Personal Questions

[RCMerchant]

No.

[Paquita]

Ever found a four-leaf clover?

I find lots of them.  I always carry little plastic baggies with me to collect them.

[ER]

While alone you see a blinding light from above and hear a booming voice that claims to be God, and this voice tells you to go forth into society and repeat a certain (non-violent and mostly beneficial) message word for word, telling everyone God told you to say this. How do you react?

[Alex]

Tell him to get off his lazy arse and do it his damn self.

[RCMerchant]

^ What he said.

[ER]

People called by God so often led subsequent lives of misery that the Catholic Church used this as an indication that the claims of divine visitation were valid. In other words, as John Lennon said, I'd run. (Hopefully in my case it'd work out better.)

[Alex]

People called by God so often led subsequent lives of misery that the Catholic Church used this as an indication that the claims of divine visitation were valid. In other words, as John Lennon said, I'd run. (Hopefully in my case it'd work out better.)

When I was in Primary school (ages 5 to 12), we used to have to listen to I guess what would now be a weekly podcast, but back then was sent out on cassette tapes. It would be all about some religious figure and a group could Sherwood (if I recall correctly), would sing some uplifting song. I remember when they were telling us all about Livingston and his missionary work in Africa, realising that every week the person they told us about ended up disease-ridden, poor, oppressed and quite often burned at the stake. I decided that day that if god ever came calling with a mission for me, he'd get turned out on his ear and told to bugger off since he cared so poorly for the wellbeing of his employees. I would have been I guess somewhere between 9 and 11 when I came to that conclusion.

[ER]

It's further proof of what I've long said: if God is real, God is strange.

[ER]

Do you ever watch a news report about a disaster, and you're appalled on the surface, but something deep down in your reptile brain finds pleasant satisfaction in the carnage and destruction?

[RCMerchant]

^ Not really. 

[Allhallowsday]

It's further proof of what I've long said: if God is real, God is strange.

Really?  You are strange.  Free will is a malleable concept. 

Do you ever watch a news report about a disaster, and you're appalled on the surface, but something deep down in your reptile brain finds pleasant satisfaction in the carnage and destruction?

WTF?  NEVER.  You ARE strange. 

[Alex]

Normally no.

[ER]

It's further proof of what I've long said: if God is real, God is strange.

Really?  You are strange.  Free will is a malleable concept. 

Do you ever watch a news report about a disaster, and you're appalled on the surface, but something deep down in your reptile brain finds pleasant satisfaction in the carnage and destruction?

WTF?  NEVER.  You ARE strange. 

Oh, I can assemble a good case for God's strangeness, lol.

And if you think that reptile brain question was strange (a question you seem to think I answered based on how  you attacked me) you'd really have leaned closer to your screen over some I've decided not to ask. 

Never be afraid to open your mind to uncomfortable things, John, and exercise that God-given imagination. It can take you to unexpected places.

[RCMerchant]

God?
Never think it may exist.
That some almighty enity you have never seen and have no proof that it really exists except old scripts. The idea of God will come for you if you f**ked up- you will be punished. It became a cult.

[Allhallowsday]

...
Oh, I can assemble a good case for God's strangeness, lol.

And if you think that reptile brain question was strange (a question you seem to think I answered based on how  you attacked me) you'd really have leaned closer to your screen over some I've decided not to ask. 

Never be afraid to open your mind to uncomfortable things, John, and exercise that God-given imagination. It can take you to unexpected places.

I did not attack you, merely reacted.  I apologize.  Other than "lucky" I would describe myself as "unafraid".  My mind is open wide and I nary indulge my own wishes or wants.  I am a pragmatist yet always uncomfortable with the idea of suffering, particularly savored.  I am not naive.