They probably already tried praying for you with no result.

James 5:16, edited: The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth... nothing.

I suppose you make a good point, but I find it hard to accept that the Holy
Spirit's working in my life is anything but just that. I remember when I was
15 years old, still a Baptist , and I had just suffered a great loss. I
began to doubt the Truth of Jesus Christ, but that night when I got down on
my knees the most amazing thing happened. I was taken over and I knew
instinctively that He come entered my heart. About 6 month later I joined an
Assembles of God church... it was shocking at first, but I felt right at
home there. I cannot deny that which I know to be true. That would tear me
appart.

Often both in church and at home in prayer I have received the gift of
tongues, I have witnessed healings, and have had my veruca healed. You can
just do a little google search and see hundreds of cases of people being
healed. Without Jesus and the Holy Spirit guiding me I'd be nothing.

Jesus Christ was a historical figure. We have all sorts of Roman scriptures
such as Josephus, as well as the Bible.

China is a wonderful example of the destructiveness of atheism. They have no
free speech, and treat their women like scives and run over kids with tanks.
GOD BLESS AMERICA! And I have no idea who
Nietzsche is, but I agree with him that alcohol is a sin.

Nobody knows who is in Hell except God.

God can do what He wants. He created us, He lets you an atheist be happy
(though not properly happy obviously because you don't have Jesus), that is
grace! He gave His only son to die for our sins! Could you do that?

Fear is OK. I do fear God. I also love Him, and I know He loves me too.

I hope one day you will become less hateful and see the light. I will pray
for you again.

Stacey

As you shouldn't have, corresponding with fundamentalists is a usually waste of my valuable time. I do it because there may be some glimmer of hope, however slight, that someday you will wake up from your fundamentalist coma and view the real world for the first time.

I understand the emotional fulfillment that Christianity provides. However, what you don't seem to understand is that many people of various faiths feel this "personal involvement fantasy" in regards to their deity. Many of the Muslims I know tell me that they feel Allah touching their hearts and working through them daily. How is their feeling any different from yours? If both groups (Christians and Muslims) are feeling it, then who is to say it is from Jesus? It could be a feeling you are generating yourself. Or perhaps it is God, but not Jesus, YHWH, or Allah. There are a number of possible explanations for the feelings that you and so many other people (from a wide cross section of faiths) seem to have. The magical powers of a fictional character named Jesus Christ is only one of a number of possible explanations.

Anyone can blather like a degenerate primate Stacey. Heck my pug does it daily, that doesn't mean Christ has leapt into her little frame and is driving her around the living room like a German tank. Receiving the "gift of tongues" might be indicative of a number of things (mental illness comes to mind), however I suspect the one thing it does not imply is an act of God. If God proves his existence to us through the random gibberish of his faithful cultists, then I'd almost be afraid to enter the pearly gates and find out just what sort of raving orangutan is running the show up there.

Did you witness anyone grow back an arm, or a leg? Did you see a gunshot victim's wound close up? Or were they the type of healings where some old man walks in, proclaims that he is blind, gets slapped with a rug, and then screams "Praise be to Jeeeesus I can see"? Religious institutions have been perfecting this dog and pony show for thousands of years Miss Johnson; only the depraved, the deranged, the ignorant, or the naïve fall prey to this sort of silliness. But you want to believe in it don't you Miss Johnson? If you want to believe it, then how can you trust yourself to be an unbiased observer / judge? I can pick all of my stock trades by using Tarot cards. I can convince myself that every time I make money, it's because of the Tarot cards. I can also convince myself that every time I lose money it's because I somehow didn't shuffle the deck right, or read the cards properly. Confirmation bias can be a powerful force in a person's life Miss Johnson.

I want you to ask yourself honestly, are you guilty of confirmation bias?

Confirmation Bias: This refers to a form of selective thinking that focuses on evidence that supports what believers already believe while ignoring evidence that refutes their beliefs. Confirmation bias plays a stronger role when people base their beliefs upon faith, tradition and prejudice. For example, if someone believes in the power of prayer, the believer will notice the few "answered" prayers while ignoring the majority of unanswered prayers (which would indicate that prayer has no more value than random chance at worst or a placebo effect, when applied to health effects, at best).

You had a wart healed therefore Jesus Christ existed and is the living son of God? A trip to my Hindu physician could do that Miss Johnson. Should I start worshipping the man as the incarnate son of Vishnu?

You can also do a google search and see hundreds of pages claiming that there are Martians living in the Amazon rainforest. In the Qur'an a man claimed that he doubted the existence of Allah, and then Allah made a mountain appear before him. The man fell on his knees and worshipped Allah for the rest of his days, or at least so the story goes. Just because something is written, does not mean it happened. You would do well to learn that or you are going to be taken advantage of your entire life.

Not true. You would be a Homo sapien and a member of a global civilization. There is strength in you that you have yet to discover, it resides in all of us. It took me reaching a dangerous low in my life before I discovered my strength, and I have never put it away since. God will either exist or not exist without our belief Miss Johnson. Live your life, love, learn, and make a contribution. Encourage others to do the same. We will all find out the mystery of death in the end. Anyone (or any book) that claims to hold these secrets for you, is simply lying.

