricia is blessed to have a friend like you, Dajah. Please remember that only God can give her faith to believe what she's struggling to believe right now; it's not 'your job' to do that; but what you can do is be a good friend, letting her be honest. Think how few Christians she has dared to share her doubts with. She must really trust you, that she told you. I hope that you can trust God that it's His job to 'reconvert' her, if He wants to, but you know you care about her and you can show her that...I hope

Thanks for posting here!

love in Jesus
Helen

HelenM

Originally posted by David Mathews:

David: This is not a matter of doubt or suspicion. I am speaking a fact. Tricia is an atheist, may or may not be a woman and certainly is not fifteen years old.

I believe she is 15, David.

If you think she's older that's a tribute to her smartness and ability in writing, I suppose.

It is foolish of you to assert she is not 15 when you don't know

How old are you, David?

I can't perceive any reason at all why I should {i]save[/i] Tricia from his/her own doubts.

That is quite consistent with other things you've said, at any rate.

Tricia didn't initiate this thread for that reason.

Tricia is content with his/her atheism. Need I say more?

You need not but this implies that either you didn't read the OP or you didn't believe it.

Not taking someone at their word is very disrespectful. It's one thing to say "I'm not sure" but you seem to be assuming Tricia was deliberately lying. In which case it would have been more respectful and kinder to say "Tricia, I do not believe a real Christian who is now doubting their faith, would ask for help here on the Secular Web" than to toss out a few sentences indirectly showing a great deal of indifference to her.

Do you not value directness?

You are very indirect, very often in your posts, so it seems to me.

love
Helen