First Principles

Torture was not an integral part of the Inquisition. Also the Inquisition had nothing to do with people who were not part of the Church. If you have been reading since 1995 you need to start reading better books.

Quote: FrGamble

the Inquisition had nothing to do with people who were not part of the Church. .

The Inquisition dealt with people, mostly Jews,
who were coerced into conversion and we're
now backsliding. The fascinating thing about
this is, by converting so many unwilling Jews
to the religion, it pitted the old long standing
Xtions against the new forcibly converted
Jew/Xtions, creating a whole new type of
antisemitism. Because by converting the Jews
they now had all the legal rights of the Xtions,
which they didn't have when they were Jews.
And because they were Jews, they were
flourishing in the community where before
they were shunned. This drove the old
Xtions crazy. Pretty funny.

Orsen Bean has an interesting story
in his one man show. When he was
in his early 50's he was having a
bad time in his marriage and in
his career. He got the divorce
paper and was so disgusted with
himself he made a paper plane
out of it and threw it out his 34th
story window. It went and went
and went out of sight.

15 min later, he swears this is
true, the plane flew back is the
window he threw it out of. He
was so astounded he thought
it was a sign of something.
He told a friend and his friend
said he needed to pray. Bean
had never prayed, so every night
he got on his knees and
pretended to talk to god.

This went on for weeks and guess
what? God found him and
Bean became a believer. Big surprise,
not. This is a textbook example
of if you look hard enough for
something you'll find it, or convince
yourself you have. It's how kooky
cults work. They bombard new
members with their dogma and
eventually they're convinced it's
true.

Better to wait for a god to find you,
instead of inventing one to find.
Or worse, borrowing somebody
else's made up god, which is
what most people do.

Do you know what happens if you never search for something?

Quote: FrGamble

Do you know what happens if you never search for something?

Do you know what happens if you search
for something that doesn't exist? You
often find it anyway. Like ghost hunters.
They find ghosts all the time, or so they
think.

People are extremely susceptible to
suggestion. Scientists have to be careful
not to taint their research with their own
expectations, so they often work blindly.
You get what you think you'll get.

What happened to Orsen Bean is the
same as the Stockholm Syndrome.
People in emotionally vulnerable
states of mind can manipulate their
minds or be manipulated into all kinds
of falsehoods and think their real. This
is why god is never the same to two
different people. You create the god
you want because a real god doesn't
exist. If you go looking with an expectation
of finding, you will make sure it's found.
Best to wait for the all powerful god
to find you, the ball is in his court.

Quote: FrGamble

One of them is right and the other is wrong, sometimes you need better facts, a different perspective, or history to show us who is who. The fact remains there is evil and good. They are not truly the same and no amount of subjective opinion can change that.

History is written by the winners, not who was subjectively "right" or "wrong"

The Spanish Civil War and all such conflicts are often extended by the participants or the bankers.

The highly paid mercenary pilots let ground troops slog it out in the mud while each side's pilots are less than fully effective. Without a ground victory, the pilots keep getting paid. Same with gun runners and bankers.

Count Zharov gifted a small obsolete submarine to Greece which forced Turkey to buy a submarine which forced Greece to buy a submarine to attain superiority.
Neither nation had wanted to buy any.

Good and evil?

Quote: Evenbob

People are extremely susceptible to
suggestion.

Just make sure you realize that you pretending there is no God is subject to the same criticism above. You are as susceptible to suggestion as much as the next person.

Quote: FrGamble

Just make sure you realize that you pretending there is no God

Show me god exists and I'll
change my opinion. We both
know you can't, nobody can
prove there is a god unless
you change the meaning of
logic and reason. Which of
course you do all the time.

Seeking god is not like seeking
water. You find water and you
can show everybody and prove
'it. You find god and it's a big
secret between you and him.
Tell a normal person you found
god and he'll pat you on the
head and say, Sure you did,
Sparky, good for you. Run along
now.

Saw a funny movie last night
called Invention of Lying.
Ricky Gervais lives in a world
where nobody lies, they are
compelled to tell the truth.
But he figures out how to lie
and he tells his dying mother
she is going to a happy place
when she dies. He's overheard
and invents the Man in the Sky
and has to explain it to the world.
You realize what an insane thing
organized religion is when you
hear it broken down into the
dysfunctional and confusing bits
and pieces that hold it together.

Sure you found water, until you prove it to me just run along. Oh and by the way I won't accept your personal experience, any number of witnesses, a map that shows you live on the water, you describing and explaining water, the scientific evidence concerning pointing to the existence of water. How are you going to prove to me that you've found water?