Is a skeptic missing the compassionate part of their being, while only focusing on logic?

[createdtoworship]

I debate, and when I debate I have to separate from my emotional side, in order to be logical. That means that posts are factual, yes, but lack compassion. (they are blunt). I used to debate with only emotion, but then I would not see the logical errors of my posts, because I didn't really care about accuracy I cared about everything but. So now when I post, it's normally factual (at least as factual as I can be) But they lack compassion. If I could some how add back the emotion to it, it would be better. But at that point I get too emotional, and lack the factual basis and get really touchy feely without logical bearing. So I can be both, just not at the same time. The skeptic however has blocked out the compassionate part of him or her all together. And only think logic. And this is why they are typically mocking other and are rude. I believe it is because it's easier to separate from the emotional part. This is mainly because debate is ugly. People can't emotionally handle someone proving them wrong in general, but to do so openly in front of many others can create a sort of self defense mechanism. They get hurt and lash out. They get hurt too much, and they close off that part of their heart that feels, to avoid being hurt. But in doing this, it may make sense to do so, but they are sacrificing compassion in the process. Because when we close off that part of our heart that feels, we also close off the part of our heart that feels for others. And that comes across as rude or blunt. There are things we say in debate that we would never say to our child, or our spouse or our grandparents or others. Because those people have our hearts. In debate we close up and build walls, so that when we are mocked (which will happen), there is not too many hurt feelings over it. But in doing that, we also learn to mock in turn. So we goad back, and flame back. But's it's all fun and games, we are not being serious are we? Well that is what we would like people to believe. But inside we are giving subtle jabs to make our debate person our enemy and do anything that will destroy the argument, be it mock, ridicule, make fun of, belittle, laugh at them. post comics of their views. Call them liars, call them decieved, call them conspiracy theorists trained by aliens of the illuminate. ( I just heard that one today). But all of these are easier for one to state, to sort of discredit via mocking, and not adress the logic of the posts. Because that part is harder. It's harder to reply with bullet points and refute every evidence someone gave. Then as we refute one post as illogical or full of error, we then discredit their entire conversation saying (I already disproved you in this post here, so I am sure you have nothing else to say that would be correct), that is poisoning the well. A logical fallacy. But in being locked out of our emotional side, mocking makes perfect sense. So this is something I am learning I personally love checking out my brain. Just talking to God in my spirit, breaking down all those walls and talking to Him is raw joy. The faith of a child on christmas morning. Pure delight. I love that part. I wish I could be there all day. Sometimes I only get to be in that mode, during worship, or in a small time of prayer where I pray in tongues. So I increase those parts of my day, I make sure every day I pray in tongues during my prayer time, I make sure I have worship play lists available to play during all online activity. It's is how I dwell in my happy place. But as a skeptic, I know for a fact that they have to close off the emotion. Because it hurts too much to debate with emotion, they literally get their little heart stomped on by rude posters. So they HAVE TO CLOSE OFF THE HEART. For self preservation. But in doing that they remove the possibility of ever having a 'happy place.' And their hearts grow darker, more sinister, and more evil. Because in denying joy, and hope, and faith and love. All that is left is pride, arrogance, selfishness, and superiority. And when someone is in that mode, you hear it in their language. They are not out to reach out to me, to politely correct my naivety. They are to convert or kill. And if I resist conversion, they are to set up straw mans and knock down their reputation to a point where they feel embarrassed to talk about God at all. So I just want to reveal the heart of the skeptic here. Because I ARE ONE. In learning debate, I had to see both sides of the isle. That is the only way I can talk about it. But just like working, imagine never resting, never having a sabbath rest, never relaxing. Such is the mind of the skeptic. And if they do find rest and relaxation it's usually in humor. But a mocking type of humor and satire. That mocks the viewpoint of the enemy. And in doing so, they have a slight bit of happiness. But the happiness of that type of satire, is not the joy of Christ. It goes away relatively quickly and so then more humor has to come into play. And this results in more mocking, more arrogance, more insult. Because that hapiness they get when they laugh at the expense of others is their only 'happy place.' So mocking becomes a life style. I am here to say, there is way more to life than skepticism. There is something wonderful about checking your brain at the door, and just being goofy. Relax for real. Take joy in God. Realize He never left, but it was you that left. He has always been waiting for you to return. In the story of the prodigal son in the Bible, after the son took the inheritance and partied in the city and spent all his riches and inheritance. He was unemployed and had to move back in with mom and dad. At that point, he said.....hire me as a gardener, hire me as a maid, as a servant....I will clean toilets. I will eat dog food, and scraps from your trash. That is literally what he said. And the father (who was wealthy) said....no no no, let puts the rich coat on you, and make a feast, and have a party....because 'the lost is found.' The lost son has returned. So to, you can think of God as being mad at you as a skeptic. You may think.... God you don't know what I have said about you, and how I have mocked your name and your Bible. Oh, He knows. And He is still not shocked, or disappointed. He knows, and He loves you. I can't mention enough of how God has blessed me. My life is so full of blessing that I wake up and there is more blessing. Blessings turn into more blessing, and when you don't think that there could be more blessing, there is. And your joy is truly full. You realize that God is not your enemy, He is your father. When you left, as a prodigal. He stayed up every night just to hear that maybe you came home. He got the binoculars out and went out on the pasture, and watched and waited for you to return. He never lost hope. I talked to a brother the other day. We are both stock traders. And he used to be a youth pastor, but fell away and became an athiest for like ten years. Then He became christian again. And God blessed him. Now he trades accounts of 100,000 dollars. All from scratch. I am not saying that Christianity will make you wealthy, that is poison. What I am saying is that Christianity makes you live your best life. Sometimes that may mean working harder than others to get what you want. But God will be with you in that valley. He will be right with you. When I lost my job in the financial crisis, I had paranoia, and started hearing voices and believing the government was after me. Etc. I would talk to God every day, and no one understood me, but God did. I was literally insane, I was certified insane. I still am actually to this date. But God went into my brain and told me which voices were real, and which ones were fake. I hear the voices to this day, they never went away. But I am not afraid of them anymore. I know they are just in my mind. And eventually they go away because I don't entertain them. But my point is this, in my hardest part of life, when I was certified insane. I would pray to God, and He never rejected me. He never said...."oh that's a prayer of a lunatic, I won't hear that." He answered. I never lost faith. I could have said to God, why did you allow me to lose my job and go through a nervous breakdown? I ended up being bisexual for a year, I literally had sexual feelings for men. Then when God healed the voices, the paranoia, all of the auditory hallucinations, when He did that, He healed the trigger (the stressor) that caused the mental breakdown, which was lack of employment. And He did so by providing me a job that I still have to this day and good union job in a factory. Once I had a stable job, my fears went away. Don't get me wrong, I tried working while being skitsophrenic. I worked at a milk plant, and I would just sit in the equipment rooms and listen to the noised of the equipment and try to decipher if they were talking to me. I was sick. And I got fired from those jobs. Because there was healing that needed to take place. During that year, I would see my coworkers and I would have sexual feelings for them. Because I was mentally ill. Once all that got healed. I stopped having bisexual thoughts all together. It's gone. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to debate about the homosexuality as pathology. I realize many get offended when someone says that. So that is not my point. I am saying MY homosexuality was a pathology. And when the stressors and triggers were addressed it was healed. Not only this, but five years later God healed me from inappropriate contentography, not only that but last year God healed me from online fantasy in general and self gratification. At that point He also healed my relationships, I had many flirtatious relationships with coworkers and friends, and all that got healed, and I started to honor my marriage and my love for my wife and family has only grown exponentially. Last week we had a wonderful vacation on the coast, we were able to rent a cabin for 100$ a night. It was so cheap we could not deny it. I got to teach my children how to play horseshoes, and disc golf (which I never played but we learned together). So all of these experiences and joys I had later as I submitted to Christs will for my life. God has blessed us financially, we are not rich by any means but if I work hard at my trading and work hard at my job, we will be financially stable one day. We are almost out of debt and have started regular deposits to retirement accounts (roth IRA). All of this is by God's grace. See the christian life is not a life insurance policy that only delivers when you die, but allows you to live the best (blessed) version of you, full of promise and hope. I will close this with one quote from my youth pastor at my church, I never forgot this quote, I post it all the time....

