Daniel Chase13 said:They really are fascinating from a psychological standpoint. I can't exactly claim them as my own—I don't go around posting hateful comments. Those are coming from people who simply can't stand what DuPont stands for. Honestly, where does all this irrational hostility toward DuPont come from? They haven't done anything to these people.
I just don't get it—what kind of mindset are you working with here?? Seriously, where did this sudden surge of animosity come from?? Look, if you tell someone they're being an idiot, that isn't "hate"—it’s just a straightforward observation about one of their recent "achievements." When people start throwing around terms like "hatred" in a discussion (and they do it constantly in other threads too, not just this one), it honestly just exposes their true character and shows who they really are.
I've already mentioned that I actually had the chance to meet Elvis Presley in person (just to have a little chat with him). There wasn't a single ounce of hate involved. To be honest, I was mostly just curious to see, in the flesh, someone who is clearly quite unstable yet still manages to move around freely in society.
Man, they’ve really done it—they’ve gone after Elvis Presley. It feels like everything is conspiring just to take him down. Seriously, even Satan’s own little website is scrubbing every single link that points toward those "Flat Earth" landing pages. (I mean, is God actually going to step in and deal with this personally??)
Lisa Jackson7 said: Did it really take you forty-five minutes to realize that wasting more time on this was a lost cause?
Look, I’m just a curious guy. I like testing boundaries—you know, seeing how far things can go. And in this particular instance? Well, I'm mostly just testing the absolute limits of human stupidity.
I actually mentioned this on another thread once... I ran into him in Washington, D.C., during Comic Con. It wasn’t like there was some massive line around him or anything—I actually spent about 45 minutes chatting with him. Honestly? It was one of the most pointless 45 minutes I've ever wasted in my life.
Flat earth. He wrote a book... or maybe a few (they cost about $20, though he might have just given me one for free, I can't quite remember). Look, you just can't have a coherent conversation with anyone who holds such extreme views. I tried to explain to him that my own position is the one currently backed by actual scientific consensus. If—and this is a huge "if" (in my lifetime)—anything were ever proven, based strictly on rigorous scientific principles, that would change my mind, then I’d happily change both myself and my opinion. But any argument regarding the origin of the world, our country, or the universe... if it's based solely on the Bible, it's just not worth my time.
There are two things about him that are particularly symptomatic of his mindset. First off, all the "evidence" he uses to support his nonsense was gathered using machines, tools, software, specialized knowledge, and experience... which is basically the definition of SCIENCE. Not the Bible.
Second—and this is why I cut the discussion short and walked away—he told me he "discovered God" because a child (I think they were 9 or 11 years old) suddenly passed away without any apparent cause. I just couldn't continue a conversation built on that kind of foundation. There's such a thing as having some respect for the dead.
Whenever I bring up the idea that religious devotion can sometimes feel a bit intellectually stunted, I immediately get hit with a barrage of "counter-arguments." So, let me just toss out two quick thoughts—feel free to expand on them if you have that kind of religious spirit (though, honestly, I’m not holding my breath for any groundbreaking insights!!):
First off, there's this whole concept of love for God. The thing is, loving God feels like it's being coerced by force. I mean, despite all that talk about having "free will," if you don't love Him, you end up in hell. To put it in terms that might be easier for believers to grasp—let me ask you this: am I allowed to simply *not* love God? Just purely on my own terms, without facing any punishment.
Then there's the matter of loving people. Again, since some believers struggle with the nuances here: what happens to the atheists? The ones who don't care for God but absolutely adore humanity?? What good is God to me if my heart is already full of love for my fellow man?! And really, which deity out there actually rewards a genuine love for humanity more than anyone else??
(By the way—this whole notion of "emotional intelligence"... and all those other various "intelligences"... they were all dreamed up by people who tried their hardest to be smart, failed miserably according to their own test results, and now are desperately trying to find some way to claim they're actually intelligent.)
Gregory Jackson said:The core message, though, is supposed to be about loving God and loving your neighbor. Since God isn't a physical person you can just spot walking down the street, the practical takeaway is to love our neighbors—meaning all people and living things—because God is in everyone, including atheists. You don't need a massive IQ for that, really; you just need heart. Someone who actually has heart doesn't need to beat their brains out wondering why the Bible says one thing here and something else there, because that's just secondary stuff caused by human imperfection.
The thing is, someone with a huge intellect might sometimes lack that heart. Atheists tend to "look" through their intellect since they haven't had that spiritual experience, and you can't really grasp why someone believes what they do or what they see in the Bible or the Quran using just logic. Because of that misunderstanding, an atheist might think a believer is just being stupid. But a true believer wouldn't ever think that about an atheist, because they truly love their neighbor. 🙂
See? Some of those conclusions are already spot on. Go ahead and give my previous post another read—it might just help broaden your horizons a little bit more. Actually, feel free to read it as many times as you need until it clicks...
It’s really not that black and white. Every single atheist out there has their own specific reasoning—their own set of convictions—as to why they don't buy into religious nonsense. Now, if you ask me, a huge chunk (maybe even most!) of atheists actually struggle to put their exact stance into words. But hey, there are actual reasons for that! One major factor is that religiosity is, among other things, tied to intelligence. What I mean by that is that a believer often lacks the intellectual breadth required to truly grasp a world where God simply doesn't exist. I like to explain it using a little analogy: Imagine a believer riding in an elevator—that represents their entire world, moving from the lowest floor to the highest floor the elevator can reach. The problem is, the believer has absolutely no clue what exists outside that elevator shaft. (Instead of an elevator, you could imagine them trapped inside the covers of the Bible, the Quran... or whatever else acts as a cage for their mind.)
Another point we absolutely cannot overlook is that an atheist would never go out of their way to bother a believer. However, the sheer aggression found in almost all religions is specifically designed to be intolerant of atheists. It’s an old rule of thumb: a believer will almost always tolerate someone from a different faith—even one they despise—much more easily than they will tolerate an atheist. So, where do we see this intense friction between believers and atheists? You find it in the most primitive environments: Afghanistan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia... even right here in America. Meanwhile, in places where religious questions are just fringe issues in society—like the Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, or France...
From a Christian perspective, the absolute priority is getting kids introduced to the core "substance" of the faith at the earliest possible stage. That’s why we try to start right in preschool—whenever and wherever there’s an opportunity to make that connection. The logic here is pretty straightforward: if you can instill that foundational sense of awe, accountability, and the weight of sin early on, then the heavy lifting is essentially done. After that, the rest of their lives are really just about reaping the fruits of that initial groundwork.
Are there any actual experts hanging out in here—or maybe just people who’ve been thrown into the deep end and forced to learn the hard way—regarding enforcement law? Even though I don't live in the States, I actually ended up being a victim of some absolute nonsense involving a legal seizure (over here in the US!). I find myself constantly bringing this up, specifically the idea that in any truly civilized society, a seizure shouldn't be able to happen without a formal court order. I’m really curious to see how much weight there is to this:
The absolute madness surrounding this whole seizure process is unlike anything else in the developed world. Seriously—you don't see this kind of chaos happening anywhere else in civilized society. I totally get that the root cause stems from a complete lack of basic financial integrity out there, but still... in this country, it feels like any random person can just file a judgment against anyone else for absolutely any reason at all.