ThePilgrim

Warning!  People with blond hair should not read this joke!                                                                                                                                                                                                      If people with blond hair do read this joke don't say I didn't warn you!
“Hey guys who wants to hear a blonde joke?” Said a blind old man after settling himself down at the coffee shop. The question was met with dead silence.  After a few second pause, the waitress walked up to the blind fella and put her face right up to his nose and said in a menacing voice. “I’m blond and I don’t appreciate blonde jokes! My husband is right next to me, he’s blonde and he doesn’t appreciate blonde jokes either. And best of all, on your right is a blond bodybuilder who I’m pretty sure doesn’t like blonde jokes either! Would you still like to say that joke?” “Nah forget it!” Said the blind fella, “Not if I'm gonna' have to explain the darn joke that many times"!

The ladies sang "Sweet Hour of Prayer" at our nursing home service Saturday.  As we were singing the last verse, I almost began crying as I thought of our friend Ray.
 
Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!
My I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah's lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight.
This robe of flesh I'll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout while passing through the air,
"Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!"
 
One of these days...

Pay a music leader? Wow-I don't even get paid as the pastor!
Seriously, I suppose if a church is large enough, and the music leader is busy on numerous fronts, ie, congregational music, a choir, special groups, etc, maybe ought to be paid at least something, dpending upon the amount of time he labours.
 
Sadly, though, too often everyone who does anything in a church seems these days to think they ought to be paid-yet what we do should not be for pay-I'm not against paying people in what they do for the church, if what they do keeps them busy enough to make it difficult to have an outside job, but we certainly should be happy to work for the lord with our eyes toward the reward in Heaven, not on earth.

When I moved south from NY.  One thing I did find were boiled peanuts.  I really like them.  There is fried chicken in NY so that was nothing new.  Greens are ok to.  I like corn bread ok but it upsets me because it breaks apart easy lol.  So I take a roll instead.   You left out pecan pie which I really like.
The south is a friendly place to me much more friendly than hustle bustle NY.  Where you keep an eye out for strangers.  Then again I am not from NY originally.  I'm not a big fan of NY.
There are a lot of misunderstandings it seems Rural vs City I have noticed.  People that live in the rural areas afraid of the city because all the news is located in the big city.  Thats where they focus.  They think somethings going to happen if they go there.  On the other hand people in the city in a lot of cases feel the same way about rural areas.  Fear.  They aren't like me.  I get to observe both.  Its really funny to watch when they figure out that each other are Bible believing Christians.  lol.  More than interesting.  For instance Kenny Chesney concert   Lot of city people standing around.  I'm thinking watch this.  lol.  Not to many country western bands at the stadium in the city.   Handing tracts out left and right a lot of those concert goers saying bless you to me.  Those city boys standing there with their jaws dropped open lol.  I don't think liberal vs conservative.   City vs Rural really grasps whats going on if they get what they think from television and radio.  For example I think Deliverance a popular movie had a very prejudiced slant at the rural south. Among other things. Talk about not hitting target groups they just let it fly.  Unless of course they are trying to sell you something lol. 
You can be a Bible believing Christian,  saved by faith not by works.  Sealed until the day of redemption and vote Democrat.  Isn't going to affect your salvation.  I wouldn't make assumptions. If your poor your going to vote and think that way for your family. If you think the poor get robbed it becomes a cause.  It's a case of darn if you do darn if you don't.  You take care of your own.   I have been in that city for over 14 years.  Like hearstrings pointed out what was greater?  The salvation brought to the affected people that are now Christian or the war.  What brought more freedom?  What was more important. I learned that from Bible believing city Christians too.   Salvation is more important of course. 
 
 

It's interesting to consider that right after the buildings collapsed the news networks quickly started calling in building engineers and such to discuss this. These were put on live TV pointing out why the planes crashing into the towers could not have caused the near perfect collapse of the buildings. This continued for a day or so until the media were told to stop. Then, after a pause, those who had spoken on the matter before were no longer seen on the news while new "experts" were called in to tell us that the buildings are fragile enough for burning jet fuel to cause the near perfect collapse. No more mention of all the reasons that couldn't be the cause, no rebuttals to the evidence presented previously of why that couldn't have happened, not even any mention of those interviews and reports ever having taken place. Down the black hole that reporting went.

