On Monday, October 15, 2018 at 11:29:25 PM UTC-6, palsing wrote:

On Monday, October 15, 2018 at 8:32:39 PM UTC-7, Gary Harnagel wrote:

On Monday, October 15, 2018 at 2:53:40 PM UTC-6, palsing wrote:

On Monday, October 15, 2018 at 12:35:55 PM UTC-7, Gary Harnagel wrote:

https://art-soulworks.com/pages/prin...peace-painting

In rebuttal I offer...

https://art-soulworks.com/collections/jesus-artwork

... where, as a True Believer, you can spend up to $3300 for your very own
copy of Akiane Kramarik's paintings, a really nice incentive to pull the
wool over your eyes, don't you think?

36" x 48" is a bit BIG, don't you think?

Sure, it's big, but it is the size of the original and after all, it *is* all
about the money, IMHO. Money trumps religion, just ask those TV evangelists...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1xJAVZxXg

That's disgusting. See below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_Is_for_Real

From that Wiki article... "By April 2012, more than one million ebooks had
been sold,[1] and more than 10 million copies had been sold by 2014.[2] A
feature film based on the book was released on April 16, 2014, earning
$101 million at the box office.[3]"

Pretty good reason to 'make up' a story, right?

So you go for the hoax explanation. Suspicious type, I guess.

Yeah, when it comes to organized religions (all 4200 of them, as per Wiki),
I am *very* suspicious. What sane person wouldn't be suspicious?

I agree, but you should read the book or watch the movie "Heaven is for Real"
before you dismiss it. That $101 million box office receipts didn't go to
the Burpos, you know.

"The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given
idea for a better one; the essence of theology is that it holds its truths
to be eternal and immutable." - H. L. Mencken

This wasn't true of primitive Christianity. It is generally true of
so-called Christianity today because Constantine put the last nail in the
coffin of the original religion.

"There is no regularly constituted church of Christ on earth, nor any
person qualified to administer any church ordinances; nor can there be
until new apostles are sent by the Great Head of the Church for whose
coming I am seeking." -- Roger Williams

I think that H.L. Mencken could kick Roger Williams' butt any day of the
week when it comes to quotes :)

"Why assume so glibly that the God who presumably created the universe is
still running it? It is certainly perfectly conceivable that He may have
finished it and then turned it over to lesser gods to operate. In the same
way many human institutions are turned over to grossly inferior men. This
is true, for example, of most universities, and of all great newspapers."
H.L. Mencken

Everyone comes to the God-table with his own set of prejudices and system
of beliefs. I have mine, you have yours and Mencken has his. Concepts of
God can be divided into several categories. For example:

1. There is no God and everything happens according to the laws of physics.

2. There is a God, but he is PART of the universe. He brought order to the
chaos.

3. There is a God who created the universe but then cut out, so everything
happens by the laws of physics (motion, relativity, quantum mechanics, etc.)
from that point on.

4. God created the universe and is involved only in "the big picture."

5. God created the universe and is intimately concerned about each person.

And there are subheadings and combinations of the last four. So when you
talk about God, you bring certain assumptions about who He is to the table
that aren't explicitly stated. This is true even for #1. Mencken is
probably in that category but pretends to be in #3 or #4. I'm in a variant
of #5 with a dash of #2. You might ask, "How could God have created the
universe yet be a part of it?" There is a way :-)