"Your devotion to God is forged in your solitude, not in your sacrifice but in your solitude. Your religion is what you do with your solitude. What you wake up thinking about? What you day dream about? What you go to bed thinking about? That is your religion."

(sorry for the text wall ahead of time, I am not good at grammar, composition etc, I loath all things of that sort, I am more of a rationalist, Lover of Christ)

 

[Larniavc]

The skeptic however has blocked out the compassionate part of him or her all together.

Not true.

I’m a compassionate while being skeptical. I wish you well on your thesis but I’m not convinced.

 

[createdtoworship]

Not true.

I’m a compassionate while being skeptical. I wish you well on your thesis but I’m not convinced.

fair enough. I am not here to convince you of anything you are not ready to accept. Take care brudda.

 

[timewerx]

Most skeptics I face in secular matters, lack mostly in logic (not really lacking in compassion)

They make up their minds in 1 minute against a research or thesis that took months to put together.

Definitely lacking in logic mostly.

 

[Larniavc]

fair enough. I am not here to convince you of anything you are not ready to accept. Take care brudda.

So what did you make of my combination of compassion and skepticism?

You’ve obviously put a lot of thought and time into this and I agree that compassion should not be absent from debate.

I wonder if you are conflating compassion with intuition? What say you?

All the best.

 

[createdtoworship]

So what did you make of my combination of compassion and skepticism?

