Evolutionists are having a hard time explaining why we are so good to each other. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Many people have "rebuked" you — christian2017
Many people have "rebuked" you
— christian2017
Rebuking is for dummies.
As long as I am rot refuted, they can show how dumb they are all they like.
Regards
DL — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Not true. — Athena
christian2017
944
↪Frank Apisa
"Do you believe in aliens?" is equivalent to "Do you believe in cheese?". If you believe in cheese and or aliens than you either believe that aliens or cheese exist. How could i have worded that better? — christian2017
Okay...I agree. It is a common cliche.
But you asked me a question...and the question was, "How could i have worded that better?"
I answered that question. Essentially I am saying that a better way would have been NOT to use a cliche...and then I gave you three "BETTER" ways of asking whatever it is you were asking. I still do not know. Which of the three "better" ways of asking whatever it is you were asking...were you actually asking?
Yes...it is a common cliche...but the "cliche" does not actually give an idea of what you actually were asking. — Frank Apisa
You asked me the question of why i didn't word it differently of "Do you believe in Aliens?" — christian2017
christian2017
954
↪Frank Apisa
Perhaps you come from a different generation so you aren't familiar with "Do you believe in Aliens?" — christian2017
They're out the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! — Christian
christian2017
944
↪Frank Apisa
"Do you believe in aliens?" is equivalent to "Do you believe in cheese?". If you believe in cheese and or aliens than you either believe that aliens or cheese exist. How could i have worded that better?
— christian2017
Well...if you were asking him if he thought that aliens (other sentient beings) exist on other planets, you could have written, "Do you suppose that there are other sentient beings that exist on other planets?"
Or...if you were asking about whether aliens from other planets have visited planet Earth at some point, you might have worded it, "Do you suppose that aliens from other planets have visited Earth at some point?"
Or...if you were asking about whether aliens from other planets are here now studying our culture unobserved, you might have worded it, "Do you suppose that aliens from other planets are here now studying our culture unobserved?
As it is, I have no idea of what you were asking...and still don't. — Frank Apisa
They're out the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
— Christian
Ummm...what does that mean? — Frank Apisa
Insert gays and women harmed by homophobic and misogynous religions to this quote. You should get an idea of what you should be doing with the homophobic and misogynous mainstream religions if you live by the golden rule. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Do you see a cutting remark in that quote? I could be wrong, but that appears to be a disrespectful comment, a cutting remark. That is what I mean by your post carry a knife. Often they come with cutting comments. — Athena
christian2017
965
They're out the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
— Christian
Ummm...what does that mean?
— Frank Apisa
It was a joke. Thats a common cliche from movies where the guy who appears to be a hippie and strung out on drugs says exactly that. I agree with my hippie friend that aliens probably do exist. — christian2017
christian2017
965
They're out the maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
— Christian
Ummm...what does that mean?
— Frank Apisa
It was a joke. Thats a common cliche from movies where the guy who appears to be a hippie and strung out on drugs says exactly that. I agree with my hippie friend that aliens probably do exist.
— christian2017
I get it now.
I should have read that with the "out the" as "out there"...right? I honestly missed that.
Anyway...the reason I asked about the "Do you believe in aliens"...had to do mostly with the use of the convention "believe in"...rather than the "aliens" part. I knew approximately where you were going, but the "believe in" thingy fucks up so many conversations...I though I would explore it with you.
You were kind. I was being a bit abrasive...and you were not plugging in.
I am an advocate for never using the "believe in" construct. The "Do you believe in God" is a particular pain in my ass. It is a world apart from the more specific, "Do you 'believe' it is more likely that at least one god exists...or do you 'believe' it is more likely that none exist?"
Any chance I get to question someone using the convention...I ask it. You used it...so I asked you.
Thanks for going along with it...and thanks for the courtesy. — Frank Apisa
Not true. We are good to each other for the same reason other social animals are good to each other. — Athena
That is is correct. Empathy and unselfish behaviour exists in all evolved species that live in societies. — Nobeernolife
I'm happy to hear this sort of frank acknowledgment, all too rare in conversations like these.You are right that I replied thinking intent. I am a cranky old bastard is my only defence, as well as having had to correct way too many Christians and not being patient enough to wal people through it. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
I agree it's preferable, and more instructive, to read many myths figuratively.Only that it is stupid to read myths literally and that the ancients were brighter than literalist fools. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Your initial remarks included the statement "I am not a literal reader of this myth". I took this statement to indicate that you interpret the myth figuratively, not literally.It is common and wrong and as I said, is likely designed to downplay what was at stake. We can all live without an apple. We cannot live without the education that knowing good and evil gives us.
Apple trees give apples to eat. Orange trees give oranges. Knowledge trees give knowledge and in our dualistic world, that is the knowledge of good and evil. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Do you mean to say that Gnostic Christian philosophy posits a heaven and hell, but is superior to all other sects that posit a heaven and hell because it is the only such sect that is universalist? Or do you mean to say that Gnostic Christian philosophy, as a form of universalist ideology, does not posit a heaven and hell, and therefore is superior to all the sects that do posit a heaven and hell?No. There are a number of ideologies from right wing loonies to left wing progressives. There is also the Gnostic Christian view that is a universalist ideology which makes it superior to all cults or sects that posit a heaven and hell. Hell would be god admitting to being an incompetent creator who cannot create a majority of good souls. Note how scriptures say that the vast majority of us will take the wide road to he'll while only the few will reach the narrow path to heaven. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Who believes that genocide is good?If Christians did as the bible bids, they would all reject that genocide from Yahweh is good and would become honest and more moral Gnostic Christians that would fry Yahweh's genocidal ass. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
I look forward to hearing how you apply these terms.I cannot think of any issue or knowledge that is not subject to being good or evil. I can substitute those words with right or wrong as analogies without conflict.
Can you name anything that is not subject to those term, whichever ones you prefer? — Gnostic Christian Bishop
I suggest that simple reflection on ordinary experience is sufficient to persuade us that human beings and at least some other animals have a capacity to recognize good and bad and right and wrong. Of course among us this capacity is cultivated in widely divergent ways across various cultural contexts, and is characterized in different ways in various traditional narratives associated with what we might call spiritual experience, practice, and belief.As to who should think and decide on what is good and what is evil. These go together
Gen3;22 Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil;
1 Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
The first tells us we know good from evil and the other tells us to judge all issues for ourselves. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
That's how I would put it, if I were writing the story myself, given the premise of an omniscient and omnipotent deity.Yahweh already knew man would sin as he had already chosen Jesus as the sacrifice to redeem man. That's scripture. As to trials or obstacles, an omnipotent god would already know the outcome of all tests. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Surely we won't say the command "tried to prevent" the outcome the commander already knew as a matter of fact?In the myth, Yahweh ties knowing the knowledge of good and evil to our developing a moral sense and the command tried to prevent that.
Strange that when the Christian ideology says that we should let god do tour thinking for us.
A great way to make people stupid and unable to think for themselves, even as scriptures tell us to judge all things. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Can you flesh out the relevant conception of sin here?We have free will to the limits of physics and nature but have no choice in being sinners. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Likewise, events that make us extinct or that bring us closer to extinction are only "small evils" within some greater good? Or is this somehow where you draw the line on good and evil, the survival of biological species or narrowly circumscribed lineages? Is it only the humans to which such judgments of good and evil pertain, or do you apply the same principles to the good of each biological species or lineage?Nature causes us to evolve and either compete of cooperate at all times. When we cooperate, we cause no particular harm, but when we compete, the loser will think evil has befallen him. All the human to human evil is thus just a small evil within the greater good of our not going extinct.
That view is why I have no problem of evil. — Gnostic Christian Bishop
Honestly? Jesus Christ - I reckon. I put all my hopes in that basket. — Eleonora
This is a real dilemma — Athena
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