When bunny flipped over a year ago, this thread has this exchange:

I remember more than a couple of occasions where someone on here who wasn't familiar with you thought you were an atheist.

I think the problem comes in because 98% of the theists here are Christian, and so you sort of fall through the cracks...

sorry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j--t...eature=related

I stand corrected -- you're so reasonable that I always forget that you're not an atheist!

Anyway, Lemonzest has probably been posting here more often than I have lately (I only say 'probably' because I haven't been posting enough to know who's posting much). And there's a difference between 'least objectionable' and 'most reasonable to debate with,' so there's room for everyone here in trying to replace the evil rabbit.

I just found out I need to pay more attention to gman's posts!

thanks for the kind words guys.
I enjoy the debates and challenge to my faith.
You guys are tough debaters!

What do you believe ganstaman? Not an atheist and not a Christian?

Jewish.

What else could it possibly be?!

And would you believe there are Muslims here too?!

You follow Judaism? for real? (not sarcastic)
Are you jewish by blood too? (just curious)

would be interesting if so. Then at least we agree on OT miracles being true.

edit: I was going off of what ASDF said about you being Jewish. If you actually are a Muslim then just clarify

I am Jewish, as are my parents and their parents, etc, as far back as we can tell.

This doesn't mean we can agree on OT miracles being true, however. There's a reason people confuse me with the atheists here.

There really was a Muslim or 2 in the past, but I can't remember who or if they are still posting here. Actually, I think I do remember: shahrad, but his last RGT post was August 7th, and Hardball47, who's posted in RGT more recently (Sept. 2nd). I'm somewhat confident that those 2 are Muslims, though I could be wrong.

Shahrad is Iranian and a Muslim.

I believe that Hardball just plays a Muslim on the Internet.

I really thought shahrad was a Hindu or possibly a Sikh. Huh.

Naw, he lives in Tehran and I'm sure he told us that he's muslim. Off to do a search...


Edit: Found it - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...51&postcount=6

Well, you live and learn.

So you are Jewish by culture/ethnicity, but not religion. Correct?

Sorry, not trying to get up your nose and put you in a box, just curious.

It's no problem. I am Jewish by religion too. I believe in God and feel the God described in the OT is a fine one to follow (I will be fasting and going to temple for Yom Kippur in a day, for example, something I wouldn't do just for cultural reasons when I have work to be doing and enjoy eating).

I read the OT not as a literal historic reference, though. It's not that I think miracles are impossible, but I'd like to see evidence that they happened in order to believe they did. If we could back up the stories in the Bible, then I would believe they really occurred, but I'm not going to take that on faith alone.

What parts of OT do you believe in?

I would think the OT would be fairly flat without the miracle parts?
Wouldn't believing in the God of Abraham minus all the miracles really rob God of his power/character as described in the OT?

Also curious on your take on the Genesis account.

You don't have to answer all my questions, I am honestly just interested in your perspective as a Jewish person

I don't mind answering the questions, but I don't think I'm really giving a Jewish perspective. I imagine my answers would be much the same if I were another religion, only some details would change.

I believe in God, and growing up I accepted Judaism as the truth. But I recognize that I would have accepted any religion as truth based on however my patents raised me. There's no reason for me to believe that I got lucky being born to equally lucky parents.

Still, practicing Judaism is a fine way for expressing the belief I do have. I find the OT to be one way for understanding and communicating with God. Some events described in OT may be accurate, and others can illustrate certain points. The laws were likely useful for some societies, and they still help to some degree for developing a sense of culture and spirituality.

I believe that God created everything, but evolution and something like the big bang have been pretty well established.

The position you have is not uncommon: that Hashem created the material cosmos through the big bang and natural processes, including evolution. If this is true, then it is quite remarkable how human beings came into existence with faculties sufficiently capable of asking ( and sometimes solving ) interesting and difficult questions.

Just noticed Godoftheatheists is banned. Can we keep it this way for once? I mean, come on, this is like his fourth or fifth account that have been banned. Enough already.

I didn't actually make the connection until today, otherwise it would have happened earlier.

Was it Stu?

It was (at the very least) RoosterCAD, Blitzkreger, Captain Germany, Mr Muck McFold, JP, and Godoftheatheists.

Wow. I remember RoosterCAD, but I must have been practicing excellent thread selection since his day. Godoftheatheists did the very Stu-like thing of substituting 'atheists' for 'atheist' at every possible opportunity.

What did Stu actually get banned for, anyway, or does anyone know/is it not discussed?