Paul4747's Profile

Christian Leader: Not Accepting Jesus is “a Sickness Far Worse Than Coronavirus” | Hemant Mehta ...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 13, 2020:

Praying at lions, bears and rattlesnakes is also just as effective.

YouTube: "Kenneth Copeland heals viewers of Coronavirus through their televisions" This disease ...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 13, 2020:

The Justice Department, I heard on NPR, is going to be fining Jim Bakker for selling these quack "cures" for the COVID-19 virus. (I suppose that's if the chief executive doesn't get wind of it and order them to keep their hands off.)

Show us your most "liked" photo.

Paul4747 comments on Mar 12, 2020:

Erm... mine is in the Sexy Classy Pics group, so I'm going to pass on posting it here.

Mochi: The traditional Japanese dessert requires pounding, molding and shouting

Paul4747 comments on Mar 11, 2020:

Before or after you eat it?

If any non-falsifiable evidence of a god's existing came to light, I would be persuaded to change my...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 11, 2020:

Let's take just your first "what if" as a controlled experiment. If a purported god wanted to prove its status as such to me, by turning water into beer (I don't much like wine), then let's get a glass from my cupboard, fill it full of tap water from my faucet, and then "god" can say, "Let there be beer." If it then becomes beer, that's pretty convincing evidence that this being at least has god-like powers. It doesn't prove, however, that they created life, the universe, or anything, nor does it show omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence, the traditional attributes of god (except to the extent that I now have a refreshing drink). I would be more convinced by, for instance, a godly message broadcast into every mortal mind simultaneously, in their own language, at the same time each day for a month; maybe along the lines of, "Terribly sorry that I didn't do this thousands of years ago, because it would have saved so much useless bloodshed and pain; but here's the thing, I didn't think you would actually be so dim as to kill one another over what God's name was. I can't believe what morons you people are. There's something terribly wrong with the lot of you. Stop it immediately."

I’m seriously beginning to loathe Christians.

Paul4747 comments on Mar 11, 2020:

If this is happening at work, your best response is to reply, "Thank you for your concern, but that's really nobody's business but my own." Eventually they might get the message. Then again, if you're like me, you can ask them if they're not worried that they're breaking God's law by wearing clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19), and then point out that there are probably some Muslims over there, in that sort of direction (make sure to point vaguely), that they could be converting. And then go to lunch and have some kid boiled in its mother's milk. :D

Right-Wing Pastor: God Sent Us Coronavirus Because of Homosexuality | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly ...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 10, 2020:

Which is why it specifically kills only gay people? Oh, wait- you mean it doesn't work that way? I seem to have detected a flaw in the theory...

Orthodox Israeli Rabbi Claims Coronavirus is God’s Revenge for Gay Pride Parades | Beth ...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 10, 2020:

But why wait so long? The parades have been around for years.

Yesterday i had a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE).

Paul4747 comments on Mar 6, 2020:

Doctors have no sense of humor in pre-op. When I went for surgery on my pinched nerve, I asked 2 different docs (and the nurse) if they could make the scar in the shape of a "Z" so it would look like I had a fight with Zorro. Blank stares.

A beauty from India!...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 6, 2020:

What, only 2 arms?

New Zealand Pastor Blames Coronavirus on Airborne Demons Controlled by Satan | Beth Stoneburner | ...

Paul4747 comments on Mar 4, 2020:

The best part about this is the author's name. Now I want to change my name to Stoneburner, too.

Bernie... Oh Poor Bernie Why is no one endorsing Bernie?

Paul4747 comments on Mar 4, 2020:

Oh, the humanity....

The Stop Sanders movement has gone public [cnn.

Paul4747 comments on Mar 4, 2020:

I'm not sure how exactly the "Democratic Establishment" can force primary voters to vote one way or the other, but, as I've long predicted, the middle of the country isn't ready for Sanders, and Super Tuesday proved it.

What do you suppose gives rise to and supports belief in God?

Paul4747 comments on Mar 1, 2020:

Survival adaptation means humans look for a causative agent behind everything, even seemingly random events. A rustle in the grass may be the wind, or it may be a leopard, so it's "safer" to assume a leopard. On a cosmic scale, the evolutionarily "safer" assumption seemed to be that there were causative agents behind the storms and the lightning, the floods, the tides, the movements of the herds and the growing of the crops. If one propitiated those agents, then one could exert some control or at least predict the events of life. As we learned more about the actual causes behind all those things, it became clear that they needed no "agents" or gods to cause them; they're caused by natural processes, which we can study and to some extent predict and correct for. That hasn't stopped many people from believing that a god controls everything anyway, down to whether or not they win the lottery.

