Mixed Nuts 2008 - Part Three

Email from 2008

Just finished watching a film you might find entertaining. Its called To Kill a King. The actors are Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Rupert Everett, Olivia Williams.Its a new release on DVD. I think you will find it to show the early republic of England however short lived. I know next to nothing because I am a YANK from America. Is it true England was a republic for 74 years?? 1776-1850.

Thanks, Dave

Certainly not. 1776 may be significant in American history but it isn't in English history.

Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. Before her were some Georges. Four in total.

It was 1649 when Charles I was executed, after the civil war which began in 1642, the Commonwealth of England followed, until the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in 1660.
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Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Hi, (gonna cut to the chase)

I am an atheist and my girlfriend a christian, we want to get married, any ideas on how to do this,how to sort stuff like kids and their religion, cause she is thinking about these things ALOT, me too but I see it as work it out as it comes.

Any pointers??

Ciao

Jay

alot is not a word.

alot is not a word!?-is that all you've got to say?

Sorry. I think she should dump you.

 

 

Explanation: Was I a little harsh on Jay? Maybe. But the guy was treating me like a free advice service. He gave me nothing, not even the slightest courtesy, not the least bit of flattery, no reason why I should give a shit about him or his problems. So I started off unsympathetic. Why did he have to cut to the chase? I run this site to be told how fantastic and smart I am. That is what this site is for. And then he shouts out in capitals the non-word alot. That pisses me off. And he used two question marks. That was the final straw.

I've spent the better part of a few hours reading your words and replies, so far I completely agree with your logistics and plan on reading much more.  Seeing as you have over 700 articles per your site, I'll be here awhile.  You may respond, you may not, as is your discretion.  I just wanted you to know I enjoy your writings and ideas, and being an Atheist myself I particularly enjoy those conversations.  Take care Mr. Willett and thanks for the knowledge you present.

Anthony


I'm a 30 year old Catholic who agrees with you on every point regarding your article about population being the biggest problem today. Could you add how population affects oil prices in your article? A lot more people would be more interested in reading it, and hopefully see the light.

If I could, I'd spam the whole world with your article. The world urgently needs a wake up call.

Sorry I didn't reply to this earlier. I must have been wondering what you meant about oil prices. I think not wanting oil prices to rise is a poor reason to oppose population growth, it is not as if we are short of good reasons.
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Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org


Martin Willett

To answer my own question, the way you wrote in one of your own articles and used the question, "What is the purpose or meaning of eternal life?" A question you never really answered, I have my own response:

First of all I do believe there is a reason for everything!

Second, I also believe I have the meaning of eternal life, as found in John 17:3:
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

If I want to know you, there has to be developed a relationship of sorts. I know your name, but I do not know you. I think I may know you are an atheist, but I do not know that in fact.

However, I do know Jesus, who He is, and what His purpose was on earth, and what His purpose is now.
He wants us to have a relationship with Him as I do. You could have that very same relationship if you were to choose to do so, and it is my prayer that this would happen for you.

What would you rather have eternal life or eternal death? Again, I pray that you, Martin Willet, would come to know Jesus they way that I do, and that you would choose to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, knowing that you too would have eternal life, if you have not done so. Then you could write about this relationship you could have and when if fact you do have it, you could make a greater difference in your readers than ever before.

May God bless you and may His Spirit touch your life like never before, IN Christ, Jim Cooke

What is the point of your eternal life for you? What do you get out of it?

What if you don't want to live for ever?

I do hate it when people get expensive presents for you without asking what you actually want. And it's so much more annoying that they do it before you're born.

My mother wants to buy driving lessons for my daughter, because she wants a granddaughter who can drive for her and she's annoyed that my daughter doesn't want to learn how to drive. God wants you in his choir so he's going to kidnap you and keep you there for ever, and you have to pretend you're grateful for the opportunity or he'll torture you instead. That really sucks.

