See, here's the difference between you and me: you need to be told but I have to know.
While you march wherever you religious leader tells you to ("Looking at those horrible gays! And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain or what he does with the altarboy."), I just ask myself how I'd feel if somebody treated me like I treat others. It's call empathy.
Of course you don't need that, you have somebody to tell you when it's ok to stone someone to death or how to treat your slaves. I actually have to think about that, consider my actions and try to understand how their consequences affect others. Sometimes I even have to be reminded I am an asshole and have to deal with the fallout of making the wrong choices but you don't have to fear that. You have a book that is several hundert years old written by various people who lived at a time where a Walkman would've been considered witchcraft. And since it has been translated and edited a couple of times, it got only better, especially in the expanded universe fan-fiction edition that you consider canon today. How dare those heathens to question you?
It must be great if everything is so clear cut, so black (phew, nearly typed a nasty word...) and white. I actually have to fear backlash if I mistreat the human beings around me. You on the other hand only have to fear that a man (of course, a man), who really, really loves you, condemns you to eternal torture because you kissed a boy and liked it.
You and your damned, old book. Your standard of morality is no better than that of the Quran.
I have to know I did the right thing, you just need to be told you did good. That's the difference between our morality. That's the difference between relying on your faith or relying on your humanity. That's why I refuse to tell a gay kid it's broken and needs fixing or strapping a bomb to my chest, because that shit is wrong and I just know it. No matter what somebody like you tells me.
Get the fuck out with your claims of morality and go clean your temple from the child molesters.

The magician reveals he had but to sell his eternal soul and silence every person who had ever crossed his path, before the powers of the warlock opened before his third eye. Now, damned, he skulks elevators searching for victims, more souls.

He is slow to approach but steady in his advance. Just don't let him touch you!

I   puppy, said James staring out over the endless void. He didn't notice the hiccups but something was stirring in the dark recesses of memory despite the void of all eternity and what it knew while lurking in his soul.

He was still able to register the faint recollection that puppies provide stimulus. Whether or not it was positive or negative is a matter of debate, for he had been drained of all human emotion. I   puppy. Like? I like puppy? No, too much heart, too much optimism. All actions void. Language meaningless. I ALT255 puppy.

If you like old school, and you like reading - go for it!
http://ign.com/articles/2015/03/27/pillars-of-eternity-review

It is teh shit. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/pillars-of-eternity

@ChaosEngine

Everything @newtboy said. I think you're exaggerating just a tad. You're not going to build a PC that runs newly released games at 1080p at 60fps and also includes a blu-ray drive , 500 GB HD, and wireless motion sensitive controller for under $400 US (current price of PS4 on US Amazon). Plus, you're almost certainly going to have to buy a 1080p monitor (since most people don't do their computing on their TV or keep their tower case in the living room), which will set you back $200 minimum even for a cheap one that's likely to ghost.

As far as games go, nearly EVERY major release will be on all platforms and in fact will likely come out on console first (GTA V). Sure, some kickstarter stuff like Pillars of Eternity won't be available but it works both ways--you won't get some awesome console exclusives on the PC (Mario Kart, Little Big Planet, etc.) either.

Plus as newtboy mentioned, you can rent and sell console games. Yeah, PC games drop to much lower price points as they get older (I usually pick up all the good stuff I missed at $3-5 during Steam sales) but reselling isn't an option for most stuff (yet). You can mod most PC games, though, so that's a plus for them.

Look, I play 90% of my games on my gaming PC. That's because I have the time and money to do so. I don't understand the attitude of looking down on people who don't have those luxuries or who don't want to spend the prerequisite time required pouring over tech forums, price comparing at hardware vendors websites like Newegg, and downloading proper drivers just to build a gaming PC on the cheap when they can just go to a store down the road and pick up something comparable with virtually no effort.

If God doesn't give you any revelation of His existence then the scripture is broken and you would have an excuse when you stand before Him. I would be the first to say that this is unfair. However, we're all human beings and I know that people willfully reject God. Not only from my own personal experience, but the bible itself is littered with accounts of people who know better and fall into rebellion against God.

God has made the truth of these things so clear to me, and I believe He is faithful to do the same for you. If God sent Jesus to die on the cross for you and me, He is faithful to let us how we should respond to that.

