Gaylord (comment at your own risk) has just proven to me prayer works. He says “What you mistake for smugness is confidence in who God is. You were never really saved. It was 50 years of outward appearance but no spiritual substance. People do that all the time in church, just as Jesus showed us in the letters to the church in Revelation. God answers my prayers quite often. For example, we evangelicals who support the President have prayed for the plots against President Trump to be exposed and for the plots to backfire on the schemers. In recent weeks we’ve seen that happen with members of the deep state being demoted or fired from the DOJ or FBI and their plot being exposed”
“The Bible teaches that God moves in the affairs of men quite often. The deep state is trying to cover their shenanigans up, but God has moved in the hearts of some of the men and women in government agencies and in Congress to uncover their wicked plots. Deny the Lord’s hand all you wish, but he’ll continue to answer our prayers–just like he did when Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem after Trump rightly acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel’s capital”.
Uh, men established modern day Israel, and now men have moved the embassy to Jerusalem.
TheCommonAtheist 
Every prayer is answered if you’re delusional enough.
Good one, Heisenberg. 😉
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Thanks boss. I did pray one time that my prayer would not be answered. Looks like I finally got through one time.
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So you asked for the right thing and got it? Are you hinting something else?😂😂😂
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No. I never hint to a Hindu. Hehe
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Shots fired!😂
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Boom!! I know you. You got some good sense about you.
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For some reason he(the guy you mentioned) thinks agnostics and atheists feel miserable about themselves. I was actually feeling miserable because my prayers weren’t answered.
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I know. He thinks he knows something he’s dead wrong about. I am truly way happier than I ever was as a believer.
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Too bad you and I weren’t real Christians and we were never saved. We could have had a hand in that confirmed victory. Oh well. I guess we’re doomed to live out the rest of our days here in reality. *sigh*
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I much a loser. But, at least the entire conversation he could judge me, my past, and even my current positions and condemned several differ groups of heathens along the way. I kept thinking, judge not lest ye be judged. Oh well. He’s above the fray, what can I say?
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Well, I have my own version of Gaylord following me. Bruce keeps popping in to tell me how I’m wrong and he’s right. These people have found what seems to be working for them, so therefore everyone else who is different is wrong. We’re all heathens because we didn’t pick the right denomination in the right religion out of thousands to choose from. But the choice was obvious to these select few? Sure. Makes sense. God wanted to reach us in an obvious way but somehow let you do it wrong for 50 years and me do it wrong in a completely different way for 25 years. But don’t forget Jim, he loves us very much. He’s willing to give us another chance. However we still have to choose from the same thousands of options and he’s not going to even give us a hint as to which one is the right one.
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When I go back it will be after the stroke. Against my wishes
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A one stroke penalty isn’t that big a deal…if you’re playing golf. If your one stroke penalty is in life and it’s going back to religion, that’s a little steep.
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If you ever get stuck in the course in a lightning storm, hold your two iron as high as you can. Not even god can hit a two iron.
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Lol
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I have some great golf jokes, but just like golf, they’re pretty long. That’s all I have for my short game
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Thanks a million for sharing this, Jim. You have done me and humanity a great service… inspiring me to actively challenge such poisonous nonsense by taking to fight to the smarmy true believers like Gaylord. Thanks and peace, brother.
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I was cracking up a little. Literally can’t make a connection outside of his presups. Good to see you.
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Alas, I agree that there is no chance of reaching a lost cause like Gaylord (I suspect the DSM will someday define a mental disorder category specifically for such insanity), but… I have learned from my internet engagements that it is the lurkers who are the audience for your thoughtful comments. So, even though I (we) are addressing my (our) comments to someone like Gaylord, I (we) are really writing to his “followers”. And so, the true believers like Gaylord are unwittingly providing a forum that allows decent, rational people like you and me to reach so many “Chrisitans” who are still held hostage by the racket. Thanks and Peace.
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Agreed 🎯
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And Frank, I could have pasted much more nonsense, but alas…one minute info blogs about the faith trap has me hamstringed with this contract thing. You know? Lol
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Gaylord has just fallen into that irreconciliable abyss/trap of theological Random Time & Lack of Gradation. If there are millions of human beings that as he claims are “never really saved,” then what is the point of any human life or “testing” through life who is “worthy” of eternal life or damnation? Hahahahahahahahaha!!!
Gaylord has OBVIOUSLY not thought his man-made ideology through very well. 😉
And historically speaking, Jerusalem is and always has been for many centuries and over a millenia now… unequivocally Palestinian. Not that physical human-state boundaries really mean anything at all, but here’s the factual, verified history:
• The ancient geographical history of Judaism begins in Mesopotamia, loosely modern-day Iraq and Syria, not Jerusalem or the Levant.
• The settlement of Jerusalem was named in honor of Shalim, (salem) from the Canaanite religious pantheon, found on inscriptions in Syria. Modern Judaism wrongly translates the word as City of Peace, and has romanticized its historical context as their own at the exclusion of Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese, and Jordanians.
