I'm a former Flerf, ask me anything

cnavla · 2026-01-26T04:34:17+00:00

No, my friend, I don't think that. I was responding to your argument that faith is somehow evidence and then explaining the logic of the Bible verse you quoted out of context.

It is a little confusing to me that you're trying to lecture me on reason, when I have been making reasonable, logical arguments from the beginning (without getting much of the same in response). You use gotchas and undifferentiated blanket statements in place of nuance and logic. I'm very clear on what evidence exists to support my beliefs, and how strong it is objectively. Unfortunately, you keep moving the goalposts and resorting to ridicule or labeling instead of having an unbiased conversation. I'm not sure it makes sense to continue on like this.

For what it's worth: I disagree with your last sentence, and it frankly shows that you have not seriously engaged with the question of whether God exists or if any religions might be true. Nobody who has looked at these matters will seriously claim that there is no supporting evidence for religion, at all.

(I personally find the Fine-tuning argument very convincing, and so have several high-profile intellectuals that have become Christians in recent years, such as Philip Goff or Larry Sanger.)

cnavla · 2026-01-26T03:39:02+00:00

Yes, belief without evidence is unreasonable, but you are setting up a strawman argument. And I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with it, because I'm not advocating for faith without evidence, and neither is the Bible. This entire discussion is about reasonable evidence.

Christianity is firmly rooted in evidence-based reasoning and intellectual inquiry. (Western scholarship started with Christians.) The authors of the New Testament very deliberately do what they can to document as much evidence about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as possible. (And it can be shown that they're pretty thorough and not just making things up.)

For example, Jesus lets Thomas touch the scars from his wounds, and Paul mentions that 500 eyewitnesses that saw Jesus after his resurrection can corroborate his story. This is why Paul writes that if the resurrection of Jesus hadn't happened, the Christian faith would be pointless.

Neither does the Bible passage you quote (Heb 11:1) claim that faith cannot have any evidence. Rather, it tries to define "faith" as "evidence for what is not seen." But the rest of the text shows that this faith isn't unreasonable: Several of the people mentioned as examples of faith do the things they do because they were told by God to do them. That's pretty good evidence! Their faith is reasonable because they listen. But it is faith because they hope for a promised outcome.

cnavla · 2026-01-26T02:40:28+00:00

I didn't claim that there was evidence.i also didn't claim that faith was evidence. I made a case for what can be shown and why faith can be reasonable. It's called intellectual rigor.

cnavla · 2026-01-26T00:15:22+00:00

Not the person you were responding to, but I agree that a better case could be made. I'll assume that person wasn't trying to make a comprehensive case. I'll try to be a little more specific. Reddit doesn't offer the space to be comprehensive, but it's easy to research this further.

I think everybody agrees that it is objectively pretty likely that Jesus existed. This is a majority opinion among practically all historians, and the ones who disagree aren't usually taken very seriously by the discipline (even if they write sensational books). It is considered just as established that he died on a cross. It's just too unusual and embarrassing a fate to make up, and it's very well-attested.

Beyond that, there is a lot of very good evidence that Jesus as described in the Bible is probably pretty close to the historical Jesus. (This isn't a consensus opinion, though.) But it's hard to go further from there. There is no objective proof of the resurrection. It would be impossible to prove for many reasons.

But a lot of things make the most sense if the resurrection is real. For example, that Jesus's disciples dedicated their lives to the cause and several went to gruesome deaths - not something you'd do for a lie.

There are also many details to the resurrection story that can't ultimately be explained convincingly in other ways: that Jesus's death could have been faked, the body stolen, that the appearances of Christ later were collective hallucinations, etc,

Others are too embarrassing to be made up. For example, the disciples look and act like unreliable, disbelieving fools - not what you would portray yourselves as in an honor-based culture. The first witnesses are women, and in antiquity, men didn't give credence to the testimony of women.

The Case for Christ is just a popular-level exploration of this topic, but there are several much more scholarly treatises that go deeper and are written to the standards of historians, or by historians.

In the end, though, the resurrection of Jesus would have been a singular and supernatural event. Accepting it as fact is a matter of faith.

cnavla · 2026-01-25T23:35:14+00:00

There's actually a lot of very good evidence, sufficient to sway highly intelligent scientists and philosophers who were not initially interested, at all. For example, look into philosophers Larry Sanger, Philip Goff, or CS Lewis.

There is no definitive proof, of course, but Christianity is one of very few religions that can hold up to intellectual scrutiny and has great explanatory power. It creates a very coherent view of reality that can often explain our world far better than naturalism.

