I know right! Christians just ASSUME your one of
them! Not once when I've been around them in a social setting like a meal and they all want everyone to hold hands and pray have any of them asked me if I was a different religion or even a Christian FFS! So I just quietly..angrily go along offended AF but not wanting to create a scene or be judged or snubbed for not being "one of them". And I didnt want to be grilled about why I wasn't "one of them" either.

@AngelaBaker246 from my experience it has been individuals who are aware of the different faiths so instead of my god or your god. they phrase GOD in general as in everybody worships god meaning they don't think god exist they KNOW he exists and there minds will never change. i have been confronted and lost friendships as soon as i say stuff like im not into praying! im not religious! i see no point in saying grace, fasting from food and regulating myself from different kinds of food. i have to eat to be healthy.

@TheMiddleWay Those are good points I think that's true that a god might need to be flattered and allow evil . . . that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. But that means it's not a good being. Now if you are talking about some new-age cosmic definition of "God" - thats certainly an idea with millions of interpretations. But I live in America - which is 80% Christian, and they believe in an all powerful being which created us, created our environment, created a place of torture, and demands praise.

@TheMiddleWay Philosophically absolutely such pigeonholing misses a lot. But, what impacts my life here in the McUSA is the Abrahamic religions - Islam, Judaism and of course overwhelmingly Christianity. Hence my more practical challenge as an issue I have to deal with.

The founders of America were of course more of deists, with a bit more of the clockmaker idea. A god creating everything and then stepping back and letting it run itself, not being a puppeteer and interfering with it at all. Still ultimately pretty silly, but easier to swallow than the Bible & Quran.

@TheMiddleWay I love what your little cartoon god said..lol..wish I could share it.

@TheMiddleWay if you're saying god sent this virus so we can suffer, so it will teach us or keep us from more suffering later. That's interesting. Comparing parents and kids to god to humans is kinda silly I think, but I'll entertain it for a moment. Let's say that your correct. That would mean a parent, before they conceive, knows that their kids going to have a car wreck at a specific time. Then they still have them, raise them like they don't know, don't tell him. Then when it happens, the parents say, this suffering now will keep you from suffering more later. If god knew all this suffering was gonna happen ahead of time, still let's it happen, and still created them, what does that say about him? It means he's a kid with an ant farm, and he loves to watch suffering, he gets off on it. Believe it or not, i know how god's story goes, i read his autobiography. Thanks for your comment though.

@TheMiddleWay I'm not a parent, but if I was, i wouldn't let my child do things like touching a hot stove, for example. I would simply teach them not to touch it. Teaching and helping doesn't necessarily mean they have to suffer not have pain. I wouldn't let my child play with a gun, then when he shots himself or someone else tell him guns are dangerous and they will hurt you.

I was referring to the book Christians claim god wrote, being his autobiography. I meant god wrote it about as much as the Spider-Man comics books are a historic record of the amazing Spider-Man.

@Meaniebabyinga exactly. You don't have to make an example out of them.

@TheMiddleWay when you have a discussion with a christian about the bible, they claim it's god breathed. That's why I say that. You've said afew times about ghost writers, it doesn't matter. There's alot more different books of the bible originally than is in the bible. The Canaan picked the books for today's bible. Do you think I think Moses wrote about his own death or after his death? Nobody really knows the authors of the books of the bible. All they have are the books to go by. Just that's cool.

If all else fails, experience is all that's left.

If someone asks me if god exists, I'd answer there's not enough for me to believe there's a god. If someone asks me if I believe in god, I'd answer no for the same reason. If they believed and have questions, that's great. I encourage that for sure. But one thing I wouldn't do is not talk or answer them, and tell them to find out for themselves. "Letting them touch the hot stove under my supervision." If that's the way they wanted to learn, that's fine, but it wouldn't be because I wouldn't talk to them. That's with an adult. With a child of my own, i wouldn't let a church indoctrinate them. Once they got older, if they wanted to, sure. As long as they understand that it's make believe.

@TheMiddleWay I was scheduled in Phoenix this year, but they cancelled it. But next year it'll be in Phoenix. I figured philosophy for sure.. lol.

I would never teach the child about other religions, for sure. But i wouldn't let the religious indoctrinate them, like they love to do. They call it, get them while they're young. That's what happens to alot of kids, but it wouldn't to mine for sure.

If you're talking about Lazarus, i thought it was four days, right?

@godlessinal Supposedly it was 3 days; but, per the bible, he died Friday evening and arose the following Sunday. That's roughly a day and a half.

@Joanne oh ok, my bad. I know it says his body had already started to rot by the time he got to him. Cheers

@godlessinal : Well, the bible is full of contradictory stories. That's how we can know it isn't the inspired word of any perfect god with a plan.

@Joanne exactly.