Questions For God

The year was 1979.  I was a young USAF airman stationed at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota.  I was also a Christian.  Late one morning I, along with some close Christian friends, had just left church.  As I was riding along in the back seat of their well-used station-wagon, heading down a narrow street in a rundown subdivision, I noticed a few young men, late teens, or they could have been in their early 20's like me - they were in the middle of this narrow street throwing a football back and forth.  As they saw us slowly approaching they moved to one side to let us pass.  As we passed them one held up a hand, extended his middle finger, and from just a couple feet from the car, looking right at us with a very angry expression on his face, he very loudly yelled: "FUCK CHRIST" ! There were seven of us in this station-wagon, Christians every one, from about age 17 to 50.  I don't think any of us said anything to each other, but we all heard what he said, and I was very an

  1 Corinthians is dated to around 53-54 ACE, or perhaps 20-25 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. 1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-8 The Resurrection of Christ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.   Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. Lets talk about vs. 6:  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 1 - " appeared "? Did Jesus "appear" in a manner as a ghost appear's in a Hollywood movie?  I honestly don't know if Paul means

  "I think he's telling the American people what they want to hear." This was a very short segment (just a few seconds) in the 2020 documentary film " You've Been Trumped Too ".  What this Trump supporter said is so incredibly telling, and she doesn't even realize what she has just said.    Trump is not telling the American people the truth.  He's not telling the American people what they  should hear , or   what they need to hear.    Trump is telling them (or at least a percentage of them) " what they want to hear ".  And he is telling them this for one reason only - so that he can get re-elected . This is a mirror of what happens in Christianity.  Christians ministers, Christian authors, traveling evangelists, and of course, Christian apologists, all of them tell their Christian followers what they want to hear .  If you tell Christians what they don't want to hear, they stop listening to you:  1 - They don't want to hear about

  What would Christianity look li ke if Christians actually obeyed the words of Jesus? “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say to you that  everyone who looks at a woman with lust  has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye cau ses you to sin,   tear it out and throw it away ;  it is better for you to lose one of your members  than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Come on Christians Rather than talking about obedience to Jesus  Just be obedient to Jesus bob r.u.reasonable@gmail.com

So, what is it and what are the signs?   From the link : What It Means to Be a Malignant Narcissist Beyond the desire to focus primarily on themselves and be held in high regard by virtually everyone in their lives, people with malignant narcissism tend to have a darker side to their self-absorption. These individuals can be highly manipulative and don't care who they hurt as long as they get their own way. Signs and symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder (and the severity of these symptoms) vary.  But the following are common characteristics of malignant narcissists : 1 - Preoccupied with fantasies about beauty, brilliance, success, and power 2 - Unable to handle criticism 3 - Tendency to lash out if they feel slighted 4 - Likely to take advantage of others to get what they want 5 - Overly concerned about their appearance 6 - Have an expectation of being treated as superior 7 - Lack of empathy for others 8 - Inflated sense of self and inability to self-regulate 9 -

  Does any of the claims made in the bible actually matter anymore? Just for fun : Let's concede that God created everything 6,000 years ago, just as described in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis. Let's concede that the foundational claims in the Old Testament, claims such as the Genesis "world wide" flood event, the captivity of the Hebrews in Egypt, along with the God-caused plagues, and the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt soon followed by the timely parting of the Red Sea - let's concede that these events happened. Let's concede that the New Testament stories are true, that Jesus was born of a Virgin, performed some miracles as he ministered, then was executed by the Roman authorities, but he miraculously came back to life after a few days, then hung around with some friends until he floated up into the sky and disappeared. Let's concede that the remainder of the New Testament writings - writings that offer instructions as to how the f

  Alright Christians - time to put-up or shut-up ! Don't pray that God will "heal" your tooth ache just before going to the dentist to have a root canal, then leave with a prescription for pain killers and an antibiotic, then days later  claim that God answered your prayer.  That, my friend, to put it mildly, is fucking dishonest. Christian - do you have any interest in actually proving that God answers prayer, or are you content to just make this weak, unsubstantiated claim over and over again? Allow me to suggest a prayer experiment:    The next sunny, warm Sunday morning, while at church, take a group of the church kids outside onto the church grounds.  I suggest younger kids, say, ages 5 to 10.  I would also suggest that you ask their parents to participate in this prayer experiment.   Have the children, perhaps 6-10 in number, gather in a circle holding hands. Then have the parents form another circle in the same manner around the circle of children. .  Next, Mr. or

  Many years ago, in the early 1980's, during one of many discussions that I had with my dear Christian friend Don, I made this comment: "I could never stop believing in Jesus" . Don responded:  "Don't say that - say, By the grace of God I could never stop believing in Jesus" , which sort of made sense to me at the time.   We believed that, in our own selves, we had no power to come to God.  We also had no power to maintain our faith in God.  Faith itself was a gift from God. This is part of the Calvinistic view. Question: When I stopped believing in Jesus about 17-18 years after that discussion with Don, was it because God intentionally took his "grace" away from me?  Did God decide that he no longer wanted me to believe in Jesus - and so - he took away my ability to believe in Jesus?  If the Calvinistic Christian is going to be consistent in their beliefs, don't they have to believe that any and every Christian who leaves the faith and become

  "Go ahead, tell everyone what you saw -  some will actually believe you." Dear Christian, With regard to what you believe and why I don't believe - as an atheist it's not that I am trying to convince you that I am right.  I t's not even that I am trying to convince you that you are wrong.   It's more like I am trying to get you to understand that you really don't have any good reason to believe what you believe and that you really don't know what you think you know. You have believed these things for so long that your belief feels - to you - like knowledge. You believe so strongly, confidently, that you misconstrue your belief with knowledge. In your mind the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus are so obvious that you are puzzled that some people don't believe (or don't know) that these biblical claims are true. In your mind, the fact that so many people have believed these things for so long, they have to be true. In your mind

  I mean miracle CLAIMS Claim: verb To state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof . noun An assertion of the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in doubt . ~    ~    ~ Often Christians will claim that they know (believe) that the God of the bible has in the past, and perhaps does still in the present, perform miracles. Often I will ask these Christians for some evidence in support of their claim that the God of the bible does (or did) perform miracles. Often (not) o n a rare occasion (denomination dependent) they might offer a miracle claim that they heard of 2nd or 3rd hand.  On an even rarer occasion they will offer their personal "experience" or "observation" of a miracle, but they will never offer any evidence in support of this personal miracle claim. Often they will cite some biblical passage as evidence in support of their claim that the God of the bible has performed miracles in the past.