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I'd send chocolate and flowers, if I had the address to send them

not yet............. maybe next time?

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Thank you Tom

Lovely

I object most strongly to being called a liar because I don't believe in your imagined deity. I don't call you a lair for having such ridiculous beliefs. I call you mistaken.

I assure you I am a humanist simply because I follow accept the ethics of Chritianity without the need for imaginary deity. If you don't agree with the ethics of Christianity you have the right to call me mistaken in not accepting your belief system, but do not call me a liar.

Thank you.

Can we now have please a sensible reply to my last message?

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Can't help noticing that sometimes the women win this game...

The change in the calendar means that 25th December has nothing to do with Christianity. That date was used by Pagans to celebrate the end of the year and the Christians merely adapted it to their own needs. If you take the calendar change into account, the actual date of the birth of Jesus was somewhere in the month of what we now call August.


In the lottery your choice of number is mathematically a random choice. The machine that calculates the winning number is designed to be a random number generator. Thus both numbers are random. Mathematically it is a coincidence when for a given person those two numbers are the same. Just a coincidence, but of course a lucky coincidence for the winner.


I have never seen any suggestion that whoever made the Stonehenge structure had the use of precision tools that were more advanced than the best we have today. I have heard that the pyramids were built with an amazing accuracy. The blocks of stone just fitted together with no need of the cement that we would use today in building walls of brick. Maybe you are confusing the two? After all, the pyramids are still here today and the accuracy of their building is still evident. Stonehenge is just some large rocks with no current evidence of accuracy that I can see or have ever heard of.


It's strange that only one contributor to this thread appears to be incredibly knowedgeable about these things while other believers are content to state that they are happy in their belief and leave it at that. Personally, I go along with the OP and his use of the word 'god'. I have heard of this deity being called Yahweh, but as long as you know who you're talking about, it doesn't matter which name you use. I am so ignorant I have never even heard of 'Yah' or some of the other names used before reading this thread! As to the difference between one name and another, that is so unimportant it goes right over my head and my eyes just glaze over when I see lines of bold text, italics and capitals, as sometimes happens.


But then without you there wouldn't be much to discuss. People would just answer yes or no to the original question. Belief is a personal opinion not a fact because there is no correct scientific 'proof'. Nothing wrong with a personal belief but it would be wrong to claim such matters as 'fact' without the correct scientific proof. Correct proof is the publication in a scientific journal of a theory, which if proved, would create a new understanding in human affairs. A further study by unrelated scientists in another part of the world which comes to the same conclusion would strengthen the possibility that this theory has merit.


Further studies might disprove the theory producing an interesting scientific argument which would continue until one side conclusively shows that the other side was incorrect - and that side would need to publish a correction explaining, perhaps, that they had missed out something important. When everyone agrees on a theory it becomes accepted as a fact, at least until further research proves otherwise. The atom being the indivisible smallest particle is an example of a good theory which was proved to be wrong in the light of a more modern science. There has of course been no such publication in any of the respectable journals and until there is, the concept of a deity will remain an opinion. As Tom says, some believe and some don't.


As I have said before a new interesting item of research has suggested that perhaps we don't have free will after all. A computer that is programmed to do something will always do that, unless the program is replaced with a different one. Imagine the human brain as an unbelievably complex computer which is programmed to do the 'best' thing at all times. The inputs for the decision making will include the five senses and the memory of past situations, for example when driving to work you will know the route to take after the first time. The point is that computers do not have free will, they only do what their program calculates is the best thing at each moment. Any form of illness will change the input to the computer and in some cases a mental illness could cause a person to become a murderer. This is interesting research to follow. Proof that we do not have free will would have extremely far-reaching consequences, going right back to that apple!

Grace full

It is well worth the time taken to fully understand the science behind coincidence. That might help when people see 'patterns' in things, as we all do. It is part of being human that we see patterns. This can result in delusions causing people to believe things that have no basis in truth whatsoever.

People who have a big win on the lottery, followed the next week by another big win can cause raised eyebrows among those who don't understand coincidence. Has someone found a way to influence the results in their favour? Do they have a deity who has decided to 'help' them? Definitely not! It is coincidence at work again!

I respectfully suggest that when 'amazing' things (miracles?) happen, these are due to coincidence and nothing more. Unfortunately the 'proof' used by those who are already deluded into believing things can so easily be seen where there is a coincidence.

Worth bearing in mind.

not so fast.....

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I don't think it says anywhere in the bible that the earth is only 6000 years old. It is the JWs who read that long bit about who begat who and made a list of people, father-to-son. I think they assumed each man had a son when he was age 20 and from that they were able to calculate that IF the earth was created at the time of Adam and Eve, then we are now about 6000 years on from that. Of course, nobody believes that the earth was created in literally seven days, it is just a way of saying things. I'm not even sure how accurate that bit is about these father-to-son lineage. It seems a very flimsy way of trying to make that calculation, especially as these days, we have very accurate methods of dating which all agree with each other. The JWs deny the accuracy of carbon dating and similar methods. Curiously, all the scientists who are not JWs are agreed that these things work, while all those who are, disagree. Strange, that. Goes back to an earlier post of mine in which I was trying to point out that there are many different religions, some with different denominations within them. They all believe in roughly the same thing - some sort of deity, and the 'need' to 'worship' this deity - but there are many differences between them, not least what actual name they use to refer to their deity! Personally I have no time for a deity that demands we make worship. I just don't do 'worship'!

I wish I had your faith in 'prophesies' but you have an insane president in the US.

Russia and China are nearly as bad. None of them will take any notice of your 'prophecies'.

If it happens, and we both survive, I will be the first to say, "told you so".

By the way, exactly where is it clearly predicted that no country will deploy a nuclear weapon against another country? Can't say I've come across that anywhere else. Only you state that.

Unlike you, I greatly fear human people on this planet. Especially those with a finger hovering over a button that if pressed could mean the end for millions. Since there is no god, there is nothing that will save them if some power crazed political leader decides to push that button. And of course there will be retaliation from 'the other side'.

On the other hand there are many Christians who live "in the fear of God". Why? If she is so loving, what is there to fear? Since I know for an absolute certain fact that there is no such being, it's all fairy tales and humbug, I don't fear any sort of deity at all, because there simply isn't one!

I guess that makes us opposites. You fear god but not humans, I fear humans, but not god.

nope, only me come to admire my heartthrob