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Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

Mr. Willett, You do have quite a sense of humor and I hope we can keep this e-mail connection. I have been a Christian myself for nearly 30 years. I am 45 now, and it will not be so much as my trying to shove Jesus down your throat or throwing an internet Bible in your face or anything like that. I came across your site by way of looking for information on the purpose of eternal life, so finding you was not totally just a coincidence. I believe in divine intervention and when I answer your questions to me I will try to not be too preachy.

What is the point of your eternal life for you? What do you get out of it? I do hope you will read this!!!

The Sheep and the Goats

Matthew 25:3 1"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

41 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes20and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45 "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46 "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I love to do for others, not for what I get in return but just for the satisfaction it brings me. When the Lord returns I want to be in the presence of the other sheep, because I do not want to be in the eternal fire that is prepared for satan and his angels.

As I love doing for others I also love sharing this with you b/c until death it is not too late to receive God's free gift of salvation. Your mother wants to do something for your daughter I guess out of love. Well, in the same way I hope you will take what God offers you b/c of His love for all mankind.

1 Timothy 2 - We don't always get what we want but in the scripture below He desires all men to be saved, and again I want to be in the sheep and not the lake of eternal fire.

Instructions on Worship

1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.

Revelation 20:13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I would rather accept Jesus and I know what I will receive in the end than to not accept Jesus and end up in the hottest fire imaginable for all eternity.

What if you don't want to live for ever?

Not using scripture this time - but I know that in heaven there will be no pain and many other awesome thing, and whether or not I sing well or want to be in His choir doesn't matter to me - I just desire to carry on a relationship that exists right now!!!

Sincerely, and God Bless, Jim Cooke

Don't quote the Bible at me. I can read it myself. I am doing, I'm in the middle of the Epistles at the moment and there have been no great insights into the meaning of life although I have learned some interesting stuff and quite a bit about linen shorts and pomegranates. I am not in the slightest bit moved towards believing in your god, wanting to believe in your god or wanting your god to exist.

You really are wasting your time talking to me about Jesus. I do not believe in spirits, souls, afterlife, gods or the credibility of first century cult members. I don't believe that I (or anybody else) can possibly experience anything after death (true death, not a reversible state of lowered life functions) and I do not believe that Christianity offers a credible, coherent or attractive option for this impossible state.

An attractive afterlife would be one in which there was freedom. What freedom is there in heaven? I do not want to spend time following somebody else's agenda. I did not enjoy going to church, the idea of an eternity worshipping is a living hell to me.

The prospect of heaven is hollow, shallow and thoroughly unattractive. In heaven nobody is married. What? That is God denying a basic human right. The bastard! If you object to me calling God a bastard please provide documentary evidence that he is the product of a legal union. From what I have read he raped his own mother.

What fun will there be in heaven living (if you can call it that) with all the pious people? Pious people are no fun. I would not voluntarily spend time in the presence of anybody who could spend sixty years dressed in cheap woollen robes worshipping an invisible entity. What kind of conversation could you have in heaven "Oh, we were right. That's neat. Now what?" Eternity. That's what. Endless tedium declaring that you are always and inevitably inferior to God and you don't have anything else to do or fill your infinite time with.

