Anyone else notice that Hubpages has been doing a lot better?

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   TessSchlesingerposted 3 years ago

   These last few months I've noticed both an increase in traffic and earnings.
   
   Anyone else notice the same thing?

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      chef-de-jourposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Pandemic notwithstanding, and with Google algorithms relatively stable at present, I'm happy with current views and earnings. I enjoy completing a fresh article a month if I can, to keep up with rivals, and update older articles regularly. So far so good but I try to keep a philosophical outlook when it comes to online writing - anything can happen and definitely will sooner or later! Keep at it.

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      nomadspiritposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Definitely.
      
      I didn't see it as an increase though. I write mostly travel articles on Wanderwisdom and saw a drastic reduction in both views and CPM starting at very beginning of the Covid19 lockdowns last year. I assumed the recent uptick in views and CPM was not so much an increase as it was a return to the norm as more people travel and therefore consume more travel articles.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Apart from updating the articles that HP asked me to update, I haven't written anything new, so I take it that the move - leaving the dross behind - has been responsible.

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      OldRosesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I've noticed a large uptick in views, but that is mainly due to the fact that I publish new articles every week.  CPM is nowhere near as high as it was last year, though.  If it was at the same level as last year, I would really be rolling in dough.

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      Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I certainly feel stabilized in the dungeon.  I get consistent results. Hubpages has never paid me. ( well $14.00 total in 9 years?)

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I guess you don't really want to know how to write to get traffic? After nine years, someone must have told you.

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            Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            No, I must be non-profit.   Yes, when I first joined, I was right on target to make money and receive page views, but they thunder-plundered me and ever since, they must be getting paid for my work. I'm sure not.

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               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               It's nothing to do with that. You write on topics that nobody is interested in. Christianity doesn't do well when it comes to garnering traffic from Google, and your traffic has to come from Google.
               
               Also, from the titles, I can see you don't understand how SEO works. Your title and your subtitles need to be words that people search for, and, in addition to that, they have to be the titles of articles nobody else has written about.
               
               I can assure you millions of people have written about tithing on the web, so your article will be way beind those of the mega-pastors. So that's why you don't earn.
               
               You said you drove trucks. Well write about repairs on trucks, how much money you earn driving a truck, etc. You're more likely to earn on that.

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                  RonElFranposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  Tess, it's not necessarily true that articles on Christian topics don't do well in Google. I just did a quick check of my 5 most highly viewed articles that have "Bible" or "Biblical" in their titles. They have a total of just under 120,000 views. To me, that's significant. The vast majority of that traffic is from Google.
                  
                  In my experience there are many readers looking for information that comes from a Christian or biblical perspective. But, as with any topic area, the key to gaining an audience is to address issues that people are personally concerned about.

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                     TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                     120,000 views split between 5 articles for the 9 years you've been on hubpages isn't a lot. That means each article has about 24,000 views during that time, so that makes about 2700 per year per article, which means about 7 or 8 views per day per article. I'm curious as to how much money that earns per month - if anything.
                     
                     Certainly there are many Christians looking for bibiical articles, but Google is going to send them primarily to theological colleges, mega-church pastors, blogs specifically catering to Christians.
                     
                     Unfortunately, we don't know what the perentage of earnings are that comes from our various articles.
                     
                     I just shared your article about the black princess on Facebook. Good article.

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                  Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  Tess, I wrote and posted a highly on-point article "How to save thousands by greasing your big truck/ semi"  and posted it while I was trucking, and it got a couple hundred views, but no payout, and then I posted it on Linked- in, and immediately it got 1500 plus views, from critical trucking sources, but no money was there, unless I wanted to use it to vie for a better job etc.  I could have posted all my trucking articles and seen a large following, however it seemed to bring me no real benefits. When I left driving, I emptied that nest of articles. I've been repeatedly told that multiple articles on the same subject add up to $, but it hasn't played out that way.  Its only a place as James Watts suggested, to have a place to write without stress.

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                     TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                     Let me take a look at how you have constructed your articles. The fact that they wee read on Linked in means that they were readable. I suspect that maybe the SEO might be a problem, but it could also be the competition. I have to say that I don't know anything about trucking, but maybe I can see something.

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         Eric Cauncaposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         You have no article that has been moved to the niche site, except a few poems on the Letterfile.

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   Eric Cauncaposted 3 years ago

   Mine has been increased in views but decreases in CPM.

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   lobobrandonposted 3 years ago

   More or less. Some hubs that were #1 for certain terms for the larger part of a decade are now #6 and 7, but on most hubs even those with damaged ranking, overall traffic is higher and the corresponding earnings.

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   vrdmposted 3 years ago

   I'm afraid all I've noticed is:
   1)  more idiotic/interfering editing ,and
   2)  dramatically increased advertising splattered all over my pieces so as to make them virtually unreadable.  Especially on "Letterpile" where, I'm led to  believe, I should be honoured to have them placed. 
   Most of my readership comes from my own Facebook activity.  Thinking of going back to Wordpress.

