Choosing a faith

Actually it's a reference to what had already happened, the destruction of the Temple and the retreat to the stronghold at Masada.--Percy

A scholar outside his field is just another layman. Dawkins is brilliant and his span of knowledge is vast, but while true polymaths do exist I don't think many would consider Dawkins one of them. His comments on religion have always, at least to me, seemed driven much more by irrational hatred than by intellect.Fred Hoyle, if you've heard of him, is a good example of the pitfalls that lie in wait of geniuses who step too far outside their field of expertise.--Percy

On a positive note, at least you're not predicting the second coming.The church is no more connected to their presumed divine than it ever was. Hence, any changes will be man-made and completely unrelated to any divine reality, should such exist. If this discussion has taught you just one thing one would hope it would be that "IMHO" is equivalent to "I have no evidence-based rationale for what I'm about to say." Yes indeedy. And you're not half bad at it. The conundrum is why you can't take the next step and see that all your thinking is arbitrary with respect to the Bible, and driven from within with respect to yourself. --Percy

That's quite a proclamation. Do you extend that premise so as to say that humanity's changes going forward will also be unrelated to any divine reality? (should One exist )

As he refuses to engage with me. I will post this comment here.What does he mean by "the church"? There is no "church". There are multitudes of churches with a full spectrum of different beliefs.

There isn't much difference between your Democrats and Republicans on private property rights. As I have said to you before, there is no freedom without equality. As longs as slaves are not treated equally (e.g. the right to form unions) they are not free. Nobody does.However, social welfare is the NUMBER ONE responsibility of society. And if the churches don't do it, the government HAS to. God's judgement is small consolation to people living on the streets when it's minus 20 Celsius. There's that word "harpy" again. Do you even know what it means?

"We" don't ALL believe that. Not by a long shot. It's obviously nonsense. Miracles, for example, leave evidence.

Actually no. I will have to look it up. I got it from you, however. You once referred to Faith (our member) as a harpy.

No. There are not. All you believers ever do is re-state the "evidence that has already been refuted. There are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than two political persuasions.

There goes that Left authoritarianism again! Not only have you used the word evidence as your holy mantra, you have the audacity to proclaim what is and is not nonsense. Which is itself nonsense. Theo prefers the term word salad which jar used to use often. Also...not all miracles leave evidence. You guys likely throw the reports out of any purported miracles that don't however...even if 1000 people saw it. As I said, the world is divided between populist appeals to authority and liberal socialists becoming authoritarians because "they have to do it!" Did China have to lock down its population? If there ever were an antichrist, he/she/it wouldn't be a character like Trump. It would likely come from the East....in China.

I did. One of the definitions of harpy is "a shrewish woman" Merriam-Webster and shrewish means "ill-natured, intractable". That's Faith all over. You have called Kamala Harris and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "harpies". I assumed you got the word from your usual ultra-right-wing sources.And it's typical of you to use words without knowing what they mean.

And there's another word you use without knowing the meaning. And now you're equating authoritarianism with holiness? I gave an example illustrating that it is nonsense: Miracles leave evidence. At least salad is nutritious and can sometimes taste good if you have enough dressing. I prefer "nonsense" because it is neither nutritious nor tasty. Then how do you know they happened?And it doesn't matter anyway. You said that miracles CANNOT EVER leave evidence Message 1481. As long as ANY miracle leaves evidence, you are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and WRONG. Hello? If 1,000 peple SAW it, that's eyewitness evidence. It's the worst possible evidence but it IS evidence. Learn what "authoritarian" means.If I feel that I have to do something, that is NOT authoritarian.

We differ in our beliefs, and we differ on one basic fact.
You guys say that facts have shown enough evidence that God does not exist...or is a "force" much like George Luca's depiction of the Star Wars "Energy field that permeates the universe". The argument that God is entirely a human-invented concept has a strong argument, but the fact is we don't know.We DO know that there are as many churches as there are pot dispensaries.Candle and I attend two different churches with two different sets of beliefs. Yet as Hank Haanagraf says, we converge within the "pail of orthodoxy".Look at jar and I. jar insists that he is a Christian due to the fact that he was raised in a Christian home, attended a Christian school, and is a charter member of the Episcopalian church.

So pray tell what miracles have happened that left no evidence of their happening and how do you know? You mean like the mass hysteria that brought on Our Lady of Fátima - Wikipedia and its Miracle of the Sun - Wikipedia? The same kind of hysteria humans are well known for after football games?

Wiki defines it. Authoritarianism We also had that Canadian guy who wrote the book called The Authoritarians.
​ If you and the peanut gallery voted in a government that seized everyone's gold, as FDR did, that would be an authoritarian action. Especially after gold became legal to own again even though Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold. No. Only Jesus is Holy. Even a Theocracy would not be "holy" though it might be authoritarian. China is run by Socialists. Note how they lock people down against their will "ostensibly" for the good of the people.