posted
Yeah, sure it can be done.. if you use the right methods and materials.
Much in the same manner that, given enough time and access to proper deprogramming techniques, someone can get you to believe that:
The Earth is Flat Tobacco is good for you Fatty foods you previously loved now make you violently ill. The President is an extraterrestrial. YOU are an extraterrestrial Black is white
Etc.
And though it isn't completely necessary, it helps, of course, when you are already culturally programmed by your religion and upbringing to believe that Homosexuality is somehow evil, that a Creator-being frowns upon it (this despite there being more and more evidence that it occurs naturally, even in animals), and therefore possess a deep-seated desire/neuroses to rid yourself of it.
:P
--------------- Atheism is natural, Christianity is a lifestyle choice.
posted
Ummm.... Everything about my Christianity tells me it is natural. You should see me on the days when Satan has me by the hand. (ouch!) Being pagan is a choice in a world filled with many religions.
posted
May I also add that War is peace, Love is Hate and my personal favorite: Ignorance is Strength.
Re: All this Christianity bashing going on. I'm not a religious person by any means, but this is sooner or later gonna offend someone here who DOES have a strong religious faith. Can we give it a rest, people?
Returning to the subject matter of this thread: I doubt you need to condemn the "curing" of gays in a forum such as this. I doubt anyone here wouldn't share your disgust at this intolerant attitude espoused by some whackos with over-expanded egos.
------------------ "Is there anyone there with a gun?" - On the Hour
posted
It really doesn't bother me if I offend people with strong faith. They do it to me often enough.
And bryce, if you think Atheism = Paganism, you need a better dictionary.
Incidentally, I'm not an Atheist, I'm a Deist, but for purposes of this and the other religious discussions, it's close enough.
And actually, Christianity, like all religions, is learned and therefore not "natural." We are not born believing in a God. We are taught to. If anything, we are born classically agnostic. "I don't know" what causes the world and what makes things happen.
posted
Everyone ought to to know the reason some of us don't nuke your computers and do other flaming things is because of our religion. It says not to do that sort of thing.
Anyone who wants to flame these guys in the name of Christ needs to refrain from it and go pray about the situation.
And no one is born not believing in God either. ------------------ Anyone remember how they felt the day after Rich Mullins died?
[This message was edited by bryce on April 13, 1999.]
[This message was edited by bryce on April 13, 1999.]
posted
Really? That's the only reason you don't do things like that? Because some book tells you to?
How sad for you.
_I_, on the other hand, don't do it because it's a despicable, cowardly, underhanded way of conducting onesself, and is tantamount to shooting the guy you just lost an argument with, thereby proving he was right. My Personal, self-derived, non-religious system of conduct tells me that.
And besides, I don't WANT to. It's only words on a computer screen. Big whoop. If you want to nuke me for expressing my beliefs, go right ahead and violate everything you CLAIM to respect, and prove the Christian-Bashers are right.
And I respectfully disagree, we are all born not believing in God. This is OPPOSED to denying God, saying that "There is no God." One has to be able to formulate a concept before one can believe in it or not. Newborns cannot form concepts such as that, the concepts must be taught to them. You cannot believe or disbelieve that which you cannot even comprehend. If you raise a child in an environment wherein there is no religious context at all, that child will never come to you asking about God. They will exist without the concept. It is only after they are exposed to the concept that they will accept or reject it. Nowadays, since most people's exposure and indoctrination begins at a very early age, when they are incapable of making their own value judgements, and are simply TOLD "how things are" , they accept that without (much) question.
I suppose it depends on where you place the emphasis on "not." we are born not believing that 2+2=4, either. Although the concept of "2+2=4" is possibly something we CAN learn on our own.
posted
First: Well...its not the book it's my God-given personality that does (Holy Spirit). We also have clear memory of our birth so... (I know it's a stretch.)
------------------ Anyone remember how they felt the day after Rich Mullins died?
[This message was edited by bryce on April 13, 1999.]
See we believe that it is possible for Satan to control ppl since even birth and therefore they can be 'cured.' And in that sense they can be born with it, too.
Demons can exist in any way; even as genes.
------------------ Anyone remember how they felt the day after Rich Mullins died?
posted
Now we're bringing demonology into it.. this should get interesting... and who are "we" anyway?
And I've never heard of anyone who claims to have clear memory of their birth before.. except one guy I met in college.. but he also claimed to have made love in the back of an in-flight SR-71 Blackbird.
All the studies I've ever seen point to clear memory before the age of 3 or 4 as virtually impossible.
I personally can't remember anything clearly that happened before I was 4. My earliest CERTAIN memory (that is, I know when it took place in the chronology of uncertain memories from that time) occurred two months before I turned 5.
And if Satan can "control" people from birth, that pretty much shoots great gaping holes in the "free will" defense against the Argument from Evil (that defense that says "evil is allowed so that we have a choice") doesn't it?
posted
*bangs her head against the wall* I KNEW I shouldn't have come in here ... why do I do these things to myself? *walks out, trying to forget what she's read* I have seen nothing...I know nothing...This thread does not exist....
------------------ There are people who one loves immediatly and forever. Just to know that you exist in the same world together is sufficient. Till I loved, I never lived - enough.
We (all of us) still have free will! We have the free will to seek out help or not to, with anything that bothers us. The ppl Jesus removed Demons from (most of them) had the free will whether or not to ask for his help.
------------------ Anyone remember how they felt the day after Rich Mullins died?
Printer-friendly view of this topic
