Lacessit

If I don't believe in God, live a life where I have harmed no-one, cheated no-one etc. your God won't let me in. OTOH, someone who believes, screws around, steals from others and is generally a hypocrite will be forgiven their sins. God will let them in. I don't think you realize how ridiculous your post is.

Bob Smith has 850,000 baht? Wow, move over Donald Trump. Just think, he only needs 150,000 more to be a millionaire!

Er - there is anti-matter as well.

When I see threads like this, I just wonder what the hell people are bitching about. I am currently in Australia, paying as much for one avocado as I would for a kilo in Chiang Rai. I am creeping past schools and parked police cars at 40 km/hr, because those are the nanny state rules. No 500 baht fines here. Getting on a scooter would be signing my death warrant. Here for another month, can't wait to get back to Thailand.

Breaking up text to make it more readable is just good manners. Were you taught to write in large paragraphs by a teacher intent on saving paper?There's no paper in the cyberverse. See how easy it is?

Who said the universe came from nothing?

Many do not believe because there is no evidence supporting belief. Religions exist because people cannot stand the thought this is the only life we have. No-one has come back to tell us otherwise, the Resurrection could equally be the result of hallucinations induced by religious fervour.

I'm not advocating the death do us part scene, just saying one marriage was enough for me. After that, defacto or short-term. I would say you have been very lucky, but that's the way it happens for some. I am risk-averse. I did acquire a quite virulent UTI from a long-term defacto, which effectively ended the relationship. I don't know if UTI's count as an STD.

FOUR marriages? Slow learner. I've never had unprotected sex with any woman before an extensive trial period. Two years before I did it with my current GF, and that was only after she produced a medical certificate. IMO people who have unprotected sex, using pharmaceuticals for protection, are just swapping one risk for another.

If anyone ever did a study to ascertain how many people actually had their prayers answered, against those who didn't, it would be obvious. If there is a god, he/she/it is not listening. Those who claim to have their prayers answered IMO just got lucky.

Being unable to speak or read Chinese, the only comments I can offer: It does remind me of the film "Raise The Red Lantern" starring Gong Li. I once went via rail from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. It was like peering into another world. You do appear to have a love-hate relationship with the Chinese. Having been involved with some on a professional level over the years, IMO they are pretty smart people.

What are you doing now that you can't do in Thailand? Why are you posting here, if you have better things to occupy you?

We already have the weapons with the potential to kill us all. Or we can do it in stages, with heat and chemical pollution. As Stalin once said, quantity is its own quality. The perfectly cut chamber is either a matter of having one totally gifted artisan with decades of work, or 50,000 workers to ensure each piece fitted perfectly. My own theory about the absence of aliens is - any alien with common sense would keep well away. A century ago, a machine that could scan one's body from head to toe, and pinpoint every internal defect, would be dismissed as science fiction. CT and PET scanners would be called miracles by anyone in the Middle Ages.

If it's a Thai caller, I just hang up. In Australia, I ask for their details as I am working for the Scamwatch website. Then they hang up.

All I can say is most churches have substantial portfolios of property, and many are built on prime locations. I suggest you read John D MacDonald's "One More Sunday", which is fiction, but based on his research into the techniques used by evangelical movements to persuade lay people to part with their cash. It will be the supreme irony when religions start enlisting AI to assist them in that regard. Sh*t happens as a result of your genetic inheritance, the kind of parents you had, your environmental exposures, and your choices in life. Gods have nothing to do with that.

If you want your sinful ass saved, Christianity. AFAIK it's the only religion with the concept of original sin. I don't know which deranged theologians came up with the ridiculous concept a new-born baby is sinful, but there it is. Science is not any god. It's the evidence and fact based explanation of phenomena which were previously thought to be divinely inspired. Gods are the province of belief in something that cannot be detected by any of the senses. For example, the prohibition on pork in Judaism and Islam. In those times, the parasite trichinosis was very prevalent in pigs. It made sense to avoid pork. Nowadays, with modern husbandry and hygiene, pork is as clean as any other meat. However, the two religions still stick to the anachronistic rule.

To give you a pointless off topic question to post.

I said final post, I was wrong. A new twist in the tale. I had lodged a dispute with my bank, about the $100 deposit to the car rental company. The manager grudgingly gave me back my deposit after I arrived in Australia. Meantime, my bank yesterday credited my account for $100, by reversing the original deposit transaction. The manager has 30 days to claim it back. The shoe is on the other foot. I am holding his money, whereas before he was holding mine. He could have avoided the situation by refunding the deposit immediately, instead of trying to bulldoze me. Karma.

The possibility exists that if there is a god, instead of being loving, he/she/it is a vicious and uncaring god. As far as I am concerned, every religion demands worship - and money. Greeks, Romans and Scandinavians all had their pantheon of gods. Pagans had the spirits of earth, air, fire and water. It is a matter of belief, not fact, as to which religion thinks it is superior to all the others.

Hot mustard, soy sauce.

Not many people speed up going past an accident.

I am waiting to hear from any poster who has gone to Immigration for a retirement extension, and has been told they must have a Thai tax number for the extension to be approved.

You may have him on ignore, but everyone else can see his responses to your posts.

The OP is applying through the Chicago embassy, where the Western meaning of "certified" may be the rule. As another poster has said, best to ask the embassy staff what is acceptable. IME facts are better to have than opinions.