Comments (18)

  1. Rykunderground

    Reply

    ve heard it said many times that Christianity is a death cult, but until being exposed to Living Waters/WOTM I thought that was just an insult and never used it myself. Now however I see what people mean by it. Christians or at least the Ray Comfort brand really do seem to worship death.

    That seems a very tragic thing to me as my philosophy is all about life. I find this morbid obsession with death disturbing to say the least.

    • Steve Sanchez

      Reply

      Of course. It’s all about this life. The only life you will ever know.

      Ours is about this life AND the life to come.

      Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and life to the full!”

      • Rykunderground

        Yes so if you really believe in thia fabulous happy funtime afterlife then why this morbid dwelling on death? Now I know this afterlife thing is pure bunkum and yet I still find death to be so unimportant as to be boring, but if I really believed that I could kiss up to a magic sky friend and live happily ever after for permanent well shoot I would be living on the edge ev ery day, no seatbelt for me, skydiving? with a sketchy chute? You betcha. I certainly wouldn’t have some goulish fetish about people dying.

        However there is no evidence for this eternal happy fun place and a mountain of evidence against it, so I am quite happy living this one well and not fretting about when it will end.

    • Quasar

      Reply

      Steve said [regarding Ryk’s philosophy]:
      “Of course. It’s all about this life. The only life you will ever know.”

      Um, actually, I know lots of other lives. My friends, my family, my coworkers and colleagues, and of course all the InternetPeople I know. And of course I can extrapolate to other lives of people I don’t know, and the lives of people in the future. And the lives of non-humans too: it’s amazing how attached you can get to pets.

      My philosophy is more about using my life to interact with their lives, so we all get the best lives we can, now and into the future.

      That’s where christians like you, Steve, seem to get confused whenever you try to talk about atheistic philosophies. You interpret “for life” as “for my life” and assume we’re all self-obsessed. This leads to strawmen and hyperbole and nazi-comparisons.

      Strangely, the only philosophy I know of which embracess self-obsession, rather than treating it as a bad thing, is Randian Libertarianism. Which overwhelmingly co-incides in the modern world with American Christianity (even weirder, since Ayn Rand was an atheist), and motivates many to vote for the Republican party.

      Because it’s not like Jesus would have wanted a government “of the people, by the people” to help the poor or anything. That would be socialism, which is exactly like fascism in every way. Also, Hitler was an atheist, abortion is exactly like the holocaust, the gay agenda is to destroy America with climate change, Obama is secretly a lizard man from mars, and we faked all the odd numbered moon landings (the even numbered ones we did for real).

      I think I’ve got the conservative-christian belief set right… feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on any specifics, though.

  2. Steve L.

    Reply

    I’m just thankful that wasn’t “Jim” on his motorcycle! At least he still has time to repent!!

    • Rykunderground

      Reply

      Why would he? He has no belief in your mythology and from what I have seen of this blog and Comforts swamp no one is trying to give him any reason he should do so. Sure evangelists throw out lame assertions and threats of hell but I have been an open atheist dealing with evangelists for over 30 years and have yet to see one shred of objective evidence or defensible argument to indicate it is true. Not one.

      So again why would anyone “repent”? Besides I for one have nothing to repent, I live an honorable, ethical, and just life. There is currently no one I have wronged who has not given me their forgiveness and it has been long indeed since I have wronged anyone at all.

    • Steve L.

      Reply

      Jim:
      I’m glad that you’re still with us! I’m posting a link to your web site and encouraging others to -check it out- with the hopes that we can all get together for one BIG motorcycle ride & eXtravaganza some time in the near future! A splendid time is guaranteed for all!!

      http://www.jimwissick.com/jwissick/Welcome.html

      • Steve Sanchez

        Jim has a blog, too? Wow! This guy must be setting San Jose on fire! (Or at least getting them ready for eternity…)

  4. Scott deBeaubien

    Reply

    Hey – that person just joined the “Honk if you love Jesus, text while driving if you want to meet Him” club. Sorry, just couldn’t resist. None of us knows the day or the time. It seems that Atheists are all about making the most of all the time they have, while we Christians are pleasantly surprised by every chance we get to witness to them.

    We’re not a “Death cult,” rather we give you a warning. Death is a certainty for all of us. Are you prepared is all we’re asking? Christians are taking it upon themselves, because our Lord told us to, to lovingly ask the question of other folks whether their souls are prepared to meet God. Meeting God, after we die is also a certainty for us Christians, because we know He is real. You don’t. How can we know He is real if we can’t see, touch, taste, hear or smell Him? That is why you have to come to church, and talk to real Christians to find out! We’re not a bunch of whackos you know. We’re just folks who once believed there was no God (like you), until He absolutely, positively, irrefutably, and inexorably came into our lives and made us KNOW He is REAL! Let me give you a quote:

    “There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” -Herbert Spencer (or somebody, we’re not entirely sure it was HS actually)

    Look at it this way, how fast are you going right now? OK, you’re not moving, you’re sitting there reading this. But are you moving? Yes, you better believe it! The earth is rotating such that the surface goes around once every 24 hours. So, depending on how close to the equator you are, you’re going anywhere up to 1,000 or so MPH. Now, how fast does the earth go around the Sun? Once every 365 days (or so). So that means if our radius of orbit is roughly 90M miles, then our circumference, or distance traveled is about pi * 180M miles, right? Or roughly 565M miles. Now, divide that by 365 and we’re going what, 1.55 or so Million miles / day, and then divide by 24 hours in a day and you get about 64k miles / hour. So, just standing there you’re moving at maybe up to 65,000MPH! Did you have any concept of that? No, you don’t even think about it, and yet it’s real! Is God any less real just because you have no concept He is there?

