DMT(ayahuasca) are not recreational, no matter which way anyone wants to flip it. The Universe in 5 minutes... an eternal life/death scenario. I was taking ayahuasca to mediate upon my father's death 2 months prior, along with a shaman I respected deeply, I also respect the "traditions" (in that I find the anthropological history incredibly rich) but I realize after "figuring out" DMT on my own that I think my way is best (standard psychedelic procedure, alone) and is the most important thing that I can learn from it. That this is my journey into the soul and I don't need anyone else in my way during my experiences; shamans have a way of influencing the experience, but the experience itself and YOU are the real guide, no need for a shaman with smoked DMT Ayahuasca is definitely an incredible experience and plant... I just prefer my way of visiting "that" realm of infinite knowledge. Tell us how it goes

Some things I did not like about Santo Diame were Christian dogma (with a lot of beliefs taken from many religions), they want you to stay with the circle even though you may be compelled to find somewhere that is quiet and away from everyone else, they separate men from women half circle men, half circle women, guide in between, they do not want talking, but the music is incessant and influences the experience (when the lights go out, be prepared to experience hell on fucking Earth), I couldn't stand the "helpers" at the ceremony I went to, they kept urging people to drink more - there were a lot of aspects that I didn't like about it. But, I certainly wouldn't want to take ayahusca alone, either. Instead, I believe the best way, for me at least, would be one on one with the shaman, in an open place, preferably outside and for him to just chant and check in with me every once in a while.

Also, you can check out the video I made about my smoked DMT breakthrough experience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuRbLAqM6Kk

My experiences are in direct conflict with your worldview and opinion of the kindness of some Christians. Judged at my own wedding reception in beautiful, nonjudgmental southern california, I was called out and asked if I believed in Jesus and I said no. Why would I say otherwise if it was not true?

Not all of the Christians in our families objected, but many of them did. In fact, many of them refused to be a part of our marriage and begged my wife to leave me. Since then, no one speaks to me on a personal level. They might not have all openly judged me but I'm practically an exile. A thought criminal unfit to converse with on topics of church and state. All of the christians in my life are guilty of this shunning.

The sad thing is, I never make it a big deal (other than when I post my thoughts onto the internet -- where I dump all of my problems) and I don't challenge the beliefs of the people I love -- but they sure do.

You aren't wrong in your logic that not all xtians are judgmental, but you're wrong in your overemphasis of it. Christians need no defender of the faith because God is on their side.

In my own experience and social strata, almost all Christians commit some form of microaggression or judgement upon my lack of faith. Even my wife can't help but occasionally sprinkle a bit of the ol' christian guilt upon my head from time to time. And then she has the gall to talk to me about Christians being treated unfairly.

But that's my life, not yours. I'm sure your flavor of Christ worship is much less judgmental. I don't believe it, but maybe in time I will meet one of these majestic nonjudgemental Christians who don't constantly believe the rest of us will burn in hell for all eternity while they frolic in the basking glow of a jealous, hating God. Sorry, loving... I'm sure it's only love and not a pyschopath's Barbie playset made entirely of humans enslaved to an all powerful being capable of anything.

I think perhaps you are more forgiving and willing to give them more of a benefit of a doubt and a pass for not being devout than I. I think, if one claims a book contains the incontrovertible word of god, then ignores many of the clear instructions in that book, they are not really believers but must be just 'fans' of the religion, because if they were true believers, they would follow all the instructions without fail and without excuse, knowing if they don't they'll end up in hell for eternity.

I grew up in Texas....I knew literally thousands who thought (and probably still think) the way I described...and they told me so often as I was the only known atheist in my school, and one of the few in my family. More than once they (the kids, not my family) actually threw the stones, but never hard enough to take me out, to their chagrin.

Agreed, looking for any consensus about religion is a fools errand. ;-)

I wish eternal physical longevity were available for people like this who are so delighted & passionate about what they do. The guy is fucking hardcore.

