In a world without a "GOD".

[Natural Man]

Your reality tunnel or (belief system) is generally defined by genetics, parenting, early schooling, sexual awakening and blind luck.  That's why societal evolution tends to happen slowly.  There are set restrictions that humans must conform to at each state of growth.  You can't pass to the 4th grade until you've conformed to the requirements of the third grade and so on.  Humans have simplistic needs and tools to aquire those needs.  Crying, whinning behavior tends to bring mommy and love is the reward.  Dad's love requires a more complex set of skills.  Friends and packs require further sets of skills and conforming to succeed.  The sexualy awakening adds another powerful hormonal change and comes with all that baggage.  I would wager to say that most men are unconsiously attracted to their first love/sex girlfriend.  Maybe even marry women who resemble them.  Higher Education continues to conforming forces.  To get that important degree that provides money (survival tickets) needed to live you have to agree with their thoughts and memorize their appointed agendas.

Add 30 years of wage slaving, kikds of their own, debt and physical deterioation its no wonder this is the planet of walking wounded people.  All of your belief systems (BS) are an expression of the creation of your reality tunnel based off of specific neurological imprints at different time in human growth.  These reality tunnels also do an amazing job of rejecting infromation that doesn't fit into your "correct belief" system.  Welcome to all politics and religions here.

At the end of the day a Born again Christians would be born again Hindus if the set of their live was slightly altered and vice versa  

To be born is to be brainwashed.

and for animal (humans included)and vegetal life forms life is about surviving (outsmarting / outperforming and dominating others) fighting constantly, learning -how to better fuck others in the ass instead of being fucked by them-,  reproduce with the best female/male depending of our own strenghts/weaknesses, teach the strategies of survival you learned to an offspring, strangers or write them down in a book , which will make you feel "part of the big thing", "useful" ...and ultimately you die.  Going thru life blindly, subconsciously, imitating, following what the preprogrammed behaviors, beliefs that you didnt choose and that are embeded in your brain and body "tell you to do",  successfully -you dominate and people envy you, instead of being envious of them and dominated by them- makes you "happy" and admired by others, failing to do so makes you frustrated, depressed...but willing to do "better". Nobody likes losers, everyone like dominating characters. Want to learn from them how to become like them. Wether they re fair, moral, loyal or not doesnt really matter for most. People only see "power".
Most people fail to be successful , to dominate, to reach goals -most have none- and only go from a desilusion to another. Still, they have the automatically generated by the reptilian brain "simple" pleasures of life to motivate them to stay alive and wake up everyday. They can envision themselve taking a dump, beating someone else less powerful, eating, watching a soap that will allow them to flee the reality of their condition and imagine they re someone else , the character they re identifying with... And it makes their day.

[bighead]

Your reality tunnel or (belief system) is generally defined by genetics, parenting, early schooling, sexual awakening and blind luck.  That's why societal evolution tends to happen slowly.  There are set restrictions that humans must conform to at each state of growth.  You can't pass to the 4th grade until you've conformed to the requirements of the third grade and so on.  Humans have simplistic needs and tools to aquire those needs.  Crying, whinning behavior tends to bring mommy and love is the reward.  Dad's love requires a more complex set of skills.  Friends and packs require further sets of skills and conforming to succeed.  The sexualy awakening adds another powerful hormonal change and comes with all that baggage.  I would wager to say that most men are unconsiously attracted to their first love/sex girlfriend.  Maybe even marry women who resemble them.  Higher Education continues to conforming forces.  To get that important degree that provides money (survival tickets) needed to live you have to agree with their thoughts and memorize their appointed agendas.

Add 30 years of wage slaving, kikds of their own, debt and physical deterioation its no wonder this is the planet of walking wounded people.  All of your belief systems (BS) are an expression of the creation of your reality tunnel based off of specific neurological imprints at different time in human growth.  These reality tunnels also do an amazing job of rejecting infromation that doesn't fit into your "correct belief" system.  Welcome to all politics and religions here.

At the end of the day a Born again Christians would be born again Hindus if the set of their live was slightly altered and vice versa 

To be born is to be brainwashed.

  Damn!! We got Carl Yung in the house, great post man!

[Primemuscle]

Well, thanks for having patients with me  

No one is disagreeing with this statement, but the exact same is true about love and you refuse to accept this fact. The fact that no action and like you put it not even 20 of them can prove you love someone, if you think actions can prove love then name one action and I will prove that that action you stated is not proof.  point is we use the same rational reasoning in believing we love someone as Christians do when they believe their experience with God

Before you have a conversation about whether you can prove you love someone or they love you or not, you need to define love. That might be somewhat difficult to do since what love means to one person can be very different from what it means to another.

There is nothing wrong in having faith in something or someone. However faith does not make something so except perhaps to the person who believes it does. For example, if someone believes they have faith in God then for them that makes God real. It doesn't make god real for someone who does not have faith in God.

[bighead]

and for animal (humans included)and vegetal life forms life is about surviving (outsmarting / outperforming and dominating others) fighting constantly, learning -how to better fuck others in the ass instead of being fucked by them-,  reproduce with the best female/male depending of our own strenghts/weaknesses, teach the strategies of survival you learned to an offspring, strangers or write them down in a book , which will make you feel "part of the big thing", "useful" ...and ultimately you die.  Going thru life blindly, subconsciously, imitating, following what the preprogrammed behaviors, beliefs that you didnt choose and that are embeded in your brain and body "tell you to do",  successfully -you dominate and people envy you, instead of being envious of them and dominated by them- makes you "happy" and admired by others, failing to do so makes you frustrated, depressed...but willing to do "better". Nobody likes losers, everyone like dominating characters. Want to learn from them how to become like them. Wether they re fair, moral, loyal or not doesnt really matter for most. People only see "power".
Most people fail to be successful , to dominate, to reach goals -most have none- and only go from a desilusion to another. Still, they have the automatically generated by the reptilian brain "simple" pleasures of life to motivate them to stay alive and wake up everyday. They can envision themselve taking a dump, beating someone else less powerful, eating, watching a soap that will allow them to flee the reality of their condition and imagine they re someone else , the character they re identifying with... And it makes their day.

you are a repressed homosexual.

[Primemuscle]

Blah, blah, blah....And it makes their my day.

Fixed!

[OTHstrong]

Before you have a conversation about whether you can prove you love someone or they love you or not, you need to define love. That might be somewhat difficult to do since what love means to one person can be very different from what it means to another.

There is nothing wrong in having faith in something or someone. However faith does not make something so except perhaps to the person who believes it does. For example, if someone believes they have faith in God then for them that makes God real. It doesn't make god real for someone who does not have faith in God.

EXCELLENT POST. What you said is all I have been trying to say all along.

[Man of Steel]

I don't think I've ever played the "HAHA I'M SMART UR DUMB!!" atheist card on you, have I? If so, it was when I was grumpy, and I apologize. We can have fruitful discussions without any assumptions about intelligence holding us back

It receives my stamp of approval (I'd complain about the unnecessary use of ellipses but I need to prioritize my efforts here)!

No worries, I was just goofin around....you've never been ugly in your approach...it's all good.

[Man of Steel]

I knew it wouldn't change anything because you have given up reason and logic in favor for faith and belief. You can't think for yourself and prefer some ancient text to do it for you.

I've honestly asked myself is there a God? it's how I became and Atheist.