You’ve obviously put a lot of thought and time into this and I agree that compassion should not be absent from debate.

I wonder if you are conflating compassion with intuition? What say you?

All the best.

I just know that for me, when I am in debate mode I am very blunt. I pray that I can somehow merge the two, to always be sensitive to others feelings, but right now as it sets. For example I cannot really debate politics. Typically people are offended by my moderate view, so I get enemies on both sides. And when you mix that with bluntness you tend to step on toes. I made a thread once that said..... "democrats vote 40 of 43 for the killing of babies born after abortion." To me it was not a flame, it was not rude, it was not wrong, but I was not thinking of how people who are democrats would see that and be sad over it. Some democrats are not pro abortion (just not many), so it is technically possible that some democrats would not be grouped in with the idea of killing a baby born alive. So while what I said was technically correct, it was not compassionate for those democrats that were prolife. So I was blunt over it, but I was not in a compassionate mode, I was in debate mode. And I actually got in trouble for that thread. So I am just saying for me, I can do one or the other. But typically when I am in debate mode I am not being sensitive toward how others view the data set. I am just focused on proving a point and I don't want to be that way all the time. I desire to be both logical, but also sensitive. It's a real battle. Sometimes I get in debates and I get all worked up, and I have to listen to worship music for like half an hour, to unwind. If not I will be bitter, and mad. But I should not get frustrated, I am frustrated because I am in debate mode and feel somehow that others should follow logic, and when they don't I am offended and embittered. But I am taking it too personal. I should just let it fall as it may. I don't need to convince people of stuff, that is not my job. My job is to love them. And if they disagree with what I say, then that is ok. We can all be different, we don't have to all be the same.

If only debates were more biblical: "be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people."
- Titus 3:1-2

 

[Amittai]

Larnievc, I had the same reaction. I would put it a different way too. The best key for persons with an expressive gift is to speak from feeling as well as from the mind, it says in a book I was reading only this week.

I was thinking a lot about integrity which is having your ducks (your faculties) in a row (in fullest coordination).

Otherwise what comes out can be complaining though what CTW self-describes may have been less strong than that (addendum - just seen your last post). I used to make two mistakes.

One was complaining and I'll come to that. The other was to trot out inapt examples which caused others hurt through my misconstrual.

Most of my life was spent in proximity with either a Harry Potter-style triumphalist kind of religion, or a Basil Fawlty melodramatic "moral equivalency" kind of religion, both very passive (often both because I don't do things by halves). Either way most people in them made it very clear they knew better than me.

I have stepped up my distancing from both these in the last three or more years and as both my expressive gift and my natural indignation have unfurled my satire was sometimes destructive. I had compassion for myself and the others stunted alongside me, but it will reach purer expression when I drop the bitterness part of it.

My former mode was to make insensitive statements altogether, due to numbed feelings altogether.

It is a mental virtue to critique in the best sense of the word (discern) and also to integrate all our faculties. This critiquing may be what made CTW think of the word "skeptic".

It's very commonplace that wrongs in important areas cause us pain beyond our bearing, especially if chronically seeming to be swept under the carpet by lack of acknowledgement or potential routes to resolution.

 

[com7fy8]

I debate, and when I debate I have to separate from my emotional side, in order to be logical.

Yes, emotions can be not about the facts. But, also, if we put inadequate info into our logic, the results will be incorrect.

And God knows more than we do, and God is compassionate. In His love we can have His knowledge and caring judgment >

"And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment." (Philippians 1:9)

He is compassionate and creative to do what is the right loving thing with each person. So, He is able to personally guide us how to love each and every person.

Jesus knew He was right and how wrong those people were to crucify Him, but Jesus prayed >

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." (in Luke 23:36)

A lot of them had religious logic, telling them that Jesus was wrong. They had the wrong spirit and wrong information in their way of logically judging who was right and who was wrong.

So, if we are being only emotional, or only being logical . . . it can be we are wrong. And if I am getting angry and frustration and feeling hurt or threatened, this can be a giveaway that I am acting in the wrong spirit; instead I need to be submissive to God and how He makes me clear in His peace >

"swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath" (in James 1:19-20)

By the way, there are people who claim to care about others, but they do not evaluate correctly about what is really good for people. They can be logical, but depending only on what they are capable of knowing. We need God as our Resource for knowing things, plus so we have His creativity to do what really is good.

"He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness." (Hebrews 5:2)

Through this scripture, I think we can see that it is possible to see from our logic however people are going against God's rules about right from wrong. But, instead of just judging such people, we can feel for them, out of our own experience of how we ourselves can give in to what is wrong. I now feel that from any sin problem I have, I can feel for and understand what is going on in any other person in any sin problem. Because the wrong spirit causing my trouble is the same as the wrong spirit causing the other's problems > Ephesians 2:2.

But with Jesus I have experience of how God wins in us. And with this I have hope for God doing the same in any other person ! ! !