Kitty does not have enough thrust to reach escape velocity.
Kitty is doomed to spend eternity in the black hole of hand bags.

er, by the time of the Last Crusade, Indy has seen:
- the literal manifestation of the power of god melt Nazis faces
- some magic rocks burning an Indian guy

I think it's pretty safe to say that Indy has accepted that in his fictional universe, the supernatural is real. Hell, if I saw what he'd seen by that point, I'd be a god-fearing Christian.

As for Pascal's wager, I've always viewed it as the height of moral cowardice. If you want to believe in God and you're not shoving your beliefs down everyone else's throat (looking at you, ISIS, evangelicals, catholic church in Ireland, etc), go nuts.

But don't believe because you're afraid of hell. If you're a good person and you die and it turns out there is a god, if he condemns you to eternal suffering for not believing in him, then fuck him, he's an asshole and I wouldn't want to spend eternity under his thumb anyway.

Hope so. Sounds like where all the intelligent, fun, amazing people end up to party for all eternity.

But altruism is how you portray the works of the church, but you're correct, it's absolutely NOT the right word. They do 'good' for rewards, it's the same reason religious people do 'good deeds', just different 'rewards'.
If atheists did 'good deeds' but required conversion to atheism/abandonment of religious beliefs before offering needed assistance, that would be quite wrong. That's usually how the church, and religious charities work....it's NEVER how atheist charities work.

Religions are evil, not just the churches that use them. Yours starts with instructions to murder, torture, commit incest, enslave non believers, and ends with threats of eternal torture if you don't submit mind body and soul. All that from the bible, which is not a church, but is a doctrine.
EDIT: Religion is terrorism. It is a way to control the actions of others through threat of never ending supernatural torture if they don't do as the church/the preacher/your grandmother/your political party/whomever is using religion says.

You don't need any religion to live honorably, sacrificially, or lovingly. In fact all those things are easier without the blind worship and certitude that 'your religion has the right answer' (to the exclusion of all other 'answers') that all religions insists on, and they are nearly impossible with religion. History has recorded that consistently since cuneiform.

"Doing these things as a prelude to proselytizing means they aren't altruistic..."

Altruism isn't the right word. When people help others to their hurt, that is called agape love, a word the Christian community has owned for 2000 years. You're right of course, that more than a few churches out there are always trying to figure out how to get more members, more money etc. But that isn't all the churches, or even nearly so. For instance the churches in this community dont care who goes where; they all work together and no one is taking the credit for it. This is just one counter example to the broad brush strokes you're painting here.

I think you need a little more nuance here too, newtboy; for instance, would you say it is wrong for atheists to do good deeds in the name of atheism? Or, for the red cross to air commercials showing their accomplishments so they could raise more money to expand their mission in the world?

"And yet, here you are calling attention to yourself (and them), so you proved your statement wrong by stating it publicly. Oops! ;-)"

I didn't mention what I do newtboy, but I have no problem calling attention to the righteous who glorify God through their lives.

"Churches are for profit institutions.."

The church according to the bible is a non-profit organization. Whether churches in America reflect that or not is another question entirely. I know for my church, and almost any other church, you can request to see how the church spends its money year by year. None of the churches I have dealings with are making "profits"

"Once again I would ask, why do you question your god's clear wish that I (and others) not believe in him..."

Jesus Christ died for our sins, yours and mine. God already demonstrated His love for us while we were sinners, now the only question is, will you reciprocate? The insanity of the question posed to Stephan Fry, ie what would you say to God, is exposed by the answer "How dare you!" by Stephan. It seems that people believe God is a man who needs to explain Himself, who has something to hide. Yet, Stephan and every other human being have a lot to hide; the brutal and ugly truth of how we have all lived our lives here.

