Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (40742)	6/18/1999 3:57:00 PM
From: Sam Ferguson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

<<The true test of what you believe will come when you are dying and know it. Until then, everything is a Beta lifestyle.>> I believe you will find this to be an old wives tale. I have been to that point where It went so far as to have the plug pulled on all life support and funeral arranged. Prior to going in a coma I knew it would take a miracle to live long enough to wake up from operations. My relation to my maker was in no way connected to Jesus and I had no worries of hell. I neither had any visons of Heaven. Mostly what I thought about was all the things I meant to do before I died and would not be able to finish. I had complete trust that whatever happened would be for my benefit. I came to 3 days after they pulled life support and started getting better. That happened 14 years ago and the team of Doctors called it a miracle and so did family and friends. They started tube feedings again but left dialysis machine and breathing machine disconnected. I went home from the hospital 5 weeks later for a long period of rehab. I have mixed emotions on Christianity. I love the people and their efforts to be tops in morality. I hate the Church dogma and harm it has done to separate people from God and other well meaning people. I despise the tax exeptions for churchs. I despise preachers telling little children they are born sinners and creating fear in them. I despise the proselyters who come claiming to have salvation and offering it to me. I am not lost and not born in sin. I am me. I love me. I have to live by my actions and expect to be responsible for them. I don't want Jesus or anyone else dying for me. I prefer to die for myself.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (40742)	6/18/1999 5:09:00 PM
From: Chuzzlewit	Respond to of 108807

Christopher, The true test of what you believe will come when you are dying and know it. I had such an experience twenty eight years ago. I fell on an ice field while on a hike on Mt. Rainier. On the way down I was convinced I was going to die. I would have, had I not somehow got hold of some vegetation on the cliff, because another few feet and I would have gone over a cliff with several hundred vertical feet of drop. I can assure of this: not once did I think of God. The experience was eerie in a number of ways. First, I felt "outside" of my body -- as if I were an observer of the events (which seem to occur in slow motion). Second, my mind was fixed on trivialities like concern for my camera. Only after I became convinced that I was not going to die did I become frightened. I spoke to a psychiatrist about this experience some time later, and she assured me that this kind of reaction to the certainty of death is common. So, I guess I passed the true test of what I believe. TTFN, CTC

To: The Philosopher who wrote (40742)	6/19/1999 1:44:00 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

I was with my father when he died. He was an agnostic (but leaning towards atheism, much more so than I). He was a wonderful gentle man, and he wanted to die more than anything. He was happy to go- to nothingness, to whatever, as long as it freed him of the pain. He could not wait to go.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (40742)	6/19/1999 1:52:00 AM
From: Krowbar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

<< The old lawyer on his deathbed was seen voraciously reading the Bible. When asked whether he was repenting his life, he said "Hell, I'm looking for loopholes." >> It was W.C. Fields, and he died an Atheist while mocking religion one last time. Like Chuz, I had a near death experience while sliding down a frosty roof 2 stories up. I teetered right on the edge but managed to work my way back to safety. I would have been impaled on a picket fence below. Also I did break my back from a heavy wall falling on me and had my intestines paralyzed for 3 days. These events didn't change my beliefs at all. Why would they suddenly cause me to believe in mythology? Del