The Gospel

It can cause even more conflicts in a relationship when two people are not equally yolked! God is loving and he only wants the best for us.

You are truly delusional. The god Christians pray to is an evil bastard. He's also no more real than the Easter Bunny, but the Easter Bunny never gives people pancreatic cancer. Your god regularly inflicts painful diseases that result in slow brutal deaths on good people. Pay attention to the world.

An what the heck is "equally yolked"? Does that involve having eggs thrown at you?
 
Oh ... well ... if you want to add to your list of orangutan quotes:

"Orangutans are skeptical..." --- S & G.

Thanks for that!

(I did a Google of Orangutango and came up with this):
stororangutango.jpg

I have absolutely no idea what it is.

Jen
 
Orang, great post.

My opinion is believers themselves make god unbelievable. We constantly hear how god is all-powerful but yet the deeds that are attributed to this omnipotent one leave a lot to be desired. It is always mundane things we are told are god’s miracles. Never the great deeds one would expect from someone so divine. He spends his day making little things happen for use while turning the blind eye to those things that need his attention most. God, the god of love, the forgiving one, is so unloving and unforgiving. When bad things happen or nothing at all happens we are told god is testing or faith and loyalty to him or that god is punishing us. Why does the all-knowing need to test our loyalty? Would he not already know if we were loyal? And when he punishes, would it not be better for him to let us in on what the punishment is for and maybe, just maybe once let someone know they were being punished before it happens? I often times heard god referred to as the good father or good parent. Well, let me tell you, my parents ranked right up there with the so-so parents of the world and when the belt came out they at least told me what I did wrong and what I was in for. Deserved most time. This god can best be described as arbitrary and capricious. I can just hear god now, “Today you believed in me. You can sit front row center court at the game. Hmmmm, look at all the people at the beach in Phuket. I don’t like the name of that place, it sounds…dirty, here’s a tidal wave 40’ high. And not only will I wipe them out I’ll go for 120,000 others just as a test of loyalty to me. Where is the logic in this if you would have a reasonable thinking person believe? If I don’t believe in god it is because those who believe in him make him unbelievable.

I found it funny that when I told the same person I had tickets to the second game (I admit, I had to), they didn't say anything about god and told me it wasn't funny when I asked if I was being punished.

I didn't get those tickets from god. He didn't save my septic pump from burning out when my alarm circuit shorted. He didn't give Mildred the winning lottery ticket. He didn't cause wars, famine and other natural disasters. Nor did his little buddy in the red suit with horns and a tail.

In my day-to-day life I don’t usually go around screaming I’m an atheist or a skeptic. Even when those around are talking god I smile and go on my merry way. When I sneeze and someone says “God bless you” I say “I don’t need it but thank you anyway.” I like many others have found this forum as a place to express those views and plan to.

G

BTW those Orangutango’s look much better than Moxie.

You know, I type so slow, every time I go to post I get timed out and have to log back in.
 
Well said, GregC. After reading your post talking about the belief in an omnipotent god, the 1st thing that popped to mind was a line from Star Trek V where Bones is questioning an entity that has claimed to be "God", and who needs the Enterprise to carry on it's mission: "What does god need with a starship?"

For humanity, we should be asking ourselves: "What does god need with worship?" Why would an omnipotent and omniscient deity who had created an infinite universe as his playground show so much concern and obsession for the beliefs of a bunch of hairless apes running around on speck of rock orbiting around an average sun... so much obsession, in fact, that he/she/it is willing to sentence those who do not prostate themselves in front of him to the worst imaginable punishment? It boggles the mind.

This has always been a favorite catch-phrase of mine whenever asked what I think is the essence of Christianity (or any other organized religion): "I can sum it up in 5 words: 'Worship me or suffer eternally'".

Jen
 
This seems to be the prevailing understanding. Frankly, if I had to spend all my time making obesiences to an Almighty, just to make sure I had properly massaged His ego, I sure as hell wouldn't get much done.

Seems to me if God is so insecure that I've GOT to be in Church every second the doors are open, He's not much of a God at all.
 
If there were a god I would much rather defend not beleiving in him then defending not using the brains I was given. I'd have a stronger case.
 
This seems to be the prevailing understanding. Frankly, if I had to spend all my time making obesiences to an Almighty, just to make sure I had properly massaged His ego, I sure as hell wouldn't get much done.

Seems to me if God is so insecure that I've GOT to be in Church every second the doors are open, He's not much of a God at all.

Bravo, Roadtoad.
 
Well, Kathy, it's Sunday morning. I'm a dollar poorer, just as I expected to be.
I could have taken home around $2 million, after taxes and could have helped so many with it. (No, that's not sarcasm. My first charitable donations would have been to our local homeless shelter and food bank, and to the Catholic free clinic which helped keep my husband alive last year when he should have "stroked out.")

