It all comes down to what one would rather believe. Maybe life is just too dissatisfying without a belief to succor one’s ego.
Religious beliefs are like a skillfully edited film—and the preacher is the editor. What lies on the floor of the editing room is messy. But life without makeup is amazing.
Regular is beautiful. Maybe if we put our faith efforts towards our own specie we could really do something special?
When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other—An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head—Eric Hoffer.
If something is real it is not necessary to believe in it. To unbelieve is to approach the ground of being—that primordial state from which all things rise and fall. Belief is merely a self employed decoy, perpetuating the unknown by the same belief that holds our attention.
TheCommonAtheist 
Jim why are we (the non-religious) still arguing about religions, holy books, et. al? If ,as so many brilliant people have declared, the supernatural doesn’t exist so religions have no place for their gods to exist. This imaginary realm is a child’s creation when they listen to fairy tales. This home of Santa Claus gets high jacked as the home of a father-in-heaven. The delusion is that heaven is real, so gods must be real. GROG
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Partly because in the current setting most believers don’t have any idea that there are other, more legitimate ways of analyzing this situation. They believe because of various reasons, all of which are carefully crafted traditions that mean nothing at all.
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“But life without makeup is amazing.” I SO agree. Well put.
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We know that religion is fraudulent. They sell a dream and they get away with it because of heaven. Take them to court. Can’t prove anything, no evidence, but until evidence is found all religions come with a warning label as to their unfounded and possibly fraudulent claims. Not long ago there was a Mormon who made the news about tithing of the LDS Church, Samuel Brunson. Turns out he is a distant cousin. GROG
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I’ll look it up.
Religions sell hope which is evidence of despair, which you need both because of religion. It’s very well played on the foibles of human nature.
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IMO, every human is born with a sizeable amount of insecurity. And, also IMO, I don’t think this insecurity ever leaves. This is why I think religion (broadly defined) succeeds — it offers a way to counter insecurity with hope.
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Personally I think we are taught as children to be insecure by the authorities around us, because all of them are insecure. Especially the religious, meaning mostly Abrahamic religionists. No matter how hard they try, they are insecure about ever getting to heaven or paradise because they know in their hearts they aren’t worthy of being with their God(s). Their fear is visible to their children, who cannot understand why their parents harbour such fear! So they absorb it.
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Superstition…superstition…ignorance! GROG
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Best con ever even. Take human nature, make it bad, and sell the snake oil cure.
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If we put our faith into every other species we might do a helluva lot better. Our specie is pretty much useless on its own!
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That’s a pretty hard criticism and part of the problem. Solutions, maybe?
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Ah, you think there is a solution. Poor Jim. I won’t call it a solution, but if everyone (EVERYONE!) would learn to be kind to ALL their neighbours (including other species!), and give up their need to lord it over everyone else, this world would be on its way to discovering a solution. But, I do not believe there is only one solution, that sounds too much like “there is only one God.” But for right now, humans destroy all others, and themselves.
Do you ever read Filosofa’s Word, on WordPress? It just so happens one of her posts today in on this very point, secularly speaking. “We Could Be So much Better.” You might give it a read, and get back to me.
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I’m living in a different space than that. Although I agree with her sentiments as based on the current beliefs of how and what life is all about, I really don’t think anyone can outsmart themselves. And even with little spurts of effort, nature is in favor of exactly what is happening.
The entire organism is good and bad, it has ups and downs, and if we were to wipe ourselves out we’d never know it, nor would it matter. A world of only kindness would be even more meaningless and less eventful than the struggle. Good and bad are the same events, and nothing happens that doesn’t happen to it.
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Seems quite fatalistic to me, but maybe I am not on your wavelength. A world of kindness would not be an end point, but a beginning point. Imagine what might happen if we were all working together, instead of being at loggerheads with just about everyone. I think you are basing your view on history, though I could be wrong. I know I am basing my view on what can be, rather than what has been so far.
