Non-horror bitch session

[Marshal Earp]

I eat fast food because I like how quick the Wetbags make the crap, okay?

You are clearly not from the west coast. It's WETBACK not wetbag. Get your racial slurs right you Massachusetts chowda head.

[GiveMeGore]

I eat fast food because I like how quick the Wetbags make the crap, okay?

You are clearly not from the west coast. It's WETBACK not wetbag. Get your racial slurs right you Massachusetts chowda head.

ahhhh a spic is a spic. Damn leaf blowers are all the same. 

The end of you post reminded me of the Simpsons episode where Mayor Quimbys nephew? or something like this was a character (Pretty much just poking fun at the Kennedys)   and he keeps on bugging the french waiter  "Come on....say Chowda! Say Chowda!"   LOL good times.

[GiveMeGore]

The phrase "You Know?"


Have you ever noticed how many fucking times the phrase "You know?" gets uttered by the majority of us human beings during the coarse of conversation? Especially on televisioin. Listen to any athelete or musician, actor, whatever..... listen to them being interviewed and count how many times you'll hear "YOU KNOW". It's fucking outrageous. Normal folk too.....same thing. It will blow your mind if you werent already conscience of it. Its like we're too fucking dumb to either A: think of other adjectives, verbs, whatever to help flow your convo..... or B: We're so uncomfortable with small moments of silence, that we're forced to find stupid arbitrary phrases like 'you know' to help us feel better, you know?         I hate it.

[Splatterscribe]

The phrase "You Know?"


Have you ever noticed how many fucking times the phrase "You know?" gets uttered by the majority of us human beings during the coarse of conversation? Especially on televisioin. Listen to any athelete or musician, actor, whatever..... listen to them being interviewed and count how many times you'll hear "YOU KNOW". It's fucking outrageous. Normal folk too.....same thing. It will blow your mind if you werent already conscience of it. Its like we're too fucking dumb to either A: think of other adjectives, verbs, whatever to help flow your convo..... or B: We're so uncomfortable with small moments of silence, that we're forced to find stupid arbitrary phrases like 'you know' to help us feel better, you know?         I hate it.

I'll run with this and add :The term "Bromance".

What...the....fuck ?  Are people really so linguistically lazy that they can't be bothered to burn up the total of seven extra seconds of their lives it would take to describe two guys as  "the best of friends" or even "best buds" ? What began as a moderately clever way of encapsulating the bond between two inseparable male buddies has now become such a frequently used term that I expect to see Webster including it in the next edition of the damned dictionary. Drop it already. It's jumped the shark. It was meant to be a passing thing ,  a fad like "Bennifer"  or "Grody to the max", not a permanent addition to the national lexicon.

You know? 

[GiveMeGore]

I'll run with this and add :The term "Bromance".

What...the....fuck ?  Are people really so linguistically lazy that they can't be bothered to burn up the total of seven extra seconds of their lives it would take to describe two guys as  "the best of friends" or even "best buds" ? What began as a moderately clever way of encapsulating the bond between two inseparable male buddies has now become such a frequently used term that I expect to see Webster including it in the next edition of the damned dictionary. Drop it already. It's jumped the shark. It was meant to be a passing thing ,  a fad like "Bennifer"  or "Grody to the max", not a permanent addition to the national lexicon.

You know? 

I'm with you there. It's like that asshole Dog the Bounty Hunter......ending every fucking sentence with "Brah". "Come on Brah.....calm down Brah.....we don't need to make things any worse Brah"

Hey Dog, you closet Homo, drop the Brah and pretend like you're a functioning member of society, lose the 1983 long man-ear rings, and wrap your lips around that pistol of yours already and save everyone else the embarrasment of having to hear you speak, you fuck.

[Splatterscribe]

Bank Service fees and overdraft charges.

I've had account with Chase since way back when they were WaMu ,years before the banking collapse and bailouts. We never had service fees until this year..so I'm still getting used to the idea that twelve bucks is automatically deducted from my account every month because my employer doesn't offer direct deposit and I never have enough in there at one time to meet the criteria for having the fee waived. Basically, the people who can do that are the people who can afford not to worry about the damned fee in the first place. 