I think it's clear that an infinite being suffering an infinite punishment is infinitely worse than a finite being suffering an infinite punishment. The finite being has a finite experience, eternally or not. Adding up everyone who ever lived, it is still only a finite experience of suffering, whereas the infinite being has an infinite experience of suffering. Qualitatively, an eternity of suffering of a number of finite beings does not equal even a moment of suffering of an infinite being. Whether you think that is debatable or or not, God the Father considered the sacrifice greater than the punishment, and that is what counts.

Jesus was doing what His Father wanted Him to do, which was to reconcile the human race to Himself, who are alienated from God and spiritually dead because of sin. As far as whether the sayings of Jesus are authentic, we have the manuscripts to prove that they were not made up over a period of centuries or even decades. We have around twenty five thousand manuscripts of the NT alone, which is about 24 thousand more manuscripts than any other ancient text. We have manuscript evidence even going back to the first century, and using all of the manuscripts there is a science called textual criticism that can reconstruct what was in the original manuscripts from that pool of evidence. The idea that the bible is patched together from centuries of retranslations and additions is demonstratably false.

Even if we didn't have any manuscripts, from the writings of the early church fathers alone we could reconstruct the entire bible except for 7 verses in the first 250 years. Even before that, we have the prophetic writings from the Old Testament which show that Jesus did exactly what He was prophesied to do. He did not speak anything different than what had been written thousands of years in advance. If you understand the bible as you a whole, you will see it is one story and it is all saying the same thing. The fact of its internal consistency, considering it was authored by 40 people over a period of 3000 years is another proof of its authenticity.

There are many reasons to believe Jesus is the Christ, but the biggest one is Gods personal revelation, which He is faithful to give to you. If you want to know whether Jesus is the Messiah, simply pray and ask. If He isn't, you've wasted a couple of minutes. If He is, you are avoiding an eternal consequence. God bless!

The scripture is wrong. Most all atheists die having NEVER had any proof or even evidence of any god's existence. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence. For me to believe something as insane as religion, I need incontrovertible proof, it's how I was "made". I've yet to see evidence, much less proof, of anything supernatural, ever.
If few "find the narrow way" then it's hidden to most. You want to say "finding" a thing is attaining it. They are different words, that's why they are spelled and pronounced differently. If you can't 'find' the path, it's hidden, if you can't stay on the path because you don't possess the skill to do so (and you believe you were created by god) that's on god for designing you so poorly.
Being paralyzed the way I described is indistinguishable from death, even with modern machinery.
If Jesus was doing a selfless thing, sin would be gone for everyone, not just those that worship him. Saying "I eradicated this evil ethereal thing I brought to you, but only if you bow to me and give me 10% of your money" is so self serving and evil I can't properly describe it. I still disagree with the 'Jesus is special so he suffered more in <3 days that all humanity does in eternity'. That denies logic and math. Any portion of eternity is eternity, and any measure of 'infinitely worse than the worst punishment imaginable' is also infinitely bad, so he didn't accept even a portion of the punishment, and one can't suffer more than the worst suffering possible. And now Jesus IS sin?!? And you worship him?!? Don't you see a problem there?
I actually don't think Jesus ever made any of the claims you make about him, only some of his followers stories re-told for hundreds of years before being re-written say those things.
If he never presents himself to me, who's fault is that? If I was created the way I am by him, he knows exactly what it will take to make me 'believe', and he's simply and clearly not doing it. God must WANT me to not believe in him, it's the only thing that makes sense if he exists, but it's much more likely that he just isn't.

People enter hell because of their sin and willful rejection of God. You are saying that people have no way of knowing, but the scripture says something different. You say you have never seen or heard anything, but what I find when talking to atheists is that they've had plenty of experiences, supernatural or otherwise, to point them towards God but they chose not to go that way. In any case, I'll be praying for God to speak to you in a way you can understand.

I think you're hung up on some of the wording of Matthew 7:14 where Jesus said there are few who find the narrow way, and not the meaning of it. It is not saying that people through no fault of their own end up on the broad way, the scripture says they enter into it. That implies a choice, and to find is to obtain something, which means they know what they are going after in the first place.

Being paralysed is not the same as death.

Jesus took the entire punishment for sin; He bore the fullness of Gods wrath against sin. The scripture says He was actually made sin for us. Whatever He experienced was far worse than what people experience in hell. No human being could bear that, eternally or otherwise. He could bear it becase He is special, that's the point. He didn't just bear the punishment for sin, He defeated death and disarmed the power of death and hell over human beings, all who put their faith and trust in Him as Lord and Savior.. He came not only to die for our sins, but also for many other reasons, one such reason was to destroy the works of the Devil.

