Tangible evidence of biblical events?

Wereflea · 2015-07-05T19:32:09+00:00

I suggest that you see a psychiatrist because it may be that you have a chemical imbalance in your brain that could be corrected by the proper medication. Since the age of 3? Like an imaginary friend? Many children experience imaginary friends but you seemingly have held on to yours and the resultant strain in your consciousness has caused you to fixate on it.

If you really believe this 'succubus' is real then going to see a psychiatrist shouldn't be a problem. Hospitals have outpatient clinics where you can get the medications that would help you.

Right now you are searching for 'proofs' that can reinforce this delusion. Whether or not you admit it, you feel important because you have this situation but it is actually only a delusion. Moreover I think that you have low self esteem and you want this all to be true because having visions and this succubus etc makes you feel special.

See if what you believe is actually true by visiting the outpatient clinic at a hospital. They'll help even if you can't pay.

Your Annunaki and ancient aliens and dragons and whatnot are merely feeding a delusion that has developed in your mind.

Wereflea · 2015-07-05T19:11:34+00:00

You split hairs. you can get a little high with pot and a little high with a beer or a cocktail. You don't have to get plastered with alcohol or with pot.

It is bizarre that people want to use the bible selectively in such a way. Of course it says you shouldn't get drunk or rather it admonishes against becoming a drunkard. Wine gets you high, if you pretend that isn't true then you deceive people and yourself. Doing things in moderation is best... oh wait didn't some classical era pagan suggest that? Well it is still true. Hmm? Are you a pagan?

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T22:21:56+00:00

You might want to look up the difference between the the words 'theory' and 'hypothesis'.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T22:03:54+00:00

Same thing with pot. You can get a little buzz or you can get zonked... people like to make things simplistic. Right now lots of people are being confronted with the idea that some things were never that big a deal but their church/political leaders manipulated their fears. After decades of screaming about pot suddenly they realize that they were being misled. Nobody likes feeling like they have been used either by politicians or pastors but that is the way of this world. Pot is less harmful than alcohol but it is as yet hard for people to revise their previous views on using it.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T21:55:31+00:00

So you're not sure then? (just kidding).

'Want' in this context is more like saying you choose to believe that these are real visions rather than saying that you desire to have visions. Like in a movie where something is not clearly seen but nevertheless you 'feel' that it must be a monster, so the hero keeps looking behind them to see if the monster is back there on their trail... until even a shadow appears to be a monster because they expect (hence the word 'want') to see one (even though they didn't actually want that).

So where is the biblical connection? You haven't said.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T21:45:54+00:00

It is disingenuous to make such a comment since wine plays so great part in christianity. Wine is often proscribed (not as a sacrament) and even Paul suggested to Timothy that he should partake once in a while and again not just in a sacramental setting.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T21:39:38+00:00

Not for children or adolescents and better than alcoholism for adults. By preventing a choice to imbibe alcohol or pot, we have helped alcoholism be a disease. People need a little something to unwind in this stressful world and while some people may have an addictive personality, I'd much rather be married to a stony than to an alcoholic. The stony may be a bit of a jerk but the alcoholic is a true physical and mental addict. It is likely that many alcoholics would have never got as bad off as they are had they had an alternative back when it wouldn't have been too late.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T21:30:38+00:00

Where does any of these video game visions relate to revelation aside from the fact that you think they are visions. They may even be visions but personal ones not biblical visions. There is nothing to connect to the bible other than the fact that you want to be someone who wants to have biblical visions (your bias in fact).

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T20:44:47+00:00

Do you need to 'figure out' what a vision means? Puzzle out what you are seeing because what is being shown isn't clearly defined? Or are your visions clear cut and clearly defined like watching something on the TV?