Consequently, for the first time in about seven years and as a direct result of my forgetting about the service  fee, I ended up overdrawn this weekend. I hope I can rectify this before the transactions which put my balance into the negatives actually go through , because if not, I get a tasty little thirty four dollar overdraft fee for each transaction that elevates the overdrawn amount above five dollars. So I'm looking at a potential sixty eight dollar charge for an eleven dollar mistake , which only happens to be a mistake because these robber baron douchebags are taking out a service fee in the hopes that this exact scenario will play out  multiple times with multiple customers. This way they can legally earn back all of the money they lost when their deceitful lending and mortgaging practices were shut down in 2008) by fleecing customers with these bullshit charges.

I need to join a credit union like yesterday and give Chase and the rest of the banks the finger. These people are out of their bloody minds.

[GiveMeGore]

Bank Service fees and overdraft charges.

I've had account with Chase since way back when they were WaMu ,years before the banking collapse and bailouts. We never had service fees until this year..so I'm still getting used to the idea that twelve bucks is automatically deducted from my account every month because my employer doesn't offer direct deposit and I never have enough in there at one time to meet the criteria for having the fee waived. Basically, the people who can do that are the people who can afford not to worry about the damned fee in the first place. 

Consequently, for the first time in about seven years and as a direct result of my forgetting about the service  fee, I ended up overdrawn this weekend. I hope I can rectify this before the transactions which put my balance into the negatives actually go through , because if not, I get a tasty little thirty four dollar overdraft fee for each transaction that elevates the overdrawn amount above five dollars. So I'm looking at a potential sixty eight dollar charge for an eleven dollar mistake , which only happens to be a mistake because these robber baron douchebags are taking out a service fee in the hopes that this exact scenario will play out  multiple times with multiple customers. This way they can legally earn back all of the money they lost when their deceitful lending and mortgaging practices were shut down in 2008) by fleecing customers with these bullshit charges.

I need to join a credit union like yesterday and give Chase and the rest of the banks the finger. These people are out of their bloody minds.

I have Citizens. There's a Citizens bank ATM in the mini mart 2 doors down from me. Awesomely convenient right? Yeah until about 6 months ago when the thing started charging me a $2.50 "dispersment fee". What? It's a fucking Citizens Bank ATM. I have a Citizens Bank Debit card. Fuckin kiddin me? Lick my ball sac.....  I try not to use it but it's friggin right there, man....  I'll probably spend more than 2 dollars and fifty fucking cents in gas getting to the closest Citizens Bank....  unreal.

[GeneralCinema]

Christopher Hitchens (who may be one of GMG's personal heroes) died recently.  I hope he made his peace with God.

[GiveMeGore]

Christopher Hitchens (who may be one of GMG's personal heroes) died recently.  I hope he made his peace with God.

just because someone is a fellow Atheist, doesnt necessarily mean we're boys.

Pretty sure John Wayne Gacy attended Church. That mean he a personal hero to you?

and yeah.....pretty confident Mr. Hitchens didnt make peace with anyone. Seems like his mind was made up. Wasnt exactly a fence walker.....

RIP

[b0bo]

Christopher Hitchens (who may be one of GMG's personal heroes) died recently.  I hope he made his peace with God.

just because someone is a fellow Atheist, doesnt necessarily mean we're boys.

Pretty sure John Wayne Gacy attended Church. That mean he a personal hero to you?

and yeah.....pretty confident Mr. Hitchens didnt make peace with anyone. Seems like his mind was made up. Wasnt exactly a fence walker.....

