''And so I genuinely felt obliged to call...'' ...you out.

I know, I know, ''it's just a picture, Mike!'' and I should ''chill out.'' But I couldn't help but think that some people accept this without any further thought on the matter. So here we go:



1.) Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.

Before I get too far into that, let me preface with this: God is love. Forced love is no love at all. If God created no possible avenue for humans to choose evil, that would be God, forcing us to do what He wants. If God imposed His will for perfection on us, He would no longer be who He is. ''So you're saying that God has limits?'' I'm saying that God is bound by His love for us, and His intolerance of evil. He allows us to make choices, even if it breaks His heart that we choose our own destruction. God does not force anyone to do anything. This is not an issue of ability; but an issue of God giving us a chance to choose for ourselves.



2.) Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Is the author suggesting that if God doesn't ''step in,'' and put a stop to all evil, that God, Himself, is evil? I suppose it could appear that way to some. But what if God forced each person to surrender all freewill to Him; and to do exactly as He wishes? He would have a bunch of ''robots.'' He wouldn't really have ''us;'' --that would be God, just taking what He wants. He could have a bunch of robots any time He wants, but what God really wants is us. This is why our ability to choose is so important. Malevolent? No. Heartbroken? Yes.



3.) Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

He is both able and willing. ''Then how did evil come to be?'' We are the ones God allowed to choose evil or good. Any evil in the world exists because we chose it. God doesn't force us to do anything.



4.) Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him ''God?''

He has given us sovereignty over our own destinies. He will eventually deliver us over to whatever it is that we have chosen for ourselves.



So? That still doesn't prove God exists!

Correct, but it does deconstruct this argument.





And about the comment at the end ''Atheists. Winning since 33 A.D.'' I can appreciate a good joke, and that was clever.

...Except the fact that this was actually the dawn of Christianity. Since Christianity is ''just one more theist religion'' to atheism, the dawn of Christianity is more accurately described as the point in time that atheism began to fail more and more, as time progressed to present day.

Proposition 8: restores hetero-marriage--and religious oppression

The real dilemma with Prop 8 comes from this fact: We don't live in a Christian nation. It's true that many people SAY so, but really, we don't.

There were a lot of Christians in the beginning, but this nation was not even founded on Christian beliefs, no matter what anyone says. This whole idea of ''America,'' ''Land of the Free, Home of the Brave,'' ''USA'' and whatnot, was only ever conceived in the first place to ESCAPE RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION. Freedom from religious oppression.

Half the signers of the delcaration of independence were deists and/or masons/freemasons. same thing as those who signed the constitution. (http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html, http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/mashist.htm, http://deism4u2xplore.tribe.net/thread/03ef5d80-932c-436a-a3fb-eecf70645e62)

What will happen with Prop 8 is this nation, designed to be ''religiously impartial,'' will be offering special rights to a certain religious group, and not to another. There are rights that only married ( http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/wedding/f/MarriageBenefit.htm ) couples share.''Freedom from religious oppression....just as long as you're Christian'' is what Prop 8 really stands for. If it were really after sanctity of marriage, why would it only attack gays? Why not the divoce rate, as well? Why not those drive-thru wedding places in Vegas?

--Hold on...I'm about to rant, and it won't be pretty--

Just because God rained down fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, doesn't mean that you should try to emulate his actions. Let me ask you a question...that ''great commission thing'' where you're supposed to go into all the world and convert it to christianity...how's that going for you? When you told the gays they were going to hell for their evil lifestyle, did that win anyone over? Then why the hell would you get a different response when you try to make a LAW against gay marriage? Does that ''great commission'' tell you to go and make laws, or does it tell you to make converts? You're really bad at this.

You know what you're showing the rest of the world with Prop 8? You're showing them a person who will fight TOOTH AND NAIL for something that doesn't affect ANYone else. Why not attack smoking? Make that illegal. That destroys the temple of the holy spirit, and second-hand smoke is deadly! Why not put a tougher punishment on drunk driving? See, those things actually kill people. Gay marriage? Not a chance. And what's more sacred, marriage, or life itself? Let's face it: Love your neighbour: FAIL

Read Genesis 5 REAL quick!

it's one of my favourite chapters in the bible about prophecy! =D

(i got this whole thing from Chuck Missler's radio show: 66/40. so when you hear how awesome it is, give credit to whom it's due....to God)

Geneology of Adam: the deal with this list of names is that they're only transliterated into
english in the bible, not translated.

