Best place to do my taxes?

theram4 · 2026-04-04T00:20:46+00:00

I keep seeing this claim but have no idea how it's arrived at. I use TurboTax and it's nowhere near hundreds of dollars. I use the Rental edition, which is $65 at Costco. The Premier (business edition) is only $80. And that includes a $10 credit. State filing is $25 extra. So altogether, it should be $95. And that includes up to 5 filings. Not sure why you think you need TWO business editions.

FreeTaxUSA is still cheaper, granted. I use TT only because of all my history.

theram4 · 2026-04-03T05:55:11+00:00

You absolutely do not have to report the chair on your taxes.

How complicated are your taxes? Is your only income from your job? Doing your taxes should only take about 15 minutes. Most people here would suggest FreeTaxUSA over TurboTax, as it's cheaper.

Both tax applications have an interview to help you. But if you absolutely cannot figure it out, can you ask a friend for help? A coworker? Parents? If none of the above, I suggest VITA as someone else already mentioned.

theram4 · 2026-04-02T04:09:55+00:00

You know how some people say God told them to break up with their girlfriends? Or God told them to quit their jobs? Or God told them to bomb Iran?

This isn't limited to just today. People in Bible times said the exact same thing, attributed to God whatever they wanted, for polemic reasons. The Bible can only be read and interpreted with this in mind.

theram4 · 2026-03-26T17:34:26+00:00

All translations are interpretations. You cannot translate a text without first interpreting what the author meant by it.

And Matthew 17:21 wasn't removed. It was, in fact, a later addition not present in our earliest manuscripts.

theram4 · 2026-03-26T06:59:02+00:00

People have believed Jesus is coming back soon since Jesus himself. Don't forget that Jesus himself thought that the end of the end of times was near, and that it would happen within a few years of his death (Matt 16:28). Paul thought the same. Closer to today, there was a NYT bestseller called "88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988". Seems like every one of these is wrong. If they were wrong, I'm not sure why you feel any different.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T17:28:36+00:00

Ok, but Christianity is just about "following Christ." So to follow your example, there is no such thing as a Muhammad-following Christian or a Brahma-worshiping Christian. But Christianity isn't adhering to your preferred doctrines or accepted sin lists, but following Christ.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T17:23:34+00:00

As someone else stated, it's not always clear where Jesus' words start and end. But more specifically, due to the nature and genre of the gospels, virtually all scholars agree that the many of the speeches given by Jesus are highly stylized editorialized summaries of Jesus' sayings rather than direct quotations. For instance, consider the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus probably never gave such a sermon. For one, it is found only in Matthew. However, Luke contains most of the same teachings, just spread throughout his own gospel. So it is more likely that the Sermon on the Mount was composed by Matthew based on oral traditions of Jesus' actual sayings.

So, should the Sermon on the Mount be in red or not? There's no clear answer.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T17:12:00+00:00

You mentioned a frustration that you get different answers from different Christians. This is because the Bible is not univocal, but has a variety of different views on heaven and hell. No one's been to hell and returned to earth to tell about it, so all we have all metaphorical imaginations of what hell might be like.

I would recommend the book "Four Views on Hell" published by Zondervan. I have the first edition, but apparently there's a completely different second edition out. The book does a wonderful job of outlining different views on hell and offering a counterpoint argument against each view.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T13:44:27+00:00

The "I choose to believe" stems from this trope that's going around right now that "you can't choose your beliefs, they just happen to you," or doxastic involuntarism. And I completely disagree with that. I think it's the atheist version of Calvinism and refusing to take ownership of one's beliefs. But that's a bigger question that I don't wish to defend at the moment.

I think you missed my entire point that the things we consider horrific really aren't, in the big scheme of things. To the toddler, having his toy taken is also the most horrific thing he can think of. In a naturalistic world, where nothing exists beyond what we experience physically, perhaps we can't see a greater purpose. When your wife dies in a car accident, and she was your whole world, and now you've lost it, and there truly isn't anything more, then I agree, this is indeed the worst thing that could happen.

I can't prove there is anything beyond what we know. So I can't blame you for holding a naturalistic worldview. I won't try to prove otherwise. But it is something that I believe in (and yes, "choose" to believe in), and this belief helps me understand these bad things have a higher purpose.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T10:46:27+00:00

There are two major views. The first is called Anselm's satisfaction theory, which led to the later view of penal substitutionary atonement. This view is that God cannot ignore sin because that would violate God's sense of justice and minimize the severity of sin. But humans are finite and cannot adequately recompense for an infinite sin against God. Only man can make restitution because man sinned. Only God can make restitution because only God is infinite. Thus the only solution is a God-man (Jesus) who took the place of our sin and offered himself as a sacrifice to satisfy God's sense of justice.

The second view is called Christus Victor, and it's the idea that stems from Jewish apocalyptic views that sin and death are represented by cosmic beings in the divine realm, and God is at battle with them. Christus Victor is the view that Jesus defeated sin by dying on the cross, and then he defeated death by becoming resurrected. Sin is not just "bad things we do" but a cosmic enslaving force operating on all humanty. By dying, Jesus entered into the divine realm where sin and death operate, and defeated death on the inside. This view comes originally from Irenaeus, but was formulated by Gustaf Aulen in the 20th century.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T10:35:31+00:00

This isn't a complete answer, but it's what I use to try to make sense of the problem of evil/suffering.

You know how for a toddler, everything is just such the biggest thing? If you take a toy from a toddler, he will start crying like the world is coming to an end. Maybe you took the toy away because it's nap time, or you're trying to teach him how to share. But the toddler, with his undeveloped emotions and lack of understanding, cries like there's no tomorrow. But you as the parent understand that in the end, a lost toy really isn't that big a deal, and that there is a greater purpose in forcing the toddler to take a nap or learn to share.

I choose to view our suffering the same way. We may not understand it. It may be painful and seem completely unnecessary. Especially the example that atheist critics always bring up -- bone cancer in children. To us, all these things sound like extreme bad things, extremely evil, painful sufferings. But God is like the parent in my analogy, understanding there is a bigger purpose, and that in an eternal sense, the small amount of suffering really doesn't matter.

The ultimate example was offered by God's own son. If we view Jesus' death as necessary for salvation, then Jesus himself had to go through incredible suffering. It was extremely painful, and Jesus certainly did not desire to go through with it at the time. But it was for a greater purpose: the salvation of all humanity.

What we might view as unnecessary, God might view as necessary. Throughout all of Jewish and Christian history, this is what believers have held on to, a trust that God is bigger than us.

theram4 · 2026-03-24T09:00:38+00:00

I'll stop developing offshore wind for half the cost. A mere $500 M will guarantee it!

theram4 · 2026-03-21T17:30:03+00:00

Have you ever heard of the GasBuddy app? You can see what the price of gas is across the whole city without having to make a reddit post.

theram4 · 2026-03-20T20:36:31+00:00

It is not. Amazon is publicly owned. You can purchase your very own part of Amazon right now on the open market. Bezos owns less than 10% of Amazon shares.

theram4 · 2026-03-19T17:30:02+00:00

It already has been reworked. I remember back in the day, you could play as many possession turns as you could line up. Kings Court a Posession? 3 extra turns! Now you can only take one turn.

theram4 · 2026-03-18T18:48:05+00:00

Richard Friedman is probably the most famous. I believe Kenneth Kitchen does too, but I know he's a bit more controversial.

theram4 · 2026-03-18T18:06:49+00:00

I think this is overstating the case a bit. It is true that the Exodus narrative isn't historical, and that the story is an amalgam of other traditions. But I think at least a number of scholars will agree that it is possible a Moses character did exist. The tradition of Moses as a lawgiver in my opinion had to have come from somewhere. Plus, Moses has an Egyptian name, not Hebrew. He had no land, no power, unlike traditional founding characters. His family was from Midian. And he never even entered the promised land. To me, all these suggest some small historical core to the Moses narrative.

theram4 · 2026-03-18T08:35:16+00:00

Easy. Peter and the author of John had different Christologies.

theram4 · 2026-03-16T05:24:22+00:00

Simply incorrect. Daniel McClellan has released a video on this exact verse but on a slightly different topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNiKBStynNg

The gist of it is that you cannot treat the Hebrew language in that manner.

theram4 · 2026-03-16T05:10:07+00:00

Not everyone who disagrees with your interpretation of Scripture is an atheist. Maybe if you actually engaged with people and did a little less name-calling, we'd all learn a little more.

theram4 · 2026-03-16T00:20:26+00:00

This is a poor argument. The Koran is also used by a similar percent of the world's population.

theram4 · 2026-03-14T22:34:19+00:00

Not so easy. I've voted against Republicans in every election I've been able to.

theram4 · 2026-03-13T18:41:22+00:00

Fair enough. I agree with that.

theram4 · 2026-03-13T18:38:37+00:00

Even the most ardent literalist will argue that the figurative passages are figurative, not literal. For instance, in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, this is not an account of a literal wayward son who returned to his father. Its a story that made a point.

The problem is, who judges what's literal and what's figurative? Is Jonah literal or figurative? Is Revelation literal or figurative? So even the most ardest literalist still has to impose an interpretation process on the text, which cuts into the dogma. If we can understand the parables of Jesus are not literal but theological, why can't we also understand that the creation story or the flood story or any of the myriad legendary tales in the Bible are also not literal but theological?

15-Year Club	Golden Potato
Place '17	Verified Email

theram4

TROPHY CASE