The fruit of God’s spirit is peace, love and gentleness.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. -Galatians 5:22
The fruit of God’s spirit is vengeance, rage and fury.
As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. -Judges 15:14-15
The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand and he hurled it, saying to himself, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David eluded him twice. -1 Samuel 18:10-12
In the Bible, Jesus loved to teach with parables. He would teach his disciples using stories to illustrate divine principles in a way their simple minds could understand. Although the concepts were never that hard to grasp, Jesus apparently had to dumb it down for his audience.
I thought I’d share a small parable of my own:
Richard would meet with five of his friends every morning to have discussions about life. One day the group decided to meet at a new coffee shop down the road.
Richard arrived a few minutes late, and quickly went to the counter to order a cup of coffee. When he walked up to the table with his four friends they began to question him.
One of Richard’s friends named Tom exclaimed, “Why did you buy their coffee? I brought my own and I’ve shared it with the group. I have the best coffee in the world and it will change your life.”
Richard looked down to see the four men holding empty cups. ”The cups are empty,” said Richard.
“We thought so too,” said Steve, another group member, “but after Tom explained everything to us, we accepted his gift and are now enjoying his delicious coffee. My coffee palate has been reborn.”
Richard knew his friends weren’t crazy, so he asked to try a sip. He held the cup to his mouth and tipped it until it was upside down. Nothing. His eyes weren’t fooling him … the cups were empty.
“Now that you’ve had a foretaste of our coffee, the best is to come,” proclaimed Tom. “Your cup will always be overflowing. You will never thirst.”
“Very funny,” laughed Richard, “the jokes on me.”
Richard takes a sip of his own coffee and sees his four friends staring very concerned back at him.
“Do you think your coffee is better than ours?” asked Steve.
“Yes, considering my coffee actually exists,” joked Richard.
His friends now look even more concerned and Richard realized they were being serious. They actually believed their coffee was real and that all people should be drinking it.
“Richard, what will you do when your coffee cup is empty?” asked Tom. “Don’t you desire a drink that is eternal and will have no end?”
Richard sat down and explained, “All cups of coffee come to an end. You drink yours and I’ll drink mine. Then we can all sit here together and enjoy our discussion as we always do.”
“It doesn’t work that way … either you’re with us or you’re against us,” announced Tom as the four men stood up and walked out of the coffee shop.
So what is the moral of the story? Just because the majority believes something is truth doesn’t make it so. And religion should not be so arrogantly proclaimed. You can believe in whatever invisible deity (or coffee) you want to. Just keep it to yourself. But most of all, don’t use your religion to justify hate for other people who don’t share your superstition. Not believing in invisible things does not make a person evil.
It’s hard to believe a year has past since my first post on theBEattitude blog. Thank you for reading and joining in the zealous discussion. I hope to have time to post more frequently than I have in recent months. When my schedule gets busy, it doesn’t leave much time for blasphemy.
Looking back, there have been many great discussions over the past year. But none better than the “Losing My Religion” post. It brought over 100,000 hits in a three day period and has 1,420 comments and counting. I will never reach that level of site traffic again, but I look forward to sharing my thoughts in another year free from ancient superstition.
Thanks again to all who have visited and commented!
Let’s take a look at the theology of the Holy Trinity. One god as a father, son and holy spirit … all at the same time.
We’ll start with Yahweh.
Yahweh (God) is, has alway been and will always be. He created the entire universe and everything in it. He is all knowing and all seeing and his kingdom will never end.
This makes sense within the monotheistic religion of Judaism. Yahweh is the only god who is all-powerful and responsible for everything.
Then comes Jesus.
He was God’s only son, sent to be slaughtered for the sin of mankind. This part of the story is already confusing considering the Bible describes all people as God’s children. But because God artificially inseminated a virgin woman, he is the paternal father of Jesus. When God created Adam, the first man, he apparently didn’t qualify as God’s only son because he used dirt instead of a virgin.
So Jesus is God’s son … right?
The Bible tells us Jesus is literally God in the flesh. In other words, he was Yahweh in a man’s body. One god in two different forms … at the same time. This means Yahweh was somehow the father of himself. Which also raises the question why Jesus prayed to himself, begging himself to not require himself to be crucified as a blood payment for sin to appease himself and save the world from the wrath of himself.
