Purpose without God

Originally posted by checkbaiter
You must really loathe God...not sure why though...

I questioned your peculiar use of the word "vanity", that's all. But you choose to sidestep that and try to attribute 'loathing' to me instead of addressing what I said. It's your prerogative, I suppose.

Originally posted by chaney3
I don't get it either checkbaiter. FMF has claimed to once be a Christian. And, I have tried to discuss that more with him.....to no avail. Something really bad must have happened?

Sorry to interrupt.

This is not a Christianity Forum, chaney3. Few people here have tried to discuss your anti-Christian-God figure and anti-Bible OPs with you as head on as I have. Instead of discussion, you too often offer only deflection and insults ~ and strings of capital letters and exclamation marks. Go back and look at threads you have started and see my attempts to engage you in terms of exactly what issues you had raised ~ and look again at your ill-tempered deliberately-missing-the-point reaction, seemingly almost every time. If that's been you 'trying to discuss things', you probably need to raise your game a bit.

Originally posted by chaney3
I don't get it either checkbaiter. FMF has claimed to once be a Christian. And, I have tried to discuss that more with him.....to no avail. Something really bad must have happened?

Sorry to interrupt.

A lot of people think they have a formula to receive something from God, that is not biblical ( the formula, that is). Then when the prayer isn't answered.... you can fill in the rest... They get mad at God, or are ship wrecked in their faith.
"Disclaimer: I am not using any one on this forum as an example"

Originally posted by FMF
I questioned your peculiar use of the word "vanity", that's all. But you choose to sidestep that and try to attribute 'loathing' to me instead of addressing what I said. It's your prerogative, I suppose.

Not peculiar at all, I just think life without God is vanity.

Originally posted by checkbaiter
Not peculiar at all, I just think life without God is vanity.

But you're just throwing the word in there as if it means what you think it means. Surely telling me you are immortal because you have simply decided it's true is "vanity" of a far greater magnitude. And for you to be declaring the lives of those who have different beliefs from you to be 'valueless or futile' ~ as compared to you and your life ~ on account of your preference for your own opinions and thought, is surely the most obvious and oblivious kind of "vanity" of them all.

Originally posted by FMF
This is not a Christianity Forum, chaney3. Few people here have tried to discuss your anti-Christian-God figure and anti-Bible OPs with you as head on as I have. Instead of discussion, you too often offer only deflection and insults ~ and strings of capital letters and exclamation marks. Go back and look at threads you have started and see my attempts to engage ...[text shortened]... time. If that's been you 'trying to discuss things', you probably need to raise your game a bit.

The dilemma with you FMF, is that you engage in discussions/arguments with posters, when NOBODY knows what YOU actually believe.

I have stated before, and will say again, that I currently believe in a 'Creator'. I have NEVER stated that I was a Christian. Never!!!

What are you????

Originally posted by chaney3
The dilemma with you FMF, is that you engage in discussions/arguments with posters, when NOBODY knows what YOU actually believe.

I have stated before, and will say again, that I currently believe in a 'Creator'. I have NEVER stated that I was a Christian. Never!!!

What are you????

You can't be serious.

A few days ago you thanked me for telling you exactly what I believed.

A few days ago someone reposted your declaaration that you are a Christian.

If you are drunk right now, why not go and post on the Clan Forum.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
When you talk nonsense like that you should be able to back it up with argument.
You cannot.
So shut up.

How was that post nonsense? I think you may want to consider apologising for telling another poster to "shut up". You appear to have fallen into the trap which most of the rest of the forum seems to have recently fallen into of slinging mud without engaging your brain. To judge something right or wrong one must have a set of ethical beliefs. He was entirely correct. To go from the existence of ethical systems to the existence of a deity is the leap you should have targeted.

Originally posted by FMF
I think that speculating about the existence of "a universal meaning" is an understandable aspect of the human condition given our mental capacity for abstraction and our self-awareness.