My mother's gift to my daughter is not inspired by love. I have recently been thinking back on the presents she bought me down the years, most of them had been chosen as a way to get me to spend more time with her parents. She hardly ever asked me what I wanted, she manipulated me into thinking that what she wanted to get me was what I really wanted to have. She gave me guns, a boat and an old unroadworthy car. All things which were no use to me in my suburban home, all things I had to go to her mother's farm to use. I was 15 when she gave her old car to me. One or two of those presents might have been reasonable but when taken as a whole an entirely different and more manipulative picture emerges. When we moved to within a short bike ride (yes of course she bought me a bike) of the farm I cannot recall a single thing she bought me which I could use at home with the exception of clothes. The story of the bike is quite illuminating. When I was about ten a bike appeared, I can't remember any great fuss about it. It was a good bike, second hand but quite acceptable. Then a few months afterwards, when I had been spending lots of time riding my old bike, at home, she gets me a new bike. It's a folding bike. It is inferior to the old bike in every respect except age and the ability to be folded and put in the back of the car. Why would I want a bike that folded? I didn't. She wanted to give me a bike I could take to the farm. I wanted the old one back, this one looked pink, it looked like a girl's bike, all the kids teased me for riding a girlie bike. It was nothing like the bike I would ever have chosen for myself. I hated it. So a few months later she got me a new bike. A racer. It was so much better than the old one, and better than the one I actually asked for, she proved this to me by encouraging me to ride it - all the way to her parents farm twenty miles away. I think I understand my mother's motives a bit better than you do. My daughter has specifically said she does not want to learn to drive, on several occasions. She is still adamant on the issue, not because she does not want to be manipulated but because she simply doesn't want to drive.

If there was a god who wanted to give us eternal life then why not just do that? I wouldn't say no to not dying, especially not ageing either. But that was the pathetic and transparently fraudulent claim of the Old Testament god, believe in him and you don't die, at least you live a long time and you can have children in your nineties. But the Christian model of eternal life, if that is not too strong a word for this translucent will-o'-the-wisp fantasy, is nothing like that. It is a series of crude analogies and caricatures that have all the substance of the inside of a ring doughnut. Sheep and goats. Angels and harps. Ambrosia for the celestial choir. It's nothing but piffle. If this is pie in the sky it's not a solid and satisfying meat pie, it's a mound of shaving foam on a paper plate.

http://mwillett.org/atheism/heaven-is-hell.htm

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Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/



ok, I am a christian. and I just read your "purpose of the christian God" page.

and i actually belive in some of what you say for i belive that if God does have a purpose we will never know, however, you say there is NO proof for the christian God when really their is no proof for athieism, no there ARE things that tehj christian faith cannot explain with real sciencem however the athiest version is normally more stupid and idiotic.

(i am nto callign you that I know you are smart from reading your work)

and YOU ARE STUPID if you think the bible says that God sends people to Hell!!!!!!!!!!! cause the bible does nto support this AT ALL!!!!!!!!! i can prove that with the bible verse if you need me to i read every verse concerning Hell in the bible, and know what each means.

but I'd liek to have a basic debate. FOR YOU TO PROVE YOUR RELIGION!

(yes athieism is a religion its is an anti-religion religion lol "A" for anti and "thie" for god and which is on the end of most religiones) so yeah please try and prove your religion, form teh beginning please start with the big bang or however you think it happened,...

oh and respond to me at ###### and please do nto give it out to anyone

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pf*__* : Narx

I am looking for intelligent people to debate with.

If you know any pass on my email address.
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Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/



i recently purchased a soul, to prove to my atheist friend that it does exist that was for $20, so if you believe you don't have a soul then why are you asking $30,000 ??????????????????????????????????????????

Cheers,

Nathan Jones

Because I'm worth it. And it's 30,000 POUNDS, not dollars.
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Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/


OFFER 20 POUNDS

Cheers,
Nathan Jones

 


Does God Bless America?
Hell no he doesn’t.

Also, I wanted to make a comment about this quote:

“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.”

- General George Patton

I have seen no proof that this was a real quote made by him. I think it’s just Hollywood bullshit put into a movie to make him look tough. Truth is he was no public speaker, because he had a high-pitched, mousy voice that did not carry. But for your enlightenment (and to sound like an asshole) I decided to provide you with some real quotes by him, courtesy of Wikipedia (take that with a grain of salt, but these sound more like him):

(about black soldiers): “Individually they were good soldiers, but I expressed my belief at the time, and have never found the necessity of changing it, that a colored soldier cannot think fast enough to fight in armor.”