Today's so-called conservatives in America act as if the idea of the power and danger of the military industrial complex is a made-up liberal slogan when it was actually Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower who warned about this threat.
War for the sake of profits for a few is not good.
I remember many people expecting there to be a great economic boom because of the long war in the Middle East. They recalled how such occurred during WWII and expected similar now. They failed to take into consideration that America no longer supplies herself but instead buys a great deal of even her military necessities from other countries.
The owners of these corporations in other countries had an economic boom and some of the workers in other countries benefited from having plenty of work, but most Americans did not.
Governing by use of perpetual fear, threats of war and actual war is not healthy governing. We need statesmen in leadership positions who will actually serve the best interests of the nation and her people, not special interests and self-aggrandizement.

I'm seeing a move (among unbelievers); in which, they are saying that telling children that there's a hell is child abuse. I agree, the slippery slope has started and is getting slicker all the time. I'm sure it won't be long until they try to silence us.

No need to worry, we are commanded not to do that, but we should be aware that once they get to the point of declaring certain parts of the Bible "hate speech" it's a small step from there to making other biblical preaching "hate speech" as well.
The Gospel of salvation could easily be declared intolerant and therefore contrary to the rights of equality.
American law is heavily based upon the concept of precedence so once a precedence is set in this area it makes it that much easier for them to go further; something other countries have already done.

The Gospel offends most unfortunately.  The 2nd amendment has been "on the ropes" for decades now.  It's finally gotten to the point where only 52% of Americans think we should have less or stay the same with regards to gun control.  Once that percentage flips the other way and more gun control is accepted and instituted...the 1st amendment will be next.  Preaching the Gospel will be considered hate speech and it will only be allowed within church walls...eventually, the Government will infringe on that as well.  Could be decades away but I think the writing is on the walls.

I've been warning for years the Supreme Court would force homosexual marriage on every State. This, along with many other unconstitutional rulings, should finally end the idea of "we must vote Republican so a Republican will be on the Court".
It was, in part, Republican nominated justices twisting away the Constitution which gave us the new "law of the land" forcing every State to allow homosexual marriage; as well as Obamacare and a host of other bad things.
It's only a matter of time before the government will seek to force full acceptance of homosexuals and homosexual marriage upon every business and institution, including churches, in the name of equality. Eventually, any speech that's deemed anti-homosexual, including quoting Scripture on the matter, will be declared hate speech punishable by huge fines and jail time.
 

Person A: What?!!! How dare you!! You are accusing me and calling me names, which shouldn't be allowed, whereas when I say the same things about you I am stating the truth, which is ok. I am being led by the Holy Spirit and am right about what scripture says, whereas you are not and are wrong. Scripture tells us that those who are wrong are liars and dogs and publican heathens, although technically I'm not calling you those things since I am not using your name in the same sentence.
Person B: What?!!! How dare you!! You are accusing me and calling me names, which shouldn't be allowed, whereas when I say the same things about you I am stating the truth, which is ok. I am being led by the Holy Spirit and am right about what scripture says, whereas you are not and are wrong. Scripture tells us that those who are wrong are liars and dogs and publican heathens, although technically I'm not calling you those things since I am not using your name in the same sentence.
Person A: What?!!! How dare you!! You are accusing me and calling me names, which shouldn't be allowed, whereas when I say the same things about you I am stating the truth, which is ok. I am being led by the Holy Spirit and am right about what scripture says, whereas you are not and are wrong. Scripture tells us that those who are wrong are liars and dogs and publican heathens, although technically I'm not calling you those things since I am not using your name in the same sentence.
Person B: What?!!! How dare you!! You are accusing me and calling me names, which shouldn't be allowed, whereas when I say the same things about you I am stating the truth, which is ok. I am being led by the Holy Spirit and am right about what scripture says, whereas you are not and are wrong. Scripture tells us that those who are wrong are liars and dogs and publican heathens, although technically I'm not calling you those things since I am not using your name in the same sentence.
Person A: What?!!! How dare you!! You are accusing me and calling me names, which shouldn't be allowed, whereas when I say the same things about you I am stating the truth, which is ok. I am being led by the Holy Spirit and am right about what scripture says, whereas you are not and are wrong. Scripture tells us that those who are wrong are liars and dogs and publican heathens, although technically I'm not calling you those things since I am not using your name in the same sentence.
Person B: What?!!! How dare you!! You are accusing me and calling me names, which shouldn't be allowed, whereas when I say the same things about you I am stating the truth, which is ok. I am being led by the Holy Spirit and am right about what scripture says, whereas you are not and are wrong. Scripture tells us that those who are wrong are liars and dogs and publican heathens, although technically I'm not calling you those things since I am not using your name in the same sentence.
 