• Strictly from Biblical sources, i.e. not from additional independent sources, Judaism (a monotheistic religion) asserts that the prophet Moses led slaves inside ancient Egypt to the Sinai Peninsula. The only archeological evidence of a monotheistic worship happening inside Jerusalem doesn’t take place until around 1000 BCE. All evidence prior to 1000 BCE clearly demonstrates common Canaanite deities were worshiped.
• There is no definitive independent proof that Jerusalem was even inhabited between 1000 and 900 BCE by any particular people or tribes.
• A Jewish group known as the Hasmoneans did rule Jerusalem briefly between 168 and 37 BCE. This is a grossly different time span (almost a 2,200 year difference) from what Zionist Judaism claims: 3000 BCE to present? Beginning in 637 CE, the Muslim Arabs put siege to Jerusalem and conquered it a year later. They ruled until 1099 CE when all the European Crusaders took it. It is at this point when the Jewish and Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem fought side-by-side but were horrifically murdered in mass by Christian Crusaders.
• Perhaps the most notable part of Jerusalem’s history is in 136 CE after the Bar Kochba revolt against Roman authority failed. Some of the Jews in Jerusalem remained, but firmly under the rule of Rome and then Byzantium. Many converted to Christianity to escape the harsh oppression. After 638 CE and the Arab Muslim invasion, 90% of Jerusalem converted to Islam! Thereafter, the entire region was almost exclusively Muslim for the next 1,300 plus years. Palestinians are the legitimate descendants of Jerusalem, Eastern Israel, and the region!
• In 1947 the virtual city and region of peace was completely turned upside down. Despite the historical and archeological chronicle of Judaism, the United Nations enacted the Partition Plan for Palestine following World War II and under sympathy of the Jewish Holocaust.
• Past and present Israeli governments have not been united, much less consistent, about how East Jerusalem and the West Bank should be settled and managed once they were taken over. Comically, this is reminiscent of Judaism’s long history of sectarian division and fragmentation going all the way back to 37 CE.
• The archeological record and linguistic history of Jerusalem and the Levant show who has the most legitimate claim to sovereignty from best to least, in chronological order listed below, by the number of years settled:
1. Muslims – they ruled it and built it for at least 1,191 years.
2. Egyptians – ruled it as a vassal state for several centuries in the 2ndmillennium BCE.
3. Italians – ruled it for about 445 years until the fall of the Roman Empire in 450 CE.
4. Iranians – ruled for 205 years under the Achaemenid Empire, for three years as a Parthian-Hasmonean vassal state, and for 15 years under the Sassanids.
5. Greeks – ruled it for over 160 years, counting the Ptolemys and Seleucids as Greek empires. If this period is counted as Egyptian and Syrian, that adds significantly to an Egyptian claim while introducing a Syrian one!
6. Byzantines (Greeks/Turks) – ruled it for 188 years, however if one considers the heir to be Greece and add the time Hellenistic dynasties ruled, that gives Greece almost 350 years of ruling Jerusalem.
7. Iraq – the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires ruled Jerusalem for 183 years, though adding the Ayyubid Empire (Saladin’s dynasty) who were Kurds from Iraq, ruled for 730 years bringing the total reigning years up to that point to a whopping 913 years!
8. Jews – finally we arrive to the people who have the LEAST claim for Jerusalem. The Hasmoneans ruled as a vassal state under Parthia for 131 years.
• In the end, the only real claim Zionist Judaism has for Jerusalem and a state of Israel is based subservient to Persians, Greeks, and Romans when they ruled Palestine.
The U.S. backing and continued support for the Zionist Israeli invasion and occupation of Palestine is an transgenerational blood-curse that we’ve been paying for in untold billions of dollars and wars against (militant) Islam since 1947, but honestly earlier at the end of World War I.
But who really pays much attention to any verified history? Certainly NOT tRump or our radical Fundamental Right or Zionist Israel pandering to sympathies of the Holocaust. (shaking his head)
Some great points Jim. 😉
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Likewise. I can always count on you for great context. Evangelicals are not only poorly educated about this, they’re pushing for it like they own a piece. He blessed Trump in his diatribes, and also condemned our LGBT friends. He’s really mean spirited for a “Christian”. In word alone.
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Yes. And sadly the horrendously immoral Bullies and their minions and henchmen (the Victors) write history… or IOW, the rhetoric and propaganda “history” and causes the way THEY want it to be told by them. Any opposition of course are slaughtered in the process. That’s religious histories in a nutshell. 😨
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God is love
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BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! You just made me choke on my cocktail and spit on my laptop screen! DAMN YOU… you crazy heathen!!! 😛 😉
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🎯
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I can’t even comment on this other than this is what insanity and extreme brainwashing look like when combined.
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Prayer serves many purposes. When I recite the 50 names of Marduk of Babylon, I am saying a prayer. I don’t expect Marduk to do anything. It is my offering to Him. I have a client – patron relationship. I do things for Him that He cannot do for Himself, and He returns the favor. If the relationship becomes one-sided, I move on.
