why do bad things happen to 'good people'

[Bucky Ball]

The voices in your head may have told you to come here.

If the horrific story Drich gives in [this post] is accurate, an environment like that could have done severe neurological damage.

Drich, I say again:  Go see a doctor.  Get a referral to a neurologist and get a brain MRI done.

Thanks for pointing to that. 
For some time now, I've been of the opinion that there is something wrong here. 
He appears to be dyslexic, but not the usual form, at a minimum. 
It seems like it's a form of PTSD, secondary to abuse. That makes sense. Abuse propagates abuse. 

Looks like the compassionate thing would be to just put him on ignore. 
I'm out of this. It creeps me out. It's like teasing a retarded kid or a mentally ill person.
He deserves our pity.

[Bucky Ball]

@Bucky Ball

"Don't be stupid. There was no Bible to be based on in the 1st Century. Thanks for yet again proving you know nothing about the subject you preach on."

I think the "SS Stupidity "is has long sailed mate.. along with it's ship "The SS  Ignoramus'"

The Canon of the Church was cobbled together in the fourth century, at the first Nice council, called by Constantine, for political reasons.

There was only the Catholic (IE universal)  Christian church (west and east)  until the Protestant reformation in the sixteenth century.

The current Christian beliefs became dominant by the simple expedient murdering anyone who disagreed.   That with the permission and encouragement of Emperor Theodosius 1, when he made THAT christianity the state religion.  Those murders continued with gay abandon until the seventeenth century, with  the protestant Churches  murdering Catholics and other heretics whenever they could .

Which bible?  There is not one extant copy of the original canon as far as I know. .


Bart Ehrman has some interesting things to say about 'which bible; and the early followers  of "The Way" .As far as  I can tell, the term 'Christian' did not come into common use until the fourth century when emperor Theodosius 1 began using it.


(((((((((((((((((((((((((9)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

"Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (published as Whose Word Is It? in United Kingdom) is a book by Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.[1] The book introduces lay readers to the field of textual criticism of the Bible. Ehrman discusses a number of textual variants that resulted from intentional or accidental manuscript changes during the scriptorium era. The book made it to The New York Times Best Seller List"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misquoting_Jesus

THIS for Drich,  I can pretty much guarantee he won't bother watching it . I admit I have not watched the video. I've read the book .




The Lost Christianities ,TheBattle for Scripture and the faiths we never knew"  by Bart Ehrman is an interesting book.  

The clip below gives a  precise, of only 18 minutes.

Thanks for those. I keep forgetting to watch them again. There was no "Bible based" anything in the First Century. 
There were hundreds of gospels, hundreds of Books of Revelation, hundreds of letters to various churches. 
Christianity CHANGED and developed radically different ideas over the centuries. The councils met and hashed out various ideas. They made up some things, they discarded many things. It took centuries to develop into what it was later. There was no "original Bible based" Christianity. It's a fiction. Most congregations thought different things. Constantine (when he called the Council) didn't care what they agreed on, ... al he cared was they stop bickering, and agree on something.

[Astreja]

I understand you want to end an argument you made by saying all things happen because there is no God.

It would be more accurate to say that even if there is a god out there somewhere, its participation is not necessary for bad things to happen -- nor is the participation of a devil necessary.

Now do you want to take it a step further?

No, not really.

[no one]

Drick:
Now, do you want to take it a step further?

Something tells me your "a step further" is actually 666 steps back.

[Astreja]

Drich, I say again:  Go see a doctor.  Get a referral to a neurologist and get a brain MRI done.

I was 9 or 10.. have been since.. in fact full work up last 5 years as they were looking for a cancer they never found (prayed it away)

The only thing they ever found that my appendix burst some years back, and it was safe/inactive. prayed that pain away as well.

I'd still keep an eye on things.  Post-concussion syndrome may not have been on the radiologist's mind when interpreting the MRI images.

And that's all I'm going to say for the moment.  I'm stepping away from this thread at least for the next couple of days.

[Dānu]

The ultimate irony of the dunning-Kruger syndrome is that if one feels he is in a position to identify and diagnose this syndrome in another person without any training or testing official material, then that person most likely suffers himself from this condition.