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      Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I kept getting told to edit and rewrite my articles that didn't get viewed and I feel this contributed to my eventually messing up many of my original articles. I should have ignored and left them alone. at least I would feel better about them.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Interesting, I did edit and review, and I have increased views as a result. I also took what I learned at Medium and applied it here. That, in addition to the fact that I brought new information and rewrote some articles completely.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         The biggest issue is that none of your titles are SEO friendly. They need to be shaped to the question that people key into the browser.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 3 years ago

   I've been here ten years, and I feel more optimistic now than ever before. The environment is tougher, with more hoops to jump through for sure, but the quality of the articles is better than previously, Maven can put in more resources, and Google is reacting positively. Views and earnings up for me overall, so I'm happy and writing more.
   
   There have been good times before, but they usually felt a little unstable, like a house built on sand, this period seems more sturdy to me.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 3 years ago

   I'm encouraged by increasing views and earnings. I'm also encouraged by Paul's comment; as a veteran here he seems to have his ear to the ground better than me.

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   jansharesposted 3 years ago

   Yes, I'm doing better, increases in both. Keeping fingers crossed, no jinxing it.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Haha, yes, there are all sorts of things that could go wrong, but we won't talk about them!

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         jansharesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         

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   FatFreddysCatposted 3 years ago

   (shrug) I got no complaints.

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   Kenna McHughposted 3 years ago

   Yes. I have noticed an overall improvement. I've had more articles surge in views for several days. It's nice $$$$!

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    NateB11posted 3 years ago

    Moderately better but I'm okay with that. But it depends on what you compare it to; I've done much better in the past.

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    bhattucposted 3 years ago

    For me no appreciable change but anyway, it is a good thing to note that. Probably we are out of that depressive phase.

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    eugbugposted 3 years ago

    Views are up about 60% up compared to this time last year, but in my case I think that may be due to lockdown and people doing home improvement and gardening a bit earlier in the year to pass the time. CPM is down on last year but is now finally recovering. However we'll be into Q2 next week so unfortunately it'll drop again. Rankings and traffic for my math and physics tutorials have dropped in the last few weeks after the last two Google algorithm changes reversed the multiple, beneficial updates that occured from January to the start of March. Things have improved a bit this week though.

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       NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

       I didn't think about comparing it to last year but when I checked it I'm doing a lot better compared to same time last year. Actually surprised me, like 3 times better.

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       Don Bobbittposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, the good thing is I do see an increase in Views. On the other hand, using this increase is a problem for us writers. We are the ones who must figure a way to take advantage of this phenomenon.
       DON

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    Abby Slutskyposted 3 years ago

    Some of my articles are doing a little better, but I have been here under a year, so I assumed it takes a little while for the search engines to pick them up consistently.

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    Glenn Stokposted 3 years ago

    I have definitely noticed my revenue increasing. Both the ad program and Amazon sales are doing much better lately.
    
    I wonder if that’s why Maven’s stock doubled from a year ago. After all, they get 40% of the total revenue, and that might be reflecting in the share price.

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       eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Even though we only earn 60% of 3% commission on gardening and home improvement products compared to 8% last year, I seem to be making more revenue overall this year. Sales are almost every day.

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          Glenn Stokposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Yep, I get Amazon sales almost every day too. I agree it's sad that Amazon reduced the commission so much, but as you indicated, the increased sales make up for that.

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             TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             Yes, I'm also selling more on Amazon.

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             Shrikant6989posted 3 years agoin reply to this

             I see a problem with the Amazon sales. You would get commission only if the viewer is from USA because the Amazon link is specific to US site. We do have many people from Europe, Asia and other countries and they are clicking on the links but buying from their own country's Amazon version. Hubpages should have a way to address this. Its a loss of revenue for Hubpages as well as the writer.

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                TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                very good point.

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    Shesabutterflyposted 3 years ago

    I'm doing better than last year, but not quite as good as 2019. Hoping as the year goes on I can get some traction back. One of my top articles has really fallen in rank/views and I think that is pulling down my overall earnings. Some articles have risen quite nicely, but with my top article falling and having inconsistent traffic every day, things seem to have evened out so I'm not experiencing as much of an earnings increase as I had hoped for.
    
    My cpm's are down a bit compared to this time last year, which has been the case all year. Coupled with pennies for all my Amazon sales and I'm not making nearly as much as I had hoped for the increase of traffic that I'm seeing. I'm optimistic that things are finally turning around though so I'm hopefully as the year goes on my earnings will increase to what I was seeing in 2019.

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       eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       I wish we could get a breakdown of income on each article if those stats are available. The best performing article as regards traffic doesn't necessarily earn the most. If we knew the details, we could concentrate on making sure the profitable articles stay profitable, rather than worrying possibly in vain about high traffic ones losing their traffic or rankings.

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          Shesabutterflyposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          I do too. I understand what you're saying, but I honestly do not have very many articles that get more than even 20 views a day and the previously mentioned article is one of the few that has an Amazon link so I'm not only losing regular traffic, but likely Amazon sales (no matter how small they are now) as well.
          
          I don't think I write on topics that tend to have high paying ads either so that probably plays a factor into things as well. I might be worrying over nothing, but I agree it would be nice to have more of a breakdown of where earnings are actually coming from. If one of the lower performing ones was bringing in more revenue it would be nice to know so I can find ways to try and increase traffic and make the article better overall.

