haha, denouncing and denigrating non-believers is part of your easter message ??.
Never go full fire and brimstone.

Peace and goodwill to all mankind, without exception.

“You can go home anytime you want”

Optimist wrote:

Parable of the 4 men.

Four men were booked on a one way flight in a small plane.

It was a long journey and all along the way people were offering them parachutes for free.

The four men would arrogantly laugh at the offers of a free parachute and even abuse the people trying to give them one.

We will be right they would yell, we are not carrying that bloody thing and planes never crash anyway so F off.

They boarded their flight and the plane reached 10,000 feet.

What they didn’t realise is that death was the pilot and he opened the passenger cabin door.

He made the men to sit on the edge with their legs dangling in the open air staring down into the dark cloudy void.

Time to jump death said, this is as far as you go.

The four men stared down into the void and were terrified,

We don’t want to jump without a parachute they all cried.

Too late said death, there are no parachutes on this plane and my friend Life asked lots of different people many times over to give you a free parachute and you all abused them.

It was time , death tilted the plane and the four men dropped into the abyss …

….with no parachute.

and then it came to pass that the man with the parachute had never really seen what was in his backpack.
As he sat looking into the abyss he began to have doubts.
He realised he was only convinced it was a parachute because somebody told him it was so who had heard from someone who had also never opened the bag but also believed it to be a parachute because someone had told him he believed it to be one.
Have faith they said.
Then he looked back into the plane and realised there were many other backpacks under seats that looked somewhat like parachutes.
Maybe they were all empty or maybe he had chosen the wrong one? he wondered frantically.
Then, as the four men plunged towards the ground, the faces of the three without backpacks became calm.
They looked around in wonder at the earth as it raced towards them and to the far horizons where mountains met the shimmering sea.
The beauty of the earth astounded them.
The clarity of a final end where their struggles were over allowed them to peacefully accept their fate.
Nearby the man with the backpack struggled and screamed looking for a rip cord that was not there.
The false promise of being saved made his predicament unbearable.
His last moments were filled with rage at having been so foolish in trusting those who only pretended to know something about parachutes based on hearsay.
Death and dust became their fate in equal measure.

frog wrote:

Optimist wrote:

Parable of the 4 men.

Four men were booked on a one way flight in a small plane.

It was a long journey and all along the way people were offering them parachutes for free.

The four men would arrogantly laugh at the offers of a free parachute and even abuse the people trying to give them one.

We will be right they would yell, we are not carrying that bloody thing and planes never crash anyway so F off.

They boarded their flight and the plane reached 10,000 feet.

What they didn’t realise is that death was the pilot and he opened the passenger cabin door.

He made the men to sit on the edge with their legs dangling in the open air staring down into the dark cloudy void.

Time to jump death said, this is as far as you go.

The four men stared down into the void and were terrified,

We don’t want to jump without a parachute they all cried.

Too late said death, there are no parachutes on this plane and my friend Life asked lots of different people many times over to give you a free parachute and you all abused them.

It was time , death tilted the plane and the four men dropped into the abyss …

….with no parachute.

and then it came to pass that the man with the parachute had never really seen what was in his backpack.

As he sat looking into the abyss he began to have doubts.

He realised he was only convinced it was a parachute because somebody told him it was so who had heard from someone who had also never opened the bag but also believed it to be a parachute because someone had told him he believed it to be one.

Have faith they said.

Then he looked back into the plane and realised there were many other backpacks under seats that looked somewhat like parachutes.

Maybe they were all empty or maybe he had chosen the wrong one? he wondered frantically.

Then, as the four men plunged towards the ground, the faces of the three without backpacks became calm.

They looked around in wonder at the earth as it raced towards them and to the far horizons where mountains met the shimmering sea.

The beauty of the earth astounded them.

The clarity of a final end where their struggles were over allowed them to peacefully accept their fate.

Nearby the man with the backpack struggled and screamed looking for a rip cord that was not there.

The false promise of being saved made his predicament unbearable.

His last moments were filled with rage at having been so foolish in trusting those who only pretended to know something about parachutes based on hearsay.

Death and dust became their fate in equal measure.

Well said Frog....

nice.

Awesome story Frog, it was a very boring story till you gave it some meaning : )
Can't stand analogies/parables/metaphors for real life - 'life is like a house, faith is like a parachute, patience is like a donkey', or whatever.
It is a lazy way of exploring an idea, and it can be used to suck simpletons into dangerous ones.