Jesus saw everything pertaining to life and death, to judgment and the afterlife. He is an eyewitness, you simply don't believe Him. Everyone will know Jesus is Lord when they stand before Him; the scripture says that even the demons believe (and tremble). Knowing who He is and knowing Him personally are two different things entirely. If you enter into eternity without knowing Him, then it is too late. If God expects you to know His Son, it stands to reason He will provide a means for you to do so. It is up to you to respond to that.

That is as factual as any of it. If people enter hell because they don't worship the correct god in the correct way, but have no way to tell which way/god is correct, or if any is, that is no fault of their own. If your proclaimed system was fair, god needs to come to each person and make them KNOW his truth, then offer them the choice to reject it. That's not what happens, no matter how many rainbows and sunsets you see.

I won't go to hell then, and neither will any real atheist. I've never seen/heard/read anything convincing about any religion...ever. I don't 'know there's a god' or right way to worship, it seems far more likely there isn't. I say this with all honesty and not because it's somehow convenient or I'm 'angry at god'. I did not 'reject' him, I don't think he exists to reject.

Mathew 7:14 seems to repeat what I said, it's incredibly hard to find the way into heaven and most people won't find the way...according to your brand of religion. It's not that they reject the way, they can't find it, even though many looked with vigor.

No, it's like some guy telling you in the courtroom hallway that the judge will say that, but no one has ever seen it happen, or even seen the judge or what happens after your case is heard, there are no ex cons at all anywhere. This is the same guy that's telling you what the law is, but make no mistake, he's not a lawyer and he's telling you things that make no sense at all (like the judge will let you off for murder if you just SAY you won't do it again).
I don't think even the most hard core murderers and rapist have NO remorse, only the true psychopaths and they're rare.

When I die and god and Jesus are there asking me questions and telling me what the rules really were, I'll believe in them and say so clearly, and admit I was wrong. Not a nano second before they prove themselves though.

Ahhh, but did we have a flat EKG and brain scan on Jesus to prove he even died? ;-)
Also, yes, 3 days later! If you eat poorly prepared blowfish you can go into a total paralysis that looks like death, and come out of it 3 days later +-! It's how Voodoo practitioners probably made 'zombies'. That doesn't happen every day, but often enough that you can't bury people in Japan right away if they eat sushi.

Still sounds like a logical fallacy to me, with some people shoving their heads in the sand to avoid seeing it. I say you can't have it both ways, the punishment is eternity in hell and Jesus should have stayed no matter how special he and his pops are, and since he left (after less than 3 days? pussy!), he didn't even take the punishment he expects humans to, forget taking that amount of punishment for each person. Saying he's 'special' so he didn't have to is ridiculous and shows the mind bending mental acrobatics you must do to make sense of this. It reminds me of the 'I'm too rich to have to go to prison' defense.

Oh, I see, I misunderstood what you were saying about the soul.

You're assuming that people enter into hell through no fault of their own, that it is only due to their imperfect reasoning skills. It says in Romans 1:18-21 that men won't have any excuse on the day of judgment, which means that God gives everyone sufficient grace for salvation. He enables them to make a clear choice, and He honors both the yes and the no. You can't have the possibility of choosing for something unless you also have the opportunity to choose against something.

People mostly cooperate with the devil, they aren't really being fooled by him as such; they are actually willfully deceiving themselves. He is just giving them what they really want and they go right along with it. You couldn't actually blame the devil for a single sin that man has ever committed. Gods judgment on mankind is just, but He has made a way that anyone could avoid hell if they simply were willing to repent of their sins and receive the Savior. People go to hell for what they do know and reject, not for what they don't know.

Matthew 7:13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
Matthew 7:14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Jesus said that the majority would willingly choose hell; that is the sad reality of the human race. It would be like a murderer standing before a judge, and the judge tells the murderer that he is willing to release him if he won't commit murder again. The murderer says, I reject your pardon and I will continue to murder if you release me. I am not sorry for anything I have done. This is the man the world would like God to set free, those who willingly reject His pardon and are unrepentant in their sin. If God released them He would be a corrupt judge. Since He is a just judge, all sin will be punished and accounted for; either by the blood of Jesus Christ or by those who want to stand in front of God without Him.

