"spirits"... human, the Holy Spirit, ghosts and demons: is there such thing as a spirit?

[Orbit]

35 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

Walter and Orbit, do you see the company you keep here?

 

Today’s skeptics are sometimes society’s misfits, and humanity’s dregs.

 

But the hardcore atheist is almost always just a self-absorbed idiot.

 

Time to fuck with them ...

 

Yes. I have a Philosophy degree, magna cum laude, which I achieved in three years by carrying as many as 28 credit hours in a single semester. And I have a Graduate degree in English, Professional Writing. And I counseled troubled teenagers for 12 years, while running my painting company, joemellopainting.com, established in 1983. And I have about 100 stories to tell about God revealing himself to me over a seven year period, from 23 to 30 years old. And I had about 50 beautiful girlfriends before I got married.

 

That should do it.

 

"That should do it?" Do what? Prove that you hold some inexcusable stereotypes and prejudices towards atheists? Prove that I should listen to you because you have degrees? If we want to make this a degree arms-race I have more degrees than you do. But that is incredibly beside the point. As far as I can tell, you're full of yourself, trying to entertain yourself by "fucking with the atheists". Get a life.

[Brothermario]

Orbit, sorry, I had you pegged for an intelligent skeptic, but you’re just another dumb atheist.

 

For the record, I never said it was my degrees that revealed God to me. But I bet you think your degrees made you an atheist. That’s why I have to mention college degrees. Atheists have them coming out of their asses.

 

And it was your “friends” who fucked with me first in the middle of our discussion, so I fucked with them back.

 

Your selective outrage is the epitome of not having a life.

[Orbit]

1 minute ago, Brothermario said:

Orbit, sorry, I had you pegged for an intelligent skeptic, but you’re just another dumb atheist.

 

For the record, I never said it was my degrees that revealed God to me. But I bet you think your degrees made you an atheist. That’s why I have to mention college degrees. Atheists have them coming out of their asses.

 

And it was your “friends” who fucked with me first in the middle of our discussion, so I fucked with them back.

 

Your selective outrage is the epitome of not having a life.

 

You really are thoroughly immersed in a fantasy world, aren't you? Projecting your bullshit onto other people....

[alreadyGone]

 

So, to summarize..

-No one knows what may be the nature and reality of a "spirit".

-All believers insist there is resident within humans some manner of spirit.

Some non-believers also believe this.

 

-All believers also believe in a pantheon of non-human, non-animal intelligent and sentient beings, presumably "spirits", or beings which either exist in spirit form only or may take various forms.

Chief and head among them is the God of the gospels, of Moses.

 

Some non-Christians also believe in non-human, non-animal intelligent and sentient beings. 

 

-Brothermario has experienced visitation by what he fervently believes to be non-human intelligent and sentient beings of a nature other than our own.

 

___________________________________________________________________

Other than the portion that's about Brothermario's experience, really sorta what I was thinking when I asked the question..   anyone else?

 

Brothermario, I appreciate that you participated and if you care to do so, continue.

 

Is more possible here?  I'm certain many of you will show me.

So much to consider.

 

 

Truth > faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brothermario]

And you must be from England.

[Brothermario]

alreadyGone, this thread could go on for years, and not because of bullet points.

[alreadyGone]

In that case...  carry on.

 

Stay well everyone!

Dealing with a contagious virus is like dealing with human beings... you only gotta become vulnerable once, at the wrong place or time.

 

 

 

 

[WalterP]

2 hours ago, Brothermario said:

Guys, all I’m saying is that when a skeptic demands proof from me about experiencing God, that skeptic is asking me to only use the scientific method and provide him with repeatable data.

 

pantheory has just demonstrated very well the thinking and demands of the skeptic. He wants “observable” proof of God, and he will not accept any other proof.

 

And the first step in the scientific method is the observation of a thing.

 

Sorry Brothermario, but you are misquoting Pantheory.

 

At no point in the post to you he made 4 hours ago did he ask for proof.

 

If you re-read his words he asked you for evidence.

 

These are two very different things.

 

A proof is absolute, final and cannot be overturned by new data.

 

Evidence is tentative and can be overturned by new data.

