You’ve received several, some you haven’t even responded to.
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Yes, and my memepry as well…now what was I saying…oh yes, what…Oh…NOW I remeber yes. Daffodils.
Sorry I did not check to see that the OP was indeed, mr drop his drawers and expose us all to the truth.
It was in fact, your good metal alloy self.
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Ah…very nice…
Just to join in the “spirit”…(sung to theme from “Rawhide”)
" Trollin’ Trollin’ Trollin’…keep that nonsense rollin’ AY AR "
Edit to look for Rowdy
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Happy to see another musically inclined contributor.
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Ew! Ew! Me! Me! Me first! Get out of the way, everyone - he said atheists “in general”.
I’m on the fence 
I can’t decide if my hallucinations and delusions of God are actually God. If they are, I’m a theist! 
If they’re not, I’m an atheist either way, I’m bat shit crazy. Definitely not agnostic at least.
Ahem. Let “X” = some random fact about the universe. Let’s say X = schizophrenic hallucinations.
So. Did you say, “three”? Hmm. Hmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmm. 
Number 1) does the fact require a spiritual being at its origin?
Number 2) What is the meaning of spiritual origin in relation to this fact?
Number 3) does this fact adhere to said definition of spiritual origin?
Number 4) given all of the above, what is more likely - a spiritual origin or a natural origin?
Number 5) what is the meaning of a natural origin in relation to this fact?
Number 6) does this fact adhere to the meaning of natural origin?
Number 7) does this fact require a natural origin to explain it?
Okay. Example. Life in the womb of a woman.
Answers:
- it does not require spiritual origin, but may have one
- in this case spiritual origin means “god put a baby in her womb” (see “Jesus of Nazareth”)
- possibly it adheres to a heavenly inception
- undetermined at this point.
- ahh. A natural origin for life in the womb of a woman is a “sperm” fertilizing an “egg”
- ahh. Yes. This “fact” adheres to a RATIONAL explanation.
- ahh. Yes! This origin REQUIRES sperm and egg.
Return to 4) what’s more likely? Take a wild fucking guess. In other words, Mary was a whore and Joseph was the biggest cuck that ever lived.
Example 2) fact “X” = voices in my head.
- it does not require a spiritual origin necessarily
- a spiritual origin in this case means that God or a God like being is communicating with me
- to me, the voices adhere to # 2
- to be answered shortly
- in this case, a natural origin has not yet been explained with all mechanics well understood. It is known that medications affecting dopamine pathways and glutamine pathways IMPROVE and SILENCE the voices - indicating brain chemistry as a source of the hallucinations (however lucid and visceral they may be)
- it does and it doesn’t adhere to the natural origin theories
- given the nature of the voices, their tenacity, their lucidity, and their obvious agenda, a natural “hallucination by brain chemistry” rationale is wanting
Return to 4) for me, it is caused by a supernatural being.
Example 3) the origins of the universe ETCETERA ETCETERA.
Now. A question for you Sherlock.
Given my criteria, is the story of Jesus evidence for God?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 - and - conclusion: easily dismissed as having a rational explanation.
If you’d like to present a compelling “fact” which requires spiritual origination, feel free. I’ve done more than my share. What can you provide?
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Oh, good. Was starting to worry about you. Nevertheless, go say seventeen Hail Larrys and flog yourself for five minutes with a soggy lasagna noodle for your transgressions.
I’ll chime in here and play devils advocate.
There are very few “truth statements” in the Bible which need to be spiritual in origin, and/or are even likely to be spiritual in origin.
Let’s take the opening act. Genesis. Hmm. Universe. Seven days. Water was on the deep. Let there be light. Blah blah blah.
Science, “nope. We’re confident it didn’t take seven days and didn’t happen 10,000 years ago.”
So, right off the bat, this book is sus.
New Testament. Jesus was conceived in the immaculate. Really. Everyone else requires a little beast with two backs? But Jesus? Fuck off.
You’re not going to win with truth statements about objective reality.
The only place you’re going to win are with statements like this “Jesus is Love. Jesus is Compassion.”
See? And Buddhists will even agree with you! But then you’ll tell them, “only Jesus is love. Only Jesus is compassion. And it is only through Jesus that we avoid Hell.”
Uhh. The Buddhist will tell you, “go back 500 years before the birth of Christ and we have an entirely more credible authority on the transcendental nature of, not only love and compassion, but also overflowing joy and the peace of equanimity!”
So, throw Jesus out with the bath water. He doesn’t get to have intellectual rights over Love, and Compassion.
But, you can still win. You need to prove that “Love, Joy, Compassion, and Equanimity exist on another dimension.”
Then Jesus is privy to those things, but not the exclusive agent of them.
Now, the question is “how to do that?” Well. You need to convince people that, at this stage in their lives, their understanding of those four “dwelling places of Brahma” is rudimentary. They may have experienced them in some sense; but never to the pure degree to which they exist (in other dimensions). Then, and this is the fun part, put a little 5-MeO DMT in their drink and see what happens.
What happens? Like me (a schizophrenic who is constantly in dialogue with a spiritual being) those who ingest psychoactive substances like Ibogaine or DMT are going to have spiritual journeys in which they feel unbelievably strong feelings of love and bliss (not to mention terror, paranoia, and existential angst).
Here’s the sad part. Even after you establish that Love, Overwhelming Joy, Compassion, and Equanimity are transcendental dimensions housing uncountable numbers of very fortunate sentient beings, you still don’t have a criteria for spiritual origin.
You just have spiritual destination. And even then, once you’ve experienced those things, they lose their lustre. When the unexplainable becomes explainable it ceases to be spiritual.
So, God Proper - is, as far as I can tell, not going to be easy to support with evidence, EVEN IF you can convince people that alternate dimensions exist where there are things like pure love.
The universe is WAY more crazy than “One God Created Everything”. It’s a fucked up universe of super powerful beings, super fortunate beings, shit-tards like you and me, and even less fortunate beings like raccoons 
and worms. And bacteria.
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Oh dear, another irony overload.
What objective evidence can you demonstrate for any deity, ring any bells? Oh yes I forget, in religious apologist land, objective and subjective hearsay are the same, and I am simply being mean by disbelieving
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Just a note that mental illness doesn’t make a person “bat-shit crazy”… 
My enjoyment of riskier endeavours have a few describing me as “bat-shit crazy”. 
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Just a brief sidebar here, but the site crash for anyone else yesterday? I had a hell of a job even opening it one point, and couldn’t post for hours? I contacted admin via the main site, and it’s sorted now obviously.
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Yep did for me this morning. At a guess a very amateur DDOS attempt.
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Happened to me too. I got kicked off the site for several hours.
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My answer is the same. I am unconvinced. There’s an absence of evidence for the existence of any and all deities that would compel me to believe otherwise. I see no reason for it.
I also couldn’t connect for several hours this morning.
OK, thanks everyone, I hadn’t seem it mentioned so thought I’d ask. Is it paranoia or do these attacks seem often to coincide with increased traffic on the site, like when some new theists start posting and the responses spike? Maybe I am just imagining that.
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Yeah I was locked out. I thought perhaps I had been a bit too direct”.
I somewhat expected a response to my points would be forthcoming, but 
alas and alack, crickets and wind…
Edit to listen to an old Beatles song…
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Maybe, it could be argued that it is just coinkidoink….or not…
Edit first cause
Don’t you mean darkness?
It’s not your imagination. I noticed that myself. Some really odd “coinciding” happening there.
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It’s not necessarily an attack. It could very well be that the forums are relegated to a backwater server on its last legs that needs to be kicked occasionally.
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