JLT
Posts: 740
Joined: Jan. 2008
|
| Quote (sparc @ Aug. 21 2011,11:04) | | Quote (Seversky @ Aug. 20 2011,21:39) | Tea's up!
(I prefer it to coffee, with or without the exclamation mark)
Shocking Revelations at Uncommon Descent!
Leading ID proponent Gil Dodgen reveals he was once an atheist!
Again.
And again
And again.
Still are, Gil, still are. |
In his own words:
| Quote | | As many UD readers know, I was once a Richard Dawkins-style atheist. I was not just an ordinary, garden-variety atheist, but a really obnoxious, nasty, self-aggrandizing, pathetically prideful atheist like Dawkins. I prided myself in using my intellectual capacities in an attempt to destroy any belief that materialism cannot explain everything. |
Personalities don't change much: Besides having turned into not just an ordinary, garden-variety christian, but a really obnoxious, nasty, self-aggrandizing, pathetically prideful christian he still is still the same GilDodgen priding himself in using his intellectual capacities in an attempt to destroy any remaining signs of sanity. |
Some time ago I've read somewhere that especially born again Christians quite commonly claim that their life had been really really dreadful before they were born again. They were told that once they're born again they'd become different persons, all their sins washed away, they'd walk with Jesus in their hearts, yadda yadda. And they might even feel that way for a time but inevitably, reality sets in and they realise that they're still the same as before. So, either they weren't really born again, or the whole thing is bunkum.
In order to escape this conclusion they exaggerate every little "bad" thing they did before they were born again to make it a terrible vice. Someone who smoked a joint once was a drug addict, someone who took a paperclip home from work was a thief, someone who occasionally watched porn on the internet didn't do anything else and destroyed his life with it, and someone who just didn't believe in (that special brand of) god was a flaming atheist. Just to make their "conversion" sound as life-changing as its supposed to be.
Whenever I read one of GilD's "I was an atheist once" stories I'm slightly amused because he's trying so hard. I'm pretty sure that, if at all, he was an atheist because he hadn't been brought up to be a Christian and never thought about it one way or the other.
ETA: After some googling I found this:
| Quote | Awhile back ago, I had heard a very disturbing statistic. The statistic was that 50% of all newborn Christians were dropping out of their walks with the Lord within the very first year after they had just been saved. [...]
There thus can be no question that with all of these benefits and blessings, that the gift of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ has to be the greatest experience any of us can have down here on this earth. So if that is really the case – then how can you logically explain such a disturbing statistic? How can this many newborns be dropping out of this most incredible experience within the first year or two after initially getting saved?
Were they ever really saved in the first place?[...]
But this statistic is telling us that there might be something wrong with some of these salvation experiences. A 50% dropout rate is simply too high of a number for something that is so powerful to be so easily discarded.[...]
If you look very closely at the wording of the Scripture verses I will list below, and then examine some of the ways in which some of these newborns are being saved – you will quickly discover that there may be a missing ingredient in some of their salvation experiences. [...]
This one, key, missing ingredient may be the word “repentance.” [...]
To repent means that you are willing to turn from the sins you have been living in. It means to have a change of heart and a change of mind. However, you cannot be willing to turn from the sins you have been living in unless you have full realization that these are sins in the first place and that you are a sinner in need of a Savior!
If you think some of your sins are not really sins – then you will see no need to receive any forgiveness for your sins through Jesus and His death on the cross. |
In other words, you can't be born again if you haven't been a really big sinner before. If there aren't any big sins for you to repent, you better make some up.
--------------
"Random mutations, if they are truly random, will affect, and potentially damage, any aspect of the organism, [...]
Thus, a realistic [computer] simulation [of evolution] would allow the program, OS, and hardware to be affected in a random fashion." GilDodgen, Frilly shirt owner
|
