People like you make me afraid to go out into the world.

>> ^Porksandwich:

Plus, Im guessing his shirt, shorts, shoes, and possibly his underwear. And anything else he dons on his way to the run and after the run will have a big corporate logo on it. So...... yeah. Hopefully some assault charges are in his future to go along with all that ill will he's generated. I don't see how the time frame that happened in could be a misunderstanding, and if he can't deal with the situation of corporate sponsorship of the events....he should stop going.

Hey Adam,

Thank you for sharing your background with me, and for your kind-hearted attitude. I haven't taken any offense to what you've said. I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

I'll relate some of my background to you first of all. I grew up in a secular home, and there wasn't any talk of religion in my household, for or against. There was a bible in my house, and although I attempted to read it as a child, I didn't get past the "begats" in Genesis. I thought that perhaps that was the entire rest of the book. I grew up knowing nothing much about religion, and so I was agnostic by default.

It wasn't until a bit later in life that I received revelation that there is a God. At the time, I had started to ponder what the truth actually was. I started to search for it, because I felt that the love was slowly draining out of this world, that things were going really wrong, and it got to the point where I felt personally convicted to stand up and do something. What, I had no idea, but more than anything else, I wanted to know the real truth.

It was very shortly after this that I received revelation from God of His existence. Although I wasn't precisely looking for God at the time, I believe that He gave me this revelation because I was searching for the truth. God showed me that He was there, and that He is personally interested and involved in my life, and that He loved me. Needless to say, this was utterly shocking, and as naturalistic materialist, my mind was blown. I found out in a moments time that all that I knew was in some way, wrong. There was no room in my worldview for a Spirit, but God shattered that mold.

He didn't come out and say who He was, though. Instead, He had me investigate all of the various religions, belief systems, philosophies etc that I could..everything from Asatru to Zen Buddhism, and while I was doing this He gave me clues about Himself along the way. What I ended up believing was that none of the worlds religions were correct. I essentially believed that while they all might contain some element of thetruth about God, they were imperfect representations of who He is. I definitely did not believe that Christianity could be the one true faith. I had that picked out from the beginning as something I profoundly disagreed with.

Which is why it was the last religion I investigated. The actual truth was that I didn't know very much about it. I had, like many atheists do, a lot of things picked out of the bible which made me believe I could just dismiss it outright. It turned out though when I actually really read the bible that the understanding I thought I had was incredibly superficial (and self-deceiving). I had tried to read it before, but there was always veil there that prevented me from really understanding it. This time though that veil was taken away and everything became alive to me. The reason for this was that what I was reading was corresponding to those clues that God had given me about Himself that I had mentioned earlier. God had reinforced certain ideas and principles about Himself to me, which didn't really make any sense at the time (and indeed drove me crazy trying to figure out what He meant), but suddenly the meaning was unlocked and made crystal clear through what I was reading in scripture.

Because of that, I started to develop a simple faith in what I was reading. On that basis I put some faith in the bible as being at least potentially accurate, and I decided to give my life to Jesus Christ. That's when God showed me that is who He is. When I gave my heart over to Him, He supernaturally transformed me, and He gave me a new life free of anxiety, addiction and depression. He exchanged those things for peace and love and joy. Where there was darkness before, He had brought light.

So, that's my testimony. When you ask why didn't God reveal Himself to you at that time, a few things come to mind. The first is that everything is done in His timing. God has a plan, much bigger than our plans, and I believe that there were many things God wanted to show me before He brought me to Christianity. He wanted me to experience what I did so that when I became a Christian, I would be more effective in communicating with others who are seekers like I was. So that I would be able to relate to them better than someone who grew up in the faith could have. It could be the same for you, that God has had many things to teach you, to give a certain ministry to others, and for your own understanding.

Second, although you are a non-believer, you seem to have a genuine desire to know the truth, and to know, if there is a God, who He is, and what He wants from you. I believe God has placed that desire into your heart so that it would lead you to find Him, as He did in mine. I believe that you're asking me this question for a reason, and that reason is that God is reaching out to you. I would suggest to you that you pray to God and invite Him into your life, and ask Him to forgive your sins. Part of the Lords prayer is "Your will be done, your Kingdom come". Tell God, if this is so, that you're willing to surrender your will for His will in your life. I have prayed that God would hear your prayer and lead you to Him. I also recommend that you read the Gospel of John.

You're right, that from your perspective there may be no reason why you should believe one religion is any better than the other. I shared that view for all of the years I was searching. I can give you a lot of good reasons why Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, but only God can change your heart.