Christian Writer Claims Her PMS is One of the “Effects of Sin” | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly ...

Paul4747 comments on Feb 29, 2020:

Well, gee whiz. If the flesh is sinful, I can see where that's a problem. But, are women who don't get PMS just more holy, or what? I see she doesn't address that at all.

Does anyone belong to the Humanist Association of America?

Paul4747 comments on Feb 28, 2020:

Somebody must, I should think. I don't know anyone personally, though....

If you drive an expensive car, you're probably a jerk, scientists say

Paul4747 comments on Feb 28, 2020:

"They came to this conclusion after asking volunteers to cross a sidewalk hundreds of times, filming and analyzing the responses by car drivers." Well, there's the problem right there. If the drivers were already on the sidewalk, they weren't paying attention to the pedestrians *anyway*.... But seriously, folks.... I don't like driving in my nearby university town, Ann Arbor, myself, because the pedestrians seem to have an insufferable sense of superiority over the *drivers*. They stroll out into traffic whenever they feel like it and expect cars, buses, articulated tractor-trailers, to come to a screeching halt and let them pass. Most don't even check to see if there's anyone coming. Whereas I myself feel it's in my interests to use the crossings, wait for the Walk signal, or at the very least look out for the onrushing 2,000 pounds of steely death. The car will do a lot more damage to me than I'll do to it in a collision, so I feel it's incumbent upon me to yield the right of way.

I love how most people who believe the bible can trace their belief to the notion that the bible ...

Paul4747 comments on Feb 25, 2020:

The "magic" in the Bible stories is defined as either miracles, when provided by YHVH or his son Yeshua, or else it's the work of competing gods or demons. Either way, by definition it's a violation of the laws of physics, just like creating the universe in 6 days would be. In other words: fairy tales. It should, by rights, be taken just as seriously as anything out of the Arabian Nights or Just So Stories. Unfortunately, many Christians (many Jews and Muslims as well) have a vested interest in believing their books are literally true, because if they're not, then it casts doubt on the existence of their god and the validity of their belief. After all, what are they doing wasting all that time and money in churches, temples and mosques if their god isn't real? What are they doing killing people who believe differently, if their god isn't real?

Why are many Christian people against D&D (Dungeons and Dragons.) playing?

Paul4747 comments on Feb 24, 2020:

My take on it, after all these years, is a little more subtle than "They don't like it because it encourages magic and witchcraft". Players act out the role of characters that they invent, and inhabit a fictional world. In that fictional world, the character they portray, almost by default, will worship some deity that is not Jesus or his Dad, because- *Gasp!*- in these fantasy worlds, *Christianity doesn't exist!* Imagine the horror of a world without Christ! If your teenager can successfully imagine being a dwarf who worships Dvalin, the God of all Dwarves, it's only a step away from turning their back on the One True Church!! And those fictional gods are even better than Jesus, because they grant actual magic powers to their clergy. When did you last hear of the Pope calling down a lightning bolt to smite someone with whom he disagreed sharply? If the Pope had the power of even a middling-level D&D cleric, he'd be able to cast Control Weather and do something about all these tropical storms with which we've been vexed lately. Just pop him on a plane to wherever the trouble is. And no famines, because they can magically Create Food and Water. Imagine having to explain to your kids why your god can't do what the D&D gods can do. Your run-of-the-mill Xian may not know enough about the game to realize this stuff, but I'd bet my boots the higher-ups do, and that's why they don't want their youth involved in it, nosiree.

Not knowing that Gods and Devils are made up fictional characters is like not knowing that ...

Paul4747 comments on Feb 21, 2020:

I met Spider-Man once when I was a kid, he made an appearance at the mall! (Sort of like meeting Charlton Heston, dressed up as Moses. Another actor playing another fictional character.)

A vulnerable great niece of mine had trouble with her phone communications whilst on holiday and ...

Paul4747 comments on Feb 20, 2020:

So, if I read this right, God was going to... fix her phone...?

Have you ever thought of religion and communism as not being that different?

Paul4747 comments on Feb 19, 2020:

Other than Marx using a quote from Acts in his Manifesto? Not so much. Religion is intended to tell people how to live a spiritual life, and how to relate the life of the mind to life on earth; it's most akin to philosophy. Communism is an economics doctrine. Capitalism also promises that everyone will live happily ever after if they just follow its principles (have you read The Wealth of Nations or any get-rich-quick book?). Capitalism is actually more like religion than communism, particularly the Prosperity Gospel type of Christianity- in both cases, if you don't get rich, it's not the system's fault, it's because *you* did something wrong.

I just looked at my last post after doing other stuff for awhile and it seems a bit crazy.