I'll give all my cash to anyone on ILX who can convert me to Christianity without the aid of drugs, reeducation seminars, or threats of physical force.

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Now, go!

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

He died for your sins! Alright... I'm out.

Aaron W, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Try reading G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy and then C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity while listening to some M.C. Hammer, Spiritualized, or the Newsboys.

I accept checks.

A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

http://our_buddy_jesus.tripod.com//sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/heeeeyyyjesus.gif

Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see the Virgin Mary anywhere in that Tripod logo.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll just be very grateful to anyone who can do that. (Mere Christianity didn't cut it, I will try reading Orthodoxy.)

Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

D'oh. *kills Tripod*

Approach Christianity this way:
1. Christianity is more open-minded than most conservative Christians and athiests would have you believe.
2. Jesus was a pretty cool guy.
3. The Bible is part history lesson and part cryptic statements about how God thinks. Contrary to popular belief, it's not really a guide to everyday life.

and, of course, the classic:
4. God loves you and is always by your side.

Works for me. Of course, I'm probably f00king up everything Christianity REALLY stands for.

Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Why don't you give all your cash to me first, and then see how religious you feel?

felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

BTW, don't worry too much about "sins." Just try not to do anything massively stupid. I have no idea what criteria God has for letting people into heaven or anything; I have a feeling the guys who wrote the Bible were kinda off, esp. after comparing what they say with what Jesus preached.

Basically, just believe in God, don't f00k up the world too much, and everything will work out fine.

Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 21:58 (twenty-two years ago)

your belief, implicit in the subject-line, that conversion is possible indicates that you've already accepted the single most important proposition that makes people convert, i.e. that one can be converted. Acceptance of this proposition is the first and most important step toward becoming a Christian, ergo you are one, now pay me ;)

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Girls and boys who live for Jesus are hot. I've got several for your perusal. Leave no bruises or lesions, please.

donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

what about the bit about God? it's pretty hard to convince an instinctual atheist that there's a God.

Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Donut bitch is on the right track.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

(This is all your fault, Melissa.)

Christianity is a relationship. I know the offer was made facetiously, but it's not possible to buy your way into Christianity, any more than it is possible to buy your way into any other real relationship.

There are some, like Karl Barth, who say that persons seeking God are not really seeking on their own, but that their search is anticipated and facilitated by God at all times. So if the quest is genuine (which to be honest, I doubt) ask and be answered, seek and you will find. And get into a church, for crying out loud--being Christian alone is like dieting alone...it's hard to do, feels utterly unrewarding, and misses out on the joy to be had in communal worship.

Oh, and I've been told to tell you that I', not a 'psycho googler.' Whatever that is.. Melissa W. keeps trying to get me addicted by posting the incendiary-est of the Christian messages. Tart.

Heather, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, you mean the GOOD kind of conversion... um.. go with Donut Bitch, it's the only way

Curtis Stephens, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:15 (twenty-two years ago)

But...why must the quest be honest? Seriously, If G*d was really anxious for people to see Him in all His glory and feel His love, couldn't He just manifest it to every person, fully, say once per each adult life (omnipotence makes this not just possible, but child's play), thereby giving people an honest choice? Why litter the playing field with stumbling-blocks? Why not just actually show people what they're missing, and then if they still didn't want to believe, at least G*d would be honestly able to say "Well, I tried?" As it stands, the various explanation for why one has to bypass all kinds of simple logic in order to embrace Christianity all sound real ex-post-fact

mind you I believe a few of the most ridiculous spiritual propositions known to man, I just don't believe that there is any rational argument whatsoever for faith in divine powers

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Suffice it to say I doubt the sincerity of the person posing this challenge...

But since you ask...I presume what you're asking is, why do people need to look when God could just reveal Godself..the answer I find is that human action and responsibility are a part of this relationship, and God will not override our wills and ability to freely choose relationship with him.