What training do you have in the science of the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Why would I need training to identify from several articles on the subject (you good people leave me)that a test is always apart of a proper diagnosis?  One does not need to be a trained expert to know that a test is involved and not one of these accusations was a result of a test.

That doesn't answer my question. What training do you have in the science of the Dunning-Kruger effect?

[Mathilda]

Because like the video says, this is satan's world. it does not belong to God.

Sound like an argument for worshipping Satan then if Mr God is irrelevant.

[Cheerful Charlie]

Why would a perfectly moral God who is all powerful allow Satan to run free in this world? Does this idea make any sense at all? Christianity is not rational.

2 Corinthians 4
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

[SYZ]

The voices in your head may have told you to come here.

If the horrific story Drich gives in [this post] is accurate, an environment like that could have done severe neurological damage.

Drich, I say again:  Go see a doctor.  Get a referral to a neurologist and get a brain MRI done.

Drich obviously suffered from some sort of neurological but undetected brain damage as a child.  I agree with
your advice about him getting an MRI done, even after all these years.  He appears to have been the subject of
coercive persuasion (brainwashing) by some sort of religious interventionists—to the point where he's unable to
make any sense of the world he lives in, and is flailing about whilst clinging on to some sort of fantastical notions
that are giving him a misplaced degree of mental comfort or stability.

His comments here indicate all sorts of psychological problems;  neuroses, paranoia, unresolved internal conflicts,
aberrant beliefs, belligerence, anti-social phobias etc.  Poor bastard has it all, chapter and verse.

There's a mental dysfunction recognised as religious OCD (also known as scrupulosity) whereby the person is fixated
on obsessions that are based in religion and/or religious beliefs, or around beliefs concerning morality. People who
experience this form of OCD suffer from obsessive religious doubts and fears, unwanted blasphemous thoughts and
and imagery, as well as compulsive religious rituals, reassurance seeking, and avoidance.  People with religious OCD
strongly believe in and fear punishment from a divine being or deity. Experts estimate that anywhere between 50%
to 60% of OCD sufferers come from within a very strict religious mindset.   This scenario largely defines Drich.

—I know in the past I've criticised him, and insultingly, but I guess we need to be more empathetic towards these
types of people, and acknowledge their fragile connection with the real world, and treat them accordingly.  It
should be obvious by now that there's no way to reason with Drich;  logic has left the building.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I see no reason to treat resolute ignorance with kindness. YMMV

[Drich]

So yeah, if there is a genetic disorder, Christians believe their god was involved.
Stop pretending you're a Christian because the apologetics are complicated and you have NO EDUCATION in Christianity.

stop pretending you have any idea what a christian even is. you pride in thinking you have a lock on this topic has set you up to take a huge fall. you just doubble down on your ignorance thinking I was bluffing, and never once googled anything. hope you washed your foot this morning, because it is going in your mouth.

Not all churches believe in the catholic church's creed. Some churches seek to worship as they did in the first century when it bible based only. meaning if it is not in the bible/caNNon of scripture then it not apart of the church.

Don't be stupid. There was no Bible to be based on in the 1st Century. [/quote] don't be stupid and read the link I provided for non denominational churches. Again you are arguing known facts. The compilation of the holy Bible may not have been around but the writings, books/letters were. the frame work of the church was. Albeit in a much simpler form which is why so many choose to worship this way. It takes the religion and tradition out of worship and centers worship on a one on one relationship with God.

Thanks for yet again proving you know nothing about the subject you preach on.

Hey dummy read about martin luther (Not MLKjr) but his name sake Martin Luther, who started the reformation movement and separated christianity into this 'protesting movement.' then look up the second revival of the church called the RESTORATION Movement. Here you will find the push to go back to 1st century worship. again you are arguing known Christian history. Clearly unknown to you, and like always you are too arrogant to assume you could be wrong and do a google search for yourself. other wise you would have found something like this and kept your mouth shut:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Restoration-movement.html

now you have a foot in it.

It's "a part", not apart. The canon of scripture was not established until LONG after the 1st Century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developmen...ment_canon

again intentionally showing grammatical errors and emphasizing correctness of content as the most important measure intelligence. I am not saying grammar is not important. I am saying lessor minds fixate on it as a means to try and make up for their inability to speak topically. your deficiencies are well known and earned. or did I take your a-part two fast?

