USA

I assume most of us are not personally acquainted.  Sometimes I 'post with a wink' thinking that reader(s) will 'get' me, which is generally a mistake when posting on blogs.  

Kevin, whether you are atheistic or agnostic or something else is your business.  You can probably discuss OT through NT better than I can (most people can...I have to look it up).  I rely on Scripture, especially Proverbs and Ecclesiastes for the simply stated guidance for success in life.  But that's just me, and I have no quarrel with you for your beliefs.  People quote Mark Twain, Dickens, Churchill, Ghandi, JFK, HST, Rocky Balboa, Big Bird, etc.  I quote Solomon.

Kevin, we all put ourselves out there, which is risky but appreciated by many, myself included.  Every post by every poster is an effort to contribute something.  Never will all agree every time. 

In 'real life' we can't say out loud everything we are thinking; that is a danger when posting on blogs.  

But if not for each of us there might not be an LVA and the Forums giving us so much information and entertainment daily.  

Candy

Fair enough, Candy. I was just trying to find an explanation for why you so often criticize/admonish me but give David (and Tom) a free pass--even though he's been very rude to you on occasion, and I don't believe I ever have. In general, I don't see why ANYONE who's not with him in his political sewer (and I know you're not) engages with him. He's, simply put, a MAGA jerkass.

Religion is fine, though I consider it to be a destructive force in human history. I realize that people want to feel that life is fair (it isn't), that death isn't final (it is), that this world has a purpose (it doesn't), that everything is deterministic (nope!) and that there is an all-powerful entity who can be cajoled into granting favors (Flying Spaghetti Monster). It's immensely tempting and comforting. People on their deathbeds and soldiers going into battle are soothed by religion. I get it. I understand why it's so ubiquitous in human society and culture. A comforting lie rather than an awful truth is sometimes the better choice.

I may have mentioned this before, but I was raised by penguins, the intended purpose of which was to make me a true believer but had the exact opposite effect. I kept asking uncomfortable questions and getting evasive non-answers. They would pretend to know everything about Gawd's motivations and purposes but whenever I pointed out contradictions, they'd just weasel away to "It's a mystery." I couldn't respect that.

I remember the final straw being, after we were subjected to a "fire and brimstone" speech, my asking why, if God loves all of us, he would send ANY of us to a place where we would be horribly tortured for all eternity. I also asked, if you loved your children, would YOU ever torture them for even five seconds? Would you burn them alive even if they DID leave the fridge door open? I put the final nail in my own coffin by stating that God must have a vastly different definition of "love" than we do. That was it. Principal's office. The road to atheism.

My husband was raised in Catholic schools.  According to him the "penguins" were often quite severe in meting out consequences.  Dyslexia wasn't recognized, neither was lazy eye, both which very negatively impacted his early learning and left him with eyesight in only one eye for life.  But I digress. 

Sounds like you were more inquisitive than the average bear than your teachers were comfortable with.  

I think most people have difficulty with a lot of what is in the Bible.  Translated initially from Greek, how many thousands of years ago?  How bad must it have smelled on that ark?  Maybe human senses weren't fully developed until much later? 

For the definition of "love" I personally turn to I Corinthians 13:4-7, Apostle Paul's letter to the church at Corinth.  In the KJV it is "charity".  For modern purposes it distinguishes Jesus' love from the romantic.

Candy

Well, there's a wide range of how people regard the Bible--as literal, absolute truth (which only a moron would); as a guidebook for believers, with campfire stories and some actual history mixed in; "a book of beautiful allegorical tales and poetry," as in "Inherit the Wind" (Scopes' defense attorney).

I was referring to God's (alleged) love for the souls he (supposedly) created. Think about this: God is supposed to be omnipotent and omniscient. Therefore, she knows the future. Therefore, she knows that a certain number of souls she creates are going to hell...right? Isn't it an act of unspeakable cruelty to create a being who, after a brief period of earthly existence, is doomed to suffer horribly for all eternity?

it gets worse! If God already knows what she's going to do, then prayer is useless! Think about it! You can't get her to change her mind, because she already knows what she's going to do! When we pray for Tiny Tim to not die of syphillis, and he doesn't, that doesn't mean our prayers were answered; it means that he was never going to die in the first place! Prayer has no more causal influence than rubbing a horseshoe while watching the Super Bowl!

The above two questions were beyond the ability of the penguins to answer, and boy, did that make them mad at me!

My dad wanted me to attend Catholic high school. He thought that religious schools offered a better education than public school. He wasn't at all religious and almost never went to church. I really, really didn't want to continue being taught by the God Squad; I was well aware that due to the daily hour of religious instruction, I was behind in math, languages, and science. So without telling my parents, a month before I would have been a freshman at God Squad, I hopped on a bus and went there to talk to the principal and several teachers. I expressed all of my doubts, questions, and reservations. Two weeks later, a letter arrived, telling my parents that I "was not suited" to be a God Squad" student. Too bad!