RIP

While I normally try and stay out of these Atheism/ Religious debates I feel like I want to put my 2 cents in here, as unwarranted as it may be. It'll probably we kind of long, and I will attempt to be as explanatory as possible.
When it comes to religion I always felt it was for weak minded individuals who needed a crutch to keep their life together and get through the monotony of daily life; People who did not want to take responsibility for striving for what they want in life, leading with the reasoning " Whatever happens is God's will and if it is meant to happen it will." It can be a scary thought that, in reality, your life is probably meaningless in the grand scheme of things. When you die you will be forgotten about and it will be as if you never even existed.
My biggest gripe is with Christianity, and the real vocal Christians. What makes Christianity the one and only absolute answer where you need to condemn anyone who does not follow the same strict belief system that you do? Your arguments would hold more validity if every almost religion in the history of time was not derivative of one another, having the same basic parables and stories. Christianity's most important figure, the figure of Jesus, has the same origins as may other figures, most notably Krishna. If you hold the two side by side it seems as if a group got together and said"It's been enough time lets re-make the story of Krishna to pull in a new audience." This practice worked all those years ago because there was nothing else around to distract people from their daily life of, in most cases oppression, or wake up, work sleep. In today's day and age, if a man claims to be a prophet, the son of God or the next Savior he is condemned by the public and seen as a threat. Every figure that has claimed that they were the embodiment of God, their story does not end well. One example being David Koresh. If all of a sudden you could not worship Jesus would you hold up in a 51 day firefight to defend your beliefs? MAYBE, maybe not.
Now I am not some horrible, corrupt piece of shit because I don't believe in an invisible father figure that watches everything I do and will condemn me to hell if I don't fall into line. I live by a basic set of morals. The same set of morals that any decent human should live by regardless of creed. Pretty much it boils down to "Don't be an asshole." Don't kill, steal, rape and all that jazz. Respect others and treat em how you want them to treat you. And live life to the fullest. Meet new people, have memorable experiences, and make connections with others. If you can do all this when you die, it won't be as terrifying a concept. You can a full life, have many memories and many laughs and loves.
I leave you with a joke. I can't remember where I heard it but I think it fits well and I have expanded upon it.
Hypothetically if you were to have no concept of what religion, Jesus, the Bible, or any of that was and I were to tell you I had just been to a used bookstore and found this book. The title of this book is the Holy Bible. In it are stories of a man in the sky who watches everything we do. The universe, as we know it, was created in about a week. We all come from a guy and a woman who was made out of his rib. Though they only had two sons but everyone living now comes from them. Oh yeah and some years later there was a flood wiping everyone out except a bunch of people on a boat with two of every animal in existence. Later this man in the sky sent his son down and he did all this impossible stuff and was ultimately crucified, but he came back to life. If I were to tell you all of these stories, and more were 100% factual and actually happened...you would tell me i was crazy and I would probably wind up committed. the only reason these stories work like they do is because they are pushed into kids heads while they are very young, and still susceptible to suggestion and the will of their parents. It comes down to the fact, that at some point before teenage years hit, everyone stops believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but for some reason God still remains as an undeniable factual image.
Believe whatever you want to believe, I'm not going to judge you on it either way. I will judge you by how you carry yourself as a person. As long as you "Don't be an asshole" you are fine by me.

[GeneralCinema]

Christopher Hitchens (who may be one of GMG's personal heroes) died recently.  I hope he made his peace with God.

just because someone is a fellow Atheist, doesnt necessarily mean we're boys.

Pretty sure John Wayne Gacy attended Church. That mean he a personal hero to you?

and yeah.....pretty confident Mr. Hitchens didnt make peace with anyone. Seems like his mind was made up. Wasnt exactly a fence walker.....

RIP

While I normally try and stay out of these Atheism/ Religious debates I feel like I want to put my 2 cents in here, as unwarranted as it may be. It'll probably we kind of long, and I will attempt to be as explanatory as possible.
When it comes to religion I always felt it was for weak minded individuals who needed a crutch to keep their life together and get through the monotony of daily life; People who did not want to take responsibility for striving for what they want in life, leading with the reasoning " Whatever happens is God's will and if it is meant to happen it will." It can be a scary thought that, in reality, your life is probably meaningless in the grand scheme of things. When you die you will be forgotten about and it will be as if you never even existed.
My biggest gripe is with Christianity, and the real vocal Christians. What makes Christianity the one and only absolute answer where you need to condemn anyone who does not follow the same strict belief system that you do? Your arguments would hold more validity if every almost religion in the history of time was not derivative of one another, having the same basic parables and stories. Christianity's most important figure, the figure of Jesus, has the same origins as may other figures, most notably Krishna. If you hold the two side by side it seems as if a group got together and said"It's been enough time lets re-make the story of Krishna to pull in a new audience." This practice worked all those years ago because there was nothing else around to distract people from their daily life of, in most cases oppression, or wake up, work sleep. In today's day and age, if a man claims to be a prophet, the son of God or the next Savior he is condemned by the public and seen as a threat. Every figure that has claimed that they were the embodiment of God, their story does not end well. One example being David Koresh. If all of a sudden you could not worship Jesus would you hold up in a 51 day firefight to defend your beliefs? MAYBE, maybe not.
Now I am not some horrible, corrupt piece of shit because I don't believe in an invisible father figure that watches everything I do and will condemn me to hell if I don't fall into line. I live by a basic set of morals. The same set of morals that any decent human should live by regardless of creed. Pretty much it boils down to "Don't be an asshole." Don't kill, steal, rape and all that jazz. Respect others and treat em how you want them to treat you. And live life to the fullest. Meet new people, have memorable experiences, and make connections with others. If you can do all this when you die, it won't be as terrifying a concept. You can a full life, have many memories and many laughs and loves.
I leave you with a joke. I can't remember where I heard it but I think it fits well and I have expanded upon it.
Hypothetically if you were to have no concept of what religion, Jesus, the Bible, or any of that was and I were to tell you I had just been to a used bookstore and found this book. The title of this book is the Holy Bible. In it are stories of a man in the sky who watches everything we do. The universe, as we know it, was created in about a week. We all come from a guy and a woman who was made out of his rib. Though they only had two sons but everyone living now comes from them. Oh yeah and some years later there was a flood wiping everyone out except a bunch of people on a boat with two of every animal in existence. Later this man in the sky sent his son down and he did all this impossible stuff and was ultimately crucified, but he came back to life. If I were to tell you all of these stories, and more were 100% factual and actually happened...you would tell me i was crazy and I would probably wind up committed. the only reason these stories work like they do is because they are pushed into kids heads while they are very young, and still susceptible to suggestion and the will of their parents. It comes down to the fact, that at some point before teenage years hit, everyone stops believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but for some reason God still remains as an undeniable factual image.
Believe whatever you want to believe, I'm not going to judge you on it either way. I will judge you by how you carry yourself as a person. As long as you "Don't be an asshole" you are fine by me.