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    Ekcedeonposted 3 years ago

    @TessSchlesinger, "Christianity doesn't do well when it comes to garnering traffic from Google," I would have to disagree, Currently I only have 16 articles, but with half a million views. And that's without writing anything new in over a year. I would say if you do your research you will do well.

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       TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Not sure what your total views are, but it says more than 100,000. That means you haven't reached 200,000 yet.
       
       So you've got 16 articles spread over two years, that's 50,000 views per year divided by 16 articles. So that's about 3,200 views per article per year. That works out to about 8 views per article per day.
       
       Compare that to about 10,000 views per day for an article that I originally did when I joined Hubpages the first time. Or about the measly 500 views I do on average per day now.
       
       On Medium, one of my articles has hit 20,000 from Google in six months. That works out to about 110 hits per day.
       
       I'm not saying that Christian articles aren't read. I'm saying that they don't do well. Getting 8 or 9 views per day is not doing well - not in my opinion, anyway, and not if one wants to earn an income.

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          eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          I wrote a a troubleshooting article on Medium in November last and while it's indexed by Google and turns up in searches, it hasn't got any traffic. Why would that be? A similar guide on Dengarden gets 500 views per day.

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             TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             Can I look at the piece? URL, please.
             
             As you can see from the two snapshots below, I get quite a lot of traffic from google. Most of my pieces do.
             
             Do you fill in the SEO section?
             
             I have generally found that if an article does well on Hubpages, it does well on Medium. I do, however, change the title slightly, and I make sure that the first paragraph is different to what is on hubpages. I also change wording slightly. The subtitles and SEO keywords remain the same. And I put those in the SEO section.
             
             Most of my stories are sending Google traffic. However, I have noticed that when I first publish it takes a few months for them to get an increasing degree of traffic.
             
             Also, if your article is too similar to the one on Hubpages, Google lowers irs page rank. So you will need to change the title slightly (or the emphasis) and stick with similar keywords. Use a different longtail keyword in the title.
             
             If you let me have the URL, I will take a look.
             
             

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                eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                This is it:
                
                https://medium.com/eugenes-diy-den/trou … 08651d3782
                
                I know Medium isn't the place for "How To" guides, but I noticed someone else had written a guide about electricity, explaining the technicalities and it ranks in fourth place.

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                   TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                   I would change the title to "Troubleshooting  String Trimmers."  I would change 'overview' to a more relevant keyword. 
                   
                   Generally sub-titles get put into the metatags and bots look at the metatags to get an idea of what the article is about.
                   
                   Likewise for your other titles. They are too generic, and they don't give bots sufficient data to give you a top ranking.
                   
                   That said, I need to know what words you have under 'change tags' and what you've put into the SEO section.
                   
                   Basically, it's quite probable I don't know. I tend to use all subtitles for longtail keywords and to fill in everything to do with SEO.

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                      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                      Under tags, I have "String Trimmer", "Garden Tools", "Power Tools", "Gardening", "Garden Maintenance", but I can extend that list.
                      I changed the Title and subtitle and SEO to this:
                      
                      
                      
                      
                      
                      
                      

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                         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                         For your SEO description, check out the first five articles on Google. Then use the words that they have in their title and subtitles for this description.
                         
                         I like your new subtitles and new titles.
                         
                         The problem with change tags on Medium is that they don't have a garden or home category, but they do have a lifestyle category. So I would change the keyword with the least traffic to lifestyle. You could also consider productivity
                         
                         When I first started on Medium, I couldn't figure out why the change tags weren't ranking me on google. Then I saw that the list of interests they have is actually the tags that Medium uses.  I have absolutely no idea why Medium would insist on only having those tags, but that's the way it is. Weird.
                         
                         https://medium.com/me/following/topics
                         
                         I oncer posted an article on downsizing -similar to one I had on Hubpages. Actually, it had the same title, but was more than a little different. Medium curated it, but it was behind a paywall, and the next thing I noticed was that I had a good few thousand fews on my hubpage article which was petty static.
                         
                         I made $90 from it that month (on Hubpages).
                         
                         Is there another name for string trimmer?
                         
                         By the way, did you read that new piece by Ed Williams (owner of Medium). They are shutting down the Medium magazines (thankfully) and are now focused on finding good writers that other people follow, and they are going to select those writers and train them to find their markets, etc.
                         
                         I think that's a really good thing.
                         
                         I've noticed over the past few weeks that virtually all my articles that I am now writing are being distributed.

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                            eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                            Yes, there are about 6 different names for string trimmer. I haven't read the article by Ed, but I'll take a look. I don't really need to improve ranking for this article because I'm already in first place and have the featured snippet for the topic with my troubleshooting guide on Dengarden, This other guide was on my blog and I just moved it to Medium as an experiment to see what views it would attract. I just found it odd that it hadn't received any views whatsoever after being published 4 months.
                            Anyway, thanks for the advice!

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                               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                               It took me three to four months to figure out Medium.
                               
                               They also have an algorithm that sorts out things as soon as they are published. If there is anything that isn't up to their rule book, the article is immediately discarded. For instance, I didn't know that photos has to be a minimum of 900 mm by 900 mm, and they had to have a source quoted. So I received very few views.

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    Ekcedeonposted 3 years ago

    @TessSchlesinger, my best performing article on Litterpile has gotten over 325,000 views in two years, and it's about the bible, so yes, Christian topics do well on Google.... 99% of views from google.

