Let’s pretend for a minute that Yahweh/God/Jesus/Holy Spirit are real. They created all things and have a brilliant and holy plan for this creation.
Let’s analyze this creation:
First God created an immeasurable universe full of hundreds of billions of galaxies. He then filled these galaxies with hundreds of billions of solar systems. These solar systems contained numerous planets orbiting each star.
After creating this awe-inspiring universe, God selected one tiny planet, orbiting one tiny star, in one tiny galaxy. The other millions of billions of planets were less important to him. He then gave this special planet an atmosphere, water and filled it with millions of plants and animals.
God now created his most prized and beloved creation … humans. He created this species of mammal in his own likeness and image. This “image” shared 96% of the same DNA as chimpanzees.
After creating this special mammal, he waited several million years before selecting a small group within the Middle East to be his chosen people. He then taught this small sect of people his divine laws, how to slaughter burnt sacrifices to atone for their sin, and how to properly worship him. All non-chosen “Gentiles” were free to be sinful and worship other gods.
When God realized his chosen sect of people couldn’t follow his rules, he flooded the whole planet to start over. When that plan didn’t work, God incarnated himself as a fellow mammal to sacrifice himself to himself to save the world from himself.
God will soon be returning to this special planet to judge his special mammals, riding on a chariot from the clouds. To be continued…
Tags: Adam, Bible, Big Bang, Creation, Creationism, Eve, Evolution, Galaxy, God, Jesus, Solar System, Theory, Universe
February 11, 2010 at 12:16 am |
Well when you put it like that…..
February 11, 2010 at 1:22 am |
Yep, that’s almost as good as the flying spaghetti monster story… I think the FSM is more fun to read though.
I only wonder what people must think. All that space, all those planets, all those places… that god chose this one place/planet/species… and then left me out of his chosen people list. Nice!
February 11, 2010 at 8:34 am |
Well to be honest, a lot of the nuttier ones don’t believe that there is anything out there in space. If you go to Fundies Say the Darndest Things (can’t remember the website address) you will see a dang good compilation of comments from fundies about this very topic. Many of them feel that it is all a plot by Nasa to discredit the Bible. It can get pretty funny, but sad at the same time.
February 11, 2010 at 4:29 am |
It does make you wonder how little some people think though what they believe.
In this post you did bring something up that I never really thought about before. According to the bible god flooded the world because man was to sinful. Did he mean just the ones of his selected people or did he mean all people? How could a being who had not really set any rules down to his so called chosen expect them to know all the rules? Unless I am mistaken none of the so called laws of the bible didn’t get mentioned until several hundred years after the flood. This seems to imply that this god had rules and expected people to follow them even though they had no idea they even existed. I would say only a sadistic being would live that way.
February 11, 2010 at 8:17 am |
wow you sure haven’t got a grasp of the OT at all.
The Flood came long BEFORE the establishment of the covenant with the Jews (Abraham the Hebrew, and his descendants).
The Gentiles weren’t ‘free to sin’.
There was no ‘millions of years’ mentioned in the Bible between the creation of man and the emergence of the Jews.
You seem to think it a big deal that humans and animals have chemically similar bodies. But if they are going to live in the same environment, subsist on the same food etc it make perfect sense.
Lets look at your POV. If you are an evolutionist (i.e. if man is just ‘another animal’), then we are in competition with other species as well as with each other for survival (of the fittest). Why isn’t it acceptable to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to survive and thrive?
February 11, 2010 at 8:40 am |
Your kidding right? Fossil and geological evidence points to the millions and millions of years that it took the world to develop and evolve.
As for “Why isn’t it acceptable to do WHAT EVER IT TAKES to survive and thrive?” well in many ways we do do what ever it takes. We engage in social circles, make friends that can help us and protect us. Work as groups to further both our own goals and those of our community. We pair off and have children to further our species, we seek out food and shelter in a way that is acceptable to those around us thus ensuring the continuation of our place in the community which helps us and protects us. I could go on and on, but it is a really simple theory to grasp that does not require a god, or religion in any way shape form or fashion.
I know that if I go kill someone, whether they are a threat to me or not it will upset my place in society and thus make it more difficult to survive. If I don’t look after my children when they grow up and I am and old person they will not look after me. If I don’t follow the socially accepted rules I will be an out cast. I will not be able to get a job, feed my family or ensure my survival.
Such a simple theory, yet you introduce god into the equation and all logic goes out the door.
February 11, 2010 at 9:49 am |
Shawn wrote:
“Your kidding right? Fossil and geological evidence points to the millions and millions of years…..”
theBEattitude implied that the Bible taught there were millions of years and that it was a contradiction or problem within the flow of the Biblical narrative.
I simply pointed out that the Bible makes no mention of ‘millions of years’ , so no contradiction exists within the Biblical story.
February 13, 2010 at 9:55 am
And such is the strength of delusion that one can even strike out at someone who would normally take his side. <_<
February 11, 2010 at 9:09 am |
Pre-covenant or not. God flooded the world for being sinful and killed all animals of the world along with them. Brilliant.
God did not make a covenant with the Gentiles. He didn’t provided them with a top ten list of rules. They were completely on their own. But you are right, God had no problem with slaughter and genocide to wipe out these non-chosen people.
Even the majority of Christian’s explain away the silly creation fable in Genesis as a parable. Most believe it is a metaphorical story to illustrate the fall of man. If you actually believe the earth is 6,000 years old, I feel sorry for you.
You don’t find it at all odd that God’s most precious creature which he created in his own likeness and image is only a couple genetic steps away from a chimp?
Because we are intelligent creatures who have developed cultural laws and religions. After thousands of years, these cultural laws and religions keep people in line. We have evolved to survive by exchanging goods and services or by self sustaining through growing and raising our own food and shelter. Our high functioning brains make it unnecessary for us to act like carnal animals. We use our brains to survive as the fittest.
February 11, 2010 at 9:45 am |
I see. So, every OTHER animal must compete with its own species to survive EXCEPT man.
IOW, evolution teaches that ‘intraspecies competition is a necessary and integral part of evolution, except when it isnt’
That’s known as a lack of falsifiability, which should be a red flag to any scientist who might be tempted to consider this a workable scientific theory.
February 11, 2010 at 10:18 am
Before we get all sideways on the evolution topic, survival of the fittest is not ‘evolution’ as evolution does not favor the strong or most fit. Life, as part of evolution, simply kills off those species that are not capable of surviving. Evolution is only a description of what happens over time with life on this planet. Evolution does not have a grand competition to see who is most fit to survive, rather it is a long winded process where new species are born and some species go extinct. In the long term view we can say those that died out were unfit. For instance, dinosaurs were, in the long term, unfit for the environment of this planet, yet they were here for millions of years, and that is longer than modern man has been around. Don’t assume that humans are the most fit to survive, we simply are at the moment.
Competition for survival between species does not exist. There is no rules that one species or the other will win or survive. There is only the effort of surviving on this planet that all species endure. Life as we call, is made up of surviving. Not all species do and some thrive more than others. In the process of all species attempting to survive it appears that there is competition between them, but this is only an appearance.
AFAIK, only humankind actively and purposely attempts to control populations of other species or even eradicate other species. There still is no ‘competition’ for survival. There is only the daily grind of doing what needs to be done to survive, often at the peril of other species.
Further, evolution doesn’t teach anything. Evolution is a description of how things happen over time. It has no goals, directs no actions, and certainly has no rules.
From the entry at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_fittest
“An interpretation of the phrase “survival of the fittest” to mean “only the fittest organisms will prevail” (a view sometimes derided as “Social Darwinism”) is not consistent with the actual theory of evolution. Any individual organism which succeeds in reproducing itself is “fit” and will contribute to survival of its species, not just the “physically fittest” ones, though some of the population will be better adapted to the circumstances than others. A more accurate characterization of evolution would be “survival of the fit enough”.[7]
Moreover, to misunderstand or misapply the phrase to simply mean “survival of those who are better equipped for surviving” is rhetorical tautology. What Darwin meant was “better adapted for immediate, local environment” by differential preservation of organisms that are better adapted to live in changing environments. The concept is not tautological as it contains an independent criterion of fitness.[4]”
The competition for survival of any species is against the environment, not other species. That environment includes other species that may be consuming the same food supply as you or that may be consuming your species as a food supply. Still, the only competition for a species is against its environment.
February 11, 2010 at 11:34 am
Joe–
Discussions with you feel like watching a dog chase his tail. You rarely even make sense.
As I said, humans do compete with our own species for survival. The difference is we do it within a somewhat civilized culture with laws that prevent the old biblical “eye for an eye.” Otherwise people would be murdering others at will for their own gain. As we have seen repeatedly throughout human history.
Blinding yourself with ancient superstition helps you ignore every piece of counter evidence.
