Religion

You misunderstand.  It is not my intent to persuade you in any way.  The ignorant always get to deride that which they claim they don’t believe.  If you REALLY don’t believe any of it, the normal person just walks on by.  Since you volitionally selected the “Religion” thread, and made a post that has nothing to do with the pieces being discussed, my observation is you think you have some purpose in mind.

that purpose, near as I can tell, is either to aggravate Christians or me (at which you failed), or to persuade men of faith to follow your folly of disbelief (at which you definitely failed).  As you found out at the other communities where we’ve met, I always stand up to bullies. 

however, I haven’t known you previously to have such a thin skin, so I am struggling with just where you perceived a threat in what I said.  It is POSSIBLE that you really do believe Scripture, but cannot align yourself with its precepts,  In which case, you might think my hope that you finally acknowledge truth “before it is too late” as a threat... but, to be clear, I lack the power or authority to send you to Hell.  Only you can do that, so there was no threat intended or implied.

Spoken like the true Christian you aren't.

Good questions. I'll give it a go...

1. Empathy is what first comes to mind, but I've had a few pets that seem to have known when I was feeling down.

2. Not sure I understand what there is to explain about the mind, other than the fact I had to engage the question and had the ability to respond somehow.

3. In basic terms, I think Freud was right by categorizing the mind into the ID, Ego and Superego (conscience), and there is an ongoing conflict amongst the 3 for dominance. An even better discussion of that was in a book I read called the Brave Athlete all-med.net/pdf/the-brave-athlete/ Some really funny dialogue going on in your mind according to these authors.

4. Your body decomposes, and your soul - that which makes you who you are - goes to heaven if you're basically a good guy, or hell if you're basically a bad guy.

5. I don't know that what I think is meaningful to me, is meaningful to anyone else. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. Not sure I'd call those studies "science" any more than I would call social or politics "sciences". I'd categorize more as an art form subject to belief systems.

6. When their choices intentionally harm, or are indifferent to the harm their actions caused to others.

Bick and davidsf....appreciate your responses. The genesis (pun intended) of this particular discussion was Tuba's response to my posting of the G.K. Chesterton quote, 

"If there is no God there is no purpose."

I wholeheartedly agree with this assertion, and would further say that it cuts to the heart of just about everyone's worldview, in which all of humanity can be roughly divided into either one of two camps: theism or atheism. Tuba clearly disagrees with Chesterton's premise and laid out an alternative idea of purpose and meaning with is fairly representative of an atheist or materialist point of view.

My questions are meant as a challenge to this materialism (i.e., the belief in only what science can demonstrate). I do not think the materialist/atheist worldview can consistently or rigorously answer such questions without exposing itself as simply another type of faith-in-what-cannot-be-seen. 

I have elsewhere asserted that almost all disputes ultimately come down to questions about God: Do we believe in Him/Her/It? What do we believe about God? How we answer those questions goes a long way toward how we will approach most of the myriad of issues that necessarily follow, such as the human condition, the world, the meaning of life, how to live in society, politics, economics, and so on.

Let's see if Tuba is up to the challenge of defending his self-proclaimed purpose and meaning by his own principles.

My mother-in-law wrote the following:


I agree with her.

Quick question to those of us who consider ourselves "Christian", of any denomination, how would you define heresy? My view only goes as far as the fundamentals, deity of Christ, virgin birth, etc., but curious if anyone’s definition would go beyond that. Thanks for your time.