How come Republicans hide being gay?

[LittleBeast]

..........I cant wait for real proof of ET life !!

Boy Oh Boy , will that ever screw with the arrogant dogma of most 'organized' religions.


I think one phrase sums it up... and it covers the scourge of the modern day blame game , hypocrisy and deceit.

Simply said so long ago...


DO UNTO OTHERS........


jo

I agree although I have always seen Christianity (the belief in Christ as LORD and Savior that I hold to) as a relationship not a religion at all, and I do not see anything in Scripture that denies or would be in contradiction with life on other planets, just because ET is not mentioned in the Bible certainly doesn't mean that he is not out there. But as to your comment I agree that ET's existence will humble us ("screw with the arrogant") which might be the best thing in the world (or universe) for mankind (USA especially) as a whole. Some religions may have a problem with it, but as many of you have already stated, it probably wouldn't change to much as many other things haven't changed to much in "religion". Just my perspective.

[VXD959]

Politics and Religion...explosive mix. I have no comments or position...since this is Vehicross site. I suggest dropping the issue, perhaps the whole thread.

Let's start a new one: Who thinks the Mona Lisa is pretty?

[IndianaVX]

i too am just posting my belief, opinion, and not trying to offend, or preach.

some may ask where God is in all this, or bad things happening to good people, etc. we all acnowlege that everyone has free will. and it says that in the bible also. yes, sometimes awful things happen, to one, or hundreds....
i tend to believe that no matter what could possibly be going on in my life, that God is always near, and working all things out for my good. it may not seem like it at the time i might be going thru things, but when i look back on things, I can see where he was guiding me all the way. (which, like ryan, the trials in my life have brought me my faith)
and yes, it is easy for some to say, well its nice that things "worked out"...........
NOW, i say this, not looking for sympathy, pity, etc, but some of the trials i have been thru, are not things that just "work out"
but in those times, i needed something.......or someone.
everyone knows quotes from the bible like, " i will give you rest" or "be still, and know that i am God" words to cling to, so i took him up on it. and he has made good on the promises he made. so i believe God is where you want him to be, if you want him to be involved in your situation, he will be there.
i am terrible at typing my thoughts, and i hope i dont come off as preaching either, i too am just telling you MY belief.

david

[HOT_WASABI_JUNKIE]

[QUOTE=LittleBeast]I really don't know what to say man. I tried not to seem like I was preaching or telling you that you were wrong or anything like I think you implied I was saying. I honestly was just trying to give you my perspective, because I have been reading your perspective trying to be respectful of you and your views, I just expected the same treatment back. I do not appreciate your mockery of my beliefs at all. Sorry you felt like I was worthy of this treatment. If I did or said anything wrong or upset you please let me know I was not trying to do so.[/QUOTE

I am sorry,
but when someone comes at me with this stuff I do get a little defensive.I think it is a crock.If you were born in baghdad your response would be more like this.

I believe Allah created us just as we are because it is the best way for He Himself to be glorified, because we all will glorify Him one day depending on our fatwa to mohammed's free gift of martrdom for us, some will bow to their knees in judgement glorifying Allah's perfect justice, and some will bow to their knees in forgiveness glorifying mohammed
perfect free gift of martyrdom.Death to America!

..And it still sounds like equally like brainwashed psychobabble.

My secular humanistic thoughts on god....

As a baby in a crib, we look up at our beautiful parents smiling down on us. They take care of our every need. Their benevolent eyes watching our every twitch.We don't understand why or how, but a constant stream of love and service flows from them, keeping us safe from harm, warm and secure..

I think we never really get over wanting that. The notion that some benevolent force is holding our hand and watching over us is practically programmed from infancy.

...And just as I could swear I heard Santa's reindeer every time our house settled on Christmas eve. I would bet his little elves would manufacture me an Atari game console in their little toy shop at the north pole because I had been a good boy (well not really).