Flopti have you noticed yet that it’s not a very christian trait to be bitter and twisted ? ;)

Passive aggressive storytelling and making stuff up by creating false and irrational analogies to suit your own agenda is childish and arrogant.

How exactly does it fit under the banner ‘all things religion’ ? ;)

Where is the love and peace and forgiveness that jesus preached ? Not sure any of his teachings encouraged forcing your imagined theoretical ideas on others and reacting in a dismissive and patronising tone ;)

Does this really bring people together in harmony and promote goodwill ?
Do you regard projecting your eternal misery and doom and gloom on others as an act generosity ? Is this really you doing gods work or just an excuse to be a dickhead ?? ;);)

Have you considered your version of religious belief may not be the only way? How petty and small minded to assume your interpretation is the only truth …

And are you that selfish and ignorant that you truly believe everyone else has got it wrong except for you ?

- ‘he’ must be so proud of you ;)

… frogs parable hit the spot tho

And flopti…

This lady is offering some theories and probabilities.

She’s explaining things. Also recommending things…

- Trying to create possibilities even.

Bottom line is there is NO certainty. There is no one way.

What you choose is up to you and what anyone actually tells you means nothing.

Her words are ideas and information - no different to your stuff - the advice might work and it also might not.

The common shared reality is…
she doesn’t actually know for sure about the end result.

And neither do you ;)

Jelly Flater wrote:

From the flopti void of planet peanut :

‘the mind reflects on how this seismic epoch has been distorted over time to change the true focus and meaning of Easter’…

Well - the true focus and meaning of ‘easter’ now is the religious theft of a pagan festival ;)

We all get a public holiday which was originally a pagan celebration of the changing of seasons to honour the worship of the goddess ‘eostre’.

This was representative of ‘fertility’ and new crops to be planted…

https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/what-are-the-pagan-roots-of-…

- you can keep giving your imaginary personal interpretations flopti, but don’t leave out the facts of how christianity has repackaged and resold something and claimed it as its own ;)

These days it’s called plagiarism.

How divine ;)

A lot can happen in three days if it’s a magical fairytale without actual proof !

… A lot ;)

‘ “All the fun things about Easter are pagan. Bunnies are a leftover from the pagan festival of Eostre.” Hot cross buns are related to “Israelites baking sweet buns for an idol, and religious leaders trying to put a stop to it.” Eventually, “defiant cake-baking pagan women” were successful and a cross was added to the buns to Christianize them.’

…’“Easter” is only a name, adopted and transformed over centuries to become a Christ-centered reference until recent generations where many young people no longer recognize the name of Jesus as anything more than an expletive.

However, using the name Easter “is not a problem” because “the origin of the word does not mean that the word is bad.” If we want to “be consistent and avoid using [pagan] words,” Christians will also have to find new names for the planets and the days of the week.‘

Happy eostre !! ;)

You got it, but it is actually cultural appropriation, and invasion of and extinguishing of indigenous European religious beliefs... clever ancestors, they hid a lot of the former religion in the latter one, though!

It was a fertility festival. The European climate selects for planning skills and creation of surplus to survive the long cold. Spring becomes a flourishing time of life, in the fields, forests, animals and people. It's celebrated by the celestial movements... May Day is up next, look for the May Poles, same reason, fertility, new life, new children. Look for the Obby Oss as well!

It goes together quite well - today is the day of the Resurrection of Christ, and the re-birth of new fast growing life is celebrated.

Just brilliant. Some people are so talented pic.twitter.com/gLJRAOIFL6

— The Sage (@SarkySage) April 10, 2023

Here's a history of some of the religious dispossession and murder:

https://wulfing75.wixsite.com/dorset/post/why-did-our-ancestors-convert

basesix wrote:

Beautiful time of year to indulge in reading a Good Book, one that isn’t arrogant, doesn’t yell. One that seeps in with meaning like gentle Autumn rain. One that searches for answers without needing to find

Ignore the Bibles, Richard Dawkins and Graham Hancock… they are all the same; they arrogantly think we can truly comprehend some sort of ‘big picture’, and they all want Russell-Brand-style proprietorship of ‘the truth’.

Christians, read some Stephen Jay Gould - non-nonsense for beginners.. poking into some of life’s secrets with wonder and humility. (‘Panda’s Thumb’, or ‘Bully for Brontosaurus’ are as good a place as any to start).