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       theraggededgeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Is it the exorcism one? I find the dark arts do very well
       
       'Litterpile' though...

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          Misbah786posted 3 years agoin reply to this

          @Bev

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             theraggededgeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             I just hope some judicious recycling is happening

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          eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Like "How To" guides? Could I write one from a DIY or cooking perspective?

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             theraggededgeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             Of course. Try 'magickal potions' or maybe 'how to construct an altar from driftwood' (thus covering all the bases of recycling, eco-friendliness, DIY and the Pinterest brigade

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                eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                

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                Misbah786posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                Magick spells

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                   theraggededgeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                   I got that covered. Thank you

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                      Misbah786posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                      Bev, I also covered one or two maybe, in the very starting days when I joined HP, well was about Love magic but not the spells...and you were the inspiration behind those articles.
                      
                      I have read many of yours.. they are lovely
                      
                      Peace and Blessings

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                TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                +++++++++++++++

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          TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          I agreed. I have also found that the dark arts do very well.

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       TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       That is, indeed, good. However, one swallow does not a summer make. In general, religious articles do not do well compared to other articles.
       
       The most popular articles on google are about sex, money, and music.

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    Ekcedeonposted 3 years ago

    @theraggededge, "Is it the exorcism one?" That one wasn't even selected for a niche site.

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       NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

       You are possibly the single-most underestimated site user in history. Very interesting.

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    Oscarlitesposted 3 years ago

    that's a respectful amount of views!  I hope the earning potential is substantial.

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       TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Not sure who you are talking to, but Medium only pays for reads - not views. And it only pays for reads by members, so while, occasionally Google will bring in a paid member, most people who are looking at the articles are not paid members. So Medium doesn't pay one.
       
       However, I am earning on those stories through affiliate marketing. I sell far more on Medium than I do on Hubpages.

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          Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          I'm impressed. really impressed. where can I go and simply get paid to read a story?

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             TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             You don't get paid to read a story. You get paid when others (the paid members of Medium) read your story. That's a lot harder than it looks.
             
             I've now approaching 700 followers after a year of being there, but my work is distributed quite often, so I do get a reasonable number of paid reads.
             
             Sorry, if that was unclear,
             
             You get paid on Quora for asking questions, though.

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                Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                Tess, Here is the link for save thousands by greasing your semi truck. see what you think it needs to turn some views on it please?
                
                https://hubpages.com/autos/Grease-your- … -Thousands
                
                I need to get my focus off of that atheist article lest it turns into a book already!

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                   TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                   Firstly, based on your title, it should rank on Google. However, hubpages has not put this into a niche site. Nor has it transferred it to the new discoverhubpages site. This means it is dead in the water.
                   
                   Your first subtitle is "Maintenance Counts in the Long Run!" People do not google phrases like "maintenance counts in the long run.
                   
                   You have to use the words that people will google when they are searching for something.
                   
                   So if people want to google the topic, what words would they use? Would they, perhaps, google something like " Maintenance for long-haul trucks?"
                   
                   SEO is very, very important. You have to put in a sub-title every two or three paragraphs, and those sub-titles have to be longtail keywords. A longtail keyword is a phrase or a sentence that people search for. It has to be the exact phrase that people search for. It has to serve the double purpose of also telling readers what the next section is about.
                   
                   Next, let's look at this.
                   
                   'WHAT SHOULD BE GREASED ON A BIG RIG? ON A PETERBILT? A FREIGHT-LINER? An INTERNATIONAL? What about a KENWORTH?"
                   
                   That's a complete no-no. You should never use capital letters for a sentence. SEO doesn't like it. You have to write in a style that Google wants.
                   
                   So, again, you rather need to use a subtitle. Consider the following.
                   
                   Parts to Grease on a Kenworth Truck or
                   Parts to Grease on a long-haul truck or
                   Different makes of Long-haul Truck.
                   
                   People will google those phrases. You do not have enough semi-titles in your piece, and you do not use them as opportunities for longtail keywords.
                   
                   Do you know what H1, H2, and H3 titles are?
                   If not, you need to start reading up about headings.
                   
                   https://yoast.com/how-to-use-headings-on-your-site/
                   
                   As far as I can see, you aren't using SEO at all, and without that, you will never get selected for a niche site, and if you don't get selected for a niche site (or at least discover hubpages), you won't get much traffic, and if you don't get much traffic, you won't earn.
                   
                   You're writing to a publishable standard (with the exception of a few little errors like writing in capital letters) so you should definitely be getting more traffic.
                   
                   I think your limitation have been your lack of application of SEO. No content site on the web will promote something that hasn't got good SEO.
                   
                   ********
                   
                   With regard to your article on atheism, I have a Ph.D in the bible. There's nothing that you can present to me that I haven't heard a thousand times before. For me, it's very simple. Until I actually see god present me with a milion dollars in response to prayer, I'm not interested. And then I would have to have absolute evidence that it was him. You know? Like descend on a cloud (Zeus style), and say, "Hey I've just paid in a million to your bank account. Call if you want something else."
                   
                   To me, that's evidence. I really don't need to feel loved, have no fear of dying and going to hell (I don't think hell exists anymore than life after death), and I wasted nearly half a century of my life believing that crud (not being rude, but I honestly think it's nonsense.)
                   
