georgerussia

Agree. It looks like every bill which goes through Congress gets some strings attached, which are hardly relevant. Is this typical for US? I don't remember anything like that in Europe or Russia. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

The way I know it is "When a person talks to God we call it prayer. When God talks to the person we call it schizophrenia". * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

But it doesn't make me think on it as the way Jesus talks to me. Do you? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No, in fact I'm asking why the God allowed this to happen. If I see a neighbor kid crawling to the road, I would definitely rush my ass to pick him up from running cars - even though I'm not omnipotent like God, and I wouldn't even say I love this kid. Being omnipresent he obviously knew it would happen; if he loved them, why didn't he protect them in some way? The only valid answer seems to be like "God works in misterious ways", but it will ruin the things completely. Which ends up (back to the topic) that if someone decides to bring kids to the church, they need to choose the church where the people "received the love". The problem is, everyone is claiming that they did receive this love. How'd you know who is lying, and who is not? Well, they all say they produce this fruit. How're you going to check? Some animals don't do it just for reproduction either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behavior#Sex_for_pleasure I would never call it a "gift" - it's a common sense. If you have sex just to satisfy yourself, you don't even need a partner. You can do it yourself (and usually better than most partners) :P Well, I was really happy, and I still think it was damn good idea well worth it, as it brought a lot of benefits. Never considered "cherry" worth anything at all. Like any desires, sex also needs to be self-controlled, and is no different from satisfying other instincts like eating. The tribals I read about weren't poor by their standards. Sure, none of them had a car or PC - but they weren't starving either. I don't know. I have never met him - maybe he wasn't. But nowadays priests definitely are. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

You still didn't answer the question. Ok, let's add it to the list of questions you cannot answer, and move on. You could call it "revealed". But I will call it "told", and stand on my position that your "truth" is based on hearsay, cannot survive cross-reference check, and therefore has little to no value. If you look on Biblical sins like wearing wool and cotton clothes together, eating crawfish and working Sundays, I could hardly see any lust there. Know what? Each of them says those things; you're not the only one. Baptists, Jehova Witnesses, Protestants, Catholics, Eastern Orthodoxes - to name most known - they all say exactly what you say. To me it sounds like an advertisment for a new drug. Sometime I do, sometime I do not. Sex just for sex is good enough, and its purpose is not to satisfy the heart which is just a muscle pump. There is no sacredness in sex. Everyone in Nature does it, mostly for breeding; some species do it also for fun. I assume you know that sex is not limited to Biblical married man + woman in missionary position, right? I didn't have vodka, was too young for this, and it wasn't even party - my lady didn't want us to be seen together since I was still a high school student and she was married. There was no passion at all, it was just fun for both of us with mutual benefits. Was a pretty typical story at that time (late 80'). You could only see its beauty when your basic needs are satisfied. If you're suffering, it's very hard for you to enjoy sunset. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

You're no different from the ancient people who though storm and lighting is the word of God, and that you need to pray a lot to protect yourself from plague. I hope in a couple of years we'll know much more about our emotions - but we could already say that it's definitely not miracle. Now when you have done your completely irrelevant monologue (check the question and your answer), could I repeat my question, and ask you again how'd you comment the horrible death of those kids in China if your loving God so cared about them? Didn't you said it yourself that a human could be deceived, and will not be able to see he is deceived? Which basically means you need cross-references to make sure it's truth. So how you could see that there's truth revealed in your heart, and you're not just deceived? I thought my reply was very clear, and didn't need any assumptions. Which parts of it was unclear? Dude, that's exactly what you have been TOLD! Let's make it clear: 1. Have you ever seen Jesus? Did he prove to you beyond the reasonable doubt he is real Jesus, and not a fake one? 2. Have you ever personally talked to this Jesus? Have you asked all those questions, and got the answers personally from him? Were those answers unambiguous? If you cannot say "yes" to ALL of those questions, this is exactly what I'm telling you - all you have is hearsay, and you have been TOLD all those things. A lot of Muslims, Buddists, and atheists are no different from you in this matter. You could even be a hardcore criminal and sinner, and still be happy. Happiness is inside you, it's not outside, and you do not need Jesus to be happy. No. You were TOLD you're living in the grace of God. Maybe you've been just deceived. And Jesus explained you nothing - you just read the book you were TOLD was true. Well, the problem is that every of them (including you) claims that they are the only true practicers and followers of Christ. However, since they're basically different in terms what actions consider true following, common sense tells me that only one of them could be true follower (or maybe even none of them). Don't waste your time. If you wanna help, just send me a check. There seems to be a good chance there is no connection at all. So when I have sex with condom with a nice lady, then my condom shares the connection with her? Or with me? Or with both of us? Does the factory which made the condom participate in this connection? Does the hotel we got a room in? Your "connection" chain very quickly gets as big and therefore useless as a LinkedIn network. That is how you could usually spot a typical Christian - they believe they know the truth, even so it's obviously groundless to anyone else. Dude, you do not KNOW it. You just BELIEVE in it. But you think you know it, and that's why I don't want you or anyone like you around my kids. You most likely have never been there in your whole life. I could tell you from personal experience that when you're going to sleep hungry because there is nothing to eat for dinner, the last thing you notice is how beautyful sunset is. And the way you use the word "fact" scares me. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

