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Well, I'm glad you recognize that about Thoreau. Formerly, I have never addressed him except in response to the insane insults he travels all the way from the Christianity forum to throw at me in here, acting like a crazyman foaming at the mouth like you said--taking everything I say so personally like I'm going out of my way to insult him. I got weary of him. He was like gum stuck to the bottom of my shoe so I just put him on ignore and things are a lot quieter.
I've honestly never found anything you posted to be out of line but so many people here get so defensive anytime you post anything that questions Christian beliefs. They seem to want to remain blissfully ignorant and will defend indefensible viewpoints to the death.
If they truly believe what they believe to be factual then they shouldn't have any reason to get so defensive. If it's true, it's true, regardless of anything contrary others might say. This is the same mentality that finally got me officially over Christianity. I had so much cognitive dissonance between what I could verifiably confirm in real world living vs. what I was taught to believe blindly for so many years. I was expected to just have faith about anything that I couldn't make sense out of.
A lot of the people attacking you and I in these forums don't seem to understand that we actually used to believe. I grew up thoroughly immersed in the Christian church. I don't have animosity toward the vast majority of believers, but I will ask hard questions and defend my lack of belief. For the record, I actually still believe in God and I pray daily. I just don't believe in the Biblical version of God that was crammed down my throat my entire childhood though.
I've honestly never found anything you posted to be out of line but so many people here get so defensive anytime you post anything that questions Christian beliefs. They seem to want to remain blissfully ignorant and will defend indefensible viewpoints to the death.
If they truly believe what they believe to be factual then they shouldn't have any reason to get so defensive. If it's true, it's true, regardless of anything contrary others might say. This is the same mentality that finally got me officially over Christianity. I had so much cognitive dissonance between what I could verifiably confirm in real world living vs. what I was taught to believe blindly for so many years. I was expected to just have faith about anything that I couldn't make sense out of.
A lot of the people attacking you and I in these forums don't seem to understand that we actually used to believe. I grew up thoroughly immersed in the Christian church. I don't have animosity toward the vast majority of believers, but I will ask hard questions and defend my lack of belief. For the record, I actually still believe in God and I pray daily. I just don't believe in the Biblical version of God that was crammed down my throat my entire childhood though.
I've honestly never found anything you posted to be out of line but so many people here get so defensive anytime you post anything that questions Christian beliefs. They seem to want to remain blissfully ignorant and will defend indefensible viewpoints to the death.
If they truly believe what they believe to be factual then they shouldn't have any reason to get so defensive. If it's true, it's true, regardless of anything contrary others might say. This is the same mentality that finally got me officially over Christianity. I had so much cognitive dissonance between what I could verifiably confirm in real world living vs. what I was taught to believe blindly for so many years. I was expected to just have faith about anything that I couldn't make sense out of.
A lot of the people attacking you and I in these forums don't seem to understand that we actually used to believe. I grew up thoroughly immersed in the Christian church. I don't have animosity toward the vast majority of believers, but I will ask hard questions and defend my lack of belief. For the record, I actually still believe in God and I pray daily. I just don't believe in the Biblical version of God that was crammed down my throat my entire childhood though.
Oh Lord. I promised phetaori I wasn't going to rant and I feel one coming on. Here I goooooooooooooo:
There's a reason why Christians get so defensive in here or anywhere. It's entirely dependent on the degree to which a Christian is committed to his faith. Some aren't committed at all so they aren't offended in the least what I post. Others have their entire lives invested in Jesus and so they are extremely offended when I post something calling into question Jesus' existence.
A little of my history is in order. I once was a flaming fundamentalist back in 2008 when I first came into here, very supportive of the existence of hell and eternal torment. But gradually as I read others' posts I began to question my belief in Jesus. I did research and found there wasn't any entries in the records by historians of the day for Jesus OR the apostles. That struck me as odd. Long story short, I lost all belief in a historical Jesus son of God and found all the evidence supported a mythical Jesus.
One fellow in here who has invested his entire life in Jesus posted something that really moved me. The subject I recall was "What are you looking forward to" and this fellow posted "I'm just looking forward to being called home and being with my Lord and savior." I was so moved to sympathy for this fellow I nearly broke down and started crying for him. Imagine your greatest ambition in life being to die and go to be with Jesus! And a likely imaginary Jesus at that. What a waste of a good life. So many Christians are like this--nothing to live for so all they have is their ambition to die so they will be with Jesus. I find very few things in this life that are sadder than that.
Well, it was reading posts like his that motivated me to want to warn as many people as possible about the dangers of throwing their lives away on a myth--that they didn't have to suffer the same fate; that they only get one life so they should squeeze as much happiness out of it as they possibly can because once they close their eyes for the final time it's lights out forever. So I began posting the evidence I had uncovered that Jesus was imaginary, and the deviousness of how the Christian leaders in 300 CE or so started selling lies and deceit about Jesus to get people to believe in him for their own selfish ends. Apropos to this thread I saw how Christianity spreads like a virus, infecting people with its pernicious beliefs and I wanted to save as many innocent people as I could from falling into this trap.
So rant over. I hope I have done some good for many of the people in here and steered them away from wasting good lives on Christianity.
Last edited by thrillobyte; 01-30-2023 at 07:21 PM..
The first woman in that Ray Comfort video, although a bit uncouth and a bit rough around the edges, was quite correct on one point.
That many Christians are preoccupied with the negative quotes from the Bible.
Scare tactics don’t work in most cases.
Nor the attempts to make one feel guilty, and then do so with such well scripted and such leading and/or loaded questions.
God needs to be presented as a merciful God, not a vengeful one.
