Toni Lavis:

<<Also, did you even bother listening to the podcast?>>

With my deafness I can't hear much of anything

To Yuyustu. You've mentioned that it's good that I hold my position of God being the God of Israel. Yet you rob me of fully holding my faith. By saying He is God, and there is no other god then Him, it is in agreement with what He has said through the bible. It is also in agreement with the rejection of false religions and idolatry that is also within the bible. To do anything less is not about arrogance, but about being unfaithful.

This topic was started as a way to bring more people to God, and encourage those who already believe. A simple observation that can be checked by anyone willing to test it's merit. If it's true great, there's the divine love that is available to anyone who looks for Him. If not, shoot, no harm and it was at least tested for the merit and instead of the copout that nothing sopiritual is relialbe and can be proven or disproven.

Shoot me for being so arrogant to be faithful, and hope others could share in the encouragement that comes from knowing God and knowing they can rely on Him.

To Big Nana. It's good to have faith and hope in God. But let's be fair, not every belief is correct. If this is not respectful, so be it. What I'm saying isn't the harshest of truths, and people can check it to see if it could be as true as it is. That God both loves us and we can be better then we were before through our faith with God. This isn't so outrageous as the teachings I've heard that link faithfulness with prosperity and ask for donations so the donors will be rich too. Nor is it the harsh teachings of varying harshness leveling out our sins and wickedness. All it is is a first step to looking for God. Neither in the false teaching department nor the fierce brimstone lecture that every person should one day in their lives face with their own wrongs and sins.

To Toni Lavis. What do you need to be saved from. Yourself, the world, and death. Essentially everything sin is mucking up. Not that you actually give a damn, but you did ask.

To AJ Philips. I should apologize for not speaking as well as you. Were you actually confused at what I meant that you accuse me of arrogance when you regularly flaunt your own spiteful arrogance. Heck look after that comment. Last time you used a fallacy argument? "0:00." But for the record, if proof or disproof of God is of value, then as previously pointed out it goes more then philosophy and logic problems. We can come to logical errors by not understanding the situation correctly. Experience, and verifiability is stronger then logic issues. You should be excited, I've given an observation that anyone can test for themselves. Seek God and see the results. It is not my opinion that God loves you, but the testominy of the bible. Want proof? Test it!

To anyone here. Most of your comments are a trial of anyone's patience. God loves you and would celebrate with all of Heaven if you turned to Him. (Again not my opinion). For that I am trying to give anyone who is willing a finding I've seen in my own life. You can test it to see if it has merit. Or you can ignore it, and continue to build on whatever this culture of hate has filled you with regarding God. Test it, or continue to bash Christianity and be suprised that it did not fall apart. Not now. Not in 80 years from now. Maybe at that time you'll wonder why it lasted and question God "are you really there?" But if you are lucky, you'll find Him sooner and have a much better life because if it.

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

I am sorry to hear that I rob you of fully holding your faith. This is not my intention and if that's how my responses affect you, then you should not read my responses.

«You've mentioned that it's good that I hold my position of God being the God of Israel»

Yes, and so you should!

This doesn't mean that others should necessarily hold that very position, but for you it is good, so please keep it.

«By saying He is God, and there is no other god then Him, it is in agreement with what He has said through the bible.»

Indeed, He is God. He represents God to you and being a Christian, no other god should fulfil this purpose.

Notice that the bible never claims that other gods do not exist. Rather, it commands: "Thou shalt have none other gods before me", "Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them". This is further explained in Leviticus 25:55-26:1 : "For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God."

As a Christian who identifies with the children of Israel, you should follow these instructions.

«To do anything less is not about arrogance, but about being unfaithful.»

Indeed, when applied to your own practices, not others'. Arrogance only comes in when you claim that everyone else ought to follow the same path as yours, or else they would not be saved.

It is good that you want to bring more people to God, to share the hope and encourage others to find the divine love that is available to anyone who looks for Him. However, your path is not the only and others may come to God using other paths which suit them better.

So now my alleged arrogance is “spiteful”, Not_Now.Soon?

<<Were you actually confused at what I meant that you accuse me of arrogance when you regularly flaunt your own spiteful arrogance.>>

No, I wasn’t sure what you were talking about because your wording was quite muddled and, as I explained in my last post, because your examples of my supposed arrogance were either not a display of arrogance to begin with, or were things that I had never said. This next one of yours is a good example:

<<Heck look after that comment. Last time you used a fallacy argument? "0:00.">>

Um, no, the zero minutes and zero seconds was the amount of time since I had last pointed out a fallacy in someone else’s argument (something mhaze was alleging I no longer do because he supposedly called me out for misapplying the common fallacies as some sort of a last resort tactic (his mendacity is breathtaking, I know)). I was not claiming that I have never used a fallacy.

Yet another example of alleged arrogance that was never there to begin with.

<<… if proof or disproof of God is of value, then as previously pointed out it goes more then philosophy and logic problems.>>

I’m not sure what you're trying to say here, sorry.

<<We can come to logical errors by not understanding the situation correctly.>>

Sure. If you could tell me where any of my logic has failed, then I’ll be happy to correct it.

<<Experience, and verifiability is stronger then logic issues.>>

No, I’m afraid logic always wins out, so long as the logic is sound. If it is a logical impossibility for an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent god to exist in a world where suffering and evil exist, then claiming you have experienced such a god doesn’t trump that.

<<… I've given an observation that anyone can test for themselves. Seek God and see the results.>>

None of the results you or others describe sound very reliable. I’d much prefer results that did not have other, more rational explanations.

Continued…

…Continued

<<It is not my opinion that God loves you, but the testominy of the bible.>>

How do you know the Bible is right?

<<Most of your comments are a trial of anyone's patience.>>

If requesting evidence and explaining why I find your evidence unconvincing tests the patience of everyone else, then that is unfortunate, but I cannot be held responsible for the hypersensitivity of others. I understand that we still live in times where we’re not supposed to question religious belief (unless it’s Islam). However, no idea should be immune to criticism.

<<God loves you and would celebrate with all of Heaven if you turned to Him.>>

Anything that could qualify as a god would know what it would take to convince me of its existence. It is not up to me to play Hide and Seek with a god who supposedly wants to play silly buggers. The ball is in His court.

<<You can test it to see if it has merit.>>

I did. I found no merit.

On a different note, I have to say that it is rather disappointing to see your tone deteriorate since we first discussed religion five months ago. I have made a conscious effort to remain polite in my communications with you because I know from experience that no matter how nice a person a theist may be, that can change very quickly if their beliefs are challenged, and if that happens, I want to ensure that I played as little a role in that as possible.

So, why do it then? Good question.

I do it anyway because people can change their minds and, in hindsight, I would have liked someone to try to change my mind when I was a Christian, no matter how uncomfortable the experience may have been at the time. Leaving people to hold irrational beliefs does them no favours, in my opinion. If someone really needs the belief, then they'll hold on to it no matter what. But I've never known of a person who felt that their life was destroyed because they saw reason.