New Strain of MRSA Spreads Among Gay Men

[CapIV]

So God kills and destroys all around him for his own Good, who care who he destroys. This is your example. I think you may need to reexamine this belief.

I think you purposely misinterpreted what I had to say. The point was that we can never understand why things happen just as the bugs cannot understand what humans do. If you reduce arguments to quibbling about semantics you will not get very far.

And no one said “who cares who He destroys”. But how can you possibly presume to understand what God does and why He does it? Remember, God created the world and it was “good”. Just because you may see something as unfortunate or even evil, doesn’t mean that it is so to God. It doesn’t mean it isn’t either. The whole point is that you cannot understand what He does, and simply analyzing what happens as proof or dis-proof for God’s existence is foolish since you don’t even understand what is happening.

 

[Polaris]

I think you purposely misinterpreted what I had to say. The point was that we can never understand why things happen just as the bugs cannot understand what humans do. If you reduce arguments to quibbling about semantics you will not get very far.

And no one said “who cares who He destroys”. But how can you possibly presume to understand what God does and why He does it? Remember, God created the world and it was “good”. Just because you may see something as unfortunate or even evil, doesn’t mean that it is so to God. It doesn’t mean it isn’t either. The whole point is that you cannot understand what He does, and simply analyzing what happens as proof or dis-proof for God’s existence is foolish since you don’t even understand what is happening.

I never said I do not believe in God but to belive you can not understand God is also just a bad unless you are an agnositic, if you are I apologize. That was the point of the incarnation. It would be the same as you becoming the Bug in your story.

 

[Newbie2]

Why does a God like this deserving of any of our attention at all?

He reminds me of a deadbeat dad; he made us and then ditched us.

That would be a most selfish attitude in any relationship, let alone with one one who is our infinite almighty superior! God could say the same thing about us; deadbeat kids…and he could ditch us…but he doesn’t.

Reference: The Parable of the lost son, Luke 15.

“Ditching us” implies that God should not tolerate and fix any evil in this world, and that isn’t consistant with creating mankind with free will.

 

[Liberanosamalo]

If 99% of the world’s population died, it happened for a reason.

Actually… 100% of the world’s population is going to die. Just sayin…

Exalt reminds me of people I know who think God is horrible because their own fathers were irresponsible or absent, so they project their own hostility onto God.

As for MRSA… God always forgives, man sometimes forgives… nature… never.

 

[CentralFLJames]

Why does a God like this deserving of any of our attention at all?

He reminds me of a deadbeat dad; he made us and then ditched us.

More pointedly, why does an un-Godly post like this deserve any of our attention at all when it flies both in the face of reason and God?

Before I trust in the wisdom or insight of a single human man with dubious pedigree I will trust in 2000+ years of progressive prophetic revelation about God. Every bit of human history leading up to Jesus’ life is too prophetically consistent to write it off as as mere coincidence. So, I’ll take Jesus’ teaching about God over an anonymous Internet “voice” trying to appeal to reason when that same voice can offer me nothing but a hope for a meaningless life without God. Jesus offers me a real plausible hope and expectation of Eternal Life. All you offer is opinion and offensive expressions of scorn for The One who can give Eternal Life. Frankly, its even illogical to hold that level of contempt for something that you would hold as “not existent”. That to me is more indicative of a person who is either irrational or really believes in God but hates him. Pity - you lose either way and that just sounds suicidal and self defeating. Why again should anyone be listening to you?

The question to ask yourself is “why trust in your own opinion when you have no rational and good choice but to hope against yourself being correct”; especially when you should self discover that you can’t even make a compelling argument to yourself?". Clearly you are lacking in the faculties to be giving opinion that can merit anyone. If you are entertaining opinions I’d suggest saving your breath and doing more reading about the good news of salvation. It is just an unproductive waste of time to bet on the double zero outcome of life without God. Why not seek to find ways to improve your odds to certainty when the promised jackpot of Christianity is so compelling and one is always playing with “the house”.