GMG - going to church doesn't make you a Christian.  The devil knows more scripture than most Christians ever will.  And you're probably right about Hitchens.  I feel sorry for him.

b0bo - There may be some similarities with the stories of Christ and Krishna, I won't dispute that.  There are MANY similar Christ stories out there for various religions.  The thing with Christianity is that it's NOT a religion.  It is a living, breathing RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ.  The Bible itself is the GREATEST book about relationships that's EVER been written.  It teaches you how to have a relationship with God, your parents, your children, your friends, enemies, employees, employers, co-workers, strangers, and your spouse.  The Old Testament is the shadow of the New Testament and because of Christ's sacrifice, we are no longer un der the law (The first five books, also known as the Torah or the Pentateuch).

"When it comes to religion I always felt it was for weak minded individuals who needed a crutch to keep their life together and get through the monotony of daily life" - I agree with this.  RELIGION is designed to control the poor and the superstitious.  Again, Christianity is NOT a religion.  It BECOMES religion when you have schisms (divisions).  We call these schisms "denominations" (Methodist, Pentacostal, Episcopalian, AME, AME Zion, Baptist, Southern Baptist, Unitarian, et al.)  I don't consider Catholics Christians because of the SEVERE pagan roots that it has.

A perfect example of how Christianity has become religion is the number of Bible Translations that are available today.  The King James Version (KJV) is also called the Authorized Version.  This is the most accurate translation you'll find.  Period.  The other translations (NIV, ESV, RESV, NASB, The Living Bible, The Amplified Bible, etc) cut out whole scriptures and in some cases entire PASSAGES.  Acts 8:37 is cut out of most Bibles.  Why?  Because Acts 8:37 doesn't support infant baptism.  LOTS of money is made on infant baptism supplies.  Plus when most people get their infants "baptized" they think that they're automatically saved.  Guess what?  Doesn't happen cousin.  Baptism doesn't save you.  Jesus does.  You accept Him through belief in the heart and confession of the mouth (after your confession can you be baptized). 

Another great example is the Ten Commandments.  The NASB (The New American Standard Bible - The Official Catholic Bible) combines the first two commandment into one.  The second Commmandment states that you are not supposed to make any graven image for worship (if graven images couldn't be made, Solomon couldn't have built his temple to God and the Ark of the Covenant couldn't be built).  The Catholic Bible combines parts 1 and 2 (don't worship any graven images that aren't of God) so they can make MILLIONS of dollars on their stupid little statues.  The modern-day paganism that Catholicism is permits praying to everything that's NOT Jesus.  Catholics pray to saints and to Mary.  If they actually read the scripture, they'd realize that Isaiah 42:8 says "I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."  Praying to ANYTHING that's not God is giving that thing glory.  If you have kids, you wouldn't want them looking up to somebody else that's not you, right?  God's the same way. 

Again, it's about relationship.  it was NEVER about religion.