February 11, 2010 at 11:41 am |
Regarding the similarity of humans and chimps, Mr. White has a valid point. Most of our DNA controls the primary functions of life: eating, digestion, distribution of nutrients in the body, defending against parasites and disease, etc, etc. Even if humans were created separately by a god who had created the rest of the flora and fauna, it would make sense for that god to reuse mechanisms that had already been worked out and tested in animals; especially if the humans are expected, as Mr. White points out, to live in the same environment, subsist on the same food, etc. as the animals. The god could in this way concentrate on getting the design of the brain right.
Or is your point that all the systems of the body could have been improved for a special species, not just the intellect? Or that the intellect could have been improved more than it was?
February 11, 2010 at 11:04 am |
Let’s not forget that there’s less than a thousandth of a percent of the universe that can sustain life as we know it. If we leave our minuscule fraction of a fraction of the cosmos, we will die almost instantly.
Even our little speck of rock is hell bent on killing us at every turn. Hundreds of thousands of people died recently simply based on a tectonic mechanism that keeps the earth from erupting and spraying fiery hot death everywhere and spewing millions of tons of toxic gas into the atmosphere and blocking the sun, causing a mass extinction event.
Millions more died a few years ago based on such an event happening miles away from any habitable place, but, because it happened to occur on the nearly 3/4ths of the planet covered in water, it created an enormous tsunami that engulfed entire islands and devastated those lucky enough to not have been completely decimated.
Keep in mind, this is how the earth has been for billions of years, well after mankind existed on it. This was the condition of the earth as we got it, not the result of any vengeful deity inflicting punishment for anything.
February 11, 2010 at 12:17 pm |
It is likely that there are billions of planets in the Universe that can sustain life as we know it; and maybe some where other kinds of life can exist. All that is required is the right mix of elements and an orbit at a suitable distance from a star; or perhaps some other energy source. Maybe God is running the same experiment in lots of places.
I bet the Bible never says explicitly that this is the only world. In the early days the question would not have entered anyone’s mind; no one would have imagined that there might be another. So the notion that this planet is unique comes tacitly from ancient lack of information and modern lack of imagination.
February 11, 2010 at 1:19 pm |
The Bible authors certainly didn’t think there were other planets sustaining life. They thought the earth was a flat pancake at the center of the universe with the sun and moon revolving around it. Which is exactly why they invented Yahweh. To help explain everything they didn’t understand.
February 18, 2010 at 6:17 pm |
I’ll bet somewhere out there is a preacher trying to figure out how his sect is going to preach the gospel to whatever critters are eventually discovered on exoplanets. Adaptations will have to be made, of course. Walking on water, rising up in the air, etc. will not impress the chlorine-breathing slime-bats.
February 11, 2010 at 8:14 pm |
I’m still pretty certain that all of those planets comprise less than a thousandth of a percent of the entire universe. Not only that, but they’re so beyond the reach of us that it will probably be thousands of years before we can even reach one, much less occupy it.
It’s not a critique of the Bible, just the idea that we’re special in this universe. I’m with Carl Sagan on this one: we’re on a speck of dust hurtling through space. All of our cares and concerns, every war that has ever been fought, all of man’s triumphs and shames comprise a blink of time on a infinitesimal rock. And you know what? That’s alright with me. There’s plenty on this tiny planet with what little time I have for me without having to pretend like I’m cosmically special.
February 12, 2010 at 12:51 pm |
Maybe I was too subtle. I was thinking of a more personal kind of cosmic non-specialness if the Bible were really communication from God. I was suggesting that even from the “beginning” we may never have been all that special to God; that all along he may have been two-timing us with billions of other “special species”, all of them created in God’s own image and all thinking themselves unique. Maybe trillions.
Someday when we meet some extraterrestrials (some of them wearing jewelry in the shape of little crosses) and after the language problem has been sorted out, there will be conversations about it.
“Oh, Man, He told us the very same lies!”
“On our planet, it wasn’t a flood. It was a blast of radiation. He called it ‘celestial fire’. Burned the whole world to a crisp. Supposedly He told Neuaar to find a big cave and enlarge it and build a huge iron structure inside the cave and pack a pair of every kind of animal inside with himself and his family. What a joke!”
Etc.
February 12, 2010 at 9:53 am |
theBEattitude wrote:
“The Bible authors certainly didn’t think there were other planets sustaining life.”
Really? You sound quite certain of that.
Your Biblical citation for that is?
—————–
theBEattitude wrote:
“They thought the earth was a flat pancake”
Your Biblical citation for that is?
