In Tray 04

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Here's some rather random messages and replies from October and November 04. Make of them whatever you will.

I read your article "Christians who used to be atheists" and am a little confused. Are you trying to say that in order for you to sit up and take notice, one of your friends who might be "famous" atheists would have to have been converted to Christianity? Do you believe that a Christian who says that they used to be atheists were not really atheists, and that if one was a true atheist, they would remain an atheist. Please respond. I am very curious and would like to know. Thank you for your patience.

Allen F.

I have dozens of friends online who are atheists. None of them have converted to Christianity.

I am also unaware of any famous atheists who have converted, but several people who are famous for being Christians who claimed to have been atheists when they weren't famous, or creative or leaving any record of their beliefs. That stinks. People who spend a lot of time writing about their Christian beliefs have no record to verify their claims to have been atheists and NOT ONE person who was famous for expressing atheist views has later become a Christian.

Of course I believe that these "exatheists" were never really committed atheists, never spent time on exploring their beliefs or alternative non-religious explanations for the world around us. They may have been atheists but they were never publicly atheists capable of defending their views. My brother-in-law was one, he tells me he was an atheist and now he seems to be Christian (Church of England, it's difficult to tell, and atheism isn't inconsistent with church membership or indeed leadership) but he has never been able to provide me with anything in the way of proof or a good explanation for what he believed. The same is true for all of them. No evidence of coherent atheist views or expression of such views, just a self-declared status that is impossible to verify and a total lack of any convincing explanation of a consistently atheistic worldview.

Nobody has been able to provide me with any convincing counter-examples.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

I have noticed a trend amont people name Martin as a first name. They are extremely smart. Seriously. I am an expert in many areas. And from wondering on to your sight I would say that the same goes for you. Martin You seem to lack something deep inside tho. I would say that something is faith.

Laterz dood.

Of course I'm lacking something, I'm alive. To live is to feel a need.

What is faith for?

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

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Steve Irwin does not handle snakes the way I do. I handle them like him when I catch them. But, when I am anointed to handle them, it is a completely different thing. God, through his spirit, gives me power over the serpent. It is called anointing. I have to pray for the anointing. And, if I don't live a good life where I treat people with love and kindness, I cannot recieve it. When I get anointed I can do whatever God leads me to do. He said we would take up serpents drink deadly things cast out devils speak in tongues and heals the sick. Whatever he leads me to do I can. Even if it is against the law of nature. Or, the law of sin. Because if I am led by the spirit I am not under the law. So if he leads me to kiss or touch someone I can without sin. There is no condemnation.

Does God often lead you to kiss people in ways that might be considered by others to be illegal or sinful?

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

He hasn't yet. But, if he does it won't be in a lustful way. It is like kissing or hugging your brother or sister. You don't lust after them. And, when I lay hands on people for prayer it is no different than a doctor. It is a desexualized thing. Yet outsiders call you freelovers and everything else. Just because they are incapable of touching brothers and sisters in the Lord without lust, doesn't mean others can't. If I am lead by the Spirit I am not under the law. For the fruits of the spirit do not transgress the law.

How do you know that you are led by "the Spirit" rather than by your own subconscious or even a demon?

How do you know that the Bible you have been taught is authoritative is a thing of value or indeed the work of a good as opposed to an evil force?

The Bible says the world belongs to Satan and yet how come the Bible is spread as easily as being left in hotel rooms? Isn't that clearly demonstrating either the supreme weakness of Satan or the gullibility of Christians?

Do you take the whole of the Bible as being authoritative or just a few bits here and there? Who chose which bits to take seriously, which bits to take literally and which bits to treat as allegory?

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

 

I am confused as to why you married a christian woman...a woman of God. Or is she just a woman of religion rather than faith? And why did she marry you?

cassie

I met a woman and fell in love with her. We don't have the same beliefs. Where is the mystery?

I suppose you might live in a society with very weird religious beliefs and extreme views. You must consider that I live in Britain, most of the religious extremists we had emigrated to America.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Neanderthal man not really related to us

I have read several articles that we are not related so what significance do they play in mankind's evolution path they should be removed?

If a doctor asked you if anybody in your family had a history of insanity would you not mention your father's brother thinking he was a penguin?

Neanderthals are closely related to us even if we are not descended from them. They are descended from our ancestors.

The issue as to whether or not Neanderthals have contributed to the genes of modern Europeans is not resolved.