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I agree. Even 1% more kindness would be a tremendous shift. It’s not all or nothing. Trying to see what’s actually going down here on planet earth is a more reasonable explanation than blame. I’m may see things on the fatalistic side, but I don’t live in it. I could easily have been born differently though.
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By born differently I am presuming you mean non-Mormon, and maybe even non-religious parent wise. But if you had not been, would you be the person you are today?
Thinking of my own journey, I can pick out thousands of “moments” when, if I had made the opposite decision, or even a different decision, I probably would not be this “me,” but some other “me” this one would not recognize. The biggest one, if such a thing is even measurable, for me would be leaving my wife who I loved greatly, but being with her was holding me back from whatever from happening for me spiritually at that time. I could easily has decided it was safer to remain with her and live out the rest of my life as a husband and warehouse supervisor. I know she would have been happier (at that time) if I had been satisfied with that life. But I felt I had to make that break, not knowing where it would lead, as opposed to remaining where I was, being a “safe” me.
As I said, there are thousands of points in my life I took one turn over another, and each one would have lead me somewhere else, 100%. Yet, here I stand, happy with the me I am, and glad every choice so far led me to here. If, as an abused child in a family of abused children I had made some of the choices my siblings made, would I be more like them? Most likely. But it is all water under the tollbridge now. I paid a lot of dues along the way, and survived where I could have sat down and given up life, even. Or given away my life, on two very special occasions.
I have probably gone far beyond the intent of your comment, but this is the way I needed to respond to it, I guess. Peace, man!
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More like how would I be if my beliefs weren’t chosen for me, or if I was born with a little different personality or wiring. My three brothers were raised the same way. 2 left home in their mid teens because of it, while the oldest is still in it thick.
This just illustrates to me how little control we have over the core of what we are.
I stayed several years so I wouldn’t disappoint others, which was a huge weakness I never chose.
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Ah, but how do you know your spirit did not choose it for you?
When my one girlfriend was pregnant with our baby, I distinctly remember having a dream where she and I were.seatd at a table, being interviewed by disembodied spirits about what kind of life gircumstances we would be able to provide a child. I don’f know how many we were interviewed by, but I remember being chosen by one of the interviewers.
And then my girlfriend was forced by her parents to goals to Californie and get an abortion, so that child was never born.
IF that dream had any place in reality, it meant to me that I chose to be born into my abusive childhood, and for years it made no sense to me. But, over the past number of years, as I look back at my life, I see where my chosen childhood strengthened my being, and helped get me to where I am today?
But choosing and doing are two different things. This is just pure speculation, Jim, but if you chose your parents, and yet survived to be who you are today, you actually made a good choice, despite all the bullshit. While your oldest brother succumbed to his choice, and discovered (spiritually, at least) he was not yet strong enough to overcome himself. Even that is important to know, spiritually speaking.
Yeah, I know, it”s all poppycock! But, maybe, it”s not…
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… there are thousands of points in my life I took one turn over another, and each one would have lead me somewhere else …
I think this is true of most everyone. And it is all these “turns” that have made us who we are today.
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What made you who you are today is making choices that align with you desired outcomes based on a personality you had no choice in developing—based on positive and negative feedback that someone else may deem intolerable.
Is it your organism freely making these choices or your predisposition?
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All of us are who we are based on experiences and events throughout our lifetime … whether we made the choice or it was made for us related to the direction and/or outcome.
I sometimes wonder, Jim, why this topic of “who we are” has such a grip on you … ??
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Not sure why you think it has a grip on me, but it’s really one the only unanswered questions and I enjoy it. Maybe it doesn’t pique your curiosity like it does mine. Frankly I can’t tolerate the contradiction which main religious and scientific models embrace. To understand our true nature? Wouldn’t that invoke the change rawgod and Jill keep hoping for? Nobody will do it under the current ideologies.
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I guess I use the term “grip” because you write about it so often. 😋
As for it piquing my curiosity … a lot probably has to do with the fact that I’m in a different place than you (and probably several of your readers). This is not to say that there wasn’t a time when all that you’ve pondered, I also pondered. But I’ve gotten to a point where I pretty much accept how and why things are what they are. Plus the fact I’m too old to change them now anyway. 😎
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Absolutely it is true of everyone, and not just humans. Whether other beings can rationalize or reason such things does not matter, they did what they did, and we did what we did.
I am not trying to suggest any kind of examinationn board or such a thing setting choices in our way to see if we succeed or not; but the chaos of life is always putting choices in front of us, whether we realize them at the time or not. I wrote about what I saw as my biggest choice, but these things occur every minute of every day. Mostly they do not seem to be life-changing, but really they are. Choosing what to wear in the morning could easily change our mood, or not. Seems meaningless, I know, but yet three days later we might look back and wish we had worn something different, so that we were in a different mood, which changed our response to completely unrelated stimuli.
That is what I call LIFE!
Yet mostly we live without ever thinking about things like that. I know I make good choices, and bad choices, and probably mostly indifferent choices, that”s all part of being alive. The thing is, I guess, to appreciate the good choices, but to consider the bad choices and learn how they could have been avoided, or changed. Knowing who you need to apologize to, and making that apology. Or not caring and deciding not to apologize. Or being apathetic to your actions, and not even knowing if your actions adversely affected someone else, or something else.
I think most of us are too busy living our own lives to even notice those people around us, and our interactions with them. And so it goes…
Thé Truckers’s Convoy in Ottawa is either unaware how their selfishness is affecting the citizens of Ottawa, or they are deliberately trying to upset their lives. And that is why the citizens of Ottawa are suing the leaders of the Convoy. They are forcing the convoyers to be aware of them. $9.8million worth of force.
I hope the people who were affected by the blockade at the Coutts border crossing sue those assholes too. It is impossible to know how many lives on both sides of the border were adversely affected by a relatively few selfish people concerned only with their wants. And the Alberta government giving in to them at the expense of the rest of its citizens is absolute bullshit. They cannot change federal mandates, but they are going to change provincial mandates and remove all Covid restrictions way too soon for the safety of most of us, and without caring how that is going to affect the lives of medical personnel, other first responders, or those in the front lines of public contact. They are sacrificing the well-being of 80% of our population because they fear the 20%.
I better shut up before I write a book…
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Rawdog, You may consider yourself useless and that may well be the case. But the rest of us work hard to make something of ourselves.
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Im positive you can do nothing beyond your indoctrination, physiology, and environment. Can you be any different than you are?
If you work hard to make something of yourself why the same old tired arguments all these years? Nothing has changed
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Jim, Educated people are not indoctrinated. We are trained to think rationally and base our views on the facts. And whether the facts are 5000 years old or newly discovered, they are still the facts.
Should we not believe 2 + 2 = 4 because you opine it is “old and tired.” Classical thought, what you consider, “old and tired” forms the foundation of Christian Western Civilization, greatest, most prosperous, most technically advanced, most just civilization in human history.
Truth is not determined by oldness or newness. The truth is the truth precisely because it is true in all times and all places.
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Trained to think. That’s pretty funny. All the same schools of thought and you self promote what has been failing us for years. That is priceless
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Yes, Jim, human beings need to be trained how to think. In fact, being trained how to think used to be the goal of education.
Of all creatures, the human being has no idea what to do with himself. We must learn everything about ourselves.
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I was trained to think in certain ways, but I hated that person. I threw away the training, took the time to find a direction to move in, and did my best to move in that direction though I had no idea where it would lead. The”old ways” do not work anymore, or everyone would still hold those beliefs. That we do not all hold such beliefs speaks to ort need for something new, SOMETHING DIFFERENT. If you personally feel safe going along with the old, changing nothing, that is up to you. I certainly want no part of it.
