I protect myself from such things including the false prophets, the husker's, the evangelical con men, and other mortals and demons that would harm us/you either for their own gain or by accident of ignorance etc.
I don't blame you for that. When I first departed from the christian religious belief system, I wondered if I would be susceptable to illness, would bad things happen to me that I would be unable to handle, would I cease to prosper, would "all hell break loose" in my life. I found that life proceeded as normal, and even got better since I was free from religious chains that had me bound.
I don't think you read the whole thing.
I read your response; I was quoting that line because it reminded me of how my parents were my first teachers who taught me about
SANTA CLAUS, who only rewrded nice children with toys and goodies, but who rewarded naughty children with coal for gifts. It reminded me of how my parents whom I trusted never to mislead me, taught me about a
TOOTH FAIRY who rewarded good little boys and girls with cash money in exchange for their baby teeth placed under a pillow, but only if those children were well-behaved. It also reminded me that it was my parents who taught me about a
GOD who rewards the obedient and righteous with prosperity and an eternal home in heaven, but punished disobedient evil-doers to eternal damnation.
Santa claus, the Tooth Fairy, the existence of God are all things parents instill in their young developing children to encourage good behavior by mind control and manipulation through the influence of fear, and it wasn't just my parents, but parents around the globe, even to this day, deceiving their children, insgtalling falseties into young impressionable minds, who grow up maintaining those beliefs until they eventually discover that there is no Santa, there are no fairies, and as for God? Well, what do you think??
Children go to school and their child peers are all in agreeance - can't wait until Christmas when Santa Claus is coming to town, sharing stories of how the Tooth Fairy swapped their teeth for coins and cash, and are taken to church to be further trained in mainstream teachings all around the globe.
Like childhood fairy tales and fables accepted worldwide to control behavior in children, religion is sanctioned by the government to congtrol the masses.
Do you know HOW MANY letters with special requests I and other children ignorantly mailed to the North Pole???
Have you any IDEA of how many sleepless nights I spent with a tooth under my pillow waiting to catch a fairy with a purse???
And, wow, the ultimate, you couldn't even BEGIN to have a clue of how many prayers I cried out to an entity who never talks back!!!
Yes, because I have had too many experiences that lead me to believe that there is something out there greater than me, you and all of us.
How do you know that that something greater than us you say is "out there" is actually WITHIN us? So many people are taught to believe that it must only be an external force influencing our lives towards healing, miracles and the like, when it very-well could be internal powers inside of us that create our realities, but perhaps those powers in the mass of religiosity lie dormant and lifeless within them because those truths have not been taught to them. It's like having a basement or attic full of gold and valuable treasures but only accepting a life of poverty on the first and second floors, never even going into that attic or basement to know what's always been availabe to them there just waiting to be used.
Perhaps we will all be convinced.
Perhaps. And perhaps not. As for me, in spite of my religious and spiritual experiences of the past, I do believe that it is going to happen exactly as John reported while he was on the no-man's land of Patmos recording what we know as the book of Revelations: I do also believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will be as it is written in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