and stop signs. Somehow in NorCal it looks like the people who planned the roads had no idea that "Yield" sign exists. We have "Stop" signs everywhere, including the places we don't need them at all. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

The problem is that you cannot say for sure you "feel it", since the prerequisite to feel it is to BELIEVE that you feel it. It's the same as saying that 2+2=6, and you have the evidence, but "you need to believe that 2+2=6 in order to be ready to accept the evidence." Point is, if you already believe in it, you don't need any further evidence. You must have missed the topic where we just discussed those things. Basically there is no credible evidence of Jesus healing people and stuff; all the evidence you have is basically hearsay, and is no different from you quoting the Bible. For example, someone might have stolen it to pursue further the legend that Jesus is a son of God. It would not be the first time the priests falsifying things to make their religion look true. They all could be falsified. Again, it would not be the first time for religious authorities to falsify the evidence. No problem, I'll believe you as soon as you show me the person who was bitten by a rabid animal, developed symptoms of rabies, did not take any medicine, and survived. I'll also take the one who got rid of HIV or Herpes Simplex by praying Jesus as well. We all heard stories who survived the cancer by Jesus name - but on the side they all went through chemotherapy, just in case. No different from the person healed from plague, who also took antibiotics. Even not taking antibiotics is not 100% guarantee you'll die; some people survived plague without any requirement of Jesus. There were clinical studies done on the groups who prayed Jesus and who didn't - and, as expected, the study found no difference between those groups. By the way, what you say about the people who prayed - but still died? We just discussed a recent example here. So you agree that God might want to have only serial killers in Heaven, ans we might not understand why it's happening, but we'll see good when it's over? I don't see it either. The configuration changed recently; I added it before changes. You might want to ask Sangiro. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I bet Catholic church doesn't like a lot of things your church does, so you're even. Not only I read the Gospels, I also studied several religions. It was long time ago, but I could tell you right now that EACH of them says that they're the only true religion, and therefore only they represent Jesus. The truth is that the Bible is not a set of straightforward rules - in fact it is full of things which could be interpreted in a lot of different ways. As a result you now have more than 100(!) different religions - all of them based on the Bible. And of course each of them says (and could prove it with appropriate interpretation) that their way to follow Jesus is the only right way, and therefore this is the place you have to go and give your generous contributions to. The one who follows religion is a believer. The one who follows a spirit is a ghost hunter :P It cannot because you (intentionally?) mix incompatible things. Encyclopedia explains what the love is. It doesn't explain how you love your children or your Jesus. Sure, 70 thousand people in China can already confirm that. Probably they were all sinners. I'm sure you think so. As I said before, every religion based on the Bible teaches that they are the only one who interprets the Bible correctly, and everyone else is "misunderstanding", "ignoring" or "not seeing the Truth". What for? I don't want to start a theological debate, it doesn't make any sense. As I said before, there is a lot of interpretations for almost everything in the Bible, and there is no way person A could prove that their interpretation is correct, and the interpretation B is not. Thus I prefer not to discuss the Bible quotes, and concentrate on more important things, like the existense of the God itself. Basically what really happened, you were TOLD that you were slave to sin, and before this had no idea about it. And you were TOLD that if you do this, this and that, your heart will open, Jesus/Krishna/Odin will come to it and will make you feel better. Nothing, however, really changed. You're no different from a poor man who was hypnotized to think he became rich after reading the Bible. He would come here and write how reading the Bible made him rich. Would be he lying? No; he believes in it. However, does it make things true? No, it does not. I offer you to accept the love of my microwave. I have accepted it, and my mind has been freed, my life improved, I became rich, married a beautyful girl and has gorgeous kids. I know the truth now, and my truth is more truthworthy than your truth, and in fact it's the only truth in this world. I'm now saved, and will go to Heaven, and I want you to go to Heaven as well. All you have to do is open your heart and accept the love of my microwave. As soon as you believes my microwave loves you and frees you you'll feel the love, and feel the freedom - I promise - or your money back. No, it does not. Basically everything you feel is a chemical reaction in your brain, so it doesn't go anywhere deeper. Read this for start. I apologize it's basically layman level, but I only run a quick search. Did you know those things are studied? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