As for you, Jim, you may be positive we can do nothing beyond our indoctrination, physiology, and environment, but I have to disagree entirely. We can choose what affects us, and to what extent. We can overcome our indoctrination, or you would still be Mormon and I would still be whatever religion I was brought up to be. I am not sure what you mean by our physiology so I will ask. Do you mean our human form, in general terms, or do you mean the specifics of that form. I was born with a body that is not hanficapped, per se, but I have a lot of physical issues that others do not have. But I learned to work around them. But if you mean our human forms in general, then we can only do so much that our bodies allow. We cannot fly without help. We cannot breathe underwater without help. Yet we fly, we breathe underwater, and a whole list of other things. Our physiologies restrict us in certain ways, but our mental abilities enhance our bodies to do things other species might not be able to do. However, each species does things we cannot do. But they show us what they are capable of, and we learn from them. Finally environment, or ckan we call that the nurture part of nature vs. nature. I was brought up, as I said earlier, in an abusive situation. My father never spared the rod, or even his own fist. He tried his best to beat my “spirit” out of me, to be a whimpering coward, a nobody in a bowl of nobodies. But he failed. He taught me a whole different lesson he did not intend, to walk my own path without fear of what others thought, or think, of me. He turned me into an individual, but at the same time I learned to be part of that organusm you spoke about above. I know kinship with my fellow humans, but also with all other species of life I encounter. I am human, yet so much more than I see in a lot of humans around me. Tske that to mean whatever you want it to mean. I am NOT a product of my indictrination, my physiology, and my environment. They all influenced me, no doubt. But I rose above them, to the best of my ability. The only things that can hold me back are me, and my imagination. But even then, I could never have imagined 50 years ago, as I was becoming an adult male, becoming the adult male I have become. I am a total shock to my system. And I can no longer imagine being anyone but me as I am today!
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Rawdog, There is no such thing as “the old way” of thinking. Logical thought is logical thought no matter the time or place. Christian Western Civilization became the greatest, most prosperous, most technically advanced civilization in human history because it developed unbiased, systematic, logical thinking. No other civilization did that. That means among all civilizations, Christian Western Civilization is exceptional.
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You should be so lucky. You are obviously white, but you cannot see all the problems caused by your great “Chtistian Western Civilization.” Open your fuvking eyes, and just maybe you will see that things are not what they seem.
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Rawdog, “Problems” are the human condition. There is nothing in atheism which works against that. Conversely, the very nature of Christianity is to work against the human condition. Atheists’ great error is blaming Christianity and God for the evil that men do.
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Without your God there is no Evil. There are bad actions, yes, but Evil brings Hell into the conversation, and the only Hell I know of is right here on Earth, despite you thinking this is the most great place to live. You are so far up your own ass as be be vomiting bullshit out your mouth. All you can see is one tiny corner of the world. The rest is too ugly for you to admit it is there! But the TRUTH is, it is there whether you see it or not!
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Rawdog, You said, “Without your God there is no Evil.” That is nonsense since every culture in the world has a word for evil. That is because evil is what men do.
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To start, if you cannot spell my name right, without any capitals, I will lose whatever respect I still have for you, and stop replying to you.
Now, just because a word, “evil,” exists does not mean that such a thing exists. Does Santa Claus exist, or the Easter Bunny, or even the TOOTH FAIRY? None of them exist, yet the words do. So talking about a word existing is meaningless.
So, where is this evil you speak of? In my opinion, it only exists in the minds of those who have been told to believe in it. It certainly does not exist in my mind!
And “that is what men do”? That makes it sound like everything that men (not women?) do is evil. Which may be true of you, it is certainly not true of me. I do not give anyone, including you, the authority to judge me. I cannot remember where this quote comes from, but it sounds biblical: “Judge not, lest ye be judged!” In order for someone or something to be deemed evil, that requires the act of judgment. I can’t say that is contradictory, but it is certainly duplicitous. It takes evil to recognize evil, wouldn’t you agree?
