Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”). There have been longstanding connections that indicate to me that the God of Abraham is real. I actually tend to suspect that the old Pagan gods were real (in a bad way, obviously) and several of them are currently remanifesting themselves spiritually, which is … not a good thing for anyone, and also ascribes more reasoning for the behaviors and beliefs of our ancestors than mere superstition and mass cultural deceit. I don’t agree with their character, but if some supernatural being was imposing itself on your town, 4000 years ago, in the absence of an opposing force or directive, you’d probably do what it demanded, too!

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a fairly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for what I see as failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.

Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”). There have been longstanding connections that indicate to me that the God of Abraham is real. I actually tend to suspect that the old Pagan gods were real (in a bad way, obviously) and several of them are currently remanifesting themselves spiritually, which is … not a good thing for anyone, and also ascribes more reasoning for the behaviors and beliefs of our ancestors than mere superstition and mass cultural deceit.

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a fairly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for what I see as failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.

Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”). There have been longstanding connections that indicate to me that the God of Abraham is real. I actually tend to suspect that the old Pagan gods were real (in a bad way, obviously) and several of them are currently remanifesting themselves spiritually, which is … not a good thing for anyone, and also ascribes more reasoning for the behaviors and beliefs of our ancestors than mere superstition and mass cultural deceit.

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a fairly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.

Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”). There have been longstanding connections that indicate to me that the God of Abraham is real. I actually tend to suspect that the old Pagan gods were real (in a bad way, obviously) and several of them are currently remanifesting themselves spiritually, which is … not a good thing for anyone, and also ascribes more reasoning for the behaviors and beliefs of our ancestors than mere superstition and mass cultural deceit.

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a dominantly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.

Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs (“Hi, Planned Parenthood! God sees you.”)

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a dominantly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.

Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence is all.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs.

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a dominantly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.

Better late than never fren! No worries!

Don’t take my position as just-in-case. That position strikes me as being better than rejection in the case of someone on the fence.

Especially when the Bible teaches you to stone adulterers to death.

World can be a harsh place, anon. It’s not that stoning adulterers is good, it’s that adultery is bad and we should fear committing it, fear it for our lives if need be. Other things are of the same type. People will abandon what’s best for the long term all the time if they think they can get away with it in the moment. It’s just how we are, and it’s not among our best traits. There are many verses like this. “If you dare get that match near the stove again, you’ll see what’s going to happen”, but imposed from .. I currently prefer to keep the consequences I consider confined to the material plane, which tends to be true enough. Most of these consequences are for believers, too, though there are some things that get applied to everyone, regardless of their beliefs.

It's not a matter of just deciding to believe in God or not. It's a matter of why you believe or not. If the concept of God makes no sense at all to someone, it's not simply a matter of rejecting God. It's a matter of not having a reason to believe in God in the first place.

Meanwhile, I have had proven to me, from a logical standpoint (mind you, not one that I can recreate for others, but to where I personally have zero doubt, as a dominantly logic-based person) that spiritual existence is real. I have had experience with several “coincidental” miracles, and several “experiential” miracles, and have no doubt that a hand of providence, for whatever purpose, has guided aspects of my life and kept me here and safe, however much suffering it has taken me to get through some of those passages (which in my life are admittedly relatively minor compared to the shocking traumas of many people i know) and pointed me in this direction. To what ends, I don’t yet know.

It's not a matter of rejecting it. It's a matter of not believing it exists in the first place. To reject something means that one believes there is something there to reject.

The character of God is reflected in His instruction. Whether you believe some superior being exists or not, that instruction absolutely exists. Let it be known that I have a great deal of beef with the church for failing to teach it adequately or correctly, and in many cases, actively opposing what is written. The current church as a whole is a poor reflection of the scripture. No knock on any specific congregation.

I also don’t necessarily agree with the concept of “bringing everyone into the faith as converts” while neglecting to make disciples in full - to the point that there are almost no disciples at all. There is a lot of validity to the mockery of the Flying Spaghetti Monster with the way that Christians teach the Bible.

I’m not trying to convince you, but only to let you know that if we start getting it right, you will see the light, in a manifest way, as it once was, and that when we get there, you don’t need to be able to visualize or imagine God to believe, but only to know His character, and we have that character written down. It just takes a lot of earnest humility and struggle.

I will happily write this up for you, but it’s going to take me some time. I know they’re there, but it’s going to be some effort to find them and aggregate and write and whatnot.

Forgot all about this, but it should definitely be a thread. Marked it to my “topics” list.