Even if all human Y chromosome and all mDNA shows 100% pure direct male-male and female-female line ancestry pointing to Africa it does not follow that there is no mixed line inheritance through a minority of Neanderthals. There is more than a thousand generations between modern Europeans and Neanderthals, if 10% of European DNA came from Neanderthals how likely is it that any pure Neanderthal male-male or female-female lines remain unbroken across such a timespan? 1,500 generations and every one had a male or a female issue. If there was a single generation without a member of the appropriate sex then the line would die out on the sex specific path but there may still be just as many genes in total from Neanderthals as there were after any original crossbreeeding, possibly even more if particular genes offered some kind of selection advantage, and there is no reason to suppose this wouldn't have been the case. The African Adam and African Eve evidence does not bury the possibility of Neanderthal ancestry.

Neanderthals could have been absorbed in small numbers into tribes of Cro Magnons. Low level crossbreeding is obvious in the Jewish and Romany populations of Europe, and it can be seen in the thoroughly mixed genes of "African Americans" who now all show traces of American and European as well as African genes in their make up. Crossbreeding is a human trait. If it was possible it would have happened.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

I'm so happy I found someone who says it like he really thinks. How come you give so many rules to what we can say in our e-mails to you? You sound very angry....what are you afraid of? Why does prayer scare you? Who is Kush K? Please tell me more about who you are, I would love to know how you came up w/all of your answers. Oh....I'm sorry if I sound illiterate or incoherent, but I do admit I have not gone to college so if my writing sounds childish to you it is because you are more educated than me but I hope you still take the time to read it. You also sound very judgemental, I know we are all judgemental but you tend to put people down a lot. Do you care if you hurt people's feelings? Have you ever read the bible, not parts of it but the whole thing? Honestly I haven't read the whole thing myself, but I was just wondering if you have. How come you have to change your e-mail address....it sounds weird like you are trying to run from something. Anyway...if you have time in your busy schedule I would love to hear from you. I hope you are having a good day when you read this, I wouldn't want to make you more angry than you already sound like you are. Please don't forget to tell me more about yourself....and who Kush K. is.

Thank You for reading this

Have a great day,

Linda Kelly

I put up a lot of rules because I get messages asking me for stuff like this. Only yesterday I received this one:

Hi, My name is Hector. My son has a religion project about cultural relations. He has to research about Atheist. Below are the questions. Please answer them. We are Roman Catholic.

1. three basic beliefs of Atheist 2 .the area/country where the Atheist is common 3 .three ways in which the Atheist influences the culture of those regions 4. one way in which conversation changes the person's culture

My son needs to submit his project tomorrow. I would appreciate it very much if you could e-mail me now with your answers. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Hector

Which translates as : "Please do my son's homework for him, we don't agree with anything you stand for and haven't time to read what you have written on your site, and do it quick because we're against a deadline here."

READ THE SITE! That's what it's there for. Don't ask me to write what I have already written because you the visitor are too idle, impatient or incompetent to look up what I have already written.

Who am I? It's on my site. Look around and you'll see links to a page that describes who I am. Look a bit further and you will find the answers to your questions have already been given and published, several times.

Kush K lives in Northern Virginia, I don't know much about him apart from the fact that he is an American of Middle Eastern origin, an atheist, probably from a Muslim background. The picture he used on my forum looked just like a stereotypical Islamic terrorist.

How come I have to change my email address? Because some people no doubt thinking they are doing the Lord's work maliciously post the address on places across the internet that attract spam.

Read my site, I don't expect you to read all of it, but it is a lot more relevant to the modern world than all that begetting, stoning and tricking kings into marrying the wrong daughter stuff that you think is so wonderful.

Look around the site and if you have any more questions after you have thoroughly explored then I will be happy to answer them.

This page:

http://mwillett.org/navopt.htm

has some search options to help you find what you are looking for.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

mr. m willett-

i accidently came across your website, actually while searching for the poem "footsteps". i decided to read on and i became interested in what you had to say. but i dissagree with you entirely. the difference between your parable and the parable of the sower is that you made yours up while the parable of the sower are words directly from God. and i have faith that everything your telling me on this website is false. besides... seeing isn't believing, believing is seeing.

sincerely,

suzy lou

Anybody who reserves capital letters only for the nickname of their imaginary friend is a very sad individual indeed.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Hello,

After perusing your site I see you would advocate the Catholic church becoming a religion of convenience. Rather than taking moral stands on moral issues you would have the church modify morality to make it convenient for each successive day and age. You would not want to see mankind change to become holy but rather change what is considered holy to fit mankind's appetites.

