Where's God?

Tom Ames prayer.....
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"And he realized praying was the only thing
That he hadn't ever tried
Well he wasn't sure he knew quite how
But he looked up to the sky
Said you don't owe me nothing and as far as I know
Lord don't owe nothing to you
And I ain't asking for a miracle Lord
Just a little bit of luck will do
And you know I ain't never prayed before
But it always seemed to me
If praying is the same as begging Lord
I don't take no charity"

Well it ain't the first close call I ever had
As I'm sure you already know
I had some help from you Lord and the devil himself
It's been strictly touch and go
Yeah but who in the [beeep] am I talking to
There ain't no one here but me
And then he cocked both his pistols and he spit in the dirt
And he walked out in the street


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Originally Posted By: fw707Tom Ames prayer.....
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"And he realized praying was the only thing
That he hadn't ever tried
Well he wasn't sure he knew quite how
But he looked up to the sky
Said you don't owe me nothing and as far as I know
Lord don't owe nothing to you
And I ain't asking for a miracle Lord
Just a little bit of luck will do
And you know I ain't never prayed before
But it always seemed to me
If praying is the same as begging Lord
I don't take no charity"

Well it ain't the first close call I ever had
As I'm sure you already know
I had some help from you Lord and the devil himself
It's been strictly touch and go
Yeah but who in the [beeep] am I talking to
There ain't no one here but me
And then he cocked both his pistols and he spit in the dirt
And he walked out in the street


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Steve Earle has changed a lot since he wrote that. He played this part well;

 
Without a doubt there is a very long history of people killing in the name of God. However those doing the killing have fanatical faiths and trying to lump their beliefs together with all faiths, is like saying all agnostics are atheists. It's ridiculous, there are literally masses who attend church who don't go out and chop off peoples' heads after the service. Mosquitos continue to kill masses of people every year, but no one tries to use them as proof that there is no God.

The human race does not need a God to commit mass murder, the holocaust, Hiroshima, revolutionary and civil war all come to mind. Killing is simply engrained in our nature, no matter how civilized we become. There cannot be life without death, it is the cost of living in this reality. I don't believe I exist the same way you think you do. You are convinced that in this enigma of life, we are nothing more than a psychical body and our entire existence can all be explained with biology. If our faculty of awareness and thought is nothing more than liquids and tissues, then how can you trust anything you believe? The answer is not as complex as many who defend faith or those who attack it seem to believe, it's not as simple either. The facts are that religious faith has fueled many of humankind’s greatest achievements.

You take the Bible, Koran or any other book that is held sacred or holly, that has been translated with multiple authors and you will find the best, worst and contradictory. So as the free thinkers and blind faith believers pick through the pages for quotes to re-enforce their position, a common ground perspective is that; It’s about how those who hold such books sacred, use them.

I see significance in this video but I am also realistic, as a whole our society will continue to regress, yet as individuals we have choice. It is clear to see that our morals in the last few decades have been declining. It is clear to see prayer is being shut out and so much of today's diversity is nothing more than making sin the norm.
 
good points, but the fact is we all started out as non believers. Trust? Did you have trust to be born? Do you have trust that you will awaken if you go to sleep? It's seems pretty clear that we are part of an autonomous process that continues unabated by the random synapses that occur in our minds. I fail to see how a VERY particular perception of the happenings Around us, can ultimately effect the process that has happened and continues to occur to all other things, living and non living..

I can't be certain, but I'd be willing to wager that the young children who were made into 500 mph meat missiles, would have preferred an existence where the notion of God's were never invented.

Unfortunately, in today's environment, it's only a matter of time before some zealot gets their hands on a WMD. Then, more ungodly nonbelievers will once again go down as collateral damage. Caught between two rivaling fanatics.
 

Originally Posted By: swampwalkerThe Irony being that the belief in God brought us 9-11 and San bernadino.

Originally Posted By: swampwalkerI fail to see how a VERY particular perception of the happenings Around us, can ultimately effect the process that has happened and continues to occur to all other things, living and non living..

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Far be it from me to try to convert you, swampy; if you're happy, carry on.

Regards,
hm
 
It is appointed for every person to die... and on that day.... their knees shall bow to the name of Jesus.

Our bodies will die, but our souls will never die... they are eternal... we are eternal spirits.

Our time on earth is the testing ground of time to see if we will honor Jesus with our lives... or will we give Him the finger... as we continue along in our rebellion of sin. Rebellion is the sin... Eve started it, and rebellion continues. Sin is not drugs, drinking and whoring around... those are just the fruits of rebellion.

God Almighty is the manufacturer and He wrote an instruction manual for mankind to read... if their rebellion keeps them from reading it, then it's up to born again believers to do their job as Customer Service Representatives.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

I'm glad that I ask Jesus to prove Himself to me in such a way that I would know He was REAL... and not just because some guy or book says He was. He will prove Himself, if you just get serious about wanting to know the Truth... the Facts of Life.... and Abundant Life.
 
Originally Posted By: swampwalkerFw buddy, if you're out there can you take care of this? In the middle of skinning a deer, thanks

Oh yes, I'll be glad to.
Congrats on the deer!
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Originally Posted By: dan brothersIt is appointed for every person to die... and on that day.... their knees shall bow to the name of Jesus.