Yes God is the father of creation, but that is where it ends and God gave the command for what he created to go fourth and multiply. meaning from that point on what was created was a copy of the creation. God does not make us out of mud as he did adam and biff we are a complete being!

Sorry sport, virtually ALL of Christianity says this creed.
Catholics and Protestants.

READ THE LINKS I PROVIDE MORON
Nondenominational Christianity (or non-denominational Christianity) consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities[1] by not formally aligning with a specific Protestant denomination. Often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations, but typically adhere to evangelical Protestantism, and are a type of Protestantism.[2][3][4]
You're not a theist. You're a deist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

The fact that you (alone) have your own little personal version of your cult is irrelevant.
Christianity (every form ... INCLUDING "nondenominationals") REJECT deism.
As I said, you ignorant status is demonstrated in every post.

again you look like a total moron arguing known (but not to you) Christian fact, easily searchable:
The future of American religion is increasingly being driving by the nones and nons—the religiously unaffiliated and the denominationally unconnected.
A new Gallup study finds the percentage of Americans who identify with a specific Protestant denomination has fallen from 50 percent in 2000 to 30 percent in 2016.
That can be tied to a surge in Americans who say they have no religious preference and those who say they are nondenominational Protestants.
From 2000 to 2016, nones rose from 10 percent to 20 percent, while nondenominationals almost doubled as well—climbing from 9 percent to 17 percent.
undefined
As a whole, Protestants now make up less than half of the American population (47 percent), according to Gallup.
Fewer than a quarter of Americans are Catholic (22 percent), down from 25 percent in 2000.
Among Protestants, the most popular denomination is Baptist. Ten percent of Americans say they are “other Baptist,” while 3 percent claim to be Southern Baptist.
The other Protestant denominations mentioned include:

• Methodist (4 percent)
  
  
• Lutheran (4 percent)
  
  
• Presbyterian (2 percent)
  
  
• Pentecostal (2 percent)
  
  
• Church of Christ (1 percent)
  
  
• Episcopal (1 percent)
  

Denominational leaders and pastors have their own theories about why nondenominational has grown at the expense of denominations.
Kevin Smith, executive director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland-Delaware, was not surprised by Gallup’s findings.
https://factsandtrends.net/2017/08/08/wh...lism-mean/

Aside from the catholic church itself Non-Denominationals are the single highest from of 'protestant' christianity in the united states. plus the numbers of the non denominationals are going up. and are 10xs larger than any other expression of the church. Yet you being the standard of christianity is completely unaware. if you missed out on so much in the verifiable church and it's practices, just think of all you have missed biblically. think of all you missed or do not understand about God if in the subject of the tangible church you are so blatantly wrong and you pride keeps you from learning anything new.... Think on what you do not know concerning God!

Face it. You understanding of the church is worse than your understanding of God, and you wonder why God would use someone like me who does not care about spelling verse someone like you too arrogant to fact check anything he says, because his only focus in on spell check.

Who gives a poop how well your post is spelled out if everything you say nearly each and every time you speak is verifiably wrong!


this is all you amount to:


where I am more of a biblegoogle.com

[Drich]

Why do bad apologists happen to good forums?

gosh, if you had a bad apologists among you wouldn't it then be easy to topically refute his position? to put him in his place citing the same book chapter and verse he is using?

According to his standard, or according to the standard of someone other than himself?

how about to any standard. how about show me on person who trying to topically refute or defuse a topic based on subject matter. just look at even your own efforts where very little topically is discussed but rather you try and kill the messenger rather than disprove the message.

look at what you just said.

"According to his standard, or according to the standard of someone other than himself?"

how does this address the op scripturally in any way? then ask yourself how does this address my fitness to deliver the message...

This is not a topical correcting rebuttal but a ad hom attack.

[Drich]

my video answers this paradox.

No it doesn't.  You STILL haven't provided falsifiable evidence your god exists.  You apparently don't realize the difficulty of doing this so I keep pounding away at it. 

actually I did in the last thread somewhere on page 2

Quoting from a book of claims is not evidence because the entire book is embellished storytelling and myth.

True but quoting from a verified map is. The bible is a map with directions to find God. follow the direction you will find God. try it any otherway, and you will get silence.

