You had me at "Oranges instead of Snickers bars."
From homeless drug user to millionaire
41–49 of 49 posts
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#42I had a head-on collision and very nearly was killed. While I was in the hospital I read the Bible and became a Christian. Yay for Christianity. It can help people.
The head-on collision and near death probably did a lot more than reading the Bible. This guy becoming a Christian was more a part of the process than the triggering factor. Near-death experiences often have a profound effect on people's lives.
Say what you will about Christianity, it does encourage people to lead clean lives and reinforces that message with effective social pressure. To people with certain kinds of problems that can be incredibly helpful. There's a reason why Christianity has so many turn-around stories.
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dude, how do you measure history? Check out the history of the Indians and Asia. While the Abrahamic(s) were a bunch of smelly tribes in the desert, the Asians were already charting the stars.
Smelly? How do you know that? I made no cross-cultural comparison, I merely suggested that the influence of one group was of great intensity. Your refutation is kind of like me saying "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are great!" and you saying "dude, how do you measure greatness? a bowl of french onion soup is better than that child's food -- it is served in restaurants." You tried to change the argument about the…
>Smelly? How do you know that?
Dude, I'm pretty sure everyone was smelly back then.
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#44You had me at "Oranges instead of Snickers bars."
Junk Food isn't going to hurt you in moderation. I used to get Pepsis once a week when I stayed after school for Chess Club and it didn't kill me. My school would have been up in arms if all the self-righteous anti-junkfood moralizing busybodies around today took that away from us.
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The head-on collision and near death probably did a lot more than reading the Bible. This guy becoming a Christian was more a part of the process than the triggering factor. Near-death experiences often have a profound effect on people's lives.
Say what you will about Christianity, it does encourage people to lead clean lives and reinforces that message with effective social pressure. To people with certain kinds of problems that can be incredibly helpful. There's a reason why Christianity has so many turn-around stories.
"There's a reason why Christianity has so many turn-around stories."
In absolute terms, sure, because there are lots of Christians and of course some of them will have a turn-around story.
But if you take the ratio of turn-around/number of Christians and compared that to other religions or atheists I'm not sure you'd get a very impressive number.
This is all because of confirmation bias again. It's easier to see the couple thousands of success stories attributed to a religion than the millions of failures we don't hear about.
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#46You had me at "Oranges instead of Snickers bars."
Junk Food isn't going to hurt you in moderation. I used to get Pepsis once a week when I stayed after school for Chess Club and it didn't kill me. My school would have been up in arms if all the self-righteous anti-junkfood moralizing busybodies around today took that away from us.
Junk Food isn't going to hurt you in moderation.
False.
http://www.healthbolt.net/2006/12/08/what-happens-to-your-bo...
http://cotesensing.vox.com/library/post/healthy-lifestyle-th...
http://channelsurfr.com/diet-coke-can-kill-aspartame-documen...
My school would have been up in arms if all the self-righteous anti-junkfood moralizing busybodies around today took that away from us.
What you call "self righteous anti-junkfood moralizing busybodies", I call "taxpayers". They get to decide what's available in the public facilities they pay for, not you.
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#47The effect such stories have on me:
1.) Men of chasing their dreams which passion don't lose.
2.) If they lose, they will hitback with a win sometime.
3.) These kind of stories remind me to keep trying even if I lose a dozen times trying to build a million dollar company(which I am still trying).
Senthil, thanks for sharing this.
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Junk Food isn't going to hurt you in moderation. I used to get Pepsis once a week when I stayed after school for Chess Club and it didn't kill me. My school would have been up in arms if all the self-righteous anti-junkfood moralizing busybodies around today took that away from us.
Junk Food isn't going to hurt you in moderation. False. http://www.healthbolt.net/2006/12/08/what-happens-to-your-bo... http://cotesensing.vox.com/library/post/healthy-lifestyle-th... http://channelsurfr.com/diet-coke-can-kill-aspartame-documen... My school would have been up in arms if all the self-righteous anti-junkfood moralizing busybodies around today took that away from us. What you call "self righteous anti-j…
>They get to decide what's available in the public facilities they pay for, not you.
Ah, I had a feeling that I was a de facto prisoner while I was there. I wasn't aware that it was official.
For what it's worth, I'm a taxpayer too, and I support giving kids responsibility for their own lives and teaching them to make decisions for themselves. But then again, most people consider me a crazy whacko radical who's not worth listening too. Opinions such as "kids should learn responsibility" tend to get one shunned from polite company nowadays.
My parents are also taxpayers, and I'm pretty sure they didn't care if I drank Coke or not. In fact, the abusive bastards even bought me a soda and an ice cream every now and then. Gasp!
Re: From homeless drug user to millionaire
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Say what you will about Christianity, it does encourage people to lead clean lives and reinforces that message with effective social pressure. To people with certain kinds of problems that can be incredibly helpful. There's a reason why Christianity has so many turn-around stories.
"There's a reason why Christianity has so many turn-around stories." In absolute terms, sure, because there are lots of Christians and of course some of them will have a turn-around story. But if you take the ratio of turn-around/number of Christians and compared that to other religions or atheists I'm not sure you'd get a very impressive number. This is all because of confirmation bias again. It's easier to see the…
Discipline is good for a certain kind of person. Religion provides discipline for those who have no self-discipline.
I don't see why so many on this thread need to convince themselves that religion never helps people. It does. I've seen it. Does it help everyone? Probably not. Is it a net positive for society as a whole? I don't think so. However, it clearly and surely helps some people some of the time.
I don't have any numbers, just personal anecdotes, but I've sure seen people saved by religion who would otherwise probably be dead, and I'm a hardcore atheist radical.