For some people, this speculation leads them towards being persuaded by the "answers" provided by various kinds of organized groupthink such as religions, traditions ...[text shortened]... g to it), and seeking these things is, for many, part and parcel of the human condition as well.

Hi FMF, I'm mostly just acknowledging your post. I think you've made some reasonable points. The difficulty is that people will insist that "There is no universal meaning to one's existence." is the same statement as "There is no meaning to one's existence.".

Originally posted by FMF
But you're just throwing the word in there as if it means what you think it means. Surely telling me you are immortal because you have simply decided it's true is "vanity" of a far greater magnitude. And for you to be declaring the lives of those who have different beliefs from you to be 'valueless or futile' ~ as compared to you and your life ~ on account of yo ...[text shortened]... own opinions and thought, is surely the most obvious and oblivious kind of "vanity" of them all.

1. I have never said I am immortal
2. I am not comparing anyone to anything. What I said is my life without God was vain and ended in death
All my accomplishments were for nothing. Even if they were, I would not know about it.
You FMF will return to the dust you were made from. In time, even your loved ones will not even know who you were.

Eccl 1:11
There is no remembrance of former things,
Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come
By those who will come after.
NKJV


Eccl 2:10-11
Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,
For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;
And this was my reward from all my labor.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun.
NKJV

Eccl 2:15-16
So I said in my heart,
"As it happens to the fool,
It also happens to me,
And why was I then more wise?"
Then I said in my heart,
"This also is vanity."
16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!
NKJV

Originally posted by checkbaiter
I have never said I am immortal

Oh, so you don't believe in life after death?

Originally posted by checkbaiter
You FMF will return to the dust you were made from. In time, even your loved ones will not even know who you were.

I believe you will dies and be buried/cremated too. But how does your belief that I will die and be buried constitute "vanity" on my part? How does the fact that I know that I will one day be forgotten constitute "vanity" on my part?

It's an understandable and unsurprising upshot of the human condition, I think ~ a common or garden small-p "political" sleight of hand ~ for you to try to disguise your own massive ostentatious religiosity-driven vanity with accusations of "vanity" aimed at those who are different from you.

For you to deploy such a clumsy vocabulary-appropriating deflection is Exhibit A in the exposure of your own vain and proud partisan/ideological conceit.

Originally posted by FMF
I believe you will dies and be buried/cremated too. But how does your belief that I will die and be buried constitute "vanity" on my part? How does the fact that I know that I will one day be forgotten constitute "vanity" on my part?

It's an understandable and unsurprising upshot of the human condition, I think ~ a common or garden small-p "political" sleight ...[text shortened]... deflection is Exhibit A in the exposure of your own vain and proud partisan/ideological conceit.

"In many religions, vanity, in its modern sense, is considered a form of self-idolatry, in which one likens their self to the greatness of God for the sake of their own image, and thereby becomes separated and perhaps in time divorced from the Divine grace of God. In Christian teachings vanity is considered an example of pride, one of the seven deadly sins"

Originally posted by checkbaiter
"In many religions, vanity, in its modern sense, is considered a form of self-idolatry, in which one likens their self to the greatness of God for the sake of their own image, and thereby becomes separated and perhaps in time divorced from the Divine grace of God. In Christian teachings vanity is considered an example of pride, one of the seven deadly sins"

Self-idolatry? What word shall we use for your professions of being able to make yourself live forever with the power of your own thoughts? I think "vanity" will do nicely. And I don't think accusing people who think differently from you of "Self-idolatry" is going to disguise the fact.

Originally posted by FMF
Self-idolatry? What word shall we use for your professions of being able to make yourself live forever with the power of your own thoughts? I think "vanity" will do nicely. And I don't think accusing people who think differently from you of "Self-idolatry" is going to disguise the fact.

Anyway you look at it, it is idolatry. You stand on your own, no God needed. You are a self made man. Someone once said...
"Show me a self made man with his feet firmly planted in the ground and I'll show you someone who can't get his pants on.