Love "hopes all things" (in 1 Corinthians 13:7); but "God is light" (1 John 1:5) > love is not blind.

Now, you have experience with how light can show you things. How many words and how much logic could have you know what is in a view of an ocean harbor?

But what can happen if someone tells you about the harbor, but you have not seen it? You might have been prejudiced by what you have been told or have thought about the harbor, so you are able even to deny what the person tells you.

And knowing is not enough > 1 Corinthians 8:1-3.

And love "passes knowledge", we have in Ephesians 3:19.

So, yes we need some sort of intuition, I would say. But what this really is is sharing with God in His personal guiding and creativity so we act according to what He knows is good to do to love any and all people.

Being concerned only or mainly about ourselves, or trying to control our own selves, can keep us elsewhere; by not being all-loving in our care, and by depending on ourselves to get ourselves right . . . this can keep us from how we can be in God's all-loving caring and wisdom. God is the One who is able to change our character so we are submissive to Him and discovering how He has us seeing things and loving, and what to do practically.

And what does our Apostle Paul say to do "first of all"? > 1 Timothy 2:1-4.

 

[createdtoworship]

Larnievc, I had the same reaction. I would put it a different way too. The best key for persons with an expressive gift is to speak from feeling as well as from the mind, it says in a book I was reading only this week.

I was thinking a lot about integrity which is having your ducks (your faculties) in a row (in fullest coordination).

Otherwise what comes out can be complaining though what CTW self-describes may have been less strong than that (addendum - just seen your last post). I used to make two mistakes.

One was complaining and I'll come to that. The other was to trot out inapt examples which caused others hurt through my misconstrual.

Most of my life was spent in proximity with either a Harry Potter-style triumphalist kind of religion, or a Basil Fawlty melodramatic "moral equivalency" kind of religion, both very passive (often both because I don't do things by halves). Either way most people in them made it very clear they knew better than me.

I have stepped up my distancing from both these in the last three or more years and as both my expressive gift and my natural indignation have unfurled my satire was sometimes destructive. I had compassion for myself and the others stunted alongside me, but it will reach purer expression when I drop the bitterness part of it.

My former mode was to make insensitive statements altogether, due to numbed feelings altogether.

It is a mental virtue to critique in the best sense of the word (discern) and also to integrate all our faculties. This critiquing may be what made CTW think of the word "skeptic".

It's very commonplace that wrongs in important areas cause us pain beyond our bearing, especially if chronically seeming to be swept under the carpet by lack of acknowledgement or potential routes to resolution.

I think you understand what I am saying in the OP. I don't think I am the only one to separate mind from heart. But in debate, when I debated only heart....I would lose the debates on technicalities, little logical errors I made. So then I reverted back to being logical, but now I lack the heart. I wish there was some way to do both.

 

[createdtoworship]

So, yes we need some sort of intuition, I would say. But what this really is is sharing with God in His personal guiding and creativity so we act according to what He knows is good to do to love any and all people.

intuition is what the other poster used too. I am not really sure I understand intuition very much.

Being concerned only or mainly about ourselves, or trying to control our own selves, can keep us elsewhere. God is the One who is able to change our character so we are submissive to Him and discovering how He has us seeing things and loving, and what to do practically.

yes, I desire to be more loving, but not at a denial of logic. I don't want to have to sacrifice one for the other. Which is typically what happens with me. I will pray about this more. But many times I say something that may seem rude to someone else, but to me it's perfectly logical and accurate. But becuase I am not putting myself in their shoes, and thinking of my statement from their perspective, I can be rude. Which is selfish and wrong.

 

[com7fy8]

But many times I say something that may seem rude to someone else, but to me it's perfectly logical and accurate. But becuase I am not putting myself in their shoes, and thinking of my statement from their perspective, I can be rude. Which is selfish and wrong.

I think I was revising my post #8 while you were answering what was already there; so you might want to go through it, again.

In answer to what you say that I have quoted >

One time I was having a struggle with someone who does not believe and trust what I was offering. After a while, the person said the person was having a bad day. That got me to feeling for the person, realizing how ones if they are wrong can be having a hard time.

And Jesus says to pray "for" people who oppose us, right?

 

[Occams Barber]

I debate, and when I debate I have to separate from my emotional side, in order to be logical. That means that posts are factual, yes, but lack compassion. (they are blunt). I used to debate with only emotion, but then I would not see the logical errors of my posts, because I didn't really care about accuracy I cared about everything but. So now when I post, it's normally factual (at least as factual as I can be) But they lack compassion. If I could some how add back the emotion to it, it would be better. But at that point I get too emotional, and lack the factual basis and get really touchy feely without logical bearing. So I can be both, just not at the same time. The skeptic however has blocked out the compassionate part of him or her all together. And only think logic. And this is why they are typically mocking other and are rude. I believe it is because it's easier to separate from the emotional part. This is mainly because debate is ugly. People can't emotionally handle someone proving them wrong in general, but to do so openly in front of many others can create a sort of self defense mechanism. They get hurt and lash out. They get hurt too much, and they close off that part of their heart that feels, to avoid being hurt. But in doing this, it may make sense to do so, but they are sacrificing compassion in the process. Because when we close off that part of our heart that feels, we also close off the part of our heart that feels for others. And that comes across as rude or blunt. There are things we say in debate that we would never say to our child, or our spouse or our grandparents or others. Because those people have our hearts. In debate we close up and build walls, so that when we are mocked (which will happen), there is not too many hurt feelings over it. But in doing that, we also learn to mock in turn. So we goad back, and flame back. But's it's all fun and games, we are not being serious are we? Well that is what we would like people to believe. But inside we are giving subtle jabs to make our debate person our enemy and do anything that will destroy the argument, be it mock, ridicule, make fun of, belittle, laugh at them. post comics of their views. Call them liars, call them decieved, call them conspiracy theorists trained by aliens of the illuminate. ( I just heard that one today). But all of these are easier for one to state, to sort of discredit via mocking, and not adress the logic of the posts. Because that part is harder. It's harder to reply with bullet points and refute every evidence someone gave. Then as we refute one post as illogical or full of error, we then discredit their entire conversation saying (I already disproved you in this post here, so I am sure you have nothing else to say that would be correct), that is poisoning the well. A logical fallacy. But in being locked out of our emotional side, mocking makes perfect sense. So this is something I am learning I personally love checking out my brain. Just talking to God in my spirit, breaking down all those walls and talking to Him is raw joy. The faith of a child on christmas morning. Pure delight. I love that part. I wish I could be there all day. Sometimes I only get to be in that mode, during worship, or in a small time of prayer where I pray in tongues. So I increase those parts of my day, I make sure every day I pray in tongues during my prayer time, I make sure I have worship play lists available to play during all online activity. It's is how I dwell in my happy place. But as a skeptic, I know for a fact that they have to close off the emotion. Because it hurts too much to debate with emotion, they literally get their little heart stomped on by rude posters. So they HAVE TO CLOSE OFF THE HEART. For self preservation. But in doing that they remove the possibility of ever having a 'happy place.' And their hearts grow darker, more sinister, and more evil. Because in denying joy, and hope, and faith and love. All that is left is pride, arrogance, selfishness, and superiority. And when someone is in that mode, you hear it in their language. They are not out to reach out to me, to politely correct my naivety. They are to convert or kill. And if I resist conversion, they are to set up straw mans and knock down their reputation to a point where they feel embarrassed to talk about God at all. So I just want to reveal the heart of the skeptic here. Because I ARE ONE. In learning debate, I had to see both sides of the isle. That is the only way I can talk about it. But just like working, imagine never resting, never having a sabbath rest, never relaxing. Such is the mind of the skeptic. And if they do find rest and relaxation it's usually in humor. But a mocking type of humor and satire. That mocks the viewpoint of the enemy. And in doing so, they have a slight bit of happiness. But the happiness of that type of satire, is not the joy of Christ. It goes away relatively quickly and so then more humor has to come into play. And this results in more mocking, more arrogance, more insult. Because that hapiness they get when they laugh at the expense of others is their only 'happy place.' So mocking becomes a life style. I am here to say, there is way more to life than skepticism. There is something wonderful about checking your brain at the door, and just being goofy. Relax for real. Take joy in God. Realize He never left, but it was you that left. He has always been waiting for you to return. In the story of the prodigal son in the Bible, after the son took the inheritance and partied in the city and spent all his riches and inheritance. He was unemployed and had to move back in with mom and dad. At that point, he said.....hire me as a gardener, hire me as a maid, as a servant....I will clean toilets. I will eat dog food, and scraps from your trash. That is literally what he said. And the father (who was wealthy) said....no no no, let puts the rich coat on you, and make a feast, and have a party....because 'the lost is found.' The lost son has returned. So to, you can think of God as being mad at you as a skeptic. You may think.... God you don't know what I have said about you, and how I have mocked your name and your Bible. Oh, He knows. And He is still not shocked, or disappointed. He knows, and He loves you. I can't mention enough of how God has blessed me. My life is so full of blessing that I wake up and there is more blessing. Blessings turn into more blessing, and when you don't think that there could be more blessing, there is. And your joy is truly full. You realize that God is not your enemy, He is your father. When you left, as a prodigal. He stayed up every night just to hear that maybe you came home. He got the binoculars out and went out on the pasture, and watched and waited for you to return. He never lost hope. I talked to a brother the other day. We are both stock traders. And he used to be a youth pastor, but fell away and became an athiest for like ten years. Then He became christian again. And God blessed him. Now he trades accounts of 100,000 dollars. All from scratch. I am not saying that Christianity will make you wealthy, that is poison. What I am saying is that Christianity makes you live your best life. Sometimes that may mean working harder than others to get what you want. But God will be with you in that valley. He will be right with you. When I lost my job in the financial crisis, I had paranoia, and started hearing voices and believing the government was after me. Etc. I would talk to God every day, and no one understood me, but God did. I was literally insane, I was certified insane. I still am actually to this date. But God went into my brain and told me which voices were real, and which ones were fake. I hear the voices to this day, they never went away. But I am not afraid of them anymore. I know they are just in my mind. And eventually they go away because I don't entertain them. But my point is this, in my hardest part of life, when I was certified insane. I would pray to God, and He never rejected me. He never said...."oh that's a prayer of a lunatic, I won't hear that." He answered. I never lost faith. I could have said to God, why did you allow me to lose my job and go through a nervous breakdown? I ended up being bisexual for a year, I literally had sexual feelings for men. Then when God healed the voices, the paranoia, all of the auditory hallucinations, when He did that, He healed the trigger (the stressor) that caused the mental breakdown, which was lack of employment. And He did so by providing me a job that I still have to this day and good union job in a factory. Once I had a stable job, my fears went away. Don't get me wrong, I tried working while being skitsophrenic. I worked at a milk plant, and I would just sit in the equipment rooms and listen to the noised of the equipment and try to decipher if they were talking to me. I was sick. And I got fired from those jobs. Because there was healing that needed to take place. During that year, I would see my coworkers and I would have sexual feelings for them. Because I was mentally ill. Once all that got healed. I stopped having bisexual thoughts all together. It's gone. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to debate about the homosexuality as pathology. I realize many get offended when someone says that. So that is not my point. I am saying MY homosexuality was a pathology. And when the stressors and triggers were addressed it was healed. Not only this, but five years later God healed me from inappropriate contentography, not only that but last year God healed me from online fantasy in general and self gratification. At that point He also healed my relationships, I had many flirtatious relationships with coworkers and friends, and all that get healed, and I started to honor my marriage and my love for my wife and family has only grown exponentially. Last week we had a wonderful vacation on the coast, we were able to rent a cabin for 100$ a night. It was so cheap we could not deny it. I got to teach my children how to play horseshoes, and disc golf (which I never played but we learned together). So all of these experiences and joys I had later as I submitted to Christs will for my life. God has blessed us financially, we are not rich by any means but if I work hard at my trading and work hard at my job, we will be financially stable one day. We are almost out of debt and have started regular deposits to retirement accounts (roth IRA). All of this is by God's grace. See the christian life is not a life insurance policy that only delivers when you die, but allows you to live the best (blessed) version of you, full of promise and hope. I will close this with one quote from my youth pastor at my church, I never forgot this quote, I post it all the time....