[GeneralCinema]

I leave you with a joke. I can't remember where I heard it but I think it fits well and I have expanded upon it.
Hypothetically if you were to have no concept of what religion, Jesus, the Bible, or any of that was and I were to tell you I had just been to a used bookstore and found this book. The title of this book is the Holy Bible. In it are stories of a man in the sky who watches everything we do. The universe, as we know it, was created in about a week. We all come from a guy and a woman who was made out of his rib. Though they only had two sons but everyone living now comes from them. Oh yeah and some years later there was a flood wiping everyone out except a bunch of people on a boat with two of every animal in existence. Later this man in the sky sent his son down and he did all this impossible stuff and was ultimately crucified, but he came back to life. If I were to tell you all of these stories, and more were 100% factual and actually happened...you would tell me i was crazy and I would probably wind up committed. the only reason these stories work like they do is because they are pushed into kids heads while they are very young, and still susceptible to suggestion and the will of their parents. It comes down to the fact, that at some point before teenage years hit, everyone stops believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but for some reason God still remains as an undeniable factual image.
Believe whatever you want to believe, I'm not going to judge you on it either way. I will judge you by how you carry yourself as a person. As long as you "Don't be an asshole" you are fine by me.

As for your "joke"...The Bible only mentions THREE of Adam and Eve's sons.  Cain, Abel, and Seth.  The reason for this is that Abel carried the bloodlone for Jesus.  After Cain killed him, that birthright was passed to Seth.  Since Jesus is the CENTRAL figure of the Bible, it's only relevant to know about HIS bloodline.  Once Seth has a son, the focus is on him, and so on.  Plus, Noah's Ark is an absolutely horrifying story.  Everyone makes it family friendly but it's really not.  Plus, I didn't get Jesus "pushed into my head" when I was a kid.  I got saved at 21 years of age.  Everything I know came from reading The Bible and research, but mostly from The Bible.  Again, I was 21 when I got saved.  I'm 34 now.  My son is 10 and he's about the age where he should know about Jesus.  I'm not gonna be abrasive about it - that's the wrong way to do it - I'm just going to read The Bible and answer any questions that he has.  If he accepts Christ while doing this...great.  If not, I'm not going to force him.  He has to make that decision on his own.  Making someone believe something that they don't believe in their heart...that's religion at its finest.

[b0bo]

Couple questions GC. I think of religion and "relationship" with with a God as the same thing in general. Its just semantics of how you say it. You are still making yourself subservient to a figure that, I feel, you can never truly know is actually there. Regardless of the differences in the ways they practices of all of the different diversions of Christianity they all have the same basic belief system. As you said the Bible teaches you how to have a relationship with your parents, your children, your friends, enemies, employees, employers, co-workers, strangers, and your spouse etc. I feel the "Don't be an asshole" can cover the same.
Also you say that you are not going to be abrasive about having your son abode by your religion. That seems almost impossible to do. You stated that him being 10 you feel he should know about Jesus and you are going to read him the Bible. Any 10 year old, and I assume you are a good father, would want to make their father happy by following what was taught to them. There is  really no way to have your children make their own decisions because they grew up in your household and around your belief system in a God. Regardless I'd rather live in a would where devoted fathers teach their kids to believe in a God then an absentee father whose child grows up to be a criminal and fucks shit up for others.

Was raised Catholic, never really believed any of it and finally broke away at about 13. The whole Adam and Eve thing always bothered me the most. 2 sons...3 sons... not important, but the way I learned it there were no daughters. Hmm...how does a bloodline carry on after that?

[GeneralCinema]

Couple questions GC. I think of religion and "relationship" with with a God as the same thing in general. Its just semantics of how you say it. You are still making yourself subservient to a figure that, I feel, you can never truly know is actually there. Regardless of the differences in the ways they practices of all of the different diversions of Christianity they all have the same basic belief system. As you said the Bible teaches you how to have a relationship with your parents, your children, your friends, enemies, employees, employers, co-workers, strangers, and your spouse etc. I feel the "Don't be an asshole" can cover the same.
Also you say that you are not going to be abrasive about having your son abode by your religion. That seems almost impossible to do. You stated that him being 10 you feel he should know about Jesus and you are going to read him the Bible. Any 10 year old, and I assume you are a good father, would want to make their father happy by following what was taught to them. There is  really no way to have your children make their own decisions because they grew up in your household and around your belief system in a God. Regardless I'd rather live in a would where devoted fathers teach their kids to believe in a God then an absentee father whose child grows up to be a criminal and fucks shit up for others.