I am sorry that the church has failed in its mission to educate you about the truly good news and from the clutch of ignorance and atheism. For to believe in a God that modifies his expectations of holiness to make himself an easy pill to swallow is really another form of atheism. I wish we had been able to lead you to the enlightenment of living a life of virtues. Virtues which are necessary to practice here on earth, where we must begin our life in the heavenly kingdom. If you wait until death to decide to become a servant of God you will not only fail, but you will end up serving neither God nor the welfare of your own soul. We shall keep you in our prayers.

Robert F. Picard

"perusing" obviously doesn't mean the same as reading. I would actually advocate that the Catholic Church immediately disbands and hands its assets over to genuine humanitarian charities and stops wasting everybody's time.

I am an atheist, I don't believe in gods, or a soul. I don't believe in such things and I have no desire to try to believe in any of them. I do believe in living a moral life, which has nothing to do with pie in the sky.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Hello,

It is true I only read one article. It was more then enough to determine your atheistic descent from reality. Any more reading would not be worthy of my time or intellect.

I am glad to see you have no delusions of personal goodness. I am sure that your life is as empty as your mind. Or in the larger picture will seem as empty and divorced of true purpose, having failed to determine even fundamentals like the purpose of your own existence. Perhaps in this empty headed world of self appointed cynics the hollow people which stream about only slightly removed from drones, have finally become the majority. In all things however the game is not over until its over. Good always triumphs in the end and we will at that time have the last laugh at the expense of fools and quazi-intellectuals.

May God in his mercy enlighten you as to your purpose and the hour of your visitation.

Bye for now Martin,

Just out of curiosity which single article (out of 526) did you read? If I wrote it I'll check to see if it needs re-writing for the hard of thinking.

Self appointed cynics are by far the best kind. Never trust a cynic appointed by somebody else, you really can't trust them.

There's no z in quasi.

quasi- comb. form

1 seemingly; apparently but not really (quasi-scientific).

2 being partly or almost (quasi-independent). [Latin quasi 'as if, almost']

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Hello Martin,

I am sorry you did not see the humor in Quazi-intellectual. Ha-Ha.

Humor is an important quality in being able to succeed in facing serious challenges.

With your permission, Martin, I would like to keep you in my prayers.

I believe your time of enlightenment is fast approaching. It is in fact inevitable. The quality that you possess that will be the undoing of your atheistic stand is your thist for knowing in stead of believing. I myself would not believe in a God that I could not prove the existance of, to the sincere satisfaction of reason. Once convinced then and only then can I exercise my will in the service of this God.

I know we will be communicating soon. Bye for now,

What would you do if I said you don't have my permission to keep me in your prayers?

This is an interesting conundrum. Administering a drug against a person's will is unethical. Is it still unethical if the patient doesn't know about it and the drug doesn't work?

People have been praying for my conversion for the last five years, it hasn't had any effects. Nobody ever writes back to tell me when they stopped praying for me, so do I assume there are dozens of prayers still said in my name or that Christians have no patience?

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Contrary to your beliefs concerning natural family planning, which you formed without having researched it at all, it turns out that natural family planning is almost 100% effective if used correctly. All it takes is a thermometer, a notepad, and some tissue. Here's how scientists undermined thousands of years of evolution: A woman's temperature rises during her infertile period. A woman doesn't produce vaginal mucus (not without sexual stimulation) during her infertile period. It works no matter the female cycle type.

Regards,

Keegan Wade

The human female's reproductive cycle is designed to be cryptic.

"Almost 100% if used correctly" is a claim that would be thrown out by any trading standards authority if this was a commercial product. In fact there has been a commercial product, it failed in Britain, one of my wife's friends bought one and fell pregnant. It was subsequently withdrawn from the market because it proved so unreliable.

The idea that the vagina does not produce mucus except in the fertile period is also incorrect. The mucus method requires a woman to be monitoring her vaginal mucus quite obsessively, abstaining from sex for about 8 days per cycle and she's rewarded with a system of contraception that in real life use has a 20% failure rate, PER YEAR. Are you happy to rely on a method with a 20% failure rate per year, for perhaps over 15 years? If she abstained from sex for contraceptive reasons for 8 days per cycle plus another 5 for aesthetic reasons that is putting her relationship under a lot of strain.