What God doesn't expect is that you are going to figure Him out. Only He could reveal the truth to you. What He does do is give you opportunities in life to get closer to Him. They could be, for instance, situations that test your moral fabric. "What does he do when no one else is looking?" "How does he treat people when he has nothing to gain?". It's how you live your life that is proof of what is in your heart, and that is what God is interested in. I think that is what determines how close to Him you will get. What scripture guarantees though, is that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That you would have the desire to do that is a gift from above.

In regards to your forest question, God speaks to us in many different ways. A person doesn't need language to understand that there is a higher power. In Romans 1:18-21 it speaks to the fact that God gives a general revelation through His creation of His power and Godhead. How could this man learn about who God is? Well, no one is unreachable on this planet. God could lead him out, or lead someone in. He could give the man dreams and visions.

So I hope that is a satisfactory answer. I couldn't tell you precisely why God hasn't reached out to you before, but what I feel is that He is reaching out to you now. The question is, will you answer His call?

God bless you,

Joshua

>> ^PalmliX

>> ^robbersdog49:

Scroobius is a lyrical genius. Great music, well worth a listen.


Yep, he's out of this world, I love everything he says and does. *promote!!!

Really? If you weren't watching this video or following this thread you'd be out solving the world's problems? C'mon. You think this argument takes some resources away from the Trayvon Martin case? You're here for entertainment, either for engagement or for distraction, and not to advance any world cause, just like the rest of us. Arguing is intellectual exercise. That's why I would do it, if I hadn't just learned the history this problem has of never getting resolved on the internet.>> ^VoodooV:
Don't get me wrong, the scientist in me loves stuff like this. But the argument just seems selfish in the perspective of larger concerns. I kinda feel the same way about the Hadron Collider. Like income inequality, there is a HUGE gap between the smartest of us, and the average citizen. I feel we should be closing that gap, instead of indulging the intellectual 1 percent.

As an aside, most of the food you consume is radioactive in some way, cool huh?! Hell, most of everything you interactive with has some level of radioactive decay. There is rising evidence of the benefits of small doses of radiation. The current Linear no-threshold model in many interesting cases has failed to show direct epidemiological evidence of increased cancer rates where background radiation levels are higher than other levels. It is all very interesting stuff, a far cry from the fear factor news media make radiation out to me. Turns out, the whole world is radioactive, and it might be the energy which fuels plate tectonics . Just an interesting aside from the whole radioactive carbon element of this

Truth stranger than fiction.

I can't say what it's like to be a parent, but I can say what it's like to have been a teenage kid.

You complain about everything. Your parents. Your school. Your friends. Everything that doesn't go your way in your life seems like an unprecedented tragedy of galactic proportions. You're emotional -- when you're happy you're freakin' giddy, and when you're mad all sense of proportion goes out the window, and you let fly with everything you've got.

I'm old enough now to see why that's hard for anyone to handle. I'm old enough now to realize a lot of it was petty childishness, and most of the rest was the kinds of overwrought emotional responses that seem to be common to most teenagers.

Like I've said, I don't know what it's like being a parent, but I'm sure the bit where she said she wouldn't be there to take care of him when he's old probably hurt him a lot more than he's willing to admit. And I'm just as sure she doesn't really mean it.

Growing up isn't easy. I can honestly say I think the first 15 years of my life were a lot harder than the last 15 years of my life. But it's a big adjustment going from complete dependency to being independent. It's a big adjustment going from having your life strictly controlled by someone who knows you and loves you, to going out into a world that's controlled by people who are indifferent, uncompromising and mechanical with how they'll impose limits on you.

I'm just gonna go out on a limb here, and say that it seems unlikely to me her behavior improve because of this. His daughter will not be complaining less. His daughter will not be swearing less. I wouldn't even be surprised if she fights back, stops doing chores, starts swearing to her dad's face, or maybe even runs away.

Maybe I'm just projecting my own childhood onto other people, but that's how I reacted when my parents tried to ground me for thought crimes.

I guess it's a little dangerous letting your kids read 1984 when they're teenagers. The world of Big Brother and your life as a teenager start seeming scarily similar.

I'm seeing faults on both sides here. She obviously shouldn't have been so blatantly disrespectful like that, though at the same time EVERY kid needs to vent at some point. He had every right and was right in fact to punish her, but not in the way he did. Honestly they're both being pretty immature here (the mom too from the sounds of it). The 3 of them need to sit down for an evening and have a long talk about a)the privileges she enjoys as a member of the household and b) the responsibilities she and her parents both have as members of same. Almost always the responsibilities are the only things considered and the privileges simply get taken for granted. She needs to understand that her parents do an awful lot for her. At the same time, they need to understand she needs some privacy, which is where the venting should go. NOT out to the world of FB.