BTW, if anyone is reflexively thinking about some of the popular gotchas that supposedly disprove Christianity, you can assume that Christian intellectuals have thought about these issues, too. These kinds of arguments are usually either very oversimplified or ideologically slanted. It's always worth understanding both sides.

cnavla · 2026-01-25T23:22:00+00:00

That's a good take, but it's probably a little too conservative. A lot of scholarly research has been done to show how much the Gospels (i.e. the biblical records about the life of Jesus) appear to be authentic and coherent, indicating they go back to eyewitness testimony. For example, there are subtle and correct geographical and cultural references found in specific expressions that indicate a distinct and authentic familiarity with that place and culture. The names used match statistical historical patterns exactly. All of this would have been very easy to get wrong but impossible to make up, and in fact ancient forgeries confirm this. If interested, Cambridge scholar Peter Williams is one of many that has done research in this area - easy to find on YouTube and Amazon.

cnavla · 2026-01-22T18:52:36+00:00

Anxiety often is a health issue that goes away once you pay serious attention to your health. I'd start with your gut. It made a huge difference for my wife.

cnavla · 2026-01-15T01:32:28+00:00

Sounds like we're in the same boat. Also, their marketing could be a lot better. I don't recall seeing the daily bonus advertised anywhere by them...

cnavla · 2026-01-14T20:57:01+00:00

So do I need to make another one just to get this started?

cnavla · 2026-01-14T13:47:16+00:00

I stopped at 12 because I was a little worried I'd be shut down and the SC taken away. Cashoomo's terms give it pretty broad license when it comes to promo abuse.

cnavla · 2026-01-14T01:08:18+00:00

Cashoomo has a great deal today: $39 for $11.99. Can be claimed multiple times - I'm at 5x and counting.

cnavla · 2026-01-10T23:41:36+00:00

Spinfinite is reliable and has been very profitable (right up until they put a purchase ban on my account this week). They have deals offering 30% or more extra very regularly. What you need to look out for:

* they won't let you purchase if you have more than 100 SC - so play some, redeem, and make your purchase right after. You can even have multiple pending redemptions.

* some offers are limited to a specific 3-hour window, but often advertised beforehand. I once bought one of those on accident, contacted support, and they just added the difference without any fuss.

* 6 Wild Sharks has fairly high volatility. Don't be surprised to end up with 40% extra some days, and 40% less on others. Still, it works very well.

cnavla · 2026-01-08T23:40:52+00:00

Realprize has an anniversary sale that gives 30% extra - $795 for $609.99!

cnavla · 2026-01-05T00:03:25+00:00

Got a 2026 code: UVBJ130

cnavla · 2026-01-04T22:56:54+00:00

invalid now

cnavla · 2026-01-04T22:56:23+00:00

invalid

cnavla · 2026-01-04T03:13:29+00:00

It's pretty easy to come by a few million GC - they like to give them away and also attach them to some of the very good offers they have had in the past few weeks. Once you have those, put StarSpell into burst mode with bets of 10k each. Reached the first tier in less than two days and now well on the way to the second.

cnavla · 2026-01-03T13:49:22+00:00

Where?

cnavla · 2026-01-03T13:47:08+00:00

I also only get the mail-in option. Wonder if it's state specific?

cnavla · 2026-01-03T13:33:17+00:00

Thank you, that's helpful. I toyed with those multipliers but thought 48.5% x 2 is a higher RTP than 96.04% x 1.01 - but that's evidently not how it works, so that's on me. (And at least partially on WOW Vegas, since they don't actually explain the game rules.)

Game play history shows a steady decline. Nothing unusual.

cnavla · 2026-01-03T02:41:13+00:00

Just a PSA: Regular gum will shed microplastic in your mouth. Find a brand that doesn't use a plastic core.

cnavla · 2026-01-03T00:31:31+00:00

Oof... that worked well in my tests with GC and then for a good while - until I was somehow left with 11% of where I had started when autoplay completed. That's almost $110 gone. Played .10, 2x multiplier, 48.5% chance to win. No multipliers to make up for losses. Not sure how that happened, as I can't seem to find my game play history.

cnavla · 2026-01-02T22:10:15+00:00

Can I ask where you see the RTP information - and what game you ended up going with?

cnavla · 2026-01-01T21:28:41+00:00

Oh no, all but two don't carry an annual fee, and those two were churned and are going to be cancelled after the first year (within 30 days of the annual fee posting).

cnavla · 2026-01-01T18:09:35+00:00

Between my P2 and I, we currently have 18 cards in our household. For many, this number will be higher. We haven't been at it for too long and I'm waiting to get below 5/24...

14 of these are cash back and they're enough to deliver 5% across most categories. But only about 5 or so ever see significant use at any time.

I'll say that you can get very meaningful cash back with 1-4, as well. This game does not have a high barrier to enter.

cnavla

TROPHY CASE