This is not a reliable or sensible method of birth control when there are methods which are considerably more effective.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

If you are a betting man, then how about this!

My Christianity says that if I believe in Jesus the Christ (Son of God) and profess Him, I will be saved from eternal life away from God and be granted eternal life with God; now if I believe as you and others apparently believe then I have whatever fate befalls us; BUT if you believe what I believe then you have both. Which way seems the most prudent!

Please don't answer. I can no longer stand the cacaphony of those who want to be God in order to justify their behavior ... until the end!

If you are a betting man, then how about this! My Islam says that if I believe in Allah and profess Him, I will be saved from eternal life away from Allah and be granted eternal life with Allah; now if I believe as you and others apparently believe then I have whatever fate befalls us, the lake of fire and everlasting torment, BUT if you believe what I believe then you have both. Which way seems the most prudent!

http://mwillett.org/atheism/classic.htm#pascalswager

It's a dull month when no Christian thinks that's the first time I have ever come across that rusty old argument.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

It doesn't take this Christian long to learn to "not cast my pearls before swine" - your are insulting in all your ways. I was not trying to insult only to point our my logic that "One can have it both ways" but not to those who are blinded.

Sir, you are blinded by the evil spirits of any world.

What logic come from you as printed below "My Islam says that if I believe in Allah and profess Him, I will be saved from eternal life away from Allah and be granted eternal life with Allah;" and it is not Islam but Koran.

If you believe in nothing, you will fall for anything.

I am sure you have come across lots of things - the problem is obvious to all except you that you have never stopped to pick it up.

> It doesn't take this Christian long to learn to "not cast my pearls
> before swine" - your are insulting in all your ways. I was not
> trying to insult only to point our my logic that "One can have it
> both ways" but not to those who are blinded.
>
> Sir, you are blinded by the evil spirits of any world.

I am able to see the world as it is and through the rival
interpretations of others. You can only see the world through a single
interpretation that must never be questioned. No objective observer
would say it was me that was blind.

>
> What logic come from you as printed below "My Islam says that if I
> believe in Allah and profess Him, I will be
>> saved from eternal life away from Allah and be granted eternal life
>> with Allah;" and it is not Islam but Koran.

I edited your words, your word was Christianity, not Bible. If it was a
mistake you have corrected your own mistake.

"My Christianity says that if I believe in Jesus the Christ (Son of God)
and profess Him, I will be saved from eternal life away from God and be
granted eternal life with God; now if I believe as you and others
apparently believe then I have whatever fate befalls us; BUT if you
believe what I believe then you have both. Which way seems the most
prudent!"


>
> If you believe in nothing, you will fall for anything.

You are mistaking me for some New Age idiot who wants to believe in
bullshit but doesn't like the flavour served up to him as a child. I do
not like any form of bullshit. My contempt for such gullible idiots is
far greater than my contempt for people who believe what they have been
told to believe.

>

> I am sure you have come across lots of things - the problem is
> obvious to all except you that you have never stopped to pick it up.
>

I've seen all the feeble attempts to defend the indefensible. Your
message made it quite clear that you didn't want to debate so I had no
reason to be polite to you and to pretend that your feeble "argument"
that I have addressed and dismissed dozens of times was of any merit
whatsoever. You intended to give me a quick goad and walk away. That
isn't the way it works.

You are obviously living inside a cocoon of faith and are unaware that
what you thought of as a devastating new argument has been around for
centuries.

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again
and rend you."

How much do think a Jewish carpenter would know about pig farming?

You will spend your entire life preparing for something that isn't going
to happen and doing your best to ensure that as many people as possible
also waste as much of their lives as you can possibly persuade them to
waste.

If people accept what you say then you will be happy for them, if they
reject it you quote Matthew Chapter 7 verse 6 and don't even think that
perhaps genuinely moral people don't go around calling other people pigs
and dogs, or ignoring the advice they have been given and only
remembering it when they have felt themselves rent by swine.

Just a little side note here, if it isn't kosher to eat shellfish how
come Jews think pearls are valuable anyway?

Jesus tells his followers to talk to children and those who will
believe, the gullible, and not to waste their time trying to persuade
anybody capable of thinking clearly for themselves. It is only later
that the church tries to become universal that they have to move on to
persuading the swine, that is when they started the hog roasts of witch
and heretic burning, the crusades and the inquisition, in the name of
the God of Love.

Run along and scare some children with hellfire, it's all you are
capable of.

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

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