Who is still missing?

[Rum]

He's passed the prelimenary humour checks, you can go into the rest of the forum to talk about cheese now but you still need to pass your bacon license

I'm Jewish. Maybe you have a chopped liver license instead?

I thought you were transitional? Go on, just take a nibble of the reformed ham, you know you want to

Old habits die hard. I'm transitioning from Orthodoxy.... it's a loooong journey.

Why I wonder would a less orthodox Judaism be easier to believe in than a more orthodox one? Faith seems to be the common denominator and once you start taking things on faith without evidence it doesn't matter much whether the god you believe in tells you to wear a black hat and long curls, or just to be nice to people.

You better get used to challenges here.

..which doesn't make you any less welcome of course.

[The Curious Squid]

Old habits die hard

Having never been religious I can't really understand why it isn't just a black and white case of was Jew, now not but since religion is designed to circumnavigate common sense maybe it's just mental lag, cognitive dissidence

Time is the best healer or some other such generic saying

[Jay G]

He's passed the prelimenary humour checks, you can go into the rest of the forum to talk about cheese now but you still need to pass your bacon license

I'm Jewish. Maybe you have a chopped liver license instead?

I thought you were transitional? Go on, just take a nibble of the reformed ham, you know you want to

Old habits die hard. I'm transitioning from Orthodoxy.... it's a loooong journey.

Why I wonder would a less orthodox Judaism be easier to believe in than a more orthodox one? Faith seems to be the common denominator and once you start taking things on faith without evidence it doesn't matter much whether the god you believe in tells you to wear a black hat and long curls, or just to be nice to people.

You better get used to challenges here.

..which doesn't make you any less welcome of course.

It's not as simple as you put it. Assuming one has faith and believes in God and that God gave the Torah to the Jewish people, one can following the Jewish Law as it comes down to us via the Talmud, etc. However, there's much that has been accumulated over the centuries that , even in the eyes of the faithful, appears to be crazy and just rank superstition. It's complicated but trust me that even within Orthodoxy, there are groups that are more "rational" than others. I'm sure it's the same in other religions.

[The Curious Squid]

Yeah but you seem willing to apply rational thinking to your faith, when that happens it's usually a fast track to disbelief, even if it was the larger discrepencies that made you investigate it in the first place, now that you've started shinning a light on it you'll start to see the smaller cracks.

Not long before you're eating the best tasting food on the planet, In a sense I'm jealous! Wish I could try bacon again for the first time. No joke.

[Jay G]

Yeah but you seem willing to apply rational thinking to your faith, when that happens it's usually a fast track to disbelief, even if it was the larger discrepencies that made you investigate it in the first place, now that you've started shinning a light on it you'll start to see the smaller cracks.

Not long before you're eating the best tasting food on the planet, In a sense I'm jealous! Wish I could try bacon again for the first time. No joke.

I am willing to apply rational thinking. HOWEVER, my emotional part is very strong. Also, there are family issues. I'm struggling with the fact that I have a wife and kids and feel that it's somehow not fair to them to turn their family life upside down.

[Rum]

Yeah but you seem willing to apply rational thinking to your faith, when that happens it's usually a fast track to disbelief, even if it was the larger discrepencies that made you investigate it in the first place, now that you've started shinning a light on it you'll start to see the smaller cracks.

Not long before you're eating the best tasting food on the planet, In a sense I'm jealous! Wish I could try bacon again for the first time. No joke.

I am willing to apply rational thinking. HOWEVER, my emotional part is very strong. Also, there are family issues. I'm struggling with the fact that I have a wife and kids and feel that it's somehow not fair to them to turn their family life upside down.

I find myself wondering why you want the company of us folk here in that case. You will be challenged at every turn and if you stick with us and become part of the community I suspect your faith will weaken.

Best leave now if you don't want that to happen. Not that I wish it! You are of course welcome.

[The Curious Squid]

Yeah but you seem willing to apply rational thinking to your faith, when that happens it's usually a fast track to disbelief, even if it was the larger discrepencies that made you investigate it in the first place, now that you've started shinning a light on it you'll start to see the smaller cracks.

Not long before you're eating the best tasting food on the planet, In a sense I'm jealous! Wish I could try bacon again for the first time. No joke.

I am willing to apply rational thinking. HOWEVER, my emotional part is very strong. Also, there are family issues. I'm struggling with the fact that I have a wife and kids and feel that it's somehow not fair to them to turn their family life upside down.

I find myself wondering why you want the company of us folk here in that case. You will be challenged at every turn and if you stick with us and become part of the community I suspect your faith will weaken.

Best leave now if you don't want that to happen. Not that I wish it! You are of course welcome.

I wouldn't say that, fair enough, if he stays here he may be faced with difficult choices but how can that ever be less desirable than being forced to carry out rituals and traditions that you suspect may be lies? If anything I think that regardless of what conclusion Jay G eventually comes to, an environment like this where nobody is agressive about religion can only help one way or another. We're not often a serious bunch but we do moral support like pros

Jay G, you're possibly the first theist I've come across that is actually willing to hear the counter ideas to what you've been told. I'm sure that if you ask honest questions here about anything you'd like to hear the atheist viewpoint on you'll get honest and concise answers.

Welcome to the forum

[charlou]

Jay G, I hope you enjoy our company ... whether you want to examine your traditions, ideas and beliefs here, or any of ours, or just kick back in witty, intelligent, irreverent and often just plain silly company ... I certainly enjoy reading your posts and was glad to see you had joined us.

[Trolldor]

We have witty company?

[Pappa]

I'm happy that nobody was upset over my absence.

I don't actually know who you are

Fix that!

I'm your worst nightmare. I'm a THEIST. Actually I'm a transitional theist.

Oh.... I was hoping you'd be a transitional fossil.

[Svartalf]

Aren't the two more or less synonymous, beside the fact I'd rather use a nice trilobite as a paperweight?

[Pappa]

Aren't the two more or less synonymous, beside the fact I'd rather use a nice trilobite as a paperweight?

I'd rather use the shrunken head of a missionary.

[Ronja]

Jay G, you're possibly the first theist I've come across that is actually willing to hear the counter ideas to what you've been told. I'm sure that if you ask honest questions here about anything you'd like to hear the atheist viewpoint on you'll get honest and concise answers.

CS, all you need to do is travel back in time some 20+ years, and meet a younger me. I was like that once. It took me from the summer of 1980 to early 2001 to come full circle from born-again xian to atheist (a 6 on the 7-step scale that Dawkins so often uses). I claim that I was a decent person all that time, and I must have been willing to think the unthinkable, to arrive here.

Welcome to the forum

+1 to that.

Jay G: these people - me very much included - well, we are kinda silly, and tend to make fun about anything and everything, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings GMT. But almost all here are honest, and a large majority can manage to be honest in a respectful way, IMO. Your taste may be different, of course.

Again, welcome!

[Mysturji]

I'm happy that nobody was upset over my absence.

I don't actually know who you are

Fix that!

I'm your worst nightmare. I'm a THEIST. Actually I'm a transitional theist.

[Jay G]

I'm happy that nobody was upset over my absence.

I don't actually know who you are

Fix that!

I'm your worst nightmare. I'm a THEIST. Actually I'm a transitional theist.

Oh.... I was hoping you'd be a transitional fossil.

No. But there are some living in my neighborhood.