Interesting religious occurrence today, thoughts?

[Ralph Wiggum]

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Apparently an atheist tends to be also be a sarcastic prick.

OP: The girl is religious, so I'd guess she tends to give God a lot of credit for her subconscious & intuition. We all have moments where we can sense something. Sometimes we're right & seem clairvoyant & sometimes not. I'd imagine when your friend is wrong, she forgets it. When she's right, it's God.

When I call my Mom, she occasionally says I knew it was you calling (she doesn't have caller ID) & she claims it's her mother's instinct. However whenever her phones rings she assumes it's me calling. When it's not me, she forgets it. When it is me, it reinforces her belief. She knows this & it's just something she says makes her feel good. Maybe your friend is less aware of her thought process.

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Do you think the only people responding sarcastically in this thread are atheists? Or does being a theist make you a judgmental prick?

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No, obviously sarcasm isn't something that atheists have a monopoly on. I'm not sure how to go about answering the second question. You call me a theist (huh? cuz I answered him sincerely?), then a judgemental prick (that's a first). I apologize, but I don't see the point in answering this guy's question (& pretty much every genuine question I've seen in this forum) with a snide answer. Using snide & not-as-clever-as-you-think remarks to turn every thread into a flame war the only way to get your point across? If decency & sincerity isn't something religion deserves credit for, so why not showcase that?

[vhawk01]

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Apparently an atheist tends to be also be a sarcastic prick.

OP: The girl is religious, so I'd guess she tends to give God a lot of credit for her subconscious & intuition. We all have moments where we can sense something. Sometimes we're right & seem clairvoyant & sometimes not. I'd imagine when your friend is wrong, she forgets it. When she's right, it's God.

When I call my Mom, she occasionally says I knew it was you calling (she doesn't have caller ID) & she claims it's her mother's instinct. However whenever her phones rings she assumes it's me calling. When it's not me, she forgets it. When it is me, it reinforces her belief. She knows this & it's just something she says makes her feel good. Maybe your friend is less aware of her thought process.

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Do you think the only people responding sarcastically in this thread are atheists? Or does being a theist make you a judgmental prick?

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No, obviously sarcasm isn't something that atheists have a monopoly on. I'm not sure how to go about answering the second question. You call me a theist (huh? cuz I answered him sincerely?), then a judgemental prick (that's a first). I apologize, but I don't see the point in answering this guy's question (& pretty much every genuine question I've seen in this forum) with a snide answer. Using snide & not-as-clever-as-you-think remarks to turn every thread into a flame war the only way to get your point across? If decency & sincerity isn't something religion deserves credit for, so why not showcase that?

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Do you see a point in assuming that its atheism that makes people sarcastic? Do you see a point in analogies? Do you see a point in using the word judgmental to describe someone who decided that a slew of sarcastic responses to a miracle report gave him insight into the damage atheism does to a person's character?

[Ralph Wiggum]

Do you now see whether or not I'm a theist or an atheist? This is something you ignored in your response.

Since I wasn't being sarcastic, it was very hard for you to tell. That highlights my point.

[vhawk01]

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Do you now see whether or not I'm a theist or an atheist? This is something you ignored in your response.

Since I wasn't being sarcastic, it was very hard for you to tell. That highlights my point.

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I have no idea whether you are a theist or an atheist and it makes absolutely no difference to my point. I could have just as well said Democrat or cigar-smoker.

[vhawk01]

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Do you now see whether or not I'm a theist or an atheist? This is something you ignored in your response.

Since I wasn't being sarcastic, it was very hard for you to tell. That highlights my point.

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I have no idea whether you are a theist or an atheist and it makes absolutely no difference to my point. I could have just as well said Democrat or cigar-smoker.

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Also, this thread isn't about theism and atheism. Its about miracles (and related phenomena), which are not solely the province of theists, nor do all theists shout miracle at every opportunity.

[Ralph Wiggum]

But you didn't. You called me a judgemental theist, but you classified me as being both judgemental & a theist, not b/c they were a random choice.

As for your point, no I don't think every atheist is a sarcastic prick, I was also making a point about all the sarcastic replies in the thread.

I've made my point a couple of times, and if you'd like you can respond and have the final say. I doubt this discussion will lead to anything useful & worthwhile.

[vhawk01]

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But you didn't. You called me a judgemental theist, but you classified me as being both judgemental & a theist, not b/c they were a random choice.

As for your point, no I don't think every atheist is a sarcastic prick, I was also making a point about all the sarcastic replies in the thread.

I've made my point a couple of times, and if you'd like you can respond and have the final say. I doubt this discussion will lead to anything useful & worthwhile.

