Gawd Smites DC With Lightning....Three now dead.

[1srelluc]

Best Blue Oyster Cult song, ever done!

By a mile.....Instant classic.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The people who tell everyone their religious beliefs are nonsense are the ones who idolize every random weather event as "climate change."

Washington DC lightning strike that killed three offers climate warning

Scientists say that climate change is increasing the likelihood of lightning strikes across the United States, after lightning struck at a square near the White House, leaving three people dead and one other in critical condition.

www.reuters.com

There was never lightning before we used fossil fuels.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Really? If you with your Godlike knowledge of God, were setting up a complex system, would you set it up to run logically or randomly, not conforming to rules, so that it demanded your undivided attention to every aspect, every atom, 24/7/365 across the entire universe to keep rules working? It is pretty miraculous, that it does. Remember, this is a thread about people that did not pay attention to the rules, and let themselves be caught out in an approaching storm near a grove of trees (natural attractors of lighting, as usually some of the highest around) and were struck, when the natural laws of charge, potential and discharge. Not a miracle of action of God, they were struck. It would have been a miracle action of God, if they woke up a couple of days later in the hospital, saying let me out of here, God's got something I need to do.

You're completely missing the point.

The point isn't about what God is or God isn't as some kind of entity.
It's what God is as a human construct. Why religion and gods came about in the first place.

 

[whitehall]

Washington D.C. was once known as "foggy bottom" and an unlikely arena for a lightning strike. No need to gloat about it though.

 

[White 6]

You're completely missing the point.

The point isn't about what God is or God isn't as some kind of entity.
It's what God is as a human construct. Why religion and gods came about in the first place.

Ah, the old "If God did not exist, man would have created him argument? Luckily, I suspect God always existed. I can only swallow a certain amount of random dumb luck.
The best I can tell you, is watch Kevin Smith's movie Dogma. The trouble come from building a religion around a belief system. I have no problem with belief in God or scientific understanding, as far as we have been able to understand, and Lord knows, we've got a long way ta go.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Ah, the old "If God did not exist, man would have created him argument? Luckily, I suspect God always existed. I can only swallow a certain amount of random dumb luck.
The best I can tell you, is watch Kevin Smith's movie Dogma. The trouble come from building a religion around a belief system. I have no problem with belief in God or scientific understanding, as far as we have been able to understand, and Lord knows, we've got a long way ta go.

Let's try this from what we actually know.

Let's not talk about dumb luck, possibilities. We could be here all day coming up with possibilities and still have an infinity times infinity possibilities left.

We don't know if there is a God or not. Or if there are gods. We simply have no evidence that there is one or many or none. We know nothing in these regards.

People claim to know, but they can't prove it. They just say they feel it or however they think they experience it.

What we do know is many religions have existed, religions which say different things, have different gods, with different powers. Seems like there's something innate within humans to have religion, but how that religion manifests itself is up to local conditions.

We have the Bible saying that God made man in his own image. Why on earth would God need arms and legs, a nose and all of that. He (or whatever pronoun you might choose) isn't on this planet, apparently, according to Christianity, Islam, Judaism. So why would he have all the stuff needed to survive on this planet?

Everything about all the religions points to humans needing something.

Christianity is about love. People want to know there's someone there for them. We're social beings, we pair up and mate. We're emotional beings too. Love is a strong emotion.

Islam seems to be about control. Stopping the excesses of humans, drinking, stealing, etc etc. The 10 commandments and Judaism seems to be similar. Don't do this, don't do that. Why? Because it's EXACTLY what humans had been doing and still do do.

Can you imagine God going around sleeping with his buddies' wives? Wait, there's only one God in monotheistic Christianity. Why would God come up with such stuff? Why would he create beings in his own image but then makes humans societal, when God is a lonely old man. Huh????

 

[White 6]

Let's try this from what we actually know.

Let's not talk about dumb luck, possibilities. We could be here all day coming up with possibilities and still have an infinity times infinity possibilities left.

We don't know if there is a God or not. Or if there are gods. We simply have no evidence that there is one or many or none. We know nothing in these regards.

People claim to know, but they can't prove it. They just say they feel it or however they think they experience it.

What we do know is many religions have existed, religions which say different things, have different gods, with different powers. Seems like there's something innate within humans to have religion, but how that religion manifests itself is up to local conditions.

We have the Bible saying that God made man in his own image. Why on earth would God need arms and legs, a nose and all of that. He (or whatever pronoun you might choose) isn't on this planet, apparently, according to Christianity, Islam, Judaism. So why would he have all the stuff needed to survive on this planet?

Everything about all the religions points to humans needing something.

