Jerry Shugart - 10 February 2012 12:31 PM

dougsmith - 10 February 2012 12:11 PM

If you could serve him better in heaven, why are you here on Earth?

I said that that possibility exists. However, I do know for a fact that while on earth I have been given a ministry and I intend to carry out that ministry.

Oh darn!!! Why wasn’t I given a ministry. I never win anything. 

traveler - 10 February 2012 01:28 PM

Jerry Shugart - 10 February 2012 12:31 PM

dougsmith - 10 February 2012 12:11 PM

If you could serve him better in heaven, why are you here on Earth?

I said that that possibility exists. However, I do know for a fact that while on earth I have been given a ministry and I intend to carry out that ministry.

Oh darn!!! Why wasn’t I given a ministry. I never win anything. 

I think the “Ministry of Funny Walks” may have an opening.

There are many opening for elders down at the Church of the Corner Bar.  (Did you expext something else. )

Are you sure you were “given a ministry” and that you didn’t really steal it?

Occam

Religion is so common, and will continue to be so, because there are two basic human “needs”: 1-fear of death, 2-thirst for transcendency, to which faith in a supernatural order is still the instinctive immediate approach, with the moral and intellectual abilities of our present stage of evolution. Some people stay there because they get comfort and consolation. Some others try to validate this approach rationally and fail time after time because it’s an impossible mission. Reason doesn’t provide any comfort in that sense, but we should trust it because it’s giving us valid clues for progress in every other field of life, and it’s also conspicuously telling us that, no matter how many people take the instinctive approach, no matter how well organized they get, no matter how spectacular and worldwide-spread the resulting cult can be, there isn’t a single word of truth in everything we have been told so far about any religion.

traveler - 10 February 2012 01:28 PM

Jerry Shugart - 10 February 2012 12:31 PM

dougsmith - 10 February 2012 12:11 PM

If you could serve him better in heaven, why are you here on Earth?

I said that that possibility exists. However, I do know for a fact that while on earth I have been given a ministry and I intend to carry out that ministry.

Oh darn!!! Why wasn’t I given a ministry. I never win anything. 

Traveler, it’s easy to be given a ministry. You just join a church and act interested. Then, Sky Daddy will “lay a burden on your heart” for some need to be met. (Translation: you think, hey it might be cool to lead a youth group.) Then the preacher notices you hanging around the high school kids and asks if you might be interested in helping the youth pastor out. You do this for a while and then the youth pastor gets caught with his hands in the pants of one of the high school girls and leaves in disgrace. So then the lord “lays it on your heart” to “step out on faith” and take over the youth group. (Translation: the church can’t afford a new youth minister and the preacher guilts you into doing for free a job that formerly paid a 20-something fulltime wages to do.)

Viola! You have been given a ministry! Congratulations!

(True story)

Damn, you’ve seen some sick stuff Free! I’ve heard it on the news but haven’t witnessed it first hand.

traveler - 13 February 2012 07:42 AM

Damn, you’ve seen some sick stuff Free! I’ve heard it on the news but haven’t witnessed it first hand.

Well, I didn’t actually see that first hand. But it was told to me by someone who did see it first hand. That’s actually quite tame compared to some of the stuff I have heard about.

In fact, one of the main reasons I became disillusioned about church is the fact that they constantly talk about “Jesus changing lives” but my experience was that you see exactly the same mixture of good people, bad people, and in-between (most people) inside the church as outside. They have the same issues, problems, “demons”, etc. regardless of which side you are on. So if Jesus is really changing the lives of those on the inside, I never saw any evidence of it.