This is the main reason why I truly believe I can never be converted, EVEN if I hear and see god. As soon as the experience is over, I will ask myself how could I be sure that just happened? How can I be sure that was real? Unless I have video evidence or other witnesses, I will likely consider it a strange hallucination and itd be done with.
Theistic reasoning...there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world....but there's only one star with life on it, just so that the Hebrew war god could pull off a plan to rescue a minority of earth humans from the consequences of his own hatred.
dont know if anyone gives a shit but if you're bored like me atm then you can stream all of the latest series on InstaFlixxer. Have been watching with my brother during the lockdown :)
I had experiences like this when I was young, they ended when I no longer lived in the abusive christian parental situation. I later grew to believe it was the constant stress created by the abusive christian psychos who had power over me. I broke free from them when I was 18. I didn't get over the religious trauma until years later.
The other day, moments before I woke up to the sounds of sawing a tree outside my window, in my dream I confidently understood some supernatural concept of sawing. But when I woke up, I couldn't even roughly formulate it. I came to the conclusion that in the dream, as usual, there was no clear concept, but only my firm confidence in its presence and harmony. Usually, I feel positive emotions in a dream precisely because of a clear sense of meaning and importance of any dream events, no matter how banal or meaningless they are.
~ Everything that even brushes up against religion is somehow spoiled - four years later, thank you, Tracie and Matt, in 2019, for continually pointing out this obvious fact. BTW, Re: Brampton: Ontario is a province (state), of the country of Canada. Cheers, DAVEDJ ~
Argument against intelligent design imho is that its an insane amount of work. To design everything in the universe … and to keep on designing new species all the time. Natural processjust seems more effective. Specially since the great man in the sky also needs to closely monitor me and the rest of us every second of our lifes.
I experience sleep paralysis since I was a kid, I've never thought it's supernatural and I always knew that I am just still asleep while im aware im not, terrifying as it may be, when you know its just your brain trying to make sense of this state, you calm down
The question Tracy is asking about why should you form an opinion about an experience you can explain is simply boils down to ego people really want to believe things that are kind of out there and they want to believe in spiritual experiences and it’s their ego that lets them believe in it you really have to have the type of reasoning and humility that Tracy has
Sleep paralysis is awful, especially if the victim has claustrophobia or cleithrophobia, at least the first time. It's like being asleep and waking up in a coffin for me because there's is no significant room to move or escape. At first I thought I died in my sleep because I couldn't move, then I thought, “wait I can't be dead if I can think I’m dead.” My lack of belief in life after death helped me reason myself to wake up. I am thankful that my first sleep paralysis was after I became an atheist and no longer believed I can think after death. Irrationally, now I have the fear that there could be a life after death and it terrifies me occasionally (probably from former Mormon indoctrination from birth). I prefer permanent oblivion to being trapped while unable to move for even a short time. I think, “holy cow, what if hell is being locked in a coffin, awake for eternity?” That is not why I’m atheist, but atheism helps me cope with claustrophobia and stupid ideas in relation to death. For my peace of mind while I’m alive, I have provided for my cremation, and that my ashes not be buried but rather scattered somewhere. I absolutely know it is irrational, but it helps me while I’m alive. My wife gets mad at me for hating MRIs. She thinks that shaming me works, but claustrophobia is already irrational. My irrationality is so strong when it comes to claustrophobia, because the thoughts in my mind are based on real things I know are possible, such as the poor kid several years ago stuck in a pipe for I believe three days.
So, you go to heaven with your family. Your spouse is someone else's family. Your kids, are by definition your family. Only one of you gets the kids. Apparently going to heaven is like getting a divorce.
Dude, I'm so with you on this. Christians love to make stuff up without ever thinking it through. I mean, how is "family" defined? I raised two children; they aren't mine by blood...which heaven do they go to? Do they get a choice in the matter? Does their age at time of death play a role in which heaven they go to? Would I as a 38 year old man be made to spend eternity with my parents since I am their child?
Not kidding, twice I’ve had sleep paralysis and was raped in the hallucination. It took me a few minutes to recover, and I had to think if it really happened.
wrong Matt. the premise of intelligent design is that even the smallest and seemingly simple things are actually very complex and thus attributable to an intelligent (super smart) designer a.k.a. god.
Calvin: Do you think tigers go to the same heaven that people go to? I mean, in heaven, everyone is supposed to be happy, right? But people wouldn't be happy if they were always in danger of being eaten by tigers! On the other hand, heaven wouldn't be very nice without tigers, either. I wouldn't be happy if there weren't any tigers. I'd miss them. Maybe tigers just don't eat people in heaven. Hobbes: But then WE wouldn't be happy.
Intelligent design applies to a finished product. So, if a designer did go to work on life here, he was happy, quit, and went home after making cooperative self propagating tiny cells. Those microscopics were the finished product. It took millions of years of evolution to reach our stage of sophistication. We come from the non-designed agonizing slow process. If he wanted us, he'd have made us. By the way, if god were interested in tweeking humanity, much later, in Noah's time, he'd tweek our DNA, his quickest fix for errant behavior., or sloppy genetics. All better in one generation, no flood foolishness required. Silly fiction writers thought up a flood, two-by-two animal nonsense.
Best Christian rebuttal to Mike’s ex-wife’s pastor would be that all are and remain one family in Christ and these worldly concerns are surpassed in His presence and guidance. It’s just that the “true religion” tends to run in families and therefore probably you’ll incidentally be in heaven with your worldly family.
it's even better when you come out of a nightmare followed by sleep paralysis, followed by waking face down with immobile arms, because slept on them and they went conpletely numb. good 'ol days of youth. used to also get out of body experiences and have trouble falling asleep as sleep terrors plagued me. meanwhile, some idiot god(s) watching on and laughing probably ;)