——————-
theBEattitude wrote:
“They thought the earth was ……. at the center of the universe”
Your Biblical citation for that is?
——————-
theBEattitude wrote:
“They thought the earth ……..with the sun and moon revolving around it.”
Your Biblical citation for that is?
February 12, 2010 at 10:18 am |
They didn’t discover other planets until a few thousands years after much of the Old Testament was written. If these primitive men had knowledge about our solar system and universe, they were very good at keeping it quiet.
Flat Earth:
Psalm 104:5: “Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can be shaken.”
Psalm 104:3: “You stretch the heavens out like a tent, you build your palace on the waters above”
Matthew 4:8 says, “Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.”
I Samuel 2:8: “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and he had set the world upon them.”
Revelation 1:7: “Behold, he is coming with the clouds! Every eye shall see him…”
In Genesis 11:4, the people wanted to build a tower up to heaven. The Lord was afraid they would be able to accomplish their plan, so he caused them to speak various languages.
Center of the universe:
Revelation 6:13-16: “and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up”
Isaiah 45:18: “…who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it fast…”
1 Chronicles 16:30: “He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.”
Joshua 10:13: So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.
These people were ignorant to what we know about our world and universe today. They invented gods because they wanted to understand the unexplained. The same reason you believe such absurdities.
February 12, 2010 at 2:12 pm |
I’m not saying that ancient Hebrews knew as much about astronomy as you or I.
But the scriptures you cite don’t prove your odd ideas of what you think they believed.
There is nothing to indicate they believed the things you refer to. None.
The odd ideas that you cite are inferences you’ve apparently tried to draw, but you’ve given no reasonable foundation from the OT or NT upon which such inferences can be placed.
February 12, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Actually Joe, BEattitude cited the authors of the bible, not the Hebews. A much smaller group, and more ethnically diverse. The scriptures cited and not show what the authors thought important to tell the story. The fact that they did not feel it important to talk about astronomy other than guiding stars and night time oddities indicates that they at least thought what they knew of the universe was not important enough to explain, and with more consistency with other records, it agrees with the conclusion that mankind at that time knew little to nothing and what they thought they knew was wrong.
Looking at the dark ages, clearly Christendom brought little scientific knowledge out of the early years of the church with regard to the sciences. There is no reason to believe that the early church was less anti-science than the dark ages church, and by inference and archaeological evidence, there is no reason to believe that the authors of the bible knew anything about astronomy that would not be called astrology today.
BEattitude’s conclusion is not odd, and is in fact fairly well supported. “It was once thought that the earth was physically located at the exact center of the universe, and furthermore that it did not move. This “geocentric” view is still held today by a few people, ” from AnswersInGenesis.
“The most ancient of the sciences, it has existed since the dawn of recorded civilization. Much of the earliest knowledge of celestial bodies is often credited to the Babylonians. The ancient Greeks introduced influential cosmological ideas, including theories about the Earth in relation to the rest of the universe. Ptolemy’s model of an Earth-centred universe (2nd century ad) influenced astronomical thought for over 1,300 years. In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus assigned the central position to the Sun (see Copernican system), ushering … (100 of 15717 words) ” from Brittainica.com
Since the OT was around B.C.E. that would mean that even generally speaking, mankind had no valid idea of the universe and it’s structure, just myths and fairytales. This is a conclusion drawn from all recorded history so the lack of any information in the bible contradicting it would be consistent with the conclusion that the authors of the bible had no clue. Sure, one minor prophet somewhere might have had a revelation or something, but they forgot to write it down so we might all know. Surely they would have written about it had they known as it would have caused questions about what planet of the many is it that god lives on. Which star are the angels from and so forth. It therefore becomes rather evident that the information about the universe in the bible was taken as fact and not questioned until there was scientific evidence contradictory to opinion held by the church… some 1500 years after the fact.
So while BEattitude did not provide citation that satisfies you, it does support his position. Oddly, you neglected to cite anything, bible or not, that supports your conclusion that BEattitude is wrong in his conclusion.
February 12, 2010 at 10:51 pm |
Mr Z,
theBEattitude made some very specific statements about what he claimed ‘the Bible authors thought….’
Unless he is saying that he can read the minds of the Bible authors (he’s not saying that) , he must be referring to specific instances where the Bible authors wrote in the Biblical text the exact thing(s) he claims ‘they thought’.
I asked for citations of these supposed specific beliefs of the Bible authors.
theBEattitude produced zero Biblical references that support his specific claims about what ‘the Bible authors thought….’
