I'd agree with you there Stress - in my experience, Christians will not accept anyone else's point of view. More and more people are deserting the established churches, congregation numbers are falling.
True. Happiness IS a chemical reaction in the brain stimulating the release of endorphines or some similar chemical. So we can be happy without the asistance of God.
Question - is your Christian God the same entity as the God from any other religion ? Or are there different gods for different religions? And if so , what makes your god better than all the others ?
Question - Do you believe everything as written in the Bible, including the Old Testaments, eg the creation? Or do you accept the Darwinian concept of evolution of life?
I'm not speaking for everyone, I'm giving MY opinion, which as a forum member I am entitled to do :) "everyone is aware" is a turn of phrase in our wonderful english language, refering to mass awareness.
I know, I have been reading about it for 30 years,
Opinions make up the forum - we all have 'em and this is mine.
If I could reference the physics text books that I had at school I would, but since they are not online to my knowledge, I cant do so. The sun has a twenty two year magnetic cycle, which means going from one polarity to the other and back again.
Half of that cycle is eleven years - therefore the sun changes polarity every 11 years.
Sunspot behaviour and solar wind cycles are closely linked with magnetic shifts.
These have been going on for the last several billion years. The earth hasn't fried yet.
Thats my OPINION baby, after watching your deified professor. If you wanna get all your end of the earth things done before then, you go ahead - who am I to say that you are wrong.
The Sun has a very strong magnetic field which changes every year and reverses direction about every eleven years. The Sun's magnetic field gives rise to sunspots on the surface of the Sun, solar flares, and the solar wind that carries material through the Solar System as it does every day...
Nothing unusual about its reversing polarity in 2012, and nothing to fear from the solar wind.
I have seen people texting, I have seen people reading the newspaper, i have seen people shaving, but I have never ever seen anyone typing on a laptop whilst in control of a vehicle ..
no, bebeII, afghanistan does not have much oil of its own per se, but there are some interesting plans to pipe oil through the country ... obviously the oil barons will not want an unstable unfriendly power in charge of that country ...
Sorry, I didnt mean an emotional or religious type connection - I meant a physical electrochemical impulse in the brain between sinapses that leads to thought generation.
In their view, they may well get a sudden thought that they think is insight / information that they did not have before - inspiration if you like.. and they may attribute that to a higher power. That's their belief.
But yes, you are right - in my view, I think that it is still within their own mind : they may see / hear / feel something that they attribute to a higher power, but this could be just be the result already having beliefs - a case of fitting the facts to their belief , if you like ..
really complicated issue ... Whenever one side speaks ill of the other, you should ask yourself "What is their hidden agenda?"
American people dont hate muslims, I believe, and I dont think that muslims hate Americans.. enough muslims live and work there .. !
But there are reasons why certain groups of Americans see advantage in perpetuating the "hate muslim" myth, and there are reasons why certain muslim leaders perpetuate the Great Satan ideology... mostly to do with their own power base and oil / money .. and lets not forget, whoever controls the oil will in the future control world affairs ...
But America does not do itself any favours with its foreign policy ...and Britain follows like a blind lap dog. Why, for example, after 9/11 when actually most of the terrorists involved came from Saudi, did we all invade Iraq ??? I still dont know.. Could it be that George Dubya wanted to finish what his Daddy started .. WMD ??
I notice that no-one has seriously advocated invading N Korea who not only has WMD now, but also a missile delivery system ... why?
There is a similar thread to this just two pages back ..
"Those who don't believe in God or Jesus, why don't you?"
To paraphrase my response on that thread - Jesus existed - he was an historical character, lived, breathed, etc. Do I believe he is the Son Of God? No. Because I do not believe that God exists in reality (see other thread for reasons).
So, have I ever had a spiritual experience? No, I dont think so - what does it feel like? How would I know if I have had one?
I am sure that some people genuinely believe that they have had some kind of experience of God.. Personally, I think that they have not experienced God as such, but they have had some kind of connection in their mind (the brain is incredibly complex as you know) But if thats what they believe, then that is their business.
I am sure also that some people who claim to have experienced a spiritual experience are faking it for whatever reason - financial gain or whatever...
Seen the light ? If you mean people who claim to have had an experience of God in some way , well - I am sure that some of them genuinely believe that they have had some kind of experience of God.. Personally, I think that they have not experienced God as such, but they have had some kind of connection in their mind (the brain is incredibly complex as you know) But if thats what they believe, then that is their business.
I am sure also that some people who claim to have seen the light are faking it for whatever reason - financial gain or whatever.
I have seen someone predict the future, yes. We have a guy on the TV called Darren Brown who is very very good at mind reading and predicting the future - even the lottery numbers, which he has done on national tv - but he operates by clever psychological trickery (in some cases) and practice based upon known facts in other cases.
I have visited (years ago) a "fortune teller" - she was a million miles out on her predictions lol
Personally, I dont believe that there are genuine "prophets"
Jesus lived, existed, walked the earth, worked, sweated, and is a historical character. He was feted as a preacher and a prophet, and he may have been - but then so were a great many other people at that time ... prophecy was big business.
However, is he The Son of God ?
No, I dont think so.
Largely because I dont think that heaven, hell, God or Satan exists in reality. They are a creation by a wholely more "simple" people in times when there were a great many unknowns in the world, to help explain "the unexplained". Religions were a creation as a vehicle to perpetuate 'their' prophet's teachings, and used as a power / wealth creation device. "God" is the carrot, "Satan" is the stick to keep people in line. Which is the richest organisation on earth ? Look no further than the Catholic Church ...
About the same time as Jesus walked, we had our own prophets and religions in britain (the druids), as I am sure that you did in your own countries. Their gods were Sun, Moon, etc etc.
The spread of Christianity was marked by wars, murder, and genocide (Conquistadors, Romans etc). What kind benevolent God would allow such loss of life in His name?
There is no God. Only in our minds.
As a post script - what festival are we celebrating in a few weeks? Birth of Christ? No. That was in the spring. "Christmas" is the parachuting in of christianity's own made up festival to help win over the pagans. On Christmas Day, you are celebrating a pagan festival, winter solstice.
victor_meldrew Forum Posts (436)
RE: Those Who Don't Believe in God or Jesus...
I'm sorry, is this the five minute argument, or the full half hour ?:)