E-mail from a J.W. Guess the response.

[FBM]

this is Daniel Jung in Korea. I live in Cheong Ju . We met before .I am a Jehovah's witness.

while you stay in Korea , you said you learn Hapki do, I wonder if you are still learning it.

by the way , actually I study the Bible and believe in Jehovah God, the Creator of all universe.

Since the Bible tells us accurately about the things we all are curious of. if you read this letter and wanna know more , please give me a reply.



Let me give some stories about the condition of the dead which is the topic we all wanna know.

where are the dead?---- 1) what happens to us when we die? 2) why do we die? 3) would it be comforting to know the truth about death?

These are Questfions that people have thought about for thousand of years. They are important questions. no matter who we are or where we live ,

the answers concern each one of us.

The Bible tells us that the ransom sacrifice of Jesus christ opened the way to everlating life. and the Bible also foretells a time when "death will be no more".--Revlation 21:4

meanwhile , we all die. " The living are conscious that they will die."said wise king Solomon. (Ecc9:5) we try to live as long as possible.

still, we wonder what will happen to us when we die.

when our loved ones die, we mourn. And we may ask. " what has happened to them ?" Are they syffering? Are they watching over us?

can we help them? will we ever see them again? The world's religions offer differing answers to these questions.

some teach that of you live a good life , you will go to heaven but if you live a bad life , you will burn in a place of torment. Other religions teach that at death ,

people pass on to the spirit realm to be with their ancestor. still sother religions teach that the dead go to the under world to be judged and are then reincarnated, or reborn

in another body. what do you think about this? probably you would have no idea. because we never experienced before.

Such religious teachings all share one basic idea. - that some part of us survive the death of the physical body.

According to almost every religions, past and present, we somehow live on forever with the ability to see , hear and think. Yet, How can that be?

Our senses , along with our thoughts are all linked to the working of our brain. At death , the brain stops working. Our memories , feelings, and senses don't continue

to funtion independently in some mysterious way. They don't survive the destruction of our brain.

don't you agree with this?.

Amazingly, I failed to convert after reading this. Well, the first few lines, anyway. I still haven't read all of it, and that's only half that story: I'm not going to read the rest of it.

Guess what sort of response what's-his-name got.

Hint: I restrained myself from starting off with, "Jane, you ignorant slut." Didn't figure he's catch the ref.

[JimC]

"Nice try, old chap, but I'm afraid the Satanists got to me first..."

[FBM]

Hindsight!

[Rum]

Why would you want to waste your time?

South Koreans seem to go for loopy Christian sects in a big way.

[JimC]

Why would you want to waste your time?

South Koreans seem to go for loopy Christian sects in a big way.

And North Koreans go for loopy Marxist sects!

Seems to be a theme here...

[FBM]

Why would you want to waste your time?

South Koreans seem to go for loopy Christian sects in a big way.

When possible, I try to plant a seed of reasoning and skepticism in their minds. Never know whether or not that seed may catch hold and bear fruit in a few years. I also wanted to make it clear to him that not all Americans are xtians (a common assumption over here) and give him a perspective he may have never considered before. I'm willing to gamble two or three minutes composing an e-mail for that.

[FBM]

Anyway, here's my first response (he sent a second e-mail after this):

Daniel,



I hate to break this bad news to you, but the Bible is a collection of myths and superstitions from the Bronze Age. It feels good to believe that there is a god who loves you and will protect you, but it's just not true. Religious people are keeping many of the world's people in the ignorant Dark Ages. It's well past the time to get rid of the ignorance and superstitions from the distant past. It's time to acknowledge both the strengths and weaknesses of the human mind. The human mind is capable of curing diseases that have killed many millions that prayer and other superstitions could never cure.



Nobody has ever produced the slightest bit of real, credible evidence for the existence of a god, nor will they ever do so. Why? Because there is no such god. Old stories are just evidence for old stories. They are not evidence for a god. If someone accuses you of stealing, you demand evidence, right? It's common sense.



Until someone produces real, testable evidence for the existence of a god, I'll just live as though there is none.



Daniel, I know you're trying to earn your way into heaven or something, and you don't really care about me or the other people you try to infect with your superstitions and myths. I'm kindly letting you know that you are wasting your time contacting me with this nonsense.



I wish you the best of luck and hope that someday you are cured of this mental disease called religion.



Peace.

(Am I a dick, now that I've quoted myself? )

[Thinking Aloud]

If you want to really seed something, reply "I'm sorry, I've never heard of Bible or JehovaGod." I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about.

Then get them to explain from first principles. And then reply that none of what he's said makes any sense according to established history or scientific principles, and that he'll have to show you the research.

Edit: Posted same time!

[JimC]

Why would you want to waste your time?

South Koreans seem to go for loopy Christian sects in a big way.

When possible, I try to plant a seed of reasoning and skepticism in their minds. Never know whether or not that seed may catch hold and bear fruit in a few years. I also wanted to make it clear to him that not all Americans are xtians (a common assumption over here) and give him a perspective he may have never considered before. I'm willing to gamble two or three minutes composing an e-mail for that.

Anyway, from the thread about declining religiosity, many South Koreans are non-religious...

[FBM]

If you want to really seed something, reply "I'm sorry, I've never heard of Bible or JehovaGod." I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about.

