- Mar 13, 2004
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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)
"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)
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