Doesn't philosophy allow evil ideas to have free access to your mind?

Why does everyone assume everyone has the same ability to resist evil in their own minds?

No. Life allows evil ideas free access to your mind. If anything, by forcing you to examine your own ideas, philosophy restricts access by evil ideas to your mind.

This is beyond belief.

Is it?

Watchman Nee's explanation of the work of Satan in the human mind entitled "Resist The Devil"
http://www.twolisteners.org/Resist_The_Devil.htm

Cavalleria Rusticana - Intermezzo because it reminds me of the peace of God:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OvsVSWB4TI

Beyond.




All.




Belief.

Oh you deny people have problems with their thought lives?

Here's an extract from one of the lovely links you provided in post 54.

"When Satanic temptations first invade the mind, they are relatively easy to deal with; but once they become "facts" in the mind, they are most difficult to get rid of. For this reason we must deal with thoughts. We must reject all unclean thoughts lest we sin. We must actively use our mind so as not to live a loose and dissipated life. Under God’s light, we shall see that many sins come through receiving temptations in the thought life."

Here we go, it gets juicier still.....

"Let me reiterate: after a thought is first resisted, the matter is considered closed. When the thought comes the second time, it should be ignored. In other words, when a thought first comes to you, resist it by faith, believing that it has fled away. Should it present itself the second time, it comes as a lie, not the truth. Therefore, you must reckon it as false and declare that you have already resisted it. Take this position until the thought flees. If you acknowledge the returned thought as true, you shall soon find it so attached to you that you can hardly throw it off. Many defeats may be attributed to this error. If you resist the devil, he will flee from you. This is the word of the Lord and it is totally trustworthy. Whatever Satan says is undependable. The Lord says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (Jas. 4:7). Therefore, that which comes back again must be a fake and should be totally discredited."

I especially highlighted a part in the second paragraph that involves the process of - lying to oneself (resist by faith). Just believe that the thought has fled away and when it returns, know it is only a fake, and that the thought has indeed fled away. This is highly characteristic of pathological lying and outright delusion.

Just to elaborate, it appears that in the psychology literature there are different types of delusions. Here is the two that the extracts above require:

Delusion of control: This is a false belief that another person, group of people, or external force controls one's general thoughts, feelings, impulses, or behavior.

Delusion of guilt or sin (or delusion of self-accusation): This is a false feeling of remorse or guilt of delusional intensity.

Well I suggest you go check out the Dennis Rader link that Mike Technique posted over in his suffering thread then.

A little "delusion" might have come in handy for Rader in dismissing his obsessional psychopath thoughts. Maybe if he'd read a bible and learned to take every thought captive then Mike Technique wouldn't be asking questions about Otero's prayers.

Jeffrey Dahmer said if he'd been saved he doubted he'd of done his crimes. Do you think Dahmer immediately experienced any relief in his thought life once he accepted Jesus as his Savior?

Are you actually trying to defend - delusion of the mind - here?

So splen what about when you "thought" god may of been making a cloud smile at you?

What did you do with that "thought" ?

Come on. Psychopaths are well-known for being pathological liars. For instance, did you know that psychopaths are more likely to be paroled after a parole hearing than non-psychopaths, even though they are many times more likely to re-offend?

What you're calling "delusion" of the mind theists call "faith".

I prayed at the time. It's just a happy memory.

A few years before that I had a double rainbow over my dwelling. Another happy memory. As is the day I touched the cross in my car and walked away from a major auto accident with only a scratch (of course, the car was totalled).

A few weeks ago my rental car broke down in a foreign country. I thought I was stranded and not going to be able to get home for a while since the road was a little remote. That it would cost me a lot of money. I said a prayer and 5 minutes later it was all fixed. Didn't cost me anything but some time. I got part of the money refunded by the rental car company.

I've had a few other interesting things happen. But can't relate them all.

I don't doubt it.

But I can't understand anything about a psychopath's experiences and how it relates to faith except what they say it is.

I've never thought or been to the deep dark places a psychopath like Dahmer's been to but it doesn't mean he hasn't. If he felt a difference in his soul before or after being saved then I can't argue with him.

So you believe him when he says this? Or when he says he wouldn't have murdered if he was a Christian?

That is interesting. I mean, you've created threads in which you've attacked the character and credibility of the likes of Chomsky and Dawkins, yet you're willing take the testimony of a serial killer on face value simply because he expresses something you agree with?

I'm glad you aren't a parole officer.

I only took on Chomsky after I read an expose on him that I came across quite by accident. Also turning up his Weathermen connection was a surprise. So I can't help thinking it's possible he was a closet communist at some point early in his life. I don't follow him enough to know if he is still. Since communism is on a worldwide down swing maybe he's bailed out on it. Can you blame me for posting on him and bursting everyone's bubble after Subfallen's argument for the authority of atheism based on Chomsky's intellect? It was too rich. I felt like an investigative reporter uncovering some of his background.

Get over yourself. You didn't burst anyone's bubble. No one takes you seriously enough to their "bubbles bursted" by you.

I learn so much googling encyclopedias and topics online. I just found out this morning most of the Weathermen leadership were Jewish. I always thought it was just a bunch of radical white guys.

Quote:
"Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization, was a Jewish-led, neo-Marxist domestic terrorist group in the United States."
http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Weather...rganization%29

You do know don't you that Chomsky vigorously defended Pol Pot long after it was fashionable to do so?

If you dig around on the Weathermen you find them saying interesting things.

