Posted on 12/29/2011 1:01:09 PM PST by daletoons
Atheist militant Richard Dawkins has produced a children's book entitled "The Magic of Reality" and in doing so has joined the Millstone Swim and Dive Club. Spreading his venom for God to kids under the guise of Scientism is about as putrid as it gets. Children using simple God-given logic conclude the existence of a creator. It requires an abandonment of logic to attain self omniscience and declare there is no God. The materialist's faith in the escape hatch of "there just wasn't enough evidence for me" won't wash on judgement day. Here's a book idea: The ghost of Christopher Hitchens, Jacob Marley style, appears to Richard Dawkins and sets him straight. Dickey would probably make a hash of it, too bad Hitchens isn't still around to write it.
Precisely so, Dear Sister.
Thank you. Illuminating, as always.
For one thing, because it is interesting. ( ^8 }
For my part of the pings, see #325 and #386.
Thanks for the comeback.
As for why I stay to argue, I speak because people address me and ask questions. If you look at this thread with any honesty, you'll see that if I stop answering questions, I get attacked as having "run away."
So really, there is no way to please Christians. If you speak, they demand answers and explanations. If you don't give them, they accuse you of cowardice and avoidance. If you do give them, they try to get you zotted or invoke JR to shut you down.
Why don't you just admit that what you want is to abuse and revile atheists and they had better keep quiet and keep their heads down or else. Which reveals to me that Christians have not really changed much since they days that they DID seek out atheists and murder them. Nowadays, the only way you can persecute them is online. So you do. Your basic attitudes have not changed, only your ability to inflict distress.
If you don't want to me to speak of this on FR, you will go a long way in reducing my replies by not addressing or pinging me on such matters. If you think you are going to address me, question me, or ping me, and then tell me I shouldn't answer, then yes, you actually MIGHT be a little nuts.
Really? Care to cite that?
It is a simple question, one that you have done everything possible in your power to not answer. You prevaricate, you wriggle, you try to move the goalposts, you change the subject, but you've never tried to answer it. You've tried to deflect the question with silly ideas about theism and atheism, or belief and unbelief semantics (really not very intelligent answers), but so far you can't deal with the above question head on. Lots of people are likely watching, so don't let them down.
Hey, you've been a pretty good sport, but until you answer the question, you will make everyone who reads this thread assume you are dodging or not very bright.
I await your answer (and presumably might wait for a long time).
You said in your last post: You looked around at reality and said "I don't like this answer, give me another."
Come now, don't you feel silly for saying that too? How in the world can you say something like that when you've never known me, never chatted with me before on FR, never had a clue what I believe or think, know nothing about my life or my history. That was as silly as your claiming that believing there is no God is not simply another belief. You've gone ad hominem instead of answering the very simple question asked of you.
Once again, I will gladly engage you about your question concerning "unbelief" once you've answered mine.
Sure. Just look at posts 331 to about 387. See all the gloating about the “dead noob” and the pictures of lightning striking? That poster was just answering questions, and how dare he answer questions? We’ll get him zotted. Now check out YHAOS (or whatever her name is) pinging Jim Robinson in hopes of getting ME zotted. If you can’t kill the atheist, kill their account. That is, yes, the same attitude, right down to the “dead/kill/lightning” rhetoric.
But you know what? I'll give it another try. Let me use an analogy to explain to you what "unbelief" or "non-belief" is.
Imagine I am selling my used car on Craigslist. I advertise it for $3000 cash only, no bargaining. A man comes, checks out the car, agrees to buy it, and hands me a yellow envelope, saying “Here is $3000.”
Do I count the money? If I believe him, I just take the envelope, give him the keys, and he drives away. If I do not believe without counting it for myself, I start counting. So I start counting.
Immediately, he gets angry. “You think I’m trying to rip you off! You think I’m a thief!”
No, I don’t. If I believed he was a thief, I’d have been afraid to meet with him in the first place, for fear he might intend to beat me up, steal the car, etc.