[WalterP]

1 hour ago, Brothermario said:

Walter and Orbit, do you see the company you keep here?

 

Today’s skeptics are sometimes society’s misfits, and humanity’s dregs.

 

But the hardcore atheist is almost always just a self-absorbed idiot.

 

Time to fuck with them ...

 

Yes. I have a Philosophy degree, magna cum laude, which I achieved in three years by carrying as many as 28 credit hours in a single semester. And I have a Graduate degree in English, Professional Writing. And I counseled troubled teenagers for 12 years, while running my painting company, joemellopainting.com, established in 1983. And I have about 100 stories to tell about God revealing himself to me over a seven year period, from 23 to 30 years old. And I had about 50 beautiful girlfriends before I got married.

 

That should do it.

 

Brothermario,

 

I'm pleased to keep the company of any member who understands the difference between proofs and evidence.

 

Any member of this forum who understands that these two terms are not interchangeable.

 

Any member who asks for evidence to support the claims made by another member.

 

Thank you,

 

Walter.

 

 

 

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

49 minutes ago, alreadyGone said:

So, to summarize..

@alreadyGone, are you satisfied that this thread has gone as far as it can toward addressing your initial inquiry?  If so, we'll lock it down, and let Brothermario start his own thread.

[WalterP]

1 hour ago, Brothermario said:

pantheory, I have been quite clear that because God himself gave to me certain knowledge of his existence, it would be stupid of me to talk to skeptics, or anyone, for the purpose of giving to them what only God could give to me.

 

My purpose here, or anywhere, is to tell the truth about the living God I experienced so people will have a concept of God other than mere religious belief within a religion.

 

I know you think it is all simply belief, for you have said so above.

But I know it isn’t.

 

 

Serious question here, Brothermario.

 

If we cannot be party to that which only god could give to you, should we just accept your claims on your say so?

 

Walter.

[pantheory]

2 hours ago, Brothermario said:

pantheory, I wasn’t thinking of you when I wrote the above.

 

You have had some cool experiences. I've had a few beautiful girlfriends too including pretty wives, but not 50 beautiful girl friends like you have had! -- But I have had maybe 50 beautiful "girl friends" that I paid, and the spirits involved were distilled 

 

 

[Margee]

On 12/24/2020 at 2:09 PM, Brothermario said:

 

 

for when we die, we will become like God according to how we become like God before we die.

 

Ya got a way's to go sweetie....... 

 

I gotcha beat cause my god is a god of love and hugs......so I'm closer than you....   

 

Love and hugs to all of you ..... 

 

 

[pantheory]

17 hours ago, Margee said:

 

Ya got a way's to go sweetie....... 

 

I gotcha beat cause my god is a god of love and hugs......so I'm closer than you...  

 

Love and hugs to all of you..... 

 

 

 

Love and hugs for you too Margee, and a happy New Year 2021 to all. We can be sure that next year will be better than this one for most of us. To start with, the distilled spirits of New Year are forthcoming

[Brothermario]

Walter, it always amazes me when an obviously educated skeptic becomes like a newborn babe when it comes to knowing about the scholastic answer to the means we have to come to know God with certainty.

 

I'm not a religious person, and never have been. But Catholicism is the path that opened to me when I received my first revelation of God. (I wrote about this revelation on this thread.) Catholicism has had many mystics that have claimed direct experiences of God, and still does. When I was a Franciscan I visited many other monasteries--Poor Clares, Benedictines, Capuchins--and met hundreds of mystics living close to God.

 

So to "just accept" my claims is not something I'm even understanding.

 

The formula is simple: Being with God becomes your desire; actions are taken to make your desire reality; God shows up and fulfills your desire.

 

For me, God just showed up one day, and then being with God became my desire naturally, and the difficult actions I took to be with God 24/7 became less difficult.

 

However, Catholicism has another path to know God, quite unique to it--through reason alone we can come to know God with certainty. The path of reason Thomas Aquinas took, until at the end of his life he received a direct revelation from God that made him stop writing, and say, "All that I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me." G.K. Chesterton took the path of reason, and said, “To become a Catholic is not to leave off thinking, but to learn how to think".

