[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
Not exactly how I put it, but if it makes you feel any better…
Why don’t you go ahead and start a thread on the topic with that selfsame quote as the OP, and we’ll see how calmly the theologians respond.
[/QUOTE]
Okay, challenge accepted. 
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
There is a lot of controversy whether jesus actually existed.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
I guess what I’m hoping for is a level of knowledge and skill of articulation that you can give a short robust airtight answer to anything thrown at you by the theism camp.
T: “How do you explain the evolution of the eye”
A: “Simple.”
A: <short description of eye evolution>
T: “I have felt God. When I needed him most he came to my aid”
A: “Happy to hear you found help in your hour of need, but it wasn’t God. It was…<explanation of what probably happened psychologically>”
I could go oon. DO you get the idea? I am convinced there are people out there who are very good at that type of thing… and their talent must be quoted on the web.
[/QUOTE]
Very simple. Anyone will say, “I asked God for strength, and he gave it to me when I needed it most.”
What DOES happen in all of these types of situations, is you relaxed,
you “gathered yourself”, you took a time out, you boxed your crayons,
whatever.
You already HAD the so called strength you THOUGHT you lacked when you asked the air for it. Tell them next time, take a deep breath
and silently sing “Smoke on the Water”. They’ll get the same result.
Say it with belief! (LOL)
Also, use this when someone says “If you don’t believe in god, you won’t be rewarded!”. Ask them what exactly made them so conceited and full of themself to actually think that THEY deserve an afterlife in paradise?
The secret to life is one, unsexy word: DISTANCE.
A white middleclass American will believe this Christian-follow God story,
but if they shortened their living distance to live among the starving
in a third-world, destitute, yet Christian nation,
I say 3 hours, no McDonalds in sight, the only English you will hear
is an American accent saying, “There is no god.”
Cross the distance of the Atlantic, land in Jerusalem,
and take a gooooooood look around at the cesspool
of Jesus’ brithplace.
My only question is: Why in the whole freakin’ world to human beings
even THINK they need to follow someone? Follow anyone?
[QUOTE=prleone]
The secret to life is one, unsexy word: DISTANCE.
A white middleclass American will believe this Christian-follow God story, but if they shortened their living distance to live among the starving in a third-world, destitute, yet Christian nation, I say 3 hours, no McDonalds in sight, the only English you will hear is an American accent saying, “There is no god.”
Cross the distance of the Atlantic, land in Jerusalem, and take a gooooooood look around at the cesspool of Jesus’ brithplace.
My only question is: Why in the whole freakin’ world to human beings even THINK they need to follow someone? Follow anyone?
[/QUOTE]
(paragraphs fixed because it was irritating me for some reason)
I always had the impression that fear of the icky mundane reality was what led Catholics to overly-revere Mary and make up loopy ways to exaggerate the mystical circumstances of Jesus’s birth, all to evade the unpleasant thought of him sliding down her birth canal, covered in slime, as pretty much everyone else was born prior to the advent of the C-section (itself not a glorious angelic procedure).
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
(paragraphs fixed because it was irritating me for some reason)
I always had the impression that fear of the icky mundane reality was what led Catholics to overly-revere Mary and make up loopy ways to exaggerate the mystical circumstances of Jesus’s birth, all to evade the unpleasant thought of him sliding down her birth canal, covered in slime, as pretty much everyone else was born prior to the advent of the C-section (itself not a glorious angelic procedure).
[/QUOTE]
I think they were also squeamish about considering the image of Mary with her sandals behind her ears during conception.