Was raised Catholic, never really believed any of it and finally broke away at about 13. The whole Adam and Eve thing always bothered me the most. 2 sons...3 sons... not important, but the way I learned it there were no daughters. Hmm...how does a bloodline carry on after that?

It's not semantics.  God never intended man to have religion.  Religion started with the Tower of Babel.

I'm going to teach my son about Jesus.  It's up to him to follow Him.  I'd prefer that he does, but he ha to make his own choice.

The Bible is patriarchal.  the names of the daughters aren't important because the bloodline is carried through the man, not the woman...which is why Mary is such an important figure.  Jesus came from HER seed, not Joseph's.

[Splatterscribe]

Bobo: "Your arguments would hold more validity if every almost religion in the history of time was not derivative of one another, having the same basic parables and stories. Christianity's most important figure, the figure of Jesus, has the same origins as may other figures, most notably Krishna."


Based on what I've read,  the only similarities between  Jesus Christ and Krishna is that their respective stories begin when they are children and in one interpretation of Krishna's origins his birth is immaculate. In others, however, he was the eighth son born to a princess. He is also alternately represented as a lover,a warrior a prankster  and a prince.

Christ has one story about Him- He was born to the wife of a carpenter and the conception was immaculate. He was then raised in Nazareth, disappeared later in life and returned at age 33(by which time He had taken up the profession of carpentry) to begin His ministry which eventually led to His death and - if you believe- His resurrection. That's pretty much it.
Although there is indeed diversity among the different religious orders (ie Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism,etc) in deference to whether or not Jesus was in fact the Son of God, His life story/history doesn't change in any telling and even the religions that don't assign divine attributes acknowledge Him at the very least as as a great prophet of God. So unlike Krishna , Christ is always described these same way: As a kind,gentle Jewish man who walked around followed by disciples, teaching about peace, love and forgiveness and then being executed for what he taught. Not attempting to force any beliefs on you, just clarifying that aside from assignation of divine properties, their stories actually bear little resemblance to one another.

It's is also worth noting that unlike many other divine figures, Jesus was by no means accepted as divine right away when he began teaching. Yes, His birth was heralded by angels and the wise men showed up at the manger..but when Jesus arrived to begin His earthly ministry later in life, most people did not realize at first that He was the babe in the manger they had heard about. They expected a superhuman type who would fix everything..not this meek Jewish carpenter.  Even the New Testament  mentions that there had been so many would-be messiahs and false religions at that point  that most people doubted Jesus to the point of contempt upon His initial appearance. When He reappeared on the scene in His thirties, this man wasn't championed or led around on the shoulders of a people suddenly crying victory- some of those same people took one look at Jesus and commented that nothing good ever came out of Nazareth.

I'd also like to point out that Christianity grew out of Judaism.Of course other religions preceded it..Christ isn't Jesus's name,,it's His title..it means "messiah". He was given that designation because we believe He is the fulfillment of the Hebrews prophecy concerning the savior due to His having met all of the criteria in His lineage, purpose and eventual actions... not to mention that the reason Jesus was sent in the first place is that people were getting it wrong and God wanted to reconcile us to His grace.  So right there you can narrow down the list of religions with opposing deities because the Jewish God is also the Christian God. 
Ready for another  another 'shocker'? Islamic worship also has its origins with the same God (albeit known by a different name). Islam and Judaism both branched out from the story of Abraham. Here's a  loose 'cliff notes' sort of version: Abraham  was childless and his wife Sara couldn't conceive..but God promised Abraham a son through Sara who would eventually spawn descendants who would be God's chosen people. Sara had her maidservant Hagar lay with Abraham  and eventually bear him a child named Ishmael, in her own effort to fulfill this promise. However in her later years, far past the days when she should have been capable of giving birth, Sara conceived a child with Abraham on her own..this was Isaac. Focusing on the wording of  the specific promise - a child through Sara- it was assumed that Isaac was the actual heir. Ishmael and Hagar were sent into the desert and Isaac stayed with Abraham. .The descendants of Isaac eventually grew into the nation of Israel- those are the Jews. They believe they are the chosen people. The descendants of Ishmael believe that he was the promised one and that they-the Muslims - are God's chosen people. If I'm not mistaken (and on this point, I confess that I may be) ,  the spot where Ishmael and Hagar set up camp in the desert is sacred and is the region now known as Mecca. Anyway,  the Islamic traditions eventually grew from the incident with Abraham and his sons..which all tracks back to the same God.