"Your devotion to God is forged in your solitude, not in your sacrifice but in your solitude. Your religion is what you do with your solitude. What you wake up thinking about? What you day dream about? What you go to bed thinking about? That is your religion."

(sorry for the text wall ahead of time, I am not good at grammar, composition etc, I loath all things of that sort, I am more of a rationalist, Lover of Christ)

Let me quess.

Your ENTER (carriage return) key is broken and you're not familiar with the appropriate use of the 'period' (or full stop) key?

Result? - an unreadable wall of text.

OB

 

[createdtoworship]

Let me quess.

Your ENTER (carriage return) key is broken and you're not familiar with the appropriate use of the 'period' (or full stop) key?

Result? - an unreadable wall of text.

OB

yes sir I already apologized for the WOT in the OP. But I wanted to let you know that Jesus loves you and He is not shocked by your past, and only desires to give you a future full of hope and peace.

 

[createdtoworship]

And Jesus says to pray "for" people who oppose us, right?

It's hard to be mad at someone you are praying for. I got the point I was so mad at skeptics that I stopped praying for them. I didn't want repentance, I didn't want to share eternity with them. As you can see the Lord had to do work in me. And He has. But I had to step away for awhile and be fed with the word and to get loved on by the body of Christ. To feel accepted and love by a body is so critical in our lives. Once I had that, I noticed all my bitterness was gone and forgiveness and love was possible.

 

[createdtoworship]

Here is a good example of what I mean....I was sharing a piece of evidence against abiogenesis, and article and a skeptic on twitter started mocking my position. I never got upset about it, I just used logic and corrected it. But in going logical, I tend to shut off emotion. But this time I turned it back on and politely told her that I loved her and wished her the best soon after. But sometimes the debate does not end so quickly and you are stuck in logic mode for days or weeks and it can take a toll, because all this time you have skeptics that mock, ridicule, and insult. But anyway I know why it happens. There is a logical reason why a skeptic is like that, I have the same problem. But I have the choice to turn on my emotions when I want to, and I am not so sure they have that freedom. But I could be wrong.