The first woman in that Ray Comfort video, although a bit uncouth and a bit rough around the edges, was quite correct on one point.
That many Christians are preoccupied with the negative quotes from the Bible.
Scare tactics don’t work in most cases.
Nor the attempts to make one feel guilty, and then do so with such well scripted and such leading and/or loaded questions.
God needs to be presented as a merciful God, not a vengeful one.
Vengeful or merciful God, good, bad, or indifferent God, aggressive proselytization is grating any way you slice it. I do not begrudge people who pass out leaflets or knock on my door or call to me on the street as long as they take “thanks, but no thanks” for an answer. As I mentioned before, I’m fortunate enough to have never encountered more overbearing forms of religious panhandling (at least in terms of people targeting me specifically; I’ve seen plenty of people scream-preach for the “enlightenment” of the general public). Many are not so lucky.
Vengeful or merciful God, good, bad, or indifferent God, aggressive proselytization is grating any way you slice it. I do not begrudge people who pass out leaflets or knock on my door or call to me on the street as long as they take “thanks, but no thanks” for an answer. As I mentioned before, I’m fortunate enough to have never encountered more overbearing forms of religious panhandling (at least in terms of people targeting me specifically; I’ve seen plenty of people scream-preach for the “enlightenment” of the general public). Many are not so lucky.
I was one of these people who were silent about proselytizing in person. I went around in mall parking lots sticking these stupid Chick tracts on cars. A few times mall guards said, "You can't do that." I finally asked myself, "What in the hell is a 55-year old man doing wandering around in a parking lot looking like an old religious crank passing around this crap?" I stopped for good after that. A few years later I got off my knees for the last time and never bent down in prayer again. I'd had it with Jesus and all this religious crap by the time I was 60 or so. I only wish it had happened 40 years earlier, my life might have been a better one.
Typical Christians are completely clueless that it was by design that Mark 16:15 reads, "Preach the gospel to all the world". That was written into Mark 400 years after Jesus supposedly lived by extremely clever churchmen who realized that they by themselves could never keep their young religion alive. They had to have the help of the masses getting out there and telling people about Jesus, hence the command in every gospel for their adherents to preach the gospel. It would have pointless for them to command that. They realized that it had to be Jesus commanding it that would get the masses off their lazy butts and start preaching so that's how they decided to do it. See what I mean about EVERYTHING the churchmen doing in the early days having nothing to do with saving souls but about insuring their survival along with the lavish lifestyle being a clergy heaped upon them? Pure greed. Jesus is nothing but a $$$$$'s-generating machine for these people, nothing else.
Thrillobyte,
Certainly all humans are a mixture of good and bad and this means that there are Christians who misbehave and sometimes do so in the name of Christianity.
It would be obnoxious to have someone push and pressure their religious views on others in such an aggressive way...is it possible that atheists and other religions do that at times to? Perhaps even here on this very message board?
I personally think that Christianity also does a lot of good.
Vengeful or merciful God, good, bad, or indifferent God, aggressive proselytization is grating any way you slice it. I do not begrudge people who pass out leaflets or knock on my door or call to me on the street as long as they take “thanks, but no thanks” for an answer. As I mentioned before, I’m fortunate enough to have never encountered more overbearing forms of religious panhandling (at least in terms of people targeting me specifically; I’ve seen plenty of people scream-preach for the “enlightenment” of the general public). Many are not so lucky.
Certain groups are much more aggressive in their recruiting techniques.
JWs and others are known for their door knocking on the weekends, but generally give up pretty quickly when they realize they have little chance of conversion.
One group I remember well from my university days was the ICoC.
This group was an offshoot from the original Church of Christ.
Members here were forced to recruit new members on campuses.
Problems have continued to now surface;
Whilst the word “cult” gets bandied about, any religion or denomination can be referred to as such.
Some Evangelicals will even call Catholicism a cult, while others will stop just short of this.
Thrillobyte,
Certainly all humans are a mixture of good and bad and this means that there are Christians who misbehave and sometimes do so in the name of Christianity.
It would be obnoxious to have someone push and pressure their religious views on others in such an aggressive way...is it possible that atheists and other religions do that at times to? Perhaps even here on this very message board?
I personally think that Christianity also does a lot of good.
Quaker, I don't see atheists going out of their way to push their non-belief in God on others except in defense of themselves when Christians try to push their Jesus beliefs on them. That should be typical. Of course in here this is a religious forum for sharing ideas so its bound to happen. In real life out there though it's not typical for an atheist to walk up to people and ask, "Pardon me, but have you learned that Jesus never lived; that he was a purely mythical creature?"
Atheists simply don't care what people do with their religious lives. It's the Christians who are forever causing trouble with this stupid command to go out and preach the gospel. If Christians stayed on their side of the street and let everyone else be it'd be a much better world. As I said and will probably say frequently for people who miss it: Jesus never said go out and preach the gospel to everyone. That was written in centuries later by corrupt churchmen who wanted to insure a steady flow of new adherents into the faith that they could control and who they could milk lots and lots of $$$$'s out of to insure their lavish lifestyle of palaces, opulent dining and women to share their beds. That's a part of the virus's life cycle--to perpetuate itself by infecting greater and greater numbers of people. That's how the church perpetuated itself and grew wealthy in the process.
Humorous and disturbing how the OP equates freedom of belief and speech with spreading a virus. And then he keeps damning this American freedom everyday with griping and shrieking. A look in the mirror might reveal the biggest "virus".
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What a waste of a good life. So many Christians are like this--nothing to live for so all they have is their ambition to die so they will be with Jesus. I find very few things in this life that are sadder than that. 