Anyways, you have a long way to go to convince me evil exists without God. Why else is god’s “opponent” called the devil? The evil, slurred becomes da evil, which through laziness becomes d’evil, and eventually ends up being devil. How’s that for a language lesson? Did the ancient Romans even have a word for devil? I doubt it! But you do. Don’t you?
That’s enough for now. I don’t want you to overwork your brain today.
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Dear Ragdog, Your comments are absurd and nearly incomprehensible. Why not keep it simple and true: Evil is what men do. There is no need to bloviate about something that is so simple and so obvious.
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rawgod. r-a-w-g-o-d. rawgod.
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Obviously being a Christian does diddly to improve the civility of the person believing it. More evidence against its effectiveness —like we really needed any more.
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Yeah, but he is not the only one, lol. Over the years I have gotten hundreds of permutations of rawgod from all kinds of people. But I fear the ones who want to smoke me. Ragweed comes up a lot.
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Rawdog, You atheists are now preaching Christian values to someone you have judged to be a bad Christian.
How imbecilic is that? Don’t you people see how stupid that is?
And another thing, “dog” is “god” spelled backwards.
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rawgod. r-a-w-g-o-d. rawgod. Are you purposely trying to start a dogwar?
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Why are you, an atheist, preaching Christian values to a Christian you have judged unworthy? How fundamentally stupid!
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Because you’re all hypocrites. Your only human but with all this special knowledge through faith, you’re supposed to know better. Ha! Your religion isn’t special.
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No one is preaching to you. What is it you are unworthy of? Other than interloping into a conversation about why we left whatever brand of xianity we were raised in, because said xianity never supplied to us what we were told it would. and that we have determined your superior being does not exist? So you get something out of it, good for you. But you are not part of the conversation we are having.
Meanwhile, nice touch. Too afraid to call me by my chosen name because you think you might go to hell if you say or spell it correctly, so you just stop using it? I am rawgod. r-a-w-g-o-d. rawgod.
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This is backwards. Christianity makes nature guilty of sin. Quite a racket to debase people into believing they have no inherent worth—that only by the good graces of the master will you be tolerated.
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The error in this is obvious. If the perceptions of reality are in error the continuum of training is in error. You act as though there are some absolutes but really things could be absolutely different than they are and humans would do just fine that.
If you can’t see the error in the current mythologies it is because we’ve embraced known contradiction and are now impervious to living without beliefs that are grossly in error.
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Jim, There was no error in my previous comment: Human beings need to be taught to think rationally. That is what is obvious, not your gobbledygook about a “continuum of training,” which is obvious only to you.
Logical thinking strips away the bias that results from perception. Plato understood that 2400 years ago. Aristotle, a student of Plato is the Godfather of systematic logic. What is obvious, is that you have not studied any of this and are thus, left thrashing around helplessly in your own irrationality.
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Yet you believe in improbable supernatural beings? Where is your e
Rational thought now?
Why not just accept blood atonement to cure your ptsd? Because even you know it’s worthless, but still believe it anyway.
So, I take it you consider yourself an intellectual Christian. There are many academics who frequent this space and are atheist who claim to have logical thought power as well. So how do you know what’s right when all you know is logical, spoon fed doses of what is so academically obvious?
We will never make it to the next level as long as we’re stuck in belief mode. The key to the mysteries is unbelief, not the errant “belief is a virtue” model of Christianity’s crippling koan.
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Jim, It is more logical to believe in the Creator than that everything just happened all by itself. Further, logical proofs of God’s existence are thousands of years old. And at my own WordPress blog I have published various scientific proofs of God, the latest of which I published last month at the end of January.
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Som, it’s more logical to believe… you could’ve stopped right there. That isn’t scientific at all.
It didn’t happen all by itself, but to itself. It has never not been. The idea that it took a deity is a dead horse if Christianity had no swords.
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Jim, “It is more logical to believe…,” is only the beginning to the pursuit of truth. If our beliefs are not founded in logic, they are founded in the irrational.