Then get them to explain from first principles. And then reply that none of what he's said makes any sense according to established history or scientific principles, and that he'll have to show you the research.

Edit: Posted same time!

Again, hindsight! OK, next time I'll try to remember this response.


@ Jim: Yeah, and if I can increase that number by one or two, that would be just dandy with me.

[Thinking Aloud]

If you want to really seed something, reply "I'm sorry, I've never heard of Bible or JehovaGod." I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about.

Then get them to explain from first principles. And then reply that none of what he's said makes any sense according to established history or scientific principles, and that he'll have to show you the research.

Edit: Posted same time!

Again, hindsight! OK, next time I'll try to remember this response.


@ Jim: Yeah, and if I can increase that number by one or two, that would be just dandy with me.

Yours is much more to the point and polite, and will hopefully get you out of a long discussion. Mine probably wouldn't.

[FBM]

Yours is much more to the point and polite, and will hopefully get you out of a long discussion. Mine probably wouldn't.

Yeah, maybe if it's face-to-face with a cute girl I'd go the long-conversation route... But I did want to end this one in just an exchange or two. It did take two (so far), as he came back with:

Thank you for your honest reply.

I respects your view of God and the Bible. I am not trying to persuade you now. But did you ever read the Bible from cover to cover?

if not , I think you wouldn't be in the right position to judge the Bible. To illustrate, if somebody hadn't dealt with you for years, if he is not aquainted with you ,

do you think it is right for him to judge you, saying "you are dishonest" ? . of course not

Same is the case of the Bible. Therefore you should be more careful to judge the Bible , if you didn't read the Bible completely from cover to cover.
I have studied the Bible for forty years ,now I am sure that the Bible is the BooK from God. It is surely inspired by God. Let me give you some evidence about it.

of course , it's up to you to accept or believe it, Don't feel pressed about it. Because you are a free moral agent.

firstly, please, compare the Bible and Science



1) When the Bible was being written , there was speculation regarding how the earth was held in space. Some , for example, believed that the earth was supported

by four elephant standing on a big sea turtle. Yet rather than reflect the faniful , unscientific views existing at its time of writing, the Bible simply stated :



------- " God is stretching out the north over the empty place , hanging the earth upon nothing."( Job 26:7) ------- The Book of Job was written at 1473 B.C by Moses.

Yes, over 3000 years ago the Bible correctly noted that the earth has no visible support, a fact that is in harmony with the more recently understood laws of gravity and motion.

one religious scholar observed-- " How knew the truth is a question not easily solved by those who deny the inspiration of Holy Scripture,"



2) Another evidence is regarding the shape of the earth. About it , The Encyclopedia Americana says -" The earliest known image that men had of the earth was

that it was a flat , rigid platform at the center of the universe..... The concept of a spherical earth was not widely accepted until Renaissance."--1977,Vol.9 p.553

some early navigators even feared sailing off the edge of the flat earth!. But ,then , the introduction of the compaa and other improvements made possible longer voyages.

this showed that world was round, not flat as most people had beleved.

Yet long before such voyages, in fact, about 2700 years ago , the Bible said:------

--- "There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth , the dwellers in which are as grasshoppers."--- Isaiah 40:22 .

The Hebrew word " chugh" , translated "circle", can also mean "sphere," so other versions translate it as " the globe of the earth" or " the globe of the earth"

Thus the Bible was not influenced by the erroneous, flat-earth view prevalent when it was written . It was accurate.



3) water cycle--humas have long noted that the rivers flow into the seas and yet these don't increase in depth. some believed , until it was learned that the earth is spherical,

that this was because an equal amount of water was spilling off the ends of the earth. Later it was learned that the sun "bump" up thousands of millions of gallonsof water from

rhe seas every second in the form of water vapor. This marvelous cycle , although generally unknown in ancient times , is spoken about in the Bible :

---- Every river flows into the sea, but the sea is not yet full, the water returns to where the rivers began, and starts all over again." - Ecclesiates1:7

this book was written about 2500 years ago by Solomon .

[FBM]

Ah, right. My (I hope) final response:

Actually, yes you are trying to persuade me. At least be honest about it. And, yes, I have not only read the Bible from cover to cover, I studied Christianity in university. I was planning to become a priest. Fortunately, I was able to figure out that the stories of the Bible were composed as a means to secure political control over ignorant and gullible masses of people who are unskilled at reasoning, such as yourself. If I were you, I would be ashamed of trying to keep Korean people, Korean society and the Korean country in the Dark Ages by preaching childish superstitions. I suggest you study something that will really help Korean society and stop wasting your mind on wishful pipe dreams of eternal bliss. I would also appreciate it if you would stop wasting my time by trying to teach me about something that I already know about better than you. Thank you. Goodbye. Best of luck figuring out the truth.

I think I could've been a bit less harsh, but I didn't want to end up writing a third response. Since English isn't his native tongue, he may not even perceive the harshness, anyway.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

In other Korean Khristian News, the empty megachurch on Wild Horse Creek has been taken over by one of the local Korean churches. There goes Ayaan's idea to turn it into the Ratz Commune and Brothel.

[FBM]

Think you might be able to slip in and get some vid of better quality than this?: