Castin

- Yes, I recognized you. Have any of your views changed since DDO?

So , the question then is then:  for those that manage to get to Paradise, then what? What happens then? What's the point of paradise? 

The Me Too movement wants people to listen solely to women who claim to have been raped.  They might be true.  If true, the rapists deserve life imprisonment.  But strong evidence is needed for these accusations to be taken seriously.

I don't agree nor disagree with women who claim to be raped.  I believe the facts and evidence(Source The amazing Lucas).

Castin was Casten on DDO.  She can't fool me.

I think your being a hypocrite.

Because.

Why do you self-identify as an idiot and why didn't I see you at the last meeting of the Council of Idiots?

So you were invited and attended.

Which one of us is the DART GOD though.

No one.  We are all just human beings using the internet.

I'm after a godly explanation.

The west really dropped the ball. The Latin Church broke away from Orthodoxy and embraced scholasticism. The protestant reformation threw out the church with the pope, and inherited scholasticism from the schismatic Latin church they rejected.

Atheism is really quite naturally the child of protestant scholasticism.

And really it is no surprise to us Orthodox that widespread theological ignorance leads to atheism. 

Unfortunately, atheists in the west think they knowingly reject Christianity when really they rejected a form of Christianity that was delivered to them corrupted from the beginning. 

The well has been poisoned. The ground has been salted.

Orthodox evangelism is a lot more effective with protestants than with atheists. Most protestants don't believe in their churches anyway. Of course, they have been educated to be very anti-Roman Catholic which in itself is an obstacle, because there is a superficial resemblance between Orthodoxy and the Latin Church.

If you simply go off of church history and the writings of the church fathers, it is a lot easier to back Orthodoxy's claim to being The Church. The Roman Catholic Church has clearly deviated.

And all that might not matter to you until you realize that all Christianity in the west is descended from the schismatic Latin Church, and they have done more damage to the name of Christ than any other institution on the planet and continue to do so.

Because your point was that it's just the Internet, not real life and this is a website so your brain used Internet as a synonym of 'safe-zone' or 'playground' to highlight the sandbox-like nature you were trying to imply a website has.

She meant her, specifically, as she may not meet the 'had 3 debates' criteria. She didn't mean every single voter.

I think as atheists we need to exercise a little humility here and admit that we too are merely hostages of circumstance and chaos.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

Eccles. 9:11

2nd best book in bible.

I wouldn't mind losing my voting rights for the sake of security

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

- Ben Franklin

Making claims regarding religious geographical beliefs is the point I'm making, atheism is not a religion. I can only speak for myself but my atheism is a result of examining and rejecting the claims of godism. All godism.

Prophecy makes it very clear that what I am getting here is to be expected.

You will see from Mopac's response that he is here because some Christians seek to be mocked and ridiculed for their faith.   It is a way to demonstrate their faith that they don't waver.  

Jesus suffered, and there is a tradition that being a Christian involves suffering and being persecuted.  It is very biblical, supported by many verses, such as Rom 5:3-4 "We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." and 1 Pet 3:14 "But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”"

If you really wanted people to be receptive to your message, maybe you should have changed your dogmatic and absolutist attitude.

There can be no compromise in The Truth.

They do not reject me, they reject The Truth. 

Prophecy makes it very clear that what I am getting here is to be expected. If I was a perfect person who never erred, the response would be the same.

The problem is not me.

(1) Require 3 debates that have at least 3 rounds, are not forfeited, and are not troll debates

So users who like to vote but not debate would effectively be purged from the voting pool with this option?

It's possible, which is why we might be able to do a combination of what I propose 

Slowly we are, as a species, letting AI rule us and this habit will lead to our demise if we do not take a stand here and now. Please do not let AI become able to see and think about what the human mods cannot. A robot would skin you alive and rape your children without flinching, Virtuoso and bsh1 of course would not, that's not an exaggeration; you're trusting a psychopathic machine to become the arbiter of justice. Never do this, or our species is doomed.

I'm in a state of shock.

you and I both

(1) Require 3 debates that have at least 3 rounds, are not forfeited, and are not troll debates

It was not an age of sophisticated literary criticism.  But perhaps they, like us, couldn't resist wondering about the world and the lights in the sky.  If an ordinary Hebrew was to ask about such things their priests had to have an answer.  Their power and status depended on their claim of such knowledge.

If people in the C21st can take Genesis literally we can be sure people 3000 years ago did.   A tale of gods and magic would not seem fantastic or unlikely then;  it would not be offered or received as an allegory or metaphor but as unvarnished truth.  

If Christianity is true, i'm 100% confident that i'm Lucifer.

Can someone ban that dude? He's on some drugs or something. Reading his posts gives me a headache.

I don't see the story about evil as such; it's about why life sucks - ie why we have to work and why child-bearing hurts.  The writers weren't concerned with abstracts like good and evil so as much as practical matters of obedience and disobedience.   

The idea that God had all these infinite and omni- powers and was 'perfect' came later.  Gods were powerful, but not unlimited.  If you flattered and obeyed your god he looked after your your tribe, if you didn't you'd be punished with such things as famine or defeat in war.  It was a simple arrangement with no need for complex moral theory!

Why do you believe your religion is right?

I prefer to learn from all sources if they make sense. Spirituality is a huge arena, no reason to confine all of the Creator to one source that would be absurd. Religions are the interpretation of what we observe in the Theistic world, albeit a very dynamic one and not everything is accurate, and many things are true. The point of spirituality is to get involved and figure all these things out for the self. 

I believe there are transcendental (spiritual) experiences because of the abundance of evidence as well as my own observations and encounters. From there it's all about putting the pieces together, getting involved and applying things you would normally not. 

Bigot.

I think banned members spend the time on DDO!

I think poly suffers from an internet version of tourettes or something.  I'd rather she was insulting me than strangers IRL.