OK.

Very well said!

Is this really about you, trying rationalize or validate some issue? If so, there are professionals that can help you with those issues. Reflecting on others does not resolve your issue of should've, would've, could've, but didn't of your past.

How does an Atheist know there is no god? He or she must have confidence there is not god as they cannot prove that one does not exist.

Ultimately no matter what your belief it comes down to using your mind and experience to make a judgement. It is then by my mind and my judgement that i am confident I am right.

Even the line "under god" in the pledge was added years after it was written. An attempt to make people more comfortable with the practice of reciting it, perhaps?

Ahh, yes! What does it Mean? How does it make you FeeL?

To see it I must have faith. To hear it my faith must be strong.
If I can do neither, my faith isn't strong enough.
The failure is not in the message. The failure is mine.
Guilt.

You should use those restrictions or specifics when commenting on the history or behavior of Christians/Christianity. Otherwise you will likely be interpreted as commenting on the group as a general whole.
There are likely many small and/or more recent sects of major beliefs that may be quite
different (and "better") than the average - and also not at all representative.

So ... I am pretty sure the Holy Roman Empire did exist... along with constant repression by (and to) Christians throughout Europe through the Dark Ages, Renaissance, and leading many to take a quite risky and expensive voyage to the "New World" to escape Christianity just "defending itself".

My own take on why the parables (my opinion only).. the vast majority of people could not read or write (including leaders). Reading and writing was the dominion of priests. Parables, stories with meaning, were a way for information to be disbursed that people would remember.

As I said this is my own take on the matter.

On the contrary. Read what I wrote and try to understand. Try to understand the meaning. Seems like you too don't know the reference to eyes and ears. Instead, you assumed it's a matter of guilt.

I agree that our system is broken because of the two-party nature and the spinelessness of the Republicans. But all I see not voting as doing is in increasing the speed of our slide into oblivion. I'd like to think that with the current momentum in the past two elections and the ouster of Boehner and repudiation of McCarthy that we are making some progress in pulling power away from the RINO's.

I view a non-vote as giving up, and I still think there is something to fight for. Now maybe I am still naive like Dagny before finding the Gulch. I guess we'll see in the next Presidential election, where for the first time in 20 years (since Ross Perot) people are going to have some real choices to make. I would note that of the leading candidates, two are outsiders and one is a political pariah - hardly a RINO. Once Jeb Bush and Chris Christie bow out (two I consider RINO's), I think that the choice won't be between socialism and socialism lite.

On this note, I have a question. How do you know that your interpretation is correct and others are wrong?

Your sufficiently vague poke response, was deliberately responded to by my deliberately vague response, which has now been responded to by your sufficiently vague response, which offers nothing. LOL!

Fortunately or unfortunately I've never watched a single episode of the 700 club, so I can't follow you there.

In other words - "Your faith isn't strong enough". Flow forth the guilt.

Here's the way I see it. I differentiate between Christianity and Christendom although most people today use the terms as interchangeable. Christianity is the embodiment of the teachings of Jesus Christ, which began with the declaration "Peace on earth, good will towards men", which is a primary tenet and remains a theme. Now you can take the following literally or metaphorically as the gist is the same.

When Jesus was walking along the road he was approached by a Pharisee and asked if it was lawful to pay the Roman tax. Seeing the trick question, he asked to see a coin and pointing out Caesar's image made the famous statement "Give unto Caesar...". Now zoom up in time just before He was crucified where Satan offered him all the kingdoms of the earth. Recognizing a "Brooklyn Bridge for sale" offer he turned it down. Now zoom a few hundred years after His crucifixion and it seems his followers (Christians) were offered the same deal and they took it. They became Caesar and to this day there are those professing to be Christians who are more resembling of a Caesar than a Jesus Christ. That's Christendom. If you read the words of Jesus Christ, do you really think He would approve the infamous Inquisition? A Caesar would.

All true. Well said.

I have had certain experience that, while not proof there is a deity (a single being,) it is proof, to me, there is something else that exists beyond my five senses.

Sometimes we ignore evidence (that we receive on an individual basis) because it doesn't fit our stories.

Lordy, sometimes I sound like a tree-hugging, new ager. Well, I like to garden, feed the birds and have an odd (to others) concept of God - so maybe that's accurate :)

Thank you for your thoughts which, intellectually, I agree with wholeheartedly. Especially the last sentence. Faith, to me, is a term that is usually used in a manipulative manner.

I guess it depends on what keywords or phrases were used and what search results were selected for the "one simple quick visit via google" to determine your opinion. The subject is controversial and various "scholars" are lining up to poke each other in the eye. Take your pick. You employ metaphor regularly in your posts so I would figure you can grip the concept when used by others, including those attributed to Jesus Christ. Your humorous "Christmas Fruitcake" metaphor conjured up a vision that made me smile, even though I don't agree.

"In God We Trust" and most of the god stuff was added in the 1950s, so it does not show the US was founded on the irrationalism of christianity.

It's his study of America - I forgot the title.

"The best way for evil to win is for good people to do nothing."

I'd rather vote for a Republican than allow my vote to be taken by a left-wing socialist voting for Hillary or Bernie. It's not the ideal option, but at least I can say I did something.

All religions are evolved by men in furtherance of goals they find good. This neither proves nor disproves the existence of a deity. It does however demonstrate how power can change man. Sometimes for good sometimes for evil.

As to the existence of a deity, I do not know, but lean no. One would think there would be some direct evidence in all this time. Faith is cited rather than evidence, and the picture painted is not a pretty one.

Thank you Technocracy! I've never understood using any religion as a means of supporting the argument that God doesn't exist.

To me, it's only logical to assume that religion is a man made construct. Was it created to explain forces that can't (or couldn't at the time, such as storms) be understood? exert force and control? to have pot-luck dinners?

Maybe the seed of each religion is a gift from God to help simple humans, from all walks of life, know Him. This would explain the need for, and the why there are, multiple religions. Then Man, with free will, took each seed given him and did what man often does - corrupted it with his own bias and desires.

I am finding the number of theists within the Gulch to be much greater then I imagined.