                   I wrote the book 'Good without God - A Case for Secular Christianity' a while ago.
                   
                   https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08H1ZGJKX
                   
                   If you read it, you would see just how in-depth my knowledg of god is. There is a lot of scientific evidence that the personal relationship stuff is nothing but imagination. Some would call it a mental illness.
                   
                   In countries where survival isn't a struggle, and where there are good social systems, and where there is no socialization to believe in god, there is very little belief in god (northern Europe).
                   
                   Anyway, your piece is now on Discover Hubpages, and I can no longer comment on it.

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                      Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                      Tess, thank you for the info. I copied and printed a cheat sheet. gosh I hardly know what SEO stands for.  Appreciate the input. I do need to find out how to add subtitles, Is it only available by the article format you choose, or is their a selection in the tools for building the article to add extra subtitle?
                      
                        I can't help you with the missing link, but I can talk to God about it.
                      
                      Sometimes we are like the prayer/ Scripture, "Lord I believe, but help my unbelief"!   I will add one example,  In 1994 I was working on the airport in my operations/ safety job, and had a situation so bad with a fellow worker, ( he would keep the boss stirred up over everyone /anyone else  except himself), the boss was on my case as this guy had set me up to look like the one at fault. I searched and prayed for what to do, and had decided maybe it was time to leave; I then told my wife I was about to give my resignation, as I felt it was an impossible situation.
                       
                      -It being the weekend that I struggled with this, and on Monday morning, I was suddenly jolted awake, with a word being spoke to me. It was audible, it was visible as moving scroll in front of me, and spoke simultaneously these words, " you have desired to break free, and yet you have not asked me, therefore you have sinned because you have not asked me."
                      
                      - I immediately went to my knees, dear tess, and told God, I'm yours do what you will with me. Yes, you will ask did I feel anything? Yes, I did.  But I went on to work, waited all day long for the situation to explode; it did not. It never came up again. totally peace and bliss and a week or so later I marveled that it still was so peaceful, and a month later I realized and wrote in my journal, Surely God has visited my life and this is the most peaceful month I've ever had at my job.  This, and the time I was run over by a tractor and supernaturally healed in Cleburne, Texas at age 15,  another time, My brothers arm broken and healed while my parents prayed, inside the doctors office in Ft. Worth, Tex.. The time I received extra strength to catch my youngest daughter from racing off a 100 ft cliff when she accidentally gunned the throttle on a 3 wheeler in Naknek, Ak. many many other times. The other time a miracle lost in the clouds with instrument failure in my piper cherokee, 13,500 ft above Mt. Illiamna on my way down the aleutian peninsula, the moment we were going to blindly descend, a small hole opened in the clouds for me to see the mountain side below, and continued flying at altitude until 30 minutes later got a radio working and made contact with the King Salmon Tower and got a radar fix, then thye told me continue at now 4500 ft asl for 40 more minutes at 120 knots,then decend to 2500 asl into vicinity of the airport. Just was one of the time you couldn't assume anyone was mentally ill. Sometimes a little prayer will move a mountain or save your life, (that we don't have the ability to save for ourselves)
                      
                      Atheism at some level assumes that the automobiles even made themselves, Oh humans did?, ha, they just proved they can't be consistent. and that  there is no creator of something so complex and complicated as the human? -not to mention the complexity of the soul. No, the textbooks don't teach you about the soul, the life within us or where it came from, just a theory of debate over whether it was a spontaneous thing or a random process without any guidance.  -I'll be glad to live in this state of illness if that is what it is to believe in the eternal creator of the soul.
                      Have you ever taken the time to read the primitive/ historical story of Adam and Eve, in the forgotten books of Eden? It will shake you up when you read and realize no man or woman could ever have made up this story. It was once part of the Holy Bible but a couple hundred years ago it was removed due to modernization of Christianity.  Oh how much I've seen, as you have seen, but with a different result inside me.  Oh, I've had many hard lessons in life as well. But thankful I have come through it all.  My youngest daughter Rebecca that I spoke of, has passed away due to contracting some strain of auto- immune, then four or five years into the deep struggle to retain life, infection entered her heart  and she passed before I could even get over to where she was.  I had to release her into Gods care, realizing she could have died 20 years earlier on the 3 wheeler when she was headed for the cliff.  the most important thing and I hope for you as well. That in the middle of her struggle, She returned to know Gods love and grace after telling me once, Dad, I have found another way to live. But God in his goodness led her back and the nurses and staff  talked about her last three months, her glowing with happiness in all of her pallor, and how the robins came to her window, and how the daffodil bloomed out of season and everyone who entered her room left in amazement at the peace they felt and happiness, from this precious one of mine who knew she was going to a place where she would suffer no more. Oh, she told me before she passed that she loved me and that she had found peace in her soul.

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                         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                         As an atheist, I am well aware of the power of coincidence. I am also aware of the power of the mind. All the incidents you mention can be explained as coincidence, statistical probability, etc.
                         
                         As for the voices you hear, the brain does that. People who have schizophrenia hear other people talking to them all the time. There is a scientific explanation for it. I've forgotten what it is. Once when a fire was burning down the building I was living in in London, the guy in the flat above me told me about the aliens who landed on the roof. He heard them talking. I'm pretty sure there were no aliens on the roof.
                         