 

[VirOptimus]

I debate, and when I debate I have to separate from my emotional side, in order to be logical. That means that posts are factual, yes, but lack compassion. (they are blunt). I used to debate with only emotion, but then I would not see the logical errors of my posts, because I didn't really care about accuracy I cared about everything but. So now when I post, it's normally factual (at least as factual as I can be) But they lack compassion. If I could some how add back the emotion to it, it would be better. But at that point I get too emotional, and lack the factual basis and get really touchy feely without logical bearing. So I can be both, just not at the same time. The skeptic however has blocked out the compassionate part of him or her all together. And only think logic. And this is why they are typically mocking other and are rude. I believe it is because it's easier to separate from the emotional part. This is mainly because debate is ugly. People can't emotionally handle someone proving them wrong in general, but to do so openly in front of many others can create a sort of self defense mechanism. They get hurt and lash out. They get hurt too much, and they close off that part of their heart that feels, to avoid being hurt. But in doing this, it may make sense to do so, but they are sacrificing compassion in the process. Because when we close off that part of our heart that feels, we also close off the part of our heart that feels for others. And that comes across as rude or blunt. There are things we say in debate that we would never say to our child, or our spouse or our grandparents or others. Because those people have our hearts. In debate we close up and build walls, so that when we are mocked (which will happen), there is not too many hurt feelings over it. But in doing that, we also learn to mock in turn. So we goad back, and flame back. But's it's all fun and games, we are not being serious are we? Well that is what we would like people to believe. But inside we are giving subtle jabs to make our debate person our enemy and do anything that will destroy the argument, be it mock, ridicule, make fun of, belittle, laugh at them. post comics of their views. Call them liars, call them decieved, call them conspiracy theorists trained by aliens of the illuminate. ( I just heard that one today). But all of these are easier for one to state, to sort of discredit via mocking, and not adress the logic of the posts. Because that part is harder. It's harder to reply with bullet points and refute every evidence someone gave. Then as we refute one post as illogical or full of error, we then discredit their entire conversation saying (I already disproved you in this post here, so I am sure you have nothing else to say that would be correct), that is poisoning the well. A logical fallacy. But in being locked out of our emotional side, mocking makes perfect sense. So this is something I am learning I personally love checking out my brain. Just talking to God in my spirit, breaking down all those walls and talking to Him is raw joy. The faith of a child on christmas morning. Pure delight. I love that part. I wish I could be there all day. Sometimes I only get to be in that mode, during worship, or in a small time of prayer where I pray in tongues. So I increase those parts of my day, I make sure every day I pray in tongues during my prayer time, I make sure I have worship play lists available to play during all online activity. It's is how I dwell in my happy place. But as a skeptic, I know for a fact that they have to close off the emotion. Because it hurts too much to debate with emotion, they literally get their little heart stomped on by rude posters. So they HAVE TO CLOSE OFF THE HEART. For self preservation. But in doing that they remove the possibility of ever having a 'happy place.' And their hearts grow darker, more sinister, and more evil. Because in denying joy, and hope, and faith and love. All that is left is pride, arrogance, selfishness, and superiority. And when someone is in that mode, you hear it in their language. They are not out to reach out to me, to politely correct my naivety. They are to convert or kill. And if I resist conversion, they are to set up straw mans and knock down their reputation to a point where they feel embarrassed to talk about God at all. So I just want to reveal the heart of the skeptic here. Because I ARE ONE. In learning debate, I had to see both sides of the isle. That is the only way I can talk about it. But just like working, imagine never resting, never having a sabbath rest, never relaxing. Such is the mind of the skeptic. And if they do find rest and relaxation it's usually in humor. But a mocking type of humor and satire. That mocks the viewpoint of the enemy. And in doing so, they have a slight bit of happiness. But the happiness of that type of satire, is not the joy of Christ. It goes away relatively quickly and so then more humor has to come into play. And this results in more mocking, more arrogance, more insult. Because that hapiness they get when they laugh at the expense of others is their only 'happy place.' So mocking becomes a life style. I am here to say, there is way more to life than skepticism. There is something wonderful about checking your brain at the door, and just being goofy. Relax for real. Take joy in God. Realize He never left, but it was you that left. He has always been waiting for you to return. In the story of the prodigal son in the Bible, after the son took the inheritance and partied in the city and spent all his riches and inheritance. He was unemployed and had to move back in with mom and dad. At that point, he said.....hire me as a gardener, hire me as a maid, as a servant....I will clean toilets. I will eat dog food, and scraps from your trash. That is literally what he said. And the father (who was wealthy) said....no no no, let puts the rich coat on you, and make a feast, and have a party....because 'the lost is found.' The lost son has returned. So to, you can think of God as being mad at you as a skeptic. You may think.... God you don't know what I have said about you, and how I have mocked your name and your Bible. Oh, He knows. And He is still not shocked, or disappointed. He knows, and He loves you. I can't mention enough of how God has blessed me. My life is so full of blessing that I wake up and there is more blessing. Blessings turn into more blessing, and when you don't think that there could be more blessing, there is. And your joy is truly full. You realize that God is not your enemy, He is your father. When you left, as a prodigal. He stayed up every night just to hear that maybe you came home. He got the binoculars out and went out on the pasture, and watched and waited for you to return. He never lost hope. I talked to a brother the other day. We are both stock traders. And he used to be a youth pastor, but fell away and became an athiest for like ten years. Then He became christian again. And God blessed him. Now he trades accounts of 100,000 dollars. All from scratch. I am not saying that Christianity will make you wealthy, that is poison. What I am saying is that Christianity makes you live your best life. Sometimes that may mean working harder than others to get what you want. But God will be with you in that valley. He will be right with you. When I lost my job in the financial crisis, I had paranoia, and started hearing voices and believing the government was after me. Etc. I would talk to God every day, and no one understood me, but God did. I was literally insane, I was certified insane. I still am actually to this date. But God went into my brain and told me which voices were real, and which ones were fake. I hear the voices to this day, they never went away. But I am not afraid of them anymore. I know they are just in my mind. And eventually they go away because I don't entertain them. But my point is this, in my hardest part of life, when I was certified insane. I would pray to God, and He never rejected me. He never said...."oh that's a prayer of a lunatic, I won't hear that." He answered. I never lost faith. I could have said to God, why did you allow me to lose my job and go through a nervous breakdown? I ended up being bisexual for a year, I literally had sexual feelings for men. Then when God healed the voices, the paranoia, all of the auditory hallucinations, when He did that, He healed the trigger (the stressor) that caused the mental breakdown, which was lack of employment. And He did so by providing me a job that I still have to this day and good union job in a factory. Once I had a stable job, my fears went away. Don't get me wrong, I tried working while being skitsophrenic. I worked at a milk plant, and I would just sit in the equipment rooms and listen to the noised of the equipment and try to decipher if they were talking to me. I was sick. And I got fired from those jobs. Because there was healing that needed to take place. During that year, I would see my coworkers and I would have sexual feelings for them. Because I was mentally ill. Once all that got healed. I stopped having bisexual thoughts all together. It's gone. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to debate about the homosexuality as pathology. I realize many get offended when someone says that. So that is not my point. I am saying MY homosexuality was a pathology. And when the stressors and triggers were addressed it was healed. Not only this, but five years later God healed me from inappropriate contentography, not only that but last year God healed me from online fantasy in general and self gratification. At that point He also healed my relationships, I had many flirtatious relationships with coworkers and friends, and all that got healed, and I started to honor my marriage and my love for my wife and family has only grown exponentially. Last week we had a wonderful vacation on the coast, we were able to rent a cabin for 100$ a night. It was so cheap we could not deny it. I got to teach my children how to play horseshoes, and disc golf (which I never played but we learned together). So all of these experiences and joys I had later as I submitted to Christs will for my life. God has blessed us financially, we are not rich by any means but if I work hard at my trading and work hard at my job, we will be financially stable one day. We are almost out of debt and have started regular deposits to retirement accounts (roth IRA). All of this is by God's grace. See the christian life is not a life insurance policy that only delivers when you die, but allows you to live the best (blessed) version of you, full of promise and hope. I will close this with one quote from my youth pastor at my church, I never forgot this quote, I post it all the time....