Jared Diamond is perhaps the most engaging of the studiers of humanity. Start with ‘The Third Chimpanzee’, or maybe ‘Guns Germs and Steel’ if you prefer modern history (the last 10,000 years). ‘Collapse’ is essential reading for those with an environmental bent.

Toilet readers, have a crack at Bill Bryson’s ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’. But lay off the psyllium husks for a couple of weeks, there’s some nice longer passages (no pun intended) in it.

My kids and I are reading Bren Smith’s ‘Eat Like a Fish’ this long weekend, we bought 3 copies. Don’t know if it is a Good Book yet, but it grittily documents one man’s explorations in to the environmental benefits of DIY vertical sea-farming.

(now, imagine the facelift-foetus, Brian Cox saying this bit..) Doesn’t matter what you read, I like science fiction, Vonnegut, PK Dick.. but it’s a great time of year to curl up with a book and a cuppa and feed your head. Whatever you read will be flawed… language, writing, books… they are all new. And we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go. And isn’t that wonderful..

Basesix. Good post. The more we read the better we are as humans. You are a great parent taking the time to read ‘with’ your children.
I’ve read all of Stephen Jay Goulds books, a great evolutionary biologist sadly missed by all of us who know his great work. AW.

Hilarious SF, good find, or should I say 'great' find.

A lot of your posts on SN are "GREAT" too tubeshooter(not taking the piss).

heres a post i saw on facey some of you may have already seen-
https://thepremierdaily.com/stephen-hawking-on-god/?uxgf=J6gDjZ

and one reply to a religious person, with this poster being spot on-
Carol Cooper-
"Anthony Gordon
Each to their own !
No one knows, as no one ever returns to confirm anyones religious beliefs.
People believe in-whatever brings them comfort
It Doesn’t matter what anyone thinks -
of another man’s belief..
we’re all going anyway, so enjoy your time here"..

People say it is arrogant to be an atheist and most atheists mock religion but it goes the other way too.
'My god is the only god not yours!"
"Well lets fight a war over whos god is the best god" bla bla bla...

That said some things seem so damn perfectly designed like perfect sandbanks, perfect surf, perfect looking faces, cute animals, sharks that hunt for weeks from miles away,intuition and everything else amazing..it would seem natural to believe in God or religion with or without science- to me anyway..Just seems like some people designed jobs and businesses to make money for themselves out of making out they knew everything about the origins of life and universe.
So personally choose to live like if there is a god, he will like 70-80% of the nice stuff i did..Rarely tried to rip anyone off but in doing so got looked at by scam artists as a easy target and ripped off by even friends or distant family..But if there is a god he would know, even as an atheist/agnostic i only ever did a few minor bad things like a small crop of "chillies".. that for some stupid reason are illegal..so if there is a god i probably wont go to hell.

Ponder endlessly over the 783,137 words in the bible looking for meaning and guidance, fearing judgement of an almighty or, remember just 5 words:

You reap what you sow

I choose option two.

Cheers Groundswell for the high praise. I'm not worthy.

I'm not into bashing religion either. I have friends and family who are believers , and very rarely do anyone of them force it on me and they never try to belittle me for not believing. And vice versa.
I do get annoyed with the whole 'you'll burn in hell if you don't not only believe but beg for forgiveness before you die' type spiel when it comes up here though.

As far as optimists plane analogy goes, the people who didn't get a parachute could have been Nobel Prize winning doctors and scientists who have spent their entire lifetimes selflessly working on things that have greatly benefited mankind , including optimist and his family. But some murdering rapist can receive a parachute 5 minutes before take-off if he 'accepts God as his salvation'. Give me a fucken break.

It's not only an insult to me it's very likely an insult to the big fella himself.
The main point in the clip below begins around the 5min mark and pretty much goes to the quote I posted by Marcus Aurelius.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

No worries tubeshooter sometimes i feel a little anxious about what to reply and then forget to reply at all as i fell asleep or something..But then feel like im seeming like a snob..I should have also put an "IM" in front of "not taking the piss" too, to prevent confusion.

