Do you believe in God ?

@Diotrephes Who said anything about a celestial God ? or in this Solar System ?

@usher All "Gods" are imaginary entities cooked up by con men to gain power and status over their more superstitious buddies. The biblical Gods were simply the series of emperors and chief priests who ruled the dominant ancient Middle Eastern empires. The last biblical God character bit the dust when the Babylonian emperor died around 530 B.C. and the Babylonian empire collapsed. He is never, ever, coming back.

@usher I was thinking about Daniel 8:8-12 (MSG) = Daniel 8:8-12
“Then the billy goat swelled to an enormous size. At the height of its power its immense horn broke off and four other big horns sprouted in its place, pointing to the four points of the compass. And then from one of these big horns another horn sprouted. It started small, but then grew to an enormous size, facing south and east—toward lovely Palestine. The horn grew tall, reaching to the stars, the heavenly army, and threw some of the stars to the earth and stomped on them. It even dared to challenge the power of God, Prince of the Celestial Army! And then it threw out daily worship and desecrated the Sanctuary. As judgment against their sin, the holy people of God got the same treatment as the daily worship. The horn cast God’s Truth aside. High-handed, it took over everything and everyone."

@Diotrephes That's not true.

@Diotrephes You keep referring to a God that you assume I belive in. My interpretatation of a God is completely different. He/she is not celestial, physical or described anywhere in any text. You assume too much

@usher As I've said countless times, all Gods are imaginary. So, even if someone believed as you do, the person would visualize a different God entity than you because the whole thing is imaginary!!!

The bottom line is that if any of the over 330,000,000 deities that people have worshipped exists, the entity needs to get off of its ass (if it has one) and show itself to all of humanity in plain sight. That is what Jesus' brothers told him to do and to stop trying to BS them about how he was the Son of God =

John 7:3-5 (NKJV) = "3 His brothers therefore said to Him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may see the works that You are doing. 4 For no one does anything in secret while he himself seeks to be known openly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For even His brothers did not believe in Him."

@usher Can you please clarify what you think is not true?

@Diotrephes The God i'm refeering to is the God that is the conscience of the Universe. He /she /it makes itself known to its believers and it is not imaginary. It is a real God and is real to its believers. It is the God that Jesus refers to in the new testament. All the other Gods that you mentioned are imaginary, but not the God of the universe.

@usher You are really building a house of cards. The Jesus character thought that the stars would fall to the Earth. Even you are smarter than that. So, since you know that his statement was wrong why would you trust anything else that he is credited with saying? He said that if you have faith that you could command a tree to uproot itself and jump into the sea without any assistance. No one has ever had any faith in what he said because even his apostles, who supposedly had known him for years ever did that.

Here is your chance to be the first person who has ever had faith in the Jesus character. Walk outside right now and command the nearest tree to uproot itself and to jump into the nearest body of water. If it does as you command without any assistance I will believe everything you say in the future about everything. Is that fair enough?

@Diotrephes You are completely misguided. You read everything literally, and miss the metaphors along the way. Faith is something special that is God given and not something you can command at will. Jesus was one of the humans who was actually God too. You have a closed mind that's all

@usher IMO, you are getting on thin ice. If the Jesus character spoke in metaphors and can't be taken literally, why do you think you will have eternal life and go to heaven? Once you start going down the metaphor road there is no stopping at reality. Now it's true that the writers did use metaphors and other figures of speech in the narrative. However, it's a whole other ballgame when the main characters do it. When Jesus said that he was the son of God was he just repeating the lie Mary had told him to cover-up his birth from her adulterous affair before she got hitched to Joseph? Maybe her God was some local bigwig, like the chief priest or a government official?

So, get busy on commanding that tree to uproot itself and to jump into the nearest body of water without assistance. And please, be satisfied with that and don't command a mountain to do it because it would cause too much damage.

@Diotrephes You are so ignorant of the words of Jesus that you are now becoming incoherent . Jesus never lied when he said he was the son of God. What you call becoming out of reality is reality for me. The main man as you say using metaphors is a way of communicating with his 'flock' Because you are not part of this communication you can never interpret anything. it's this lack of understanding where you are on thin ice. Nothing you have said yet makes sense in your literal world. That the difference between you and people with faith

@usher OK, we can use all of the English translations and if you will be so kind as to post one or more that will support your opinion I will appreciate it.

https://thebricktestament.com/the_parables_of_jesus/use_of_parables_explained/mk04_33-34.html 5 pictures.

This is an excellent opportunity for you to to display your persuasive skills so please stay engaged in the discussion.

And while you are at it, please explain why you think Jesus was blowing hot air about being able to command a tree to uproot itself and to jump into the sea but you believe him when he said that you can gain eternal life if you drink his blood and eat his flesh.

@Diotrephes You mention parables, but I was not referring to parables alone. I never said Jesus was blowing hot air when he spoke about faith. I truly believe in the sentiment as a reality . He was emphasizing the power of faith. I'm not going to try to convince you or convert you as you already are not chosen to understand. You are the kind of person that needs proof and nothing else will do. When I read the word of jesus I understand (interpret ) it differently than you . It's nothing to do with English. Eating his body and blood is akin to saying if you do what he preached, then yes you will have eternal life. Whats complicated about that? surely you see its logic. It's folly to try to convince an Atheist about faith or interpretations. Besides ,I am convinced that you can't understand the teachings of Jesus