Well their is No Santa, no Easter bunny, no Tooth Fairy and all those other little childhood figments. There is just commerce,tradition,and dad shelling out a few bucks...

And just like Christians feel that Jesus is magic, and can feel his holy presence, I felt like Santa was real every time I heard the roof creek.

[cyronman]

I pray to Joe Pesci

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

[Ldub]

I pray to Joe Pesci

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o

Thanks...I hadn't seen any "George" in quite some time, I'd almost forgotten how funny that man is.

[JoFotoz]

.

To paraphrase (near quote) Sen Craig.


"I put my hand down to pick up a piece of 'paper'.."

WOW!!...Lets take a poll!!


How many here would pick up a piece of 'paper' of a public toilet floor ???






jo



.

[WyrreJ]

Faith - noun A belief in the value, truth, or trustworthiness of someone or something; belief and trust in God, the Scriptures, or other religious writings; a system of religious beliefs.
Belief - noun Something that is trusted or believed.
Believe - verb To accept as true or real; to hold onto religious beliefs.
(Webster's Dictionary New Revised and Expanded Edition)

Are you trying to quote the dictionary to disprove my assertion that faith means belief in the unprovable?
I sure hope not because I can quote the complete Merriam-Webster definition if need be.

By the way any dictionary that is simply "Webster's" and not "Merriam-Webster" is inauthentic and not to be trusted, the real webster company made an error and only trademarked the full name - "Merriam Webster." So every charlatan and his brother with a knock-off dictionary calls it "Webster's" because there is no trademark preventing them from doing so and thus no reason at all do any sort of quality control. The only legitimate "Webster's" dictionaries are the ones with the full "Merriam-Webster" in the title.

Just because you or someone else views something as "improvable" does not mean that it is indeed the case. We all have varying degrees of approval for many things we hear about or see or experience as real, do we not?

What is 'approval' supposed to mean? Proof is a very simple concept, a test for which the results are falsifiable. If a test can not possibly disprove something, then it is not falsifiable. For example - the police find finger prints on a gun, they also have a suspect in custody. A test that compares the suspect's prints with the prints on the gun is falsifiable, if they match then they are his prints, if they do not match they are not his prints.

There is no test that could possibly disprove the existence of God. Just as there is no test that could possibly disprove the existence of Vishnu and Kali, Ahura Mazda, Shangdi, Chukwu, Mawu-Lisa, Tarvos Trigaranus or Amaterasu to name just a few.

A test without the possibility of failure is no test at all.

My faith has been proven to me,

Do not confuse being convinced with proof.

Perhaps you chose not to adhere to a strong formal definition of proof. That's your prerogative. But to do so is extremely solipsistic.

In my opinion if we were perfect robots that had no choice but to do good and accept God that would not glorify God at all

Total cop out. He makes us imperfect so that we can choose to strive for perfection but meanwhile we've got good questions that we don't deserve the answer to through no fault of our own? That's just another variation on do as I say, not as I do.

My favorite story from sunday school was the (almost) sacrifice of Isaac by his father Abraham. Except the version taught in sunday school is wrong. That version says God was testing Abraham's faith, to see if it was strong enough that he would murder his own son because God told him to. The version that I think is correct is that Abraham was testing God. No just God would actually desire that a man sacrifice his own child. If God had let Abraham kill Isaac, then that would have been proof that God did not deserve Abraham's faith.

It worked out pretty good for Abraham, but thousands of people across the rest of the world suffers the fate of a murdered Isaac on a daily basis.

[WyrreJ]

But as to your comment I agree that ET's existence will humble us ("screw with the arrogant") which might be the best thing in the world (or universe) for mankind (USA especially) as a whole.

If ET shows up, he's going to be enemy #1 whether he wants to or not.

It will probably enough to get most of the world to stop fighting with itself and unite against a common enemy. But it will also probably mean the descent of the entire world into a global military-fascist society the likes of which we have not seen before.

