₦airaland Forum

Theists generally don't think beyond their congregation so they don't necessarily attach holistic concepts to their beliefs

fantasticshaw:
Guy you're funny. So it's God's fault if man has not discovered the cure for some sicknesses right ? For your information God still heals super naturally without drugs if you don't know ask and He does it free of charge. But you must believe in Him because there is no way what you don't believe in will work for you. It is written in the bible By his stripes we are healed, healing is the CHILDREN's bread. If you are interested just call on Jesus. It's free. When it comes to healing God does not and is not limited by the discovery or availability of human medicine. Let me ask you do you think you can know everything God created ? How many planets were you told existed 10 years ago by your research and textbook and how many planets are there now ? O boy , fear God and repent ! Thanks.

And how many people has god healed that you know of personally? In fact, have you ever been sick and got healed without going to the hospital or taking any drugs?

Your god sat back and allowed malaria kill millions of people until science invented tablets and today a dose of amalar can cure malaria. Unfortunately, it is this kind of ignorance that enabled the death of millions to very curable diseases, as still seen in Africa and despite our "belief" in god he still hasn't done anything about it.

How many planets did god create as written in your bible?

malvisguy212:
were ?

Read your own post again

phyllosilicate:
I think the title should be - "5 Things I Notice Every Time I Argue With Christian(s)". You were only mentioning christians.
Two things I noticed about atheist:
1, I noticed when Atheists GENERALIZE. They poke holes in the Christians beliefs in God, then they conclude all religions are false.
2. Majority (100% of atheist I know) were Christians.

Well, muslims and other theists don't go around from door to door threatening people with hell fire for not believing in their god. Muslims are a bit more devoted to their beliefs. A muslim can be convinced to blow himself up for Mohammed but christians can't even seem to get themselves to go to church on Sundays.

Of all religions, christians are undoubtedly the most hypocritical, judgemental and indisciplined.

MzNelly:
2 Things I've noticed with Atheists:

1. They claim God doesn't exist, but still hate him and are obsessed with him.
Obsessed with a Being that does not exist.

2. They want God to prove Himself to them. "If you exist, do this or that" Like God is a mere man that you can order about.

@bolded, As a matter of fact, christians are the ones always ordering god about. During your prayers we hear "fire, fire", "god kill all our enemies", "god bless us", "baba e dide! E pa awon aje ninu aye mi", "god show yourself", "god, let me pass my exams" etc. These are all orders because if your god is indeed almighty you won't need to remind him of his responsibilities.

As regards your first point, the only people obsessed about a non existent being are theists. We are only concerned about the way you guys peddle your lies and try as much as possible to enlighten you with the aim of getting you to use more of your brain and not believe in everything you are told.

johnydon22:
He meant "Denominations are man's invention"

E be like say you no read wetin him write abi?

johnydon22:
this thread is for discussion bro not an argument so absolutely no need for you guys to get all touchy!!! . . But do you know i can prove to you that ancient isreali recognized slingers as one of the most formidable fighting force too using the bible..

How much will you pay me!!

As the op of this thread i demand a 70% cut on all transactions

malvisguy212:
where in the bible, we are encourage to belong to denomination?

Galatians 3:28
'There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all ONE in Christ Jesus'

Denominations is man inventor.

@bolded, you mean denominations invented man? I thought you guys said it was god

whitecloth:
is like you don't really have a bible, do you?

I have one and the pages make excellent rizzlas

malvisguy212:
you can double the figures if you like, the teaching of Jesus is there in the bible for All to read and understand.

I asked a straight question and i was hoping for a straight answer.

whitecloth:
Yes Sir, glad that you noticed, my own bible is the living word of God. He's alive, He was made flesh and dwell among us. The word of God is Spirit and is life.
but I Dont know about your own o.

Lol

theunusualmoon:
You may have turned everything around so the story will suit your writing.what if slingers were not prominent before that moment.what if it was david that made them significant after he slayed the giant. You sit at your desk writing about slingers as if they are better than archers.and don't try to paint goliath as an slowpoke,he was sent forth cus they consider him to be their best soldier.just like we saw in the movie troy.

And what happened to the giant that faced Achilles? Would you say Achilles was an underdog in that fight?