Christianity is about love. People want to know there's someone there for them. We're social beings, we pair up and mate. We're emotional beings too. Love is a strong emotion.

Islam seems to be about control. Stopping the excesses of humans, drinking, stealing, etc etc. The 10 commandments and Judaism seems to be similar. Don't do this, don't do that. Why? Because it's EXACTLY what humans had been doing and still do do.

Can you imagine God going around sleeping with his buddies' wives? Wait, there's only one God in monotheistic Christianity. Why would God come up with such stuff? Why would he create beings in his own image but then makes humans societal, when God is a lonely old man. Huh????

Wow. You want to unpack a lot, as if actually expecting a lot, out of little pitch-off thread by 1srelluc, regarding a couple struck by lightening, near the White House. And yes, I have followed you down your rabbit hole, one that can have no definite provable answer, that would hold up in court, a lab, or even a church. There is, and will be nothing provable here, either. Such is the true nature of faith, that which is believed and acted upon, without definitive proof, but without definitive proof to the contrary. And, this one is the fundamental question asked without answer for thousands of years, of life, death, God, religion, existence and everything. I would like to say the answer is 42, but somebody already wrote that book.

You mention the books of the ancient religions, books written by simpler people, in simpler times, inspired by God, based on stories, passed down from the ages, to explain how, this all came about. They are books of stories, parables, quotes, to explain and define the nature of God, man, existence and how people should live, not how they do live, and why? Free will, the original gift from God, the ability to choose. They contain the original road map of how man should live, the wisdom passed down from God, and the basis of laws, spanning history, generations and cultures, valid today as in any other time in human history. Although, they do not contain the fundamental science (an inquisitive invention of man, inspired by free will seeking to understand the nature of God and the rules of the universe) and never did. That true understanding and knowledge at a fundamental level, totally superfluous to the meaning and purpose of those texts, whether they be interpreted 100% literal by masses of people, down the line or not. At least, that is part of my faith, my philosophy. You have your understanding, or should. I have mine and am comfortable with it.

Why Free Will? I will go with entertainment value, as God did not create man for man's sake, but for God's sake, just as PJ never started a flower garden for the sake of the flowers, but her own entertainment, as she looks at the product of her work.

There. No closer to the answer you seek, than before the conversation began.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Wow. You want to unpack a lot, as if actually expecting a lot, out of little pitch-off thread by 1srelluc, regarding a couple struck by lightening, near the White House. And yes, I have followed you down your rabbit hole, one that can have no definite provable answer, that would hold up in court, a lab, or even a church. There is, and will be nothing provable here, either. Such is the true nature of faith, that which is believed and acted upon, without definitive proof, but without definitive proof to the contrary. And, this one is the fundamental question asked without answer for thousands of years, of life, death, God, religion, existence and everything. I would like to say the answer is 42, but somebody already wrote that book.

You mention the books of the ancient religions, books written by simpler people, in simpler times, inspired by God, based on stories, passed down from the ages, to explain how, this all came about. They are books of stories, parables, quotes, to explain and define the nature of God, man, existence and how people should live, not how they do live, and why? Free will, the original gift from God, the ability to choose. They contain the original road map of how man should live, the wisdom passed down from God, and the basis of laws, spanning history, generations and cultures, valid today as in any other time in human history. Although, they do not contain the fundamental science (an inquisitive invention of man, inspired by free will seeking to understand the nature of God and the rules of the universe) and never did. That true understanding and knowledge at a fundamental level, totally superfluous to the meaning and purpose of those texts, whether they be interpreted 100% literal by masses of people, down the line or not. At least, that is part of my faith, my philosophy. You have your understanding, or should. I have mine and am comfortable with it.

Why Free Will? I will go with entertainment value, as God did not create man for man's sake, but for God's sake, just as PJ never started a flower garden for the sake of the flowers, but her own entertainment, as she looks at the product of her work.

There. No closer to the answer you seek, than before the conversation began.

I was kind of looking for something I could reply to in your post, and come up with nothing.
I could go on about what I think about "free will", but you'll just complain about rabbit holes.

 

[White 6]

I was kind of looking for something I could reply to in your post, and come up with nothing.
I could go on about what I think about "free will", but you'll just complain about rabbit holes.

Nah, not complaining, it is just a deep subject with only subjective answers, often leading to other questions and difference of opinion and belief. Nobody has come up with what is wanted to prove or disprove, ever, in the entire history of mankind.

 

[frigidweirdo]

Nah, not complaining, it is just a deep subject with only subjective answers, often leading to other questions and difference of opinion and belief. Nobody has come up with what is wanted to prove or disprove, ever, in the entire history of mankind.

Yes, it's often a philosophical argument. Sometimes people like having philosophical arguments.