To quote another of the neo-orthodoxy theologians of late 19th-century Germany, Emil Brunner, if human beings could see God in Godself, there would no longer be room for faith or doubt--the truth would be so self-evident that it would blind the will and the actual choice to follow God would be an empty one because choosing 'no' would be ludicrous. For that reason, he says, every revelation of God is also a concealment of God.

Tell me briefly what you know or think about the doctrine of 'grace'

Heather, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Heather,

I should clarify, at the possible expense of draining all the hilarity from this thread, because my thread has seemingly made the opposite of its intended impression on you. Which is entirely my fault for being too jocular. Although the proposal sounds mocking, there are psuedoserious intentions behind it. (I didn't intend to insult or trivialize Christianity. I certainly don't intend to buy my way into it, Pat Robertson notwithstanding. )

Not to make too much of something I didn't think through terribly well, but....

I actually am extremely curious about the nature of faith, and have long wished to unburden myself of the psuedo-Marxist indifference-cum-hostility to religion with which I was raised. I am always eager to hear about people's conversion experiences, or perhaps if they were raised as a Christian, the moments that galvanized their faith. I'm curious to know what forces influenced them—but can you speak of "influence" on something that is ostensibly not a "decision" at all? So what I'm most curious about, and what may be impossible to "learn" in the ways that I have learned other things, is what faith feels like.

The fact that I am approaching this from an intellectual vantage point at all betrays the burden of my education, but as John pointed out, I do accept the reality of conversion and no longer parrot the line that religion is a superstructural reflection of underlying social dynamics, or what have you. And my reasons aren't all intellectual. They are moral and emotional as well. As I mentioned on another thread, my complacent psuedo-Marxist notions of how the world was organized, and as important how it might be organized, were thrown for a loop in college. The moral underpinnings of my inherited "belief" system were left exposed. And I am not someone who is comfortable with this kind of despair (as in the pat Momus formulation, "morality is vanity").

I look to those who have faith, a belief in the possibility of transcendence, with admiration and considerable envy (also much suspicion and mistrust, depending upon the person). I don't mean to condescend to Christianity by interpreting it solely as a kind of palliative to existential despair. But I honestly would welcome more dialogue with it. Since no one in my circle of friends can claim to be a Christian, and most of them dismiss it quite out of hand, I thought this thread would be a Fun Way to Approach the Subject. I didn't expect too many Christians to come out of the ILX woodwork, though. I'm glad you have.

In all seriousness, Heather, please point out any examples of condescension/patronization/etc. in my message. I had a professor in school (a devout Methodist) who was very patient with my asking him questions, but in the "real world" I have to learn how to communicate without insulting anyone.

(P.S. Heather, are you studying theology or divinity?)

***

Any kind of Fun to be had in this thread has likely been spoilt by this longwinded (and semicoherent) message, for better or worse.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

No offense taken, amateurist, but I have to get to my paid employment now. Take care and I wish you well on the hunt

Heather, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Ach! That's it? I pour my heart out and--!

Hmmm (retreats back into his comfy lair of logical positivism).

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:49 (twenty-two years ago)

So this is how a thread dies. With a whimper.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, come back to LYRICS ONLY PLEASE where you're appreciated

felicity (felicity), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Amateurist, I will lure her back. But we'll have to wait until she gets home from work.

Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"overcome evil with good" and I claim my five pounds

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Brunner's point is self-serving I fear: how is it the case that allowing me to view the merchandise spoils the purity of my intent to purchase? Again, it's post-facto: one has faith in God, then wonders why God wouldn't make it a little less strenuous to believe, then coins rather laborious reasons God might have for not just putting His cards on the table. If one used the "but you must have actual faith, to tell you the Whole Truth would render your choice a non-choice" line in a marriage, he/she'd be laughed out of the house.

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Some theology begins to sound like the sort of dog-chasing-tail intellectual activity that goes on in English departments everywhere. It's interesting I'll admit, very interesting, but when it boils down to it I don't want Emil Brunner's faith but Al Green's faith. So perhaps I am just searching for the accoutrements of faith, not the thing itself.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Or rather, a faith that manifests itself not in introspection and inquiry but in effusions of joy.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(Seratonin to thread.)

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:01 (twenty-two years ago)

To get Al Green's faith you just have to do it, and really really want it. It's yours if your hunger is deep enough. But Al Green did not arrive at his faith by being "convinced" -- he felt a deep dissatisfaction with the material world, and in a brief moment of contemplation was stricken with the (to him) magnificent clarity of the Spirit, whose first claim is "the Gospel is to them that perish foolishness" i.e. not apprehendable to those that have not already accepted it. So: plunge headlong into faith, get faith. I am not being facetious -- I actually recommend this. The worst that can happen is you lose a couple of years, which isn't much, considering the stakes.

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I find myself quaking with fear at John's suggesting, which means that he is (honestly) on the right track.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

John's suggestion

Am I the clumsiest poster on ILX?

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the key question has been over looked: Amateurist, exactly how much cash do you have?

That Girl (thatgirl), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:12 (twenty-two years ago)

That Girl, that's a little post-facto, isn't it?

John for a moment I pictured you as a deacon in Al Green's church. I can only imagine the music that might result.

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

First I want to know how much money you have, then we'll talk.

luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I just turned into Oral Roberts.

luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Multiple posts.. Curses.

luna.c (luna.c), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I'll think of this thread everytime the wind wispers 'cockfarmer'.

Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Mind you I'm not a Christian & I resent said religion pretty deeply, but I do believe faith in G*d is something you can get if you want it. You just have to be able to accept the proposition that agnosticism seems most "reasonable" to you because it's the dominant cultural strain, not because of any inherent philosophical value to it. That's the dry way of putting it. When a person gets tired of hearing this dry sort of thing ("chewing the chewed" as His Divine Grace A.C. Swami Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada would put it), then exploring total engagement is the reasonable & much more fun next step. It's like dancing -- standing around listening to dance music can never explain the music as well as actually dancing to it.

oh and piss off Noodles ;)

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I keep thinking of Debby Reynold's singing "The wind whispers...cockfarmer." What were you saying about His Divine Grace A.C. Swami Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada?

Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"I will try reading Orthodoxy"

Yeah, I want to emphasize how brilliant Chesterton is. I seriously believe that with 'Orthodoxy' he has written the best rational argument for why Cristianity is the truth. For all Chrisitians and non-christians alike it's a great read, and I would be interested in hearing any responses to why his rational is incorrect. Maybe I will have to look for some commentaries on it.

A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"Mere Christianity didn't cut it"

It does have some flaws. It seems like it was written mostly for people who are already Christians to get them to refine their belief more. I would expect it to not cut it.

(By the way, can anyone recommend any books that rationally discredit Christianity. I've been reading to many pro-Christian books, and want to get the other side.)

A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I love Chesterton also, though I am very definitely and forever an atheist. Garry Wills wrote a commentary on "Orthodoxy" I think — a long time ago — but he is also a Catholic, albeit a very extremely curious one.

mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

To believe in an omnipotent, omnipresent God is to profane Him. Stay as you are.

kieran, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Start by figuring out exactly what "Christianity" means as far as you're concerned--Al Green's faith, maybe? Then work out where he got it from. You could do worse than starting with e.g. the Gospels.

Douglas (Douglas), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Conversely, you could start getting into sacred music, particularly the works of Bach and the contemporary British composers (Howells, Britten and Tavener are good starting points).

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I listen to quite a bit of sacred music, and music that was very much inspired by Christianity (Bach to choose the most obvious example). Britten's arrangement of "O Waly Waly" is something I treasure dearly (all of his folk song arrangements).

Doing so has definitely helped me to moderate my adolescent "position" on religion. It was quite a revelation to discover that modernism did not negate religion and in fact perhaps opened up new paths to it.

Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I also adore gospel quartet singing, shape-note singing (have even participated), and Joseph Spence; but this is perhaps beating around the bush.

Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

If you dive right into the faith and convince yourself to believe in God by acting like you do, isn't that something like self-delusion from wishful-thinking?

Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:59 (twenty-two years ago)

!!!

Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 01:05 (twenty-two years ago)

If you dive right into the faith and convince yourself to believe in God by acting like you do, isn't that something like self-delusion from wishful-thinking?

I don't think so -- an immersion course in language is readily conceded to be the most effective way of learning a new language, and certainly faith (does not equal) the language of day-to-day experience.

J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

He could have put his money in a trust with instructions not to release it in the case of y. If you're going to take a thought experiment that literally.

emil.y, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:07 (thirteen years ago)

god is reading this thread and he is all like "lol, money"

contenderizer, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:09 (thirteen years ago)

Started reading this thread, but got sidetracked by "Wait a minute, crüt is a Christian???"

I think I was quoting something

mississippi joan hart (crüt), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:11 (thirteen years ago)

that is not anywhere on the internet anymore

mississippi joan hart (crüt), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:11 (thirteen years ago)

think the challenge is convert without doing y, not i'll give you any of my money if you do y.

Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:13 (thirteen years ago)

oh wait never mind, I can't remember what was going on in my life when I posted in this thread. I was 15.

mississippi joan hart (crüt), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:14 (thirteen years ago)

I'm not even going to read what I said itt

mississippi joan hart (crüt), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:16 (thirteen years ago)

yeah but if i challenged people to eat a pepperoni pizza without eating the pepperonis, and the prize was the pepperonis, why wouldn't you just eat the pizza normally?

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:21 (thirteen years ago)

You underestimate the competitive nature of humanity.

emil.y, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:22 (thirteen years ago)

Fine print: thread title refers to "all my cash" and not "all my assets" or even "all my money". For example, a checking account is just a cash equivalent, not actual cash. Presumably we were being offered a few small bills and a smattering of coins.

Aimless, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:24 (thirteen years ago)

yr analogies confuse, philip

Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:29 (thirteen years ago)

salvation for thirteen bucks and a gallon of pennies

Neil Jung (WmC), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:30 (thirteen years ago)

it depends on the amount of pepperonis involved. maybe it is a lot of them.

contenderizer, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:31 (thirteen years ago)

it doesn't depend on the pepperonis involved at all. the pepperonis will be eaten along with the rest of the pizza, the challenge actually being "if you can encourage me to eat this pizza, including the pepperonis which i am frankly sceptical of, without resorting to using drugs, reeducation seminars or threats of physical force, i will give you all of my cash"

Ну, там твое место, там сабе будь! (darraghmac), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:33 (thirteen years ago)

the pepperonis are real. these are not metaphysical pepperonis.

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:39 (thirteen years ago)

the pepperonis are an article of faith

snoopsheepysheep (darraghmac), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:42 (thirteen years ago)

or, at least they are at my local chipper

snoopsheepysheep (darraghmac), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:42 (thirteen years ago)

oh ye of little spiced meats

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:47 (thirteen years ago)

"eat ye not of the pork" was the only advice the auld fella piously gave us

snoopsheepysheep (darraghmac), Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:48 (thirteen years ago)

the challenge actually being "if you can encourage me to eat this pizza, including the pepperonis make me sincerely believe in something that can't be proven or logically argued, and which i am frankly skeptical of, without resorting to using drugs, reeducation seminars or threats of physical force, i will give you all of my cash"

amateurist's "make" demand undoes the whole challenge. faith seems to be something that people are either raised with or find for themselves.

contenderizer, Sunday, 1 July 2012 16:59 (thirteen years ago)

^ probably covered upthread

contenderizer, Sunday, 1 July 2012 17:00 (thirteen years ago)

Generally speaking, to be converted you must experience something you cannot explain but you feel is so important that you must re-examine your beliefs and then trade them in for a set that better accomodates this new reality. The pressure for such a conversion is often personal trauma, but it can also be a mystical episode.

I'd bet that, historically, the more common route is that some massive change - e.g., invasion or colonization - affects broad swaths of people at the same time, shaking up their sense of who to count as an epistemic authority, and placing tremendous pressure to conform to the new system. I also think that human beings have trouble keeping their religious identities independent from their broader social or political identities, so that if one's social identity is visibly changing under some new set of circumstances, then that can look like a reason in itself to adopt new religious beliefs.

I remember reading a stanza from Hallfred's Saga:

It's the creed of the sovereign
of Sogn, to ban sacrifices.
We must renounce many
a long-held decree of Norns.
All mankind casts Odin's words
to the winds. Now I am forced
to foresake Freyja's kin
and pray to Christ.

Conversion usually works like that, I think. You adopt the new practices that are forced on you, and the line between faith and practice gets fuzzed.

jim, Sunday, 1 July 2012 17:31 (thirteen years ago)

there's this idea of being culturally but not spiritually jewish that i think transfers well to western christianity, to the point that a good percentage of conversions aren't really faith-based.

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 1 July 2012 17:55 (thirteen years ago)

i mean i could see some gym/yoga memberships being adopted with more spiritual fervor than just "oh hey i'm gonna join this church where all my buddies and possible business connections go to"

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 1 July 2012 17:58 (thirteen years ago)

just want to pop in and say I've only read a little bit of Alan Watts but he's pretty cool.

ryan, Sunday, 1 July 2012 17:59 (thirteen years ago)

i've known more people to convert for social than spiritual reasons

contenderizer, Sunday, 1 July 2012 18:00 (thirteen years ago)

and it's in the context of religious practice that specifically religious spiritual faith arises. it's often assumed that faith precedes religion, but it think it's more often the other way around - at least on the broad, historical level.

contenderizer, Sunday, 1 July 2012 18:02 (thirteen years ago)

faith seems to be something that people are either raised with or find for themselves.

Obv true, but if evangelism didn't work we'd probably have a lot fewer evangelists. If you're the right guy with the right god at the right time, you can clearly make a dent.

I once saw two people accept Christ on the 6 train downtown, between 86th Street and Grand Central. Subway preacher did a little holy talkin', then went around asking who wanted to be saved. Two people took him up on it, which wasn't a bad percentage in a car of maybe 60 people. (They may have already been believers who just wanted to reaffirm, I don't know. But the whole exchange took about 5 minutes, max.)

something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 1 July 2012 18:16 (thirteen years ago)

amateurist's "make" demand undoes the whole challenge. faith seems to be something that people are either raised with or find for themselves.

reverse rilke. 'you must change my life!'

j., Sunday, 1 July 2012 19:30 (thirteen years ago)

I once saw two people accept Christ on the 6 train downtown, between 86th Street and Grand Central.

Even among evangelicals, these sorts of "come to Jesus" moments are known to be pretty ephemeral.

Aimless, Monday, 2 July 2012 01:34 (thirteen years ago)

faith seems to be something that people are either raised with or find for themselves.

There are a number of spooky rituals where it is generally recommended that you use the names and symbols of the religion you were raised in, whether you currently believe it or not. Pretty sure i read about this in a book of Jewish mysticism but not entirely sure.

I once saw two people accept Christ on the 6 train downtown, between 86th Street and Grand Central.

The coolest thing about the Tibetan Book of the Dead is that it says you can reach enlightenment at any point in existence. You don't have to wait to die to go to the afterlife, you can do it on the 6 train downtown.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 2 July 2012 02:10 (thirteen years ago)

I once saw two people accept Christ on the 6 train downtown, between 86th Street and Grand Central. Subway preacher did a little holy talkin', then went around asking who wanted to be saved. Two people took him up on it, which wasn't a bad percentage in a car of maybe 60 people. (They may have already been believers who just wanted to reaffirm, I don't know. But the whole exchange took about 5 minutes, max.)

they were probably plants. like when the guys come around with that board game and the first guy to play "wins" $40.

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 3 July 2012 08:06 (thirteen years ago)

that reference might date me, do people do that on subway trains anymore?

flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, 3 July 2012 08:06 (thirteen years ago)

I was gonna say they were plants too and Ive never even seen such a thing happen.

Pureed Moods (Trayce), Tuesday, 3 July 2012 12:24 (thirteen years ago)

four years pass...

Sorted?

virginity simple (darraghmac), Saturday, 29 April 2017 23:31 (eight years ago)

To quote another of the neo-orthodoxy theologians of late 19th-century Germany, Emil Brunner, if human beings could see God in Godself, there would no longer be room for faith or doubt--the truth would be so self-evident that it would blind the will and the actual choice to follow God would be an empty one because choosing 'no' would be ludicrous. For that reason, he says, every revelation of God is also a concealment of God.

^^^^^^ adore watching ppl throwing these boomerangs about

virginity simple (darraghmac), Saturday, 29 April 2017 23:32 (eight years ago)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dqHXCfD46Ns/hqdefault.jpg

j., Sunday, 30 April 2017 04:40 (eight years ago)

hi im a christian after spending most of my adolescence and adulthood as an atheist or agnostic.

i believe jesus was a radical and his life was instructive on how to do good in the context of living under imperial rule and that there is more than . i dont think jesus was god. i believe there is a god but that they are unknowable on earth (i use they/them god pronouns). i pray by myself when i am feeling alone or grateful or aimless or overwhelmed. i don't think christianity is the one true faith; i think there are many others ways to experience the divine. i think this is why the unitarian universalist church is still my church.

nice cage (m bison), Sunday, 30 April 2017 05:39 (eight years ago)

*sorry, meant to add this in: "there is more to life than what is evident to us"

nice cage (m bison), Sunday, 30 April 2017 05:40 (eight years ago)

dope

clouds, Sunday, 30 April 2017 05:41 (eight years ago)

i am not a christian but i dig the desert fathers and "the cloud of unknowing" and thomas merton and UUs are my ppl

clouds, Sunday, 30 April 2017 05:51 (eight years ago)

First I want to know how much money you have, then we'll talk.
― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 7 January 2003 23:17 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pvmic

Colonel Poo, Sunday, 30 April 2017 09:23 (eight years ago)

loool

in a soylent whey (wins), Sunday, 30 April 2017 09:24 (eight years ago)

Mattew 19:

Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.”

“What commandments?” he asked.

Jesus answered,

“Do not commit murder;
do not commit adultery;
do not steal;
do not accuse anyone falsely;
respect your father and your mother;
and love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

“I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?”

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”


Tl;dr: amateurist already is a Christian & he can keep his money (or donate it to charity).

Wes Brodicus, Sunday, 30 April 2017 13:27 (eight years ago)

http://i.imgur.com/INyQVLQ.jpg

read this book you can send me the cash via paypal

AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 1 May 2017 00:50 (eight years ago)

full-on theist these days tbh

People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr, and (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Monday, 1 May 2017 01:23 (eight years ago)

I don't know what I am

bought 2 raris, went to chili's (crüt), Monday, 1 May 2017 01:40 (eight years ago)

Bison, crut otm

Crawford/chachi losing points for not committing his ism to a specific the

virginity simple (darraghmac), Monday, 1 May 2017 01:51 (eight years ago)

So miserable these days, the prospect of god existing is frightening

brimstead, Monday, 1 May 2017 01:53 (eight years ago)

Michel Henry's "I am the Truth" didn't convert me to Christianity but it did mightily tempt me.

ryan, Monday, 1 May 2017 02:57 (eight years ago)


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