For All Those Who Do Not Believe In GOD?

[Spiritus_Mundi]

As always, Tris, you are a true revelation.

[Drain_Bead]

I am sorry I do not know what “eschatology” means know who some goofy god is that somebody made up when they were stoned to make money off of. And I don’t play scrabble(always thought that game was for nerdy people). But you go ahead and keep playing and learn new big words oh boy.

Okay. So MPSIMS and IMHO are being overrun by MagicalSilverKey, The Pit, try as I might, is controlled by a bunch of unapologetic candy-asses, and now Great Debates is being invaded by the fundie version of heatherlee.

I’ll be in GQ.

[andros]

As always, Tris, you are a true revelation.

Seconded. Tris, do you sometimes feel you have a calling to witness to the Christians?
Drain–ROFL.

[Wildest_Bill]

*Originally posted by Triskadecamus *
**OK, I picked a “you poor deluded heathens” thread more or less at random for this post. It is directed to the evangelistic Christians, though. (You heathens can just talk among yourselves for a moment, if you don’t mind. Thanks.)

This whole bewildered “Gee, how can you deny the Lord of Creation? He is The Lord!” arguments are just crap. Sorry to be blunt, but you need to remember the life of the Lord. When he was there giving out the message that we should love Him, it was not just that we should love someone we KNEW was the spirit of God. Jesus was a poorly dressed itinerant teacher, traveling around with a gang of disreputable ne’er do well vagabonds. His message was more like this:

Some unidentified bunch of roadies on bikes, and old jalopies pulls into your town. They don’t work, they don’t have any reasonable description of what they are doing here, and they mostly talk about stuff that is outrageously challenging to your social structure. The lead Weirdo tells you, in passing, that if you cannot love him in the depths of your heart, you will die forever, and be lost. He tells you that loving Him is your only chance.

See?

He was not obviously the Lord of the Heavens, to the Jews. He was pretty much obviously a petty criminal, with a bunch of deluded fanatics for friends. But the message is still true, and it remains true if the Lead Weirdo is the Son of God, or just another lost soul wandering the earth. If you can’t love him, from the depths of your heart, you will die forever, and be lost. Loving Him is your only chance. Not joining the right church, or picking the right mythos to study, or tithing the proper amount of your worldly wealth to the right Televanelist.

So, if you want to witness to those who don’t believe in the bible, you do it by loving them. You don’t tell them they are going to hell for being sinners, because you don’t know that. You only know that you personally are going to follow Jesus into heaven. You won’t be checking tickets at the gate. And you don’t pretend it is because of what you know, or what you have done. It is because God Loves You.

OK, sorry, rant over.

Tris
**

Fair enough and I agree. But how do you go about loving people on a message board. Huh? Sure I could tell them I love them and care about what happenes to them but then they will just call me “sparky” and say I am shining them on. Hey my whole original post might have been out of line to all the intellectual debaters on this board but I tried to explain something that is not logical with people that are for the most part “show me facts”, “show me cites”, “show me proof” or shutup and get out of our face in way that might be logical and real to them. All I can do is try and if the worst thing that can happen to me is for people to make fun of my english, grammer or other lack of knowledge, big deal I will still sleep.

[Unauthorized_Cinnamon]

WildestBill said:

But after reading the Bible it sure does seem like the Bible has the most convincing story especially because of the Jews. I mean these people are so blessed look at the talent in Hollywood. But they have also been persecuted by many. Which makes me think the Devil is real and is trying to kill off God’s chosen people using any means including Hitler at his disposal.

Hoo boy! If you appeared to have any wits, I would assume this was a joke. No such luck. So you’re saying that every time Jews are successful, it proves the Bible true, and every time Jews are unsuccessful or downright persecuted, that also proves the Bible true. How convenient. Tails you win, heads I lose.

What if your wrong about your not believing in God and end it up going to a place of torment. Is all your knowledge, grammer and debating skills going to help you there?

Wow, I’d hate to have to diagram those sentences! You say, “if your [sic] wrong about your not believing in God;” do you mean that I mistakenly think I don’t believe in God?

I suggest you obtain some education before taking on the Teeming Millions. As others have pointed out, your thinking is as tortured and twisted as your grammar.

[Liberal]

Wildest Bill

There are one or two hand-stabbers here, but the vast, vast majority of atheists at SDMB are people of high moral principle and loving hearts. Just remember that God is not contained in a book, but in the hearts of His people. As Tris has said, the bible is not the word of God, Jesus is the Word of God.

You show love on a message board the same as you do anywhere else, by accepting people as they are and empathising with their own frames of reference.

[andros]

But how do you go about loving people on a message board.

Respect others. Be polite. Don’t threaten people with eternal damnation. Get to know people. Accept that others who do not share your beliefs are people too. Do not “provide a message of love,” simply love. Do not offer religious umtimatums “out of love,” simply love. Understand that those who do not share your beliefs can also love. Strive to be Christlike. Let God take care of things.