I mention no names...

Since the Constitution is no longer in force in this country due to the actions of the three branches of government, Freedom of Speech as given in the Constitution does not really apply.  You have freedom of speech as long as they think no one is listening to you.  Take for instance a teachers or a professor in a college who says something that does not fit the point of view of the academic agenda of the school can he speak out and keep his position?  
A government or corporate employee is free to say what he thinks as long as he speaks where no one will hear his speech.  For instance whistleblowers cannot speak without being persecuted by the IRS or prosecuted by the Justice Department.  
You are allowed to demonstrate in front of a government building as long as you apply and pay for a permit to do so. . . . and you can be refused the permit. 
I can say about anything I want because I am just a Fundamentalist Christian Nut Job and Conspiracy Theorist also.  I can be marginalized and and once marginalized I am just as good a silenced . . . . no one listens to a Nut Job.
No we don't really have freedom of speech.

Pat Buchanan is not sure.  Because I love my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I hope we will.
From Buchanan.org/blog/
NATO-Russia Collision Ahead?
Tuesday - June 23, 2015 at 12:26 am
By Patrick J. Buchanan
“U.S. Poised to Put Heavy Weaponry in East Europe: A Message to Russia,” ran the headline in The New York Times.
“In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries,” said the Times. The sources cited were “American and allied officials.”
The Pentagon’s message received a reply June 16. Russian Gen. Yuri Yakubov called the U.S. move “the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO since the Cold War.” When Moscow detects U.S. heavy weapons moving into the Baltic, said Yakubov, Russia will “bolster its forces and resources on the western strategic theater of operations.”
Specifically, Moscow will outfit its missile brigade in Kaliningrad, bordering Lithuania and Poland, “with new Iskander tactical missile systems.” The Iskander can fire nuclear warheads.
The Pentagon and Congress apparently think Vladimir Putin is a bluffer and, faced by U.S. toughness, will back down.
For the House has passed and Sen. John McCain is moving a bill to provide Ukraine with anti-armor weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and ammunition. The administration could not spend more than half of the $300 million budgeted, unless 20 percent is earmarked for offensive weapons.
Congress is voting to give Kiev a green light and the weaponry to attempt a recapture of Donetsk and Luhansk from pro-Russian rebels, who have split off from Ukraine, and Crimea, annexed by Moscow.
If the Pentagon is indeed moving U.S. troops and heavy weapons into Poland and the Baltic States, and is about to provide arms to Kiev to attack the rebels in East Ukraine, we are headed for a U.S.-Russian confrontation unlike any seen since the Cold War.
And reconsider the outcome of those confrontations.
Lest we forget, while it was Khrushchev who backed down in the Cuban missile crisis, President Eisenhower did nothing to halt the crushing of the Hungarian rebels, Kennedy accepted the Berlin Wall, and Lyndon Johnson refused to lift a finger to save the Czechs when their “Prague Spring” was snuffed out by Warsaw Pact tank armies.
Even Reagan’s response to the crushing of Solidarity was with words not military action.
None of these presidents was an appeaser, but all respected the geostrategic reality that any military challenge to Moscow on the other side of NATO’s Red Line in Germany carried the risk of a calamitous war for causes not justifying such a risk.
Yet we are today risking a collision with Russia in the Baltic States and Ukraine, where no vital U.S.
interest has ever existed and where our adversary enjoys military superiority.
As Les Gelb writes in The National Interest, “the West’s limp hand” in the Baltic and “Russia’s military superiority over NATO on its Western borders,” is “painfully evident to all.”
“If NATO ups the military ante, Moscow can readily trump it. Moscow has significant advantages in conventional forces — backed by potent tactical nuclear weapons and a stated willingness to use them to sustain advantages or avoid defeat. The last thing NATO wants is to look weak or lose a confrontation.”
And NATO losing any such confrontation is the likely outcome of the collision provoked by the Pentagon and John McCain.
For if Kiev moves with U.S. arms against the rebels in the east, and Moscow sends planes, tanks and artillery to annihilate them, Kiev will be routed. And what we do then?
Send carriers into the Black Sea to attack the Russian fleet at Sevastopol, and battle Russian missiles and air attacks?
Before we schedule a NATO confrontation with Russia, we had best look behind us to see who is following America’s lead.
According to a new survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, fewer than half of the respondents in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain thought NATO should fight if its Baltic allies were attacked by Russia. Germans, by a 58-38 margin, did not think military force should be used by NATO to defend Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, though that is what Article 5 of the NATO charter requires of Germany.
Americans, by 56-37, favor using force to defend the Baltic States. On military aid to Ukraine, America is divided, 46 percent in favor, 43 percent opposed. However, only 1 in 5 Germans and Italians favor arming Ukraine, and in not a single major NATO nation does the arming of Ukraine enjoy clear majority support.
In Washington, Congressional hawks are primed to show Putin who is truly tough. But in shipping weapons to Ukraine and sending U.S. troops and armor into the Baltic States, they have behind them a divided nation and a NATO alliance that wants no part of this confrontation.
Unlike the Cuban missile crisis, it is Russia that has regional military superiority here, and a leader seemingly prepared to ride the escalator up right alongside us.
Are we sure it will be the Russians who blink this time?

