Yea that refers to Pascal's Wager. I feel like you could play the "what if you're wrong" card for any belief system. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to think Muslims ask the same question to apostates (or just kill them like the Quran says to do). I mean what if we are all wrong and Hinduism is the right one? Or Odin is the true God? etc, etc. I haven't given up my moral compass or made any drastic changes in my life since I walked away from religion. What is has done is forced me to slow down my forming my own opinions on a lot of issues because it's me speaking for myself and not necessarily on behalf of a religion if that makes sense. Basically I research stuff a lot more.

I guess I could add to this in referencing a theory mentioned by someone earlier about Heaven and how maybe there is a tier system based on your faith, works, etc. Maybe me living an honest, fair life will still get me into Heaven if it exists; I just won't be sitting at God's table. Again this is a huge maybe and like I said before I really don't have all the answers, and I'm just postulating.

I hate when I hear those were the good ole days by older people...stating we had no TV, No washing machine or dryer...and list goes on. Im living in the good ole days with my flat screen, washing machine and dryer and damn good stove. Traveling aboard I found it sickening that folks in India wipe their butts with their left hand...and was wandering why I offended them eating with my left hand. Im sorry they dont have or use toilet paper but Im living in my good ole days with a phone not a seven way family shared phone line or whatever you call it. Good ole days my arse...those were hard ole days and God Bless em.

This ain't out of the norm, but I hate when the doc has to stick his finger up my bum to check the ole prostate,and dam if I can understand why grown man would choose proctology as his specialty after medical school. I question any man's judgement that would choose to look up men's arses for the rest of his life

Yes. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts that are outside of social norms.
You got a problem with that?

I think examples would be in order here..

It seems these days that all my ideas/thoughts are out of the social norm.

A man should work his ass off and take care of his family
If it ain't yours and you didn't earn it, leave it the hell alone
If the two of you can't produce offspring sleep with someone who can help you with that
All men/people may have been created equal but hard work and common sense will still separate the results
I shouldn't have to finance your ignorance

I could go on all night

People shouldn't ride in the left lane of the interstate. Pass and get over. And they shouldn't speed up when I attempt to go around them. I will win that race.

I'll tell ya another one for me...

I don't understand "gun nuts", especially the AR craze. What's up with that???

I hunt on Choccolocco WMA pretty often, and one of my spots is close to the shooting range. I'm always amazed at how much "shooting" goes on just any day of the week. And how many rapid fire bursts there are. The other day some guy shot what sounded like 10/20 round bursts for over 2 hours. Dang, is it really that entertaining to simply shoot a gun??? And what's so interesting about building a fake machine gun? If I ain't gonna hunt with it, or tote it in my pocket, I don't care anything about it, and I'm not gonna hunt with an AR. I'm not a gun collector, not a gun nut. Just ain't THAT impressed with a gun, big deal, I've shot a thousand of them it seems. And I take my hunting guns to the range MAYBE once a year, and it's only a couple of shots then. Don't understand just going to the range to shoot. If you need that much practice, you should buy guns that are actually made for precision.

Same thing with pontoon boats and seadoos. My assessment is those are for people who very seldom ride in a boat. It ain't that much fun just to "ride in a boat". And how many times can you go round and round in circles before that seadoo is boring?

And same thing with this modern craze with side-by-sides and trail riding??? Dang, did these guys not grow up on 4wheelers??? We rode the wheels off 4wheelers growing up, geez it ain't THAT much fun, especially for grown men.

I respect AR design,but why does every wannabe Tommy Tactical type think Ar's&.223s are somehow THE answer in rifledom?

Yes, if people aren't directly infringing on my rights or my ability to live my life I don't care what they do or what they believe in or how they live their lives. I leave them alone and expect to be left alone.

x2

I am FAR more dubious of people who have no opinions than I am of people who are opinionated. FAR more dubious. We ain't talking about confronting someone over something you don't like, just simply admitting that secretly you don't like it.

I hate when people say "don't worry about things you can't control." That makes no sense (except in a kumbaya philosophical way)...it's the things you can't control that you SHOULD worry about. I ain't worried about anything I can control.

I don’t know if this is contrary to social norms, but your post made me want to discuss legalism in the church. The future Mrs. Recurve and I talked about this at length yesterday after church. She grew up Church of Christ and I, Southern Baptist. One thing she and I were extremely fortunate with was 2 parents who didn’t share the legalistic view of the respective churches we grew up in. Had we, our relationship might be somewhat more complicated. I’m not trying to assume to much as I don’t know anything about you, but if I were assuming it would be that legalism drove you away.