"Your devotion to God is forged in your solitude, not in your sacrifice but in your solitude. Your religion is what you do with your solitude. What you wake up thinking about? What you day dream about? What you go to bed thinking about? That is your religion."

(sorry for the text wall ahead of time, I am not good at grammar, composition etc, I loath all things of that sort, I am more of a rationalist, Lover of Christ)

Tl, dr.

Learn to edit. Brevity is an virtue.

 

[createdtoworship]

Tl, dr.

Learn to edit. Brevity is an virtue.

you guys are case and point, perfect examples of the OP. Just humor me and read it, I know that it's really hard to lower yourself and read a monograph that has no indentions, grammatical, and spelling mistakes, but just humor me. But you are a perfect illustration of what I am talking about.

 

[VirOptimus]

you guys are case and point, perfect examples of the OP. Just humor me and read it, I know that it's really hard to lower yourself and read a monograph that has no indentions, grammatical, and spelling mistakes, but just humor me. But you are a perfect illustration of what I am talking about.

No I wont.

Put some effort in making it readable and I might. And shorten it by at least 80 %.

 

[createdtoworship]

No I wont.

Put some effort in making it readable and I might. And shorten it by at least 80 %.

your awesome. I love your spunk. I hope someday you find the truth about Jesus how He loves you, and desires you to live a full best version of your life, the blessed life. Take care.

 

[VirOptimus]

your awesome. I love your spunk. I hope someday you find the truth about Jesus how He loves you, and desires you to live a full best version of your life, the blessed life. Take care.

Your preaching is not welcome.

I already live a very good life thanks. No need for religion to alter that.