As I said, most likely today I would read the block of text out of respect...and I have.  Respectfully, I've read this type of stuff before and I agree with this, but honestly I reached these conclusions independently in the past.  I fully recognize the shortcomings of empiricism, but my position is outside the scope of this block of text.  I'm not suggesting that my personal experience is sufficient proof in and of itself.  Again, my point is simple, if you want to understand my experience and recognize the proof then you need to have experience the risen Christ yourself.  I know millions of people speak of their personal experiences and individually they are meaningless, but as a collective they're powerful; still, only aligning yourself with the collective provides you the missing perspective and fills in the gap.  As I've said, refuse to do that and you're simply left with the block of text and no insider perspective.  Does it require a "leap of faith"?  Absolutely.  I know you atheists scoff at the very notion of faith, but it's the crux of the argument and the missing piece.   Human beings reasoning faith away doesn't change that fact.  Blanketing oneself with intellectual arrogance and calling others deluded idiots doesn't change the fact.  Giving the ole "even if God is real I wouldn't want to know that God" copout doesn't change the fact.  It's about faith.  You have to want to know Christ?  Then you have to open the door yourself because he isn't gonna open it for you; still, the door is never locked.  Again, I know this is meaningless to you personally, but my words are aimed at others that haven't made a choice.  Would I love for everyone, including the staunch Getbig atheists to have a change of heart?  Without a doubt, but I know adults refuse that kind of change.  They have to want to change and must experience everything on their own regardless of what everyone around them has already experienced.  "Hey Joe, this milk smells sour, it's gone bad!"  "Here let me smell that......yep, it's gone bad."   

[Primemuscle]

....my point is simple, if you want to understand my experience and recognize the proof then you need to have experience the risen Christ yourself.

Tell us about how you experienced the risen Christ.  Explain how we can have this experience and how it will provide us the proof you speak of. 

What about people who have faith in religions, such as Judaism as one example, which don't believe Christ is the son of God? Does this invalidate their belief in God or a higher power? Will all the millions of good and honorable people the world over who are Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim etc. not be allowed into heaven? Is heaven only for the believers? Where will all these fine religious people go when all is said and done?

Did you know that Catholic religion teaches that if a baby dies before it is baptized, its soul will go to limbo and not to heaven because it is born with original sin?  At the end of the day, God will decide if all those babies and others who have been waiting for an eternity in limbo will go to heaven or hell. This is thanks to Adam and Eve's mistakes which resulted in God casting them out of Eden. If you don't agree with this religious teaching or ask for proof, you are told you must take it on faith.

Why is it that only when something cannot be proved or is otherwise difficult for us to fathom, we are told to take it on faith?

[Man of Steel]

Your reality tunnel or (belief system) is generally defined by genetics, parenting, early schooling, sexual awakening and blind luck.  That's why societal evolution tends to happen slowly.  There are set restrictions that humans must conform to at each state of growth.  You can't pass to the 4th grade until you've conformed to the requirements of the third grade and so on.  Humans have simplistic needs and tools to aquire those needs.  Crying, whinning behavior tends to bring mommy and love is the reward.  Dad's love requires a more complex set of skills.  Friends and packs require further sets of skills and conforming to succeed.  The sexualy awakening adds another powerful hormonal change and comes with all that baggage.  I would wager to say that most men are unconsiously attracted to their first love/sex girlfriend.  Maybe even marry women who resemble them.  Higher Education continues to conforming forces.  To get that important degree that provides money (survival tickets) needed to live you have to agree with their thoughts and memorize their appointed agendas.

Add 30 years of wage slaving, kikds of their own, debt and physical deterioation its no wonder this is the planet of walking wounded people.  All of your belief systems (BS) are an expression of the creation of your reality tunnel based off of specific neurological imprints at different time in human growth.  These reality tunnels also do an amazing job of rejecting infromation that doesn't fit into your "correct belief" system.  Welcome to all politics and religions here.

At the end of the day a Born again Christians would be born again Hindus if the set of their live was slightly altered and vice versa 

To be born is to be brainwashed.

so products of environments, yes?   good stuff. 

[Kahn.N.Singh]

While the current topic of discussion at Getbig Theological Seminary seems to focus on the phenomenological aspects of knowing or experiencing God, I think we ought first articulate a coherent response to that age-old conundrum, The Problem of the Evil Noggin Beast, i.e., if God is omnibenevolent, why does He allow the existence of this?

[Fortress]

Not clear if you were a believer or a strong student of theology?  Regardless I'm sorry you lost your faith if that's the case and hope one day you can regain it.