Especially if he looks funny - just look how easy it is to demonize regular humans, if ET is some ugly looking freak the power-grabbers will be calling him Lucifer on talk-radio within days.

The only chance the planet has of surviving a contact with ET is if he looks like an angel. A glowing, golden-skinned, flying, feather-winged angel. Even that may not be enough, the really smart power-grabbers will just spin ET as Lucifier before the fall.

[WyrreJ]

How many here would pick up a piece of 'paper' of a public toilet floor???

Haven't you seen "Blades of Glory" with Will Ferrell?

[WyrreJ]

.I think it is a crock.If you were born in baghdad your response would be more like this.

I believe Allah created us just as we are because it is the best way for He Himself to be glorified, because we all will glorify Him one day depending on our fatwa to mohammed's free gift of martrdom for us, some will bow to their knees in judgement glorifying Allah's perfect justice, and some will bow to their knees in forgiveness glorifying mohammed

Dude, harsh. Before we invaded, Iraq was the most secular state in the middle east (and FWIW had the highest literacy rate, I think over 90%). Marytrydom and all that ain't what its all about for more than 99% of muslims. If Ryan were advocating for holy snipers outside of abortion clinics, then the comparison might be apt. But, at least in this thread, he seems like the kind of guy who would really take the "what would Jesus do?" approach to things, not the "who would Jesus shoot?" approach.

[HOT_WASABI_JUNKIE]

Dude, harsh. Before we invaded, Iraq was the most secular state in the middle east (and FWIW had the highest literacy rate, I think over 90%). Marytrydom and all that ain't what its all about for more than 99% of muslims. If Ryan were advocating for holy snipers outside of abortion clinics, then the comparison might be apt. But, at least in this thread, he seems like the kind of guy who would really take the "what would Jesus do?" approach to things, not the "who would Jesus shoot?" approach.

All I did was take little beast's own dogma and replaced a few words with radical muslim keywords, Instead of Jesus-mohammed, In stead of God-Allah and so on.

I just think too much destruction, death and bitterness have resulted from peoples unquestioning belief in organized religion. The Crusades,September 11th,Catholic sex scandals...and the list goes on.

Even Mother Theresa it was recently discovered had major doubts about the existence of god!

More people have been harmed by religion than have been helped by it.
It just seems like the easy answer...
It is the will of god...
it is what god wants...
god helps those who help themselves...
So I am gonna go help myself to some frosted flakes, maybe I can get god to pour the milk for me....

[Scott Harness]

I am sorry I have not heard of the God gene concept, but it sounds pretty stupid, but it is probably conceived through some people's "different" handling of Divine Knowledge that I do not agree with.

But I can say that your question "where in the hell is God when you need him?" is a great logical question that I feel everyone that has even considered believing in a higher being should consider. Excuse me if I rephrase your quote wrong but for me when I ask that question it looks more like, "Why if there is an all knowing good Being that is in control do terrible things still happen?". To me this is a question I have wrestled with many times in my life, like when my mom was going in to have surgery to remove some cancerous parts of her body, or when I was lying in the ER at the Olympic Trials watching my dreams of competing for this great country be flushed down the drain while doctors talked about the possibilities of having to cut the staph infection out of my foot (aka amputate). These times I had to ponder your same question, "why?", "do I deserve this?", "do they deserve this?"? Any many familiar questions just like yours I have many times said "where are you God", "are you even there?" And my only consolation in these times is (apart from Romans 8:28) the thought that I am asking the question wrong. Instead of asking "Why do these terrible things still happen? Where are you God?" I now ask myself "How in the world could you (God) know what I thought yesterday, what I did last week, what I said years ago, what I will do tomorrow, how could you know all these things about me and not destroy me right now? How could you not come down and stop these mockeries of true life that are my short comings?" That to me is a better question because it puts me below God, it humbles me, it reminds me that I am not perfect, have not been perfect and will not be perfect but I am totally dependent on God for everything, even for peace in hard times. The other question "where are you, how could bad things happen if you exist?" These questions put man's situations above God Himself, as if the creator had to answer to the created. But I just wanted to let you know that I have wrestled with the same questions you have, I know what you mean totally. I know you might have asked this question as a joke, but I think it deserves more than just a glance.

