I, personally, welcome all the Jesus threads

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
a reply to: centhwevir1979

As soon as people stop trying to get us to join their cults

I don't want you in my cult, lol

The reason christians keep spitting bible quotes at people is because they want to influence their behavior. The need to convert the poor heathen souls. Sending christian missionaries places actually spread diseases and eliminated indigenous culture, introduced the concepts of money and gambling in places where they were unnecessary. The goal clearly is to convert everyone to christianity.

The bible , a good book that topped the best seller list in 1442 and 1756 i believe .But why did they leave out the first chapter . You know the one about giant lizards running around and eating each other . Please , do not try to tell me they did not exist .

a reply to: hutch622

Because it's a work of fiction designed to be a tool in the manipulation of the behavior of large groups of people? The guys who wrote it probably hadn't dug up too many dinosaur bones.

a reply to: centhwevir1979

The guys who wrote it probably hadn't dug up too many dinosaur bones.

Or the bones didn't fit their agenda .

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
a reply to: boymonkey74
(I know, an atheist who hates Dawkins?! BLASPHEMY!) That Dawkins guys is a pompous arse if I've ever seen one.

In other words, you've never actually read his books?

If you were one of the most knowledgeable people on earth when it comes to the evolutionary process, then you would also come across as a little arrogant when talking about organized religion.

I pray to her in silence? On my own time? When I want? Without asking/requesting/demanding others talk to her too?

She is my creator ((as I see it anyway)) but isn't this the big question that has what I think to be a super obvious answer?

can the religious not pray/meditate/worship in peace and silence? Can they practice without spouting vitriol on non-believers?

Can the atheists not rest on their ideals in silence? Can they not write their books without having to spit in the faces of the believers?

a reply to: KyoZero

If I could I'd star your post a hundred times.

To me tolerance should always remain a two-way street. The religious should be respectful of the non-religious and so on and so forth.

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

I understand where the atheist are coming from, we all have doubts,

“He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind”

I'm getting sea sick.

Actually, you don't understand where atheists are coming from. Atheists don't have doubts. They have concluded that no God exists.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

If everyone just kept it to themselves that would be fine, but I have never seen an atheist on a street corner trying to convert passersby to their philosophy the way I have seen christians with their massive flyering (littering) campaign on the streets in summer. Here in Milwaukee we even have a nutjob that drives around an old wagon covered with a bizarre patina of religious quotations that shouts at us over a bullhorn about how we are hell-bound sinners. The closest thing I see atheists doing is sporting Darwin fish decals on their autos. I don't really hear atheists telling christians that they are wrong so much as I hear atheists asking christians to just shut up about it already.

a reply to: centhwevir1979

I agree. I have never had an atheist pound on my door or stop me on the street or in a grocery store and try to convert me. I have had plenty Christian fundamentalists do that (never the same one twice ). I have never once had an atheist threaten me for not sharing his/her beliefs about religion. I have had plenty Christian fundamentalists do that.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

So yes, you believers in ONE WAY. Please bring it on. Regale us with your scripture; inundate us with your holy words, for there are those of us who study our existence in the lab of humanness and glean wondrous bits of insight from your struggles within the experiment you call the truth.

It depends, of course, on who is responding and from what perspective. As a Gnostic Christian, I feel you, and smiled as I read this:

I, personally, welcome all the Jesus threads. I love to read the convoluted somersaults through which the human mind can thrust itself in attempts to explain to each and every one of us our very existential existence.

I see nothing wrong with any religious teachings. It's the dogmatic fundamentalist that cause beautiful sacred teachings of all religions to become distorted to the point it causes division. When interpreted through mystical eyes, all religious scripture are esoteric in nature, not meant to be interpreted as literal, historical, biographical or cosmological factual accounts, but instead interpreted through an understanding of the symbolic meanings and etymology of words.

Each character, place and thing in all religions is the personification of psychological states, eternal states and spiritual states.

Again, I feel you...look at all the justification people have in going to war and destroying each other because they blindly accept authority as truth instead of accepting truth as authority. Knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of interior intuitive means instead of through the mind's intellect, will sober many up. In other words, Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Buddha, Abraham, Shiva, etc never existed...they represent degrees of Knowing thyself or "... there are those of us who study our existence in the lab of humanness".

a reply to: Tangerine

It may be worth mentioning that I haven't had any Buddhists or Hindus try to convert me, either. Spiritual growth is between you and the universe, you have a direct link; no brainwashing or cults necessary. Have had some strange unsettling encounters with people representing Islam and Judaism also. To me they appear just as fabricated by humans as Scientology.

originally posted by: Involutionist

I see nothing wrong with any religious teachings.

Even when myths written by humans are interpreted as the word of the creator of the universe or as historically accurate events? I want to always know the truth, no matter how painful it may be to learn.

"...Over the course of human history we've created 10,000 gods. You've already dismissed 9,999 as being fictional, man made entities. We are just asking you to go one god more..."

a reply to: Subaeruginosa

I got halfway through "The God Delusion" and put it down. He's a brilliant man and really knows his stuff when it comes to his field of study. A true genius of his field, and his contributions are stellar.

But on the subject of religion, he comes of as arrogant, pompous, and pedantic.

I'm not saying he's not smart, he is. But he's an arse, as well, and I'm entitled to that opinion of him.

originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
a reply to: Subaeruginosa

I got halfway through "The God Delusion" and put it down.

Well, that one is far from he's best work and not really made for atheists, as you have claimed to be. I was just making the point that you clearly haven't studied he's work to have that opinion of him, lol. No offence intended.