James

 

[Exalt]

Actually… 100% of the world’s population is going to die. Just sayin…

Exalt reminds me of people I know who think God is horrible because their own fathers were irresponsible or absent, so they project their own hostility onto God.

As for MRSA… God always forgives, man sometimes forgives… nature… never.

Though I may remind you of a person who projects his own hostility towards his father on God, I am not that person. My father is very loving and we have a very close relationship. My dad is a *way *better father than God, if such a God exists.

You’re right about nature, it is rarely forgiving. I’m really glad our science has advanced to a sufficient degree to help people who suffer from diseases and such.

 

[Exalt]

More pointedly, why does an un-Godly post like this deserve any of our attention at all when it flies both in the face of reason and God?

Before I trust in the wisdom or insight of a single human man with dubious pedigree I will trust in 2000+ years of progressive prophetic revelation about God. Every bit of human history leading up to Jesus’ life is too prophetically consistent to write it off as as mere coincidence. So, I’ll take Jesus’ teaching about God over an anonymous Internet “voice” trying to appeal to reason when that same voice can offer me nothing but a hope for a meaningless life without God. Jesus offers me a real plausible hope and expectation of Eternal Life. All you offer is opinion and offensive expressions of scorn for The One who can give Eternal Life.

Frankly, its even illogical to hold that level of contempt for something that you would hold as “not existent”. That to me is more indicative of a person who is either irrational or really believes in God but hates him. Pity - you lose either way and that just sounds suicidal and self defeating. Why again should anyone be listening to you?

The question to ask yourself is “why trust in your own opinion when you have no rational and good choice but to hope against yourself being correct”; especially when you should self discover that you can’t even make a compelling argument to yourself?". Clearly you are lacking in the faculties to be giving opinion that can merit anyone. If you are entertaining opinions I’d suggest saving your breath and doing more reading about the good news of salvation. It is just an unproductive waste of time to bet on the double zero outcome of life without God. Why not seek to find ways to improve your odds to certainty when the promised jackpot of Christianity is so compelling and one is always playing with “the house”.

James

Let me make one thing very clear. I, probably like you, am a truth-seeker. That’s what I love. That’s what I care about. I don’t give a rat’s behind about lies, fairy tales, myths, faith - unless they help me understand truth a little bit better. After that, they’re just mental methamphetamine - comforting stories and ideas about the world that aren’t really real. Pascal’s wager means nothing to someone who cares about the truth.

Now, regarding the contempt you think I feel towards God. I assure you, the contempt I feel is towards the idea of God. Sort of like the contempt I feel towards other viscious, bloodthirsty fictional characters. This is the guy who destroyed the entire world, minus one family, because he was jealous. This is the guy who commanded Joshua to annihilate an entire city and people, minus it’s gold, of course, because he favored Joshua’s clan a little bit more. This is the guy who proscribes death for all sorts of rediculous crimes - including, gasp, my own “crime” of nonbelief. This is the guy who commanded Abraham to kill his only son (Isn’t the moral answer No!?). This is the guy who thinks that the only way he can grant forgiveness to humankind is to make one guy suffer in agony for hours. This is the guy who sanctioned slavery and surely made it harder for reasonable people to change the world’s opinion on the matter.

Ugh. After you get away from the spell of Christianity and read the Bible on it’s own, you get an entirely different picture. God is quite possibly the most tyranical, bloodthirsty, immoral fictional character ever concieved in the history of mankind.

But, my contempt is towards a fictional being. You’re saying because I feel such contempt towards the idea of God, that I must believe he exists. And that’s not really true. It’s like saying because I really hate Voldemort, I believe he exists. It’s kinda silly.

By the way, are you saying that I’d go to hell for my non-belief?

 

[Exalt]

That would be a most selfish attitude in any relationship, let alone with one one who is our infinite almighty superior! God could say the same thing about us; deadbeat kids…and he could ditch us…but he doesn’t.

