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Goodbye Jesus

Father Claiming Divine Inspiration


zeldarocks

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Basically, my father has been praying for a nation randomly every night for about 2-3 months; he claims that he gets the names of the countries from God. Yesterday he prayed for the country of Eritrea, which neither of us had heard of prior. (he claims that God gave him this knowledge).

 

What I'm wondering is: how do I combat this/what must I be aware of to not begin to lose my 'faith' in Atheism?

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Inner laughter and maybe outer laughter (away from him) is a good way to combat religious baloney.

 

I personally had to decide to become a Christian. I had to deliberately turn off the stupid shield that had served me so well for many years and then deliberately bathe in the stupid and ask the stupid to overwhelm me. Practice activating your stupid shield when in the presence of religious chatter and activity and it will learn to automatically activate by itself after a while.

 

Remember if it sounds like baloney, it is. Especially if it's religious. A good question to ask  yourself all the time is "Is that true?" And then find out.

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The next morning, search the Web for a weird, negative news story from country X.  "Dad, look at this:  A truckload of killer shrimp fell over and broke open in the main marketplace in East Gwandaa, and now all the men have broken out with bright yellow polka dots all over their skin.  Was that you?"  GONZ9729CustomImage1539775.gif

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I know this is going to sound silly, but, what does he want to accomplish, praying for countries?

If he wants to turn them Christian, you could easily troll him / test the system by asking him to pray Japan Christian. It won't work, but it will give him something to do. Less than one percent of Japan is Christian, and it's been that way (for good reason) since the Shimabara Rebellion (1637 - 1638).  These days, though, it's certainly not lack of exposure, it's that Japan, culturally, just isn't fertile ground for converting people to anything. Ironically, the only city in Japan with a traditionally high Christian population was... Nagasaki. Ouch.

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Eritrea was in the news last May when it was reported they jailed 10,000 dissidents. It is one of the governments that leads in oppression of its people. Our subconscious mind takes in all information, and sometimes we simply retrieve it spontaneously. I venture to say we've all heard of Eritrea since it's been in the news recently, but it's not important enough for us to actively think about.

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Basically, my father has been praying for a nation randomly every night for about 2-3 months; he claims that he gets the names of the countries from God. Yesterday he prayed for the country of Eritrea, which neither of us had heard of prior. (he claims that God gave him this knowledge).

 

What I'm wondering is: how do I combat this/what must I be aware of to not begin to lose my 'faith' in Atheism?

 

Even among the religious when god speaks directly to you in your head giving you instructions you are crazy and need to seek help. It is one thing to hear someone saying god is influencing them or "speaking" to them through other things but to say "I just heard god and he done told me to go murder that guy there"... that is getting a bit schizo.

 

If you love your father seriously get him some help and help him move aways from the lies so he can live a more fulfilling life. Please.

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I agree with Florduh--our subconscious minds trap all kinds of information that can come to our conscious mind when prompted, sometimes surprising us. I would be more surprised to learn someone has never heard of Eritrea ever in their lives somehow (rather than just forgot they'd heard about it.) 

 

Also, did you actually see him do this, or was it self-reported? Could he have tweaked the truth a bit? (Not to intentionally lie to you, but in mentally validating his own story to himself.) For example, has he ever prayed for a gibberish country that doesn't exist? Did he really say Eritrea or was it just "close enough" that he molded the name to suit his needs the next day as he was hunting for the country? I'm very skeptical of self-reported stories like this. People unintentionally deceive themselves all the time, and then they use that personal story to try to sway others. He can even say, You know I wouldn't lie to you about this, right? And no, you don't think he's intentionally lying, he's deluded himself, and now he's trying to delude you. 

 

Okay, now look at the absurdity of God convicting a person to pray for another country they don't live in and don't know anything about. What's the point in that? That's like me trying to get you to please ask me to be nice to my friends today. How about I just be nice to them? How about God just bless the country directly without making random people ask him to do it first? 

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What I'm wondering is: ---- what must I be aware of to not begin to lose my 'faith' in Atheism?

 

You need to be aware that Joseph Smith (of the Crutch of Haysoos Christo of Saturday Saints - or something like that) (You know, the Morons) also claimed Divine Inspiration as well.

 

He had an uphill battle the entire way. I don't think your Dad will fare as well as him though.

 

 

 

On another note, atheism requires no faith whatsoever. Just a little logic and rationality.

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