The NT says we Christians are to submit to the government, obeying them so long as their orders don't prevent us from doing as God commands. We are also called to pray for our leaders and show due respect.
We are not told to blindly trust the government or anyone else.
Lost folks sin. Lost folks with power tend to take their sin to a greater degree. The government isn't a special entity, it's a grouping of mostly, and in some cases entirely, lost people. Lost government leaders, officials and workers don't leave their sin nature and their sinful ways on the steps when they go to work. Their sin nature and sinful ways go with them.
If a government leader were to come to my door I would be respectful. When the government issues laws and regulations which don't violate my living for Christ I dutifully obey them.
That doesn't mean I ignore the fact they are, for the most part, sinners engaging in sin not only on a personal level, but on a governmental level which infects local, county, State, federal and world matters. Whether reading Scripture, history or contemporary news these matters are very clear.

I don't recall saying anything about 9-11 being a false flag operation. We haven't been told the entire truth of the matter but I don't have any reason to believe it was a false flag operation.
Go to schools and businesses and those there know what to say, what not to say, who they can risk speaking of and who they can't, what's best left unsaid, and yet they don't have to get together to determine this because it's common knowledge among them yet to outsiders it's unseen.
Actually America isn't known worldwide for openness. They are known to bungle some things which allows "unpleasant" things to become known from time to time, but overall American government has become very secretive, especially since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
Many who have filed Freedom of Information Act requests have long been complaining that the government purposefully drags their feet when it comes to these and if they do finally turn over some information huge, sometimes nearly all, portions are blacked out so as to make the papers given of no value.
The devil is the father of lies and it's his "children" running the governments, the media, entertainment and more so it should come as no surprise to Christians these institutions are filled with deceit, lies, manipulations, and cover-ups.

If a hundred people are in an auditorium talking about racial issues and everyone there is very careful not to use the infamous "n-word", that doesn't mean they all sat down and talked it over and decided this would be the plan. It's simply that each has decided avoiding that word would be best for their purposes.
The same is true with governmental matters. They don't all have to get together to discuss details because they each share a common overall goal and know what is, and isn't, required to work towards that.
As well, with any large government there are always thousands of things going on that only a handful of government people know about. The rest are kept in the dark or fed disinformation.

Most countries don't make very many comments about other countries false flag operations one way or another. Governments tend to keep their secret things as secret as possible, not even raising those of other nations too often so as not to expose how widespread all covert operations are at all levels.
The major powers prior to and during WWII knew the Jews were in peril yet they rejected all avenues to help the Jews escape. Zionist Jews supported Hitler early on and both worked on plans to help the Jews migrate to Palestine. At that time Great Britain controlled Palestine and refused to allow the Jews to migrate there.
Many Jews tried to flee to England, America and elsewhere but were turned back by those countries.
Even when the Allies knew the location of concentration camps and their supply routes they refused to bomb the railways bringing Jews to the camps.
Was all this just "conspiracy theory" or were these nations actually of one basic mind in this area?
More recently American and EU (especially Germany) operatives worked inside Ukraine to foment civil unrest with the aim of forcing the democratically elected president of Ukraine to bow to American and EU demands or be ousted from office. This operation went very wrong and their involvement was quickly reported on with regards to how America/EU had supplied and prodded anarchists, neo-nazis, anti-semitics and others to overturn Ukraine's democratic election. Very quickly governments stepped in to silence these reports and prevent further reporting on the matter. Was that just a matter of "conspiracy theory" or did all these governments have a vested interest in keeping such covert operations from becoming headline news?
Typically, governments are run by the lost so why would we marvel that governments conduct their affairs based upon greed, pride, lust, lies and deceptions along with murder and a nearly anything it takes to get our way attitude? No doubt some governments are worse than others, but the same is true of serial killers too.
Whether we are talking about the American, English, Russian, Chinese, Jordianian or any other government, they are all prone to lie, deceive and manipulate to promote or thwart as they deem suits their purposes. That's just reality in this fallen world led by the lost. This is nothing new as such can be traced back thousands of years and it's just as Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.

