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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
 Posted - 08/24/2004 : 12:10:57
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I recently read about some guy who was arguing about 'Existance of God' with his buddy and he proclaimed that if God did exist then he/she should strike him dead. The man was hit by lightning and killed shortly after.
Now I dont know if its true or not or whether it was storming at the time (I assume so) nor do I really care.
My ReligoBuddy was shocked that this 'revelation' did not make me question my atheism even slightly.
I tried to inform him that many thousands of people including myself have made similar statements and lived just fine. That chance has it eventually SOMEBODY is gonna die tragicly after saying those words.
Anyway I say "God strike me down now for I am a blasphemer!"
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"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 08/24/2004 : 14:43:00 [Permalink]
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Yeah, that "revelation" story is terribly mundane.
Maybe it would be more impressive if instead of the guy requesting a simple garden-variety stroke of lightning to kill himself (which happens how many few hundreds of times around the globe each year?), that he should request if god existed, to kill himself with something like a wasp with a 5,000 foot wingspan to sting him to death. For effect, the wasp could have the face of Madonna and be painted all pink and green.
For added effect, have the mile wide wasp come crawling out of his ear.
Now, that would impress even me.
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 08/24/2004 : 15:23:29 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Ricky
Couldn't find that one, but I found this:
http://www.snopes.com/religion/bolt.htm
Nice link, except once again the faithful chose to embelish the story. At one point in the original article, a parishioner claimed the preacher was "looking for a sign from god" right before the bolt hit.
Then later it quite clearly states: "According to the Bible,' Mr. Hardman told the crowd, God's voice often sounds like thunder. "That's right, God! We hear you!" he said, looking heavenward, and — KA-POW! — a bolt of lightning struck the little church."
Acknowledging that you "hear god" and asking from a sign from him are two different things, not that I would be impressed even if he had been. And I find it funny that not one of the congregates found it at all problematic that their loving diety chose to "respond" to their service by igniting their place of worship. |
"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 08/24/2004 15:28:23 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 08/25/2004 : 01:47:22 [Permalink]
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So there's thunder and lightning and the preacher adds it into the sermon and lightning hits the church. I don't even think that is worth calling an unusual coincidence. It's more like a routine coincidence.
As to the other story in the OP, it sounds pretty fake. It could have happened and it wouldn't be any more than what Shermer refers to as one of those 'miracles' that happen about once a month.
However, it is very common for these stories to be told and someone always says, "it happened to my cousin, or neighbor, or friend." I find it fascinating that people fabricate the personal knowledge aspect so often. Clearly we have a need to be believed even when we are merely passing on information that came to us.
If you want to follow up PapaSmurf, why didn't you pursue it from the place you read it? What did you read it in? |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 08/25/2004 : 05:07:24 [Permalink]
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| Oh my point isnt whether it really happened or not, because neither would surprise me. (Or shake my lack of faith) It was really just an excuse to argue with my friend. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/25/2004 : 10:24:20 [Permalink]
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I live in FL (St Petersburg), and just in August (month isn't even over yet) there have been about 10 people struck by lightning. We get quite a few every year, especially in the summer. The lightning tends to hit out in front of storms, and catches people unaware.... it looks like you have 5 or 10 minutes before the rain starts on you, but lightning hits you. Get alot of people on the beaches that way.
It's so common here that it hardly gets mentioned on the news unless it's something unusual... like 4 people getting zapped at once (happened here about 2 or 3 weeks ago) |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 08/25/2004 : 12:03:07 [Permalink]
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Reminds me of a joke.
A nun and a priest are golfing and the priest misses a put and says "Goddamnit I missed".
The nun says "Oh father, please don't use the lords name in vain".
He appolagizes but at the next hole he misses a 3 footer. "Goddamnit I missed AGAIN".
The nun says "Father please don't curse".
The priest says if I use the lords name in vain again may I be struck by lightning!
Next hole - you guessed it he misses a tap in. He throws down his putter and says "goddamnit MISSED!!".
A black cloud instantly forms and a bolt of lightning streaks out of the sky and fries the poor nun standing there.
A booming voice comes out of the clouds and says "GODDAMNIT I MISSED".
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
Posted - 08/26/2004 : 00:09:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by furshur
A booming voice comes out of the clouds and says "GODDAMNIT I MISSED".
Shouldn't that be "MEDAMNIT I MISSED"?  |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 08/26/2004 : 01:29:50 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by BigPapaSmurf
Oh my point isnt whether it really happened or not, because neither would surprise me. (Or shake my lack of faith) It was really just an excuse to argue with my friend.
Well then BigP, tell your friend you couldn't find anywhere in the Bible where God uses lightning to kill. Ask him if he shouldn't be afraid of Zeus instead.
from the Bible Gateway/King James Version search:
quote:
Search words "struck+lightning"
Sorry, we found no verses matching your specifications. Try a different search type, or a different Bible version.
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| Edited by - beskeptigal on 08/26/2004 01:31:08 |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 08/26/2004 : 04:25:18 [Permalink]
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Oh, God...Sounds like divine urban myth in the making. That's all we need... quote:
BigPappaSmurf posted:
It was really just an excuse to argue with my friend.
You ever thought about a swift kick in the ass? |
"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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