Separately :
Sucks about the laptop. But then, anger and guns never did the world any favors. And gun owners wonder why so many people are irritated at them. Because morons like this treat them like toys.

I paid the $5 for the principle behind his chosen production/distribution method, not for the show.

I thought the show was... merely OK... for Louis CK. I thought his method of production and distribution was OUT OF THIS WORLD !!!!!!!!

How can you not see the flaw in this logic? Atheists do not make claims for which evidence must be provided, there is no point in trying to "DISPROVE" god, or any other imaginary entity. the "evidence that god doesnt exist" is that there is no evidence that god does exist.

Drac did make the claim "I'm saying there is no God, so there are no necessary assumptions about his nature, since he doesn't HAVE a nature" So therefore he has a burden of proof.

Also, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Finally, no matter how you've redefined the definition, atheism is the belief that there is no God:

"Atheism, from the Greek a-theos ("no-god") is the philosophical position that God doesn't exist. It is distinguished from agnosticism, the argument that it is impossible to know whether God exists or not"

(Academic American Encyclopedia)

Atheism, system of thought developed around the denial of God's existence. Atheism, so defined, first appeared during the Enlightement, the age of reason"

(Random House Encyclopedia-1977)

Atheism is the doctrine that there is no God. Some atheists support this claim by arguments, but these arguments are usually directed against the Christian concept of God, and are largely irrelevant to other possible gods.

(Oxford Companion to Philosophy-1995)

Atheism (Greek, a- [private prefix] + theos, god) is the view that there is no divine being, no God"

(Dictionary of Philosophy, Thomas Mautner, Editor-1996)

Atheism is the belief that God doesn't exist.

(The World Book Encyclopedia-1991)

According to the most usual definition, an atheist is a person who maintains that there is no god.

(The Encyclopedia of Philosophy-1967)

Atheism denies the existence of deity

(Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia-Vol I)

This is what the world looks like to you, huh? absolute laws layed down and explained by God?

In the scientific worldview, there are no absolutes, our "laws" are based on repeated observations and revisions, take for instance Newtons first law: The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force.

Now, this actually works, it turns out that the world is this way*. It is natural for a curious human to ask "why?" because we expect,perhaps deep down that there is a reason and a purpose behind the world being arranged this way. But there doesnt seem to be any real reason, had Newton or Galileo lived in an alternate universe, where objects would move at random, independent of the forces acted upon them, well, then we wouldnt have this law, would we? Perhaps such a universe exist, but perhaps there are no Newtons there to check, because the evolution of life and therefore Newtons brain, requires objects to behave in this predictable Newtonian way.

We only have one sample, which is this Universe. Shoulds, woulds and perhaps don't explain away design. What you're really trying to express here is the anthropic principle. Take this example..let's say you're standing before a firing squad of 100 trained marksmen, all aiming for your heart, and then you hear the shots go off..and to your surprise you find that you're still alive, that they all missed. Should you be surprised that you do not observe you are dead? If you were dead, obviously you couldn't observe it. However, you are justified in being surprised you are alive, since all 100 marksmen missing you is extremely improbable. Which is the same reason we should be surprised that there is a conspiracy in the physical laws to support life in the Universe.

Anyway, here we are, we make our laws based on our observations of how things seem predictable, and if things arent that predictable, we cant make laws about them. For instance, why hasnt god, being so clever with the whole "law of motion" trick and all, made a similar law-system for finance? ie: "every 50 years, the market will collapse" and so on? or evolution " the ultimate goal of all of evolution is for all species to evolve big brains trunks, like the humans elephants have?

God laid down a lot of laws about how we should behave. The reason for the chaos in the world is because we haven't obeyed those laws.

No, it seems while God likes order and laws to apply to inanimate object, he's decided to go for chaos and indetermency when dealing with large, complex systems.

You'd almost think there was no god at all, huh?

*Yeah,yeah Einstein, relativity blah blah, for all intends and purposes, Newton will suffice here.

He gave us laws about how to live. Perhaps you have heard of the bible?

>> ^BicycleRepairMan

This is what the world looks like to you, huh? absolute laws layed down and explained by God?

