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Do you understand the argument? Do you get the concept of a dichotomy? It's either/or here. One or the other....no other possibility.
Science has no answer for the idea of this universe (and time) beginning on its own. Until you can give that argument, the only logical conclusion is that it had a creator--or a cause.
BTW....I don't mean to ignore what I'm sure is a riveting youtube post, I just can't watch it where I am right now. Are you able to sum it up in your own words?
Do you understand that you are making the positive assertion so you bear the burden of proof? This is a yes or no question that you have been avoiding for like 40 pages now.
This particular billboard was placed there to annoy you specifically.
Toned down your original thought, eh?
Well, I must say I am flattered that they are using their limited funds on me. Thank you. But now, what say you actually answer the question intelligently? I'll repeat them: (1) Why this geographic location; (2) What is the actual intent of the billboard or the message being imparted since I was told it was not for the purpose of being controversial?
In fact, it has not been addressed. I am still waiting for answers from the previous page as to the logic behind the geographically placement of the billboard and what it's true intent is.
Then let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was raised in a devoutly Christian family. They went to church services every weekend, and prayer services almost every weeknight. The little girl sang all the songs, prayed all the prayers, memorized all the bible verses perfectly, and yet for as long as she could remember, she didn't truly feel any presence of god.
Then when she was a little older, perhaps ten or eleven, she started to logically put together some of the things her parents had taught her for her whole life, with some things that she observed in day to day life, and things she read in the science books at the library. She consciously realized that her parents were wrong about what they were telling her. Afraid, she approached her mother and asked some burning questions in hopes of reconciling what she had been taught all her life to what she was learning every day.
Angered, her mother beat her with a yardstick, and told her to never question God, because it was a sin, and that any contradiction she saw was just 'God testing you'. The little girl felt completely alone, knowing that she existed in a sea of people who believed in that God, and believed all the things she'd been told her whole life. She knew they were wrong, she could see the proof all around her. But nobody else thought this way.
That little girl, when she was ten or eleven years old, felt like she was the only person in the world who didn't believe. She would be punished if she ever said anything otherwise. She was forced to go to church services, forced to keep praying, forced to go through the motions for years and years until she was old enough to leave home. It was a long, sad, and hopeless childhood to have to endure.
If that little girl had seen a sign like that, what hope might that have given her? She would have learned that she wasn't alone in her disbelief. It would have given her an incredible leap of joy in her heart that she wasn't crazy, or demon-possessed, or merely stupid because she didn't believe in god or her parents' religious teachings.
Her childhood would still have been tough, but she would have at least known someone else was out there who felt like she did. It would have given her hope.
Its funny how the atheist ask for critical thinking. On a personal matter I believe in GOD and that is about how far my process goes. I think and notice this vast universe something of which no science will truly understand. I think since science has not and can not explain DEATH and or the afterlife. If their is no afterlife what does your critical thinking tell you about your life and what it is worth. Why and or how did we get here and how does evolution really work IF its evolution at all? Is it still logical to think beyond what you see and can scientifically prove as fact only because we don't know EVERYTHING! A atheist has not learned to be humble because for Atheists they are so intelligent not to be "fooled" by religion they somehow they think they are enlightened. How do you explain the unknown that science has not found yet, do you just guess? Guessing is almost as good as faith. If you want people to think beyond religious teachings you might want to give people purpose and critical ways to deal with life as you condemn the bible. The Bible I think is a teaching tool or I would say maybe a 2000 year old Life coach and I'm not saying you have to agree with it. Life is a learning experience in both the scientific and a human exisitance which brings about hate, love, sadness and happiness all of which are not from religion! For the same people who wrote the bible and every scientific discovery later to be disproved they were all written by men! Even the bible was written by men.
Which is flawed in its very nature. Atheist see religious people as misguided idiots of which to them is worse then believing in a GOD. In fact they won't even listen to someone who even mentions the word GOD that it might lower their IQ just by being in the same room as them. They read books by other Atheists putting them in GOD like status all the while thinking it takes any skill to point of the obvious.
I have no room for atheists in my life and no room for religious fanatics.
Both see the world in black and white because both of them can not and will not put their hate for each other and their faith in the ideas of MEN.
These are ideas of men or groups of mankind of which neither should be religions or the teachings of people looking for answers.
The only thing I believe in is the freedom of a individual to make up his own mind and not force others to think like them in schools or places of learning.
Knowledge of what you know can be and should be questioned for your individual growth but also be a learned lesson so you might not make the same mistakes.