1. Adam, Adamah - synonym for ''man''
2. Seth - ''appointed,'' Genesis 4:25 - ''And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and
named him Seth 'for God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.'''
3. Enosh - comes from a root ''anash'' which means ''incurable.'' it's a term that's usually
used for a wound, or for grief, woe, sickness, or wickedness. and so the term ''anash'' suggests
the idea of mortal, or frail, or even miserable.
4. Qenan - ''sorrow'' or ''dirge''
5. Mahalalel - comes from two roots - A. ''Mahal,'' which means ''blessed,'' or ''praise,'' and
B. ''El,'' which is the name of God. Mahalalel means ''the blessed God,'' or ''the praised
God.''
6. Jared - it's from the verb ''Jarad,'' which means ''shall come down''
7. Enoch - ''commencement,'' or ''teaching,'' it's an academic term. the flood of Noah didn't come as a surprise, it was preached on for four generations, starting with Enoch, who also prophesied about the second coming of Jesus (Jude 14 & 15), so he is seen as a teacher.
8. Methuselah - comes from two roots: A. ''muth,'' which means ''death.'' and it occurs 125
times in the old testament B. ''shalak'' which means ''to bring,'' or ''send forth'' so
Methuselah means ''his death shall bring.'' Methuselah died in the same year the flood came. his name is a prophecy. also note that his was the longest lifespan in the bible. it's like a model
of God's mercy. his death marks the start of judgement, and it is also the longest lifetime in the bible.
9. Lamech - means ''despairing.''
10. Noah - his name comes from a root ''naham,'' which means ''to bring relief or comfort.''
Genesis 5:29 - ''And he called his name Noah, saying 'This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands...'' so Noah means ''rest'' or ''comfort.''

Let's re-examine the geneology of Adam:
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Qenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.

Let's read this geneology in english:
Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow. (but) the blessed God shall come down, teaching (that) His death shall bring the despairing comfort.

This is a summary of the christian gospel, tucked away in a geneology in the old testament.

some of the ramifications of this are:
1. this, of course, is no accident.
2. there's no way you'll ever convince me that a group of jewish rabbis contrived to hide a
summary of the christian gospel in a geneology within their venerated Torah.
3. This also means that God's plan of redemption was on His mind even before the flood of Noah.

Q & A

Does anyone else wonder?
how christians can say evolution is absurd yet believe that adam was created from dirt and eve created from rib? in all honesty which makes more sense....

Additional Details
3 days ago
ok ok, many christians.





evolution basically states that i could break my wrist watch, put it in a bag, and shake it up for millions or billions of years, and not only have it come back together again, but have it working better than it ever did. we are so much more complicated than my wrist watch.

and don't get me started on the big bang :-p ''first there was nothing, and then it exploded.'' or where did that ''central mass'' come from? i say it takes the same leap of faith for either idea.

some ppl say ''well, you can't trust the bible, it was only written by men.'' so...by that same logic, we can't trust anything that was written by humans. and since nothing written exists except that which is written by humans, our only hope of reading anything with a grain of truth would be something written by humans, but inspired by God.

modern quantum physics is actually supporting the bible now more than ever in terms of the age of the universe and the age of the earth, by means of the expansion of the universe, the slowing down of light and radioactive decay, and especially the red shift, which turns out to be quantised. it's not a result of stars moving away from us, it's a result of light slowing down in quantised amounts of speed, oi, but that's another entry ;-)

and findings in the bible itself such as microcodes that prophesy about events in modern times, and make very eerie ''authentication patterns'' like the heptatic structure are found throughout the bible. i'm not sure just any human on his own could cook up something like that.


lol, no! i'm not makin' this stuff up!
re:

http://www.khouse.org/6640/BP078/




think i jumped the gun on that evolution stuff? well, i spec you need the proof more than i do -- just remember what i said about proof
re:

http://www.khouse.org/6640/BP045/

A Simple Microcode

If you take every 50th letter in the Torah, it spells out the name "Elohim," the name of God, 147 times.

At some point, you have to give up...

If your kids ignored you, did things you hated and wanted nothing to do with you, at some point, you have to give up on them. That point is death.

''the smudge is on the lens, not the world around you''

i once asked a friend of mine if there would be peace if there were only one race. i know, think of all the wars that were started b/c of religion or other intolerances of differences. something's awry here...

humans are highly adaptable; they will adapt quickly to their environment; therein lies a problem. unless they're continually being sharpened, they will grow dull to adapt thuroughly to their environment. humans tend toward weaknesses under the gravity of sloth.

these intollerances would surely exist under some other names, but they would still exist. if you remove what seems to be causing a problem, and the problem is still there, then that thing wasn't causing the problem in the first place.

if you look through a camera and see a big blurry thing, you wouldn't think that there's some big blurry thing floating right in front of you, you'd immediately conclude that there was a smudge on the lens. that's what i'm trying to say: the smudge is on the lens, NOT on the world around you.

''and how can you say to your brother 'let me remove the speck from your eye,' when all the while there is a plank in your own eye? first remove the plank from your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's''