Anyway enjoy this thread not too much hate or vitriol but lots of good points, including optimist who i respect for being solo in this thread against everyone but really think posts like "frog's" parachute reply owned this whole debate almost entirely..
What a good point frog made- so many different types and brands of parachutes all with different promises and designs and policies, which one is the right one to choose?, only one will work..hahaha

God sees the heart and the call is out to all humanity. He knows who is genuine and who is not.
Satan has set up side road religions to take people off track for Millenia including false copy branches of Christianity itself….
Versions of these other religions mostly come from way back in Babylon.
There is only one creator and His son Jesus the visible one.
There is only one way to the father and that is through the son.
Otherwise Easter or “Passover “ and the cross happened for nothing.
Watching “The Chosen “ the free series from Angel studios helps you set the historical scene for New Testament bible reading.
When reading the bible (one of the most historically accurate documents on earth) in different points of history you need to place yourself in that era so the context of the words is clear as this “book of books” dates back to the early civilisations of man and they were sometimes pretty tough times when you look back over 4500 of these particular brief unsanitised history writings and that’s only the stuff that’s written down.
The Jewish people wrote things down and treasured culture and history, had schools and taught kids in an era when not many people could even write. They also taught food prep and hygiene , morality, etc etc with God constantly trying to keep them busy so they didn’t end up like the wild neighbouring tribes like the philistines, the Amorite's , moabites and Hittite's to name a few.
There are bible commentaries available from great people to help set the historical context of the eras involved and you can google them.
There were some wild societies back then and now the world seems to be reverting back to violence , killing babies for convenience, and all the other seven deadly sins. As the world gives up on Jesus the world crumbles again.
As well now , the truth is a lie and a lie the truth and personal opinion frowned upon even persecuted in the courts these days.
Freedom to choose is disappearing.
Currently half a billion people are watching THE CHOSEN.
This is one of the great phenomenons of our time.
The prince of peace is portrayed very much as in scripture and it’s a pleasure to watch not only for Christian comfort but excellent historical value.
If your interested that is.

Thanks for still being here Optimist, this thread was intended as a safe space for you, and any who would like to respectfully discuss these things. I'd enjoy if you included Hinduism and the Veda when discussing your views on non-Christian religions. And the various animisms come to that. I assume you feel colonists and child stealers did right by Aboriginals? At least in their intentions?

It is fascinating, the way religion is created to suit the needs and times, popularised and spread, it tells us a lot about 'us'. Jesus has has an awesome evolution to become a man's-man:

https://www.facebook.com/TimelineWH/videos/the-image-of-jesus-the-dark-…

I have always liked the mother and child iconography, I think it reminds us that, societies may have been (or are) patriarchal, but if we are lucky and life rolls as it should, we are raised by women. I have certainly aspired to have my Mother's kindness, morals and values in every decision I make and every interaction I have. So I do quite like the Horas and Isis version of Christian propaganda.. certainly more than the macabre stuff with thorns, blood, sacred hearts and the like. But what imagery and iconography (and parables and passages) a Believer identifies with and quotes to people certainly tells you a lot about their inner-self.

I watched Noah with Russel Crowe the other night. Those lava monsters were pretty kewl! They helped him (600years old at the time) build the ark. Did they really exist or were they just make-believe?
https://amp.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/apr/10/reel-history-noah…

Nope ,no lava monsters in the bible. I used to like Russel until I saw the worst movie in history….and the mother goddess and sun god worship ( mother and child) is actually the basis of most pagan religions and what God calls the great whore in revelation so He’s not real keen on it. Probably because it perverts truth and sets another side road I spoke of earlier.

Nope ,no lava monsters in the bible. I used to like Russel until I saw the worst movie in history….and the mother goddess and sun god worship ( mother and child) is actually the basis of most pagan religions and what God calls the great whore in revelation so He’s not real keen on it. Probably because it perverts truth and sets another side road I spoke of earlier.

I think mosaics were wonderful in the Late Antiquity period.
The 'soft, feminine, delicate Christ with child-bearing hips' is lovely. And a good reminder for insecure men who hide behind a more Zeus styled Christ, what early Christians were worshipping and hoping for in a savior.

And then the flopti proclaimed with great certainty :

‘When reading the bible (one of the most historically accurate documents on earth)…’

;);) really ??

- Genesis 2:1-3
“Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

And…

- Exodus 31:17
“It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed."

Um.

- is this the kind of information that you actually perceive as historically accurate ?

Are you really on planet earth or are you just the captain of planet flopti ;)

- And a christian video being watched by a bunch of numbnuts is, according to flopti, ‘one of the great phenomenons of our time’.

Really ;);)
…Really ??

Can you differentiate between fact and fiction…

- ‘The truth is a lie and a lie the truth’ ???
& ‘freedom to choose is disappearing’ ???

Certainly seems that way if there is ‘only one way’ and ‘only one creator’ !

Wtf are you babbling on about ? ;);)
Mindless dribble.
Fear mongering finger pointing.

Maybe time to heed words of wisdom that are directly applicable, and entirely accurate, relative to the flopti version of absolute delusion…

- the prophetic words of slayer :

‘In the depths of a mind insane…
Fantasy and reality are the same’

;);)

Hey JF, yep, it is all mental, quoting the Bible with a stern look..
but it is an amazing time-capsule of where-people-were-at 2000/3000 years ago. Because it has had fairly minimal corruptions, and those are well known (like the KJ version) and poured over by some pretty weird but clever people, we have some good historic literature there. Since the Alexandria library was dispersed (or burned if you like sensationalism in your history) in this period, historical artifacts are pretty precious things.
Tubeshooter: (slow clap)... bravo, awesome clip you linked, my kids and I watched it, and smiled at an internet world so calm, reasonable, rational and beautiful, that someone bothered to create a thing like that! The end credits showing a Gaia Galaxy Map has inspired us to dig deeper, we'll mix a bit of this in with their homework I reckon
https://www.space.com/40406-gaia-release-color-milky-way-map.html
Fascinating stuff..

.... and the creator of this:

is also very concerned about whether you believe in him and what you do with your doodle.

Thought he might be a little beyond that by now.

One of the things that stood out most to me in Ian McCormacks original testimony
( available on you tube) was after he had died from the 5 box jelly’s and after his spirit had descended into the earth to wait, it’s when he was plucked up and was sailing through the tunnel to the light ,..there were waves of light like pulses coming down the tunnel from the light source.
As these pulses hit him he was overcome with intense rapturous feelings of love and joy……The rest of his story is truly amazing but those thoughts stayed with me….Light, Love and Joy.
I have met him in person…a great guy and his face actually shines when you speak to him…he certainly shines like someone who has met Jesus face to face.
Reminds me of when Moses face was really shining after receiving the Ten Commandments.

Optimist wrote:

One of the things that stood out most to me in Ian McCormacks original testimony

( available on you tube) was after he had died from the 5 box jelly’s and after his spirit had descended into the earth to wait, it’s when he was plucked up and was sailing through the tunnel to the light ,..there were waves of light like pulses coming down the tunnel from the light source.

As these pulses hit him he was overcome with intense rapturous feelings of love and joy……The rest of his story is truly amazing but those thoughts stayed with me….Light, Love and Joy.

I have met him in person…a great guy and his face actually shines when you speak to him…he certainly shines like someone who has met Jesus face to face.

Reminds me of when Moses face was really shining after receiving the Ten Commandments.

Similar experiences with NDE from all religions, not just Christianity. Also from what I am told a big hit of DMT will have you talking to God??
Maybe something going on, but not necessarily the Yahweh from Bible is involved.

Well he spoke with Jesus then woke up in the morgue in the hospital in Mauritius with a doctor doing an autopsy on him…sounds like Yahweh to me.

Yowie from the Billabong
https://www.yowiehunters.com.au/victoria/1263-victorian-billabong-vic-2…

Wow hundreds of reports there. Fascinating to read.

Geez flopti ;)

Haha … Another story ?
Another tall tale backed up with a concise and concrete imaginary explanation ;)

That muffler mind you got is on fire…

- yahweh or the highway it is !

https://skingraftrecords.bandcamp.com/track/my-mind-is-a-muffler-from-t…

You’ll find out eventually whether it’s real or not.

… yowie ;)

Optimist wrote:

You’ll find out eventually whether it’s real or not.

Just like the Easter Bunny.

The Lord spoke much to Moses and really had some important stuff to pass on:

"And every firstling of an ass thou dost ransom with a lamb, and if thou dost not ransom it, then thou hast beheaded it: and every first-born of man among thy sons thou dost ransom.

Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you

So, take heed you wayward surfers who doth sin by your taste of the yeast when not permitted and fail to behead your lamb instead of your ass."

We can only wish for another visit to some earthly prophet in our lifetimes for more such guidance.

It has been a while since he dropped by and although some of this is clearly very important, it is a bit dated.

Kahlil Gibran did a pretty bang up job of an updated book. Totally inspiring words and hard to find guff in, but i fear it hasn't the pedigree...

Good to see you reading the bible frog. If you would study the commentaries as I suggested you would understand the era and how ancient cultures thought .
The donkey represents you frog…especially if you’re a firstborn …and all the stubborn traits of a donkey….and the lamb your redemption….the offering afterward became food for the priests and their families…..
Much later in history Jesus, Gods son became the Lamb of God that would take away the all sins of the world once and for all….and the offering became known and remembered as HOLY COMMUNION.

So for thousands of years the almighty was very concerned about animal sacrifice - seems the god being described had a primitive and petty mindset not much above that of a tribal elder.

Or, were the priests just making sure they had a system to get a regular easy meal of lamb whilst doing no work? Makes total sense for priests to want animal sacrifice - not so much for god.

Rule number 1 taught down through the ages by all witchdoctors. shamans, priests and gurus within their profession - make giving offerings essential - otherwise you get hungry fast.

Good post Optimist, it is wonderful when people of faith analyse the Bible from a non-literal standpoint. The Bible does let us know what people in a very specific time and place made of the world, allowing for hypotheses such as frog's. And holy communion is a lovely idea, I think frog would much prefer protestant 'communion tables' to 'altars'.

I had an amazing trip about 10 years ago, Indo, Germany, then the Outer Hebrides - turned out quite faith-y.

Indo, as we all know, has amazing pockets of respect-for-others'-religions. The result of being adaptable from their trade history, a new religion arriving every 100 years or so. An Islamic family I stay with regularly ferries across to attend Hindu festivals, they think they are awesome people.

In Mainz I had the opportunity to spend a week going into an institute where they had a rare Wulfilabibel (I was interested in the extinct language Gotisch/Gothic). What an awesome missionary Wulfila was to have taken that Greek translation on! His text interpretations were a little window into the Bulgaria-region of the 1st Century.

In Tiree I had the funnest surfs of my life with the the most down to earth crew I've ever met, they took their faith very seriously - the Hebridean version of Catholicism, with Our Lady of the Sea as a focal point is quite beautiful, and perfectly of its place (Sunday is pretty sever though, some places still lock up kids' swings).

I totally respect that your faith has worked for you Optimist, your origin story is most engaging. And it is very easy to mock a person's faith, just as it is to mock atheism. But do you rate other faiths at all.. billions that have found truth and meaning specific to them? Or do you really believe that the English Bible is a secret code that can only be cracked correctly by special people who faith at it the right way?

Parable of the Frog
A frog was running out of water so he asked two birds to transport him to a nearby pond by having each bird carry one end of a stick in their beak while he bit down on the centre and held on.
It was a sight to behold, two birds one stick and a frog in the middle.
A cow looked up, saw the trio passing overhead and asked “ who thought of that?”
The frog couldn’t resist, pride prevailed over prudence.
“It was meeee !” He yelled as he plummeted to the ground.
Don’t make the same error, Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall…(Proverbs 16:18).

I think the frog would have used his grippy little toes to hang on to the stick. Don’t you?

Opti,
But is a lowly frog asking questions (generally unanswered) and not pretending to have answers, on matters that seem to make little sense as a coherent spiritual system, more prideful than someone who strongly believes they have the answers and are destined for favour and a special welcome by the king of kings at the Pearly Gates?

From a religious web site:

"Spiritual pride is what happens when we believe we’ve got God, the Bible, and the Christian life figured out. It makes us feel superior to others.

Why is Spiritual Pride a Problem?
Who was Jesus most critical of during his time on earth? Well, it wasn’t the “sinners.” Instead, it was the people who had spiritual pride. Those who were confident they were God’s favourites because they were doing everything right.
To Jesus, spiritual pride was one of the most significant problems a person can have."

Proverbs 16:18 has a message for all including men of faith.

Spot on.

Flopti once again sprouting bullshit from a pedestal while exhibiting the most hypocrisy, expressing sentiments of overblown self righteousness and passing judgement on all who don’t heed his false sermons.

The degree of narcissism on display is hilarious and confounding in its blatant absurdity ;)

Consistently attempting to berate others on matters such as pride and trying to educate others whilst obviously lacking any self awareness or empathy.

Continually making shit up and blindly projecting a viewpoint of disrespect and ignorance are the hallmarks of a fraud and an egomaniac.

It’s ‘believers’ such as flopti that do the most damage and create real ongoing negative representations of people of faith (other than the pedos).

True christians are generous, light hearted, loving, friendly, filled with hope and generally positive and happy. They respect all other people of any religious conviction - they celebrate and listen to philosophical discourse and are always trying to learn and share in the effort of bringing people together and forgiving others for their supposed indiscretions ;)

Jesus warned of people like you flopti.
And here you are pretending you got some secret ticket to the wormhole…

You are just a worm ;)

seeds wrote:

I think the frog would have used his grippy little toes to hang on to the stick. Don’t you?

Classily played.

Basesix, as a follower of Christ, He teaches me that there is only one way to the father of all living things and that is through the Son.
Due to personal faith, personal revelation and personal experiences with God Himself that are far too many to list it is therefore impossible for me to deny what I’ve experienced or to see any other way. If God says there is only one way to him and one truth then I have to go with that. I’m easy but if He says so I’m good with it….All other so called religions are just diversions with struggle and sweat.
He actually mocks them in the bible especially the idolatry ones.
It also makes sense that you can’t have many truths there can only be one.
The bible is a book of 66 different books written over many thousands of years.. The ancient writings in the Old Testament talk about the history of the ancient world and right through it is woven the coming of the Christ.
The New Testament is all about the “Christ has come “and the gospel or “ good news” for mankind.
The bible is easy to read and even kids understand it so there is no secret knowledge….I think it’s episode three of the chosen when Jesus is with the Jewish children , they were quoting scripture like seasoned pros….loved it..words bring life.
If I told you of some of the personal experiences I have had over 40 years you probably wouldn’t believe me and I wouldn’t share them on here as mockery is rife.
So , even though I have had many Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist , J W , Roman Catholic , communist Chinese and Mormon friends over many years….my message to them is exactly the same….Follow Jesus not religion….that’s why He came…One God..One way…One Life.

Optimist, I appreciate your answer. I'm sure you would acknowledge that everyone may feel within themselves they have found a path with the same conviction, that gives their life the same meaning (even if you don't think it is the 'right' meaning). I'm not sure anyone's conversion story will ever begin 'well there was this guy on a surf website that got kinda dark and judgey...'

Certainly admire your fortitude, I got a hand slap for wishing you a happy Easter ; ) Hope you sort of enjoy the schoolyard jeering with a grin. Enduring slings and arrows seems to be sport for some of the more martyrish Christians. I assume you have a 'they know not what they do' kind of barrier going on. Props.

I’m certainly no saint and am not in a position to judge anyone. I do however have to share the things that I’ve learned in over 40 years otherwise I would be the worst hypocrite having the information and keeping it to myself.
The only reason I will see heaven is because it cost Jesus so much.
It’s a gift from God so that no body can boast and that certainly includes me.
Sometimes it may seem harsh but it is what it is…..Life and Death.

It's a pickle Optimist.

The majority of 'seeing things' and obsessive delusion have been medically explained (not to judge your experiences, only you know what they are)… I have seen people turn their back on non-believing loved-ones in preference of 'Him', later to be diagnosed… but I do wonder about people who believe that they truly believe..

If I truly believed that I had knowledge of 'the only true path to salvation that saved people from eternal damnation', I would probably feel obliged to share it. It is certainly what early missionaries felt compelled to do. They did a lot of damage, but weirdly some genuinely felt they doing the right thing... tough one. In some ways, you feeling obliged-to-share-your-perceived-path-to-salvation has more integrity, and I'm sure you agree with this, than those that keep the path to themselves. What a ridiculous noodle of a thing..

I’m sure you’ll dismiss this (it is hard to share if only one person’s view is ‘right’) as we seem to have pretty different tastes in movies. But I personally love this realisation from Sean Penn’s character, a classic sinner. I know it doesn’t talk to Him being the way, but I think comfort is a big one (life has been nasty, brutish and short for most of our collective journey), and the one I personally respect the most:

I don't care that religious people think they're going to heaven or preach about God. I do take exception to the whole damning of the non-believers scene for simply not believing, or daring to have a laugh at His expense.
Good onya for having your beliefs, but I'm not here to change anyones mind on whatever spiritual path they have chosen. More power to ya.
I just reckon you need to lay off the doom and gloom shit a bit.
A Christian telling an Atheist he's going to hell is like a kid telling you Santa's not bringing you any presents.