The current battle over Confederate flags is about power, control, cultural cleansing and rewriting history.
With the quick success of getting governors to cave to their demands there are already calls for statues of Confederates to be removed, statues of non-Confederate Southerners to be removed, the names of military bases, roads and other things with Confederate ties to be removed, along with calls to remove the American flag in many places with calls to be rid of the American flag in favor of a new flag.
While I've never flown the stars and bars, which is the First National Flag of the Confederacy, I have flown the Battle Flag which was a flag of the soldiers, not the government. That said, I've not flown any flag for many years now.
I agree with the above statement regarding not singing patriotic songs in church; or other non-Christian songs for that matter.
Recently we attended a Christian event and for some reason they decided among the hymns we sang at the event to add in Battle Hymn of the Republic which is a very unchristian song. While remained standing, neither myself nor anyone in my family sang that song.
As a Christian whose most important citizenship is heaven, realizing temporal things are of exceedingly little importance or value, I mostly try to avoid the bickering battles over most of these temporal things. If asked, I may give my view, but I'm not going to take to the streets over these things or wage an online campaign against them or jump on a boycott bandwagon.
On a more historical note, it's interesting that outside America the Confederate Battle Flag is viewed as a symbol of fighting for liberty, fighting against tyranny. The mainstream media doesn't like to show such images, but I've seen several images of Africans (black Africans) using the Confederate Battle Flag as they fight oppressive governments. When the Berlin Wall came down several in the crowds were cheering and waving Confederate Battle Flags.
Meanwhile, in America we have liberal elites fomenting the erasing of Americas past, the dominating of deciding what is and isn't acceptable, the push for control over virtually everything, and amid all this we have weak supposed conservatives all too quick to bend the knee and bow to so many of their whims in the hopes they will suddenly be liked and accepted.
As Scripture says, people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. America is basing so many decisions today upon perception rather than knowledge. In the process the country becomes more and more divided within and around the world America is viewed mostly in a negative manner.
America was once strong enough to face enemies in the hundreds of thousands and even millions but today she fears a few thousand half way around the world, one or two possible enemies making their way here puts the entire country in panic. Reminds me of God telling the Jews if they obeyed Him their enemies many enemies would flee their few men but if they turned their backs upon God they would see a few of their enemies put their many men to flight.
Meanwhile, Americans think the real fight is over who has the power to decide what kind of cake their business will or won't make and who gets to decide which flags, statues and other symbols are acceptable and which must go.

this might be related, but I can't stand signing patriotic songs in church, I don't come there to worship my country, I come to worship Christ.
I mean I love this country, but like Mike said, I have a far better country.

Professor, are you searching for Truth?  Are you searching for God?  Are you searching for a life long never ending logical argument?  The latter is a total waste of your time and mental capacity.  The two former can be done quite easily and here is the best method for finding both . . . . for the two are really one
From God's Word:    Matt 7:7-10
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?  KJV
 
