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@Mopac
If you were born in North Korea you would worship Kim Jong Un as your god, refute me.
If you were born in North Korea you would worship Kim Jong Un as your god, refute me.
I don't think it strange to believe that there is an entire world around us that escapes both our innate senses and the senses we have through technology. It seems apparent to me that not only is this possible or likely, but even the evident truth.
I don't agree. Our instruments have not shown us 'an entire world' exists different from the world revealed by our senses. There is only one world, about which we learn something about through our senses, and yet more about through our instruments.
Pharaoh liked to make this pretense of being a god.
These gods come and go, they are born and they die.
Making claims regarding religious geographical beliefs is the point I'm making, atheism is not a religion. I can only speak for myself but my atheism is a result of examining and rejecting the claims of godism. All godism.
I think as atheists we need to exercise a little humility here and admit that we too are merely hostages of circumstance and chaos.
I don't think people who describe their nde's and obe's are liars,
but there is no solid reason to treat ndes/obes as anything except dreams.
I have no doubt you believe that to be true.I can attest that my own spiritual experiences are not like dreaming, they are much more alive and conscious than the physical experience.
Even North Koreans know that Kim Jung Un is not The Truth.
Evidence that everything you say is not true according to the above sentence, you are overwhelmed by your HUBRIS.One of the typical indications of prelest is that it is usually accompanied by pride. Real spiritual advancement is always accompanied by a sincere humility.
Perhaps you should explain how prelest relates to hesychasm and theoria.
What's your #1?I think as atheists we need to exercise a little humility here and admit that we too are merely hostages of circumstance and chaos.The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.Eccles. 9:112nd best book in bible.
The west really dropped the ball. The Latin Church broke away from Orthodoxy and embraced scholasticism. The protestant reformation threw out the church with the pope, and inherited scholasticism from the schismatic Latin church they rejected.Atheism is really quite naturally the child of protestant scholasticism.And really it is no surprise to us Orthodox that widespread theological ignorance leads to atheism.Unfortunately, atheists in the west think they knowingly reject Christianity when really they rejected a form of Christianity that was delivered to them corrupted from the beginning.The well has been poisoned. The ground has been salted.Orthodox evangelism is a lot more effective with protestants than with atheists. Most protestants don't believe in their churches anyway. Of course, they have been educated to be very anti-Roman Catholic which in itself is an obstacle, because there is a superficial resemblance between Orthodoxy and the Latin Church.If you simply go off of church history and the writings of the church fathers, it is a lot easier to back Orthodoxy's claim to being The Church. The Roman Catholic Church has clearly deviated.And all that might not matter to you until you realize that all Christianity in the west is descended from the schismatic Latin Church, and they have done more damage to the name of Christ than any other institution on the planet and continue to do so.
What's your #1?I'm sure you've said before but I seem to have forgotten.