I'm not saying he's not smart, he is. But he's an arse, as well, and I'm entitled to that opinion of him.

No doubt, we're all entitled to an opinion.

I really don't have an issue with all the religious threads, just as long as I can occasionally and politely give my "opinion" of how flawed there beliefs are.

a reply to: centhwevir1979

and there it is right there...

You have proven the point...

Yes I have absolutely many many MANY times seen street preachers and Christians slapping stuff n my car windshield, handing it to me, or flat out telling me I am headed for hell becsuse they spotted my Isis pendant...

But why do I need to care? Why can't I ignore? Why can't I be bigger or just walk away?

But yes I see the issue and I agree

and yet...people comes on ATS and talk about Jesus or God and here comes the storm of the masses who will tell you that indeed We the Atheists know best! We are the euphoric! The misunderstood! The correct! And you pitiful foolish religious folk DARE question science!

And yet, in this, and MANY places online and in fora, we find people wanting to talk God, their God, The God if they are so inclined and are berated. Told they are stupid...ignorant...just plain moronic

Who really and truly knows the truth here? I fellow my dear Isis in a path that strays from Wicca...I am a Mason and I do not lie upon my Oath...She IS and always has been the Creator to me...heck maybe I am praying to the GAOTU just with my own name...but there is no other to me

What of Christians? Their God, their belief...there are street preachers yes, but then there are masses of those who prefer to stay in their steeple or in their homes and talk to the man ((or woman)) upstairs. Is this wrong? "Why of course it is! The Big Bang my good man! It is the only way!"

Sorry...were you there when it happened? And if the Big Bang were literally right now, this instant, proven to be true...then answer this...where did matter come from? The singularity? Where did the singularity come from? Potential? Where did potential come from? Infinity? Where did infinity come from? At some point I feel something created...

BUT...that is me...

Now make no mistake, these last two paragraphs incite atheists

But consider the plea of Atheists perhaps. An atheist perhaps believes in infinity without creation and potential without cause. Perhaps he or she believes there is no possibility for the man upstairs. Is this bad? Must this person be berated on the streets? doesn't he have the right to decline further discussion without being verbally harassed and told of his fiery and voided future which by the way he doesn't believe in anyway? But most importantly...most of all in my mind, what precisely does it hurt in a Christians/Muslims/Wiccans/Pagans/ life to have a neighbor that does not believe? Is your own foundation of faith so unstable that you must preach and proselytize? Can you not be of you own belief? Maybe make one attempt, if welcome, and then move on? Can we just be neighbors concern over whether the can window has a cross or a Darwin fish?

All sides are guilty...and all sides are innocent...those who pretend that they are only innocent and others are only guilty are the foolish ones

Live...be you, be honest with you, and if invited, be honest with others

But expect difference...and respect it

a reply to: Involutionist

I have not been able to find any truth that can satisfy the many different spiritual questions for all of us. I have come to understand about spiritual pragmatism, in a course sense, what ever gets us through the night. This idea most certainly can be exaggerated out like anything else into absurdity but for a large degree I find it very practical in my own quest for answers. I do not like using cliches but this may be looked as as what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander.
You seem to have been able to appreciate my comments in the OP and then reply in such a manner for me to think that we may both be ganders.

As a teen, many years ago, I was presented with two different ways in which to consider Jesus. One being God reaching down to man through the person of Jesus, the Son of God.
The other, man reaching up to God, through the person of Jesus, the Son of Man. At the time I had already been able to see not only what might be good about the Son of God belief but also the bad that that belief had wrought. When I looked around to find the bad effects of the Son of Man approach, I could find none, and hence I began my walk upon that road. This road soon offered a fork to roads of other Sons of Man. Jesus walked his own road as did Gautama, as did others. It then became clear to me that it was the road of the Son of Man that was the road for me, a son of man.

Thank you for your appreciation and the opportunity it has given me to express these thoughts out loud.

Yours

T

a reply to: ScientificRailgun

Sorry I took so long to reply to your question . I have only recently come to a position of holding not complete disdain for believers in a ONEWAY approach to truth. I hold the position that we are all subject to belief systems. I see that our religions, our philosophies, economic and political systems are all built around beliefs and that these beliefs can bind us and hold us, prisoners if you will, to these systems of thought. My point in the op was a declaration of feeling my own freedom, or hope of, from allowing myself to be held prisoner in such a manner. It was a challenge to those who continue to not only hold to ONEWAY belief systems but who also insist that others follow them into and down into the prisons of exclusive thought patterns. Having been a chaser of ONEWAY truth for most of my life I have come to understand that for me at least this is no longer, if ever possible. I have also come to understand that ONEWAY thinking maybe what is best for many people after all. That they can do this and hence offer perspectives on life that I can not find for myself. My declaration was that they may offer what they wish but that I shall take it and use it or not from my own perspective. I hope I have been able to answer your question S/R

Edit. And I'm guessing that from the large amount of people that stared your first reply, I was not entirely successful in my attempts to express myself as I had wished.

Face it we're all star excreta and not one of us knows where we truly came from. Yeah both sides are definitely guilty from the uptight preachers screaming about gays to the uptight atheists screaming about stupid believers, both sides are moral hypocrites imo, not one of us are innocent.

Hey look! Earth 10,000 years later and they're still fighting over creeds instead of uniting for betterment.

originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
a reply to: OpinionatedB

Wasn't the OP being sarcastic?
At least that's what I think.

Oh you diviner of truth. I am of an ancient opinion that sarcasm wielded as a sharp rapier can pierce the veils that divide us. If not wielded finely enough it is most often just divisive. I guess my art of sarcasm still has quite a bit of improvement needed.