A little explanation from a very wise man:  Matthew 7:7-8
The promise is made, and made so as exactly to answer the precept, v. 7. Ask, and it shall be given you; not lent you, not sold you, but given you; and what is more free than gift? Whatever you pray for, according to the promise, whatever you ask, shall be given you, if God see it fit for you, and what would you have more? It is but ask and have; ye have not, because ye ask not, or ask not aright: what is not worth asking, is not worth having, and then it is worth nothing. Seek, and ye shall find, and then you do not lose your labour; God is himself found of those that seek him, and if we find him we have enough. "Knock, and it shall be opened; the door of mercy and grace shall no longer be shut against you as enemies and intruders, but opened to you as friends and children. It will be asked, who is at the door? If you be able to say, a friend, and have the ticket of promise ready to produce in the hand of faith, doubt not of admission. If the door be not opened at the first knock, continue instant in prayer; it is an affront to a friend to knock at his door, and then go away; though he tarry, yet wait."
It is repeated, v. 8. It is to the same purport, yet with some addition. (1.) It is made to extend to all that pray aright; "Not only you my disciples shall receive what you pray for, but every one that asketh, receiveth, whether Jew or Gentile, young or old, rich or poor, high or low, master or servant, learned or unlearned, they are all alike welcome to the throne of grace, if they come in faith: for God is no respecter of persons." (2.) It is made so as to amount to a grant, in words of the present tense, which is more than a promise for the future. Every one that asketh, not only shall receive, but receiveth; by faith, applying and appropriating the promise, we are actually interested and invested in the good promised: so sure and inviolable are the promises of God, that they do, in effect, give present possession: an active believer enters immediately, and makes the blessings promised his own. What have we in hope, according to the promise, is as sure, and should be as sweet, as what we have in hand. God hath spoken in his holiness, and then Gilead is mine, Manasseh mine (Ps 108:7,8); it is all mine own, if I can but make it so by believing it so. Conditional grants become absolute upon the performance of the condition; so here, he that asketh, receiveth. Christ hereby puts his fiat to the petition; and he having all power, that is enough.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)
And a verse for others in this discussion:
Matt 7:6
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.  KJV
Matthew 7:6
 It is not every one that is fit to be reproved; Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, v. 6. This may be considered, either, (1.) As a rule to the disciples in preaching the gospel; not that they must not preach it to any one who were wicked and profane (Christ himself preached to publicans and sinners), but the reference is to such as they found obstinate after the gospel was preached to them, such as blasphemed it, and persecuted the preachers of it; let them not spend much time among such, for it would be lost labour, but let them turn to others, Acts 13:41. So Dr. Whitby. Or, (2.) As a rule to all in giving reproof. Our zeal against sin must be guided by discretion, and we must not go about to give instructions, counsels, and rebukes, much less comforts, to hardened scorners, to whom it will certainly do no good, but who will be exasperated and enraged at us. Throw a pearl to a swine, and he will resent it, as if you threw a stone at him; reproofs will be called reproaches, as they were (Luke 11:45; Jer 6:10), therefore give not to dogs and swine (unclean creatures) holy things. Note, [1.] Good counsel and reproof are a holy thing, and a pearl: they are ordinances of God, they are precious; as an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is the wise reprover (Prov 25:12), and a wise reproof is like an excellent oil (Ps 141:5); it is a tree of life (Prov 3:18). [2.] Among the generation of the wicked, there are some that have arrived at such a pitch of wickedness, that they are looked upon as dogs and swine; they are impudently and notoriously vile; they have so long walked in the way of sinners, that they have sat down in the seat of the scornful; they professedly hate and despise instruction, and set it at defiance, so that they are irrecoverably and irreclaimably wicked; they return with the dog to his vomit, and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire. [3.] Reproofs of instruction are ill bestowed upon such, and expose the reprover to all the contempt and mischief that may be expected from dogs and swine. One can expect no other than that they will trample the reproofs under their feet, in scorn of them, and rage against them; for they are impatient of control and contradiction; and they will turn again and rend the reprovers; rend their good names with their revilings, return them wounding words for their healing ones; rend them with persecution; Herod rent John Baptist for his faithfulness. See here what is the evidence of men's being dogs and swine. Those are to be reckoned such, who hate reproofs and reprovers, and fly in the face of those who, in kindness to their souls, show them their sin and danger. These sin against the remedy; who shall heal and help those that will not be healed and helped? It is plain that God has determined to destroy such. 2 Chron 25:16. The rule here given is applicable to the distinguishing, sealing ordinances of the gospel; which must not be prostituted to those who are openly wicked and profane, lest holy things be thereby rendered contemptible, and unholy persons be thereby hardened. It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to the dogs. Yet we must be very cautious whom we condemn as dogs and swine, and not do it till after trial, and upon full evidence. Many a patient is lost, by being thought to be so, who, if means had been used, might have been saved. As we must take heed of calling the good, bad, by judging all professors to be hypocrites; so we must take heed of calling the bad, desperate, by judging all the wicked to be dogs and swine. [4.] Our Lord Jesus is very tender of the safety of his people, and would not have them needlessly to expose themselves to the fury of those that will turn again and rend them. Let them not be righteous over much, so as to destroy themselves. Christ makes the law of self-preservation one of his own laws, and precious is the blood of his subjects to him.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)
I am not wise enough to know when a discussion becomes an argument and it becomes obvious that one should just turn a debater and doubter over to God.  I just thought I would give some things to contemplate.
 