In the scientific worldview, there are no absolutes, our "laws" are based on repeated observations and revisions, take for instance Newtons first law: The velocity of a body remains constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force.
Now, this actually works, it turns out that the world is this way*. It is natural for a curious human to ask "why?" because we expect,perhaps deep down that there is a reason and a purpose behind the world being arranged this way. But there doesnt seem to be any real reason, had Newton or Galileo lived in an alternate universe, where objects would move at random, independent of the forces acted upon them, well, then we wouldnt have this law, would we? Perhaps such a universe exist, but perhaps there are no Newtons there to check, because the evolution of life and therefore Newtons brain, requires objects to behave in this predictable Newtonian way.

Anyway, here we are, we make our laws based on our observations of how things seem predictable, and if things arent that predictable, we cant make laws about them. For instance, why hasnt god, being so clever with the whole "law of motion" trick and all, made a similar law-system for finance? ie: "every 50 years, the market will collapse" and so on? or evolution " the ultimate goal of all of evolution is for all species to evolve big brains trunks, like the humans elephants have?

No, it seems while God likes order and laws to apply to inanimate object, he's decided to go for chaos and indetermency when dealing with large, complex systems.

You'd almost think there was no god at all, huh?

*Yeah,yeah Einstein, relativity blah blah, for all intends and purposes, Newton will suffice here.
>> ^shinyblurry:

Without a controlling influence, there is no basis for these absolute
laws. I can account for it, how do you account for it?

>> ^marinara:

IIRC, LOTR did win some oscars tho.
But i know exactly what you're saying, character actors never get oscar love


Definitely got best movie, maybe even best director, but I do think his performance was out of this world. Not that that makes any difference on oscar planet

No, it's that you presume God is irrelevent. That's the natural conclusion from your fishtank example, isn't it? You see a world without God, and I see a world with God. Clearly, only one of us is correct. That is why absolutes are important. Someone is right, and someone is wrong. If you don't believe in absolutes, I would ask you, do you absolutely believe that?

>> ^vaire2ube:
God is Irrelevant, is the point. We can't debate the subject by virtue of its definition, so if you have a differing opinion just deal with it.
Reality is still real. We can interact without absolute knowledge.
Read the article from Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow September 27, 2010
"A few years ago the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved fishbowls. The sponsors of the measure explained that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl because the curved sides give the fish a distorted view of reality. Aside from the measure’s significance to the poor goldfish, the story raises an interesting philosophical question: How do we know that the reality we perceive is true? The goldfish is seeing a version of reality that is different from ours, but can we be sure it is any less real? For all we know, we, too, may spend our entire lives staring out at the world through a distorting lens."

God is Irrelevant, is the point. We can't debate the subject by virtue of its definition, so if you have a differing opinion just deal with it.

Reality is still real. We can interact without absolute knowledge.


Read the article from Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow September 27, 2010

"A few years ago the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved fishbowls. The sponsors of the measure explained that it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl because the curved sides give the fish a distorted view of reality. Aside from the measure’s significance to the poor goldfish, the story raises an interesting philosophical question: How do we know that the reality we perceive is true? The goldfish is seeing a version of reality that is different from ours, but can we be sure it is any less real? For all we know, we, too, may spend our entire lives staring out at the world through a distorting lens."

Nice tribute to "Out of this World" @ 4:15

Repealing Glass-Steagall got government out of the market, and was a huge mistake.

That's like blaming the water for a flood when the guy up the river dynamited the dam. Who repealed Glass-Steagall? AIG? The "banks"? Nope. It was government - who had a specific objective in doing so. That is government interference in the market.

The video gets that one thing right. After the Great Depression the imposition of Glass Steagall created an environment where the banking system couldn't go nuts. That is a great example of GOOD government. Government is fine when it sets up a set of basic, fair rules and then just stays out of everyone's business and lets the market run itself.

But leftists (both in the GOP and Democrat party) have been jonesing for more and more "social engineering" power for a long time. They look out on the world and see 'unfairness' (as they define it) and want to use the power of government to change the system into something they think is better. But as with all tyrants and meddlers in misery - they forget (or choose to ignore) the sad history that is the result of such thinking. Poverty, oppression, and death.

Government constantly interfering in the private sector has created an environment of uncertainty and patronage where businesses are more beholden to whoever holds political office than to their customers. If you want to stop the 'offenses' of Wall Street - then you have to slap down government first. Reduce thier size, scope, power, influence, and ability to interfere. When government loses power, it will flow back to people who have the ability to control the market with their buying dollars.