Bill Ayers:

Ayers published his memoirs in 2001 with the book Fugitive Days. In his book he boasts that he "participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972." [1] His interview with the New York Times to promote his book was published on September 11, 2001, and includes his reaction to Emile De Antonio's 1976 documentary film about the Weathermen: "He was 'embarrassed by the arrogance, the solipsism, the absolute certainty that we and we alone knew the way,' he writes. 'The rigidity and the narcissism.'" In this interview, he also was quoted as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough."

http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

Then you got Rudd:

Mark William Rudd✡☭ (born June 2, 1947 in Irvington, New Jersey) is a mathematics instructor, and former anti-war activist known for his involvement with the terrorist group Weather Underground. Rudd became a member of the Columbia University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1963. By 1968, he had emerged as a leader for Columbia's SDS chapter. During the 1968 Columbia Student Revolt, he served as spokesperson for dissident students protesting a variety of issues, most notably the Vietnam War. As the war escalated, Mark Rudd worked with other youth movement leaders to take SDS in a more militant direction. Together, they formed a radical, violence-oriented organization, referring to themselves collectively as "Weatherman."

Youth

Rudd was given the birth name of Marc William Rudnitsky.[1] His surname was changed to Rudd on November 17, 1954. Rudd was the son of a Jewish former Army officer, Jacob S. Rudd (1909-1995), who sold real estate in Maplewood, New Jersey. Jacob was born as "Jacov Shmuel Rudnitsky" in Stanislower, Poland, and immigrated to the United States in 1917, when he was nine years old. Mark's mother was Bertha Bass (1912–?), who was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the year after her parents emigrated from Lithuania. Rudd has a brother: David R. Rudd (1939-?), who became an attorney. Mark Rudd attended Columbia High School in his hometown, and later Columbia University in New York.[2]

Years underground

Rudd and other members of Weatherman participated in an SDS National Action on October 8th - 11th, 1969, an event which became known as the Days of Rage.[8] Charges filed against demonstrators following this action threatened the movement and its supporters. Rudd, along with other prominent members of Weather, went underground in March 1970 following the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, an incident in which three members of the organization died when an explosive device, intended for a servicemen's ball, detonated prematurely. Among the dead was Terry Robbins, Diana Oughton, and Ted Gold, who was Rudd’s friend and partner in RYM and the Columbia sit-ins. Weatherman had already come to the attention of the FBI, but this explosion caused the members of Weatherman to take further precautions and to engage in more clandestine operations. After the townhouse explosion, the government actively sought to apprehend Mark Rudd and twelve other members of the Weather Underground Organization (WUO).[9] For seven years Rudd lived underground, although he was disengaged from the WUO for most of that time.

Later after prison Rudd says on his site:

"Violence and Non-Violence

The members of Weatherman and the Weather Underground considered ourselves part of a global movement to overthrow U.S. imperialism and to substitute freedom and justice for the reign of war and exploitation. Idealists, we wanted to end not only the Vietnam War but the entire system that gave us such wars. We believed the only way to do this was through the creation of a revolutionary army, with mass support, that would overthrow the state through armed struggle, ie., violence.

Obviously the country was not ready for revolution, and our street actions and bombings, instead of attracting support, isolated us. In forming the Weather Underground, we destroyed SDS, the largest radical student organization in the country, doing the FBI's work for them.

Over the last forty years I've thought intensely about the choices which I and my comrades made, coming to the practical conclusion that only nonviolent mass political action can be successful in this country. I've also learned about the successful history of nonviolent strategy in this country and around the world in the twentieth century. In this section you'll find the results of this painful rumination."

http://www.markrudd.com/?/violence-a...-violence.html

Now imagine this man had submitted to God and a life of non-violence before the bombings? Wouldn't there be less dead people?

Jews can't be white?

He never "vigorously defended" Pol Pot. Two minutes of googling debunks that assertion. You have no idea what you're talking about.

It's a matter of public perception.

Jewish Leadership

Despite the perception of the Weathermen as being an organization of disaffected White youths, five of the seven prominent leaders mentioned by the website Jewish Achievement are, in fact, Jewish. Mark Rudd, Bernardine Dohrn, Naomi Jaffe, David Gilbert, and Laura Whitehorn are specifically mentioned.[1]

http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Weather...rganization%29

What's your point? Why do you think this is something worth pointing out?

And how does this relate to philosophy and spiritual growth?

Mods: Is it okay for Splendour to be posting links from an anti-semitic website?

Check out metapedia's article on Wikipedia:

http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

The main page of today's metapedia features an interview with David Duke.

I can take this question to ATF if you wish.

What was anti-Semitic in what I posted?

Everything was factual.

Rudd's link isn't anti-Semitic. He's Jewish and it's his own site.

People say the propaganda expert Chomsky is himself a propagandist.

"If Chomsky was initially skeptical of the reports of Khmer Rouge atrocities, he was certainly not alone. Given that he now acknowledges the brutality of the Khmer Rouge regime, is it fair to continue to criticize him?

A peculiar irony is at the heart of this controversy: Noam Chomsky, the man who has spent years analyzing propaganda, is himself a propagandist. Whatever one thinks of Chomsky in general, whatever one thinks of his theories of media manipulation and the mechanisms of state power, Chomsky's work with regard to Cambodia has been marred by omissions, dubious statistics, and, in some cases, outright misrepresentations. On top of this, Chomsky continues to deny that he was wrong about Cambodia. He responds to criticisms by misrepresenting his own positions, misrepresenting his critics' positions, and describing his detractors as morally lower than "neo-Nazis and neo-Stalinists."(2) Consequently, his refusal to reconsider his words has led to continued misinterpretations of what really happened in Cambodia. Misconceptions, it seems, have a very long life."

Averaging Wrong Answers:
Noam Chomsky and the Cambodia Controversy
http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/chomsky.htm


I posted this in the past on Chomsky: page 89
http://books.google.com/books?id=azE...20book&f=false