                         Atheism doesn't assume that automobiles made themselves. Atheists know full well that automobiles are made by people at manufacturing plants. They also know that babies are made by a man inserting his seed into a women (and by artificial insemination). Through a process of measurement, math, and evidence, they have found that the universe started at a certain point in time and spread outwards – it is still spreading outwards. The common name for this is the Big Bang. What caused the Big Bang, nobody knows. I studied this in geology courses at college. Have you ever done a science course at college?
                         
                         Here's the difference between atheist/scientists and religious people. Whereas the atheist is happy to say, “I don't know, and until I have exact evidence, I'll go on saying I don't know” the religious person will say, “I don't know what happened, so it must be god.”
                         
                         As for the soul, I don't know that such a thing exists. There is no evidence for either a soul or a spirit, so until I can see solid evidence for its existence, I have to once more assume that because religious people cannot be comfortable with “I don't know,” they have to say “It must be god.”
                         
                         I am perfectly content with the life I have. I have seen the world and done a thousand things. I've learnt a lot. I have friends all over the place. I'm 70 years old this year, and I look 20 years younger. In two weeks, I start a new chapter of my life as I move to Germany. I will be going to school to learn how to speak German properly, and I will once more be able to go to my favourite cities – London, Amsterdam, and visit friends in Spain and France.
                         
                         I don't care where we came from. I have no interest in investing my time in trying to find answers to questions that every single religion has a different answer for. The quality of my life does not change because I don't know those answers.
                         
                         I can understand that the ego doesn't want to accept that we die and there is nothing more. Some people find that very difficult to accept. I don't. Atheists don't. We are at peace about being here for a few short years and then not existing anymore. That is why we do the best we can in this life. We know there is nothing more.
                         
                         Why could no man or woman have made up a story? Surely, you must be kidding. What on earth makes you say that? Have you ever read the myths of Egypt, of India (with its 33 million gods), or the stories originating in Africa? All the stories in the bible are made up. They were just a primitive people trying to understand the world around them. That's it.

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                            Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                            If you have ever seen life leave a person's body for an extended/impossible time and then come back inside that body against all odds, (many doctors have witnessed this on a medical basis)  then-- you have no more grounds to claim atheism. That life within the person left and went somewhere, where? -and then it came back. So really it isn't just a simple "it's over" after you die.  Not at all   there is nothing anyone can by science or coincidence answer this with. at the best you can only say it's one of those things you have no answer for.  Perhaps the person's will to live wa so strong they made themselves come back?  Then you also concede that they went somewhere and by returning they establish existence beyond this physical life

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                            Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                            The scientifically written formula will never create a chemical or substance without it being gathered and produced by someone with intelligence.  Truly it takes a lot of faith to believe the complicated ingredients are going to miraculously compose without intelligence. So in finding this , you must accept that the universe has intelligence. However this disproves scientific theory and definition of accidental creation.  Interestingly, scientists are slipping , for now they are acknowledging realm-ology.  They believe they will find life in the universe by discovering another realm. one that the human eye cannot see, and not even based on micro-biology, but based on a mental shift/looking with an eye and ear toward a spiritual existence.  For real. An altered state of mind will help them locate other life. I'm sure it will be all dressed up in scientific terms before we get the full report, but its searchable already , even Facebook's mind reading glasses is causing a stir, but that's pretty low tech in the NASA index of intelligence

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                            Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                            I would love to learn another language and visit a different culture besides the ones I have experience with in my Alaska years.

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    Oscarlitesposted 3 years ago

    -then you are just like a rock being thrown through the air.  When it lands, it no longer has energy. The rock does not even consider who threw it. But wait, as a human you are responsive, you have the ability to know, but you waste it ignoring that an outside force sustains your life. For the planted seed answer does not provide the breath and the life, only the source of reproduction.  The fact that our physical body  returns to dust provides a clue to those who question. It's mostly the spirit or the soul, that science has failed to define. However they struggle to create sustaining life and so far they can only create.mechanical things.  That's why life itself refutes atheism.  Be happy, for that's all you believe you have, a limited existence without options.    Thank you for being so kind to help me with my article(s) .

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       TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       With respect, and I mean no unpleasantness, there is a direct correlation between average intelligence and belief in god, and exceptional intelligence and atheism. Atheists are the smartest people in the world.
       
       There is also a correlation between countries where life is a struggle and belief in god, and disbelief in god in countries where there is a good safety net. In Finland, for instance, only 8% of the population believes that there is a god, and people laugh at them for believing there is a god.
       
       You are not qualified to make the statements you have made about me. In every way, I outclass you, except perhaps that I tend to offend people with your beliefs. I apologize, but when you make the statements you do, I see no other option but to put the other side of the story to you.
       
       I wish you well on hubpages,

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          vrdmposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          With you all the way on this Tess. 
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9Wn5W … amp;t=234s
          Best wishes,
          DM

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             TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             Thank you. May I suggest you write about your music for Joel Eisenberg?
             
             https://joeleisenberg.medium.com/

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    eugbugposted 3 years ago

    Do atheists believe there's any worth in human beings or other animals? From their perspective (is it a reductionist one?) are they just complex collections of atoms?
    Do they believe there's a need for morality and why so?

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       TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Atheism is not a particular set of beliefs. For instance, raliens believe that life on earth evolved elsewhere. Tbey are still atbeists, though, because they don't see anu evidence for the existence of a personal god.
       
       Morality or ethics or a collection of rules that ensure survival. Benevence is a survival mechanism.
       
       This is why what is good in one situation may not be good in another situation - situational ethics.
       
       For instance, mowing the lawn on a weekly basis may be a good thing if children are going to play there every day, but it way be a bad thing if the purpose us to provide camoflage and food for little creatures.
       
       A certain amount of imtelligence is necessary to determine what is ethical or not. Ethics are those rules which ensure the greatest good for the greatest number over the longest period of time. They evolve over a period of time as people begin to see which behaviours have optimal results for the group or not.
       
       This explains why different people in different parts of the world had different standards of behaviour. For instance, cows are considered holy in some eastern religion. Perhaps therr were only a few cows in early days and killing them off to eat their meat would have meant no milk. And perhaps, in Africa, canabalism of one's enemies was acceptable because it was much easier to kill another human than to kill a lion.
       
       Again, ethics are rules that evolve over a period of time to ensure the greatest chance of survival. This is why benevolence is a survival mechanism.
       
       There is also a correlation between the greater one's intelligence, the more ethical one's life. Atheists per capita, have tbe least number of people in prison.
       
       The more stupid one is, the more likely one is guilty of criminal behaviour. It's a fallacy that the more intelligent one is, and the less one believes in god, the more evil one will be. Evidence and research show the opposite.
       
       Does life have any intrinsic value? Who knows? There are many questions where, in order to answer them, one needs more information.
       
       Using extrapolation as a deductive technique, however, one can determine that, on earth, as all life is interdependent, removing one life form will effect another life form.
       
       So  for istance, if one uses a poison to ensure that crops don't get eaten by insects, eventually that poison kills off the bees. As bees are needed to pollinate plants, eventually plants die off as their reproduction mechanism is no longer working. When plants die off, many other species die off because they no longer have a food source.
       
       The result increases to a point of mass extinction. We are currently in a period of mass extinction - the holocene - 6th mass extinction.
       
       When one begins to link one thing to another, one eventually sees a chain of events where human production of goods eventually leads to the extinction of human kind.
       
       Ergo capitalism eventually leads to two things (and I am leaving out many links here because I don't have the time to write it all out for you). It leads to wealth eventually landing up in a few hands with the great masses living in extreme poverty. And it leads to the destruction of our environment which results in climate change which results in the extinction of life.
       
       Therefore capitalism is unethicsl because of the long tetm destruction it produces.
       
       If one is of average intelligence and has a high school education, one doesn't have the knowlege vase and the intelligence to work this out.
       
       This is why there is a correlation between ethics, atheism, higher education, and greater intelligence.
       
       When one is operating from ego, one becomes insulted if it is mentioned one doesn't have the intelligence or the knowledge to work something out. Concurrent with that is the Dunning Kruger effect.
       
       Basically, in crude language, the more stupid and ignorant one is, the more one thinks one knows more than one does, and the more intelligent and efucated one is, the more one knows just how little one knows.
       
       So an atheist is willing to say 'I don't know."
       
       Does life have value? I don't know, but on the basis thT my own life is negatively effected when I harm other lives, I will not harm it. Atheists understand this, so they will not harm others.
       
       Religious people, on the other hand, often follow a set of rules, evolved in antiquity that make no sense (and sometimes cause a lot of harm). Besides which, if the only reason one is doing good is because one fears eternal damnation, one isn't really a good person, is one? It means that if the threat of damnation is removed, then one will do all sorts of evil.
       
       I am typing this one finger at a time on my phone in the early hours of the morning. Last night, an airline informed me that my connecting flight from South Africa to Germany was cancelled. I have to find amother flight, so answering religious questions is not my priority.
       
       I am responding to this as a courtesy. For the most part, I find it a waste of energy to argue with people who believe in god. They are not going to change my mind and I am not going to change theirs.
       
       I also have no need to change their minds. People are entitled to believe what they like. As Christianity preaches free will, it becomes a sin to try to influence or change someone else's mind.
       
       My book entitled 'Good without God' is a guide for secular Christians. A lot of things are covered in it.
       
       I wrote it because I don't have the time or energy to keep going over the same questions with people who belive in gods.
       
       It's available on Amazon if you're interested. I wish you all good things.

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       lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       In my opinion, the belief that morality comes from religion is the furthest away from reality one can get. Most, if not all religions have been the cause of the greatest immoral acts the human race has ever seen.

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          Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Do you accept the existence of evil?  Evil has  propagated itself in both religious and non religious groups.  Evil, or the concept, Is one of the worlds biggest enemy or human race challenge.

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             lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             If there is such as thing as good, then there has to be evil. One cannot exist without the other.

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                Misbah786posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                I like what you said
                Blessings

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                CYong74posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                I think the classic argument is that if you believe in pure evil, then pure good must exist. Therefore, if you acknowledge pure evil, you cannot deny the existence of God.
                
                The entire Exorcist movie was about this.
                
                But of course, this argument ignores the fact that there are many different interpretations of pure good across history and the world.

