₦airaland Forum

Lol, Nuke. I see o. Enter the cavalry. Reinforcements from the Kingdom of Dementia.

Let's look at it another way since Hawking forgot to say the trendy God doesn't exist, He merely didn't create the universe. God created nothing. The universe was created outta nothing. By extension God created the universe. What? My argument is silly? You should read Hawkings'

Deep Sight. Dost thou seeketh to kindle the embers of Enigma's botheration? Desist lest the one with radioactive and mirthful anger come upon you

To the poster, saith I, of the man Jesus, man speaketh many things true and many things false, but in each man's soul is a faculty, a criterion to decide, for evidence is naught and only faith is left. Never ye seeketh the wind in the field. Useless and in vain it is to try to find that which is gone

Godspeed

You're right Imhotep. Atheism has taken a less militant stance now unlike religion which is still going strong especially in the Middle-east, Asia and Nigeria. Unfortunately, atheism is now sort of the in thing, it's in vogue now to be an atheism any form of spirituality is looked down upon like barbarism. It's just one tub of crap to another vat of turd. I believe in God, in angels, evil spirits and even in Satan but I do not like religion especially when it fosters an exclusive mentality.

For two millenia, nobody really knows

I hate to admit but it is easily better than The Prestige. I expect nothing less than pure class from Norton but Giamatti gave the best performance. To me anyways

Oh God, I'm surrounded. May day!

You and me both, iice. Probably you more than I. If you didn't tell me, I'd find it hard to imagine Elba in such a film. It won't be his fault if he botches it. It'll be the collective neck of the people who cast him at the guillotine and, believe me, I'm not expecting a surprise like in the Bourne trilogy.

why?

Ijaw girl, maybe I'm going senile but I'd have sworn you rated Takers 70% somewhere

Great! Actually it is +5 for nuclearboy. I'll accept my own +1 gallantly

Spikedcylinder head go dey swell now say she don get award named after her. What's Spike about, Obinna?

I was gonna exclaim in wonder how come Obinna hasn't seen the Illusionist only for Mini-me to say the same thing. I hereby give you both that assignment. It's awesome, the film.

Lol. I'm sure Manmustwac will not be able to tell the difference na. Especially since one camp of 'fake Christians' call another camp of 'real Christians' fake.

Some people have a Jehovah complex and once they find themselves in the wrong they ditch the wronged person altogether to avoid saying they're sorry. Instead waiting for an apology, carry on abeg. The wait will be never ending

I like the way her teeth have different perceptions of gravity. The Illusionist is awesome. Let's do that!

Ah. In essence, we mean mostly the same thing. What I'm saying can be summarised in these two points.

1. I don't really believe in NDEs except in its proper sense. Near death presupposes no death. My not believing it is not some stubborn attitude I've put on. It's simply that I've not been convinced by any NDE account. I will not go into the physiological explanations of such torpor that NDEers find themselves.

2. If I were to believe in NDEs, it really answers no questions. It is not necessary for me to be informed of such a thing. Other than my normal curiosity about esoterica, it doesn't elevate my spirituality or help in my advancement thereof. It is as useless as believing in reincarnation of whether Jesus had a birth mark.

In the end, only the NDEer and perhaps his very close relatives benefit from the experience. This does not mean I dismiss it casually for I'm not in a position to do so. I just think believer or not, one is really not better off either way.

P.S. I've been talking all along assuming one is religious to begin with. An atheist who turns to God after being inspired by even a fake NDE has apparently vindicated the whole syndicate, lol.

What I meant by unnecessary is as regards humanity. NDEs are experiences meant only for the people who experience them and are only to them necessary. Perhaps I should have mentioned that not all NDEs have spiritual undertones. Some people claim to have an experience not much unlike Disney's Fantasia. Pretty but useless. The disparity in these experiences also shows that it mean nothing or little. It might prove there is life after death but that is a given for any religious person. The real question anyone wants answered is will I be happy after I die. Whether there are seven Gods or pretty white encapsulating angels to cater for you really don't matter. Take a step back and ask yourself what NDEs tell you (provided you believe it) that you don't already sort of know? That really is my point.

@imhotep. My respect for you has soared. All I'm saying is way more evil has been done in the name of religion than in the name of atheism, if any. Leave the leaders out for a moment and think humans and people as you put it.

@Deep Sight .
That's one long post. Do you have a stenographer or some bad-ass software? I must have rambled in a way that is confusing. I did not mean to say all people who believe in God or at least do not totally and vehemently deny His existence are religionists. My qualm is with religionists. People who hear voices in their head. They are not evil in and of themselves but the things they believe in causes them to do evil. An atheist on the other hand is good or evil based on his character. His ways have little or nothing to do with his being atheist. I like your classifications of atheists and I subscribe to it. In fact, not long ago, I made a similar trichotomy

Your grounds for dismissing them don't stand on solid ground. Lol.

MyJoe. You might've mistakenly roped me in with Mazaje. The words 'heightened brain activity' were mine. I'm really not interested in going into details why I don't believe in NDEs. It's not so much about the experience itself but why. It is massively unnecessary. Not to mention it's sort of unfair some people get a second chance. And many many other reasons. But unlike Mazaje, I don't dismiss it with a wave of the hand. I just think it's unnecessary. It proves nothing.

What have you seen?

Sigh. We've not seen you here in ages is all I'm saying.

Obinna seems to get it even though he's a big fan of the hyperbolic

Ah. I deliberately left the holy books outta this

Normally the above wouldn't merit a response but I sense an earnestness in you that is not a bad one.

Let me grant you a head start and accept that the sole crime of these people is that they believe in God. Your statistics are not faceless as they ought to be for they appeal to sympathy. So 2million people died under Stalin. Do you suppose he was evil because he didn't believe in God? Over 3million people died in Vietnam. Cambodia and other places contributed an additional almost 2million if I remember. Hiroshima and Nagasaki if I remember meant a million people directly murdered. More evidence is on Hitler's being a 'Christian' than his being atheist. He killed a third of all the Jews in the world. Or is it two-thirds? Suicide bombings seem to happen everyday since as long as I can remember. The History of the Catholic Church must have escaped your notice. George Bush (both of the sumbitches), Saddam Hussein, Abacha, are not atheists.

Some of my points are stupid but I'm only following your analogy. If atheism made Stalin evil, religion made all the people I mentioned evil too.

I'm not against believing in God but I cannot escape the facts. I can't deny what's before me.