(about the Jews): “We entered a synagogue which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. Either these Displaced Persons never had any sense of decency or else they lost it all during their period of internment by the Germans... My personal opinion is that no people could have sunk to the level of degradation these have reached in the short space of four years.”

“[others may believe]... that the Displaced Person is a human being, which he is not, and this applies particularly to the Jews, who are lower than animals.”

Also:

(about Russians): “The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinese or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other amiable characteristics, the Russian has no regard for human life and they are all out sons-of-bitches, barbarians, and chronic drunks.”

– George S. Patton

This psychotic, racist imbecile gets too much credit in my opinion. He is not a hero of my country, as far as I’m concerned.. His type A personality and sense of entitlement gave him his place in history. Fuck him. Double fuck him. With a big steel dildo.

Thanks for listening,

Tom Manson

I'll quote Jesus, Marx, Stalin, Eminem, Hitler even George W Bush. The only criteria is that they get it right in one brief statement. I regard Patton as a nasty piece of work and a war criminal. I have also not seen much evidence of him being a particularly good general. But that quote does make a terrific point, dying for your cause is to be avoided, making the other bastard die is the point and if you kill them all there's nobody around to bury and make songs about the blessed martyrs. I don't think America was ever in the position of needing psycho-generals so the use of Patton should be a source of shame for America. Britain had a bloody good excuse to use psychos as generals but we used gentlemen, we played by the rules, we took prisoners. We didn't have to turn nasty, although it came rather close.

I'm still waiting for Dubya to say something smart, but if he does I will have no problem with quoting him.
--

Martin Willett

http://mwillett.org/

My point was I don't think Patton ever said that quote at all. Great speech it was, but that doesn't change the fact it was simply made up by Hollywood.

But I do agree, however, that making the other bastard die is the point. Better the enemy than ME or one of my friends.

Considering Patton was kicked out of the actual (fighting) army halfway through the (America's involvement in the) war and then we started kicking ass, says a lot for his leadership. He was more concerned with fighting against his men than his enemy.

Also the fact that he died so soon after the war, to me, makes me feel like not just a little poetic justice was served that day. Confronted with the threat of peace, he had no real reason to live in such a bleak world. (Okay, I know he died in an accident but still others have survived worse injuries than he sustained that day)

But are there ever any real gentlemen in war? It's the most vile, brutal type of human intercourse in existence. I mean sure we can always take prisoners and fight clean, but in the end a general (and his cronies) stands there and sends his country's young and (not in all cases) hopeful, many with a potentially bright future ahead, to their deaths! Then again, Americans like me don't have any clue what it means to be a gentleman. We're boorish and crude, and that's how I like it! (I say as I belch and grab my crotch)

Also, Dubya will never say anything smart, at least not during his tenure in office. Don't hold your breath.

Tom Manson



Hey Martin,

Here is an email I sent to an American fundamentalist, who tried to convert me in front of Belfast City Hall! I think you will find it interesting. It was sent as a response to a previous email he send me. Anyway I hope you enjoy it. ------------

By praying for me surely you are breaking the USA Constitution? Freedom to religion and also freedom FROM religion. "God says do what you wish, but make the wrong choice and you will be tortured for eternity in hell. That, sir, is not free will. It would be akin to a man telling his girlfriend, 'Do what you wish, but if you choose to leave me, I will track you down and blow your brains out.' When a man says this we call him a psychopath and cry out for his imprisonment/execution. When a god says the same, we call him loving and build churches in his honour."

To quote Douglas Adams, "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Christians pride themselves on picking the parts of the Bible they like and the parts they don't like. They are absolutely obsessed with homosexuality, and seem to ignore the fact, that what two consenting adults do in private is nobodies business. The Bible has some bizarre sexual rules, and the character of Christ is greatly subject to objection. He was obsessed with 'Hell' More people have been killed in the name of 'God' than any other reason. These are reasons why Christianity is a deluded faith. I shall leave you with a quote.

"Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it. Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man...living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money."- George Carlin

 

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Mark Stevenson

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