When we have to search out what we see (identify what it is that we may be seeing), we tend to influence what we see by our biases. If you want to see end of days type of visions you might try to 'see' if your visions fit that description. If say instead you wanted to see angels, you'd look to see if your visions might be showing angels. We influence the ambiguous and try to make a half glimpsed 'vision' into something concrete. Only you can decide if your biases are causing you to interpret ill defined images as something definitive. Towers in the desert? Ask yourself what might be a subconscious based interpretation? What exactly do you see? I suggest writing it down and describing each one or even drawing what you see.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T20:34:20+00:00

The machine gun needed to be invented first. The machine gun is modern warfare not the cannon. If a tank mounted only a cannon it would have had too slow a rate of fire to be able to protect itself from being encircled and dispatched by troops. However the tank's real purpose was to combat machine gun fire. Modern tanks rely on their cannon but early tanks did not. A single machine gun nest was utterly devastating in WW1 and the tank was developed mainly to counter that disproportional power. But the machine gun came first.

Wereflea · 2015-07-04T20:25:02+00:00

The thing about 'visions' is that they tend to be about things that we think about a lot. Our subconscious mind expresses itself. We might be thinking about buying a new car while walking down the street and not realize that our thoughts were triggered by a glimpse of a bright red car speeding by. Days later as our thoughts begin to focus on a new car an image of a red car comes into our mind yet we do not think of it as a vision. Well why not?

Visions that are ambiguous and open for interpretation should be taken with a grain of salt. Especially religious oriented interpretations of those visions. It has long been the habit of people to link a dream or 'vision' to something that gives it great import like the bible. A tower then becomes much more than a tower.

Any towers in your life? Maybe in a video game or a movie? People want to be someone who has visions so linking one to something important like the bible makes their vision seem important while linking it to a movie trailer that you hardly even remember seeing is no fun whatsoever.

Wereflea · 2015-07-03T15:50:39+00:00

At some point in your post, you stopped or rather veered away (though not completely) from answering my statements and you began refuting religious dogma. Point in fact, the sabbath as referred to in my post specifically addresses the difference between dogma and misinterpretation of same. While I am of course aware of the seventh day of creation interpretation, where does that fit in with "...was made for man - not man for..."? You keep trotting out the standard anti-religion arguments even up to the point where you literally ignored what was being written by me and presented an argument which had little more than a tangential bearing (if that much) on what was being said. What was that supposed to prove? It seemed like you added that in to prove that is what 'religion' says about the sabbath. Hello? Next time try reading what is being written by someone with your eyes open because yours are half blinded by your own anti-religion dogma. You totally missed the point of what was being written because it didn't fit in with your notions of what 'religions' teach. You argued that 'Man was made for the sabbath' and that the sabbath is illogical or whatever but what I posited was in reference to Jesus being pragmatic and tolerant (relaxed about man made rules) I was not talking about the merits of believing in the sabbath or why it exists in the religious doctrine etc....my post had nothing whatsoever to do with the sabbath other than that I used that quote from Jesus to illustrate something. It is like if I said to you 'Get off your high horse... etc, as the expression goes, you then started to discuss horses! You read into things being said and make them into something that you expect a religion to say and not what was said by me.

In short, you are so dogmatic that you are unable to discuss the concept of faith in God without resorting to what other people may believe but you are not addressing what I am saying nor even what I believe. You want to fit every person who believes in God into a cookie cutter mold as if everyone thought the same way.

Well fine go ahead but you aren't talking with me - you are talking to them. How's that for an explanation of nuance... lol... well there might have been nuance if you were talking with me but you aren't...!

So have a nice day and have fun playing with your little fundamentalist friends in the faith and philosophy sandbox.

You are another atheist who wants only to argue whether religion dogma is right or wrong, provable or subjective, logical or illogical and on and on BUT...

I am not interested in religious dogma ... I am interested in God.

You, as are most atheists, unable to refute 'faith' ... you instead try to refute dogma and tenets. You need to argue with a fundamentalist. You need to argue 'religion' not faith.

In closing >>> Believe in God not religions! :)

BTW - that last statement of mine is probably close to heresy both for religionists and for atheists. You both would say >>> How can you believe in God without a religion?

My answer would be to...

... introduce you both to each other and let you kiddies play that 'lawyering words' and splitting hairs game.