”Well what, then?” He asks. “You think I’m too stupid to count to $3000?”
No, not at all. Even a smart person can make an honest mistake.
“Look,” he says, “I counted it myself, and I put it in the envelope myself. You think I let someone else do it and they aren’t trustworthy? You think I’m lying about this?”
No, again, if I believed he was a liar, I wouldn’t meet with him. I’d be afraid to.
“You think some of the money just fell out of the envelope, then, and is lying on the floor of my car?” He asks sarcastically.
Well, that could happen, I suppose, but I didn’t start counting because I believed that some of the money has fallen out.
Here is my point: I’m counting the money because I don’t accept on faith that there is $3000 in there. It doesn’t mean
1.) I believe he is a thief.
2.) I believe he is a moron.
3.) I believe he is a liar.
4.) I believe a strange accident has made some of the money vanish
Any of those things are possible, but I’m not committed to any of them. Indeed, I hope they are all wrong. I’m counting the money because I don’t believe there’s $3000 till I’ve counted it myself.
Counting the money is unbelief. It doesn’t mean I believe certain things about this man. Do you understand now?
Once again, try to answer the question head on, your story is fun, but it explains nothing other than your inability to either fess up to originally having said something you can't back up, or not being very smart and still believing what you said (there's that dwatted word again).
Either:
Yes, I believe you are right, I believe there is no God and that's my belief system. Or, no I don't believe my belief system of not believing in God is just another belief system and here's why: _________________________________________________
Be back in about an hour after you fill in the blank space.
Hi Lady,
God is Spirit. Jesus speaking said in John 4:24 "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
You must eat His flesh and drink His blood. Jesus said in John 6:53 "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ..."63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life..."
If you are thirsty, you can come to Him to drink. Jesus said in John 7:37 "On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive..."
His kingdom is not of this world. Jesus had this conversation in John 18: 33 "Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?" 34 "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" ...Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. ....But now my kingdom is from another place." 37 "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
Do you see it now, Lady? I hope you do.
Jesus also said to His own in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
However, Jesus also said in John 10 to those who asked "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." 25 Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one."
1.) I explained the actual meaning of the prefix a- in atheist: Asexual means lack of sexuality, not a different sexuality. Atypical means not typical, not a different kind of typical. Arrhythmic means no rhythm, not a different kind of rhythm.
2.) I demonstrated that there is no predictable worldview that goes with atheism: Some atheists are objectivists, some are communists. Some don't have any particular political philosophy. Some don't even think about these matters.
3.) I explained by description: One side has a whole belief system, complete with characters, stories, rules, laws, proverbs, prophecies, a history, a projected future, a homeland, everything. The other side just says “I don’t believe that.”
4.) I offered YOU the chance to describe this fabled Belief System of the Atheist for me – you didn’t even dare to try, knowing it would expose your little game immediately.
5.) I have explained the systems we DO work by: “value-based rather than belief-based. We may have values, we may have priorities, we may operate on assumptions (until they are proven wrong, in which case we adapt and keep going) but there is no belief system.”
6.) I explained to you that you were confusing acceptance of certain truths with “beliefs” as in” I don't distrust gravity because all the evidence supports that gravity is in effect and will remain so. But if tomorrow I start floating, I'll abandon that assumption immediately.”
7.) Finally, I gave you an analogy so that you could see the difference between unbelief and active belief. You didn’t even read it.
8.) Now I'll try your little fill-in-the-blank: not believing in God is not just another belief system and here's why: When I stopped believing in God, I didn't replace it with anything. I know next to nothing about evolution or cosmology, and I don't care. I simply stopped worrying about it all and concentrated on making my life as much to my liking as I can.
Now. If you cannot understand that, I can only conclude that your real purpose is not honest communication. I suspect you are either trying to insult and goad and needle me into an angry outburst that will get me zotted, or trying to make me give up in exasperation so that you can process that as “I chased away the infidel! She could not compete with the bright and shining truth of God that flows through me.”