It’s tough. But Polycarp’s got it, and Tris. So does Tom (tomndeb). So, increasingly, does Lib. And RTFirefly.
Please accept my apologies for calling you “Sparky.” It was truly not my intent to hurt you by it.

[gobear]

{quote]
All I can do is try and if the worst thing that can happen to me is for people to make fun of my english, grammer or other lack of knowledge, big deal I will still sleep.

[/quote]

Did it occur to you that God might not have called you to witness here and that you’re doing this to serve your rgo, not God’s will? It’s clear you don’t have the education to argue logically here.

Fair enough and I agree. But how do you go about loving people on a message board.

You should make your life your witness as your friends and family see God’s work manifest in you. Coming here and treating people like objects is a sin. You are serving the Devil, not God, by alienating people who Polycarp or Tris might have reached. You will have to account to God for all the souls lost through your arrogance and pride.

[Triskadecamus]

*Originally posted by Wildest Bill *
But how do you go about loving people on a message board. Huh?

You pay attention to the person, not the post. You assume that they are decent humans who simply have a different point of view from your own, and you realize that you have no reputation yet. You will get one, and for most of the posters here it will be a reflection of the content of your posts. (You also learn to follow the etiquette of the forum, such as not quoting entire posts, but spending the time and effort to edit what you write. A spell checker could not make your point less acceptable.)

I tried to explain something that is not logical with people that are for the most part “show me facts”, “show me cites”, “show me proof” or shutup and get out of our face in way that might be logical and real to them.

You respond to someone who calls you “sparky” with a patient response that says you know that logic is not your strength, but that love is not logical, so it won’t help you to seek the way to love with logic.

All I can do is try and if the worst thing that can happen to me is for people to make fun of my english, grammer or other lack of knowledge, big deal I will still sleep.

But that is not the worst thing that can happen. Someone might hear your words as “big deal, I have God’s Love and you don’t so I don’t have to worry about you.” When you set yourself up as a Christian speaking of Truth, your every error, and every misunderstanding can be perceived as Christ’s error. You might even convince someone that they are not interested in listening to anything that any Christian says. Keep that responsibility very prominent in your mind. You might not realize it, but many will judge Christ by your actions. That’s a sobering assessment of “the worst that could happen,” now isn’t it?

Love isn’t hard to do on a message board, it just takes care, and concern, and a willingness to spend the time and effort. Not unlike love anywhere else, in fact.

Tris

[Wildest_Bill]

Trisk,

Thanks you make some very good points and observations. I will work on the things you suggested. Sorry about quoting your whole post was in a hurry due to stuff I was working on. And the “bid deal” was out of line I don’t know even know why I said it tell you the truth.

Andros,

No offense taken. Actually it kinda of reminded me of what the wife called Chevy Chase in the Vacation movies and thanks for your input too. I am new to the boards and open to advice.

One thing I know for sure is I will definetely try to watch my spelling and grammer stuff.

And Goboy how do you know what God’s will is or the Devil if you don’t believe in either one. Are you just guessing?

[Eve]

“What if your wrong about your not believing in God and end it up going to a place of torment.”

—Bill, you can’t MAKE yourself believe something you feel is false. And if I DID pretend to believe in God just to get a free pass into heaven and there WAS a God, don’t you think he’d know I was a big ol’ faker?

Hey, nobody’s told me yet what HAPPENS to me if I take Satan’s offer! Can I apply for a job as one of his minions? That always sounded like fun. Though there’ll be a long line for THOSE jobs. I’ll probably wind up doing the filing or answering phones.

[Polycarp]

I’ll be in GQ.

Wow, DB is going to have a photospread in Gentleman’s Quarterly! Can I reserve an issue?

Bill, in all seriousness, Tris’s posts are pretty much on target for what to do and how to do it. You’re playing in a tough league here, and nobody knows it better than me. But you know where to get sustenance and help as needed. Hint: how do you spell “fish”?

[Navigator]

really…

[Freyr]

Wildest Bill:

A few points to consider…

1. please go back to my original post in this thread on page 1 and consider the errors I pointed out in your original posting. Your assumption that people here are either believers (Xians) or non-believers (atheists) is incorrect and seems to stem from monotheism. Your response to considering polytheism is insulting (regarding the comment about Odin). Please respond.

2. What are your qualifications for interpreting the Revelations text in the Xian Bible? I asked this in my orignal posting to you. Please respond.

3. You seem to need to “witness” the Word of (the Judeo/Xian) god to us. Have you ever consider that we have already heard and interpreted the Word before and come to our own conclusions about it. Why should we listen to you? Why is your viewpoint superior?

