Posts by FlyingHighNow

27

Hold me, thrill me, kiss me..... a tribute

by FlyingHighNow in

have i ever told ya'll about my grande ma ma?

my daddy's mother?

i can't recall.

Hold me, thrill me, kiss me..... a tribute

by FlyingHighNow in

have i ever told ya'll about my grande ma ma?

my daddy's mother?

i can't recall.

She was. My grandpappy was, too. He just wasn't so vocal. He was a session musician on some big band 78s. He had a vast collection of antique guns and swords. He built cannons, steam engines and even from scratch, a steam train, complete with engine and various cars and the track, which sits in a museam to this day. He had a dental/surgical practice on the 7th floor of a building in Mobile, overlooking Mobile Bay and the USS Alabama. He smoked a pipe, drank whisky and said well, okey dokey, a lot.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

Nobody is saying god caused the tsunami - well apart from Unstop and Pat Robinson.

I got that. It's about God not intervening to stop the tsunami or to save everyone and all their things from the tsunami.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

bohm, you are speaking of the little picture, the life we are living right now. There is a bigger picture.

Why didn't the US, France or other civilized countries scramble the radio waves when the Tutsis were being slaughtered in Africa? You'll more easily answer that question than you will the lack of divine intervention when the tsunami victims were going to be be drowned. We can investigate what happens here on earth, to a degree.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

The question is simple. That doesn't mean the answer will be simple. Even in science, there are mysteries. By mystery, I mean things we don't have the answers to right now. That doesn't mean there aren't answers. It means we don't have them right now. I don't understand every scary or sad thing that happens. That does not bring me to the conclusion that there is no god or gods or self aware life besides us. It doesn't bring me to the conclusion that god or gods do not care. It brings me to the conclusion that we all have a lot to learn and some of it we may never learn or understand, at least not in this short life we know of. I don't have exact beliefs about god or gods. I don't believe the universe is godless.

If someone is driving along alone, like my brother, then wrecks his vehicle into a tree causing his instant death, we are left wondering what made him go partially off the bridge and hit that tree. There were no witnesses coming forward and the investigation couldn't give us an explanation. Did he look away for a crucial second? Was someone coming towards him, off the bank, causing him to panic? His death involves some mystery. We know the tree killed him. We don't know why he hit the tree. It is what it is.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

Its obvious you don't read before you type. Don't feel bad, many of the believers in this thread have done the same thing.

Atheists read all of the comments?

What you are calling natural evil, is basically nature and circumstance. It's possible, very possible that neither you, nor I are going to understand these things before we reach the end of our lives. Some things are mysteries to us now. When I was a child, I thought I had to know the answers to all of life's questions. I was too young to understand that there aren't answers, that we are privy to, for all of life's questions. Sadly, when I was a teenager and very vulnerable after the death of my brother, some people came along who claimed they knew the answers. They worked on me for most of a year, answering question, after question. Now I understand that if anyone thinks he or she can ever find all of the answers, he or she might as well tattoo the words: Control Me. Please. right across the forehead. I don't know how God participates or doesn't participate when it comes to things like tsunamis and their aftermaths. I'm not going to pretend to.

I recall being at the funeral of my ten year old friend. She had died in a housefire. One of the church ladies tried to comfort me by telling me that God saw the prettiest flower in his garden and decided to pick her and take her home with him. I remember thinking, "I appreciate that you are trying to comfort me, but that's a silly explanation for what happened to Ann." I knew that God had nothing to do with my friend's death. I was ten years old at the time.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

Any answer that does not agree with what you want to hear, will be vacuous to you.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

Cofty, I don't blame tsunami victims for their own deaths. The tsunami, coupled with being on the coastline when the tsunami hits, these circumstances cause death. Are you saying there is something beyond that, causing those deaths? You don't believe in the supernatural, so then what can it be, besides nature and circumstance?

As for Adam, I've read enough of his posts. I don't agree that his opinion on this kind of subject is worth reading.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

I can't believe how desperate some people have to get in order to defend their beliefs, it is sincerely sad to see. FHN you are smarter than that and we are talking about millions of dead people.

Snare, do you even know what my beliefs are? If you're thinking that I am a Christian, then please, take note: I am not.

Snare, realistically, people are going hug right up to the coastline. For using the fact that the occasional tsunami comes and drowns people who live at the coastline, to prove atheism though, it doesn't work. I can understand the line of thought. Why? Why do things like this happen and kill many people at once and leave distruction? We understand somewhat, why tsunamis happen. We also understand that they destroy human settlements and life within a certain distance of the coast. People have known about "tidal waves", hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, tornados, earthquakes for centuries. It's very simple: pay heed to history because if you don't, it's destined to repeat its self. Now, if I decide I'm moving back to the coastline, I can make a decision to buy a house right on the coast, or I can buy 50 miles inland. The closer I move to the coast, the more I up my chances of being stranded and drowning should a hurricane hit. If I choose to buy a dog, I up my chances of being bit by a dog. It's simplistic to deduce that there isn't a god because nature roars or dogs bite.

What you call desperation, is actually people who find the existence of god(s) more logical than the inexistence of god(s). People that find the existence of everything, the super complexities of the material and conscious world, unexplainable by the godless theory. Self awareness alone, I find to be unexplainable with the atheistic theories. For me, the strictly materialistic person is capable of some pretty incredible, even magical, thinking to dream that conscious, intelligent, self awareness could ever be explained through the big bang and evolution, by themselves. It would be egotistical really, for any of us to think that we are the only intelligent beings, that only beings who happen to have bodies made from material, that we can touch or see, in this dimension, can be real.

Atheists aren't alone among people who reason and think very deeply about science and life. We don't all look at what goes on in this world and draw the same conclusions. I think atheism is incredible, but I understand how people come to that conclusion. I do not agree with the atheistic conclusion, but it is valid, even if simply because people come to different conclusions. Viva la difference. As long as people aren't hurting each other or nature, I'm fine with the difference.

2596

The Pastor of my Old Church Tried to Re-Convert Me Yesterday

by cofty in

yesterday evening my wife and i were invited to friends house for new year's eve.

we met them when i was a christian and we have kept in touch.

they had a few other friends there as well, including the new church pastor and his wife.

FlyingHighNow

I'm glad you've at least enjoyed Kate's comments. She's giving you a run for your money.