Peterson AFB is a strange place in my opinion. I never heard of any recruiting for "soldiers for God" though.

I saw a feature on it. Might have been a segment in a documentary, might have been part of an episode of Penn & Teller's Bullsh!t. I'm not sure. It was a little scary, though.

gotta love pen and teller's ********.

Just what in the Holy High Hell are you blathering on about?

cashu:
Actually, I find your outlook quite refreshing (and very similar to mine). After all, we have been created "in God's image", thus everyone is a little bit of God... Unfortunately, not many people realize that (and take time to develope the God's given faculties)!

Jane:

Cashu did not write the statement you quoted. That is the O.P. I wrote it.

I am not even sure she wrote this one because her entire post was in a quote:

"atheist are people who believe that they were born from 2 rocks smashing into each other. Thats why we have the term rock heads . what you are discribing is a goddest "

The above statement (I have to guess here) looks like a theists bit of sarcasm relating to the "big bang."

I'm not sure what a "goddest" is. Maybe she is saying goddess, implying the feminine gender.

Dear Jeannie:

Please, accept my sincear appology for confusing the cashu's reply to you with your authentic and marvelous message!

I got confused because He didn't use any quotes and no references...

* * * What a releif it is that you caught my confusion -- reaffirming my deep respect for for you and your views!!!
Thank you...

Athiest

A=no in the greek
thiest=god

Athiest is to assert "There is no God"

Most people proclaiming to be athiest's are actually agnostic.I believe there is a God, I do not believe I am God or a part of God, rather a creation of God. If I was God in the classical sense I wouldnt be on this site, lol. Peace:)

Really? "Theist" means "God" ? Are you sure about that????

"A" often means simply 'not'. Atypical, acyclic, asymmetric, see.

So an "atheist" is a person who is "not a theist". Being "not a theist" does not require a person to hold a positive disbelief in a God.

I think the prefix you might have been look for is "contra", not "a".

As far as your notion of 'agnostic', too bad JR isn't around to tell you all about the historical agnostic position on 'know-ability'.

I am a lapsed agnostic....

"Absence of belief" is the one I was taught, and the one I follow.

you do NOT sound like an atheist to me! more like an "I-theist"

are you sure you heard them properly?

j/k

really, this is not atheism. so the only reason why someone might mistake you for one is that the god you believe in does not seem to be exactly like their perception of what god is.

but that is lame and besides god told me that it is irrelevant!

I consider JB an atheist because she lacks belief in a Deity. This is just a label which does not reflect the totality of her views and beliefs - it just reflects the fact that she lacks belief in a Deity, and thats it. There is a huge diversity of beliefs held by people who lack belief in a Deity.

Edit: By the way, I completely agree with what you are saying regarding 'their perception of what god is'. I have known a few Christians who considered Hindus to be atheist because they don't believe in God, the only valid idea of God, the Christian God. I think this is silly and terribly provincial. But where do you draw the line? Atheism is defined wrt to theism. What makes theism theism? If I believe in a chair, can I redefine 'God' to mean 'chair' and say I'm a theist? I think that "God = Deity" is a reasonable place to draw the line for 'what makes theism theism'.

But if i read her correctly she DOES believe in a Deity.
It is like treating the Universe or Nature as a Deity and
herself along with it.

Kind of sounds like Buddhism or Taoism but it sounds like
she is not saying that her belief is that there is no god.

I think the most important word in your post is "treating".

Most Buddhists and Taoists also qualify as "weak atheists".

I don't see why the totality of the Universe or Nature cannot be taken as synonymous with God and identical to the single God of monotheistic religions.

Obviously this is not 'identical' to the single God of monotheistic religions - they describe their Gods in ways that make it clear those Gods are not 'identical' to this 'notion of God'.

Let me be clear that I am not trying to invalidate any way of relating to the Universe or Nature, or any beliefs anyone may have about Universe or Nature.

Hahah, busted. Well done massagetrade.

Theist does not mean god, like god is a word with a specific definition anyways

asexual = without sexual reproduction.
So you do not equivocate sexual to mean something else, or even to mean some nebulous idea.

The word theist was defined early in this thread, I suggests itsnolongeri go back and read it, or just take the time to use the interwebz. But its easy for people to tell others what words mean, words are not concrete, you can believe atheist means a person who thinks there can be no god, but when having a conversation with someone who thinks atheist means not a theist you would be misunderstanding there position over an argument from semantics.

Have you looked into Taoism. Your statement " I define God as that which is" is similar to one of the Tao's basic statements. The difference is the don't try to define the Tao.

I find the problem with most organized religions that by trying to define, or humanize god, they end up losing the spirituality of "god".