Continued from a 15year old boy.

[Mangee]

The world is built on deception. Everywhere you go you are being deceived. The drug store, furniture store, car lot, grocery store, on and on and on. The so called, "SALES EVENT," is a tip off as to the kind of mark up these stores have on their goods. "All goods well below inventory price." They are willing to take a hit, a loss of revenue in order to get your business. B__S__, is the only way to describe it. They want you to think that they are losing money by giving you bargains etc. The philosophy of the majority of conglomerates and the like is,"Do unto others." Oil, for instance is being pushed to higher levels by Wall street traders who are trying to squeeze every last dollar out of John Q.Public and the oil producers along with the oil companies are rubbing their hands in glee as the money rolls in.  A perfect example of being used is the pharmaceutical companies is this. A pill which costs approximately two dollars and up has the same thing in a placebo for about 10 to fifteen cents. The pills do the same thing yet have trouble getting the Government "Watchdogs? " to give it authentication for public consumption. I know I am straying but what is here is the cousin to the previous posts we sent back and forth. It is about things that will ever remain the same due to the underhanded, under the table, wink, wink deals that are going on in most beaureaucratic back rooms as wel as the government agencies that are supposed to be monitoring them. Lobbyists who fight , not for the common man, but for the wealthy and the wealthier are ever demanding,more. It is not however, in any way shape nor form similar to Charles Dickens ,"Oliver," who wanted more because of hunger. The hunger for a lobbyist and his clients is to fatten the already obscene, bulging bank account. To the,"Fat Cat," the word "Enough,"doesn't exist. We are broadening our horizons with these posts because as we all know, one thing leads to another and one word can change the post from hither to thither, yon and beyond.

[lovepat906]

"One of the great achievements of THIS GOVERNMENT is that, at the same time you were indoctrinated to believe a lot of magical things of which there is no evidence, you were also inculcated with fear and guilt if you ever questioned any of them. "
Fixed your typo...

/ducks and runs from the room/

[Savas]

Well, that depends on how you define God. there tends to be an assumption of most belief systems that God is inherently concerned with the fate and actions of humanity.

If you stop assuming that... it makes for a more plausible explanation of how there can be a god and "Why bad things happen."

Of course, you can always say "God set the clockwork universe in motion and placed humanity down at the beginning of its path. What we do from there is our choice, according to free will. He doesn't step in and take action because to do so would be to corrupt the grand experiment".

(one of my favorites, fits in with the story of Adam & Eve... translates the story in a positive light, with the apple as a gift, not a curse).

Hmm...how about... "God is a psychic vampire. He feeds of the emotions of humanity. Happiness is his appetizer, love his desert...and suffering the main course."

Hey, I've got dozens of these, agnostics are good at 'em. :)

[mrwjd]

Yes.  Whether in real life or in the bible, god seems so capricious, so inconsistent, so whimsical, so inexplicable.  In fact, if you didn't know better, you might think events attributed to god are--well--random.  

The picture I can't get out of my mind is a news clip in which a school was destroyed, with fatalities and survivors.  A mother whose little girl was with her grasped the shoulders of a mother whose child was dead and shouting into her face, over and over to get her attention (she was a little distracted), "Look! Look!  God spared my little [whoever]!  She's alive!  She's alive!"

I don't know the principals, of course, but I couldn't help thinking that in addition to her grief, the bereaved mother is going to live with these other creepy mothers who will, who must because of just that kind of behavior, push on her the idea that her child died for a reason, like something the mother did wrong.

    

[mrwjd]

"You have heard it said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you...."

[sadinmichigan]

Ok...I just wanted to mention the word Benny Hinn...I too believe in a creator.God,Jesus Christ ,and the holy spirit..but as has been stated..the so called "miracles" that these people supposedly perform in the name of Jesus are phoney as a $3 bill..and I do believe that precisely demonstrates why the  "love of money is the root of all evil"..i do notice that people often leave the most important word/s out..Just like "an eye for an eye,a tooth for a tooth"..what was said prior? that is the important part..

[Mangee]

Yes, Peter Popoff is the one that was giving away prayer cloths. However you had to phone for the cloth and of course you know what happens once they get you on the line. They make you feel guilty for not contributing to their church. According to Poppoff the prayer cloth and the manna were sanctified by God. He took the time to tell them how to weave the cloth and what ingredients went into the baking of the manna. The healing is done by the power of the almighty that flows through the body of Peter Popoff. Don't believe me? just ask Peter Popoff. I recall one occasion when this great healer took a woman who was paralyzed in the lower half of her body, shouted a mighty,"HEAL!." They then pulled this woman, who weighed in, I would believe, at somewhere around 4oo pounds plus out of the wheelchair and miracle of miracles, she then walked, ran and followed it up by doing a soft shoe dance and the audience shouted,"HALLELUJA!?" Imagine, paralyzed frm the waist down and with one word, Peter Popoff healed her. Now if, as Popoff said, that it was God who was doing the actual healing, why was he doing it one person at a time when, with one wave of his hand he could heal thousands, millions ? Why just one at a time? Peter Popoff's answer would probably be,"God is testing to see how we react to it and sometime in the future, if God is satisfied that we are worthy, he will bring healing to all those who have shown the Peter Popoff Ministry their full support." Many out there would believe just as they believed when Oral Roberts said that if he didn't get seven million dollars by the month of June God would take him home and they would pour their rent and food money into the ministry coffers in the hopes that God would see their generosity and heal them, through Peter popoff of course.