Do you believe in God and why

[thaibeachlovers]

On 2/13/2024 at 11:36 PM, save the frogs said:

 

I already have expressed some of my views.

Seth is NOT the way to salvation.

Don't read that crap!

Depends on what "salvation" may be. I have no idea of what it may be on a spiritual level.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 2/13/2024 at 1:30 PM, Sunmaster said:

 

Whether I am a victim or not is irrelevant to what I was saying.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Whether I am a victim or not is irrelevant to what I was saying.

Something strange happened there. The link on the post I quoted changed when I quoted it. It as something about victimhood and then it changed to the Eagles pop group.

[save the frogs]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Depends on what "salvation" may be. I have no idea of what it may be on a spiritual level.

yeah, not even sure what salvation means myself. so will stop using that word. 

 

 

[Sunmaster]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Depends on what "salvation" may be. I have no idea of what it may be on a spiritual level.

I think that on the most basic level perhaps it's "removing ignorance about one's own Self".

[VincentRJ]

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

There is no moral of the story. People are, and some attempt to understand why they are, and most don't. Humans stand on the edge of extinction likely caused by themselves. After we are gone, another species will rise to prominence and all that we are will be as nothing. Perhaps like the walls in Sth America some trace will remain that the next dominant species will wonder about, or perhaps not.

 

What will history say about us? Will we be a barbaric species that gloried in killing each other, or a species that strove for the stars and fell short.

IMO the jury is out on that.

 

As I've mentioned before, a fundamental characteristic of all life involves a competition for resources, in order to survive and replicate. There are no exceptions that I'm aware of.

 

Whist we are very much aware of the many examples of our own competition, as in football and cricket matches, commercial activities, political elections, theft and corruption, and the slaughter of our fellow citizens during wars and armed conflicts, the competition that other life-forms engage in is usually under the radar of most people.

 

Here's an example of the competition that ants engage in.

 

"Ants are also aggressive toward each other, fighting to the death over their tree territories. The consequences for losing colonies are stark: loss of territory or colony death. After a fight, victorious colonies have to defend their newly gained territory with a workforce heavily depleted by fighting. In a new study, researchers found that victorious colonies might offset this challenge by recruiting members of the losing colonies to help."

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160318181610.htm
 

Perhaps the main threat of human extinction is a full-scale, world-wide atomic war, but I doubt that would cause extinction. There would be at least a few remote areas where the populations would survive. Also, the potential devastation of an atomic war is so obvious, that I doubt that any government could be so stupid as to start one.

[scorecard]

On 2/12/2024 at 11:54 AM, Tippaporn said:

 

Nice post, scorecard, and thanks for the personal story.  It was most enjoyable.  Your experience was a real eye opener for you.  A man of the cloth who does not truly believe what he preaches and so lies so that others maintain faith in his God.  Question his God and his wrath, not God's, will come down on you.  You might find some of that going on here.

 

BTW, here's an early 80th birthday greeting for you.

 

 

Thank you.

[scorecard]

On 2/13/2024 at 6:57 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

Basically, from what I understand of what you wrote, is that you rejected the idea that God exists because you had a rotten chaplain. What if religion is not God? What if God is separate from religion? Religion needs God, but God does not need religion.

 

Not that it makes any difference to anyone else, of course. A belief in God needs no fellow believers to exist, no building to sing songs about it, etc.

I used to be religious, till I realised there wasn't much there there. Then I was agnostic, till I had an experience that convinced me God existed, but I never became religious again.

 

 

 You wrote:  "Basically, from what I understand of what you wrote, is that you rejected the idea that God exists because you had a rotten chaplain."

 

I didn't say that and it's just your wild assumption.

 

Don't assume that you know how I think or how I analyse whatever.  

[Dickie Dee]

On 4/14/2019 at 8:25 AM, ivor bigun said:

 

It has fasinated me for years that people can believe in god and that Jesus was born to his virgin mother .

When you realize that there are so many billions of planets across hundreds of billions of light years.

It must be great to believe in a God and that one day you will be reunited with your loved ones a lady once said to me that she knows she will meet Jesus when she dies,i thought gosh he must be busy sitting down with the billions of people who die.

Do you really believe in him or any of the other Gods ?

 

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

 

 

Its entirely possible that our universe is one in a unknown amount of Universe’s. 