Oh, well; there's always next week.
 
This seems to be the prevailing understanding. Frankly, if I had to spend all my time making obesiences to an Almighty, just to make sure I had properly massaged His ego, I sure as hell wouldn't get much done.

Seems to me if God is so insecure that I've GOT to be in Church every second the doors are open, He's not much of a God at all.
Every once in a while I get a mental image of God screaming down at the fundies.

"Jesus H. Christ! Get a ****ing life, you bunch of idiots! Where the **** did you come up with some of this ****?!?!? It wasn't my ****ing idea, that's for me-damn sure! I gave you LIVES for a reason! Use them! Get out, enjoy the universe! Have some fun! WHAT? You're going to do WHAT to that poor ****ing woman?!?!?! I'm SO going to bitchslap you ****ers when you get up here. What a bunch of cupcake loser morons."


Somehow, I think my idea of God is more realistic than kathy's.
 
Every once in a while I get a mental image of God screaming down at the fundies.

"Jesus H. Christ! Get a ****ing life, you bunch of idiots! Where the **** did you come up with some of this ****?!?!? It wasn't my ****ing idea, that's for me-damn sure! I gave you LIVES for a reason! Use them! Get out, enjoy the universe! Have some fun! WHAT? You're going to do WHAT to that poor ****ing woman?!?!?! I'm SO going to bitchslap you ****ers when you get up here. What a bunch of cupcake loser morons."


Somehow, I think my idea of God is more realistic than kathy's.

Nominated!
 
Wacky sense of humor, usually has better things to do than worry about us, angry and bitter about his followers?

OK, but isn't this largely a projection of yourself, and aren't God's hypothetical words in your humorous example essentially a statement of your own feelings in this matter? You're basically saying that you find the idea of a God in your own image (who ratifies your opinions and displays your own preferences and prejudices) to be more believable than one made in someone else's image. Isn't that true of nearly everyone, particularly if we do (as some assert) all create God in our own image? It would be highly unusual if anyone found someone else's conception of God more realistic than his or her own.
 
OK, but isn't this largely a projection of yourself, and aren't God's hypothetical words in your humorous example essentially a statement of your own feelings in this matter? You're basically saying that you find the idea of a God in your own image (who ratifies your opinions and displays your own preferences and prejudices) to be more believable than one made in someone else's image. Isn't that true of nearly everyone, particularly if we do (as some assert) all create God in our own image? It would be highly unusual if anyone found someone else's conception of God more realistic than his or her own.
Perhaps you're taking my post a wee bit too seriously?
 
Sorry, then. I mean, I got that the post was tongue-in-cheek, but I inferred from it a reasonably serious point too.

And I suppose there is. I just really don't take the "God" concept seriously. Maybe he's up there, maybe he ain't. I tend to waffle on the subject, to be honest. But I do maintain that, if he IS up there, my conception of him, as outlined above, is closer to reality than kathy's. Maybe that's a serious philosophical/religious point, maybe that's just my bizarre sense of humor trying to make sense of this bizarre, chaotic universe. Either way, it works for me. :D
 
Well, Kathy, it's Sunday morning. I'm a dollar poorer, just as I expected to be.
I could have taken home around $2 million, after taxes and could have helped so many with it. (No, that's not sarcasm. My first charitable donations would have been to our local homeless shelter and food bank, and to the Catholic free clinic which helped keep my husband alive last year when he should have "stroked out.")

Oh, well; there's always next week.

Well I will pray that God helps you meet that need to get out of debt. But as far as telling God how we want Him to meet that need, well it's really His choice in how He wants to meet that need or answer that prayer!
It may just be that He blesses you with work to help you take care of that debt.
Since I haven't been working a regular job I realize how lucky and blessed people are when they have good health and they are able to work. I do kind of miss being employed but I am thankful my hubby has a good job so I can be home w/ my 3 teens that probably need me more now than they ever did.
 
Well I will pray that God helps you meet that need to get out of debt. But as far as telling God how we want Him to meet that need, well it's really His choice in how He wants to meet that need or answer that prayer!
It may just be that He blesses you with work to help you take care of that debt.
Since I haven't been working a regular job I realize how lucky and blessed people are when they have good health and they are able to work. I do kind of miss being employed but I am thankful my hubby has a good job so I can be home w/ my 3 teens that probably need me more now than they ever did.

I have one brother and one sister and my mother was always home with us. I think that I was very fortunate to have her home. She certainly wasn't the "soap opera" stereotype that some people talk about. She worked every bit as hard as women who work outside the home--probably harder in many ways. She was always in constant motion taking care of us, cooking, cleaning and managing the finances.
 

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