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  1. J

    What's your take on suffering and pain?

    How can anybody be objective about the quality of life? My opinions about pain and suffering are from my own perspective, of course.
  2. J

    What's your take on suffering and pain?

    Much of life can be painful, but generally life is good. If we cannot change what hurts us, then yes, we may need to adapt to it. But people seem to me to give up on doing anything about suffering especially when others suffer. If we would get off of our lazy, uncaring duffs, and help others...
  3. J

    What's your take on suffering and pain?

    An all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful deity would not need to respond to pain and suffering because she wouldn't allow it to begin with. We should all "sit" with those who suffer to ease their pain hoping that some day when we suffer somebody will be with us. He basically had the right...
  4. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    Yes. You might call those times "vanished eras." Rock and roll is like steam power: It's still around, but mostly for limited uses like nostalgia. I like to fantasize about a super rock band that comes along like a juggernaut outdoing anything the Beatles or Led Zeppelin did. I call the band...
  5. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    That keeps happening. The old bands we loved in the old days can't put out new music that's nearly as good as the old stuff. Well, there are some exceptions.
  6. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    I'm not sure what that means, but I think The Wall was a milestone album. The only problem is that it's been played to death.
  7. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    But people still listen to rock, and there are still rock bands releasing new music. So let's say rock is having a midlife crisis. I wish I could agree, but one of the first omens I encountered was the downfall of hard rock and metal in the early 1990s. Iron Maiden's 1990 No Prayer for the...
  8. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    I like some new music, but there's not nearly as much new music I like as in the 1970s and 1980s. Two exceptions are the 2005 Judas Priest album Angel of Retribution and the 2015 Scorpions album Return to Forever. So it's still entirely possible to put out good music.
  9. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    I know I am! I just turned 62, and these days I worry if I can shower. I've always been a Black Sabbath and "early Ozzy" fan, but as far as I'm concerned Ozzy should quit while he's still not too far off from being ahead. Even the old bands aren't nearly as good as they used to be.
  10. J

    Is rock music "dead"?

    I've been into rock & roll for fifty years, and it's still my favorite genre of music. Sadly, rock isn't what it used to be. I remember when Pink Floyd released The Wall way back in the late 1970s. It was a block buster. Everybody talking about it. But there hasn't been anything even close to it...
  11. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    Yes, there's really no getting around subjective values and morals because there are no objective morals or values. Believing in God(s) is personal, and obeying the morality they demand is as much a preferred choice as obeying Confucius. Christian apologists bemoan subjective morality, but it...
  12. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    The problem with categorizing all people as sinners is that "sin" is essentially innate human behavior. So when we are said to sin we are just acting like the people we are, and, of course, we can't act any other way. So there's no way out of sin for us; it's an idea that traps us. That's fine...
  13. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    Good and evil in people is more like a volume control than a power switch. It is a continuum between two extremes rather than the two extremes only. So almost any person has both good and bad in her or him. Ted Bundy, for example, I think would have helped a stranger on the street who had...
  14. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    Obviously if you want to sell a savior, then you want to convince people that they need one.
  15. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    I'm focusing this discussion on Psalm 14, but yes, the Bible says very little about atheists no doubt because there were very few avowed atheists at that time. I agree that the Psalmist includes himself in "all mankind" because he's a man, of course. I also agree that the Psalmist thought he...
  16. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    I agree that God's image is a bit tarnished, but most Christian apologists will still insist that God is perfectly righteous regardless of what he does to people. William Lane Craig says, for instance, that: "God has the power of life and death." This "power" grants God the right to do what he...
  17. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    I tend to say I'm bad based on what I see as bad.
  18. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    Yes. I noticed the same equivocation in the passage. It goes something like this: Atheists are fools. Everybody is really bad! Why pick on atheists when you want to libel everybody in the very next verse? ;) Anyway, Psalm 14 is libel. Contrary to what it says, most people are good most of the...
  19. J

    Belief in God will always require ‘some’ faith

    How do you define "faith"? Most theists don't define faith as necessarily without reason or evidence. For them faith is trusting God to tell the truth and fulfill his promises. That trust is, at least in some cases, based on reason and/or evidence that supports the conclusion that God will do...
  20. J

    The Image Christians Have of People

    We are told we are made in the image of God which I suppose is good. However, our being made in God's image doesn't keep us people from being really bad. Christianity tells us that we are all sinners falling short of God's glory. We simply cannot be trusted to make our own moral decisions and...
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