 

I don't go to church, but went every day for seven years. I don't receive direct revelations from God, but received about a hundred of them over seven years. And I don't live in a constant inner state, but did many times during those seven years.

 

But the important point (and what God is after) is that when we receive something from God, it changes us for our lifetime and forever.

 

Here's an example:

 

During that first summer when I received that first revelation of God, I would go to Mass every day after work. One day I was sitting in a pew a half hour before the Mass. An old lady walked up to me and handed me a rosary. When my hand touched the rosary, a tear fell from my eye on it, which I thought was strange since I wasn't really sad or crying. Then another tear fell. And then another. For that half hour before the Mass, a half hour during the Mass, and a half hour after the Mass, my eyes kept shedding tears. I was never really crying, and couldn't stop. I tried to stop. I even got angry that I couldn't stop. But I also was a bit excited at this strange thing that was happening to me. Then the tears instantly stopped as they had begun. Years later, I read in the book The Philokalia, a collection of writings by Orthodox mystics as early as the fifth century, about something called a "baptism of tears", where God will give to person uncontrollable tears as a spiritual cleansing. And, something like, only a person who receives this cleansing can draw close to God. The thing is (and I know this will be easy to judge as simply cray-cray), I have cried nearly every day since, and sometimes many times a day. And I always feel close to God.

 

True spirituality is transformative.

 

[Brothermario]

Hi, Margee

 

God has warriors, too, woman.

[Brothermario]

pantheory, I spent a lot of time chasing girls. And I would never call it wasted time. No fricking way.

[florduh]

Does anybody else want to ring in the new year with one less brother? 

[Brothermario]

Or one less whiny little bitch.

[pantheory]

53 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

pantheory, I spent a lot of time chasing girls. And I would never call it wasted time. No fricking way.

 

Me too, but I used to be able to easily catch them and take care of business. Unfortunately many pretty girls now can run faster than I can so I have to resort to seduction, which works better when I grease the wheel of fortune.

[florduh]

8 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

Or one less whiny little bitch.

Exactly.

 

[Brothermario]

Well, then bye, florduh. Wait ... that can be taken both ways.

 

pantheory, there's always a way to slow a girl down. A big ... wallet stops them dead in their tracks.

[Margee]

27 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

Hi, Margee

 

God has warriors, too, woman.

Damn tootin' Brother and most of them are smarter than men so don't be actin' all cool around here...... Get your shit together and start acting like your god would want you too. Man up. You're 'brilliance' looks stupid. 

(hug)

[◊ Weezer ◊]

3 hours ago, Brothermario said:

 

Yes. I have a Philosophy degree, magna cum laude, which I achieved in three years by carrying as many as 28 credit hours in a single semester. And I have a Graduate degree in English, Professional Writing. And I counseled troubled teenagers for 12 years, while running my painting company, joemellopainting.com, established in 1983. And I have about 100 stories to tell about God revealing himself to me over a seven year period, from 23 to 30 years old. And I had about 50 beautiful girlfriends before I got married.

 

That should do it.

 

That should do what?  Prove something?  (Or, should I more correctly say, "give evidence" for something?)  So you are smart and have many accomplishments behind you.  CONGRATULATIONS!  

 

It seems as if, in your eyes you are just one step behind the God you often chat with.  Why are you expending all this energy on this forum?  Why don't you just kick back with him and silently watch all us ignorant athiest and agnostics, and everyone else on earth, struggling to survive?  That's what your bosom buddy God does.  Is there something you are trying to prove?  And to whom are you trying to prove it?  Yourself??  You may be intelligent, but in some ways your wisdom is in the toilet. 

 

Please answer this one question.  What do you want to accomplish here on this forum?

[Brothermario]

Margee, many times when I'm painting high up on a building on a beautiful day, I get a deja vu.

 

And I get many deja vus at many other times.

 

I have come to believe that a deja vu is what happens when our guardian angel, who is not restricted by time, gets a little too close to us because he or she is enjoying being with us so much.

 

And I have also come to believe that when we "act" a certain way we are not really that way but only acting. Something I tell my grandchildren all the time.

 

So, I'm living with angels and 100% authentic. So, I'm good.