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, VincentRJ said:

Perhaps the main threat of human extinction is a full-scale, world-wide atomic war, but I doubt that would cause extinction. There would be at least a few remote areas where the populations would survive. Also, the potential devastation of an atomic war is so obvious, that I doubt that any government could be so stupid as to start one.

Don't agree. I believe that Gaia ( Nature/ God ) is going to delete humanity as a threat to the planet and every other species on it.

 

For those that don't believe that Gaia exists, we are more likely to succumb to overpopulation caused wars for water and resources than a nuclear war IMO. Also we are well on the way to ( choose the one that you like the best )

 

a/  polluting ourselves to death

b/ creating incurable diseases by overuse of antibiotics

c/ climate change rendering large parts of the world uninhabitable

d/ biological warfare

e/ killed off by autonomous killing machines ( under development as I write )

f/ a new ice age

 

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, VincentRJ said:

Perhaps the main threat of human extinction is a full-scale, world-wide atomic war, but I doubt that would cause extinction. There would be at least a few remote areas where the populations would survive.

Without a massive pharmaceutical industry, the remaining humans would likely be wiped out by common diseases. We have been busily destroying our ability to survive without chemical assistance, eg measles- we keep those not naturally immune to measles from dying by using vaccines. Without vaccines many will die of it, as seen already in the epidemics among those not vaccinated.

In the end, we will likely all die because we kept genetically compromised people alive and allowed them to breed more genetically compromised people.

[thaibeachlovers]

Just looked out the window and the sunset is spectacular. God is truly great to give me such wonders to behold.

[steven100]

No ...............  because he won't give me the 1st prize Lotto win so I can help many people.

 

for that reason I'm an atheist

[Red Phoenix]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

... - we keep those not naturally immune to measles from dying by using vaccines. Without vaccines many will die of it, as seen already in the epidemics among those not vaccinated.

...

~ Looks like you did fall for the propaganda of the (p)harma-industry that vaccinations are necessary to survive.  The prophylactic use of vaccines is a trillion $ industry and the core-moneymaker of Big Pharma, and from birth to adulthood in the US they are now already over 50 shots.  Pure madness, as a person with a healthy immune system does not need any of these poison-shots that are actually deteriorating your health.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

Delete

Had a post about those who don't believe in vaccines but believe weird stuff but best not go there. 

Edited February 18 by Fat is a type of crazy

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, Red Phoenix said:

~ Looks like you did fall for the propaganda of the (p)harma-industry that vaccinations are necessary to survive.  The prophylactic use of vaccines is a trillion $ industry and the core-moneymaker of Big Pharma, and from birth to adulthood in the US they are now already over 50 shots.  Pure madness, as a person with a healthy immune system does not need any of these poison-shots that are actually deteriorating your health.

Tell that to the people that died of Polio. In which countries is Polio endemic? Hint, it's not the ones that use Polio vaccinations.

 

Did smallpox just vanish of it's own accord?

 

I agree that using vaccinations for mumps and measles isn't necessary, as I had them as a child which made me immune, but I'm glad that I wasn't born to a mother with Rubella, or to a father that had mumps as an adult.

Edited February 18 by thaibeachlovers

[Red Phoenix]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Tell that to the people that died of Polio. In which countries is Polio endemic? Hint, it's not the ones that use Polio vaccinations.

 

Did smallpox just vanish of it's own accord?

 

I agree that using vaccinations for mumps and measles isn't necessary, as I had them as a child which made me immune, but I'm glad that I wasn't born to a mother with Rubella, or to a father that had mumps as an adult.

Do some research on the history of vaccination.  It will give you a more balanced view on the risks/benefits of that very lucrative practice.  Lucrative for the medical industrial complex, but not so much for the population that are mandated or coerced to undergo the shots. 

Modern allopathic medicine has succeeded in turning vaccination into a sort of 'unquestioned blessing' and branding every 'non-believer' as a loony crackpot refusing the multi-baptism shots. 

But indeed, this thread is not the place to discuss that subject, so I will leave it at that...

 

[Sunmaster]

The difference between knowing and realizing....
 

 

[VincentRJ]

1 hour ago, Sunmaster said:

The difference between knowing and realizing....
 

 

Wow! Everyone is searching for happiness. Who would have known? How profound! 

The guy also looks overweight. Probably due to the happiness he feels when eating delicious food. 

