Originally posted by Z Man
Zakath, I know you use to be a pastor, but it must have been a long time ago, because every christian will tell you that yes, our flesh may die someday, but we will never die. Our spirit will remain forever...
I am speaking in concrete terms here, Z Man, not in supernaturalism. There's a lady down the street that claims to talk to spirits too. Should I ask her advice?
:crackup: I'm sorry, but this really did make me laugh where you said you choose to live in society. Haha! Where else would you live? In the woods with the animals?
Do try to think beyond the confines of your comfy suburbanite world for at least a moment. :think:
I'm not suggesting that
you do anything of the kind, but can you agree that it is still possible for people to live away from society, if they so choose?
You said, "I must accept", then you said, "there's no way around [societies rules]". This indicates that you really wish you didn't have to follow those rules.
No I was speaking within the construct of social contract theory. If an individual chooses to live in a society they must accept the rules of that society or pay for violating them. It's really a simple concept, I don't see why you're trying to read so much into a brief statement. Unless, of course, you're merely disguising the fact that you've nothing concrete to add to the topic and are just maundering on...
Funny, that's the same feeling throughout humanity. So how in the world do we maintain order and moral dicipline? On who's authority on making laws do we follow since human kind has a deep desire to do whatever pleases them, including the law makers?
You really do not believe that societies are self-regulating?
Perhaps you'll understand better with a simple example. Let's look at a society that should be
very dependent on the "rules" or "laws" of your alleged deity, your local Christian church. When a member of that organization is caught with his/her hand in the till, stealing from the church accounts, what happens to him/her?
I nor anyone else for that matter can ever prove to you about God's existence; that's something you'll have to find out for yourself. So stop asking.
Quit prattling on about absolutes you are unwilling to prove and I'll quit asking for you to prove them.
It's an in-valid question to ask Christians anyways; especially if you are asking to make them disbelieve. We've been bought already, and there's no way we're turning back. Our race has begun and we won't stop until we cross the finish line.
Spare me the slavery and footracing metaphors. If you post here, I'll ask questions. They are not invalid, what is invalid is evading the answers...
We'll, given the fact that atheists disbelieve in any kind of deity whatsoever, what else would you believe O'Hair was? I mean, all you guys have to believe in is man; and trust me, all of us are nothing but big fruitcakes...
... sounds like a Jimmy Buffett song to me...
I don't understand how you can call her a fruitcake when she was... snipped kudos for O'Hair...
Because I disagree with her politics (communism), her economics (socialism), and the deceit and fraudulent accounting she and her family used to take money from the American Atheists (of which I am
not a member.) I have the same distaste for people like her that I do for people like Pat Robertson and Jim Bakker. :vomit:
Why do you belittle her for taking action in what she believed? Have you ever done anything about religion other than talk trash at debate sites, pestering Christians and others like a rash in a private area? If you are truely an atheist, you would hail Madalyn for what she has done...
Another "No True Scotsman" fallacy. It would appear to me, laddie, that
you are the one doing all the lauding of the atheist, not me. :think:
I'm definitly not judging your heart with the "power of the deity"; I'm judging your heart from a humans perspective.
In that case, permit to assure you that due to your fallible human nature
you've judged incorrectly.
I have a heart just like you, and I know that to deny God's existence and love is to create an empty vaccuum in the heart that only brings loneliness and strife to that individual.
You are merely projecting your own lack and weakness onto others. Trust me when I tell you that it is not a very effective apologetic or evangelistic tool. :nono: