DrP

I meant that the difficulty level depends on what is being forgiven.... It is easier to forgive someone for stealing a crisp from your packet than it would be to forgive them for murdering your child for example. ;-)

True - but the bible DOES get taught as being the literal word of god. In churches anyway. I know where you are coming from - that place isn't too dissimilar from where I am coming from either. I have a lot of respect for the spiritual.... I would still say I am fairly spiritual.... although it doesn't mean the same thing for me as it once did.

I am not sure everyone does at all. That is a lot harder than it sounds... Under the banner of Christianity (because that is the one I know) it can take many tears and much much soul wrenching. Honestly it can be very painful... as you yourself probably know.... although some seem to embrace it with joy - I guess it depends on what you need to forgive yourself or others for.

How? It would have been different for people for sure. Are you wrongly assuming there would be no love in the world? Agape love is part of all of us... I can see how some religions DO help in awakening that love in people that are hard of heart, but it does exist and can be connected with without Dumbo's feather*... which is religion/god. *Dumbo's feather - I use this a lot, but I am getting older so I'll explain in case anyone doesn't know what it is. Dumbo, the cartoon elephant with big ears, could fly.... He could only fly when holding his 'magic' feather.... It gave him confidence to take off and fly. When he dropped the feather he realised that actually he didn't need it to fly at all as it was his own big ears that gave him flight. God is like Dumbo's feather for some. I used to pray for confidence and the holy ghost would fill me that confidence I needed (for public speaking, meetings etc..)... but I do not need an outside agency... that confidence comes from myself and this holy spirit is clearly just a state of mind. The 'belief' that it is an external spirit and not just part of me is what I am equating to Dumbo's feather. I think that (pure speculation here) we all have access to part of our selves, maybe from our genes, that is similar for everyone. That place of peace and love - total acceptance and understanding. The Budists call it Nirvana I think. Some call it something like a kundalini awakening, some call it enlightenment... I believe the Christians call it baptism in the holy spirit, although they would not admit it is the same thing and they don't all get it. Funny thing is that those that are more progressive and that don't believe in god do not believe in this baptism of the holy ghost... but it is a very real state of mind. I reckon it is similar for everyone who connects deeply with their inner selves.... I am starting to waffle - but just wanted to add these musings. ;-)

That is a really good question. I could answer, but I am but one human being. If I give my honest current opinion I can tell you that I would have not agreed with it at all when I was a Christian and no-one would take it seriously. It is hard, because the obvious 1st acknowledgement would be as you said your self that the bible is not the word of god. But take that away and what have you got? Christianity is all about the bible (and trying to be good like Christ obviously). Then, there is the fact that the god of this bible fails to show up and do his bit as it states he will often throughout. Maybe we need to start a new world religion... but that would then be perceived by many as blasphemous and evil and satanic. There is your Budism.... I see more and more value in that as the years go by for the peace and love and the respecting of life... but there are different strands of that too and some of it total rubbish. Two of the nicest people I know profess to be Budist (a very western form of it anyway). My honest answer is that I do not know Prometheus - teach love and respect from an early age at school? teach people how to be decent to each other without the god bull shit in there? A while back I would have prayed for wisdom to provide an answer your question. I still do pray sometimes as it has been such a help in the past - maybe I am trying to connect with what I used to believe to be god.... honestly I could waffle for pages about it.... but I think it might be totally pointless. lol. Peace to you my friend.x

I read it alright though. Sounds like they are embracing the god of the gaps then... the gaps are getting smaller. Actually - I have watched a few interviews with catholic priests.. they don't really know what to believe... they say they believe science, then they say they believe something from the bible that is totally unscientific, like the arc or god existing and interacting the way the bible says he does, when challenged about the conflicts of facts with their faith they um and ah and flit around the issue admitting or explaining nothing.

It's back in it's tube!! Excellent! I am happy that a) it found it's way safely home, b) I know where it is now. c) the goosebumbs have gone.

I asked him the question in post number 2 as to which religion he was on about and he replied post number 4 that he was only talking about Christianity.

Today - I found it on my hand towel by the sink! :-/ I am not sure I am fond of it's new found boldness. I thought I'd catch it in a pot and release it - it is getting to big... but it sort of slipped behind the towel and totally vanished... I hope it didn't hide inside my lab coat... I'm getting goose bumps thinking about putting it on.. It's getting a little large to mess with. I can't kill it - I have a parental responsibility now - I've nurtured it's growth from a tiny thing. Mixed feelings of love and parental care.... along with revolution and phobia... odd mix, lol. It might help me beat back my phobia a little I suppose... I can't help being a bit of a softy - I've watched it grow from a tiny speck to a great big thing... lol. Heckles are up now though... I don't know where it is... last seen near my lab coat. :-/

I'm not insisting anything. I think it should change. I have never denied that a lot of good things come out of it, like loving your neighbour, love, mercy, grace and forgiveness. I am deriding it though, yes, but not for not changing. I am deriding it for lying about a deity, claiming truth and misleading millions.

I haven't heard anyone here saying that god was disproved.... who said that? There are plenty that say that the bible is proven to be wrong... It has been many times.

If you want to look at it that way then any creative writing or book of fantasy would 'win' as you put it. If you want to look at actual facts then you go to the reference section, not the fiction section of the library.

That is not true. A zebra is black and white. ;-) (alright - they are a little pink also if you look close enough). Also, being serious, it isn't true anyway - some things are what they seem to be. Either god exists or it doesn't. What ever we believe personally it doesn't change whatever the absolute truth is. It is either real or it isn't... there is no middle state or shade of grey when talking about whether something is real or not real. Zebras are real - we all know this. Pegasus's aren't real... we know this too. There is no shade of grey over some matters.

they claim things as fact. 'Science' means 'knowledge' in Latin and is from where the word is derived. When they claim something as a fact (like the 'the moon was struck in two" or "they went on board 2 by 2") the religious texts are claiming these to be facts. We have enough knowledge to know these aren't facts.

because it becomes a god of the gaps thing... and religious people, I for one when I was one, won't stand for that - either it's true or it isn't and it is clearly not true. (imo). Maybe... maybe it is an extremist view... I was pretty literal with it when I believed it. Sorry - either it is true or it isn't... if it isn't then why should we entertain it al all? If we started again and wrote a set of 'rules' for modern life that outline moralities and such then some of them would come straight out of religion, of course they would. But why put up with the rest of the nonsense? Lets just thrash out what is important and admit the mistakes of our past.

but only by totally disregarding the bible... which is the whole basis of their faith and teaching. So it isn't Christianity anymore if they do not believe in god or think that the earth was formed over billions of years rather than days. So - can science and religion be reconciled? - imo, no.

You can philosophise all you like.... you still won't get an answer to the question of what was before the big bang or what is nothing from your musings. Facts and evidence - there are none, so no conclusions can be drawn - only speculations made. belief by who? How do you know and who cares who believes it anyway? some believe the earth is flat or that we never went to the moon or that vaccines are a con to kill people and make money or that there is a super being that is described in a book written over 1600 years ago or that there are cats on Mars. With some of the obvious ones we can debunk suck rubbish and explain why - somethings we can't as we just don't know, it doesn't mean we should give credence to gibberish ideas. Basically, If we do not know something and have no way of knowing that thing then you cannot claim that you know that thing can you? Did something come from nothing? Was there already a something?... Questions like this are totally impossible to answer with our current knowledge so there is no discussion. You can speculate all you like.

In which case - No. There is no evidence for god whatsoever beyond peoples personal testimonies.... which are often very naïve and can easily be explained with other possibilities. The 'History' in the old testament has also been shown to be made up for a lot of it... so how could it possibly come into line with what we know from science?

How could anyone possibly know? There is no evidence for or against that... although plenty of circumstantial evidence to suggest not. Also, although it's not my field, I don't think anyone knows what there was before tbb so to say it came from nothing is just guessing or speculating or misunderstanding or misleading.

Which religion? Although the answer is probably no for all of them. How can science ever tow the line that a big man in the sky made everything with his words? I used to believe it, but finally, I see how totally dumb and false it is.

The effect they are recording is probably the placebo effect at work. Some people insist that that if a drug or a procedure works as well as a placebo then the object, drug, procedure or prayer works... They are missing the point... we know that the placebo effect is real - we also know that you have to beat it significantly to lay any claim to your drug/procedure/prayer/magic works. With this guy's claim (sorry - didn't have time to read the lot) - he is claiming a lot of psychological symptoms can be cured... this is not unexpected as the placebo effect seems to work better for psychological symptoms such as pain and depression anyway. I did not read the paper - did they compare the effect against the placebo? (sorry - of course they did or they wouldn't be taken seriously at all - did it significantly out perform the placebo?)

What is a Muslim's favourite Meat?

I have a 'pet' spider in my lab... It was small a few months back... now it's getting BIG! I do have arachnophobia, so I though it would be a good idea to keep this as a pet to watch from time to time... my reasoning is that I will get used to it being around as it grows. I have fed it many times now by catching flies and earwigs and even a couple of moths. It has been interesting to observe it's behaviour. It lives under a piece of wood which is against the wall. The wood gives it a sheltered 'tube' to live in near the sink. After food, it tends to tidy up the remaining earwig husks and dumps them over the side of the bench into the sink. Once it put the remains out of the other end of it's tube. This morning something interesting happened. I gave it a fly at the weekend... when I came in this morning the husk of the fly was right in the middle of my note book on my desk! The spider's home is pretty close to my note book, but... not really the most logical place for the sider to dump the eaten fly remains... the sink, yes. The end of the tube, yes... but for it to walk all the way across my desk to return the fly to me after wards was pretty weird. - It is probably just a coincidence that it decided to dump this one further from it's hide out, but it did seem like it was thanking me or telling me 'no more flies please'. This could just be something similar to Pareidolia, where I have read some meaning into the carcass placement, as I am pretty sure the spider gives me no thought what so ever. Could it be that the spider views me as some kind of higher power or a provider? lol.

Yea - last nights episode was the best in season 7 so far for sure.... "DRACONIS!!!"

I don't know if this works or if I just have good nails.. I play the guitar too... on my right hand, my picking hand, I have good strong long nails. They tend to break if they get too long and I engage in manual labour. For decades now I have (and I am sorry if this is disgusting, it is just something I have always done from school) coated my nails from time to time in fluids such as ear wax, scalp oil and tooth plaque even... I then polish them up with this almost as a sub conscious habit. I use my thumb to polish the other nails. These days I no longer use the tooth plaque as I find it a bit disgusting (habit I had a school) but still use the ear wax and scalp oil. I do not know if this has any kind of moisturising or nourishing effect on them, but they don't break easily. I file them myself by scratching on rough surfaces, even rough plastic. The do get quite shiny and smooth after a waxing though. Regarding technique - I probably pick more with my finger pads and use the nails when I want more attack. I sometimes just use my nails instead of a plectrum or to give a flamenco style strum/flourish. They probably get used if I am doing tremolo also. I don't really think about it any more.