4. Please go over and read PolyCarp’s comments on the Why Say NO to God thread. He brings up several relevent points about witnessing to this msg. board. Please consider them.

[SkeptiJess]

I think this is the best possible thread in which to unveil my new sig…

As for the OP: I very much doubt that, even under the circumstances you outline, I will ever believe in the rapture, the second coming or the anti-christ. Frankly, “biblical prophecy” holds no water with me. Like most predictions, biblical ones are entirely too vague to be believable. I’m curious though – where did you hear that the mark of Satan was “probably” going to be an imbedded micro-chip? Surely, that isn’t biblical? How about giving us a cite for that belief?

[SkeptiJess]

After all that, I forgot to check ‘show signature!’ Sheesh!

[oldscratch]

A question for you Wildests Bill. Oh and BTW, kudos for staying around. You should spend some more time in the other forums and debates, we really aren’t such bad folks around here. Well, I am a hand-stabber according to some, but I don’t pay it much mind, don’t even know what it means.

Anyway. Let me ask you a question. Most Buddhists I know have extreme inner peace, much more so than most christians i know. They believe that their’s is the one true way and that by not being a budhist you can’t find inner peace (more or less simplified here). Don’t ou ow it to yourself to investigate that religion. To spend as much time reading up on it as you do on the bible. In fact, doesnt’ the same go for the Koran. If not aren’t you possibly wasting your life?

[Wildest_Bill]

Originally posted by Freyr

First sorry I took so long to get back to your questions.

1. please go back to my original post in this thread on page 1 and consider the errors I pointed out in your original posting. Your assumption that people here are either believers (Xians) or non-believers (atheists) is incorrect and seems to stem from monotheism. Your response to considering polytheism is insulting (regarding the comment about Odin). Please respond.

I see what your saying. I did not mean to make fun of Odin(maybe I am still mistaken but I thought it was kinda of a fantasy religion kinda like “the force” in Star Wars or something.) And as far as other religions that may or may not be true I wanted to see what they would say if the things in the Bible come to pass also. I also would turn that around if they(other religions have something to warn me about to prove their religion) I would listen to that too.

2. What are your qualifications for interpreting the Revelations text in the Xian Bible? I asked this in my orignal posting to you. Please respond.

Just a mere Christian that has read Revelation in the Bible and asked the Holy Spirit too help me understand it. And I ask questions to other Christians I know and respect too.

3. You seem to need to “witness” the Word of (the Judeo/Xian) god to us. Have you ever consider that we have already heard and interpreted the Word before and come to our own conclusions about it. Why should we listen to you? Why is your viewpoint superior?

In all due respect how do you know you interpreted right? In otherwords come to the right conclusion. I am not perfect you are not perfect Goboy is not perfect even though he thinks he is.(sorry Goboy I just couldn’t help myself) so your conclusions could be wrong. The Bible is God’s love letter to Christians and the Holy Spirit helps Christians understand what God is telling them. If you are not a Christian the Bible would not make as much sense to you. I never said my viewpoint was superior (matter of fact many of you told me that). I am just a normal guy with a Superior God.

4. Please go over and read PolyCarp’s comments on the Why Say NO to God thread. He brings up several relevent points about witnessing to this msg. board. Please consider them.

I haven’t yet but I will.

And thanks for not flaming me.

[jmullaney]

*Originally posted by Wildest Bill *
Just a mere Christian that has read Revelation in the Bible and asked the Holy Spirit too help me understand it.

I would submit that the basic flaw in your argument, regardless of how you want to interpret this “mark”, is that you haven’t shown any unlying reason why buying and selling is immoral, so why would anyone, faithful or not, see taking this “mark” as a bad thing, since buying and selling is just one of those things you have to do to survive in most people’s eyes?

There are plenty of places in the world where the punishment for not taking part in the ecomny is imprisonment, “microchip” or not. John the Divine was imprisoned himself for his beliefs, although I know we might disagree about what those were.

Just a few things for you to pray about. Check out my “slave to money” thread for an atheist view of the situation.

[Wildest_Bill]

Originally posted by jmullaney *

I would submit that the basic flaw in your argument, regardless of how you want to interpret this “mark”, is that you haven’t shown any unlying reason why buying and selling is immoral, so why would anyone, faithful or not, see taking this “mark” as a bad thing, since buying and selling is just one of those things you have to do to survive in most people’s eyes?

Now I don’t know if you know the rest of the story or not but there is going to be some pretty nasty stuff happening before the mark happens. Earthquakes, nasty demon locust, and pretty much half of the earth’s population dead or gone. Also as long as we have had money now they want you to put a mark on your right hand or forehead for you to buy and sell under a world leader(seems a little coincendental doesn’t it)? I think I could care less about survival for this short life span and worry about the eternal one by then if I wasn’t a Christian that got to skip all of the nasty stuff.

I will read your thread though.