KingEbukasBlog:
Sure ... apparently they are interested in winning arguments with the Christians and subjecting our beliefs to derision - a way of proving they are "smarter" or should be regarded as "deep thinkers"

Troubled minds .

cc : lalasticlala

As always, you christians are unable to differentiate between a discussion and an argument as you always subscribe to the latter.

If you do have anything to say regarding the topic, it will be most appreciated

whitecloth:
pls how does that verse shows that goliath was led by his shield bearer?
I know religion has been a subject of debate since time immemorial, but as a Christian (Someone who lives by the Spirit, A true child of God), there is no debate about the bible, no conflict, because the bible Himself is made to be understand by people who walked in the Spirit. Religion is said to be the opium of the masses, but Christianity (A real/true one) is the way according to Christ.
Thanks.

@bolded, this is a new one. The bible is now a man?

malvisguy212:
atheists are unstable in their argument, first the bible is 'myth' and then David do not exist ,now, the story is not truthful. Do you expect a sincere debate with this kind of attitude ?

As a matter of fact , there was a thread when atheists argue, David did not kill Goliath.

Atheist are unstable in their argument? Would you then describe christianity which has over 30,000 different denominations worldwide as a stable entity portraying a stable belief?

Lateralmaths:
You haven't met real Christians then

Really? And how would you describe a real christian?

This question will only make sense to Christians because there is a huge "spirit of selfishness" in them. I remember back in secondary school, there was this guy that always came to preach in my class during break. So, one day i went to his hostel with my bowl and asked him to give me garri, sugar and milk. I was looking into this guy's locker and he bluntly refused to give me.

The next day when he and his crew came to my class to preach, i waited till they were comfortable, stood on the table and started shouting and narrating the story to everyone. He and his lot left embarrassed and tried to continue their evangelism in the next class. I no gree ooo, I followed them from class to class till they got tired and called it a day.

I have met kind christians but funny enough they always seem to eventually get tired of the church and end up becoming atheists.

Christians will rather give as a hypocritical gesture than genuine empathy. It's really irritating

brocab:
For someone who say's they don't channel their thoughts towards the word of God, by this statement you surely have shown interest in who wrote the word written by men.
Most atheist wouldn't argue, about something they have nothing in-common with.

@bolded, actually with my statement I have only shown that I have an interest in discovering for myself the truth behind what was written by men from their vivid imaginations but which they claim to be from "god" to make more believable

Where are our "believers"

@ an2select, kingebukasblog, malvisguy212, deepsight etc

whitecloth:
I don't know what to say bro, where was goliath led by a man in the bible, am still searching it o, and secondly, what's the point in all this? please answer if we later found out that its really gigantism that contributed to the fall of goliath and not God, shall we to start rewriting our children books? because I can see from the story that its trying to shift God's aspect to chances and his soo called `underdog' speculation.

@ bolded,

1 Samuel 17 verse: 41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.

Religious concepts have always been subject to editing and improvement. You might be forced to come to terms with the fact that your victory can only come as a result of your level of preparedness and not "god".

Weah96:
Why is this story truthful? It's a feel good story for underdogs. Aesop wrote a lot of them himself.

Even if the story is true, it's obvious that the bible version was written to give credence to god despite the fact that David was well prepared for the battle.

Ahasco:
oh dear very sad. they keep saying this to deceive the world. i will give you one advice. when the spirit of God come upon you, thats if you are a christian channel it toward the word of God and ask him to teach you the truth of whats happening around, you be surprised what revelations you will get and only then will you believe that judgement is coming upon this world and its definately going to end in our generation.

I'm not a christian dear so I don't channel my thoughts towards the "word of god" written by men

I came across this video on one of TED talks clips and this guy's point of view about our famous "underdog" story as written in the bible is quite intriguing. BUT was David really the underdog?

As rendered by Malcolm Gladwell:

So I wanted to tell a story that really obsessed me when I was writing my new book, and it's a story of something that happened 3,000 years ago, when the Kingdom of Israel was in its infancy. And it takes place in an area called the Shephelah in what is now Israel. And the reason the story obsessed me is that I thought I understood it, and then I went back over it and I realized that I didn't understand it at all.

Ancient Palestine had a -- along its eastern border, there's a mountain range. Still same is true of Israel today. And in the mountain range are all of the ancient cities of that region, so Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron. And then there's a coastal plain along the Mediterranean, where Tel Aviv is now. And connecting the mountain range with the coastal plain is an area called the Shephelah, which is a series of valleys and ridges that run east to west, and you can follow the Shephelah, go through the Shephelah to get from the coastal plain to the mountains. And the Shephelah, if you've been to Israel, you'll know it's just about the most beautiful part of Israel. It's gorgeous, with forests of oak and wheat fields and vineyards.

But more importantly, though, in the history of that region, it's served, it's had a real strategic function, and that is, it is the means by which hostile armies on the coastal plain find their way, get up into the mountains and threaten those living in the mountains. And 3,000 years ago, that's exactly what happens. The Philistines, who are the biggest of enemies of the Kingdom of Israel, are living in the coastal plain. They're originally from Crete. They're a seafaring people. And they may start to make their way through one of the valleys of the Shephelah up into the mountains, because what they want to do is occupy the highland area right by Bethlehem and split the Kingdom of Israel in two. And the Kingdom of Israel, which is headed by King Saul, obviously catches wind of this, and Saul brings his army down from the mountains and he confronts the Philistines in the Valley of Elah, one of the most beautiful of the valleys of the Shephelah. And the Israelites dig in along the northern ridge, and the Philistines dig in along the southern ridge, and the two armies just sit there for weeks and stare at each other, because they're deadlocked. Neither can attack the other, because to attack the other side you've got to come down the mountain into the valley and then up the other side, and you're completely exposed.

So finally, to break the deadlock, the Philistines send their mightiest warrior down into the valley floor, and he calls out and he says to the Israelites, "Send your mightiest warrior down, and we'll have this out, just the two of us."

This was a tradition in ancient warfare called single combat. It was a way of settling disputes without incurring the bloodshed of a major battle. And the Philistine who is sent down, their mighty warrior, is a giant. He's 6 foot 9. He's outfitted head to toe in this glittering bronze armor, and he's got a sword and he's got a javelin and he's got his spear. He is absolutely terrifying. And he's so terrifying that none of the Israelite soldiers want to fight him. It's a death wish, right? There's no way they think they can take him.

And finally the only person who will come forward is this young shepherd boy, and he goes up to Saul and he says, "I'll fight him."

And Saul says, "You can't fight him. That's ridiculous. You're this kid. This is this mighty warrior."

But the shepherd is adamant. He says, "No, no, no, you don't understand, I have been defending my flock against lions and wolves for years. I think I can do it."

And Saul has no choice. He's got no one else who's come forward. So he says, "All right." And then he turns to the kid, and he says, "But you've got to wear this armor. You can't go as you are."

So he tries to give the shepherd his armor, and the shepherd says, "No." He says, "I can't wear this stuff." The Biblical verse is, "I cannot wear this for I have not proved it," meaning, "I've never worn armor before. You've got to be crazy."

So he reaches down instead on the ground and picks up five stones and puts them in his shepherd's bag and starts to walk down the mountainside to meet the giant. And the giant sees this figure approaching, and calls out, "Come to me so I can feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field." He issues this kind of taunt towards this person coming to fight him. And the shepherd draws closer and closer, and the giant sees that he's carrying a staff. That's all he's carrying. Instead of a weapon, just this shepherd's staff, and he says -- he's insulted -- "Am I a dog that you would come to me with sticks?"

And the shepherd boy takes one of his stones out of his pocket, puts it in his sling and rolls it around and lets it fly and it hits the giant right between the eyes -- right here, in his most vulnerable spot -- and he falls down either dead or unconscious, and the shepherd boy runs up and takes his sword and cuts off his head, and the Philistines see this and they turn and they just run.

And of course, the name of the giant is Goliath and the name of the shepherd boy is David, and the reason that story has obsessed me over the course of writing my book is that everything I thought I knew about that story turned out to be wrong.

So David, in that story, is supposed to be the underdog, right? In fact, that term, David and Goliath, has entered our language as a metaphor for improbable victories by some weak party over someone far stronger. Now why do we call David an underdog? Well, we call him an underdog because he's a kid, a little kid, and Goliath is this big, strong giant. We also call him an underdog because Goliath is an experienced warrior, and David is just a shepherd. But most importantly, we call him an underdog because all he has is -- it's that Goliath is outfitted with all of this modern weaponry, this glittering coat of armor and a sword and a javelin and a spear, and all David has is this sling.

Well, let's start there with the phrase "All David has is this sling," because that's the first mistake that we make. In ancient warfare, there are three kinds of warriors. There's cavalry, men on horseback and with chariots. There's heavy infantry, which are foot soldiers, armed foot soldiers with swords and shields and some kind of armor. And there's artillery, and artillery are archers, but, more importantly, slingers. And a slinger is someone who has a leather pouch with two long cords attached to it, and they put a projectile, either a rock or a lead ball, inside the pouch, and they whirl it around like this and they let one of the cords go, and the effect is to send the projectile forward towards its target. That's what David has, and it's important to understand that that sling is not a slingshot. It's not this, right? It's not a child's toy. It's in fact an incredibly devastating weapon. When David rolls it around like this, he's turning the sling around probably at six or seven revolutions per second, and that means that when the rock is released, it's going forward really fast, probably 35 meters per second. That's substantially faster than a baseball thrown by even the finest of baseball pitchers. More than that, the stones in the Valley of Elah were not normal rocks. They were barium sulphate, which are rocks twice the density of normal stones. If you do the calculations on the ballistics, on the stopping power of the rock fired from David's sling, it's roughly equal to the stopping power of a [.45 caliber] handgun. This is an incredibly devastating weapon. Accuracy, we know from historical records that slingers -- experienced slingers could hit and maim or even kill a target at distances of up to 200 yards. From medieval tapestries, we know that slingers were capable of hitting birds in flight. They were incredibly accurate. When David lines up -- and he's not 200 yards away from Goliath, he's quite close to Goliath -- when he lines up and fires that thing at Goliath, he has every intention and every expectation of being able to hit Goliath at his most vulnerable spot between his eyes. If you go back over the history of ancient warfare, you will find time and time again that slingers were the decisive factor against infantry in one kind of battle or another.

So what's Goliath? He's heavy infantry, and his expectation when he challenges the Israelites to a duel is that he's going to be fighting another heavy infantryman. When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," the key phrase is "Come to me." Come up to me because we're going to fight, hand to hand, like this. Saul has the same expectation. David says, "I want to fight Goliath," and Saul tries to give him his armor, because Saul is thinking, "Oh, when you say 'fight Goliath,' you mean 'fight him in hand-to-hand combat,' infantry on infantry."

But David has absolutely no expectation. He's not going to fight him that way. Why would he? He's a shepherd. He's spent his entire career using a sling to defend his flock against lions and wolves. That's where his strength lies. So here he is, this shepherd, experienced in the use of a devastating weapon, up against this lumbering giant weighed down by a hundred pounds of armor and these incredibly heavy weapons that are useful only in short-range combat. Goliath is a sitting duck. He doesn't have a chance. So why do we keep calling David an underdog, and why do we keep referring to his victory as improbable?

There's a second piece of this that's important. It's not just that we misunderstand David and his choice of weaponry. It's also that we profoundly misunderstand Goliath. Goliath is not what he seems to be. There's all kinds of hints of this in the Biblical text, things that are in retrospect quite puzzling and don't square with his image as this mighty warrior. So to begin with, the Bible says that Goliath is led onto the valley floor by an attendant. Now that is weird, right? Here is this mighty warrior challenging the Israelites to one-on-one combat. Why is he being led by the hand by some young boy, presumably, to the point of combat? Secondly, the Bible story makes special note of how slowly Goliath moves, another odd thing to say when you're describing the mightiest warrior known to man at that point. And then there's this whole weird thing about how long it takes Goliath to react to the sight of David. So David's coming down the mountain, and he's clearly not preparing for hand-to-hand combat. There is nothing about him that says, "I am about to fight you like this." He's not even carrying a sword. Why does Goliath not react to that? It's as if he's oblivious to what's going on that day. And then there's that strange comment he makes to David: "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" Sticks? David only has one stick.