So if someone believes that it's best for them to get a bomb and destroy a lot of people and you'll go to Heaven - you think they should teach it to their kids? Not at all. We judge the person attitude by seeing and hearing how they behave toward us. You do not need someone to tell you that Hillary Clinton loves you, but you must believe in it in order to receive her love. There is very good evidence, even scientific evidence. Do you know that your brain experiences the same feelings when you're sleeping and have a dream of someone loving you? Now when you got your sermons done, could you please provide a reasonable explanation why your God who deeply loves all of us (according to you) just let the Chinese children die? I would definitely save those children if I were omnipresent and omnipotent, even though I couldn't say I deeply love them all. So it shouldn't be a problem for your God, right? So where's his love? Ungrounded; I do not feel separated and enslaved, and I bet you can't prove your point. And the sins which keep me separated and enslaved, I suspect, are that I wear together clothes made from wool and cotton, eat crawfish and work on Saturdays. No, I don't think so. Do you think my microwave hates you? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

You mean the Pope? Humans have been using religion to manipulate people since the old times. A religion is a set of beliefs and practices, often centered upon specific supernatural and moral claims about reality, the cosmos, and human nature, and often codified as prayer, ritual, and religious law. (C) Wikipedia. Yes, of course. You might be surprised, but most people who're duscussing with Christians on Internet forums have read the Bible, and usually know much more about it than most Christians themselves. I don't understand you. You can't believe that a microwave - a real thing you personally could see and touch - could express the love of the creator. But somehow you have no problems to believe in some mythical Jesus expressing the love - and you personally have never seen or touched him, just read about him in the book full of "misunderstandings" and contradictions. That's because you need to open your heart and accept it. Truth is always difficult to accept, you need to believe in what I said. Like my microwave, my kids are real, so it's easy to see just by checking my attitude to them. Your case, however, is different - you seem to love something you have never seen, and have no idea whether it exist or not. PS. I still waiting for the previous reply. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Will it be too much to ask you to address my actual response, and not my humbleness and seeings? I'd especially like to see your comments about the God who loves us, and how different is his love comparing to Osama Bin Laden (maybe he also loves us in the same way as your God?) Definitely! Faith gives a lot of power to the shepperd, who could now easy manipulate his herd. This is just crap. I could 100% beleive that the power is in my microwave, and that is the absolute best way to recieve it - even though I do not have any evidence for this. But it doesn't affect anyone else. I understand you perfectly. You are saying that what you believe is right because you believe in it, no evidence needed. And we need just to believe in what you believe, and we won't need any evidence either. This, however, doesn't make it right. The obvious example is translating your beliefs to microwave. My microwave is even better than Jesus - I could show it to anyone, and they could see it's here and it's real. Thus I could say that believing in love from my microwave made me and five million people happy, therefore is a right thing to do, and you should just accept love from my microwave, and open your heart to it. So believing in "Jesus loves you" is no different than believing in "my microwave loves you", and the evidence available actually favors microwave. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