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Belief is the destination of Christianity. It is the pinnacle of virtue. It is belief before reading the fine print, then by belief you can magically hand-wave every contradiction. Even in common speech—are you a believer? It is the final destination of your religion that has crippled humanity for 2 millennia.
Founded in truth though. Got it.
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Nowhere in my comments have I preached the Christian faith. A dialog can only take place on common ground. Logical thought woven together with facts is that common ground. Your problem with Christianity is mere personal opinion based on your own faith in ideas you hold dear. One faith arguing against another is futile.
The existence of God can proven. You cannot prove that everything just happened all by itself. That means you are a man of faith and I am a man of reason.
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I’ve read some of your posts. I know what I’m dealing with because it is all like minded indoctrination.
Two things. Belief is in fact the destination of Christianity. It has stalled miserably.
It is obvious you have no faith or you’d be letting go of trying to do the work of god. Real faith is total trust in letting go. The faith of an atheist.
If you all really believed the way you say there would be no argument worth your while.
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Jim, Your comment:
“I’ve read some of your posts. I know what I’m dealing with because it is all like minded indoctrination.”
This is an example of the same prejudice (prejudging someone based on personal bias) that you decry is Christians.
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The idea that god makes sense or is a logical conclusion is always an addendum to any unknown topic. Interjecting god into a problem changes nothing whatsoever about discovery. How logical is that?
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Jim, You wrote:
“The idea that god makes sense or is a logical conclusion is always an addendum to any unknown topic.”
That false statement proves that you are not reading my comments and are simply talking to yourself. I leave you to it and bid you adieu.
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You’re the one not making any sense. Belief will do that. Good luck
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The existence of God can proven. No. It. Can’t.
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Nan, You are an imbecile who wouldn’t know a proof if it slapped you upside the head. Go peddle your ingrained ignorance to someone who isn’t totally disgusted by it.
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”This is an example of the same prejudice (prejudging someone based on personal bias) that you decry”—SOM
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Jim, I know Nan from other blogs and comments. Consequently, my rational evaluation is based on the facts. To continue further conversation with her is to invite abuse.
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❤❤❤❤
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I disagree. You and I have no history and you jumped to erroneous conclusions about me. You like facts? That is a fact.
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LOVE you too, SOM! And I’m not even a Christian!!
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Years of preconditioned belief-powered evidence has led to the conclusion that in order to prove I’m not crazy they must be true. You can spend a lifetime trying to justify the fine print with such reverse logic.
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“To unbelieve is to approach the ground of being”, excellent that!
Beingness, without any identity, of ‘american’, ‘white’, ‘male/female’, ‘father, sister’, ‘believer, non-believer’, any sort of this or that, is so difficult for the mind, because mind knows ONLY attachment, labeling, identifying,etc. The mind cannot fathom ‘nothing’, anymore than we know space without a reference point. So we always cling for some crutch to lean on.
ALL identification has to be erased, we must remain completely empty, like space. Pure beingness is an empty space of being. It takes work, because for lifetimes we have identified with out thoughts and bodies and we have to completely reset the program, so to say. But slowly the ego loses its grasp
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Being and belief are in opposition. I was talking to the coach a while back and in the conversation he stated, “my beliefs are the most important thing I have”. And if that’s his truth he’ll be forever at odds with what’s happening.
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Yes, exactly so! even if you think about it logically, you have to first BE in order to hold any belief, it is our most essential nature. But like the canvas behind the paint, it gets overlooked by what is happening, what is on top. However, without that canvas, no painting can appear🌈
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The problem is, and I ask this because of my own experience, how do you “live” in this world as what I call “pure spirit” which I think is what you just called “BEing”? A hermit on a moutaintop who is supplied daily with sustenance, without human contact otherwise, can BE. To live in a human society, BEing is virtually impossible. Others are constantly wanting your attention, and as soon as you turn your attention to even one of them, BEingness disappears.