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I didn't really call you a theist or a judgmental prick. I asked a question, and the (obvious to me) purpose behind it was to make the analogy between your comment about 'sarcastic atheists,' which was meaningless. Some of us are sarcastic, some of us are atheists, some of us are white and some of us like baseball. The fact that we are being sarcastic in this thread has nothing to do with our atheism, so it comes off as a weak shot at atheism. If that isn't the way you meant it, fine, although I can't think of any other way you could have meant it.

You are right, it was a non-random decision to 'call you a theist,' but in hindsight my point would have been made even better had I used a random choice instead.

[madnak]

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Can it be safe to assume that we state things in majorities, specially matters of most opinion.

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I'm not convinced that you're well-informed about the atheist majority. I don't know any statistics on the subject, but I would imagine most adult atheists have studied religions to some degree.

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I have a question, and it's not to like look down on you, just pure curiousity. Why did you leave the church? Were you ex-communicated?

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Technically, I didn't leave. That's why I'd be able to jump right back in. I don't like burning bridges, even though I think that might be one to burn. Still, I like to have the option of going back, "just in case." I think it's partly because I'm afraid to completely close the door on the beliefs I grew up with, even though I recognize they hurt me.

As for why I stopped being Mormon, I know exactly how to describe that to a psychologist. Explaining it to a Mormon is hard, though, because I feel that any response I give will immediately be viewed in a negative light, or as a mistake.

To put it briefly, I became crippled with guilt and fear, and was unable to function. I got out of it by applying reason to the situation.

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And this isn't stating something as fact just an observation of opinion, you believed in the Devil I assume when you were in the church, but once you left you don't believe he exist? I am sure you get where I am going with that.

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"The best trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist," eh?

My beliefs about the Devil weren't exactly comforting. By the time I was 15 I had occasional delusional episodes in which I believed I was the Devil (Antichrist, actually). The further I got into the LDS doctrine, the more convinced I was that I was just hopelessly evil (for various reasons - primarily the same extreme libido yukon described). I'd rather not go into detail.

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Something to add. If you did anything for year, it would obv change you in some ways. If I for one year straight and truly studied satanic material and did everything and applied everything it said, I think I could be changed. The point is not to make those choices that put you in danger, not saying that buddism will, but I don't feel I need it

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You don't feel you need it, and that's a justification for ignoring it? I don't feel like I need Mormonism - in fact, a vast majority do not. If that is a valid reason to avoid it, then they have a valid reason. If it's not, then you don't have a valid reason.

Furthermore, you can't just say "some things are dangerous, avoid them." It's impossible to avoid them unless there's some way to know whether they're dangerous. You claim to know that Mormonism isn't dangerous, but you yourself said it's ignorant not to look at the alternatives. As for me, following the LDS teachings got me fear and depression, guilt and shame, and psychotic symptoms. Following Buddhism brought compassion and perspective, discipline and self-control, and peace. So if an evil force is behind one of these religions, which should I think is the evil one and why?

A final note on the Devil - if my judgment has been clouded, that is still no big deal. Think of it in poker terms. If you're right and the Devil gets me, I go to heaven anyhow. If I'm right and Mormonism is the destructive path, I could be in big trouble.

[furyshade]

this is a rather long thread so forgive me if this has already been stated, but isn't there a distinct mathematical probability that the majority of people who have reached adulthood have had some traumatic experiences in their life that bother them? and it increases based on your friends ability to read this persons body language, this also sounds a lot like that south park episode about John Edward where he made broad general statements which would be true for almost anyone and was regarded as a psychic

[MidGe]

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My friend just told me a story today, and I wanted to know how you guys (particularly atheists) would explain it. Let me preface by saying I do not believe that this proves the existence of God. However, many atheists on here claim there is no God because they come up with scenarios that Christians ignore/can't explain, but not too many discuss it the other way around. Here it goes...

A friend from my church was at lunch with her friend. She saw a girl sitting at another table, and felt like God wanted her to go talk to the girl. She ignored it at first, thinking it was her own thoughts, but then the girl kept looking at her, and her friend asked her if she knew the girl, so she finally decided she should go talk to her. (Keep in mind, it is not normal for my friend to just start talking to strangers based on God telling her to) She said, "You might think I'm crazy, but God told me to come talk to you, and to tell you that I know something horrible happened in your past, but that if you don't stop looking in your rearview mirror, you're going to crash." The girl responded by saying, "When I was 19, I had a baby and gave her up for adoption, and I've regretted it ever since, and today is her birthday."

I just want to know what you guys think about this, and why things like this happen every day.

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That is simply a coincidence. Those happen often, amongst believers in different god or gods or even atheists. that is why we even have a word for it: "coincidences".

In reality it is our own misunderstanding of probabilities, or our own circumstances/views, that make something appear, coincidental, or remarkable.