Atheism: A self deluding belief that keeps a person from accepting the truth that he has taken a wrong turn and headed down the path to perdition. 
From: ThePilgrims dictionary of sad facts about about intentionally blind.

Professor, I spent time in prayer for you as I drove on an errand today. Open your ears to the Gospel, soften your heart to the gentle calling of the Holy Ghost calling you to precious salvation in Jesus Christ.

No, actually I don't. As you know, God already declares clearly in the book of Romans that everyone, EVERYONE, including you, are provided with more than enough evidence all around you to know, KNOW, that God exists. Even so, you refuse to face that reality choosing instead to deny the evidence all about you.
Every time you reject the prodding of the Holy Ghost to reach you your heart grows more callused and your opportunity to get right with God becomes less likely. None of us are assured of tomorrow, not even of another heartbeat. Break free from the herd running for the cliff and be set free by grace through faith in Christ.

I thoroughly enjoy discussing the reality of knowing God with those who reject Him with the cheap excuse of "He hasn't given me any good evidence to make me believe Him" or stuff like that.   With the fundamental background boasted of in the OP, I'm sure the author is aware that he is named specifically in the Bible as a fool.  Now apparently, this fool thinks he is a very good fool, a nice guy full of love and understanding and open to the opinions of others...except of course to the possibility that he is in reality a FOOL.  Atheists will either bristle at that moniker, or put on a good show of letting it roll off their back like water on a duck...but there is always a spark of fire in their soul that tells them the fire of Hell is real, and they come to sites like this thinking they can defeat any argument which might prove them wrong.   The more they can defeat such arguments, the more they bolster their pride in preparation for proving to themselves that Hell has no fire and there is no punishment in death.  I have yet to encounter an atheist who can carry on a discussion about their beliefs without resorting to a myriad of insults.   I have called the atheist a fool as the Bible does for good reason.   The atheist may call me a fool for believing God or whatever, but that's as far as the name calling should go in the discussion.   In Proverbs, we are told to depart from fools when they prove themselves to be fools...I think that means when they prove they are stubborn and will not listen, just give it up and drop the argument.   I think they prove this stubbornness when they resort to insults in desperation of proving they are exempt from eternal death in Hell.   When they resort to personal attacks rather than discussion of their beliefs, it is a waste of time.   There is a verse about admonishing a fool two or three times before giving up on them.  It's sad, but many people are simply bound and determined to prove to themselves that they are exempt from Hell; and Hell enlarged itself making more room for more fools.  "Scare tactic, scare tactic, you only want my tithe" they will whine...the fact that God Himself took there death to purchase their life with His own blood is a joke to the fool until He awakens in the fire of Hell, and finds all of his nicety and goodness useless...but it sure is nice when an atheist can be a nice and good citizen of the world and get along with everybody.   Christians would never be burned at the stake or beheaded if all atheists were so nice as the OP atheist here.  If they were all as nice as this guy, surely the whole world would unite to stamp out oppressions of fascism, communism, Islam, and Hinduism's caste society, Satanism, witchcraft, Masonry, Wicca all would be gone with their evils abolished, and we would have heavenly life on earth as much as it is humanly possible...oh yeah, I forgot, that's the promise of the coming world dictator

Professor, are you searching for Truth?  Are you searching for God?  Are you searching for a life long never ending logical argument?  The latter is a total waste of your time and mental capacity.  The two former can be done quite easily and here is the best method for finding both . . . . for the two are really one
From God's Word:    Matt 7:7-10
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?  KJV
 
