That would be the case if I were banned; but that would have to be without grounds, in which manner many folks with this message have been banned from many things from the dawn of time.

Bed time now. Alas, I will try tomorrow, but I have other business throughout the day. Otherwise, Monday. Wife and family have a retreat of sorts over the weekend. In the meantime, may God richly bless you!

When you come back, consider this: being "predisposed to disagree" (which you obviously are yourself, btw) is not prejudice. It is also not a sign of a closed mind. It merely means that the other people in the discussion will actually need to prove their case. ;) And if you want to "consider tone", then you first need to consider what you've done to elicit those tones.

Or are you defining open-mindedness as blindly agreeing with everything you say without even thinking about it first?

Further whinging about how everyone but yourself is closed minded and prejudiced will confirm the above. Responding with more gratuitious ad-hominems ("closed minded! prejudiced! not ready to reason! admit it!") will reinforce what you've already demonstrated: that you're the only closed-minded participant because you don't want to be disagreed with. Continuing to define closed-mindedness as "predisposed to disagree" will reinforce the perception that you're here to preach and not discuss. Claiming to see evidence of this in people's "tones" will demonstrate that you're good at showing yourself what you want to see, regardless of whether it exists.

Actually, Unspawn's point was that you should have written it better, not that you shouldn't have posted it.

A forum isn't a place to hear yourself talk. Maybe that's part of what gets "religionists" a short welcome at social circles.

Debate is fun. Pontificating is annoying. Whining is worse. Proselytizing is insufferable.

That's a symptom of schizophrenia, when you believe voices in your head are not your own thoughts, but come from elsewhere: Satan, aliens, the CIA, the Illuminati, the BBC, who or whatever.

Dawkins has a chapter in The God Delusion about this. He does not argue that it's schizophrenia. Can't remember what he said exactly, but IIRC he theorizes that primitive cultures didn't consider the voice in your head to be internal and that's probably where religion came from. (It's probably a better argument when he says it than when I'm mangling it).

Okay, you're right. I'VE been prejudiced by presuming you've been prejudiced.

Now, where were we?

You weren't reading the entire thread before replying?

Sorry, not going to go into the deep philosophical debate, the referring to scriptures, etc, etc. But a question for the believers and non-believers alike: After death what?

Got to ask this because I've heard the non-believers say this is it once you die fade to black, some believers say we sit on a cloud and strum a harp and sing praises for eternity, or fire and brimstone. To tell you the truth I'm not exactly thrilled about being punished for eternity or sitting on some cloud strumming a harp, both have about the same appeal to me and I might as well fade to black.
I would like to think life is kind of like graduating from College, some people simplify the result to you get to go get a job but that's not the end goal to the degree. With the degree you get to do something that hopefully pays more than non-degree'ed employment, hopefully you have broadened your understanding of life, the universe, and everything and you are more prepared to meet the future.

Personally, I agree with Stephen Hawking.

From Stephen Hawking:
So a vote for fade to black. My basement seems to believe there is an afterlife for broken down computers for some reason. I guess until they are marched to the shooting range and dispatched there is always a chance of re-use.

Umm... what is your point exactly? Do you propose something, are you looking for opinions/debate, or what?

I am killing this thread and rendering it immune to resurrection by cutting off it's head and limbs and keeping them separate with piles of sand. I have no idea what this thread was supposed to accomplish, but I'm guessing that every post after #2 wasn't it. There is an excellent religion thread to be found here. Newcomers should read through it to get an idea of the the thoughts and attitudes there and then continue the conversation. Enjoy.