The Book Of Revelation Effect

Originally posted by FMF
Your 'alternative biography' of my life experience is noted. But I reckon your assertions are more about you and how you project yourself here than they are about an genuine exchange between us. You say you're not interested in what I used to be, and yet you ask over and over again about what I used to be. I suppose it is just you "debating" after all. Believe what you want, robbie. Put it in your 'alternative biography'. 🙂

I have asked you how you exercised your faith, you failed to answer, it is enough FMF, it seems to me a far more compelling reason, I leave you with that Christ like personality Suzzianne, cya.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
...if you dont want to answer or someone has directed you not to answer then so be it, no one can force you to answer

Save a chapter in your 'alternative biography' for just this: 'Has someone directed FMF not to answer robbie carrobie's question?'. 😀

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I have asked you how you exercised your faith, you failed to answer, it is enough FMF, it seems to me a far more compelling reason, I leave you with that Christ like personality Suzzianne, cya.

In what way do you think Suzianne has a "Christ like personality" or were you just being snide?

Originally posted by FMF
But surely the point ~ my point ~ the point of this thread ~ is the credibility of a book or books in the Bible. You cannot, under these circumstances, declare 'blaming loss of faith on the '"unbelievability" of the Bible' to be 'missing the point altogether'. The point is credibility and its role in losing one's faith.

And I'm just not buying into your premise. Your loss of faith was not caused by the Bible. To claim it was seems dishonest to me. Your faith was already on its way out before reading the Book of Revelation. It wasn't the cause. It was perhaps the 'final straw' for your weak faith, but it wasn't the cause of your disbelief. You already disbelieved before reading it, whether you were ready to admit that or not.

Faithful Christians do not lose faith merely by reading the Bible. There's always something else at work. Most Christians read the Bible to restore, or reinforce, their faith.

Originally posted by Suzianne
And I'm just not buying into your premise. Your loss of faith was not caused by the Bible. To claim it was seems dishonest to me.

Dishonest?

Originally posted by Suzianne
Still can't leave it alone, can you?

And you dare claim that you are persecuted in this thread by virtue of your denomination. It's because you are too stupid to see when people tell you to shove off. Continuing to harass people when told rather point blank that your opinion means nothing to them is anti-social at best, robbie. And on top of that, if ...[text shortened]... . You're causing your own persecution. Just stop it. Graduate out of the zoo. Join humanity.

I can't blame robbie. However, I think we should leave this thread alone. Nothing important to discuss here.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Your faith was already on its way out before reading the Book of Revelation. It wasn't the cause. It was perhaps the 'final straw' for your weak faith, but it wasn't the cause of your disbelief. You already disbelieved before reading it, whether you were ready to admit that or not.

You have a peculiar take on the sequence of events. I was reading the Book Of Revelation for more than twenty years and believing it before I started to doubt its credibility. To think that I somehow "already disbelieved before reading it" is just not the way it was at all. If that's the assumption you're basing your accusation of dishonesty on, you probably need to rethink.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Faithful Christians do not lose faith merely by reading the Bible.

Being a faithful Christian is rooted in the credibility of the bible, and so it was for me for a very long time.

Originally posted by FMF
Being a faithful Christian is rooted in the credibility of the bible, and so it was for me for a very long time.

Forgive me if I had no idea of the timing of this. The timing was not discussed until now.

Then what exactly was it that caused the loss of faith? Suddenly you woke up one day and decided the Book of Revelation had no credibility? That's why I said it seems dishonest. There had to be something else at work here. Why was it credible one day and then not credible the next? That seems nonsensical. The words of the Bible do not change. Something else must have changed.

Originally posted by FMF
In what way do you think Suzianne has a "Christ like personality" or were you just being snide?

Clearly, robbie is engaging in sarcasm. It's always his last 'hurrah', as it were.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Suddenly you woke up one day and decided the Book of Revelation had no credibility? That's why I said it seems dishonest. There had to be something else at work here. Why was it credible one day and then not credible the next? That seems nonsensical.

What seems nonsensical? Your "Suddenly you woke up one day" thing? Your "credible one day and then not credible the next" thing? You yourself have offered these scenarios and then immediately declared them "nonsensical". What other, less nonsensical, scenarios can you imagine?

Originally posted by RJHinds
I can't blame robbie. However, I think we should leave this thread alone. Nothing important to discuss here.

Well, claims on the incredibility of the Bible may not bother you, but they bother me. Especially from someone who seems to have known better at one time. The Bible is not a scapegoat. Coming from an atheist I could take that with a grain of salt. Coming from someone who claims to have been a devout Christian at one point, well, there had to be other factors involved.

But it's already past my bedtime. I may have to leave this for tomorrow.

Originally posted by FMF
What seems nonsensical? Your "Suddenly you woke up one day" thing? Your "credible one day and then not credible the next" thing? You yourself have offered these scenarios and then immediately declared them "nonsensical". What other, less nonsensical, scenarios can you imagine?

I don't know. That's why I was asking you.

Look, you know, I can tell you're done here, and as I told Ron, it's well past my bedtime.

If you now want to play semantic games with me (your sudden, liberal use of quotes tipped me off, you have to remember I've been to this particular rodeo before), it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Originally posted by Suzianne
I don't know. That's why I was asking you.

Look, you know, I can tell you're done here, and as I told Ron, it's well past my bedtime.

If you now want to play semantic games with me (your sudden, liberal use of quotes tipped me off, you have to remember I've been to this particular rodeo before), it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

wow it must have been your magnetic Christ like personality that drove him off! Get some inner beauty sleep God knows you need it.

Originally posted by Suzianne
I don't know. That's why I was asking you.

Look, you know, I can tell you're done here, and as I told Ron, it's well past my bedtime.

If you now want to play semantic games with me (your sudden, liberal use of quotes tipped me off, you have to remember I've been to this particular rodeo before), it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

The quotation marks are words or phrases you or others have used just to be clear that they are not necessarily my choice of words. I use them for this purpose all the time and have done for years. It's a pity that you have decided to talk about "semantic games". I thought we were having a good, straight forward conversation. Look back and read our exchange. Where are the "semantic games"?

I don't know. That's why I was asking you.

How about, rather than your "Suddenly you woke up one day" or "credible one day and then not credible the next" suggestions, how about a gradual process ~ faith, for many years ~ the onset of little doubts and questions ~ turning a blind eye to what seem like not huge misgivings ~ then realizing that one can't turn a blind eye to them ~ then meeting Christians [those with no doubts] and hearing them talk about the material in question and feeling slightly alienated by their convictions ~ having the doubts increase... and so on.

I don't know why you cannot imagine a gradual process and assume instead that it's a sudden, one day to the next, believe then not believe, thing.