    I realize that’s a lame argument to prove God’s existence, but Jesus said something similar about the wind. We don’t see it, or know where it comes from, or even why it’s there pretty much, yet it’s real. And, btw, we’re actually probably moving much faster than 65,000MPH since our solar system is also moving through space at some very large speed, let’s say we could add perhaps 50,000MPH to our speed and now we’re really moving!

    Let’s all agree to move in the “Right” direction, shall we? =)

    • Ryk

      Reply

      First of all YOU may not be aware of how fast we are moving in space but I am and always have been, at least as long as I can recall. It is an observeable phenomena..your God figure is not. I do however get your meaning, you seem to say that there are things that we can not observe that are still real.

      I partially agree, there are things we can not observe such as quantum particles and gravity that we believe exist. However although they can not be observed directly they can be deduced, with mathmatics in the former case and observational physics in the latter (also mathmatics there as well). I am not asking Christians to show me their deity, that would be pretty convincing but I understand that if your God were real he does not come when you call neccesarily. Alll I am asking is evidence..any actual evidence will do. How about a valid logical argument that can not be refuted? or a mathmatical formula? Really I am not picky I will accept most things other than unsupported assertions. I only have two real requirements for what I accept as evidence. One if it is presented as an empirical theory it must be falsifiable, this is standard practice as there is no way to know if it is valid otherwise. If it is a logical argument it should follow a format that can be analysed for accuracy and possibly refuted if it is invalid. Not necessarily formal logic or modal etc just conclusion following from premise.

      This really isn’t very demanding and I would give the same for anything I believe in that you question the validity of. (My math is not up to validating quantum physics in any but the most rudimentary way, however I also do not claim to have any particular faith in the science either. I accept it because what I do know of it makes sense but if someone can show me it is invalid I would be happy to listen.)

    • Ryk

      Reply

      As to your question about my being prepared to die. Of course I am, I can not imagine how someone could not be. I am sure a child may be unaware that death is the natural conclusion of life but any reasonably bright child figures that out quickly enough. Accepting that reality is just honesty. As to being prepared in the non philosophical sense, I am somewhat. I have life insurance, I have made a will, I have made other arrangements to take care of those left behind. More importantly I am free from regret. If I die today I will, should I see it coming, be content that I have lived well and properly and that the world is better for my having been in it. I do hope that does not happen because there are living people who love and need me but as for myself when I am dead I will not know or care, I will be dead.

      I understand you imagine some afterlife, and I am sure that comforts you in some way that I don’t understand. The problem is that there is no reason to believe this afterlife is real and many reasons to believe it is not.

    • Ryk

      Reply

      I do like the quote and will likely use it in the future, it is very relevant to Creationists who deny evolution without actually having studied it sufficiently to form an accurate opinion.

      It is not however relevant to my situation. I had no contempt for your God prior to investigating, my study of Christianity began out of a deep and genuine curiosity. I was skeptical of course, even at 12 but was also not commited to atheism I simply wanted to know. My contempt came after I had studied Christianity, after I had read the Bible through several times, studied apologetics, spoke to preachers, pastors, and priests…that is when I developed contempt. Not for Christians many of whom are perfectly excellent people despite their superstitions. My contempt is for Christianity itself.

  5. Ryk

    Reply

    Lastly the quote from Jesus about the wind…pretty ignorant. We can not see the wind but we have many other senses that are quite aware of it. Also we do know where it comes from and why it is there. The primitives who wrote the Jesus legends did not but that is just their ignoance, we know. Even if we had to rely on sight to detect wind we can see the effects of it we can see it carry dust and leaves, we can see it push trees.

    None of this is true of your deity we have no senses that percieve it and there is no evidence of its presence.

    • Steve L.

      Reply

      Ryk, you miss the point of the passage completely in as much as the Spirit of God is a free agent in regeneration; he works how, and where, and when he pleases!

      As one commentator states:
      “and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; as the wind, though its sound is heard, and its force felt, it cannot be seen; nor is it known certainly, from whence it comes, and where are the treasures of it; from whence it begins, and where it ends; so is the grace of the Spirit of God in regeneration to a natural man; it is imperceptible, indiscernible, and unaccountable by him.”
      Hope that helps!

      BTY, PLEASE work on your punctuation as your sentences will then be much easier to read! Thanks-

      • Steve L.

        Ryk, let me add, it certainly doesn’t look like The Spirit has blown your direction but hopefully He will before your days on this earth are finished!!

      • Ryk

        I did not miss the point of the passage, I am pointing out that it is an ignorant passage. All of the things Jesus did not know about the wind, I do know. So Jesus was exactly what I claim him to be, a superstitious primitive.

        Your argument about God being a free agent blah blah blah… are just more unsubstantiated assertions, which neeed not be given credibility.

        As to punctuation, I agree I am terrible at it when posting from my smartphone. That is pretty common actually, but sure I will give it a shot as you seem to have trouble understanding.

      • Ryk

        As to your hope about the spirit blowing me, do not hold your breath. The spirit is crude mythology. I get that there are superstitious people who buy into it but I am not one of those.

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