[Sunmaster]

1 hour ago, VincentRJ said:

Wow! Everyone is searching for happiness. Who would have known? How profound! 

The guy also looks overweight. Probably due to the happiness he feels when eating delicious food. 

Sure. The difference is where one expects to find happiness.
Where do you find it?

[ravip]

3 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

The difference between knowing and realizing....
 

 

I always wonder why this type of guys wear a funny, almost stupid fancy dress. Is that thing on the forhead some sort of an antenna receiving/transmitting some signals?

[Sunmaster]

7 minutes ago, ravip said:

I always wonder why this type of guys wear a funny, almost stupid fancy dress. Is that thing on the forhead some sort of an antenna receiving/transmitting some signals?

I, on the other hand, stopped wondering why people post ignorant comments and seem to be proud of them too. Evidently, their brains aren't receiving enough signals...

Edited February 21 by Sunmaster

[VincentRJ]

3 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

Sure. The difference is where one expects to find happiness.
Where do you find it?

 

Within my brain. 

[Sunmaster]

10 minutes ago, VincentRJ said:

 

Within my brain. 

Where exactly? Left side, right side, frontal lobe, medulla oblungata, cerebellum....?

[Sunmaster]

Interestingly, neurologylive.com states the following:

 

1. Happiness activates several areas of the brain, including the right frontal cortex, the precuneus, the left amygdala, and the left insula. This activity involves connections between awareness (frontal cortex and insula) and the “feeling center” (amygdala) of the brain.

Apparently, happiness activates areas of the brain. It doesn't say that the brain produces happiness.
So where does happiness come from??

[Red Phoenix]

                            Reflections by Marcus Aurelius:

[VincentRJ]

3 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

Interestingly, neurologylive.com states the following:

 

1. Happiness activates several areas of the brain, including the right frontal cortex, the precuneus, the left amygdala, and the left insula. This activity involves connections between awareness (frontal cortex and insula) and the “feeling center” (amygdala) of the brain.

Apparently, happiness activates areas of the brain. It doesn't say that the brain produces happiness.
So where does happiness come from??

 

 

I sense a certain imprecision in the language used in your above quote. I would rephrase it as follows.

 

"Happiness results from activities in several areas of the brain, including the right frontal cortex, the precuneus, the left amygdala, and the left insula. This activity involves connections between awareness (frontal cortex and insula) and the “feeling center” (amygdala) of the brain."

 

The external sources that often stimulate those feelings of happiness in the brain, vary enormously, and are related to each individual's background, lifestyle, and genetic characteristics.

 

The Marcus Aurelius quote from Red Pheonix is very relevant in this context.
 

Edited February 21 by VincentRJ

[LikeItHot]

I will eventually.  He's number 5 on the list I'm waiting for evidence for behind unicorns, leaprachauns, Santa Claus and a Thai woman who isn't a liar. 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 2/19/2024 at 2:28 PM, Red Phoenix said:

Do some research on the history of vaccination.  It will give you a more balanced view on the risks/benefits of that very lucrative practice.  Lucrative for the medical industrial complex, but not so much for the population that are mandated or coerced to undergo the shots. 

Modern allopathic medicine has succeeded in turning vaccination into a sort of 'unquestioned blessing' and branding every 'non-believer' as a loony crackpot refusing the multi-baptism shots. 

But indeed, this thread is not the place to discuss that subject, so I will leave it at that...

 

Hmmm. By your point of view, perhaps we'd have been better off if they never invented antibiotics then.

For sure we would not have an overpopulated planet, so that might be a good thing.

[thaibeachlovers]

16 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

Sure. The difference is where one expects to find happiness.
Where do you find it?

The thread seems to be veering off in unexpected directions. Vaccination and now happiness.

 

It did make me think about being happy though. I'm happy at the end of a day when I woke up and didn't hurt anywhere, no <deleted> harassed me, there was a beautiful sunset and I got to watch a nice movie without falling asleep in the middle of it. That seems simple enough but rarely happens.

 

Looking back on my life, I was happiest when I was walking on a nice Thai beach at sunset with my GF. All was well with my world. Sadly the good times never last and there was always a goodbye to the beach, my GF and LOS.

 

The photo was on the beach at Kho Tao in 1999. Bliss.

Edited February 21 by thaibeachlovers