Reference: The Parable of the lost son, Luke 15.

“Ditching us” implies that God should not tolerate and fix any evil in this world, and that isn’t consistant with creating mankind with free will.

I don’t expect a good father to solve *all *of his children’s problems. But I do expect the good father to, I don’t know, *talk *to his kids. That’s a good start. Not just the oldest kids. Not just the good kids. *All *the kids.

God’s not a good father, because of that very reason.

 

[CentralFLJames]

Let me make one thing very clear. I, probably like you, am a truth-seeker. That’s what I love. That’s what I care about. I don’t give a rat’s behind about lies, fairy tales, myths, faith - unless they help me understand truth a little bit better. After that, they’re just mental methamphetamine - comforting stories and ideas about the world that aren’t really real. Pascal’s wager means nothing to someone who cares about the truth.

Now, regarding the contempt you think I feel towards God. I assure you, the contempt I feel is towards the idea of God. Sort of like the contempt I feel towards other viscious, bloodthirsty fictional characters. This is the guy who destroyed the entire world, minus one family, because he was jealous. This is the guy who commanded Joshua to annihilate an entire city and people, minus it’s gold, of course, because he favored Joshua’s clan a little bit more. This is the guy who proscribes death for all sorts of rediculous crimes - including, gasp, my own “crime” of nonbelief. This is the guy who commanded Abraham to kill his only son (Isn’t the moral answer No!?). This is the guy who thinks that the only way he can grant forgiveness to humankind is to make one guy suffer in agony for hours. This is the guy who sanctioned slavery and surely made it harder for reasonable people to change the world’s opinion on the matter.

Ugh. After you get away from the spell of Christianity and read the Bible on it’s own, you get an entirely different picture. God is quite possibly the most tyranical, bloodthirsty, immoral fictional character ever concieved in the history of mankind.

But, my contempt is towards a fictional being. You’re saying because I feel such contempt towards the idea of God, that I must believe he exists. And that’s not really true. It’s like saying because I really hate Voldemort, I believe he exists. It’s kinda silly.

By the way, are you saying that I’d go to hell for my non-belief?

Seeking the truth is good. Ever wonder what makes us seek the truth? I do. I attribute this to some aspect of my personna that I have not conscious control over. “Something” compels us to seek truth and I think it rational to suspect that it is for our benefit rather than to befuddle us or to frustrate us or to harm us. Behold, from here we suddenly have the basis for a natural benevolence arising from an organic nature that suggests something “outside” ourselves. Recurse on this thought deep enough and often enough and it becomes very simple to come to believe through primitive human reasoning that we have a nature for truth that can not be naturally denied.

As children we are more innocent and accepting of everything somone tells us. In essence we are at the mercy of those who we ask our questions to. But as we grow and learn we know too that not all know the answers we ask. Some give knowingly deceptive answers for some cruel purpose or they fabricate things that are not true to silence our inquiries. When this happens we can be discouraged and stop asking questions and become bitter in the disappointment of the answers we get or failed to get. We become skeptical and stop seeking truth. Or we can out of bitterness try to provoke those who seem to know what the truth is to tell us their secrets so we might learn. We become ourselves “cruel” to force God to reveal His truths to us. But I don’t think God likes to be compelled.

Thus you provoked here and I am taking that as a cry for truth. Many of us here will say that is God calling you - the very same God you attribute cruelty and harshness to. I may not be the best one to get you on the path of truth but I can try to get you started.

For now, take it in faith that God is not cruel and assume rather that those same negative attribution you assign to the “notion” of Him are the very things you find repugnant and don’t want God to be or hope that God is not really like. This is evidence that you are seeking God - bravo.

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to step you through in process of example and counter-example argument to prove to you that your perspective of the notion of God is misaligned. Clearly, by making some biblical references you have revealed some familiarity with scripture and are seeking God. But you are in a condition of wanting to believe in a “better” God than what you have discovered so far. Great - this is the stuff that God uses to make saints out of. Be careful what you precipitate here since you may be in for a profound awakening that changes your life when the Holy Spirit leads you to the right paths.

