School session! Teach us what you know!
 

We all have different lives, and go through things that are also similar to what others been through.. I want this post to be about telling us things that have

- changed your life
- made you open your eyes
- wish you would've done after high school
- mottos you live by
- stories that you will always rememeber
- steps/products/wax on how you wash your car that shines like a diamond (post pics!)
- your specific way you grill the most perfect piece of steak that taste like money $$$ but really was made on your patio

BASICALLY LIFE HACKS THAT WE ALL CAN TAKE A PIECE OF AND LIVE LIFE BETTER OR HELP US! ANYTHING!!!!!! P.S. DONT JUST SAY "I CAN WAX MY CAR BETTER THAN ANYONE"

SHOW US HOW YOU DO IT!!! TEACH US TEACH TEACH WE WANT TO LEARN PERHAPS:tup::tup::tup::tup:

you mean like my DIY? :confused:

I'm probably going to get a lot of hate regarding this, but letting go of religion and any thoughts about the legitimacy of the supernatural was an amazing moment in my life.

It took a lot of time, and becoming an atheist/humanist was a process more than a single event... but learning to look at life with a skeptical eye, question everything, and only believe what there was sufficient evidence to believe has made me happier and more contented than I ever was when I still considered myself religious.

I try to live by a mantra that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and that person deserves respect... but that doesn't mean that their beliefs deserve that same respect. Quite frankly, some beliefs are just stupid, especially if they are held in spite of hard evidence to the contrary by willful ignorance.

On the other side of this, it has also made me disgusted by the hatred and bigotry that are espoused by much of this country in the name of religion and their respective god. It's painful to watch these people continue to try to force their religious beliefs into the government and laws of this country.

Not trying to start a debate with this one. If anyone wants to discuss it further, we can start a new thread, or they can PM me.

Peace to all. Praises to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. May you all be touched by his noodly appendage.

- changed your life
* Open heart surgery really changed my priorities. Very shortly after surgery I had a will drawn up, I adopted my daughter (which I had been meaning to do for several years but just "too busy"), and I divorced a wife that was dragging me down (plus got custody of the daughter I had just adopted).

- made you open your eyes
* Trip to MX. Made me realize that most of the world is in a lot worse shape than I am and just how lucky I am to be an American.

- wish you would've done after high school
* Chased a better class of wimmen.

- mottos you live by
* They'll never say "Yes" if you don't ask.

So how do you not start a debate with what you have just stated?

So ... your and my comments will probably get this locked, or me banned, because religion seems to be a topic that should not be discussed here ... that said here I go ...

I am a Christian in the greatest sense of the word. I go to a Baptist church but their rules and philosophy do not rule me. Christ rules me. A foundation of the Christian faith. I found freedom in my faith. I say this because I also used to spend significant time in my life worrying about why people hate so much and do such heinous things in the name of their religion. It was when I found out that Jesus identified this issue, and that, as you say, people are entitled to make decisions in their life, that my eyes were opened and the greatest freedom realized. People, through faith and repentance, are forgiven their errors in judgment. At the core of Christianity is love. The two greatest commandments are love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Once we understand that people are the ones making decisions (free will), good or bad, then we can separate it from the vision presented by Jesus.

People are! Just because they choose to do something that does not seem to ring true with Christianity does not make Christianity or any faith bad. This is the same argument used for gun control. People make poor choices about how to use their firearms. Does that make guns bad? No, it makes the people who use guns to murder bad. Yet, as a Christian, I am called to love everyone. Does that mean there are no repercussions for the one who murders? By no means. Rather than hate the one who murders, pray for them, that they see the error of their ways and accept the repercussions.

Further discussion can be done through PM's if you like.

Meeting my wife 25 years ago changed my life. I used to smoke like a chimney. She didn't particularly care for it. Stopped cold turkey.

When my son was about 2 months old, I was sitting on the couch giving him his evening bottle. He was all wrapped up drawing on that bottle like he was starving. I noticed five little dots of sweat formed on his forehead between his eyebrows. Same thing often happens to me when I eat. That was THE bonding moment. That's my kid.

Life:

I don't see this conversation getting either of us banned (though maybe I'm wrong). This is an off topic lounge and the OP simply asked an open ended question. As you and I both hinted at, though... there may be a better forum for it in general.

I agree with you that it often does come down to people and their individual choices. However, you can look in the news daily and find sad or disturbing events perpetuated by individuals/groups that use their faith (whether christian or other) to do awful things to other people/groups. In these cases, it is either their religion that has guided them to do this, or it has strengthened their predisposition to those acts by allowing them to believe that they have their god on their side.

If more religious people believed (and lived their life) as you describe you live yours, it probably wouldn't be a problem. However, since so many of them specifically use the teachings of their religion to guide their actions, religion must be held accountable to some degree. There is no mantra in guns to commit harm. They are inanimate objects. There is, however, plenty of specific, scripture based dogma across nearly every major religion (especially the judeo-christian ones) to create division and disdain for other groups or actions.

I agree with you. Love thy neighbor. Live and let live. I simply found that I didn't need the idea of a god or a faith to embrace that idea in my own life. And to me, that is an important distinction when there are so many instances of deities showing hatred and malice across the religious texts. I found their behaviour to be not in line with (what should be) the core concept of their respective religions.

Let me be clear. I have no hatred or ill will towards you or other religious people who only use their belief system to better their own lives and the community around them. My problem comes when people use their personal beliefs about religion to attempt to force others to conform to them, or when they are used to perpetuate violence and division.

peace.

Parents can have the same impact that you are attributing to religion. Many things influence our lives. Religion is a powerful one for many people in many parts of the world. But you cannot blame the idea of religion for people's actions. You have to blame the people.

I am not an atheist, but I'm not really religious either. I grew up in the church, but I have decided that we don't know jack about this life or this world. And we certainly have no clue what happens after this life. So I don't really like anyone telling me their way is the right way. Because I know they really don't know. So to worry about it as much as many people do just doesn't make sense to me. I just try to enjoy my life while respecting others around me.

Please discuss the religion views thru pm's and not here.

I don't need to remind folks that it's not allowed on the forum per rules.

I don't agree with it But I still have to enforce it.

Thank You.

Understood. I've shifted the conversation to PMs. Please feel free to delete my comments in this thread on that subject.

Thank you.

Before doing anything ask yourself if you will look back 10 years from now and regret your decision or think your decision was silly.

I started making my own beer about 2 yrs ago as a hobby. Since then I have not bought any beer other than craft beer. I have also worked my way to the point where I am thinking about getting a license to start selling it since my friends and family are always asking for more and telling me I could really make some money doing this.

Man.. I still have 5 beer kits in my workout room just sitting there. I just cant seem to get into the mood to make a batch and clean up the corny kegs. It's freeking hot and long process to brew the beer. I think if I had one of those cold water cooling coils, I would not mind but man.. I don't feel ling making one or buying one either. Plus my plast batch was sucky. Tasted like junk.

YzGyz