Quite broken. But since you are quite broken, I can see how you miss that.
Personal attacks are not only against the rules, they are the surest sign of a defeated argument. Attack my argument, not me.
You would first have to make an argument first for me to attack it. You just made a string of snide assertions that, while at least not plagerized this time, are hardly original.
Your posts are for the most part a confused jumble of parroted lines from atheists preaching to the choir with some incoherent thoughts. It is not a personal attack to point that out.
Btw, since I don't spend much time on your posts (I haven't seen much reason) over the many threads you have cast about here, so I may have missed something, so let me bring up here what I've seen pointed out to you several times but I haven't seen a reply from you. You seem to know next to nothing about Orthodoxy-your comment about there being no growth in heaven is the surest sign of that. Not that we expect everyone to know alll about us as they ought. But you came to a specifically Orthodox Christian site, as opposed to an Evangelical one (which I am guessing is your background or whatever familiarity you have with Christianity) or even a general theist one, to open threads on ideas you gather from atheist sites. Given that, can you explain why we shouldn't feel like mud is beig thrown at our wall just in the hope that something will stick?
Why? You don't want it?
I seem to have found one limit to your understanding, right here. Perhaps you're smart enough to figure out what your error here is.
I'm sorry, like your friend Carl Sagan, I'm also a creature of the University of Chicago, and we have little patience to play games with sophmores. If you have something to say, spit it out.
I didn't rig my results. I can't speak for you as to what exactly how you fixed yours. Have you answered yet the question about whether you admit of ultimate Truth or how it (we know He) is found?
You'll notice that I didn't say you rigged your results.
I"m not the one going on an atheist website not knowing their worldview/arguments/beliefs etc. and posting platitudes against them culled from here, with no substantiation.
I don't know if you think we don't think on your own, or if that is something you picked up from your websites, or both. But in any case, the underlying assumption of your posts that we accept assumptions without a reason and build on from there shines through.
And I didn't notice you asking such a mundane question.
Being underwhelmed by your brilliance, we have to resort to the tedious chore of figuring out a basis for discussion, as you make it clear you won't do that homework.
Please define what you mean by "ultimate truth".
Christ of course. But you are not ready for Him, so we will have to settle for some agreed common ground of reality, where 2+2=4.
For instance, I asked you once how do you know that Caesar crossed the Rubicon. How do you prove it? Can one prove it? Can it be verified? And if it is verified, can we also see and verify the consequences?
So is someting real, or is it all make-believe?
Because you don't like it?
Protip: Read entire post before responding.
I did. Your point got the counter point it merited. No more, no less.
Ever been on an airplane? Seen a rocket?
Apparently you don't understand aerodynamics. Gravity is not being disobeyed; it is being outdone by different forces.
I'm quite aware of them. So too, just because when you break God's commandments that He doesn't strike you down then and there doesn't prove the divine law isn't in operation. He has other concerns than just swift punishment. Just like the operation of areodynamics do not disprove gravity.
Jump off that cliff and see how much it doesn't.
That, my friend, isn't a demand for obeisance -- it is not telling me to behave in any particular way; it is merely exerting brute force.
Brute force is quite within God's reach. But He is not restricted or limited to it. If we were Calvinists, you would know the difference between predestination and gravity. Since we don't know exactly what pre/misconceptions of your own about God that you bring here, don't know how further to go with that at this time.
Oh, you didn't mention your PhD in Physics.
That's okay. You didn't mention you masters in theology. Or you doctorate in bs, for that matter.
PhD in Islaimc thought, Muslim Theology and Early Islamic History, University of Chicago. ABD.
So, where did you cut your teeth on the books, or are you self taught.
you are stumbling, and quite badly.
I'm happy to let the readership decide.
Agreement at last!
But many of our readers have already voted on that.
You stated that you are not American/in America IIRC. Where are you from, because you seem to be quite confused on Christianity in general and Orthodox Christianity in particular. If you are not in America, maybe you are not aware of what a self-abnegating cult of death looks like, like the botox cult here.
Agreed, like faith, it is largely a superficial phenomenon, which is performed for the sake of appearance, and doesn't outlive the person.
Depends on what the person places his Faith/faith in. Or in Whom.
Also, the two are similar in that they are a result of an overweening concern with conformity and the opinions of others, and an attempt to defy the reminders of mortality.
Ah, there you go again, trying to sneak an assertion in without us noticing its lack of foundation.
Let's break this down:
"a result of an overweening concern with conformity and the opinions of others" this may be the case where you are-you evaded, again, answering the question of where you are at, since you state you are not American-but such was not the case of Orthodox Christianity in the first three centuries, during which it was a capital offense everywhere. Getting yourself executed for your Faith doesn't demonstrate much concern with conformity and the opinion of others, particularly those in power. It is still the case in much of the world: I've spent a lot of time in the Muslim world, where just wearing a Cross can and does get you killed. And then there is the Church under Communism. Again, not an overwhelming concern with conformity and the opinion of others.
"an attempt to defy the reminders of mortality": you obviously haven't read any Orthodox spiritual literature about the remembrance of mortality. You're way not ready for that, so I'll just ask: you characterized Christianity as a "death cult" or some such nonsense. Explain then how does a death cult attempt to defy the reminders of morality? If you are supposedly obsessed with death, how do you ignore the reminders of morality?
This comparison is more apt than you realize.
Carry on!
LOL. Sophmores.
This thread reminds me of a conversation I had with an American Communist in between undergrad and grad school at the U of C. The Communist, of course, was from rich priveledged background in Maryland, blue blood family, the whole bit. He was, not suprisingly, and alcoholic. We had friends in common, but never talked much to each other (for a variety of moral failings on his part with several persons, I didn't care too much for him). Anyway, I came by the home of a common friend, and the communist was there, and he offered me a drink. Although far earlier than I was used to (11 AM), I took it anyway.
Well, we got to talking and he started asking about the Gnostic Gospels, which evidently he had just heard of. Somewhere between bottles (he afterword was raving about how I could keep up with him, a sad commentary on his sense of priority) he made some comment about death and that I didn't have to worry about it because I thought that I would live again. I replied that that didn't matter, as I looked at the afterlife like aging and death, and inevitable, and I don't worry about inevitable things. "So you aren't afraid of dying and not existing?" he asked. "No. I think I would tire of existence after a millenium, two at most. Death meaning the end of existence wouldn't bother me a bit, as it would be inevitable" I replied. He then went into his profound fear of death, something that the communism and alcoholism was feeding off of, but he wasn't aware of that.
So no, no opiate of the masses here nor afterlife morphine. Just dealing with the facts.