tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post2933880825748813045..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Terminal Illnesses: A Sunday RuminationFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-81799472319660914252015-05-31T21:01:21.585-04:002015-05-31T21:01:21.585-04:00As usual, your sermons are very clear and powerful...As usual, your sermons are very clear and powerfully said. pdwalkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05943525787137905313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-10811918759936399852015-05-19T12:54:37.003-04:002015-05-19T12:54:37.003-04:00Whenever I meet and atheist I say to them, "O...Whenever I meet and atheist I say to them, "Oh, so that is your faith." When the retort they are atheists there fore have no faith I ask them to positively disprove the existence of God. The responses are usually interesting! I don't go so far as to tell them that I'll pray they are graced with my 'weakness'.. no need to be confrontational.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-87286988849076825372015-05-19T11:27:12.524-04:002015-05-19T11:27:12.524-04:00Marcus Aurelius suggesting something similar in Th...Marcus Aurelius suggesting something similar in <i>The Meditations</i>. Your name might be known, even some of the things you supposedly did, even your writings may survive for a time. But they will never know you. It will be nothing more than a shadow. The name won't be attached to a soul, an experience or anything like that. The spirit has already moved on.<br /><br />And the day will come when even those things are forgotten. There is no lasting value in fame. If the penultimate Roman Emperor thought this was true, how much <b>more</b> does it apply to us?Manuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13082153758868357687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-38317897510696684482015-05-18T14:31:09.547-04:002015-05-18T14:31:09.547-04:00Some things stay dead, some do not. Not my depart...Some things stay dead, some do not. Not my department.<br />I will say that being born again can take awhile, and that it is harder to be immortal than temporary. <br />When one has time, that is really no place to hide.nealnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-39747777746903431812015-05-18T13:07:33.136-04:002015-05-18T13:07:33.136-04:00If there is a God, I don't think his concern i...If there is a God, I don't think his concern is with us continuing on in this life or going to the hereafter. It's sort of like sports teams that say prayers to win. Do teams win, do people go on living, because God heard the petition and decided to grant it? Or, again if there is a God, does it just fit with his plan? Now on the difference between good and evil, yeah, I can see that. Hopefully he would smile on the "good guys" and punish the bad ones. But if you're involved in an accident, or a dangerous situation, I fail to grasp how intercession would have anything to do with the outcome. Just saying.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-9876708365448710232015-05-17T23:49:56.271-04:002015-05-17T23:49:56.271-04:00Just before undertaking what some consider unneces...Just before undertaking what some consider unnecessary risk, I'm prone to remind the worriers in my life (wife, mother, etc.) that "the greatest cause of death is livin'." If nobody ever dreamed big, worked hard, risked much, or challenged themselves, the world would be exceedingly dull...FrozenPatriotnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-71056491829142693792015-05-17T20:21:25.035-04:002015-05-17T20:21:25.035-04:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Dr.Dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18360786634583725263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-53581932306959132982015-05-17T17:33:35.157-04:002015-05-17T17:33:35.157-04:00You might like this, from the editorial page of th...You might like this, from the editorial page of the <i>Oklahoman</i> today:<br /><br />====================<br />Kate Fulghum, president of Oklahoma Atheists, sees this as a good thing. "When I was 17 and 18, the Internet was in its infancy. I remember growing up and being told that all of the answers to my problems could be found in the Bible," she told The Oklahoman's Carla Hinton. "Today, they don't have to rely on an ancient book to solve their modern problems."<br /><br />Yet the problems people grapple with today are the same problems people have grappled with throughout history. Society's major challenges are still the product of individual acts prompted by anger, lust, greed, pride, and so on. There are no "modern" problems, only ancient problems in modern garb.<br />====================<br /><br />(<a href="http://newsok.com/declining-christian-numbers-in-oklahoma-elsewhere-no-cause-for-celebration/article/5419515" rel="nofollow">Source.</a>)CGHillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03789097361138861462noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-79281230951332312872015-05-17T16:05:10.302-04:002015-05-17T16:05:10.302-04:00You are 100% correct, Francis, and you have touche...You are 100% correct, Francis, and you have touched on reality as I know it. Life is relatively dreary with no hope. I have actually used the phrase "life is a terminal illness" before. I sometimes wonder how or why I continue. But I live by the Golden Rule, I live for those who love me, and I respect human life for these two reasons. (e.g. by extension) Life is difficult for everyone, and being an agnostic/atheist with strong morals is no different. But there is a unique emptiness, a lack of meaning, which is inescapable, and made all the more difficult when one's urge is to generally reject hedonism. I'd argue that believers have it easier. But we all have our struggles, and life goes on until it doesn't. Whatever happens next is a mystery. I'll end by saying, of all the agnostics out there, if you choose to pray for someone like me, that's fine, and appreciated in a certain way. But your prayers are better spent on the militant atheists, to counter the damage they choose to inflict on our society, or better yet, for the at-risk unborn. THEY are the ones with no voice.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-2232269269377744052015-05-17T12:11:51.951-04:002015-05-17T12:11:51.951-04:00You are a very good writer and probably a pretty g...You are a very good writer and probably a pretty good engineer. Having said that, I believe you just might have missed your calling. Today's offering would have made a superb homily for any Christian Church service, Catholic or Protestant.Oldfartnoreply@blogger.com