You are now, and have been free to leave things any way you like. You are free to make statements of opinions, and behave in any manner you like, but your behavior does indicate your level of maturity and emotional development. You can continue to pass any judgments you like under the pretense of sarcasm and self righteousness. The fact remains that you failed in the practice of faith, as you consciously chose to practice doubt over faith. You made a conscious choice to give up on faith, and you will never know if you made the right decision. I have never claimed that only my faith is correct, rather I have been saying that you now practice a faith in science, yet suggest some sense of superiority for doing so, on the basis of circular reasoning and failure with the practice of personal faith in God. You traded faith in God for faith in science. You engineered a polar opposite swing, which modern psychology describes as an unhealthy shift. You are now dogmatic about your belief system, doing nothing but criticizing others for their respective belief systems. That is not a sign of mental health, nor the healthy individuated self actualized status of a normal adult who is not threatened by the belief stems or realities of others. You failed at one faith, but won't admit that, and now criticize theists as irrational...by your own standards of rationality. That is pompous, arrogant, and narcissistic in nature. You must necessarily criticize your past choices, yet it is the same mind that was wrong by your claims in the past that....is necessarily right now. It is a sign of extremism, and a lack of the ability to function normally in gray area of life. So you are now left to deny your own doubting nature as it relates to this topic, and must pronounce yourself right as some evidence of proof that you have made the right decision. This is the way it goes for the narcissist when confronted with past failures: "I may have been wrong in the past, but I know I am not wrong now."
It is possible for someone to be sincerely wrong in virtually all aspects of human existence from mathematics to science to romance to politics. Why would religion be any different?
"You failed at one faith, but won't admit that" Wow.... not only do you posses magical powers, but they are so powerful, they apparently get in the way of READING You sound like a broken record.... LEARN TO READ Mr God Power! How many times do I have to admit this??? Have your magical powers short circuited your brain?????? It's the CONCLUSIONS we draw that are different. Mine is that faith doesn't work. And of COURSE you claim through implication that ONLY your magical faith powers work. Want me to prove it??? *** I HAVE FAITH THAT YOUR FAITH IS AN ILLUSION *** Now you will claim that MY use of faith is incorrect and that YOURS is right. I could show this massive delusionary contradiction in your ridiculous belief system with millions of other people too. But noooooo.... only YOU have the true magical powers. LOL You have put up one of the silliest non-defenses I have ever read on ET. "That is not a sign of mental health, nor the healthy individuated self actualized status of a normal adult who is not threatened by the belief stems or realities of others." Threatened? LOL. By your hocus pocus??? I might as well fear pink unicorns! LOL! Let me tell you what is truly NOT a sign of mental health. Lets get a little real and down to earth here. Believing that you posses MAGICAL POWERS which allow you to contact an IMMATERIAL supreme being, without the use of intellect and senses, which ONLY YOU SEEM TO POSSES, TRULY is a sign of mental issues. So bye bye spooky magical power man Better go to talk to a real psychologist. peace axeman
Intellectually, it is possible to doubt anything, as it is the nature of the intellect to doubt. How do you know you aren't dreaming right now? In the final analysis after all the talk about pudding, the proof of pudding is in the eating.