The problem in your quote is that before it happens, the following things must be proven: 1. "That" exist; 2. "That" created us; 3. "That" loves us; So far nobody was able to prove beyond the reasonable doubt even the first one. There is absolutely no proof regarding the second one, and it's not generally possible to prove the third one. Therefore you're actually suggesting that "it's not bad to convert a child to a religious nut who will blindly believe whatever he's told", and this is not something I would agree is "not a bad thing". Your logic is flawed. If you're saying the kid must believe that he will receive any love BEFORE he actually receives anything, you could say the same about evething around you. For example, you could say the kid must believe your microwave loves him - and it will work for them, since the prerequisite is that they believe in it. It does not mean, however, than the microwave could actually love anyone. You could say exactly the same about your microwave. In fact, it has a great advantage comparing to made-up Jesus - you do not have to prove the kids that your microwave exist. Could you show them your Jesus? I wouldn't blame the world. The kids might consider it strange that your Jesus, who allegedly loves them so much, just let the kids in China to die in horrible death under collapsed childcare and school buildings. Then you'll have to mention (if you're honest) that your God hates gays, considers women inferior to men, and has wiped the whole population of Earth at least once. You may have really hard time to explain them that's the sign of true love. You must be programmed to see this as sign of great love. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Sure. But Royd's point was exactly about physical fitness. We could apply science to it - it could be studied, it could be measured, and we know what actions lead to improving the physical fitness. Goind to heaven, however, is completely different issue. Nobody could say for sure there is Heaven, and nobody could prove that you need to do this and that to be there. There is no agreement even between different Christian religions on the topic, not to mention other religions. Also the "God works in misterious ways" quote means that no matter what you do and how good you are, there is simply no way to make sure you'll end up in Heaven. Maybe the God will only put rapists and serial killers in Heaven - after all, the God works in misterious ways, so it's definitely an option to consider. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I don't get it. Considering body functions and improving the physical conditions (i.e. preventing 200lbs 10yo) going to church for three hours is not at all different than playing a video game for three hours. And what if you ask the five yr. old on Sunday morning, if he wants to go to church OR if he wants to go to the beach to swim in the ocean and play voleyball with you? And which choice would be honestly better for preventing the conditions you described above? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I have never seen any church or religion which would encourage actual learning about Jesus. They only encourage remembering and frequently repeating their own teaching about Jesus, in most cases not even mentioning there are 100+ other teachings about Jesus, none of which could be proven to be true. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I wouldn't even say they _should_ be exposed to the church. They might, but definitely shouldn't. Show her some recent pedophilia cases among Fathers. Note that none of them was ever suspected before the things went discovered. Is she sure it's not the case in her church as well? Because someone brought her to the church when she was young. I'd even say that if Jesus was so powerful, nobody would ever need anyone to hear about him. We'd all born knowing about Jesus. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

As a "bare bone" it's pretty easy to define as survival level. Maintaining old roads? Yes. Building new roads? No. You have a brigde? Maintain it. You have a permanent traffic congestion, and desperately need a new brigde, or you need to retrofit the old bridge to make it seismically safe? Forget about it. Defense? Yes. Iraq and Afganistan? No. ATC? No, user fees. All research? On a "remaining fungs" measure. There are only four necessary things - sunlight, air, water and food. The history of mankind proved it. Not necessary, as the government income does not have to be maximized. Depending on the funding (healthcare - private or public? education - private or public?), the government income should just maintain some reasonable level. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

And add online voting system. The congresspeople are not allowed to pass the bill if less than half voters approved it (if more, they might pass or not pass the bill; in case it doesn't pass it must get 3/4 of voters). * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

What does "to the bone" mean? I though it means "cut them to the level of only maintaining necessary services", but it looks like you meant "cut them completely". But the opposite way does not work either! Let's increase taxes to cut consumer spending to the bone. Now every government agency maintains a huge personal park, and wants Jim's service to mow the lawns. Now Jim has enough work to hire an army of helpers, who got free health insurance. Every pothole has a personal guard, and the bridge is checked every day and painted twice a year. Jim should be happy now? But in fact Jim does not even need a single helper - he already makes his bone by doing three lawns a week, and it doesn't make any sense for him to work more just to earn more money for the government. We had many success stories in Soviet Union, where everyone generally got the same salary no matter how you work (and you cannot be fired either). It's already happening by the way; I personally know several guys who could do more than they do now. The customers beg them to do more, and ready to pay for that - but they're not doing it, since in this tax bracket it doesn't make any sense. Then you have to throw in corporate equity and offshore accounts, and the government gets no money out of it. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, there are countries where only tower controllers (and not even all of them) speak English :) Actually, a lot of people in Europe, Japan, China do not speak English outside capitals and major tourist places. It was always funny to see someone _expecting_ everyone around to speak English in Russia, Japan or Spain. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

What difference for me should it make how many people follow those texts if I don't give shit about 'em? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

...in USA. They now go public in England or in Europe. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Not really. The bomb explosion in a plane has a good chance to crash the plane, killing everyone there. The same explosion in a train car wouldn't probably kill even everyone in this car, not to mention the whole train. If you look on recent terrorist activity against trains, all of them blowed up the railroads to derail the trains, and it's useless to check passenger bags to prevent that. Even in those cases the number of wounded/killed people rarely was significant. The railroad system, however, is very expensive to build nowadays comparing to 19 century. Just take a look how much money and time it takes the Santa Clara county to complete the Bart extension from Fremont to San Jose - and that's only 17 miles of railroad! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No, it is not necessary. You could call the act of shooting the Quaran by a army soldier stupid even if you don't consider Quaran itself. I could call burning the Bibles by Israeli religious orthodox stupid as well - even though I think the Bible is just full of crap. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *