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 Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 1:15pm On Aug 12, 2015 |
Mindfulness:I did not say your belief is limited to Christainity, in fact you already told us that you're not a Christain. I simply ask you what are your beliefs. What do they entail? Do you believe in God? What God do you believe in? Why do you believe in the version of the God that you believe in? 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 1:12pm On Aug 12, 2015 |
PastorAIO:[b]It is not conclusive evidence to accept where he said he went simply because there are unusual activities in his brain. So many factors may be responsible for that. A few things to consider: - Is the unusual activity peculiar to him or have we had experiences of people hallucinating making such claims too? - What led to him having such an experience? - What do we know of people who have made such claims in the past? The story of a boy who published a book of his experience in heaven comes to mind. The book “The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven,” by Alex Malarkey was published in 2010. It was a best seller. So many Nigerian Christians still have that book and are still awed by that experience. Just this January, the boy recounted his story saying it contains a lot of inaccuracies. He said the assuring description of miracles, angels, and life beyond This World in the book are all false. He said, “I did not die. I did not go to Heaven.” It proves that claims that cannot be proven by solid evidence are potentially dangerous. Here is the story in Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style-blog/wp/2015/01/15/boy-who-came-back-from-heaven-going-back-to-publisher/[/b] 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:37pm On Aug 12, 2015 |
PastorAIO:Very well then. It is Evidence if it is objective, testable, and measurable. If it can only be seen or felt by one person, then by definition, it is not evidence. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:28pm On Aug 12, 2015*. Modified: 1:33pm On Aug 12, 2015 |
[b]A LIL ABOUT 'FEELINGS'... Someone says, "Stop all this hammering about evidence. There's physical evidence and non-physical evidence. Physical evidence is easier to see, while spiritual evidence is a feeling, an inner knowing. You are just being straight-jacketed by insisting on physical evidence." I would agree with part of that statement. There IS such a thing as NON-PHYSICAL evidence. Things like measurements between the Earth and a star, for instance, would be a form of "non-physical evidence." But, we can't put "feelings" and "inner knowing" into that same category. Simply put: evidence that can only be seen or felt by one person is -- by definition -- not evidence. Evidence is objective. Evidence is testable. Evidence is measurable. None of those things apply to intuition or feelings. Obviously we DO experience intuition and feelings; but they don't qualify as evidence. In other words, if you asked a flight engineer if a new test plane was safe to fly in, would you be satisfied if he said, "Well, we don't have any evidence that it's safe. But I just have a good feeling about it"? Would a judge be satisfied if you said, "Your honor, I don't have any proof that Jonathan stole the money....I just have a strong feeling that it was him." Would any of us really expect that judge to take action on Jonathan without evidence? No, we wouldn't. And, it's important that we don't dilute the standards of evidence just to fit the situation.[/b] 2 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 11:12am On Aug 12, 2015 |
Mindfulness:The bolded reveals why I can't continue this discuss with you. Refer to my previous reply. Come clean...let's trash it out if they are your personal beliefs. No need to fidget or be fearful. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 10:58am On Aug 12, 2015 |
rabzy:You don't get it.The reason it has been copied millions of times is because the original manuscripts have been lost. They can't find the original copies again. So what the have are the fragments of the copies of the copies of the original manuscripts. That's why! For such an important book, shouldn't the author that is so powerful preserve the original copies so that people don't believe different things from the same piece? Should it be such that people would not have to include their own words because some parts of the manuscripts have been torn so they just guess the words that should have completed some sentences. There are so many words and sentences that are not found in any of the manuscripts in the Bible. I watched the intelligent design vs evolution court case and i saw the case was thrown out on the basis of a technicality. Not because intelligent design was just hogwash.You mean the Dover Court case? What technicality is that? Can you tell us? And what ways do you think the Intelligent design proponents ought to have won? Which valid point did they bring to the table? |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 10:51am On Aug 12, 2015 |
rabzy:Buddy, are you a Jehovah's witness? I can see a pattern emerging...are you? (Genesis 6:5, 6) . . .Consequently Jehovah saw that the badness of man was abundant in the earth and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only bad all the time. 6 And Jehovah felt regrets that he had made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at his heart.Na...na...na. You are trying to rationalize Jehovah's statement. It simply means that Jehovah does not know what he is talking about. The same way he did not know what he was talking about when he said the earth was founded upon the seas. The same way he said pillars hold the earth. The same way he said vegetation came before he created sunlight. The bible was written by medieval men who men no idea of civilization. It's not their faults they made these grave errors. God’s arranging a test for adam and eve by means of “the tree of the knowledge of good and bad” and his creation of “the tree of life” in the garden of Eden also would be meaningless and a cynical act, if he knew beforehand that Adam and eve would fail the test. To offer the best conditions and a perfect life to them and their children knowing fully well that they would not be able to retain it is wicked and heartless.Not true! God knew Adam and Eve will fail the test and that's why scriptures say that he had planned for Jesus to be killed before the creation of the world. See this: 1st Peter 1:20(New Living Translation) God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. Revelaton 13:8 (New International Version) All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. How about that? He knew they would sin before he created them and then had planned Jesus to die. See, the fact that we could both dig up verses of scriptures to support different views (eventhough I have way more verses and examples than you do) indicate that the Bible is a confusing book. It is not inerrant and definitely not something people should live for. 2 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 10:33am On Aug 12, 2015*. Modified: 11:00am On Aug 12, 2015 |
mindfulnessYour flip-flopping is going nowhere and it's making the discussion redundant. Come to the table with your hands clean. Tell us what your personal belief is and then we can engage further. Defending the Christian God when you left the Christian God for reasons you have failed to explain does not make for a freeflowing conversation. Seems to me like you are simply arguing for argument sake. When you are bold enough to tell us what you believe and why you believe it, you can join me at the banquet. I thought I was going to enjoy this but I'm disappointed you are holding back from bringing a unique perspective to the table. Until then... 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:19pm On Aug 11, 2015*. Modified: 12:00pm On Aug 12, 2015 |
Mindfulness:EXACTLY! You know why they dont know? Because we dont claim to be their God. We didnt create them. We didnt give them FREEWILL. We didnt claim to suffer for their redemption and we certainly didnt create Hell for them. If we happen to be all-powerful in their realm, we would not allow them to have those diseases in the first place. I really don't know, but this is simple enough logic. 5 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:15pm On Aug 11, 2015 |
Mindfulness How do you know that those who go through hard times and come off better are fewer than those who come off worse?[b]Interestingly, the position you have is the one that can easily call for tripping. This is what I mean, you cheery pick the verses that appeal to you. When you are called out on others contradict your position, you switch sides by saying that you don't believe in those verses because you are not a Christian. So either way, you can always eat your cake and have it. You are neither here nor there. Therefore if I say that the kinds of suffering I am referring to has a high rate of casualties compared to those that do survive, you simply switch sides. That's what is termed intellectual dishonesty. I mean, you are saying how do I know folks who do not survive intense suffering do not survive, I simply refer to to the holocause. How many of them survived. I refer you to the Tsunami and ask you how many of them survive. I ask you to look up the several natural disasters in the world and ask you to name how many people were able to get back on their feet. You ask if God force kids to become suicide bombers? And I ask you why you say God is omnipotent if he cannot stop terrorists from taking advantage of gullible kids and even forcing them against their will. But of course you will say you dont agree that God is omnipotent. Isn't it?[/b] Does God justify anything? Does God need to justify anything?If you say God does not need to justify anything then on what account is God just like Christians say. Of course, you dont agree with that because you are not a christian, right? You only use the Bible to support your views.  Who told you I believe in the devil?Oh goodness! You dont believe in the devil yet you are using the suffering of Job to drive home a lesson. Who was the chief actor in his suffering? Absolutely but people also do great things for religious reasons.Same way Dangote does good for Nigeria. What you should be asking is the net positive and negative of religion. If religion is so great, why did you leave the dogma? I don't think so. Just checked the definition in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.[b]Fair enough! What I do multiple times everyday is to type any word + definiton on google and most of the time it display the OXford Advanced Dictionary definition. I guess it used the Merriam-Webster Dictionary this time around. (As an aside, it is a great thing to do to get words. Built up my vocabulary a great deal using that method) Even with that, you can see that there is no difference in my definition and yours. Yours reads "the various aspects of a person’s character that combine to make them different from other people" While mine says, "the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character." What's the difference. But you say it is not a definition. Using your definition, God is a personality. How can you object on such an elementary definition? And your statement about it been a Bible is a tad bit childish. Do you go to the map to look for Pakistan and after you see, someone asks you that it is not correct and asks if the map is your Bible? Doesn't make any sense. If the dictionary is where words are defined, it's illogical to dispute it.[/b] The Bible was written by humans. There are some passages that make sense to me and many that do not but to take the Bible literally is mental bondage and very dangerous.Then you have no business defending the Bible. If it is to cherry pick whatever appeals to you while not accepting its inerrancy, then your opinions cannot be respected because your views can still be had without having knowledge of the existence of the Bible. I enjoy being on my own very much so I will go with it. You can argue that God is a person, you do not know, neither do I. This is where faith or no faith come into the equation. Reason is a very limited tool.No one is saying you cannot be on your own, but do not attempt to make statements you cannot defend. If you pick verses about God from the Bible and we say the Biblical God is a person and you go ahead to say he is not a person despite Bible scholars saying so, it simply sounds silly and shows lack of thought from your own end. God wrote the Bible?That's the problem I will have with you not knowing anything about the Bible and trying to argue from it. If Scriptures itself says 'EVERY scripture is god breath', then I dont know what you are on about. What researchers?Every biblical scholar you can think about know God to be a personality. Any researcher you can think about. From Gordon Fee to Richard Bauckham to N T Wright. Every single scholar in any theological school. Ask any Christian if he believes God is a person and tell me what you hear. This is perhaps the silliest notion you've brought up. I AM THAT I AM itself connotes a person. There may be an underlying issue here with you here. Perhaps, you were not schooled in the English language. You are aware that the WHOLE WORLD could be fed and everyone could be sated. You do know that there is enough food for everyone? You do know that while 800 million people suffer from hunger in one part of the world, 600 million are overweight in another?Who created humans with all the evil tendencies? Who sits back and watches when he is said to be all powerful and all-knowing? Quit the charade! I know that science has become like a new religion for people. Science is great but scientists have also erred and were sure that they were ABSOLUTELY right, they have also caused suffering and environmental pollution and despite all these inventions you are still able to post pictures of hungry children, like the one you posted. We are the only species that destroys themselves. We invented the atom bomb. Countries spend more money on weapons than on charity. Long live the human logic.Here we go. Science bashers for religion. They are able to type on the internet because of science but still cast aspersion on it. There is never a person I have heard that says science is perfect. Science is always evolving and using evidence to better our lives. We live better lives because of science. There are setbacks but we are better off today than our ancestors. 4 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 3:06pm On Aug 11, 2015*. Modified: 7:08pm On Jan 21, 2017 |
STILL ON SUFFERING... This came up while responding to mindfulness comment and I thought to make a separate post. When responding to difficult questions about God's nature such as his apparent failure to intervene on behalf of suffering children, it is common for Christians to maintain that, like a dog undergoing a painful medical procedure, we cannot understand God's purposes in all that happens; we must simply trust that God knows what he is doing. This may be the case, but if so, how can anyone be held accountable for thinking like the dog, for failing to grasp that the purposes of God, if he exists, are good? We do not blame the dog for its reaction to the medical procedure and then pierce him with a knife for refusing to understand. We never think of casting it into the fire for not having the commonsense to know that we have its best intentions at heart. When I was younger, we raised goats and on several occasions, myself together with my mum have had to chain our goats in order to vaccinate them or treat them for certain infections. They always resisted and threw tantrums. They always gave me a hard time. It was always a strenuous period of chasing and holding them to the ground to ensure that we dont give them the injections in the wrong places. But tell you what, we never for once thought of hurting them because they did not allow us do our job. We never told them to 'go and die' because we perceived them to be uncooperative. No matter how long it took, we kept trying and trying and trying to make sure that we did our job. We never cast them into an open fire for refusing our 'purpose' for their temporary suffering. If we cannot imagine a good reason for the starvation or slow death of a child or a chimpanzee due to leukemia, and our minds lead us to consider that God is either not good, not omnipotent, not omniscient, or nonexistent, is this grounds for the infinite wrath of God, even if he does in fact exist? Does God give us a mind and prevent us from drawing natural conclusions on pain of eternal punishment? Why do we stop being logical and stop our reasoning faculties anytime God is mentioned? 4 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 2:45pm On Aug 11, 2015 |
Mindfulness:Of course, you can by rationalization. People have been doing it for centuries. What we should ask is if it passes the test of logic. This does not. Like I said, it again depends on your attitude to suffering. Have you never seen humans who went through hardships and at the end came out stronger and wiser? You are still stuck to the the perspective that suffering is necessarily something evil and unnecessary.Yes I have. I have also seen people who went through hardships and come off worse. Worst still, we have all heard of people who went through suffering and died. We have heard of kids in Somalia who died because of preventable diseases. We have heard of kids forced to engage in suicide bombers by Boko Haram. The point is that you can use uncommon examples of people who rise above personal suffering to justify millions who do not. I say that tens of thousand of children who experience pain and death in the hands of malaria every year is something evil and unnecessary if you hold on to the fact that there is a god who allows that. I do NOT consider myself a Christian but I do embrace some of the Christian values, you can do so without being a Christian in the traditional sense.[b]They are not necessarily christian values. They can be rightly termed humanity values. Consider the Golden rule that Christians pride themselves in. Aside the commandment to love God, loving one's neighbour is the most important commandment Jesus gave. By no means is it exclusive to the Bible. In fact, people have believed in that before the Bible was written. See examples: "Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself." – Confucius (Ancient China) "Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." – Thales (624 BC – 546 BC) (Ancient Greece) "expect from others what you did to them" - Seneca (Ancient Rome) "Why does a man inflict upon other creatures those sufferings, which he has found by experience are sufferings to himself ?" - Tiruvaḷḷuvar (200 BC – 500 AD) (Tamil tradition) Check out any noteworthy deed in the Bible and you will realize it is nothing exclusive. These human values have been around for generations past gone.[/b] Well, this is a very subjective interpretation of what God does or does not do. God is, according to the Bible, not so simple. He does also inflict suffering on those who are faithful to him. The Book of Job illustrates that very clearly.[b]When we speak about suffering, we are not speaking about you hitting your leg against the stone while working. We are not even speaking about failing your exams. We are speaking about the fact that during the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. We are saying what can satisfactorily account for the sufferings of women and children? In what way will god justify religious persecution—the flame and sword of religious hatred? Why will god sit idly on his throne and allow his enemies to wet their swords in the blood of his friends? Why will he not answer the prayers of the imprisoned, of the helpless? And when he heard the lash upon the naked back of the slave, why did he not also hear the prayer of the slave? And when children were sold from the breasts of mothers, why was he deaf to the mother's cry?[/b] Good you mention Job. I have also mentioned the story from the Bible before I saw this part of your quote.Cmon...if you believe that the devil is the father of evil and that nothing good comes from him, how can you not believe that what he was doing to Job was evil? First of all that story is a fable but if it were true, it can be explain the way we explain why a pastor will choose to allow his child suffering from a life-threatening disease die in the 'hands of God' than take the child to the hospital. People do stupid things for religious reasons. This is interesting but this is not a definition of personality, at best, an attempt to define what a personality consists of.Na wa o. I gave you a definition from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and you say it is not a definition. Funny. Scripture ascribes intellect and emotion to God. Well, scripture was written and re-written by humans, translated and re-translated and is therefore limited to the experience that is conveyed by language. Language is limited and can lead to misunderstandings. It should therefore be treated with caution and questioned. I guess we both agree on this.So you believe that the Bible is not inerrant and not an accurate description of God. So what are we discussing about? If you believe the Bible can not be relied upon to describe God, then there is no use for this discussion. You cannot argue from the Bible and when I decide to give you a dosage of your medicine carpet me by saying the parts I have quoted do not accurate describe him. That's double crossing. @boldSee what I'm talking about? You accept the part of scriptures that say God is conscious and alive and we are created in his image, yet you talk of misinterpretation and language being subject to misinterpretation when I say ascribe intellect and emotion to God. Double standard! God is love does not mean that God is personality. Is love a personality?You sir should read up what a person is. Only a person has the attributes I wrote about. And I say it again, if you are arguing the Abrahamic perspective then I say you are left on your own because the question of if God is a personality or not is not open to debate in the thousands of theology schools around the world. Even quack pastors in Nigeria do not say God is not a person. If I give you a definition from Oxford done by Emeritus professors of English and Literature and you say it is not correct, then I have no greater authority to appeal to again. I have already talked about God and the creation of humans in "HIS" image. If God, according to the Bibel, created MEN AND WOMEN in "HIS" image, what is God, male, female, both?The God of the Bible is a patriarchal god and therefore you will see him all over scriptures using the male term. He even avoided talking about women in the genealogy of Jesus. I think that over hundreds of years nobody has ever truly understood much of what the Bible teaches us, apart maybe from a few BuddhistsNow is not the time to go over to Buddhism. Let's stay on point. How do you know that people never understood the Bible and that you now do? How do you know what countless researchers in the past do not know and you simply now have the mind of God? I'd really like to have an answer to this question. Yes, if you consider suffering "evil" and useless. I see it differently. Suffering was what made me grow. And looking back in my life, in retrospective, every hardship made sense. And from the eternal perspective, suffering was nothing but a short period and a lesson that helped me develop my consciousness and compassion.Now I can clearly see where you are coming from and that's why intuitively I said the suffering I'm talking about does not refer to you going broke, looking for admission for five years or not getting a job after three years of NYSC. I'm talking of something like this: https://guruprasad.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/vulture-child.jpg Now that picture is an image taken in Sudan of a child starving and a vulture waiting patiently for the child to die and then feed on his body. That's the bl**dy f**k I'm talking about. I'm not referring to you not having appetizers to start your Dinner meals. Let us for a moment assume that there is a God for sure. God created the world and the whole (amazing, mysterious, spectacular) universe. Would you doubt his sense of judgement like you do that of your fellow humans who cannot create anything that comes close to the creation of the universe? Or would you rather become more humble and trust that "someone" who was able to create the Earth, the Moon, the stars, the sky and all of the millions of different creatures that populate the world knows what (s)he / it is doing?[b]What are you on about? There are inventions of man that beat some of nature's best. And we are still evolving. You can take the telephone, the aircraft, the speedtrain, the huge skyscrapers, surgical operations, and the internet for granted today because man has made it so 'unspecial'. And yet with all these extra-wonderful inventions, we still doubt the sense of judgement of humans like ourselves. Infact, the foundation of science is skepticism; doubting everything that a fellow scientist says until there is enough evidence to proof his or her assertions. That is why we have grown so much over the centuries. There is no doubt that the world we live in has such wonderful things, but overall the world is a pretty messed up place. Studying the world reveals that it is pretty much unintelligent design. The Earth, the Moon, the Stars are reveal unintelligent design if there is ever a designer. One straight forward example, the human population is 7 billion...there is grave overpopulation in some parts of the world, yet the 70% of the world is water while 30% of the world is just land. Shouldn't intelligent design have given us more room?[/b] 4 Likes |
| Literature › Re: The Reading Culture Has Gone From Bad To Worse by joseph1013: 8:29am On Aug 11, 2015 |
chinnyonwu:Have you noticed that I don't have time to debate id.iots? When you have kids teach them to use shorthand and display their lack of awareness in the public domain. You will make an excellent role model to your children. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:02am On Aug 11, 2015*. Modified: 8:19am On Aug 11, 2015 |
Mindfulness:[b]Welcome! Something tells me I will love this... Hmmm...he inflicted suffering on some humans, but not others, because he wanted them to RETURN to him and to MEET him. Interesting... Can you reconcile suffering to cause repentance with these verses in Scriptures? Psalms 145:9 The LORD is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. Psalms 136:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. How do you reconcile a God who is said to be good to all with one who inflicts great suffering on those who does good to all as seen in the above verses? Another angle, you say you are a believer, or you come from a Christian home. (Are you a Christian?) So let me ask you, if God does good to those who do good to him and he makes people who reject him suffer, how is he better than an average human being. In all honesty, even an average human is better than God because while an average human might want to be vengeful but is unwilling to face the wrath of the law for his actions, God is supposedly said to be above the law. So he does what he likes however he likes. The behaviour of making men who reject him suffer defines a person who is a psychopath, sociopath, maniac and someone suffering from schizophrenia. That behaviour is criminal in every country in the civilized world today.[/b] For you to say that God depicts a "wicked, psychopathic, vengeful personality", it means that you consider suffering as something "evil". This is one possible perspective but it is subjective and hence the opinion that God is a "wicked, psychopathic, vengeful" personality is a very subjective perspective. Who says (s)he / it is a personality at all?[b]Are you aware that even God knows that suffering is evil? Consider this from the book of Job: Job 2 (NLT) 3 Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause.” 4 Satan replied to the Lord, “Skin for skin! A man will give up everything he has to save his life. 5 But reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!” 6 “All right, do with him as you please,” the Lord said to Satan. “But spare his life.” 7 So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot. 8 Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.” 10 But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong. 11 When three of Job’s friends heard of the tragedy he had suffered, they got together and traveled from their homes to comfort and console him. This account of Job's suffering makes us understand that God knows that the afflictions visited upon Job was evil. He sanctioned it to prove himself right but he knows that what Job was going through was not deserved. [/b] Again, your opinion is based on two premises:[b]Seriously, I keep hearing new things from believers every day, especially Nigerian Christians (if you are one). I have NEVER NEVER EVER heard anyone deny that God is a personality. NEVER! Not a single theologian. Not a single pastor. Not even the most indifferent Christian have I heard voice that God is not a personality. And the reason is this: the Bible itself tells us that God is a person. Here is the definition of a personality: personalityAbsolutely! There is huge library of proof that God is a person (though not human) rather than merely an idea or thing, and He shares common characteristics with man. Theism (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) teach that God is a person. That is, He has emotion and shares characteristics of personhood with angels and men. Scripture ascribes intellect and emotion to God. These relate to self-consciousness. Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways! 1 John 4:8 The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. Personal pronouns are used of God in Scripture. I, He, My, etc. rather than it, that, etc. Names of God reveal His personality. For examples, El Shaddai means Almighty One full of grace and mercy; El Roi means the God who sees me. Consider... Genesis 16:13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!” The personality of man provides strong evidence for the personality of God. Consider... Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.” God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.[/b] Your opinion is based premised on the fact that Suffering is bad, evil, something negative, something that possibly serves no purpose.My opinion is based on the fact that suffering may serve a purpose for God which in this context is repentance but it reveals a God that is not all-loving. It reveals a God that is blood-thirty, blood-letting, wicked and one that would resort to the cruelest of things to have his way. That is the picture I see all through the Old Testament. In fact it is difficult to see a single thing that God did in the Old Testament that would not land him in the court of law in the 21st century. Can you help me out with any of such acts? 3 Likes |
| Sports › Re: All The News About The Olympic Eagles (U-23) HERE! by joseph1013(op): 5:13pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
safarigirl:Even bleacherreport knows about Kelechi? Mehn...I hope this is his breakout season. Dude is very talented. I'm no supporter of any Premiership club but this season, I'm supporting Man City cos of Iheanacho. Take a look at this: "It very often takes a mix of talent, confidence and an unexpected opportunity to make an impact in a top Premier League side. Iheanacho may just have it all." Wish him the very best! 2 Likes |
| Literature › Re: The Reading Culture Has Gone From Bad To Worse by joseph1013: 4:51pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
chinnyonwu:Yes, he appears more intelligent and superior intellectually than you just because he types in full and not shorthand. I write like that and i can still write in correct grammar when its needed.No, it's a way of telling the world that you are a lazy person who cannot communicate effectively in writing. Quick question, when your lecturer is dictating notes in class,do you write out everything in full?So, tell me, are you under pressure when you write on facebook, whatsapp and nairaland? What time have you saved by writing in shorthand when it is easier to complete your sentences via built-in intellisense. I am probably faster than you in typing via intellisense than you are via shorthand. You guys should concentrate more on people using wrong tenses and spellings.[b]Of course, tenses and spellings are issues with the poorly-educated kids in Nigeria. However, we can do all of these corrections at the same time. They do not have to be mutually exclusive. That the 'whites' have issues with certain words do not mean they do not have a better grasp of written communication than people like yourself. As an aside, I've interacted personally with a number of educated Westerners (Europeans & North Americans) both in the physical & the virtual world. I stay in Africa and I interact with educated Africans on a daily basis. I took time to go through the link sagamite shared about the kids discussing feminism later that day and I'm left with only one conclusion: we educated Africans are not as intelligent as the Westerners. Full stop. You may crucify me for saying this but that's the only conclusion I'm left with. I know IQ is not a failproof test of intelligence. I'm not even sure if I can harvest IQ scores for Africans & Westerners and compare but if there's a reliable method of estimating intelligence, we educated Africans will score lower than our western counterparts. You listen to a Nigerian professor talk, you listen to a British undergraduate student talk and you wonder who's smarter. I've interacted with toddlers from both parts of the world and somehow, I think there's no difference in the level of intelligence. So where did the disparity in adulthood come from? I know it's nothing genetic but purely environmental. There's only one answer: our educational system. What we do here is basically rote learning. That's why most Nigerian intellectuals won't pass simple elementary-grade tests in deductive reasoning. Why am I bothered? Because that's why we're mostly ignorant and sheepish and in turn, that's why we're still underdeveloped. That's why we are easily fleeced. That's why someone like you will come out openly to criticize something that ought to be common sense. We focus our energies on irrelevances like 'stunning picture of Fani Kayode's wife' and leave out the relevant stuff about national and individual development. We're products of a handicapped system and the handicapped system is a product of our brains. [/b] |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:02pm On Aug 10, 2015 |
PastorAIO:I can't disagree with that. What we can examine is the degree to which it is used to manipulate people and keep them in chains. 2 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 11:04am On Aug 10, 2015 |
PastorAIO:Wow...this video is simply awesome. There's a lot of psychology in religion. |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 8:27am On Aug 10, 2015 |
YOU REALLY CAN FIND GOD Christians often implore me to seek God. If I do, they assure me I will find him. But I already know they are right. When the ancient Greeks sought God they found Zeus and Aphrodite, the ancient Iranians found Ahura Mazda, Hindus today find Vishnu, Brahma plus a host of other gods and Christians find Jesus and Yahweh. Humans have found many thousands of gods over millennia. Finding gods is not the problem--humans are very proficient at it. The gods do not even have to exist yet humans can still find them. The problem for humans is not finding gods, it is demonstrating that their gods are real. That is something that has never been accomplished. 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 5:08pm On Aug 09, 2015 |
[b]THE DISASTER ON LAGOS-IBADAN EXPRESSWAY... Yesterday, my mum and a friend lamented about the untold suffering road users were subjected to along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as a result of the Camp program organised by RCCG. I know this has been going on at least for the past 10 years.. To get an idea of how bad this is, simply imagine yourself spending 6 hours on a journey that should take 30 minutes, then multiply that by two. That's the unbearable hours people spend on that road during conventions. Folks sometimes spend 13 hours on a trip that should take less than a hour. That's how hellish it is. It's instructive that the Vice President, Governors of Lagos and Ogun experienced the horrible traffic gridlock and will probably not do anything about it because it will be perceived by its members (and them as well) that such actions is tantamount to going against God and his church. Interesting isn't it that such programs are also held abroad but these same people are careful not to inconvenience citizens of other nations like they do in their native country. Governments of other nations will NEVER permit such needless hardship to travellers. They would have long closed the Camp down till traffic issues are sorted out. Why should non-members, and definitely a huge number of non-Christians suffer while travelling on a Federal road constructed from State resources and maintained by their taxes as a result of your Church's regular programs? I heard a 3-million seater auditorium is almost completed at the same location with no environmental impact assessment. That implies DOUBLE TRAFFIC DISASTER. Of course, nothing has been heard from the government about plans to ease the plight of road users on an already congested route and nothing will be heard. The government fears the Church so much that it can't cut its excesses. What do you expect when government officials fall over themselves to identify with the unquestionable men of God? Even Ambode beamed with smiles when the General Overseer bragged that the Church is so blessed that it took two attempts over two days before even the Lagos State Governor could get to the Camp. The congregation all screamed with joy over that announcement and so did the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The hardship and suffering of the opulent and the masses were celebrated on live satellite TV, all because of religion. We do have a long way to go as a country. I'm ashamed of this country.[/b] 5 Likes 3 Shares |
| Family › Re: Uganda Bride Price Refund Outlawed by joseph1013: 7:26am On Aug 09, 2015 |
Sagamite:Reading these kids makes me ashamed of my fellow citizens. First thing I noticed, they don't write in stu.pie shorthand. That alone takes the cake. 1 Like 1 Share |
| Sports › Re: All The News About The Olympic Eagles (U-23) HERE! by joseph1013(op): 10:23am On Aug 08, 2015 |
Icon4s:That looks more like it. Just like I'll dump Barca if and when Messi leaves. So since I have no favourite in the Premiership, Iheanacho might very well win the trophy. 1 Like |
| Sports › Re: All The News About The Olympic Eagles (U-23) HERE! by joseph1013(op): 10:08am On Aug 08, 2015 |
I'm officially a Man City fan. Iheanacho starts against West Brom Monday night. Time: 8pm thegoodjoe, you got a comrade.  #Leggo 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Sports › Re: All The News About The Olympic Eagles (U-23) HERE! by joseph1013(op): 10:03pm On Aug 07, 2015 |
At this rate, at a point in time, every team in Europe would have shown interest in Awoniyi. His mates are getting ready for the start of the season and his agent is still playing kalo kalo with this boy's career. This talent must not go to waste o. 1 Like |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 12:59pm On Aug 07, 2015 |
DO YOU KNOW? If you were to examine the oldest known Bible to date known as the Codex Sinaiticus or the "Sinai Bible" housed in the British Museum, you would find a staggering 14,800 differences from today's Bible and yet Millions of Christians continue to quack that the modern bible still remains the perfect unchanged word of God? Emancipate yourself from mental slavery! 4 Likes |
| Family › Re: Uganda Bride Price Refund Outlawed by joseph1013: 6:51pm On Aug 06, 2015*. Modified: 2:54pm On Aug 07, 2015 |
freecocoa:What will you give to the man who has wasted precious years with you? Returning the bride price is the more reasonable option. What's the deal with women always playing the victim? 5 Likes |
| Family › Re: Uganda Bride Price Refund Outlawed by joseph1013: 4:10pm On Aug 06, 2015 |
Joromi1:ad hominem! Not like I'm surprised. |
| Family › Re: Uganda Bride Price Refund Outlawed by joseph1013: 2:02pm On Aug 06, 2015 |
Joromi1: Argh...please read what you wrote again and check if it makes sense to you. 1. God's design? Which god? Please dont tell me it's the abrahamic god. Then we will have to stone to death non-virgins and other barbaric stuffs he sanctioned in your scriptures. 2. It's not common to Africa? Does that mean it is not fraud. Is rape peculiar to Africa? 3. Naturally, men are supposed to care for women? So naturally, women are not supposed to care for the men? 4. Even in the family, daughters get special attention from parents? You are not making sense. Does that include families that don't allow their daughters to go to schools because their place is in the kitchen? Is that part of the special attention? 5. If there's no bride price men would hump on any woman they see on the road like animals, marry them and dump them the next day. And how much is bride price anyway, that ur making so much fuss about?So it's because of the bride price that men don't hump on women like animals? It's not compulsory to make comments on nairaland. Even a fool is thought wise as long as he does not voice his opinions. Silence would have been golden for you. 10 Likes 3 Shares |
| Family › Re: Uganda Bride Price Refund Outlawed by joseph1013: 11:04am On Aug 06, 2015 |
Bride price itself is fraud. What is the argument for paying her parents to marry her? If the essence is to reward her parents for raising her, who compensates the husband's parents for raising him? 2 Likes |
| Christianity Etc › Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013(op): 10:12am On Aug 06, 2015*. Modified: 5:29pm On Aug 06, 2015 |
SHOW ME A COUNTRY... Show me a country that respects its Pastors, Imams, and Rabbis more than it respects its Farmers, Teachers, and Scientists, and I will show you a doomed country that will forever be the laughing stock of the world. Tell me the name of the country that puts bible above brain, faith above facts, prayer above proof, churches over schools, rapture above reason, invisible gods over visible goodness, life after death above life before death, tithing above thinking. Tell me the name of that country and I will tell you the name of a country whose children will grow up to be children---mental cripples. Does that describe your country? 9 Likes 7 Shares |
| Music/Radio › Re: AHMIR (R&B Group) - Why Don't This Guys Have A Contract? by joseph1013: 3:41pm On Aug 05, 2015 |
Guys got mad skills.Giving me chills 1 Like |
| Music/Radio › Re: AHMIR (R&B Group) - Why Don't This Guys Have A Contract? by joseph1013: 3:40pm On Aug 05, 2015 |
7 You are Jehovah the true God, who chose A′bram and brought him out of Ur of the Chal·de′ans and gave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before you, so you made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Ca′naan·ites, the Hit′tites, the Am′or·ites, the Per′iz·zites, the Jeb′u·sites, and the Gir′ga·shites, to give it to his offspring; and you kept your promises, because you are righteous.
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