Purpose of this diary…response to scootz

“I agree with the above noter.Is this diarys pourpose to a) destroy other peoples faith, b) make them think deeply, or c) hate your guts? Or is it d) all of the above?

I have noted you before, and you seemed like a jerk, but even the jerks can be transformed. What do you belive in? What do u stand 4? It seems you rely on science for your facts not your belifs. You stand for nothing. In fact, spiritually, you aren’t standing on anythin. Nothing solid. God is solid. Try standing with Him for a while and see how you do. [scootz51]”

I love it that you ask a question, and give 4 options as though that exhausted the possibilities…it’s delicious.

You have noted me before. As I look back it looks to me like you were the jerk, and it looks like you even admitted it.

“Look, I do realize that I may have come across wrong.I was writting in rage yesterday and now I’m writting so you can understand.God sent His Son Jesus to earth, to pay the price for our sin.Everyone of us is a sinner.Sin is everything we have done wrong.Every lie.The penelty for that sin was death.Jesus died on the cross-taking the place of us.He loves us so much that He died for us.And yes,.. [scootz51]” – (http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=A414735&entry=20018) for full context if anyone’s curious.

Let’s hope that as you said, “even the jerks can be transformed”.

“You stand for nothing. In fact, spiritually, you aren’t standing on anythin. Nothing solid. God is solid. Try standing with Him for a while and see how you do.”

If you have questions, please ask, but it irks me when people tell me things about myself that they have no idea whether it’s true. “You stand for nothing.” You want me to take you seriously?  Want me to stand with God? You say I’m not standing “on” something solid? If I stood “with” God am I standing “on” God?

If the punishment for my sins is my death, then I’ve paid the penalty once I die. Awesome.

Or I can transfer my sins and my guilt, right? Why do I have to do it before I die? Is there a verse that states that? Or why can’t I just sacrifice a goat?

I’ve personally liked my solution to the whole problem – if I go to hell when I die, I’ll let anyone else who is in hell transfer their sins to me, and then they’ll be without sin, and will be able to get out of hell.  I’ll stay in hell for eternity, by myself if everyone else wants to get out.

Now THAT’s a sacrifice, none of this, died for 3 days then get to spend the rest of eternity in heaven “sacrifice” that Jesus supposedly took.

And what if after I did all that, I looked across the abyss and forgave God – how would God feel then?

Yes, I rely on science for its provisional knowledge about the world… I’ve spoken about it before, I take previous experience and claims into consideration with various probabilities when it comes to new claims that are made. And of course, there is the knowledge of self that can be attained through introspection.

I have various beliefs about the dignity of my fellow humans, etc., altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility.

Finally scootz asks basically, why I write in this diary, what are my purposes, etc….

I get a lot out of writing this diary, and what I get from it isn’t necessarily why I write in it.  For one, I get experience in analyzing or writing persuasive short essays. I get experience as to how people react to the way that I write.

I have found that people overlook things very often.  People simplify the things they think about and assume that there are only X possibilities.  For instance, Christians sometimes assume that it’s either “Creationism or evolution” (some say that both, etc., but follow this example).  They assume that if they can *disprove* evolution, that it somehow proves, gives credence, emboldens the creationist viewpoint.  It doesn’t. It flat out does not.  Even if we could come to some conclusion that something supernatural had to happen to get life to this point, it doesn’t mean anything toward proving that the Christian God creator that did it.  Some options that people don’t consider, 2 gods. 3 gods. 4 gods, but only one of them cares about you knowing that he exists. 5 gods and none of them want anything to do with humanity. 6 gods and they all died in the process of creating life on earth…etc., on to infinity.  I try and ask questions that I don’t think people have even considered before.  I don’t surf the internet and look for good questions to ask.  I think my brain can generate a billion and a half questions about anything that you want, and I think that a good many of them are relevant, and things that people should consider and possibly recognize that they have no idea why something is the way it is, and so on.  I’m not asking questions and trying to get people to think outside of the box to *make them look* a certain way…it’s to make people THINK! And QUESTION things that they take for granted.  That’s the end goal. (and to help me in thinking about what to ask, and other types of mental exercises—another thing that I ‘get out of this’)

To Haredawg’s frequent whining about how I tear down religion and religious beliefs but put nothing in its place… I am more than willing to talk to a person about what he or she should consider in making ethical decisions, any other area sometimes attributed to religion. So if there is anyone out there that has had their faith destroyed by my arguments, but feels that there is nothing that takes it place and feel a need for something, please note me.  But I think that if I started talking about some different system, I would either be talking to those similarly minded, or to those that disagree for religious reasons, in which case, I would have to lead them into questioning their faith before they would perhaps conclude what I do about ethical issues, etc. 

More than anything, I don’t want someone going from one form of dogma to another. I don’t want a person going from being a Christian, to being a secular humanist for the wrong reasons – which I think would be possible if I took any other approach.