Well, it turns out that there's been a great deal of speculation within the medical community over the years about whether there is something fundamentally wrong with Goliath, an attempt to make sense of all of those apparent anomalies. There have been many articles written. The first one was in 1960 in the Indiana Medical Journal, and it started a chain of speculation that starts with an explanation for Goliath's height. So Goliath is head and shoulders above all of his peers in that era, and usually when someone is that far out of the norm, there's an explanation for it. So the most common form of giantism is a condition called acromegaly, and acromegaly is caused by a benign tumor on your pituitary gland that causes an overproduction of human growth hormone. And throughout history, many of the most famous giants have all had acromegaly. So the tallest person of all time was a guy named Robert Wadlow who was still growing when he died at the age of 24 and he was 8 foot 11. He had acromegaly. Do you remember the wrestler André the Giant? Famous. He had acromegaly. There's even speculation that Abraham Lincoln had acromegaly. Anyone who's unusually tall, that's the first explanation we come up with. And acromegaly has a very distinct set of side effects associated with it, principally having to do with vision. The pituitary tumor, as it grows, often starts to compress the visual nerves in your brain, with the result that people with acromegaly have either double vision or they are profoundly nearsighted.

So when people have started to speculate about what might have been wrong with Goliath, they've said, "Wait a minute, he looks and sounds an awful lot like someone who has acromegaly." And that would also explain so much of what was strange about his behavior that day. Why does he move so slowly and have to be escorted down into the valley floor by an attendant? Because he can't make his way on his own. Why is he so strangely oblivious to David that he doesn't understand that David's not going to fight him until the very last moment? Because he can't see him. When he says, "Come to me that I might feed your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field," the phrase "come to me" is a hint also of his vulnerability. Come to me because I can't see you. And then there's, "Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?" He sees two sticks when David has only one.

So the Israelites up on the mountain ridge looking down on him thought he was this extraordinarily powerful foe. What they didn't understand was that the very thing that was the source of his apparent strength was also the source of his greatest weakness.

And there is, I think, in that, a very important lesson for all of us. Giants are not as strong and powerful as they seem. And sometimes the shepherd boy has a sling in his pocket.

Thank you.

Source: http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_the_unheard_story_of_david_and_goliath/transcript?language=en

You can also watch the video @ www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziGD7vQOwl8

Share your comments and thoughts

Keepshining:
Always read your Bible you will understand better.Its beyound human reasoning.

What an excellent way of excusing your ignorance. Me likey

ebamma:
If there is one thing in my life I wish I didn't know , it will be the experience of sex,



If I never knew what sex was, I will be better off, financially, emotionally, spirituality, psychologically etc,

Blaming your incompetence on sex isn't going to change anything.

By doing so you only limit your potential, as you already have by using sex an excuse why you can't be what you want to be, and hinder you from striving for the best. Afterall "porn" just so happens to be a very lucrative industry raking in millions yearly. And everyone knows sex sells.

You need to start taking responsibility for your actions and take your life where you want it to be.

Jesus doesn't seem to be the main attraction anymore

Teempakguy:
Na wa.

Where is every one?

I thought, personally, that you had closed the thread with your first comment.

I'm not ready to "argue" as you're doing with those commenters, I'd rather "discuss". I don't like involving myself in insultive threads. I'd advice you leave here.

Besides, you already said it all. Most people have comprehension problems fam, there's nothing you can do about that

weedy:
Lol sooo fuNny dude,call dere customer care line,to put up ur complain na,Hahn's

You called?

Khd95:
Cherry

What kind of cherry?

Soloxam:
Th plant which bears this fruit is called “Ejinrin“ in yoruba language, the leaf is used to treat/cure malaria, the plants and the fruits look similar to bitter gourd which cure diabetes (reduce sugar lever)...

Do you know the botanical or English name for it?

theAtheist101:
Sign of end-time!

Lol. Yeah, right

Soloxam:
Th plant which bears this fruit is called “Ejinrin“ in yoruba language, the leaf is used to treat/cure malaria, the plants and the fruits look similar to bitter gourd which cure diabetes (reduce sugar lever)...

Wow. Cool

Thanks