The idea of a God taking over everything and everyone to me is the Monotheistic Gods not playing nice and being very possessive. The person you quoted doesn’t seem to get that.
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Oh dear, oh dear ….
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As a Gay Lord myself I disavow this other one 😀
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Right on. Did you see his comment of bigoted love?
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Are you kidding? A couple of years ago I decided I would stop reading that sort of thing; And I’ve stuck to it. When people actively engage in methods of deception (of the self and others) it’s simply not possible to have dialogue. They’re not interested in reality as long as they can keep the illusion going.
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I’m down to once every couple of months. I know that he won’t improve, but possibly an onlooker may see the BS. Now possibly someone else will take a stab at it next time. When you step outside faith, you tend to forget people like this really still exist. But, Unfortunately they do.
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The mind game to be one of the saved forces a strange psychological hand. Who will admit they haven’t been saved when they all know they haven’t after spending a lifetime in it? It is an endurance test of dumb to see who can hold out the longest and project the most pious persona. It is a hypocrites game.
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You have far more stamina and patience with people like Gaylord than I do. When I encounter total bullshit and an complete unwillingness to see reality compared to what one wants to have be true no matter what is pointed out to them, I lose interest in being nice. I know that doesn’t win many converts, but I simply cannot tolerate sticking your head in the sand and claiming the world is what your imagination wants it to be. Disney World is nice to visit but it is not the real world. To me people like Gaylord think they live in Disney World but they fail to acknowledge they really live in the middle of a declining industrial city of the past. Hugs
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I don’t mind doing it once in a while. There are others looking and might help them. Who knows. Thanks Scottie
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Yeah I don’t understand how people like Gaylord have their heads so far up their own asses. Not only do they think they follow the one ‘true way’, but they make judgemental gross statements about groups of people which they know nothing about, and they seem to even take joy in telling other people they’re going to hell. I had a friend like that whom I used to live with. But he ended up pissing me off so much I moved out… and that was when I was still a Christian.
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He made a lot of statements about me that are not true. I have been accused of being Dawkins and Ehrman disciples before by Mel but I have not read their books. If you sit back and observe what is really going on, it’s not that hard to come up with the same conclusions I guess. I have purchased a couple recently but been so busy and tired building this house I haven’t got to them yet. Should be interesting.
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ANOTHER house!? Yeah I will admit I haven’t read a lot of atheist books either, much of my reading has come from online blogs from people who were once happy in religion but decided to leave it. When I have more free time of my own I will dig into more books, but since I work in an office all day, reading isn’t my ideal activity outside of work.
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I’ll take a chance and reply. So if, as Gaylord wrote, you lack this confidence in god, how is that he needs to provide direction to god on how to run the government (maybe I should say “deep government,” whatever that is)? Kind of like the pickup truck I saw, “In god we trust” was one window sticker. The other was an ad for USAA Insurance. I’m confused. Which is it? If you trust god, who needs to pay for insurance? Maybe I am over-ironic today. If there is a god and he needs the advice of the likes of Gaylord, we’re all so screwed.
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You might look at the comments in his sight if you dare. The real, unfiltered evangelical is a scary thing. If god is so obvious, why so much confusion. You know in all the history of gods, the same god has never emerged twice or in different locations. Always regional belief and superstition. And thanks for stopping by. Regards.
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Jim your talk of the comments on Gaylords site reminded me of something that has bothered me since I started following theist blogs. Why is it that so many comment sections can devolve into a nasty attack on those who disagree? Why the angry attack on desenters that negates all the good will that is professed by people of faith? More important is how do the faithful justify simply dismissing those they find lacking their faith views, such as claiming the other was never a christian but they clearly are, as anyone could clearly see? As you know I was not one of the faithful so I may see this differently, but I feel you can’t claim the moral high ground while wallowing in the foul pit. I could be wrong. Hugs
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I may have gotten a little carried away too with the accusations being called a liar and less than the proper devotion level. He’s so full of his self righteous bull headed wrong crap I just was a little angry. And when he started throwing around his bigotry I lost it. I was happy that people could see what an unfiltered evangelical really thinks about you Scottie, and others that don’t measure up to his sub human standards.
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It’s funny this supposed answered prayer is never talked about until after the fact
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Damn what is it with Christians who claim that we never really believed? It must be especially insulting if you’ve wasted much of your life dedicating yourself to Christianity, because, y’know, you really believed it at the time. I know I believed lol, just like I know I once believed in Creationism, yet someone is going to tell me otherwise???
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David’s responses to the post were pretty spot on. He misrepresented the study. His opinions were not based on any facts he cited. At best, they were based on other opinions.
It’s always a shame when people resort to telling other people about their lives instead of taking them at their word. All it means is that this guy needs to tell himself what is true rather than accepting facts as they are. If his faith was as certain and secure as he’s claiming, he wouldn’t need to be doing any of what he’s doing. Instead, he’s broadcasting his insecurities.
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