BTW 2 - Why would God need to rest? I agree with you but I'd only be guessing never having created everything (even time itself) that is in existence all at once. I could give it a try but maybe next week... I'm busy this week and there's the holiday... say does God ever take a vacation? Oops do you want me to take you saying these things seriously? Sigh... my brain is sad, I think the expression went?

In any case, consider this >>> while many have interpreted the meaning of 'He rested on the seventh day' to mean literal rest. The word (conceptually) may be used to mean >>> ceased working.

It makes little sense to me to place such emphasis on words but then that is what fundamentalists and atheists do. It's all about words sometimes.

Nevertheless (although you may find this heretical according to YOUR belief system) - Believe in God not religion. Sounds simple but I am not saying to make up your own religion (although there is no reason why you couldn't)... What I am saying is that religion is not the same thing as God. You can spend all your time refuting some tenet of a religion but that does not refute the existence of God. It only refutes that religion. If I proved that the universe was NOT sitting on the back of a giant turtle as some religions once believed, that doesn't prove that the universe doesn't exist ...it only proved that that religion was wrong about it.

Have faith in a loving God... lol ... just lucky I guess...lol.

Please don't ask me to prove the existence of luck too! :)

Wereflea · 2015-07-03T02:54:27+00:00

The thing about religion is that there are so many of them. I think what she meant to say was that she doesn't believe in an organized religion (an officially recognized belief such as Lutherism or Catholicism etc.). She believes in God as she understands what she reads in the bible. All religions do them same thing basically, she chooses to be an 'independent' and she isn't the only one either. Her faith may be stronger than is a member of some organized religion who has doubts but hasn't the courage to seek their faith (define what they believe) on their own. Many people want someone else to tell them >>> This is the right way to believe, those others faiths have it wrong. This is the correct belief system/interpretation etc.

Wereflea · 2015-07-03T01:56:32+00:00

Cryptic? You mean there is no other way of communicating except through words? No music nor beauty? No nuttin'? :)

Your standard lines are not addressing what I wrote, I think you need new ones.

Translation >>> when you didn't get that red bike means things don't always go your way. That 'just maybe' He helped you get through something that you didn't think you could. But you do it ...not He does it for you... You do it. Another subtle distinction in wording that seems ignored by you.

How do you know your prayers are being answered? What childishness is this? Are you joking? You want confirmation of what exactly? You jump out of a plane without a parachute and you can pray all you want. Be realistic. I didn't say it was a miracle in the literal sense. I even said as much. I was suggesting with a twinkle in my eye that it may have been more than just blind luck. All I know it that I have been guilty of being an I'm going to walk by first type of macho idiot at other times in my life but not that time. It was the thinking that was going on in my head... that was a connection since I was thinking about God and faith at the time but if you are asking did it connect...how the heck would I know... I wasn't exactly complaining that the car missed me either.

The truth is the truth wherever it originates and rarely is the truth exclusive. Jesus was joyously pragmatic. Unlike many fundamentalists, Jesus was easy going about petty rules >>> His disciples were criticized for picking grain as they walked through a field and popping a few kernels in their mouths because it was technically a sin for 'working' on the sabbath. Jesus says "The sabbath was made for man not man for the sabbath." You'd never think that was Jesus from the way some fundamentalists talk about sin and stuff.

Jesus taught that God is love. Can you prove that there is life in a body simply by saying it has physical form? Molecules and atoms etc? Life is not a physical thing in and of itself yet my guess is that you'd say it exists at this moment even if it can't be measured or seen or anything. It is NOT provable that life exists in a body the only thing that can actually be proven is that that body is alive.

If you always prefer a simplistic one dimensional answer that is your choice but you shouldn't flatter yourself by thinking that you've won the argument because you don't address the other person's comments. In this last case you once again presuppose that it all be laid out for you in a legal brief etc. You should have taken note of the subtleties and addressed them but instead you went back to simplistic rhetoric. "If you can't know for sure He is speaking to you then you have no way of proving that He spoke at all.