A little explanation from a very wise man:  Matthew 7:7-8
The promise is made, and made so as exactly to answer the precept, v. 7. Ask, and it shall be given you; not lent you, not sold you, but given you; and what is more free than gift? Whatever you pray for, according to the promise, whatever you ask, shall be given you, if God see it fit for you, and what would you have more? It is but ask and have; ye have not, because ye ask not, or ask not aright: what is not worth asking, is not worth having, and then it is worth nothing. Seek, and ye shall find, and then you do not lose your labour; God is himself found of those that seek him, and if we find him we have enough. "Knock, and it shall be opened; the door of mercy and grace shall no longer be shut against you as enemies and intruders, but opened to you as friends and children. It will be asked, who is at the door? If you be able to say, a friend, and have the ticket of promise ready to produce in the hand of faith, doubt not of admission. If the door be not opened at the first knock, continue instant in prayer; it is an affront to a friend to knock at his door, and then go away; though he tarry, yet wait."
It is repeated, v. 8. It is to the same purport, yet with some addition. (1.) It is made to extend to all that pray aright; "Not only you my disciples shall receive what you pray for, but every one that asketh, receiveth, whether Jew or Gentile, young or old, rich or poor, high or low, master or servant, learned or unlearned, they are all alike welcome to the throne of grace, if they come in faith: for God is no respecter of persons." (2.) It is made so as to amount to a grant, in words of the present tense, which is more than a promise for the future. Every one that asketh, not only shall receive, but receiveth; by faith, applying and appropriating the promise, we are actually interested and invested in the good promised: so sure and inviolable are the promises of God, that they do, in effect, give present possession: an active believer enters immediately, and makes the blessings promised his own. What have we in hope, according to the promise, is as sure, and should be as sweet, as what we have in hand. God hath spoken in his holiness, and then Gilead is mine, Manasseh mine (Ps 108:7,8); it is all mine own, if I can but make it so by believing it so. Conditional grants become absolute upon the performance of the condition; so here, he that asketh, receiveth. Christ hereby puts his fiat to the petition; and he having all power, that is enough.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)
And a verse for others in this discussion:
Matt 7:6
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.  KJV
Matthew 7:6
 It is not every one that is fit to be reproved; Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, v. 6. This may be considered, either, (1.) As a rule to the disciples in preaching the gospel; not that they must not preach it to any one who were wicked and profane (Christ himself preached to publicans and sinners), but the reference is to such as they found obstinate after the gospel was preached to them, such as blasphemed it, and persecuted the preachers of it; let them not spend much time among such, for it would be lost labour, but let them turn to others, Acts 13:41. So Dr. Whitby. Or, (2.) As a rule to all in giving reproof. Our zeal against sin must be guided by discretion, and we must not go about to give instructions, counsels, and rebukes, much less comforts, to hardened scorners, to whom it will certainly do no good, but who will be exasperated and enraged at us. Throw a pearl to a swine, and he will resent it, as if you threw a stone at him; reproofs will be called reproaches, as they were (Luke 11:45; Jer 6:10), therefore give not to dogs and swine (unclean creatures) holy things. Note, [1.] Good counsel and reproof are a holy thing, and a pearl: they are ordinances of God, they are precious; as an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is the wise reprover (Prov 25:12), and a wise reproof is like an excellent oil (Ps 141:5); it is a tree of life (Prov 3:18). [2.] Among the generation of the wicked, there are some that have arrived at such a pitch of wickedness, that they are looked upon as dogs and swine; they are impudently and notoriously vile; they have so long walked in the way of sinners, that they have sat down in the seat of the scornful; they professedly hate and despise instruction, and set it at defiance, so that they are irrecoverably and irreclaimably wicked; they return with the dog to his vomit, and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire. [3.] Reproofs of instruction are ill bestowed upon such, and expose the reprover to all the contempt and mischief that may be expected from dogs and swine. One can expect no other than that they will trample the reproofs under their feet, in scorn of them, and rage against them; for they are impatient of control and contradiction; and they will turn again and rend the reprovers; rend their good names with their revilings, return them wounding words for their healing ones; rend them with persecution; Herod rent John Baptist for his faithfulness. See here what is the evidence of men's being dogs and swine. Those are to be reckoned such, who hate reproofs and reprovers, and fly in the face of those who, in kindness to their souls, show them their sin and danger. These sin against the remedy; who shall heal and help those that will not be healed and helped? It is plain that God has determined to destroy such. 2 Chron 25:16. The rule here given is applicable to the distinguishing, sealing ordinances of the gospel; which must not be prostituted to those who are openly wicked and profane, lest holy things be thereby rendered contemptible, and unholy persons be thereby hardened. It is not meet to take the children's bread, and cast it to the dogs. Yet we must be very cautious whom we condemn as dogs and swine, and not do it till after trial, and upon full evidence. Many a patient is lost, by being thought to be so, who, if means had been used, might have been saved. As we must take heed of calling the good, bad, by judging all professors to be hypocrites; so we must take heed of calling the bad, desperate, by judging all the wicked to be dogs and swine. [4.] Our Lord Jesus is very tender of the safety of his people, and would not have them needlessly to expose themselves to the fury of those that will turn again and rend them. Let them not be righteous over much, so as to destroy themselves. Christ makes the law of self-preservation one of his own laws, and precious is the blood of his subjects to him.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)
I am not wise enough to know when a discussion becomes an argument and it becomes obvious that one should just turn a debater and doubter over to God.  I just thought I would give some things to contemplate.