Sorry about your N. O. Saints, and sorry that have a problem with the way God works.
Posts by hmike
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29To all the other atheists/agnostics out there
by robhic inafter you got from behind the barrier that was keeping you from thinking logically and had removed the blinders that prevented you from processing information using common sense rather than the 2000+ year old superstitions of some nomadic goat-herders, did you start to find that religious-centric or god-related statements made you shake your head in incredulity?.
case in point: just yesterday as i watched the 5:00 news, a story came on about a young man who had moved from here to california.
while in california he died but the family was so poor they could not afford to have the body shipped back to new orleans.
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9
Debunking the Bible skeptics and Liberal Theologians
by Rex inrecommended reading for christians who want to debunk the alleged 'facts' and claims of the naturalist element: .
archer, gleason l., enclyclopedia of bible difficulties, zondervan 1982 .
brauch, manfred t., the hard sayings of paul, intervarsity 1989 .
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hmike
Well, the Bible does call the gospel "foolishness" (1 Cor. 1,2; Gk., moros, from which we get moron).
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12
The Atheist's Book of Bible Stories - Ch. 22 - Biblical Apologists Toolkit
by RunningMan inover the years, i have run into numerous persons who have attempted to defend the bibles literal accuracy.
these opponents have presented explanations that range in quality from truly inspired justifications to pitifully lame excuses.
for example, when one believer was confronted with the fact that the ancient temple was credited with containing enough raw materials for a building more than a thousand times its size, he replied, "well, maybe it had a basement.
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hmike
Seeing lives changed for the better; seeing people find joy and purpose in life when they come into faith--that's the real proof. All the intellectual stuff just doesn't seem so important then.
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10
Author excommunicated by Mormon church
by Dogpatch infriday, august 05, 2005
author excommunicated by mormon church
book outlines how existing dna data for american indians does not support mormon beliefs that continent's earliest inhabitants were descendants of israelite patriarch lehi.
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hmike
If they get this from James 5:16, first of all, it doesn't require confession out in the open to everybody, and secondly, it doesn't differentiate between leaders and the general congregation. So whom do the leaders confess to?
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Author excommunicated by Mormon church
by Dogpatch infriday, august 05, 2005
author excommunicated by mormon church
book outlines how existing dna data for american indians does not support mormon beliefs that continent's earliest inhabitants were descendants of israelite patriarch lehi.
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hmike
Not to say at all this was the case with Danny, but so many whistle-blowers and people who buck the system make the mistake of giving their opponents ammunition to work with: incidents that would normally be overlooked or lightly dealt with that become the basis for counter-charges. In this kind of war, you can expect the other side to pull out all the stops.
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17
Job Interview-Help with specific question
by Purza inso, i have a job interview on monday for a city government job.
i have worked for a city before and i would really like to work for one again in order to complete my retirement requirement for benefits.
and i really want this job.. i have info about the job and i am studying specific information; however i don't interview all that well as i get extremely nervous.. one of the questions i always have a hard time with is:.
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hmike
Some employment test/interview questions are designed to weed out the obvious undesirables, like if you said, "I'd bash his head in" or some other violent response. They don't want to hire someone who will obviously be trouble.
This is one of those standard questions, like "what are your stengths and weaknesses." There are good-sense answers you can give to this that will satisfy them, but in the real world, this can be a complicated issue where your actions are determined by all kinds of variables. I always confine my answer to work situations, which is what they are really interested in.
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27
Helping others, is it an ego trip
by Satanus ina lot of people have a good nature, and naturally respond by helping another in need.
others see themselves on a mission of helping.
can helping others sometimes be a way of having influence over others?
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hmike
To be motivated by the prospect of receiving a return is natural and normal. Who would pay for a product or service with the expectation of getting nothing for it? And in the case of doing a charitable work, while there might not be a conscious expectation of a benefit, there still is some kind of internal gratification attached. We consider someone who deliberately does something self-destructive to be a masochist, but even a masochist receives some kind of reward--evidence that they are the worthless individuals they believe they are, and administration of the treatment they feel they deserve.
