Happy Easter!

To answer Bob's question.... I agree with Bob on the issue of whether God exists, and almost all of your arguments against Father Gamble. I've stated that periodically. But I just don't see the value in repeating it ad infinitum.

Quote: SOOPOO

But I just don't see the value in repeating it ad infinitum.

We never repeat anything, we say
things in different ways. Obviously
we get something out of it or
we wouldn't do it. You can block
threads, why not do that. I have far
more blocked than I do active.

No don't block the thread! I'm curious what in the world you could agree with Bob on in regards to God's existence?

Quote: Evenbob

And you have links to studies that
back this up?

Studies about prayer, do you still not realize how silly that sounds? You still seem to think the main point of prayer is some result you want and God has to give it to you. These studies can only study if the specific result you want in the specific time frame you demand of God is reached. Basically you are trying to study how well you can control God, I can tell you without reading the studies how that will work out. Prayer is about a relationship and about hope and peace. You keep trying to make God into a vending machine and you will never understand.

Quote:

You want me to start a thread about you
having no links that prove ghosts are
real. Why?

Because while I believe in ghosts and demons it doesn't interest me all that much. I'm sure a thread will give you all kinds of ghost stories - almost everyone has one. However, you will probably just say there is no evidence and move along.

Quote:

Humans love
emotions, and that's what juries and god
religions are all about.

Silly me, I thought juries and religions were about truth.

Quote:

I know for a fact a lot of the better
stories are a mix of truth and
stretching truth to the n'th degree
for dramatic effect.

Do you think you can't fathom the idea of true testimony just because you don't want to believe it? You have already made up your mind and so no testimony can be true to you.

Quote:

This society you fantasize about where
'everybody looked after each other' never
existed.

It did once for a time in the early Church. You can read about it in the Acts of the Apostles. However, in the 1900's I agree there was not a society where everybody looked after each other.

However, don't you think in that time more people were helped by individuals rather than the government? Do you prefer the government doing all the helping or do you think local citizens and neighbors could do a better job?

Quote:

They represent a snapshop of what's
going on. For every down on their
luck homeless story, there is somebody
who lives that way totally on purpose.
If you think otherwise, you're head is
truly stuck in the sand.

It is you who have his head in the sand if you think this is remotely true. Do you really think anyone - even those who say they do - want to live addicted to drugs, sleeping in a car, exposed to the elements, vulnerable to abuse and violence every day? Do you think anyone is ever happy doing nothing?

Quote:

I knew most of them for over 3 years, I got
to know them and what their stories were.

No Bob you did not! You have told me over and over again that you would never pry into their personal lives. You care enough to throw them a few bucks, but you don't want to know them and what they loved or their story. You would be a busybody sticking your nose into their lives if you asked them such questions. Therefore, based on what you yourself have said I know you are lying and making this up. You don't care a whit for the homeless and you pretending to know them and that they want to be homeless and they love it is pure baloney.

Quote: FrGamble

No don't block the thread! I'm curious what in the world you could agree with Bob on in regards to God's existence?

I'm not curious at all, I don't care.

Quote: SOOPOO

To answer Bob's question.... I agree with Bob on the issue of whether God exists, and almost all of your arguments against Father Gamble. I've stated that periodically. But I just don't see the value in repeating it ad infinitum.

Same.

Quote: Dalex64

Same.

Is it our fault that the subtleties are
lost on some people? We have to
apologize because others can't
grasp the nuances of what we're
discussing? I don't think so.

Neither FrG nor I are particularly
clueless or ignorant, so if we're
getting something out of this it means
there is something to be got, whether
it's obvious or not.

Quote: FrGamble

No don't block the thread! I'm curious what in the world you could agree with Bob on in regards to God's existence?

You sucked me in.... I just don't see the evidence for the existence of god. Remember, in my training I've seen babies suffer horribly until their death. That to me is incongruous with a an all powerful benevolent entity, which Christians claim their god is.

Quote: SOOPOO

You sucked me in.... I just don't see the evidence for the existence of god. Remember, in my training I've seen babies suffer horribly until their death. That to me is incongruous with a an all powerful benevolent entity, which Christians claim their god is.

Thanks SOOPOO and I hear you and feel you for sure. Just a couple of thoughts. Not seeing evidence for the existence of God is not grounds to join Evenbob who says with certainty that there is no God. Very few people would hold such a radical and unwarranted position. The suffering and injustice in our world is the most powerful emotional argument against God. When I read the Bible and in my own life there are so many times when we have to confront this dilemma. Remembering it is an emotional response not a logical one can be helpful. This is because the emotional hope and peace that is provided to not only the children but their parents through a belief in God is the only possible response that can help. This is not evidence for God and can easily be said to be just wishful thinking, but the unjust suffering of children is also an emotional response that assumes there is no bigger picture or greater hope that we don't know of. Finally, the reason we respond in the ways that you describe when confronted with such tragedy such as denying God's existence is because we know implicitly that there is something very wrong when babies suffer. Where that comes from is worth thinking about as well. Anyway, thanks so much for contributing.

Quote: FrGamble

the reason we respond in the ways that you describe when confronted with such tragedy such as denying God's existence is because we know implicitly that there is something very wrong when babies suffer. .

'Wrong'? Yeah, there's something wrong,
nature screwed up, that's what's wrong.
You have two choices here. Either god
exists and is a monster because he lets
things like this happen to beings he
supposedly 'loves'. Or there is no god
at all.

You for some reason have chosen the
'monster god', the one who lets babies
die horribly and the god who let his
own chosen people, the Jews, suffer
horribly in the Holocaust. I choose the
obvious, there is no god because all
the evidence points to that conclusion.