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

[Brothermario]

No, Astreja, there was very little religion in my life.

 

It is you who does not understand that it is a great human error to think that even God is primarily concerned with religion.

 

He’s not.

 

Water to the thirsty. Food to the hungry. Visits to the lonely. Justice to the persecuted. Comfort to the suffering. Joy to the world. Life to the dead. — These are the churches of God.

 

It just so happens that religious people are usually the ones in these churches, too.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

6 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

As we will things to happen, allow things to happen, and simply watch things happen, so does God, for to know us, his image, is to know him.

So, your god is able to prevent evil, but not willing to.  And worse, the evil we, his image, commit, must also be a part of god's nature.  If to know us, is to know him, then he is not a god worthy of devotion; for he must be as wicked as the deeds of men.

[midniterider]

1 hour ago, Brothermario said:

As I said, our time together is drawing to a close.

 

As with all such groups of anti-religious bigots I have visited in the past, you have failed to understand the absurdity of the single talking point you all share—“Show me the only evidence I will accept for the only God I will accept.”

We rise above our mundane experiences when we reach upward to pull ourselves up, not to pull everything else down.

 

The God you don’t believe in doesn’t exist anyway.

 

The God you don’t know does.

 

 

Why evidence for God? Why not just have a visit from God? 

[Brothermario]

This is the art I love, Astreja.

And I’ve gotta go pick her up from school right now.

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

16 minutes ago, midniterider said:

 

Why evidence for God? Why not just have a visit from God? 

 

[midniterider]

1 hour ago, Brothermario said:

As I said, our time together is drawing to a close.

 

 

You know you'll be here tomorrow, and the next day and the next day, etc etc.

[Brothermario]

Yeah, I like Spongebob, too, midnite.

 

Redneck, did you ever get to feel what it’s like to work really hard and accomplish something very difficult that pocketed you a lot of money?

 

I welcome all my struggles, though I know I have endured some great ones, and have greater ones still to endure, because I know that my becoming a greater person through struggling enriches my life.

 

It’s cowardly and ignorant to want God to just hand us everything now.

[TABA]

1 hour ago, Brothermario said:

But there is another point I would like to make to you, and one that you probably will not be able to accept.

 

The stories you have heard about human beings experiencing God are not all stories about their “faith”. No. Jesus said, “We speak about what we have seen and heard.” And he made it a point to praise people who “believed without seeing.”

 

I haven’t had “faith” in God’s existence in 45 years. For I was given something to see and hear that gave to me “knowledge” of God’s existence, and even God’s personality.

I accept that you have had some profound experiences that you were convinced were from a deity.  Such experiences are rather subjective and different people have experienced “God” in widely different and often contradictory ways.  Unlike some others here, during my decades as a believer I never had a personal experience of God.  That was by no means the only reason I concluded he does not exist, however. 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

Mario, you claim to be (in my words) "called" by GOD.   For years I believed the New Testament was THE word of GOD, (which you seem to agree with)  and Jesus was his son, and the one whom we were to emulate.  If you are so "in tune" with God and Jesus, why aren't you emulating Jesus??  You seem to be more like a classic, narcissistic, "God like" know it all, like many I have seen on psychiatric wards through the years.  Have I just met the only true "know it all"  I have experienced through the years?

[florduh]

9 minutes ago, Weezer said:

Mario, you claim to be (in my words) "called" by GOD.   For years I believed the New Testament was THE word of GOD, (which you seem to agree with)  and Jesus was his son, and the one whom we were to emulate.  If you are so "in tune" with God and Jesus, why aren't you emulating Jesus??  You seem to be more like a classic, narcissistic, "God like" know it all, like many I have seen on psychiatric wards through the years.  Have I just met the only true "know it all"  I have experienced through the years?

I'm wondering why he is labeled "Doubter" rather that "Christian." He certainly doesn't doubt his own bullshit - he believes it totally!

[alreadyGone]

Miu miu makes me want to be a better person.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

30 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

It’s cowardly and ignorant to want God to just hand us everything now.

I agree.  And, yes, I know both struggling and suffering.   I fail to see the relevance of your point, however. 

[Brothermario]

Hello, Weezer.

The Buddha was a rich prince who never left his palace. He married a beautiful woman and they had a beautiful child. One day he opened the door to his bedroom and saw his wife and child playing there. As he stood there looking at them, an inner voice told him that he needed to find a greater meaning to life than the one he was living locked away in a palace with everything provided to him. He shut the door and left the palace to never return. And he became the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, the teacher of billions.

 

The Buddha’s story is another story about a great person obediently following the Spirit of God, and changing human history.

 

Jesus spoke about The Buddha, and Zoroaster, and every great person who went before him when he said, “many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”

 

The Spirit of the Living God is now within us all for one reason only.

 

”For God so loved the world, he gave his only son ...”