"Many men of all religions have been raised from the dead...it happens in hospitals every single day."

After three days?

"We've been over the 'paid for our sins' fallacy, if he 'took our punishment of eternity in hell', who was that being 'raised from the dead', not Jesus. If he didn't spend eternity in hell, he didn't take the punishment prescribed for sinning, so certainly didn't even take the punishment for a single sinner."

I think this is a good explanation of why it is not a fallacy:

http://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-paid-penalty.html

"What? Your soul is your enemy trying to destroy you?! What the hell? When did that happen...did you just become a Scientologist?"

The enemy of our souls is the devil.

It seems your position here is that the devil is infinitely more powerful than god, and far better at dealing with people, because he has managed to muddy the waters so much that his message(s) is infinitely more accepted than the 'true' but nearly unheard message of god, and god knows this and accepts it? That seems like a crazy sadistic god, that knows most people will be tricked by Satan (one of god's creations) into eternal hell (another one of his creations) through no fault of their own beyond the imperfect reasoning skills they were given by god, and he allows, even encourages it without ever setting the record straight? That sounds incredibly evil.

Many men of all religions have been raised from the dead...it happens in hospitals every single day.

We've been over the 'paid for our sins' fallacy, if he 'took our punishment of eternity in hell', who was that being 'raised from the dead', not Jesus. If he didn't spend eternity in hell, he didn't take the punishment prescribed for sinning, so certainly didn't even take the punishment for a single sinner.

What? Your soul is your enemy trying to destroy you?! What the hell? When did that happen...did you just become a Scientologist?

I think the author of this video, and presumably the Christians who have spoken to him, have a fundamental misunderstanding about what the bible says about atheists or those who don't believe. I don't know why messenger seems to think this was my argument for theism; I don't recall saying anything like this to anyone on this site, although I could be wrong.

What I believe is that yes, atheists are not able to see or comprehend the things of God because they are spiritually discerned:

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

But that isn't the end of the story:

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Romans 1:19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

So, the colorblind person is given glimpses of Gods power and deity, through the creation, and other kinds of revelation such as in their conscience, to know that there is a God who created them and that they are accountable to Him. If it were simply that nonbelievers couldn't see God, they would have an excuse. Yet, that isn't what the bible says. In the end it's not that nonbelievers can't see God, it's that at some point in their lives they have seen God and rejected Him.

Most atheists I've spoken to have had supernatural experiences for which they cannot write off with materialistic explanations. Some will even change from atheism to theism in the course of a conversation because they suddenly realize that they had suppressed the truth of their own experience. God can and does give ample evidence of His existence and everyone at some point in their life will see it clearly and have a clear choice to make. It's when you choose to suppress the truth that you become self-deceived. It's not up to me to prove to someone God exists; it is up to me simply to be a faithful witness and pray they would respond to the revelation they already have.

That is what I am saying. THE pixie dust does exist - you could snort if you wanted to and it would show you - many cultures have for thousands of years - it's called Yopo contains (Bufotenin (5-HO-DMT), 5-MEO-DMT and NN DMT) - I would NOT recommend doing it (take NN DMT and smoke it or do Ayahuasca to get there). But, it's not going to be about what your puny ape brain considers "ever lasting" it is something completely different - to some degree it seems that we are eternal but not in way of ever lasting memory of one life to another, but it does contain "death" as well and you will remember that you've been there before even though it's beyond any fucking ape insect of Earth's imagination or comprehension. Do it and find out for yourself, lol! I was just as cynical as Dawkins about the afterlife until 4 seconds into the experience... it's like an atomic fucking bomb of alien consciousness (gold mine).

Reading these comments, how can believers chalk up something tragic to being part of "God's Plan", if mankind having free will means the deity doesn't necessarily know what is going to happen?

Maybe on my deathbed I will grasp at straws and wish for everlasting life but in my daily life it just sounds like a Hallmark sentiment that people use to comfort themselves and others. There’s not enough pixie dust in the universe for me to snort to get me to believe in everlasting anything, much less shout it from the rooftops. (my essence/soul/personality/memories will be around long after our sun collapses, just because I accepted a deity "into my heart"?).

Some child rapist/murderer repents on his deathbed with seconds to go, and St Peter throws the switch on his soul train to where he now has eternal life instead of eternal damnation. Again, not enough pixie dust.