I've met a few atheists that claim to be former Christians that turned to atheism.  Some just flat out lie about that fact simply to strengthen their arguments, others were misguided/misinformed and were nominal Christians at best, but there are some that were genuine believers that decided to give up their faith.  Those folks shared one thing in common in that they prayed and prayed for an ill/injured loved one to be healed and unfortunately the loved one passed.  That type of situation is the most common I hear or they suffered through some terrible abuse.  I've encountered some that claim it was pure study and science, history and philosophy that turned them from Christianity and later find out something deeply emotional and tragic occurred that was the real culprit.  

I certainly hope you haven't lost someone close to you or that you suffered a personal tragedy.

Was a total believer. And I NEVER want to again devolve into one who has "faith". What a laughable curse.

Tragedy has happened since being UNborn and I thank my stars religion and faith has been nowhere in my sights. With strength of mind and body I have risen above a need to utilize a crutch as lame as religion and belief in a god.

My mind is my own, thank you very much. 

[The Abdominal Snoman]

Tell us about how you experienced the risen Christ.  Explain how we can have this experience and how it will provide us the proof you speak of. 

What about people who have faith in religions, such as Judaism as one example, which don't believe Christ is the son of God? Does this invalidate their belief in God or a higher power? Will all the millions of good and honorable people the world over who are Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim etc. not be allowed into heaven? Is heaven only for the believers? Where will all these fine religious people go when all is said and done?

Did you know that Catholic religion teaches that if a baby dies before it is baptized, its soul will go to limbo and not to heaven because it is born with original sin?  At the end of the day, God will decide if all those babies and others who have been waiting for an eternity in limbo will go to heaven or hell. This is thanks to Adam and Eve's mistakes which resulted in God casting them out of Eden. If you don't agree with this religious teaching or ask for proof, you are told you must take it on faith.

Why is it that only when something cannot be proved or is otherwise difficult for us to fathom, we are told to take it on faith?

[King Shizzo]

Stalemate of peace. 

[Hulkotron]

I've deep-dicked the mothers of everyone who's posted more than once in this thread

[IrishMuscle84]

RELIGION........the never ending debate/debate of enternity.

[dr.chimps]

While the current topic of discussion at Getbig Theological Seminary seems to focus on the phenomenological aspects of knowing or experiencing God, I think we ought first to articulate a coherent response to that age-old conundrum, The Problem of the Evil Noggin Beast, i.e., if God is omnibenevolent, why does He allow the existence of this?

Hehe. Because it is his pleasure?   

[King Shizzo]

While the current topic of discussion at Getbig Theological Seminary seems to focus on the phenomenological aspects of knowing or experiencing God, I think we ought first to articulate a coherent response to that age-old conundrum, The Problem of the Evil Noggin Beast, i.e., if God is omnibenevolent, why does He allow the existence of this?

Eve was made from the noggin of Adam.

[cephissus]

Although no satisfactory theodicy can be posited for God allowing such an abomination as tbombz to exist, it might have been for the "goof of all time."

hahaha i've gotta watch this

[King Shizzo]

Page 13 xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

[wes]

[Raymondo]

While the current topic of discussion at Getbig Theological Seminary seems to focus on the phenomenological aspects of knowing or experiencing God, I think we ought first to articulate a coherent response to that age-old conundrum, The Problem of the Evil Noggin Beast, i.e., if God is omnibenevolent, why does He allow the existence of this?

God did not allow the existence of that; it would be more to the point to speculate on the inherited personality traits coupled with widespread culture-specific memes (often disseminated by mass-media) combined with the inevitable peer pressure that turned a young and fresh faced man named Taylor to a prematurely-aged, steroid-injecting, forum-haunting, attention-seeking creature called tbombz.

[wes]

God did not allow the existence of that; it would be more to the point to speculate on the inherited personality traits coupled with widespread culture-specific memes (often disseminated by mass-media) combined with the inevitable peer pressure that turned a young man and fresh faced man named Taylor to a prematurely-aged, steroid-injecting, forum-haunting, attention-seeking creature called tbombz.

TEAM NOGGIN IN THE HIZOUSE!! 

[King Shizzo]

 

[dr.chimps]

Great pic by Sexual Mustard. I always wondered whether TA got the original. That would be such a keeper.