Did your eyes go crossed yet? The theology of the Holy Trinity is completely ludicrous. If Jesus was God, he couldn’t die. A god that has always been and will always be cannot die. Not for one day, not for three days.
Jesus was also tempted by Satan and greatly feared his impending death. The one who created Satan was tempted by him? And the creator of the universe and king of heaven feared death? Seriously?
Trinitarian theology fails miserably. God required blood to atone for sin. So he incarnated himself as a man, remained anonymous for thirty years, hung out with 12 guys for three years and then pretended to die for three days. The Holy Spirit form of God was then sent to care for the people of earth for 2,000+ years until the man form of God (Jesus) comes down on a cloud riding in a chariot to vengefully nuke everyone.
By the way, these three forms of God also love you very much and need your money.Any questions?
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good.” -Matthew 19:16-17
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” -Mark 10:17-18
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” -Luke 18:18-19
Yes. Jesus was sinless.
Jesus said to them, … “Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” -John 8:42-46
But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. -1 John 3:5
Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” -1 Peter 2:21-22
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. -Hebrews 4:14-16
Many Christians have visited this blog to share the love of Jesus with me. Their comments are always welcome here as the discussion would be boring if everyone agreed with me.
With that said, virtually every Christian ends their discussion here the same way … with a giant ad hominem. Their compassionate remarks turn to judgmental comments rather than answering the questions posed in the post. Their comments degrade to an immature statement equating to, “you’re stupid and my dad could beat up your dad.” Or explaining how my lack of faith makes my arguments irrelevant thus fulfilling biblical prophesy as a “scoffer”.
They avoid the questions and topics being discussed because there are no rational answers to justify the absurdities of Christian theology. Unjustly attacking my character and accusing me of being ignorant distracts from the various topics at hand. Occasionally a Christian admits they have blind faith in the impossible. At least they’re honest.
It is senseless to attack my character while completely ignoring the points of my posts. By first pretending to be compassionate and loving, only to later insult me makes you little more than a hypocrite. It adds nothing to the discussion and completely undermines your attempt at evangelization.
I always make it a priority to be respectful in my comments. It’s not a personal attack; I just disagree with your religious beliefs. My disagreeing with you does not make me your enemy … just less superstitious.
God didn’t cause the extreme Haitian poverty or the recent massive earthquake … the devil did it. All because of a pact the Haitians made with Satan. The wise Robertson even quotes Satan’s acceptance of this ancient pact when the devil said, “Okay it’s a deal.”
Anyone who supports and donates money to this bigoted asshole should be ashamed. If thousands of Christians are ignorant enough to follow this idiot, it isn’t hard to understand why they also so willingly profess faith in a man-made deity.
Is laughter and happiness a good thing, or a bad thing?
Happiness is good:
So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun. -Ecclesiastes 8:15
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. –Ecclesiastes 3:1,4
Happiness is bad:
Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. –Ecclesiastes 7:3-4
Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. –Luke 6:25
HUNTSVILLE, AL – Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne is under attack for saying, “I believe there are parts of the Bible that are meant to be literally true and parts that are not,” in the state of Alabama.
Byrne believes in Jesus, but by honestly acknowledging the absurdity of ancient Bible fables is now a political black sheep. In a recent appearance at a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in New Hope, many people came in protest of Byrne. One protester said:
“Just got a call from a person at my Church letting me know about this,” said uafan1198. “My family will not be shopping at Ragland Piggly Wiggly stores anymore or anything else they own…. I don’t shop at places that think it is OK to stand next to people who don’t believe the Bible is all true.”
Byne is scrambling to save his political career by recanting his statement claiming, “I believe the Bible is true. Every word of it.”
If a person is ostracized for not being a Bible literalist in Alabama, what do they do to atheists? People have the freedom to live their lives with their head in the sand, but do the rest of us a favor and keep your irrational superstition to yourself.
It’s hard to believe a year has past since my first post on theBEattitude blog. Thank you for reading and joining in the zealous discussion. I hope to have time to post more frequently than I have in recent months. When my schedule gets busy, it doesn’t leave much time for blasphemy. 