You failed in the practice of faith. Had you succeeded, you would still practice today. When the doubts came, you failed to dismiss the intellectual relativistic doubts. It was a choice, as are most failures. Failure occurs in faith when someone gives up, as the fox gave up with the grapes. You could have simply said, it is not for me, perhaps it works for others, but you have all the anger and vindictiveness of a sour grapes mentality. You will never know if you had only doubted the doubt, that faith might have revealed what you practicing faith for. So, you quit. I could call you a quitter, but failure seems to sum it up best. I would be happy to talk to a psychologist about faith, as faith is understood in modern psychology not to be a lack of rationality. In fact it is accepted as part of human nature to come to know things via faith. Faith is supported by mainstream and balanced professionals in the field of psychology, neurology, neuro-psychology, physiology, etc. Of course you can say you know more than all the psychologists about the mind and dismiss their findings too. You on the other hand, if evaluated by a psychologists would come under the watchful eye of a trained observer of psychological problems for your lack of acceptance of faith as a viable means to come to have a relationship with God. Your anger toward theists would come under scrutiny as unresolved issues within your own life and your own life choices. You would be seen as an extremist who is in constant need of reaffirmation of his chosen philosophy. Those who are extreme and in need of constant affirmation by minimization of other's and their belief systems are not deemed psychologically healthy. Were you content in your chosen faith, faith in science, you would exhibit tolerance and acceptance of others and their chosen faith, and would not ridicule those who had a different set of life experiences and conclusions. Your persecutory attitude is obvious as some sign of pathology in this area, and my guess is that you snapped (a psychological term) during a time of crisis when you felt your faith left you down and latched on to the polar opposite approach to uncertainty out of anger, it is a childish and primitive response to seek out the polar opposite in times of disappointment and stress, and now are on some type of crusade against those who don't share you belief systems. You have gone to the ultimate extreme of a true believer who fails, and must necessarily denounce those who still believe. It is a psychological necessity, for to honestly and thoroughly examine the current real possibilities of your belief system which are: 1. You were wrong to renounce faith. 2. You are wrong to embrace your current faith with such zealousness as to denounce all others as wrong. could potentially lead to a psychotic break. I have seen it happen. You exhibit all the signs of the imbalance of one who does not accept that other people may be right, and not make you wrong. You are unable to see or admit to the circular nature of your belief system, as it is wholly a product of the intellectual mind, and it stands untested by anything but the intellectual mind. You place yourself as judge of what is rational, yet your responses filled with sarcasm, smugness and bile are irrational in their intent. There is no balance, everything is black or white, with no possibility of gray. You try to act like your mind is a computer, yet you lash out emotionally and vindictively. The more you deny your own humanity and attempt to cloak it under the guise of logic and senses only, the greater the split will be between the two parts of humanity, which are the intellect and the heart. You are a broken man, and too proud to admit it to yourself. Your bluster and comments about how much money you make are necessary to attempt to build up a crumbling self-esteem. Fortunately, there is recovery from your state, but it requires emotional honesty first. My guess is that you possible suffered from religious addiction, and have approached your concept of religious sobriety in an unhealthy manner. The first step is to admit that you are powerless over life, that you intellect is not enough, and that you need help from an intelligence higher than your own. Or you can white knuckle your way through life exhibiting anger, self superiority, and condescension toward those who have different life experiences, conclusions and opinions. It is of course your choice. My guess is that you will deny you have such buttons which are being pressed, and will take to the same type of attacks which reaffirm the pathology.
The opinions of a "Party Aminal" hold a special value to me, sort of like a toilet has special value when there is an urgent need to evacuate.
Let me rephrase my question. You have essentially set up your own belief system and your fallback position is "sincerity". What I am asking is, "Why do you think sincerity has anything to do with being right in any field of human endeavor"? Sincerity does not help one in the area of mathematics, science, politics, etc., etc. Why would being "sincere" help one be right with respect to God? The way I see it: either you're right or you're not. Maybe this will help: 1) If the occult/gnostic tradition is right, then you must find some esoteric set of practices in which to make any progress to God. 2) If Christianity is right, then you need to believe in Christ's death. 3) If animism is right, then you must believe in a specific earthly deity. etc. etc. The religions of the world are all diametrically opposed. They define faith differently. They define love differently. They define God differently. They can't all be sincerely right. If we got down to the details, you would define love and faith differently than any of these. Why do you think you can just be sincerely right coming up with your own set of religious beliefs and principles? What makes you unique that you "cracked the code" that noone has been able to for the last 4,000 years? That's what I'm asking...
LOL...so BUSTED. Again he fails to deny it. Look at his last post to me... the ramblings of a lunatic. Yup.... 777 is back. Along with his voo doo magic powers. LOL! peace axeman