The most frequent mandate in the Bible is “Don’t be afraid” or one of its several variations – “Be anxious for nothing”, “Fret not”, … That is including the OT – it is a false stereotype that God is only an angry judge (and an unjust one, at that, as some are glad to falsely assume).
The people that I have seen have said this is psychiatrists. They make money off of the victims so why not ■■■■ them? That is why they become prominent in the media and call the serial killers schizophrenics/ mentally ill in the public mind. This is shameful. It tarnishes everyone who is abused so they are shunned rather than shown empathy.
An aggressor needs to be stopped and sometimes a bullet is necessary. It is moral.
Depending on the circumstances killing the immoral is moral, the right thing to do. Do you believe that for example there never should have been a second world war? That rather than kill the immoral aggressive Nazis, the world should have simply let them walk in and become the world leaders? Do good to those that harm you. Maybe you could have helped them out in overrunning your country. I don’t see that that is right. And that also holds on the personal level. If someone tries to do me harm I will react with anything and everything available to me, to protect myself and my conscience is clean.
We are at war and most people don’t realize it. There is a quiet war being waged by the inhumane against the humane. It is not happening in one or two countries. It is happening everywhere in the world. It needs for humane people to wake up and understand what is at play. They don’t need to use physical violence, but they do need to make sure the inhumane perish. That is to uphold Justice and Righteousness and not to bow to evil.
That is only true for the naturalist who equates science with reality. But obviously their willingness to limit their thinking in this way doesn’t dictate the needs for explanations experienced by others. For those of us who do not buy into this idea that the mathematical laws of nature are the limits of reality, the supernatural is a way of referencing those things which are not reducible what is measurable and described by such equations. To be sure what explanations we can offer are subjective, limited, subject to considerable diversity, and quite unsatisfying for those who want control over things. But for all people with the delusional need to cram everyone into their own way of thinking (no intention of implying that you are such a person) I have a finger in the middle of my right hand.
Pointing back at yourself.
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It surprises me that you say this. It seems to me that you also have no real use for the supernatural (whatever that even means). You seem to have folded it into the quantum world, an entirely natural place for it to be … if it is anywhere at all.
More so than yourself (IMO) I do not make physics the measure of all things. I put it where it belongs 
, inside the our consciousness. But I do reduce God to purely personal significance. Given the significance I place in that, it really isn’t a demotion. Admittedly that renders our inner counselor impotent to to keep us safe in a foxhole or provide us with a life after death. But perhaps this life is what it is really about.
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Hardly. I have spoken against the premises of naturalism many times. I defend the epistemological superiority of science while refuting the naturalist attempt to equate science with reality itself. My frequent refrain is that science is objective observation, but life is subjective participation. So I object when the religious make claims of objective truth for things of religion. For me the whole point of religion is to get at the subjective participation so necessary for life which has no place in science.
It is true that there are some contexts where I don’t like the term “supernatural” but not when we are simply referring to the aspects of reality which go beyond the mathematical laws of nature.
That is a easy conclusion for a proponent of naturalism to make about what I have said. But it is not my conclusion because I disagree with naturalism. Say rather that that the limits to physical determinism which quantum physics requires us to accept is exactly what we would expect to see in the laws of nature if there is another aspect of reality which is not captured by the mathematical laws of nature. To be sure it doesn’t require us to believe in this other aspect to reality but it leaves the barn door open.
Put it this way… Einstein like many other physicists had so much trouble with quantum physics because it was basically saying that the science cannot explain everything – that some things happen for no reason within the scientific worldview. Thus he proposed hidden variable theory. This led to Bell’s inequality and the experimental tests of this with the conclusion that if there are any “hidden variables” then they violate the accepted premises of the scientific worldview. Thus we either believe that there is more to existence than what science can measure and describe with its equations or we accept that not everything happens for reason. I happen to like both of these options so I think there is a supernatural, nonphysical, or spiritual aspect to reality AND not everything happens for a reason.
I am a physicist so I am well versed in looking at the universe in that particular way, but from that grounding I see good reasons for believing that there is more to reality than this. In you I see an acceptance of a naturalist worldview by mere presumption. Thus you make physics the measure of all things and your claim here only means that you do so blindly – i.e. without actually looking at things with the magnifying glasses of physics.
Is that your black box then?
Yeah, it’s really too bad that testimony cannot reveal objective truth and murderers get convicted that way. 
AND innocent people also get convicted of murder that way.
Not from true testimony.
And that by itself is an excellent demonstration that being testimony does not make it true.
(this is quickly followed by mere repetition of the above discussion and instead of repeating my responses again, here are links to them: one, two)
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You apparently do not realize how much you depend on testimony every day for objective facts. But we’ve been over this before.
I never even hinted that it did. Because sentences exist does not make them lies, either.
Testimony is certainly worth something. You have probably done many things in your life — bought a certain brand of burger or car or investment plan, maybe even dated a certain person or hired an individual for employment …or taken a job at a certain company or looked at a condo in a certain development…based on someone’s testimony. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” Based on THAT testimony, many good things have been done, and many have been restored to a relationship with God…a relationship which is, by the way, the thing we were created to have. Without it, we are just wandering through life…And without it, well — …
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Shhhh.
Actually. It sort of is my concession to being embodied, ensouled and/or en-psyched. It helps to explain how my experience can occasionally feel as though there are other inputs than my own. A place for a modest something more. It could also ground prayer if you’d like to take it for a spin, though admittedly the benefits package is quite minimal.
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Like the Creator of the cosmos and its shabby contents. I’m glad you capitalize God, anyway.
Oh shabby is definitely included just as red in tooth and claw is in there too. But if you think we could also have all the good parts without those, you know a lot more about it than I do. But I don’t think anyone knows so much … not even you, Dale. I know you believe with a fierce determination, but that isn’t quite the same thing. Still, God will be proud. 
I think the inner counselor, the only aspect I’ve kept, is actually the best part. Omni powers are bright and shiny but they won’t help you sleep at night or protect you in your foxhole IMHO. And whether or not He really runs two after-life amusement parks is pretty speculative; I mean, we can be happy or miserable in this life. What do we need with eternity? I don’t think every Christian thinks that or leastwise I’m pretty sure you don’t all envision exactly the same thing, but who knows? As for creation it really is pretty miraculous even with all the warts, isn’t it?
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As I said somewhere else here recently, maybe the horror of death was to illustrate the repugnance of sin.
You did notice the word ‘testimony’ in the linked Psalm, didn’t you.
You are borderline offensive or past in your language. God’s omni-attributes are how he orders providence, and you may have noticed that that is a big deal to at least one here. I know of multiple accounts of Christians in the military whose testimonies you would be belittling, calmness under fire and the like. I knew a chaplain who went to sleep in the plane on the way into combat along with paratroopers in Korea, reminiscent of his Lord in a certain storm. He had never jumped before.
I don’t know why but I’m always surprised to find how easily you are offended by the fact that someone holds different beliefs and opinions than you do. I’m only here to talk about by beliefs with people who are up for it. If you’re not, you’re under no obligation to converse with me. But I find being told that my beliefs are offensive a little offensive too.
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