It's easy for a man to say to people who know nothing about him that he will shake his fist at God when they meet. Yet, what will he do when all of his lawless deeds are exposed and the secrets he has kept from everyone are brought to light? All the fight will go out of him immediately, this I guarantee you. Yet, this in itself is still ridiculous, considering that even merely being in Gods presence is enough to make the most hardened sinner fall to his knees and weep uncontrollably. But people won't be weeping because God loves them on that day, they will be weeping and gnashing their teeth after being confronted by the fact that they have missed the boat for eternity.

"Shirley.."

My name isn't Sherlock..

"Doing 100 good deeds and one incredibly evil deed makes one evil. No church in history has ever reached that level of goodness. Churches are evil. I hope that clears things up."

I'm glad you understand what I have been trying to explain to the sift for years; a relative goodness is no goodness at all. If you set fire to someones home, and then built 27 orphanages, would people call you good? Why is it then that people think that all of our good deeds should cause God to forgive us for a single sin? This is the reason Jesus died for us, because we can't earn Gods forgiveness and our good deeds can't erase our bad ones. Could you ever go to court and say "your honor, although I commited this crime I have done over 1000 hours of community service in my lifetime, so please dismiss the case; will that ever happen? That wouldn't be justice, and if God threw out our case without true justice, He wouldn't be a just judge.

What would I say about churches who have done evil? These are institutions; the true church is the body of Christ, of which every born again believer is a member of. That is what is happening in my community, is that no one cares about the institution of the church; they are just being the church. The reward is simply this, to serve God honorably by living a sacrificial life predicated on sacrificial love.

Goddammit! I was looking at spending eternity in mid orgasm you sneezing fuck!

What? Helicopters are LESS vulnerable? How do you figure? They're vulnerable to small arms fire from ground troops, unlike a Warthog (unless you have a super sniper around that can do supercomputer type calculations in a fraction of a second and hit it on the fly with a 50 cal. depleted uranium round). They can pop up and down behind cover and do awesome targeting tricks, but in my eyes, for every advantage they have, there's another disadvantage.

But then you hit the nail on the head. Drones do it ALL better, for exponentially less, without putting a highly trained pilot in danger. I think it's just plain dumb to make piloted planes when we have working drone tech. For the current cost of the R&D on this single plane, not including the cost of building a single working F-35, we could have 1.3 million drones (+-, if we make that many, I'm sure we can make them for <$1 million a piece) and own the skies of the entire planet for eternity....or at least until Skynet takes over. Drones are far cheaper to maintain, don't have the G-force limitations human pilots do, can do far more dangerous jobs because we can afford to lose them, etc. We should never make another fighter that has a pilot IMO....maybe not any kind of military fighting plane.
I also love the A-10, but I've never had to fight in one. That cannon though, so satisfying.

Yeah, I've played games from Obsidian and InXile... I'm hoping the next Planescape game lives up to it's potential. Both Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity were good but definitely not classics. Baldur's Gate 2 is still such a monolithic classic.

Otherside just announced System Shock 3 so that should be interesting, also the Ultima Underworld game sounds very exciting. It'd be cool if they could get the rights to Thief since no one has been able to come up with one as good as 1&2.

Yeah, I had to get rid of a lot of comics and discarded my magazines as well since then. And I do regret it for sure, but they were such a pain taking up space.

I definitely miss those days but I also am an avid PC gamer still. I think what I miss most about those days were the developers... I mean the studios out there back then were ahead of their time and most fell by the wayside due to publisher problems or what not. I really miss Looking Glass Studios, Black Isle & Bullfrog (& to some degree Bungie releasing something that I actually like). Those studios were irreplaceable, but again - it's all about time and place - even those publishers would have probably hit a sour note at some point and at least we never saw those notes! I remember for example that people really got tired & complained about the Infinity engine from Black Isle/Bioware games. And now look - these days we have games trying to emulate the look & feel (Pillars of Eternity)!

There are far more people in the world with epilepsy, yet the warning is about people who "fear eternity". Surely if you put up a warning, it should be for something like epilepsy rather than the 10 sjw bloggers in the world that have apeirophobia. Or claim to.

I have a phobia about being told about phobias, so that's my secret - i'm always triggered.