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                   lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                   No, I disagree that there must be a God if you acknowledge the presence of pure evil. Pure evil is not the devil and most religions do not even mention the devil in their scripture. You see pure evil in men and pure good in men. There does not have to be a God if you acknowledge the existence of pure evil.
                   
                   What is evil and good is after all defined by men. What is considered evil today may not have been considered evil a few decades or centuries ago.

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                      CYong74posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                      Neither do I agree with it. I'm just saying this is the usual apologist argument.
                      
                      Anyway, I'm Asian Buddhist/Taoist. So the whole Christianity vs Atheism is mostly inexplicable to me.

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                         lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                         Cool. But I don't think it's just Christianity vs Atheism, it's belief in a higher power vs Atheism. You have Buddhist extremists just as there are Hindu extremists, not sure about extremism in the followers of Taoism.

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                            CYong74posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                            Including for extremists, which exist in any belief system, it is always about MY power being superior to yours. MY wisdom being superior to your stupidity.

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                               lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                               Yes, that is how it is and the reason for that is because of their faith in religion and one being superior to another.

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                                  Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                                  Cyong74, you just said it. Powerful

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          theraggededgeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Yep. This.

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    Ekcedeonposted 3 years ago

    @tess, "there is a direct correlation between average intelligence and belief in god and  exceptional intelligence and atheism." While this might be true, you should know that dogs and cats are considered gods in some countries. Are u aware of this? Anyway, I'm glad that the human race has the freedom to chose what to believe, that's if he/she chose to believe anything at all. For example, I believe in God that's my belief, and I can define Him). But there are folks who don't believe "in" anything; they use evidence/science as their guide. Either way, it's very clear that the human race relies on a superior power for help. I call this power God, others call it science or whatever.  That said, I'm sure, both of us would pass on and this discussion will live on. Moreover, it's funny how definite science is today but yet no one can explain what happens after death. I guess we will find out after........

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    Ekcedeonposted 3 years ago

    @Brandon "But I don't think it's just Christianity vs Atheism, it's belief in a higher power vs Atheism" But here's what funny that atheism seems to deny. Religious folks believe in god, whoever that god is (I believe in God). But atheists don't believe in a higher power, yet science/evidence forms the core of their arguments about human existence. If you ask me, the same way a Christian/ whoever believes in the doctrines of their bible/religious books, the same way an atheist believes in science to explain human existence and everything in our universe. Either way, as I said earlier, man cannot live without beliefs.

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       lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       I think there seems to be some confusion between the words proof and belief. Science does not believe it shows how and why. If there is something we do not understand it is because we do not know yet. In the same way, we know how certain things work today that we did not yesterday.
       
       It is fine to believe in a God, but science is not a belief. If I am holding an apple and let it go it drops down, that is not my belief, it is fact. Belief comes into play when you try to explain the unexplained. Science just waits another day until it can be explained.

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          CYong74posted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Well said.

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          tsmogposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          The apple falling is true until you are on the Space Station. Belief and fact have a key to both and that is truth leading to reality.

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             Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             Tsmog,. Exactly apple dropped in planet earth gravity will fall, whereas in gravityless space station ,moon, etc, it's gonna remain suspended at least until it's eaten.  But the amazing fact is that both scenarios are observable, which is a leg/prop of science.

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             lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             Hmm I would have expected people to figure out what I meant by the apple analogy. It was referring to gravity. I should have made it clear. The question of the space station or the surface of the Earth does not arise.

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                tsmogposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                I guess that is an individual thing if it arises or not hence the wink. Yes, gravity does explain it to those with knowledge of that science based fact. Doesn't that lead to truth and reality when discussing belief and fact? Just a thought of curiosity.

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          Oscarlitesposted 3 years agoin reply to this

          Lobo Brandon, I agree.  And there is nothing wrong with science , except when they look at hard evidence and deny it, or steer a course around it if it conflicts with their principles. This is primarily because they operate ,MO, of off theories. Theories are hidden behind science and essential to what they are willing to accept. It thereby limits them sometimes from even accepting another scientist theory. In a way it IS a type of religion. The religion of scientific theory.

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             lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

             No, theories are just that theories. Of course, people lean towards a direction, but science deals with facts, and theories help one reach there. Theories are not considered the end, just a possibility until something is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Theories are all the time proven to be wrong.

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    Ekcedeonposted 3 years ago

    @Brandon, right, the same way science had explained the genesis of this world and mankind. But if science is so exact and  glaring, why more than two-third of the world's population  hasn't yet seen the proof ? As you said,  if you drop an apple and it falls no one can dispute that, the proof is there and i'd fool to think otherwise. But science has no "black and white" proof to explain the genesis of man...oh, well, monkies, or apes, or whatsoever.

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       lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

       Evolution is clear and well proven. Science cannot prove stuff without evidence and some things are lost to time.
       
       Are you trying to tell me that religion has a better idea than evolution? I'd love to know.
       
       Just today I read a meme, apparently, it was a quote from Mark Twain: The person who does not read does not know any more than the person who cannot. If 2/3rd of the worlds population as you put it does not see the proof that does not mean it isn't there for them to see if they want to look for it.

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    eugbugposted 3 years ago

    I just want to know if my notebook is possessed and that's what's causing the BSODs in the middle of trying to backup 

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