I am going to rant a little because this is something has been weighing on my heart for some time. I don’t think this is debatable by any of my fellow Christians on the board, but if you feel I said something unbiblical, swing away. I am getting absolutely sick to death of legalism in our churches. Now, before I spill this out on the board, know I am not talking about being licentious and wanting allow all sorts of sin into the church in the name of grace. That is NOT what I’m saying. Licentiousness (See Joel Osteen) is another topic for another time. What legalism is to me is a reckless understanding of scripture. It drives away people, ostracizes people, and it fires me up because we are talking about people’s souls. The future Mrs. told me yesterday there was situation in her church during Christmas where people in the congregation were mad about a Christmas decoration showing up in her church. I don’t fully understand the doctrine of the C of C, so if any of you are in that denomination, feel free to explain that. This is a petty example, but an example of a bigger problem. That problem has started to result in losing membership. Not to other churches, people are ceasing their involvement in church entirely. Membership for something as petty as a Christmas decoration? This is NOT what Christ called us to do. If I remember correctly, he took people to task in the temple for something similar. That’s what Romans 14 is all about. The apostle Paul tells us that there are gray areas in the Christian life, like the eating meat, the drinking wine, and the observance of special days (this goes to your mention of our celebration of Christ’s birth). If God has not spelled something out clearly in Scripture, then we have no right to make up “rules” or “laws” and impose them upon everyone in our church. Paul says in Romans 14:4, “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” When we try to control others to keep our personal standard of morality, we are more like the Pharisees than like Christ. For decades our churches have practiced this form of religion. How many has it driven away? Does that bother anyone else as much as it does me? What good does it do for me to continually pray for my community and my country if I am taking scripture and adding rule after rule after rule to a very simple set of laws given to us by Christ? Legalism, in my opinion, is one of the most problematic sins occurring inside the walls of the church. Yes, it is a sin. When you study the life of Christ, it is important to notice how He deliberately did things to provoke the legalists. He healed openly on the Sabbath. When a Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner, He ignored their customs. When they questioned Him about it, He could have been more polite, but He blasted them for their hypocrisy. When a lawyer pointed out that Jesus had offended them as well, He didn’t apologize. He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well!” Jesus confronted legalism as sin. Our churches today are riddled with legalism, but the pastors are too nice to stand up to the legalists and say, “This is not biblical and you’re driving people away.”

Now, as I said, I’m not talking about licentiousness. I’m also not talking about all manmade rules. There are plenty of areas in the bible that aren’t addressed where we need some rules to function as a family or church. Legalism is attempting to gain favor with God or to impress our fellow man by doing ______ without assessing the condition of our hearts first. Pride? Pride motivates us to exalt our own abilities over the grace of God. It is directly opposed to His grace. We come to Him humble and imperfect, not “look what I did.” That is why Jesus (and Paul) clashed with legalist. It is why a bulk of his ministry was devoted to contradicting the laws of the day. Have our churches long forgotten where God looks? He looks at our hearts. After all, a relationship with Christ is a matter of the heart. Legalism, on the other hand, is always trying to fix the outer part of us. It is to make us look good yet we allow it in our churches. We praise God out of one side of our mouth, praying for the souls of the lost and praying bountiful blessings on our church and fellow man, and lay down rules Paul himself couldn’t follow out of the other side. Where is the stewardship that comes from a heart after God? We cannot bring people to the altar of Christ if we are consistently meeting them at the door with rules that aren’t the least bit biblical.

^^BOOM!

Excellent Post and gives us all something to think about when we get worked up on a particular issue. It is easier for believers to look out into the world and see the host of sin and moral decline, than it is for believers to look into their own churches and our own hearts to root out hypocrisy, pride and self-focus. Another scheme of Satan where we don't confront sin in our own lives or our own circles...making it a pet sin in its own little box.

Osteen needs to take a long walk on a short pier. I've never heard someone say nothing in so many words

Excellent points all around, Recurve.

He avoids talking doctrine for a reason. I don't pretend to know what is in his heart, but the Bible says "you will know them by their fruit."

Thank you, sir.

You sure do know a lot about what everybody else should think is fun. I've discovered something I don't like while reading this thread. People who complain about what everybody else likes and thinks it's stupid. Does that go against any social norms???