Fred;
May your God bless you and keep you.

When you or anyone else says to me, 'God bless you' or 'I'll pray for you', I generally thank them and I appreciate their caring and intent.

Manners and respect are indeed the keys to a civil and pleasant life.

What part of my polite way of saying that you are an ignorant bigot who finds allegory'sd in the Bible in order to make rediculous points. even you should be able to understand when someone says have a nice life and don't bother me anymore. I have in at least a half dozen posts wished you well and now I can only hope that you will be on your happy little way and no longer send replies which I will respond to in the hope that someone that is not a bogot against Christianity and Christians has something of value to ad. you definitely have not added one single thing to move this sort of conversation forward, in fact you have resorted to use examples and name calling of people who claim to be Christians but misunderstand the concept entirely. so, in order to make sure that even you will understand it, please no more comments directed towards me personally. I'm frankly tired of your inannity.

Have a good life,

Fred

It is truly sad that a person clearly articulate and with a decent education as I assume you have based on your writing style, can't resist continuing a one sided debate. I wished you well and said good bye as it was a waste of my time to continue this religious debate. It proves that it's not I nor any other Christian has any desire to continue debating a subject for which you clearly have no respect. Neither for the subject or the people presenting their view, instead you choose to continue an endless spouting of your hatred for Christianity.

Furthermore the allegory's you referred to are from the (Old Testament not from the new which deals with Christianity. Even the New Testament has allegory's that are not meant to always be taken literally. In addition we need to remember that all philosophy's and their published versions are influenced by man through their editing and influences ranging from the politics of the time.

Another thing is, you make reference to not having revealed your “religion,” frankly I don't care what your religion is as long as it makes you happy and a decent human being. I don't think that I need to define the word decent for you, I'm assuming that being on this site we are all decent human beings.

On the other hand, it's clear that you are perfectly capable of injecting a little poison in your comments once in a while and I find that somewhat disappointing and frankly I expected better of you.

Your argument that “ The weakest of all arguments in a logical environment is “I believe.” I beg to differ, in an argument dealing with philosophy, belief is the only thing that is being debated. It is clear that your dislike or perhaps even hate for Christianity blinds you to a degree that makes it impossible to discuss the matter either intellectually or emotionally

I wish you well,

Fred

I'm sad to say that you are one of the few that has responded in an honest and heartfelt manner to my posts. Most of them were pretty much in the same vein and I certainly understand your point about rather being the person asking than the one being asked. however that problem is the nature of the beast, the thing to always keep in mind is respect and good manners. sadly both seem to be a lost art these days. we can't be protected from all manner of being made uncomfortable at times. It's a part of life.

Sincerely yours,

Fred

Fred; I'm sorry, you misread me a bit. I would welcome your Merry Christmas, and return it with warmth.

It's just that my personal reason for celebrating it may be very different than yours. It's still something that I enjoy celebrating with my family and friends.

As to proselytizing, I prefer to be an asker than the asked. My experiences have taught me that Christianity is about proselytizing in that, that's the only religious people I've personally had come to my door or approach me on the street wanting to talk about belief. Thank you for your interest in teaching me about your God and Jesus. If I feel an interest, I will come to you and ask.

Christianity is not about those who forcefully proselytize, mu question to you is; would you like to hear about Jesus Christ and God his father? If the answer is no, then go in peace. If the answer is yes then I would take my time to try and teach you about them and whether you will believe or not I leave to God. In the question above, was there any force or a gun to your head, the answer is clearly no. If you met me in the street and asked me If I wanted to know something about Atheism or witches, not that they are similar, depending on my time and or inclination that day I might say yes or no. Yet when I say Merry Christmas people of your belief want to take me to court to prevent me of saying it. We have become sillier and sillier in this nation to protect the "public" from having their feelings hurt. the Constitution guarantees me and every citizen of this republic the right to "Life, Liberty and the persuit of Happiness. It makes me happy to ask the question above and it makes you happy to say no. who exactly got hurt in that exchange?

Fred

I find it amazing that you would trust your kids to anyone, regardless of their pay-rates, unless you've first assured individually their qualifications to have anywhere near that kind of trust. I certainly don't trust anyone in government to assure me of those qualifications and then pass a law that I have to turn my children over to them for instruction.

Well, we could talk about The Inquisition, the Spaniards/Aztecs-Incans, etc., the Christian Missionary schools vs. American Indian children, and I can think of quite a few others.

But the same can be said of any organized group either wishing for or trying to assert/maintain power and control - not just religions. I agree that there are many christians that live the life of non-aggression (turning the other cheek), but at the same time maintain the belief and policy of proselytizing. That's always given me a problem.

No individual of any sort will ever be safe until the basic concept and worthiness of the right of self determination and to be left alone is more widely taught and respected.

KYFHO

lol

Because you seem to care about the truth, and the truth is there is no god.

... and you think I do? MANY decades ago I realized that the best people to work for and work with and have work for you are those that ENJOY what they're doing. MANY studies over the ensuing decades showed that money is NOT a primary driver of "satisfaction at work." Too little is often used as punishment, but folks who don't like their job or their team or company but demand or command large or huge salaries... they're the moochers and I have NO respect for them.

I often worked ten or twelve-hour days at my first "real" job because I loved the team and what I was doing and learning.

I left ten years after I started because I got too good at the job and it became boring and unchallenging and there was no career path in the organization.

The people I respect and enjoy most are NOT the ones who are "in it for the money" although, as Heinlein put it, money IS nice.

Bob, you've got that backwards... the libber on Linked In was all too happy to trust HER kids, and mine, if I had any, and yours, ditto, and everyone else's, to the HIGHEST bidder; all (she) cared about was paying a lot of money to teachers, with no comment or acknowledgment of performance evaluations or seeing if it made any difference... quite UN-Randian, in my view.

And over the years, one thing I learned was to NOT accept the lowest bid from ANYONE, even public school teachers. If people started to accept at least the SECOND LOWEST bid, give some thought to what influence that might have on LOTS of markets (including the Federal procurement agencies...)...

Funny thing is, Fred, that I came to exactly the same conclusion a few posts ago, too.

While Believers accuse Atheists of shoving their beliefs down their throats, Atheists seem to have the same feeling/experience, but, of course "the other side" denies the allegation.

I can't prove there is NO god any more than you can prove there IS one (or more...) BFD...

Bob's right about that quote... but I discovered the reality of it back in the computer world. "Seeing is believing" works for a lot of people, but the reality is "Believing is seeing," because most folks don't "see the point" until they believe (in) what they're seeing. Try critiquing software or a user interface that the author has fallen in love with because it's his or hers. Ain't gonna be "seen" at all.

But please don't think WE will believe that religionists have no intention of converting anyone... can you point to any anti-gay legislation that's not rooted in something from someone's bible? Or their belief system, irrespective of empirical evidence? Good luck finding it. And that's why I occasionally make some "drive-by comments" when I see posts like the ones above.

Ciao!

It's becoming clearer with every post from you that I'm wasting my time and efforts. you still don't seem to understand that I have no desire to convert you to anything, I'm trying if anything to help you to understand that your point of view is just as valid as mine for the same reason. you believe that you are correct and so do I, "proof" is only required if one is trying to convince or convert the other. You're trying to convince me and in my opinion you have no proof and since I'm not trying to concvince you of anything, I don't need any. We just happen to disagree. I wish you well and God Speed as they say in the old country.

Fred