I’d recommend attending a Catholic indoctrination class to get the basic tenants of faith. This will put you around fellow truth seekers who are upbeat and looking at God from a presumption of “goodness” rather than from a preconceived notion of “aloofness”.

Good Luck,
James

 

[Exalt]

Seeking the truth is good. Ever wonder what makes us seek the truth? I do. I attribute this to some aspect of my personna that I have not conscious control over. “Something” compels us to seek truth and I think it rational to suspect that it is for our benefit rather than to befuddle us or to frustrate us or to harm us. Behold, from here we suddenly have the basis for a natural benevolence arising from an organic nature that suggests something “outside” ourselves. Recurse on this thought deep enough and often enough and it becomes very simple to come to believe through primitive human reasoning that we have a nature for truth that can not be naturally denied.

As children we are more innocent and accepting of everything somone tells us. In essence we are at the mercy of those who we ask our questions to. But as we grow and learn we know too that not all know the answers we ask. Some give knowingly deceptive answers for some cruel purpose or they fabricate things that are not true to silence our inquiries. When this happens we can be discouraged and stop asking questions and become bitter in the disappointment of the answers we get or failed to get. We become skeptical and stop seeking truth. Or we can out of bitterness try to provoke those who seem to know what the truth is to tell us their secrets so we might learn. We become ourselves “cruel” to force God to reveal His truths to us. But I don’t think God likes to be compelled.

Thus you provoked here and I am taking that as a cry for truth. Many of us here will say that is God calling you - the very same God you attribute cruelty and harshness to. I may not be the best one to get you on the path of truth but I can try to get you started.

For now, take it in faith that God is not cruel and assume rather that those same negative attribution you assign to the “notion” of Him are the very things you find repugnant and don’t want God to be or hope that God is not really like. This is evidence that you are seeking God - bravo.

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to step you through in process of example and counter-example argument to prove to you that your perspective of the notion of God is misaligned. Clearly, by making some biblical references you have revealed some familiarity with scripture and are seeking God. But you are in a condition of wanting to believe in a “better” God than what you have discovered so far. Great - this is the stuff that God uses to make saints out of. Be careful what you precipitate here since you may be in for a profound awakening that changes your life when the Holy Spirit leads you to the right paths.

I’d recommend attending a Catholic indoctrination class to get the basic tenants of faith. This will put you around fellow truth seekers who are upbeat and looking at God from a presumption of “goodness” rather than from a preconceived notion of “aloofness”.

Good Luck,
James

Unfortunately I don’t have the time to step you through in process of example and counter-example argument to prove to you that your perspective of the notion of God is misaligned.

Of course, there are many instances in the Bible of God doing good things - but it is no excuse. I know of the examples you would cite, but it doesn’t matter. Just because a man beats his wife sometimes and loves his wife other times doesn’t mean he isn’t a bad husband.

I’d recommend attending a Catholic indoctrination class to get the basic tenants of faith. This will put you around fellow truth seekers who are upbeat and looking at God from a presumption of “goodness” rather than from a preconceived notion of “aloofness”.

I don’t know about an “indoctrination” class, but I actually am in my final year in my undergraduate career, majoring in religious studies. I’ve taken one introductory class in Catholicism, a large number of scripture classes, and a bunch of Catholic theology classes on random topics. In addition, my first two years of college were spent working with the religious education office of a local parish. I know a great deal about Catholicism - enough to reject tenants like “God is good.” A simple read of the Bible is enough to reject that idea.

Seeking the truth is good.

Is Seeking-the-truth good because Jesus said it was good or because it’s actually good?

 

[CentralFLJames]

Is Seeking-the-truth good because Jesus said it was good or because it’s actually good?

Follow your heart.

James