I am debating a rather notorious Christian apologist named J.P. Hominid on this very topic. I would suggest that you follow the debate if you are interested. I am hoping to have my essay submitted by the end of the month, but we’ll see how my workload goes. You may find that there is a lot more to that issue than you were aware of. Unless of course, you are one of those people who doesn't want to find out about anything that might call into question their beliefs?

http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46888

Have you been to China? Do you know anyone who has lived in China? Have you studied much Chinese history? I ask because your knowledge of that great, ancient civilization seems to be terribly inaccurate. What I said of China applies throughout much of their history. Like all nations, they have gone through periods that weren't so wonderful. The Mau era is one example of this. However China today is advanced, progressive, well educated, and very well ordered. There is an anti-Chinese sentiment in some sections of America in part because we are afraid that they are going to surpass us. News flash, they are within a few years of screaming right by us. Good for them, it's time to show the world what a nation of rational, responsible atheists can do. In 15 years they will be colonizing the moon, while Americans are still arguing over whether or not gay marriage is going to bring YHWH's wraith down upon us.

I find it entertaining that you would make this comment. In your initial email to me you indicated that one of the problems in America is that women are not accepting the headship of their husbands. Which way do you want it Miss Johnson, empowerment or oppression? Women in China become professors and doctors, just like they do in America. And if you still think women in China are oppressed, wait until you see America in twenty years if the evangelical Christians get their way. In Egypt, women are forced to cover their entire bodies and faces, and many of them have their vagina's surgically sewn shut (until marriage) at birth. Would you like to live in a society like that Miss Johnson?

And we send our children to high school with guns and bags of cocaine. It is easy to pick out the worst bits in a nations history in order to make them look evil. America nearly wiped out the American Indians, purposely and systematically. Should we turn your sword around and declare that "America is a wonderful example of the destructiveness of Christianity"? The scimitar cuts both ways my dear Miss Johnson. Methinks someone has wound you up like a top in regards to the China issue, and you are just spinning back what you have been programmed to vomit out. Go to your library and get a few books on Chinese history. I think you'll find they have a remarkable culture; one that differs markedly from the one you have been conditioned to believe. Some good books to start with:

"A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations" by Schirokauer
"Mountain of Fame" by Wills
"The Analects" by Confucius

Dare to question what you are being told. Empower yourself by educating yourself. Otherwise you will always be someone else's slave, and sadly you probably won't even know it. So many other religious slaves don’t.

My mother was a good person, but she was not a Christian. In fact she once told me as a child that the Bible was written by a bunch of greedy men who wanted power. Is she in your mythical heaven? I agree with her, and I will never be a Christian. Will I be going to your special cloudy place in the sky?

Before my mother died, she told me not to be sad for her because she got to go on and experience the "Great Adventure" first. She viewed death as the great unknown, the final door to all human mystery. We all die Miss Johnson, it is a natural condition of life. What good does it do to fear death? As my mother said death truly is the great adventure, and despite what you think there is not a human being alive today (or in any period of the past) who can know with certainty exactly what happens to us when we die. Anyone who tells you differently is fooling themself, and you if you let them.

True but would you consider God to be good if he decided to come down and rape someone you love? Would he be good if he inspired all of these different religions because he enjoys conflict, and he wants to watch us butcher each other over theological disputes? The god of the Old Testament is a sick, twisted bastard. I would not worship him even if he were real. Thankfully he is a construct of sun baked, half-crazed, plagiarizing sheepherders writing in caves 2,500 years ago. If you haven’t read the OT in a while, go back and read it all the way through. At one point God tells the Israelites that if they don’t obey him and keep all of his statutes, that he will make them eat their own children. So if a guy is feeling like some good pork on a Friday afternoon, and he decides “what the Hell I’m gonna chew me some of that”, then god punishes him by making him cannibalize his own son? Or what is a man breaks one of god’s commandments by shaving the sides of his bear, god is going to make him pick his teeth with his son’s femur? It’s a collection of raving insanity Miss. Johnson. One day (if you evolve past all this silliness) you will look back and laugh at the absurdity of these fables. The world is a far more fulfilling place when you can wake up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror, and not have to believe that god stuck a man in a whale’s belly for three days.

Critical Thinking Question: The god depicted in the Old Testament is vengeful, hateful, angry, and quite possibly insane. Jesus is depicted as kind and loving. Ask yourself, if the two are part of a Trinity, and are of the same being, exactly how manic depressive is that big godhead in the sky. I'm thinking that the creator of the Universe probably wouldn't be suffering from bipolar disorder.

I wake up every day, take a deep breath, and thoroughly enjoy my life. Jesus plays absolutely no part in it. You ought to try it one day my dear, there is nothing sweeter than the mental freedom that comes with shedding yourself of ancient superstitions and the emotional baggage thereof.

I would have preferred that he endow his followers with fully functional brains. Treating them would be so much easier…

I do not hate Miss Johnson. I am merely concerned for the future of this world and the human species. We are such a rare, beautiful gift to this Universe. It would be a shame if we wiped ourselves out over apocalyptic cults, books, and invisible men in the sky.

I'll tell you what, I promise that I will go to an evangelical church and let them pray over me next Sunday (you have my word) if you will promise to purchase and read a book that I name. Do we have a deal?

Kindly yours,

Rameus A.