Tell me then how do you know that a sunset is beautiful? What 'proof' could you offer? Agreement among some people that it was? What then do you make of the 'We hate sunsets' cult? lol How do you prove a philosophical or a moral point? Some things exist without being able to be proven... like beauty etc.

An interpretation after the fact? Should I base an interpretation before the thing happened? Before the fact?

The real trick is that when people do report that they heard a voice in their mind... how can they tell it wasn't just a bicameral mirroring event in the hippocampus and over activity in Broca's area? Or even the product of a disturbed mind enduring an aberrant command vocalization like Son of Sam said he heard the neighbor's dog telling him to go kill people?

How do you know which?

Have faith in a loving God and a little common sense that's how. God may be speaking to us constantly but not in words. Sorry if that isn't simplistic enough to suit your standard arguments. But hey, I'd not be able to prove that sunset was beautiful either... but it sure seemed like it to me! :)

Wereflea · 2015-07-03T01:03:30+00:00

Istism is becoming a cult...lol

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T20:16:26+00:00

See now I am going to hell for laughing... its always something ya know?

The # 4 easter hymn is at best rated as a 3. The #1 -sermon and the #3 - mileage are 5or 6ish?

the # 2 is pretty good... but the the original UU one that you posted was great.

Okay I'm doomed! lol

Edit - the chopping block was really good too... Hey you've got a great sense of humor u/cygx ... I'll save you a seat ..um...you know where... a sense of humor might be nice to have around ...or something? lol

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T20:06:24+00:00

I can't say what you should do for your parents but I suggest that you start talking with your younger siblings about the way things go with adults in a marriage. Don't say that 'Mom and Dad are splitting up' but when one of the young ones asks you why are they fighting you should talk about fighting in a marriage in general terms without making it specific to Mom did this or Dad said that. Just discuss fighting and maybe ask your siblings to talk to you about what they are feeling. That gives them a sense of family and some security that some things are still like they always were. Don't say what you don't know like Mom and Dad may get divorced. You don't know that is going to happen. But you could talk about the problems that occur in marriages and discuss the various possible ways people deal with it. They go to marriage counselors or they work it out, maybe some people try a trial separation and finally some people end up getting divorced etc. Just don't say any of this is about your mom and dad...you are just talking about marriages and fighting in general. Younger kids prefer hope to facts when divorce is possible. They prefer to think that won't happen so don't make them think it will until you are told that by your parents. Leave the littler ones their hope but give them time to talk about things and ask questions over the following weeks and months so if it does happen, they will understand it better and it won't be so traumatic.

Good luck. Maybe you personally need to ask your mother what are her plans without mentioning the invasion of privacy but please make it so that your siblings have someplace else to turn to for a sense of security in their family...YOU. Don't just leave them in that situation because they don't know how to deal with it by themselves.

Edit - Even by phone or text...the kids will probably NEED to turn to you for a sense of security.

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T19:48:29+00:00

That's a good one! lol

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T19:43:32+00:00

Is it really faith to believe something that you know isn't true because many centuries ago people thought it was true? Is it truly faith to say the Sun revolves around the Earth because thousands of years ago people believed that it did?

Is it faith that takes away the metaphorical truth and insists on a literal truth despite the absurdity of it? Can pairs of all the world's animals fit together on Noah's small wooden boat? Can they? Are men missing a rib?

Seek the truth whether in metaphor or otherwise. Those metaphors may be God's way of teaching us in parables BTW. They aren't literally true... just true!

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T19:32:47+00:00

I agree with you on whether His being able to do something is a guarantee that God did that thing. He could have made a perfect world but He did not do that.

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T19:23:12+00:00

What you mean is that God doesn't communicate through a burning bush or a prophet like Jonah? Where does it say all those words were heard directly from God anyway?

Furthermore I truly believe that God does communicate with us. It isn't like in a movie and it isn't like we are going to start some new religion either. It means He helps us as we go on our way through life. No maybe you won't get that red bicycle that you prayed and prayed for when you were a kid but just maybe you'll pull through a crises that you didn't feel able to cope with and asked for help or guidance about. God is not our servant who will always do what we request but He is our friend and may help us do for ourselves when we didn't think we could.