Actually I can't put a stop but perhaps you can. First, don't open the drawer in the hotel. You can always choose to ignore it. It's just a book and it takes so very little space. Better yet, find a hotel that doesn't have a Bible in it. Don't get me wrong, I'm shocked they still put Bibles in hotels these days. I don't read it nor do I care that it's there. Actually, if I owned a hotel I would put a Bible, Talmud and Koran in the drawers.
...
LOL, sorry I brought it up, I sure hope you don't actually own a large hotel chain. Why not a Buddhist text?
... but if you do, can you sneak a copy of "Hitchhiker's Galaxy" in there toghether with Talmud, Bible and Koran somewhere? It'd make hours pass much faster.
Then let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was raised in a devoutly Christian family. They went to church services every weekend, and prayer services almost every weeknight. The little girl sang all the songs, prayed all the prayers, memorized all the bible verses perfectly, and yet for as long as she could remember, she didn't truly feel any presence of god.
Then when she was a little older, perhaps ten or eleven, she started to logically put together some of the things her parents had taught her for her whole life, with some things that she observed in day to day life, and things she read in the science books at the library. She consciously realized that her parents were wrong about what they were telling her. Afraid, she approached her mother and asked some burning questions in hopes of reconciling what she had been taught all her life to what she was learning every day.
Angered, her mother beat her with a yardstick, and told her to never question God, because it was a sin, and that any contradiction she saw was just 'God testing you'. The little girl felt completely alone, knowing that she existed in a sea of people who believed in that God, and believed all the things she'd been told her whole life. She knew they were wrong, she could see the proof all around her. But nobody else thought this way.
That little girl, when she was ten or eleven years old, felt like she was the only person in the world who didn't believe. She would be punished if she ever said anything otherwise. She was forced to go to church services, forced to keep praying, forced to go through the motions for years and years until she was old enough to leave home. It was a long, sad, and hopeless childhood to have to endure.
If that little girl had seen a sign like that, what hope might that have given her? She would have learned that she wasn't alone in her disbelief. It would have given her an incredible leap of joy in her heart that she wasn't crazy, or demon-possessed, or merely stupid because she didn't believe in god or her parents' religious teachings.
Her childhood would still have been tough, but she would have at least known someone else was out there who felt like she did. It would have given her hope.
THAT is the intention of that billboard.
Oh, my. That IS a stretch. Tell me, did this little girl live in the NY/NJ area?
Its funny how the atheist ask for critical thinking. On a personal matter I believe in GOD and that is about how far my process goes. I think and notice this vast universe something of which no science will truly understand. I think since science has not and can not explain DEATH and or the afterlife. If their is no afterlife what does your critical thinking tell you about your life and what it is worth. Why and or how did we get here and how does evolution really work IF its evolution at all? Is it still logical to think beyond what you see and can scientifically prove as fact only because we don't know EVERYTHING! A atheist has not learned to be humble because for Atheists they are so intelligent not to be "fooled" by religion they somehow they think they are enlightened. How do you explain the unknown that science has not found yet, do you just guess? Guessing is almost as good as faith. If you want people to think beyond religious teachings you might want to give people purpose and critical ways to deal with life as you condemn the bible. The Bible I think is a teaching tool or I would say maybe a 2000 year old Life coach and I'm not saying you have to agree with it. Life is a learning experience in both the scientific and a human exisitance which brings about hate, love, sadness and happiness all of which are not from religion! For the same people who wrote the bible and every scientific discovery later to be disproved they were all written by men! Even the bible was written by men.
Which is flawed in its very nature. Atheist see religious people as misguided idiots of which to them is worse then believing in a GOD. In fact they won't even listen to someone who even mentions the word GOD that it might lower their IQ just by being in the same room as them. They read books by other Atheists putting them in GOD like status all the while thinking it takes any skill to point of the obvious.
I have no room for atheists in my life and no room for religious fanatics.
Both see the world in black and white because both of them can not and will not put their hate for each other and their faith in the ideas of MEN.
These are ideas of men or groups of mankind of which neither should be religions or the teachings of people looking for answers.
The only thing I believe in is the freedom of a individual to make up his own mind and not force others to think like them in schools or places of learning.
Knowledge of what you know can be and should be questioned for your individu
al growth but also be a learned lesson so you might not make the same mistakes.
You don't think your being a little judgemental. I agree with some of what you say. My big gripe with religion is the foisting of their dogmatic beliefs on the rest of us, and on public policy. This billboard is for atheists obviously, since it states "you know it's a myth". Why should believers get upset about something which is not directed at them?
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