 There's not even one scintilla of evidence Moses existed.

sure there is. The bible. and here is a list of ancient secular historians who also vet the existence of moses: https://www.ancient.eu/Moses/

There's no evidence over a million people wandered a desert the size of West Virginia for 40 years, a desert one can walk from one end to another lengthwise in two and a half weeks.

   entire cities are just now being discovered. cities you know stone foundations stone roads infrastructure for hundreds of thousands if not millions. and they are just now being found!
here are the last 31:https://interestingengineering.com/the-3...rainforest

Width wise it's even a shorter distance.   Not only that but the Moses birth story is an story taken directly from Sargon of Akkad who lived 800 years prior to Moses. Sargon's -baby in a basket placed in the river- story involves the Euphrates River.  There's another baby in a basket story from India which uses the Ganges River.  It also predates Moses.  That's just one example of why your bible is a stupid fairy story full of revisionist history and tribal propaganda.

citation please

Oh, and too bad for you, YHWH was a mythical ancient war god.   Wow, the only way you can make your myth work is to live in a fantasy world with thick god glasses on.

citation please

The reality is 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on this planet have become extinct. There is no god that gives a shit what happens on this planet and that's the REAL reason bad thing happen to good people.

I never said God "gave a shit." watch the video.

[Drich]

Been to several in the area and out of town. as we have contracts to service and rent equipment.

Being their refrigerator repair man is not going to college.

it's a joke moron. if humor is any indication of intelligence then all hope for you is lost.

  did you seriously think I did not know that? bruh, I have been hammering you with research facts for days now. If I give you something too good to be true/it looks like I said something crazy stupid, I'm probably setting you up or making a joke.

[Bucky Ball]

D Rich hammers no one with anything. The fact that he says that is more evidence of his delusional state. He is incapable of hammering anyone.

The compilation of the holy Bible may not have been around but the writings, books/letters were. the frame work of the church was.

That is absolutely false, and there is no scholar that agrees with that assertion. D Rich provided NO support for the assertion, and it is dismissed.
The writings and letters etc were not there until at the earliest, the LATE 1st Century. The "framework" of the church was NOT there, (as proven by the development in the later councils). This person has NO IDEA what he's talking about. He has no education in the church or the Bible. He knows nothing about the history of his cult. There were no "Christians" (they did not call themselves that) until later.

Still waiting for proof of this god and demonstration of the authority of his scripture.

[mordant]

Hey dummy read about martin luther (Not MLKjr) but his name sake Martin Luther, who started the reformation movement and separated christianity into this 'protesting movement.' then look up the second revival of the church called the RESTORATION Movement. Here you will find the push to go back to 1st century worship.

Any attempt to "go back to 1st century worship" is purely speculative. We have absolutely no source documents or other information concerning what 1st century Christians believed or how they practiced their beliefs. Every movement that has claimed to "restore" Christianity to its original imagined purity (including Mormons and JWs, who both reject the standard historic creeds and see themselves as "corrective" movements) is making claims it can't substantiate.

The best we can suss out about 1st century Christianity is that there were multiple competing orthodoxies, and there's some evidence that until at least very late in the 1st century, the gnostic faction was dominant. But we don't even know what gnostics believed in the 1st century. We have evidence from the 2nd, 3rd and especially 4th centuries on that, but not the 1st.

Complicating matters is that much of what survives that was claimed in writing about the 1st century was written two and three hundred years later by the church faction that eventually conquered the others. The winners always write history.

Even the branch of evangelical Christianity that I came out of nursed the conceit that they were closer to "primitive" Christianity. There were a subset of them that favored small "house" churches which they fancied is how most Christians met in the earliest days. But if we had a time machine and could go back to one of those meetings in, say, AD 45, I wager any modern Christian would be confused at best and scandalized at worst by what they would witness. Including the "reformists".

[Bucky Ball]

There was no 1st Century Christianity. It existed in different states in different locations. There were many Christianities. Even Paul fought with the disciples in Jerusalem. There were different forms, right off the bat.

[Drich]

What training do you have in the science of the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Why would I need training to identify from several articles on the subject (you good people leave me)that a test is always apart of a proper diagnosis?  One does not need to be a trained expert to know that a test is involved and not one of these accusations was a result of a test.

That doesn't answer my question.  What training do you have in the science of the Dunning-Kruger effect?