So three of the worlds most populous belief systems all have their origins in the same God. With the first two, He appeared to the people and they splintered into factions and made an ongoing war out of it. In the case of my own faith-Christianity- God tried again and sweetened the pot by actually sending His Son to be a blood sacrifice, which -as had been promised back in the days of David- fulfilled the law in terms of atonement for sins , allowing us to be saved. And again, as time passed , it was splintered off into denominations and managed to again get twisted .  I kid you not, the more I look at history the clearer it becomes that God did it all perfectly- it was the people who mucked it all up.


As to brainwashing as opposed to a relationship..GC is right. One of the more interesting scriptures in the New Testament is an account of a time when Jesus once told His accusers that "we know our own and are known by our own." Essentially, the point He was making is that unless you truly walk by faith, then you're on the outside looking in with no real understanding of how deep the relationship between God and man goes.

 I'm living proof of this. I was raised as part of  the Jehovah's Witnesses for a few years as a child (and,yeah, spending every Sunday walking around handing out the Watchtower is absolutely as wretched to a five year old as you imagine it is) then segued into standard Methodism in my later years. By the time I was 19 or so, the one two punch of lots of physical and psychological abuse in my childhood combined with the seeming cruelty of organized religion  had led me to the conclusion that there either was no God or, if there was, He actually didn't care one way  or the other what the hell happend to us. So i embraced atheism.

Then one day I sat down and began reading the bible, My brother and his wife had given one to my mom and I for Christmas so I decided to read it from cover to cover. No idea why. In hindsight it may have, subconsciously, been an  effort to prove to myself  once and for all how silly the entire book was, reinforcing my belief that there was nothing  to believe in but the here and now and allowing me to confidently move forward with my life retaining that perspective.

Well, it's been said that if you want to give God a good laugh, you should tell Him your plans. you know what they say about  the best laid plans of mice and men and all that jazz? Uh-huh.  You guessed it- precisely the opposite occurred. 

As I read- particularly the New Testament- things started to make sense and it just sort of fell into place. Great truth was contained in that book and -aside from the promise of salvation and the invitation to live a life based on hope, what for me was the most telling aspect of Jesus's teachings  was that-especially applied directly to modern life..they make sense. Here was this gentle, kind, simple man who told us..no, you don't get to have revenge on the people who wronged you. Pride is bad. Humility is better.  It takes greater strength to walk away from anger and to forgive than to hate. Love each other, work together in fellowship for the greater good taking care of those who are weaker. Remember that God loves you and you're covered, so enjoy life. One of the reasons I loathe most organized religions centered on Christ is that you would never -based on their behavior- guess that this was the core message of the faith they claim to follow.

I accepted Christ not long after my experience with the Bible.. I did it on my own, of my own volition  as an intelligent, rational, thinking human being with no other influence on my choice (except His).

I'm not trying to sermonize ..my point here is that for every person who subscribes to religion on the level of the condescending, holier than thou dog and pony show , there are a million others like me globally who simply responded to the presence of a great truth. We have no desire to judge anyone and are simply trying to let people know there is a truth that brings hope and peace and helps us to have a greater appreciation for how beautiful life can really be.

Do I have proof? Only the intangible properties of what's in my heart and the improved more peaceful, fulfilled life I've lived since. But faith is hope in what we can't see and truth and love aren't objects you put on display in a building..you have to feel them. I won't argue with anyone as to whether or not God exists..I will testify to what I hold to be truth and what I see as the proof in my own life.  After that, what you believe is up to you. If you don't have a living ,healthy relationship with God and absolutely refuse to even consider that God is real,  then you couldn't possibly understand it and, yeah, it undoubtedly seems ludicrous to you.

Know what else was ludicrous once? The idea that the Earth was round. That planets revolved around the sun and that the Earth wasn't the center of the Universe. That a carriage could travel without horses. The notion of electricity. Long range communications. That human beings could ever enter space or even walk on the moon. There was a time when the people who advanced the reality/possibility of these concepts were considered insane .

Just something to think about. Well,that and the fact that at some point there actually was someone walking the Earth who bore  the name "Hagar", which - up until I read about the origins of Islam- was a name I  assumed had been conceived by an artist to identify a comic strip viking.

Peace out.