Christianity isn’t what turned you off from God.

 

Your inability to see the greatness in us all, and especially in Jesus, did.

 

I felt less a person with every word I read from you.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

10 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

The Buddha was a rich prince who never left his palace. He married a beautiful woman and they had a beautiful child. One day he opened the door to his bedroom and saw his wife and child playing there. As he stood there looking at them, an inner voice told him that he needed to find a greater meaning to life than the one he was living locked away in a palace with everything provided to him. He shut the door and left the palace to never return. And he became the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, the teacher of billions.

This is an inaccurate account of how Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha. 

[Brothermario]

Taba,

 

Thomas Merton said, “When we discover who we are, we discover who God is”.

 

Many of us settle for mediocrity.

 

God gets lost in mediocrity.

[midniterider]

I'd rather follow the teachings of the Buddha than Jebus. 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

4 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

Taba,

 

Thomas Merton said, “When we discover who we are, we discover who God is”.

 

Many of us settle for mediocrity.

 

God gets lost in mediocrity.

I know who I am, and I am anything but mediocre. 

[Brothermario]

Redneck, no one knows accurately the story of The Buddha.

 

I told the story from what I know historically about him and what I know about the spirit of God.

 

And I write screenplays, short stories, and such with my Graduate degree in Professional Writing.

 

And I’m glad you’re not mediocre.

 

Many skeptics are.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

1 hour ago, Brothermario said:

It’s cowardly and ignorant to want God to just hand us everything now.

 

1 hour ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

I agree.  And, yes, I know both struggling and suffering.   I fail to see the relevance of your point, however. 

Bump

[florduh]

13 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

And I write screenplays, short stories, and such with my Graduate degree in Professional Writing.

Wow! Just like Faulkner, Vonnegut, Hemingway and Mark Twain!

 

You are a most amazing and talented person. What have you written that I might be familiar with?

[◊ Weezer ◊]

30 minutes ago, Brothermario said:

Christianity isn’t what turned you off from God.

 

Your inability to see the greatness in us all, and especially in Jesus, did.

 

I felt less a person with every word I read from you.

 

Not true.   I lost my faith in the bible as the word of God by praying to find truth, and studying the history of god(s), religion, how we got the Bible, and how Christianity came into being.  The inconsistencies of the bible and God were overwhelming.  After years of study decided that I had great respect for the teaching attributed to Jesus, whether he was real or not.  And the part of the "greatest commandment" to, love neighbor as self, is an evidence based solution to the salvation of mankind on earth.  So I have great respect for "Jesus." 

 

I don't know if there is a God or not, but from my study I am betting my life it is not the God of the Christian Bible.  I believe our "salvation" is to be found in the collective wisdom of mankind (ourselves), which has been in the world for ages, starting with first versions of the golden rule, and summed up beautifully by Jesus statement, but has basically been ignored by humans through the ages.  Is that terribly different to what you believe?

 

I'm sorry if my words made you feel "less a person", but you come across as an arrogant know it all with a God complex.  Nothing like the Jesus you champion. 

[midniterider]

18 minutes ago, florduh said:

Wow! Just like Faulkner, Vonnegut, Hemingway and Mark Twain!

 

You are a most amazing and talented person. What have you written that I might be familiar with?

 

He's also three time Heavyweight Boxing champ of the world, a concert pianist and television chef. 

[Brothermario]

The relevance of my point, Redneck, is a very simple one, which I made many posts ago, actually.

 

In the second century, a guy named Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

 

How can we become fully alive if all we do all day long is enjoy an easy life?

 

I’m 68 and look 50 because I ran half marathons for 15 years while bodybuilding, and painted my first house 54 years ago and am still painting big houses and now large factories. An easy life would have aged me. A selfish life drinking and smoking would have aged me even more.

 

In the same manner, the death of my brother when I was 16 and growing up in poverty made me a far better person than if I had never suffered such a loss or had to overcome such poverty.

 

God is glorified in his children who live their life with gratitude and achieve greatness with their own efforts.

 

My children and grandchildren will be the first to tell you that Papa has inspired them to do great things.

 

And I glory in them every day.

[florduh]

4 minutes ago, midniterider said:

 

He's also three time Heavyweight Boxing champ of the world, a concert pianist and television chef. 

He cooks TELEVISIONS?!?!?

1 minute ago, Brothermario said:

I’m 68 and look 50 because I ran half marathons for 15 years while bodybuilding, and painted my first house 54 years ago and am still painting big houses and now large factories. An easy life would have aged me. A selfish life drinking and smoking would have aged me even more.

This man is a fucking GOD!!!!!!!

 

[midniterider]

6 minutes ago, florduh said:

He cooks TELEVISIONS?!?!?

This man is a fucking GOD!!!!!!!

 

 

Yet humble like Jesus.