It’s a childish game you’re playing, and I don’t think you are worth any more of my time. I am sorry you cannot understand such a simple concept as lack of belief. But it’s your problem, not mine.
2 Co 5: "7 We live by faith, not by sight. "
v Go to this youtube link:
Words by John Slick
Based on 2 Corinthians 6:9, Romans 5:1-5, Habakkuk 2:3-4, Galatians 5:16-24, Hebrews 6:11-12
Sometimes we're runnin' along
Blind to where we're goin'
Sometimes we lose our bearings
When the storm is blowin'
They say this shadow land is only temporary
These light afflictions work a great eternal glory
(Chorus)
Walk by faith, not by sight
Strengthened by His glorious might
Walk by faith, not by sight
Heading for that land of light
Walk by faith and not by sight
Sometimes we ain't so sure
He sees us when we're kneelin'
Sometimes we forget salvation ain't a feelin'
We know that Jesus died for our justification
We grow in His image by suffering tribulations
Hold fast your confidence
You've got an invitation
To meet Him in the air
at His revelation
Yes, exactly. That's what I've been saying.
When asked about this (I implied he had been invited by another atheist), he pointed out that he had seen this thread on reddit/atheism, where you were looked on with concern, as you were getting your ass kicked so hard they could see it all the way from there.
Most n00bs, you know, are enjoined to lurk for awhile.
Most n00bs who stay, both lurk for awhile, AND do not make their first posts contrary to the stated purposes of FR.
Your erstwhile atheist champion did neither.
You might notice btw that lots of n00bs get the zot, and seem to either wear it as a badge of honor, or a sign of special persecution, rather than that of not following the rules and customs of a site.
This applies to Christians on atheist sites as well as all *kinds* of people here.
Secondly, you're contradicting yourself again, as your lines
"pinging Jim Robinson in hopes of getting ME zotted. If you can’t kill the atheist, kill their account. That is, yes, the same attitude, right down to the “dead/kill/lightning” rhetoric."
really differ in tone from your post 64 this thread :
"Now, I don't believe God created the universe, but I do know Jim Robinson created Free Republic. I also know that if he'd kicked me off years ago for being an atheist, I would not have learned conservative philosophy at all. It's his forum and he will indeed always have the right to zot this account. I hope he doesn't but it's up to him. But it's not up to you. "
From Drearily defiant then to plaintively passive-aggressive now.
As far as your victimhood, try your post 11 this thread in which you wrote:
"And ever since then, any charismatic fellow who is articulate enough can convince people that this SOMEONE spoke to him and now y'all better listen up. Worked for Abraham, worked for Moses, worked for Jesus, worked for Mohammed, worked for Jim Jones, worked for that nut who started the Mormon church... all you need is a tall, intense, good-looking man who can talk him a good one, and you've got you another religion! All endorsed by the Someone Who Must Have Made It All, After All, Here It Is. "
No, you're just a helpless victim, minding your own business, shopping for soap and toilet paper, and now these mean nasty SPITEFUL Christianists want to exclude you just because they can't appreciate your broad spirit of tolerant-open-mindedness.
Being Prometheus sure is tough, isn't it? Especially when the intended recipients of your largesse already have propane lighters, internal combustion engines, gas heat, and flashlights. I'll send out for more liver.
Full Disclosure: Do you show this same great courage against militant Islamists, like Pamela Gellar or Ann Barnhardt? Or are your fictitious heroic conquests of the fideles limited to Christians in the US?
Cheers!
perfect lady: I’m not mindless
Spirited: Like the soul, the mind and its abilities-—reason, imagination, dream, memory, etc. are of the unseen dimension,which is why the nihilist Daniel Dennett logically denies mind along with soul and free will and concludes with, “there is no you.”
If ‘you’ are to remain logically consistent, ‘you’ must deny ‘your’ mind along with ‘your’ soul. That said, it is by your repeated use of reason and personal pronouns that you confess against what you profess to be true.
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