Hi Ryan, the God gene theory is that true believers have a certain gene or that their brain is wired differently than that of non-believers.

[dutchie]

A lot of people think that god (in any form you believe ) is there to do people personal favors, pretty narrow minded because what did you do to deserve his attention? Nowhere in any religion is stated that god takes care of us individually or even of humanity as a whole. We decide our own lives, we are no puppets on strings. God (if you believe in that concept)gave us live and will hopefully embrace us when when we leave.... The concept of god is hard to explain to those who not believe or not want to believe..but simply said it's a feeling that there is more than just us, it's a feeling that we are here for a reason, it's something which gives us hope, cause by believing we never really have to say goodbye to those dear to us and that counts for a lot.
Unfortunately there are too many individuals who use the concept of religion for their own means, whether it's to wage wars or to discriminate a fellow human being.
Religion is quiet beautiful, it gave us lots of culture in the form of churches and temples and not to forget music, it gives us a guide of how to live, love and die and it gives us hope and teaches us that we are just human beings no gods.
People like islam extremist, child abusing priests, bible throwing churchgoers , anti-abortion(on religious reasons)supporters, a certain American president(God bless America is sentence which is used in vain, what did the US do to deserve god's blessing?), door ringing Jehova's, etc etc ruin and dirty this beautiful concept.

Be a wise person and leave religion what it is, and if you feel intimidated or irritated by someone who announces his/belief , laugh it away,because the person who needs bible phrases to strengthen himself during a discussion is a religion polluter and is as far or further removed of the original concept as you are.

[nfpgasmask]

You are right Dutchie, technically, there is nothing "wrong" with religion. The teachings of most religions are meant to foster kindness, acceptance, forgiveness, love, and etc.

The problem, which you aptly put, is that humans have become "religious polluters". People take the teachings of their respective religions and twist them and manipulate them for their own purposes, and take them much too literally, getting away from everything these lessons were meant to be.

And this is the reason why people like me, and obviously people like Wasabi, understand that religion is one of the top driving forces behind the opposite of kindness, acceptance, forgiveness, love and etc. Religion only serves to foster hate, extremism, non-acceptance and inevitably war, death and destruction. This is the way it has been since the start of recorded history. So why then do sooooo many people, still adhere to something that is so obviously the cause of such worldwide chaos?

Bart

A lot of people think that god (in any form you believe ) is there to do people personal favors, pretty narrow minded because what did you do to deserve his attention? Nowhere in any religion is stated that god takes care of us individually or even of humanity as a whole. We decide our own lives, we are no puppets on strings. God (if you believe in that concept)gave us live and will hopefully embrace us when when we leave.... The concept of god is hard to explain to those who not believe or not want to believe..but simply said it's a feeling that there is more than just us, it's a feeling that we are here for a reason, it's something which gives us hope, cause by believing we never really have to say goodbye to those dear to us and that counts for a lot.
Unfortunately there are too many individuals who use the concept of religion for their own means, whether it's to wage wars or to discriminate a fellow human being.
Religion is quiet beautiful, it gave us lots of culture in the form of churches and temples and not to forget music, it gives us a guide of how to live, love and die and it gives us hope and teaches us that we are just human beings no gods.
People like islam extremist, child abusing priests, bible throwing churchgoers , anti-abortion(on religious reasons)supporters, a certain American president(God bless America is sentence which is used in vain, what did the US do to deserve god's blessing?), door ringing Jehova's, etc etc ruin and dirty this beautiful concept.

Be a wise person and leave religion what it is, and if you feel intimidated or irritated by someone who announces his/belief , laugh it away,because the person who needs bible phrases to strengthen himself during a discussion is a religion polluter and is as far or further removed of the original concept as you are.