Two words for you when it comes to singing gospel: Aretha Franklin.

I'm as skeptical as the last person, (Dave W) but seriously, other people believing in God is just like other people being gay--they aren't doing me any harm, and it's really none of my business.

BTW, great music!

sorry but gay people are real.

by the way, god says to kill all gays along with many others. does this sound like a book that should be a guideline for people to live their lives by? see video and link above.

there is no argument. again, 50 proofs: www.godisimaginary.com

when you die you are done.

you hope so

Funny the tangents these discussions take. From my perspective, it's pretty easy to believe there is no God. It's a lot harder to believe in a Supreme Being because it cannot be proved, which is why such belief is called "faith." I'm not saying I am up to the hard, logic-defying work that it takes to have faith---but I do believe in the nearby concept of possibility, which makes the much-lower (but still tough for me) demand of an open mind. I'm not limiting the concept of "possibility" to the possibility of the existence of God, but the possibility of just about anything. I do believe that the concept of possibility is pretty spiritual state of mind. Also, while I may not believe in God, I believe it's a fact that lots of others believe, and that many of them structure these beliefs around philosophies called "religions," and that these religions have been around a long time and don't look as though they are going extinct soon---and that learning to live in respectful, open-minded coexistence and dialogue with opens up a lot more positive possibilities for us than just ridiculing them.

sure, it's rational to go around quoting and living your life by a book that says to kill homos and those who work on sunday.

an open mind doesn't have to mean throwing out all logical reasoning and scientific evidence.

I don't really care about whether or not people believe in God but I would be curious as to where this is, does it cost, is there a dress code? I'd kinda like to skate down there and check it out but I'm not sure how formal the set up is. I dig gospel music.

you should go, it looked like people were having a good time.

Hey Sheri...
I think it's pretty casual. And free! Like the story says, it is on the corner of Pine Avenue and Broadway in downtown Long Beach from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"Your focus determines your Reality" Aui Gon
"You're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." Obi-Wan Kenoibi

Proof nobody goes to heaven:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vkXOwBIRX7Y

this one is a must-read gem:

Let's imagine that I tell you the following story:

There is a man who lives at the North Pole.
He lives there with his wife and a bunch of elves.
During the year, he and the elves build toys.
Then, on Christmas Eve, he loads up a sack with all the toys.
He puts the sack in his sleigh.
He hitches up eight (or possibly nine) flying reindeer.
He then flies from house to house, landing on the rooftops of each one.
He gets out with his sack and climbs down the chimney.
He leaves toys for the children of the household.
He climbs back up the chimney, gets back in his sleigh, and flies to the next house.
He does this all around the world in one night.
Then he flies back to the North Pole to repeat the cycle next year.
This, of course, is the story of Santa Claus.
But let's say that I am an adult, and I am your friend, and I reveal to you that I believe that this story is true. I believe it with all my heart. And I try to talk about it with you and convert you to believe it as I do.

What would you think of me? You would think that I am delusional, and rightly so.

Why do you think that I am delusional? It is because you know that Santa is imaginary. The story is a total fairy tale. No matter how much I talk to you about Santa, you are not going to believe that Santa is real. Flying reindeer, for example, are make-believe. The dictionary defines delusion as, "A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence." That definition fits perfectly.

Since you are my friend, you might try to help me realize that my belief in Santa is a delusion. The way that you would try to do that is by asking me some questions. For example, you might say to me:

"But how can the sleigh carry enough toys for everyone in the world?" I say to you that the sleigh is magical. It has the ability to do this intrinsically.

"How does Santa get into houses and apartments that don't have chimneys?" I say that Santa can make chimneys appear, as shown to all of us in the movie The Santa Clause.

"How does Santa get down the chimney if there's a fire in the fireplace?" I say that Santa has a special flame-resistant suit, and it cleans itself too.

"Why doesn't the security system detect Santa?" Santa is invisible to security systems.

"How can Santa travel fast enough to visit every child in one night?" Santa is timeless.

"How can Santa know whether every child has been bad or good?" Santa is omniscient.

"Why are the toys distributed so unevenly? Why does Santa deliver more toys to rich kids, even if they are bad, than he ever gives to poor kids?" There is no way for us to understand the mysteries of Santa because we are mere mortals, but Santa has his reasons. For example, perhaps poor children would be unable to handle a flood of expensive electronic toys. How would they afford the batteries? So Santa spares them this burden.
These are all quite logical questions that you have asked. I have answered all of them for you. I am wondering why you can't see what I see, and you are wondering how I can be so insane.
Why didn't my answers satisfy you? Why do you still know that I am delusional? It is because my answers have done nothing but confirm your assessment. My answers are ridiculous. In order to answer your questions, I invented, completely out of thin air, a magical sleigh, a magical self-cleaning suit, magical chimneys, "timelessness" and magical invisibility. You don't believe my answers because you know that I am making this stuff up. The invalidating evidence is voluminous.

Citizen Journalist Quote of the Day -- Christmas In July

(Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.)

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”

VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

”VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

”Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

”Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

”You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curStain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

”No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

(Source: newseum.org/yesvirginia/)

coo coo, coo coo, coo coo!!!

i guess filling downtown Lb with bible thumpers is a lot better than what the blue line has to offer.

why does god need money?

Billions of people attend millions of churches around the world to worship God.

Yet the God they worship is completely imaginary. Their belief represents a delusion.

it's amazing that people still believe in a made-up fairy tale god. seriously, people that believe in a god are the equivalent of the flat-earther theorists back in the day.

i offer 50 proofs that no god exists:

www.godisimaginary.com

see how much of your life you have wasted by living it by a book?

Perhaps, but the music they were playing ROCKED.

Awfully tolerant aren't you.

How can one be tolerant of delusional people who believe in fairy tales?

good video too:

http://www.godisimaginary.com/video2.htm