I agree with you completely, in theory. I have been there, and I continually try to stay in touch with my pure spirit, but in 50 years of knowing that space is there, I have not been able to maintain it unless I am TOTALLY ALONE. (My personal view.)
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that is a good question, rawgod! ‘how do i stay in that space?’ all meditation is meant for that goal. once you know that ‘space-like’, stillness within, you have to learn to stabilize your mind there. so that even when you’re active in the world, a part of you always remains anchored there, unmovable, fixed a mountain.
that leads to the realization “Hey, i’m not these moving, chatting person. I’m just aware of her!” you are the Being-ness (another word for awareness).
one of the ways to bring the mind into that space, is to use a mantra (constant repetition of a word), like Om, or Ram, or something spiritually meaningful to you. 🙏
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I hear what you are saying, and especially the anchoring part, but to take part in a conversation with someone who has no idea of such anchoring moves me farther and farther away from my spiritual beingness, and back into the world of ego and mind. This is why I call the ego the “bus driver” who wends my way through the physical world. I rely on my ego to do that task for me, with my mind as the go-between to my spiriitual self. Without my ego working for me, I’m sure as a person “in this world” I would be locked away in an institution somewhere, because I would not be “all there” in the eyes of those not there yet.
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Monica, Jim is expressing his own beliefs which means his post is a self-contradiction.
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I don’t think you know me very well. I’m simply expressing ideas that are superior and more reasonable than those of the contradictions of the Hebrew religions. I hold no beliefs. I’ve posted 700 or so ideas but they are not my beliefs. Belief is the barrier to progress. Why would I do that?
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Jim, Your ideas are only superior in your own mind. By what authority other than that granted to yourself, by yourself, do you declare your own superiority? You sound exactly like Martin Luther, the first Protestant.
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If I don’t have my own authority I have nothing. I was a believer for fifty years, so I know first hand that it never produces the desired results.
To abandon my moral autonomy would be immoral. To worship is to do just that. It’s what gets good men to be lazy in the brain and also do bad things by that same authority of another self proclaimed leader.
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Jim, Your comment is factually wrong. You are merely expressing your personal opinions as if they were the Gospel truth. That is what religious fanatics do.
Authentic scholars cite facts gathered by fellow scholars over 1000’s of years. For an opinion to have value it must be a conclusion based on the facts. You base your opinions on other opinions which are your own or from others.
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Really we’re not so different. By what authority did you submit to authority?
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Jim, By definition, authority cannot submit to authority. And who said anything about submitting to anything?
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“By what authority other than that granted to yourself, by yourself, do you declare your own superiority”. Maybe you’ve jumped into the middle of several years of research without knowing the context of the host. Can I ask you a question to illustrate the point? It may seem out of context to you, but what is your stance on LGTBQ issues?
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Jim, “Context” is a weasel word that fuels the ad hominem logical fallacy. That is, arguments are made against the person instead of the argument that person is making.
My stance on LGBTQ is what science says: all healthy sexually reproducing creatures are male or female and the sex of a creature is determined by his or her genetic composition.
I have an excellent college biology text that I can cite if you wish.
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So no grey area? If you’re son has feminine qualities and is immutably attracted boys, what is that besides a religious authority dictating your response? I know quite a few deconverts and a common theme arises—that without the belief/faith influence they become even more whist like than Christianity—accepting all people equally. You would too but you’re under authority of the churches and the interpretation of a partial scripture translated with bias.
Nobody cares about these issues but a believer, a follower who has submitted to authority. Religions are the number one reason why people are opposed to homosexuality. It’s not you, but your brain has been hijacked by men of words.
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Jim, Science is science. If science is too black and white for you, try making up a religion that is anti-science. Then, whatever you hallucinate to be true, really isn’t, but who cares?
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Science is science. Glad to see you embrace evolution and other emergent properties as well as biology, which includes homosexuality.