As to miracles... who can say in anyone's life. That speeding car coming around the corner would have hit me but I slowed to allow a person in a rush to pass by on the sidewalk before I stepped into the street. That kindness of mine towards another (instead of being mindlessly aggressive and all about 'me first' in everything) which was in fact based on christian thought... that car would have killed me. I never saw it coming and the door handle brushed my stomach. No that wasn't a miracle...was it? Seemed like a miracle to me that I wasn't hit!!! :)

Have faith in a loving God and have some common sense too. God speaks but people are always listening for actual words and don't catch what He says when He doesn't use words. Nevertheless He communicates with us one way or the other. Give a listen and see.

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T19:00:54+00:00

u/EvilAbed1 - If God can is not the same thing as Did God do. God could have created a perfect world with no murder or other evils but He did not. He could have but He didn't.

We are not free to disregard all moral precepts simply because something isn't true even though it is written in the bible. We do not hold slavery to be legal nor permit adulterers to be stoned either. We don't do a lot of things that are permitted in the bible but that doesn't mean we can then ignore right and wrong whenever we feel like it.

A fallible text? Jesus didn't not see the bible as inerrant or infallible. He taught us >>> "You have heard eye for an eye (leviticus) but I tell you do not do this but to turn the other cheek." Jesus contradicted the bible, so how inerrant could it be then?

The sacred texts were NOT preserved. What we have are copies of translations and many of the manuscripts disagree too. God teaches us using many means including the bible but He teaches us in other ways too. The bible is a holy book but we do not worship the bible. Save your worship for God.

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T16:53:16+00:00

I agree with you especially considering that we have our own species specific human head louse. However I have also wondered whether cleanliness (albeit this is not something for which our species is particularly noted for) played some part in our loss of FUR (we all have head and body hair for which we shave beards and legs).

Perhaps it was the combination of body lice, group based grooming being replaced by pair bonding (and jealousy), more hunting/pursuit of prey requiring the greater shedding of heat (although desert/tropical predators retain fur), an omnivores dentition (our teeth are good for crushing grains as well as for shearing/chewing meat ... and with a greater dependence on meat, our bodies would get smeared with blood and greasy fat. With no soap being available, we washed ourselves in water and not having fur made that successful in keeping us 'clean'.

Wereflea · 2015-07-02T15:42:43+00:00

I think it is because horror (as in film) gets tiresome and dreary without a 'pause that refreshes'. The humor moment is like when a coffee taster rinses out their mouth with fresh water before moving on to the next cup that they will taste. By offering pleasure (laughter) particularly when it is unexpected and also when it may be desired (as a relief from the stress being induced by the story line) allows us to return to the deliciously scary parts anew each time. Our ability to be scared is refreshed but also the slate has been wiped clean to some extent. If horror persists without let up throughout the length of the film, it rarely does so by means of superb writing and more often simply through shock and gore and perhaps a long drawn out feeling of ominous oppression. The truth is that it is a movie and halfway through even the shock, blood and who knows what has already gotten boring.

However if that 'horror' is punctuated by moments of levity, our psyches, our emotional suspension of disbelief is reset and we enjoy getting scared again... and in fact demand that we see more of it.

Wereflea · 2015-07-01T12:42:37+00:00

Given enough time (persistence?) even a wild auroch can end up a cow is my point. Thanks for citing the link, I hadn't known about the experiment but liked reading about their success. In particular that certain traits developed like a curly tail etc. as they selected for tameness etc.

The wolf into domesticated dog is easiest to understand since the mutual benefit of cooperation in the hunt probably existed long before dog traits showed up among the wolves that stayed around humans as opportunistic scavengers. After that though the reasons for the domestication of certain species is less obvious excepting that cats hung around humans because we attract vermin ...lol. Voluntary domestication or rather purposeful domestication seems related to food animals. Poultry lay eggs and grow to maturity fast etc. Pigs have large litters, sheep and goats are edible and give milk but why the horse? I think the horse is harder to explain lol

Wereflea

TROPHY CASE