Why would I need training to identify from several articles on the subject (you good people leave me)that a test is always apart of a proper diagnosis?  One does not need to be a trained expert to know that a test is involved and not one of these accusations was a result of a test.

[Drich]

Because like the video says, this is satan's world. it does not belong to God.

Sound like an argument for worshipping Satan then if Mr God is irrelevant.

which again is the whole point for this existence. To determine just that. Does you heart want to worship God, or literally anything else including satan.

The irony is when you thought God is incharge of this world he's an evil bastard that is not worthy of worship, but as soon as you find out satan is incharge, you want to worship him.. 

just an interesting observation. I wonder how many other people would say the same if they watched the video and found out that bit of info.

[Dancefortwo]

No it doesn't.  You STILL haven't provided falsifiable evidence your god exists.  You apparently don't realize the difficulty of doing this so I keep pounding away at it. 

actually I did in the last thread somewhere on page 2

Nope.  Page two does NOT answer the question.  Verification is NOT falsification. Learn the difference.

Moses is a myth. His birth story is a myth the Judaen priests borrowed from the ancient story of Sargon of Akkad, probably stories coming to the west through trade routes.   There was zero, zip, nada evidence of 1 to 2 million people plus millions of animals needed for food and sacrafice wandering around a small desert for 40 years.   There is no archaeological evidence of any encampments of millions of people out in the desert.  Archaeologists HAVE found small encampments of nomadic peoples, those of about 100 to 200 people, which PRE-DATE the mythical Moses story, but nothing of millions of people occupying a desert for 40 years. And this desert isn't a sandy desert which would easily bury evidence.

So it's a big empty zero for Moses and the exodus story.  The story is so empty that many present day rabbis realize the it's a myth and celebrate Passover as symbolic of Jews struggles rather than an actual event.

Not only that but we could go into the Book of Daniel nonsense.  It was written around 160 BC....NOT 500 years before.  It's one of the easiest books of the Old Testament to date.  It was a style of writing popular in the 2nd century BC which sets a character back in time to comment on current events. It was written to provide advice and warning for the present day Jews during the upheavel and crisis in the 2nd century.  

The Judean priests also borrowed the Epic of Gilgamesh flood story which predates the writing of the bible.  The entire bible isn't so much a holy book as it is a tribal book  and it's god is an angry war god which promises to help this comparitively small tribe vanquish it's big bad enemies.  

There are far superior morality stories in Aesop's Fables dating back to 650 BC. The bible and it's god is immoral, unnecessarily violent, hateful and constantly contradicts itself.

[Drich]

Why would a perfectly moral God who is all powerful allow Satan to run free in this world? 

To give us choice. God's will or his.

And satan is not free to do what he wills. I make analogy that explains all of this in the video

Does this idea make any sense at all?

just think about it for a moment. If there is only one choice/God's will then we all are forced to serve God like it or not. In order to have been given a choice to serve there needs to be an alternative to God's will. 

If God's will is sinless perfection, then the opposite would be a figurative hell on earth. 
we can't choose if there is only God's will.

That's all sin is. not being in the will of God. which is where Jesus comes in to provide the sacrifice to be made acceptable for God, if that is what you seek or choose in this life.

  Christianity is not rational.

Our thought are not like His thoughts.

2 Corinthians 4
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

I know you posted this passage for the italic part. but keep reading the bold.

All one needs is to hear the gospel and you will be able to see God.

[Bucky Ball]

There are no gods, there are no devils. There is no Satan.
No one's "heart" wants to worship anything.
His entire world is built on nothing.
He has provided no evidence for any gods or devils.

[Dancefortwo]

There are no gods, there are no devils. There is no Satan.
No one's "heart" wants to worship anything.
His entire world is built on nothing.
He has provided no evidence for any gods or devils.

Yup.  His circular reasoning has him spinning around like a top.  What's funny is that he doesn't even recognize he's using circular reasoning because he's so caught up in his fantasy world.

[Drich]

The voices in your head may have told you to come here.

If the horrific story Drich gives in [this post] is accurate, an environment like that could have done severe neurological damage.

Drich, I say again:  Go see a doctor.  Get a referral to a neurologist and get a brain MRI done.

