BRILLIANT! As always...but more brilliant for some reason.

The thing about death is that there aren't any second chances, and the thing about life is that there aren't any guarantees. Once it's over, it's over, and it could be over at any time. This could be your last day on Earth. Every day is a gift, and yes it is yours to waste if you wish, and also yours to regret.

People make bargins because God has set eternity in every mans heart. In the end, when you are facing the cliff edge, you realize what is at stake. It's easy to distract yourself with things, but all of these things are transient. You are born with nothing and people seek to leave the Earth the same way, but there is something more after this. This is the proving ground for eternity, and God has a free ticket with your name on it. My will, my way doesn't get you there. Bargins don't either. You can't earn something that is given as a gift; it is something you have to receive. You can't be good enough, because we all fall short of the Gods standard, which is perfection. There is someone who did live up to His standard though, and His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He already paid the price of admission for you; for this He gave His very life. He substitued His perfection for our imperfection, and tasted death for everyone. This requires faith. If you don't believe that, how will you receive the gift He has for you? That's why He said:

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

You can't be rewarded by someone you don't believe exists. But this isn't blind faith. That's why He said to seek Him out. Finding Him is very easy; you can do it by sending Him an invitation. If you can pray this sincerely, "Jesus, if you're real, I want to know about it. If you want to give me eternal life, let me know, and I will turn from my ways and give my life to you. If it's true, come into my life and change me.", if you can open your heart and mind enough to say those words and mean them, He will answer you.

Death is a veil, and that veil was rent when Jesus rose from the dead. It is a power that has been broken, and a mystery revealed. It is a problem that has been solved, once for all time, and that time is always now. Don't gamble that you'll have the oppotunity later, because death comes without warning. Seek out the living God, Jesus Christ, who defeated death and is the only way to eternal life.

shinyblurry wrote: "blah blah blah".

And you know all this how? Because you read it in book? And who wrote that book? God, you say? Who told you that? Oh, that's right. A bunch of humans. Got it.

Face it. You are as much in the dark about the true nature of existence and 'god' as the rest of us but I could see how comforting it would be to delude yourself into thinking otherwise.

@petpeeved but here you have stated the truth of the matter with absolute certainty that you are right while simultaneously admitting that you are in the dark about the nature of existence, specifically in regards to what happens after you die. Being in the dark, I submit to you that you are unqualified to judge whether my claim is correct. However, even so, I have provided you the means to ascertain the truth of the matter on your own. Rather than take me at my word, which is relayed from the word that God gave to us, you can test my truth claim for its accuracy by following the method prescribed above.

Pretty sure the point of the video is to enjoy life and not waste it on stupid shit. Wasting time on ancient fairy tales, which shinyblurry recommends, is the opposite of that.

>> ^shinyblurry:

@petpeeved but here you have stated the truth of the matter with absolute certainty that you are right while simultaneously admitting that you are in the dark about the nature of existence, specifically in regards to what happens after you die. Being in the dark, I submit to you that you are unqualified to judge whether my claim is correct. However, even so, I have provided you the means to ascertain the truth of the matter on your own. Rather than take me at my word, which is relayed from the word that God gave to us, you can test my truth claim for its accuracy by following the method prescribed above.


What direct proof do you have that the Bible was created by anyone or anything other than a human being? The answer to this question always seems to rely on circular logic: "I know the Bible is the word of God because the Bible says it is the word of God."

Everything you've been told about the Bible and Jesus and Christianity has come from the mouth of a human. Your faith is based on pure hearsay.

@petpeeved The majority of Christians I know, myself included, have gotten personal revelation from the Lord as to the truth claims of Christianity. Some people come to Christianity already convinced about who God is and then they start to read the bible. Others start to read the bible and then they receive a revelation. Either way, there is outside confirmation given by God that is experiential. Do you honestly think people are just picking up the bible and saying to themselves "oh, that sounds lovely" and then just start blindly believing it?

Here's a good testimony of the myriad ways people receive revelation:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7dpGWYZMDc

In any case, it is unnecessary for you to believe my personal experience. I cannot prove to you that God exists. Only God can do that, and I told you how to find that out. If you're unwilling to do that, to actually investigate it for yourself, then you really have no business criticizing my beliefs. I have investigated it, and I have found it to be true. Again, you don't have to believe me; find out for yourself if what I am saying is true.

"Do you honestly think people are just picking up the bible and saying to themselves "oh, that sounds lovely" and then just start blindly believing it?"

No, actually. Glad you asked. Most believers I have known, heard interviewed or simply researched are brainwashed when they are at a very impressionable age with whatever religion is the dominant one in the household and/or culture. A belief system acquired this early in life becomes invested with an enormous amount of emotional power and it's not at all surprising that this should later manifest in a psychosomatic incident later defined by the believer as 'personal revelation'.

[edit] I thought better of my comment.

I shall stay silent on the subject.

I think every religious person should take a different psychedelic every single year until they run out of psychedelics; theyre definitely allowed to repeat a psychedelic for a year if they feel it. Then they should reconvene with the world and let us know if they think any religion from the beginning of time is really worth worshiping... or if the world is just truly much more magical and mysterious than we will probably ever know.

Respect them, become tolerant of people who are different than them, feed the poor... you know do everything their religion tells them to do, but maybe theyll end up doing it because they intrinsically feel the love that we are all apart of, naturally... just without the guilt and the poisonous lies or having to fill the coffers every weekend or vote for a certain political party, eatch certain things, read certain things... you get the point.

@petpeeved I noticed you are evading the central issue, in that I don't expect necessarily expect you to believe my claims. Before I came to know God exists, if you had told me such a thing I wouldn't have believed you either. The point is though that I did tell you exactly how you could find out for yourself. Getting to your example, I was not raised with religion nor did I have any predisposition towards it. In fact, I was a strict materialist, who saw no evidence for such claims. You can't so easily write off the claims of billions of people. There are going to be innumerable cases which fall outside your narrow definition.

>> ^petpeeved:
"Do you honestly think people are just picking up the bible and saying to themselves "oh, that sounds lovely" and then just start blindly believing it?"
No, actually. Glad you asked. Most believers I have known, heard interviewed or simply researched are brainwashed when they are at a very impressionable age with whatever religion is the dominant one in the household and/or culture. A belief system acquired this early in life becomes invested with an enormous amount of emotional power and it's not at all surprising that this should later manifest in a psychosomatic incident later defined by the believer as 'personal revelation'.

>> ^shinyblurry:

@petpeeved I noticed you are evading the central issue, in that I don't expect necessarily expect you to believe my claims. Before I came to know God exists, if you had told me such a thing I wouldn't have believed you either. The point is though that I did tell you exactly how you could find out for yourself. Getting to your example, I was not raised with religion nor did I have any predisposition towards it. In fact, I was a strict materialist, who saw no evidence for such claims. You can't so easily write off the claims of billions of people. There are going to be innumerable cases which fall outside your narrow definition.
>> ^petpeeved:
"Do you honestly think people are just picking up the bible and saying to themselves "oh, that sounds lovely" and then just start blindly believing it?"
No, actually. Glad you asked. Most believers I have known, heard interviewed or simply researched are brainwashed when they are at a very impressionable age with whatever religion is the dominant one in the household and/or culture. A belief system acquired this early in life becomes invested with an enormous amount of emotional power and it's not at all surprising that this should later manifest in a psychosomatic incident later defined by the believer as 'personal revelation'.



"Before I came to know God exists..." Priceless!