I’ve heard Christians who were "righteously" appalled by the thought of serving God and people with the expectation of some kind of return or benefit, but when you look through the Bible, God always calls people or appeals to them with the promise of some kind of reward. Never does the Father or Jesus say, "Follow me, but you’ll get nothing out of the deal." There’s always a blessing--be it material, emotional, or spiritual--temporal or eternal--attached to God’s call. So clearly, that’s an acceptable motivation. In fact, I’ll go one step further. The Bible’s teaching is that God EXPECTS us to call him on his offer. That’s part of what faith is about--expecting God to keep his promises. From a Biblical perspective, to tell God, "No thanks. I don’t need or expect anything from you" is false humility and insulting to God.
Somewhere, there is a line that is crossed when we are just using others for our benefit. That’s the real issue, isn’t it?
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Helping others, is it an ego trip
by Satanus ina lot of people have a good nature, and naturally respond by helping another in need.
others see themselves on a mission of helping.
can helping others sometimes be a way of having influence over others?
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hmike
Don't we all need some sense of worth--some meaningfulness to our lives--some sense of significance? Helping others is one way that is accomplished. The real reward comes in having made a difference--seeing someone else benefit from our involvement. The worst is wanting to help--offering to help--knowing you can be of help--and not having anyone interested.
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does "randomness" exist?
by googlemagoogle inthis is maybe largely parallel to the "free will" debate.
or if there is such thing like "chance".
many computer languages have a math function "random()".
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hmike
Is this the same as the chaos Dr. Malcomb taked about in "Jurassic Park"?
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153
Why do/don't you believe in God
by LouBelle innow for all the scientists out there this is not a question of proof or anything along those lines.
for my part i choose to believe in a god because i honestly believe there is one (though i did start doubting for a little while) i've always felt that there was more to our existance on earth - and that doesn't stem from me wanting to live forever or as a spirit, as i don't even know if that will happen.
i also believe in him because many many times when i could not carry on, on my own strength, i managed to pulled through.
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hmike
Hi Tetrapod,
I'm glad you replied. I thought you might appreciate the invitation to state and explain your point of view, but I was beginning to think that this question of a somewhat personal nature may have killed the thread.
Looks like you would agree with a bumper sticker I saw recently that said something like "Atheism stops religious terrorism."
No question there have been problems with religions historically. I may come back with a more detailed answer, but I think the fundamental problem occurs when there is too much man and not enough God. What I mean is that God becomes the servant, not the master. People may think they have God as the master, but not really. Now I know I should qualify that, and if the interest is there, I may try that on a later post in this thread.
Here's just a little bit of biography so you understand where I come from on this. First of all, I did not come out of a JW background in any way (sometimes I don't feel right about being at JWD). My father did not openly deny God, but I never saw anything that affirmed God either. My mother came from a staid, old German Lutheran background. She was saintly and patient, but not assertive. She also read horoscopes and Jean Dixon. Although my mother attended church and I was taken to Sunday School, it wasn't every week. There was never any pressure on me to conform to any kind of doctrine, or achieve anything in the church. I didn't grow up under the cloud of anything being expected of me in this area. My friends weren't Christians, and I didn't have the influence of Christian teachers or mentors. My chief interest was science, but I later studied some philosophy, psychology, and eastern religion. In short, there was nothing in my childhood that pushed me into Christianity. I grew up in an environment as close to neutral as one can get, with some exposure but no pressure. By all indicators, I should have become an atheist, but I didn't. So, as I tried to stress earlier, we aren't always aware of why we decide what we do, but information in itself is not the key factor.
As a Christian, I know the good it has done me and I've seen the good that true faith has done for individuals, and that's what I look at. Help on an individual level, and if enough individuals find and live out this faith, change occurs in the larger social units.