Drich obviously suffered from some sort of neurological but undetected brain damage as a child.  I agree with
your advice about him getting an MRI done, even after all these years.  He appears to have been the subject of
coercive persuasion (brainwashing) by some sort of religious interventionists—to the point where he's unable to
make any sense of the world he lives in, and is flailing about whilst clinging on to some sort of fantastical notions
that are giving him a misplaced degree of mental comfort or stability.

His comments here indicate all sorts of psychological problems;  neuroses, paranoia, unresolved internal conflicts,
aberrant beliefs, belligerence, anti-social phobias etc.  Poor bastard has it all, chapter and verse.

There's a mental dysfunction recognised as religious OCD (also known as scrupulosity) whereby the person is fixated
on obsessions that are based in religion and/or religious beliefs, or around beliefs concerning morality. People who
experience this form of OCD suffer from obsessive religious doubts and fears, unwanted blasphemous thoughts and
and imagery, as well as compulsive religious rituals, reassurance seeking, and avoidance.  People with religious OCD
strongly believe in and fear punishment from a divine being or deity. Experts estimate that anywhere between 50%
to 60% of OCD sufferers come from within a very strict religious mindset.   This scenario largely defines Drich.

—I know in the past I've criticised him, and insultingly, but I guess we need to be more empathetic towards these
types of people, and acknowledge their fragile connection with the real world, and treat them accordingly.  It
should be obvious by now that there's no way to reason with Drich;  logic has left the building.

I must be loosing my mind...

yet I am still here despite you telling me I was being ban for spaming... or did I imagine all of that

oh, wait.. you did try and report me, but the admins shat on your request.. now you are on the ad hom wagon. good luck 'mate' (with assigning me the whole 800 + page DSM) book of mental disorders..

usually an ambitious person may try and make 2 or 3 related disorder work as personal discredation.. but you see fit to assign me the whole book.. Not even throw the whole book at me and see what will stick, you said the whole list of disorders. 

That said...

If everything I said was true. and i did survive one of the best childhoods ever... Then everything you have said is in fact of form of survival shaming.

say a woman gets beat by her husband for 10 years every time she forgets he hates carrots..

would you shame that woman and demand she get an mri for sticking with this guy for 10 years? (without making no attempt of understanding the times culture or circumstances?) would you force her to acknowledge she is sick by your standards? would you ridicule her and call her names in an open forum? what kind of sick fuck does that?

If a black boy had his ass kicked, almost every day by whites for being black, was stabbed, beaten and abused by his peers for his whole grade school experience, but came out not only a survivor but CEO to his own company, would you doubt his sanity because he does not see himself as the victim you clearly want to be? would you call his decision to take control of his life process grieve and move on as unhealthy or bad life choice? This man survived and you want to treat him like an n word because he did not crumble as you would want to see him fall apart. what kind of sickness do you have?

If a 8 year old was taken molested/raped for playing in the wrong part of a public park/springs, and he grew up to be a strong member of the community help out other kids from all sorts of abused back grounds made himself apart of an organization which took hundreds of inner city kids and taught the tools needed to help them process abuse and how to deal with basic emotion and help socalize them in non gang related ways. would you tell that man his is also a sick bastard for not being a broken little hump. that all he has done for others is wrong because he needed to be a victim who can function in society.

would you tell any of these people they are sick broken POS of a human being because they decided to take their life and not spend it in mourning, but to make themselves into their own personal standard best.

Yet you feel it is ok to tell someone 1/2 korean 1/2 white who was racially hated by all whites blacks hispanic AND koreans who was beaten daily because of race, who had an abusive father who also beat the crap out of him not to mention one of the worst things that could happen to a boy, who pulls it all together despite all of this (not to mention the truck load of BS that hit him in his teens) You want to survivor shame him into feeling less about himself than you think he should!

What kind of MF-ing monster POS are you?

What's worse is why.. the reason why you are attacking me!

Because you hate the fact I give God the credit for making me better, strong, more successful, despite all the reasons people like you say I should be a shell of a man. that you know you would be crushed by just one of these things and here I am conquered all of these by the age of 10.

Incidentally, this about a dozen other terrible reasons I was an atheist for the first 1/2 of my life.

This(The OP) is also incidentally the 1st question I had, that God directly answered.

[Drich]

I see no reason to treat resolute ignorance with kindness. YMMV

that's the difference between you and me. I give everyone a chance.