Our bodies will die, but our souls will never die... they are eternal... we are eternal spirits.

Our time on earth is the testing ground of time to see if we will honor Jesus with our lives... or will we give Him the finger... as we continue along in our rebellion of sin. Rebellion is the sin... Eve started it, and rebellion continues. Sin is not drugs, drinking and whoring around... those are just the fruits of rebellion.

God Almighty is the manufacturer and He wrote an instruction manual for mankind to read... if their rebellion keeps them from reading it, then it's up to born again believers to do their job as Customer Service Representatives.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

I'm glad that I ask Jesus to prove Himself to me in such a way that I would know He was REAL... and not just because some guy or book says He was. He will prove Himself, if you just get serious about wanting to know the Truth... the Facts of Life.... and Abundant Life.


Characteristics of a cult:

The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).

The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).

The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).

The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.

Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.

The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

The group is preoccupied with making money.

Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.

Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

The most loyal members (the true believers) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.






http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm

Y'all know what they say...
If the shoe fits....


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Originally Posted By: dan brothers
I'm glad that I ask Jesus to prove Himself to me in such a way that I would know He was REAL... and not just because some guy or book says He was. He will prove Himself, if you just get serious about wanting to know the Truth... the Facts of Life.... and Abundant Life.



"There was in all probability such a man as Jesus Christ. He may have lived in Jerusalem. He may have been crucified; but that he was the Son of God, or that he was raised from the dead, and ascended bodily to heaven, has never been, and, in the nature of things, can never be, substantiated.”

Robert G. Ingersoll


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One person fulfilling 8 prophecies: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. 1 person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 in 10 to the 157th power. 1 person fulfilling 300 prophecies: only Jesus

But now that I know what Robert G. ingersoll's oppinoin is I may have to rethink my own.

Congrats on the deer swamp!
 

"It is clear that the writers of the gospels tried to tie their narrative of Jesus to some of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Most believing Christians accept that the prophecies were genuinely historically fulfilled, but there is compelling evidence that this is not so. This is best summed up by Trevor Burris: https://trevorburrus.com/2006/10/30/the-10-reasons-why-christianity-is-wrong/

The evangelists poured through the Old Testament and found “prophecies” that predicted Jesus’ life. After all, there had to be grander reasons why their great teacher had been executed like a common criminal. In the pages of Jewish scripture they found those reasons. They then consciously wrote their gospels in order to retroactively fulfill prophecy.That this happens at all is beyond dispute. Sometimes, while stumbling over themselves to “fulfill” prophecy, they get it horribly wrong: Mark (1:1-3), using shoddy sources, begins his gospel with “prophecy” that mistakenly conflates two Old Testament versus; Isaiah 40:3and Malachi 3:1. Matthew (1:20-23) uses a mistranslated Old Testament, in which the Hebrew almah, (meaning “young woman”) was changed to the Greek parthenos (meaning a physical virgin), as a justification for the immaculate conception. Matthew (21:1-7) so wants to fulfill a “prophecy” from another shoddy source that has combined Isaiah 62:11 andZachariah 9:9, that he misinterprets the passage–which only speaks of one animal (with subsequent qualifiers)and has Jesus ride into Jerusalem, in some bizarre act of balance, on two animals. (The other gospel writers are quick to correct this grievous error.) Thus, we begin to see that not only is it a manifest absurdity to believe the Gospels are history, it becomes tenuous to believe they are even accurate.

Biblical scholars have established that the writers of the gospels felt compelled to connect the story of Jesus to the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament in an effort to convince potential followers that Jesus was the promised messiah. We now have enough evidence to conclude that the prophecies were “fulfilled” only on papyri."

http://www.kyroot.com/


Vaticinia ex eventu — retrospective prophecy — is an ancient technique for gaining credibility. It involves generating a prediction that appears to predate the event that it foretells. The event therefore appears to confirm the miraculous prediction. The trick can be done in several ways. One way is to fabricate a document purportedly written in the past that foretells later events. Biblical scholars generally accept that the Old Testament book of Daniel is an example of this type, written centuries after it was purported to have been written. Another way is to take a genuine old text and look for passages that can be interpreted as foretelling aspects of later times, tweaking facts about later times, up to the present, as required.

http://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/cd0_prophesy.htm


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Originally Posted By: dan brothersAn Intelligent Man will rethink his thinking... a Fool just babbles his own personal thoughts.

Or..........

An intelligent man thinks for himself....a fool walks around babbling about his imaginary friend.
 
Originally Posted By: DholsappleStudying the Bible is the short answer.... are you wanting a longer one?

Short answer or long answer, whichever one you are comfortable with.
Can you prove that Jesus fulfilled 300 prophecies , without using anything in the Bible as evidence?

If you need to use your book to prove your book, I’ll look up some documentation from DC Comics and prove to you that Superman and Batman both actually existed and did all of the things that were written about in every issue.

I will admit up front that if I can’t use the documentation provided by the publishers of DC Comics I have no proof.

Did you even read what I posted about retrospective prophecies?

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