Guest copacetic Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Hi everyone I was lying in bed last night and had an idea. The general consensus seems to be that once a person gets reborn it's like trying to get through to them. But I am not quite ready to give up on my buddy - At the very least I may be able to plant a little seed of doubt in his mind so when the excitement of the holy spirit wears off (it has only been two weeks) he might look back and realize that I MAY have been on to something. What I would love is a little commentary by ex-christians, people who have been filled by the spirit and who have felt like their prayers were being answered. The purpose? Hopefully to show him that there are people who have felt just as amazing as he appears to feel now and yet they let it go for something even better. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeydid Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Well, I guess at some point I believed in prayer and all of that. However reading the bible from cover to cover cured me permanantly. It is a vile book. You might also try giving him a gift subscription to a magazine like Skeptic or some other mag that explains how horribly wrong human thinking can go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japedo Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I'm sorry I have no advice to offer. I'm curious as to what kinds of responses you'll get, perhaps they can benefit many of us. I'd love to convince people too that what they hear isn't god, I'm at a loss as well how to go about it. I'm looked at as a worldly influence and 'Satan is just using me to deceive them, because I don't have god'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evergreen Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 I was supposedly filled with the holy spirit. Spoke in tongues and all that bullshit. I think people just work themselves up into an emotional frenzy. That's why it always, always wears off. They feed off everyone else there, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eponymic Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 What I would love is a little commentary by ex-christians, people who have been filled by the spirit and who have felt like their prayers were being answered. I've never quite reached the level of being filled with the spirit & all. My keen sense of reason always kept me a bit skeptical of it. And in the end it paid off. So I'd say just keep giving him good info. Encourage him to read the Bible by himself, all the way through and see the fallacies therein. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Gods Fail Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 Been there, done that. Can still do it (tongues) if I try. One thing to consider, copacetic, is that there might a very powerful reason that your friend took the plunge. Something in his emotional/pyschological life may be lacking, and religion may be temporarily filling the void. In a case like that (which happened to me), it might be very difficult to reason with him. He likely didn't use his brain at all making this decision - I sure as hell didn't. If that's the case, there may only be one solution - just like an alcoholic, things may have to get so intolerable to him that he has a moment of clarity and sees his fantasy religious beliefs for what they are. That's a hard road to go down, I can tell you that. Hopefully, this is just a temporary thing that will wear off in time. Good luck to you both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortunehooks Posted September 21, 2006 Share Posted September 21, 2006 welcome to the site, but i don't know we beating him over the head with rationalism, will do the trick. in fact, it might make him bunker down harder in his stance. the beginning of a religion situation, is like that of a bitch and puppy thing. hard to break the puppy from the side of mommy. in this case, the puppy is your buddy, and the bitch is jesus,lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrisonjj Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Been there, done that. Can still do it (tongues) if I try. One thing to consider, copacetic, is that there might a very powerful reason that your friend took the plunge. Something in his emotional/pyschological life may be lacking, and religion may be temporarily filling the void. In a case like that (which happened to me), it might be very difficult to reason with him. He likely didn't use his brain at all making this decision - I sure as hell didn't. If that's the case, there may only be one solution - just like an alcoholic, things may have to get so intolerable to him that he has a moment of clarity and sees his fantasy religious beliefs for what they are. That's a hard road to go down, I can tell you that. Hopefully, this is just a temporary thing that will wear off in time. Good luck to you both. I totally agree with this response. Something in his psyche, life made him turn to the jeezus/holy spirit bullshit. Roll with it, it will come and go. Over 40 years of prayer and sacrafice did wonders for me! It screwed up every aspect of my lie. Now I can happily say I am an atheist and that is cause for celebration. Be patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asimov Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Hi everyone I was lying in bed last night and had an idea. The general consensus seems to be that once a person gets reborn it's like trying to get through to them. But I am not quite ready to give up on my buddy - At the very least I may be able to plant a little seed of doubt in his mind so when the excitement of the holy spirit wears off (it has only been two weeks) he might look back and realize that I MAY have been on to something. What I would love is a little commentary by ex-christians, people who have been filled by the spirit and who have felt like their prayers were being answered. The purpose? Hopefully to show him that there are people who have felt just as amazing as he appears to feel now and yet they let it go for something even better. Thanks Why would emotionally baiting him be a good idea? He's your friend right? I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate his senseless evangelism. Just be friends with him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest copacetic Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Well, I guess at some point I believed in prayer and all of that. However reading the bible from cover to cover cured me permanantly. It is a vile book. You might also try giving him a gift subscription to a magazine like Skeptic or some other mag that explains how horribly wrong human thinking can go. Hi I'm afraid that I am being a complete tool. This being the second forum I have ever joined, how do I quote people?. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest copacetic Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Well, I guess at some point I believed in prayer and all of that. However reading the bible from cover to cover cured me permanantly. It is a vile book. You might also try giving him a gift subscription to a magazine like Skeptic or some other mag that explains how horribly wrong human thinking can go. Hi I'm afraid that I am being a complete tool. This being the second forum I have ever joined, how do I quote people?. Cheers What the hell is going on? I appear to have quoted someone by accident and I haven't a clue what's going on. It doesn't help that my internet is so damn slow it takes about three minutes to load a page. *sigh* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorena Rodriguez Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 There are two buttons for REPLYING. The one immediately under the message outomatically quotes the text on your post. If you click the button at the very bottom of the thread, you start with a blank post. When you get quoted text, you can edit it by manually deleting parts you don't need. You will be find as long as you don't touch the the first and last lines which have the required HTML tags (e.g. ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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