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Jim, Science says that all sexually reproducing creatures are male and female. By definition that is heterosexual. Proof that homosexuality is a disorder: if everyone were homosexual the human race would go extinct. It is that simple, Jim.
Most everyone must deal with one disorder or other. But all law, all morality, all education must have the healthy human being as the standard. That is because human nature is male and female, ie heterosexual.
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So you dodge other aspects of science that don’t suit you. Nice. By whose authority do you make that decision?
There are quite a few species that are reproduced without your perfect model. It’s not as black and white as you’d like.
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Jim, “All other aspects of science” are just your opinion. Homosexuality is less than 3% of the population. That makes it abnormal. It is foolish to makes laws using abnormality as the standard.
The left, in its pursuit of power uses LGBTQ people as political fodder. We see this with how women’s rights, once esteemed, are now worthless as transgender men have been allowed to turn women’s sports into a freak show.
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So you’ve decided not to embrace all the variations of your gods creation? Is any biological mutation normal? You don’t know from time to time which ones will endure, or maintain fitness.
I would suspect with the increased overcrowding that more and more variations will attempt to self regulate what your religion is trying to force. The truth is you need non binary to balance the binary. How would you know how special you are if it weren’t for those “others” you seem to have condemned in your smug and sinful pride. Shame on you.
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Jim, Enough of the insults and religious bigotry. I have family members who are gay. And I could not care less.
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You yourself stated gay equals abnormal. Who’s insulting who here? I suppose the first Christian’s were abnormal too but we evolved to embrace it at the point of a sword.
I’m not sure what point you’re going for here but nothing is as it seems to be. You stated this is the greatest civilization but I’m not so sure it is. There have been others who left behind some structures we still can’t duplicate or explain. One thing is true and it alone is true—Change. All the truth you are holding will be replaced by another. Every hypothesis and practice at some point will no longer be our reality. There are a million ways we could live had we not been forced to think certain ways.
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Jim, I suffer from PTSD. That makes me abnormal. Stating the truth of my condition is not an insult.
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Do you suffer from civil rights abuse because of ptsd? Btw, ptsd is perfectly normal based on your prior experience. I have ptsd too, from years of repeated exposure to human atrocities—and religious hypocrisy.
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Yes, I am discriminated against because of PTSD and my age.
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Can’t you just quit having ptsd? I know that’s a silly question, but if anything it should call for believers to be more compassionate to those who cannot change, nor did they choose to be what they are.
You really never know what nature is up to. Perhaps homosexuality is natures way of pushing the “normal” people to cling to their breeding practices. We need some divisions to keep life interesting and passionate. Without “them” there is no “us”. It makes the game worth the candle.
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Jim, We know exactly what nature is up to with regard to sexuality: reproduction of the species. I live in the reality of a hard, cruel world. I have learned to adapt and grow. By enabling disorders like LGBTQ, these people are not allowed to adapt and grow. And now that LGBTQ sexual disorders are sacrosanct, disorder has been incorporated in America’s culture and legal system. The left’s goal is to destroy America and LGBTQ are being ruthlessly used to accomplish that. LGBTQ will be dumped just like women have been dumped once they are no longer useful to the leftist cause.
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So… are those mushrooms?
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They are mushrooms. I don’t know what variety they are but they are all over the woods here.
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Were I you, I’d find out what they are. You could be sitting on a mushroom gold mine. Many of the mushrooms in the wild are not only edible, but downright delicious. (Due diligence is required. Research first!)
Come spring the hunt is on here 🙂 I can’t wait. They are that good. Just the thought sets my mouth to watering. Is it spring yet?
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I’m only familiar enough with a few of the more main edibles, but not really a fanatic about it like my mom and brother. For me it’s a good excuse to tromp around the woods though.
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Any excuse for adventure is a good excuse. 🙂
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I’m all snowed in right now. Be about 2 months before I see a speck of ground. We have a good summer planned though, provided we’re not smoked out again.
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