I don't think god is a show monkey that does miracles for mere mortals when we want him to. I know it's like the hardest thing to believe in something you can't see or touch.

Even when we throw coins in his cup?

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Yeah, but the logic of not revealing himself doesn't hold water. If the point of this existence is to live a righteous life and treat others with respect, yada yada, then get into heaven and spend eternity with God... wouldn't the easiest way to do that, from an OMNIPOTENT BEINGS perspective be to simply show yourself? Like I said, game over, God wins, the Devil doesn't stand a chance in Hell (no pun)...

CLEARLY that isn't this God's goal.

...which begs the question, what is?

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"So I picked up some party balloons and a small tube of vaseline, then slippity slip it was in my ass."
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hehehehe

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"The Cruelest Trick Came From The Talibans, Who Allowed Plenty Of Drugs And Then Banned Music."
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that was fucking hilarious brutal but hilarious i laughed out loud it sure does look funny(christianity) when put that way lol. i think its possible some of these profits existed and spoke of peaceful ways for people to live. but the crazy stories and crap dont show up for hundreds of years later so there is most certainly a time gap there where all the b.s. was infused to control people. its funny though it still works now idiots abound. again funny shit.

christianity using all things of insanity to acheive vanity robbing and stealing in the name of the lord.....fire to them and theyre ways here comes a deacon with a plate in him hand wanting the money of the poor man so pastor can buy a ford mustang and pass by u and your woman....folls go to church on sunday

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"HEY MAN HOW YA FEEL DOWN THERE?.,.,.,CO0L BREEEZE YEA"
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if you dont believe in the almighty then you will die,,i will never i am the king of shit and piss and i come to slay the dragon with my magical fist

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"HEY MAN HOW YA FEEL DOWN THERE?.,.,.,CO0L BREEEZE YEA"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODyjj...eature=related

Charlie Manson, when did they let you have access to the internet???

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"So I picked up some party balloons and a small tube of vaseline, then slippity slip it was in my ass."
-BongJuice

If I may add a bit to this discussion, there are 2 parts I would like to address. 1. The mental states of people that go to religion and their overall intellectual capacity. 2. Where did the earth and heavens come from. (I am a supporter of the Big Bang Theory)

In my search for the "truth" (use term lightly), I keep getting led back to the Theory of mind. Let me post a bief excerpt from wikipedia.

Defining Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind is a ‘theory’ insofar as the “mind” is not "directly observable."[2]. The presumption that others have a mind is termed a "theory of mind" because each human can only prove the existence of his or her own mind through introspection, and one has no direct access to others' minds. It is typically assumed that others have minds by analogy with one's own, and based on the reciprocal nature of social interaction, as observed in joint attention[3],the functional use of language[4],and understanding of others' emotions and actions[5]. Having a theory of mind allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to others, to predict or explain their actions, and to posit their intentions. As originally defined, it enables one to understand that mental states can be the cause of—and thus be used to explain and predict—others’ behavior.[6] Being able to attribute mental states to others and understanding them as causes of behavior implies, in part, that one must be able to conceive of the mind as a “generator of representations”[7][8]. If a person does not have a complete theory of mind it may be a sign of cognitive or developmental impairment.

False-belief task
One of the most important milestones in theory of mind development is gaining the ability to attribute false belief: that is, to recognize that others can have beliefs about the world that are wrong. To do this, it is suggested, one must understand how knowledge is formed, that people’s beliefs are based on their knowledge, that mental states can differ from reality, and that people’s behavior can be predicted by their mental states. Numerous versions of the false-belief task have been developed, based on the initial task done by Wimmer and Perner (1983).

Appearance-reality task
Other tasks have been developed to try to solve the problems inherent in the false-belief task. In the "appearance-reality", or "Smarties" task, experimenters ask children what they believe to be the contents of a box that looks as though it holds a candy called "Smarties." After the child guesses (usually) "Smarties," each is shown that the box in fact contained pencils. The experimenter then re-closes the box and asks the child what she thinks another person, who has not been shown the true contents of the box, will think is inside. The child passes the task if she responds that another person will think that there are "Smarties" in the box, but fails the task if she responds that another person will think that the box contains pencils. Gopnik & Astington (198 found that children pass this test at age four or five years.

The other night on the science channel they were discussing M-Theory and String Theory. They were in search of the singularity, and concluded That M-Theory had to have 11 dimensions. They determined that there are multiple parallel universes with membranes that surround their outer edges. These membranes oscillate like waves on a plane. When they touch, it causes an explosion. They then determined that time did not start with "our" big bang and that time could be measured before this point (the singularity lol). They further deduced that the membranes that contained other universes exsisted prior to our explosion.

After watching this program, it left me wanting more answers. Like when did these dimensions/membranes/universes all start. We may have found our universes singularity, but the quest is still on for the ultimate singularity. This brings us back to the eternal question, which came first? The chicken or the egg? Furthermore, is the creation that happens when these membranes touch, perpetual and infinate?

Today I asked my father inlaw, how he felt about the greek gods. He laughed and called them false gods. I think he fails to perceive the dichotomy between christianity and greek mythology. One of the first things that I picked up on in grade school, was past cultures/civilizations had their own beliefs that many years later, have been cast aside for newer more foolish ones. With that being said refer to part 1. lol

wow, akita420, that information was wonderful. good job! i really like the theory of mind, i think i have had similar feelings but this develops it much more than i ever did! great stuff.

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