February 12, 2010 at 11:35 pm |
ok, on a technical point, you might be right, but I’d wager that you enjoy it because it doesn’t happen often. If you take “The Bible authors certainly didn’t think there were other planets sustaining life.” and write it as “The Bible authors gave no indication in their writings that they believed there were other planets sustaining life…” your technicality goes away, and the conclusion stands as stated already… without any change to the actual facts of the discussion. So now, your point was?
February 12, 2010 at 11:58 pm |
Mr Z wrote:
‘the actual facts of the discussion’
theBEattitude presented no facts. None.
His entire post which I rebutted was opinions posing as facts. His opinions as to what ‘the Bible authors thought……’ I have now shown to be fallacious.
(This was shortly after he tried to tell me that MY posts ‘were like a dog chasing his tail’ lol)
Mr Z wrote:
“the conclusion stands as stated already”
If you wish to follow theBEattitude’s example and draw a conclusion without facts I suppose that tells us something of your bent.
Mr Z wrote:
“So now, your point was?”
My earlier point, if you choose to read and respond to it, is still documented above.
February 18, 2010 at 6:35 pm |
If the authors of the bible didn’t think this goofy cosmology was true, why did they have it written down? Read Genesis- the author believed that there was water above a solid sky (the firmament,) which was where rain came from. It’s pretty clear that he didn’t understand evaporation and precipitation. The only other options are heavy use of poetic language or lying. We can’t prove that the authors of the Bible believed what they wrote, and you can’t prove that they didn’t believe.
Not only was the Biblical view of the Earth and the “heavens” woefully wrong, it was far behind the understanding of the Persians, the Chinese, the Indians, the Greeks and the Romans who lived in the same centuries. No, I’m not going to give you a citation. Go to the library, and you’ll find dozens of books on science in ancient cultures.
February 18, 2010 at 10:17 pm |
nazani14 wrote:
“Read Genesis- the author believed that there was water above a solid sky (the firmament,) which was where rain came from. It’s pretty clear that he didn’t understand evaporation and precipitation. The only other options are heavy use of poetic language or lying.”
Or perhaps you misunderstand what he meant by firmanent.
February 20, 2010 at 9:46 pm |
Yes we are just a speck in creation. We are special because God loves us, and sent his son Jesus Christ to die in our place. As Psalms says “What is man that you are mindful of him?”
February 20, 2010 at 10:53 pm |
Chucky, do you have any evidence for those statements? Such as:
Scientific evidence of God
Scientific evidence of the existence of ‘the Jesus’ you speak of
Evidence that he died, and that his death was in our place?
Scientific evidence of the veracity of the Bible you quoted?
It’s good to believe in things, I’m just curious why I should believe what you say. What evidence may I inspect for myself regarding its truthiness?
We most certainly are a small speck in the vastness of time, on an isolated planet, in an isolated galaxy, in what might possibly be an isolated universe. We have some scientific evidence of these things, but what evidence do we have of what you say?
February 21, 2010 at 1:32 am |
God loves all living beings, humans, birds, bees, chickens, and probably any other form of life outside of this planet. He does NOT love humans alone, so please stop making the mistake of implying that.
Or are you afraid it makes us less “special”? >_>
February 21, 2010 at 1:48 am |
Since you ‘know’ that God loves all living beings, perhaps you will be able to explain why ‘he’ created miscarriages, bubonic plague, aids, and autism, among other things. Does ‘he’ love them too?
I know that was not your point, but I thought since you know what ‘God’ loves, you might also be able to explain these other things.
February 21, 2010 at 3:43 am
Mr Z: Unfortunately, I can’t give you the kind of answer you want, and I’ll have to go with an “I don’t know”.
I responded to Chucky to point out that such declarations do not conform to the Christian claims of a God of unconditional love.
Allow me to explain my perspective.
To me, God’s but one of the many deities around. Unfortunately, I don’t know any of them well, since they’ve never answered any of my emails. >_>
I can give you the many “relative answers” that I have come across in my journey, tho:
1: The Buddhist perspective no. 1, which believes in Karma and reincarnation, so try not to be evil in this life, otherwise you may be reborn without the use of some important part of your body…
2. The Buddhist perspective no. 2, where it’s just an illusion, and where this life is transient, so we don’t have to worry or ask about it too much – it’ll be over soon.
3: The Christian/Islamic perspective, which sees all misfortune as challenges, and which sees all punishment as a form of tough love.
4: The Greek/Taoist/Hindu perspectives where the deities are much like us in terms of personality, so they too have a propensity to be extremely generous, or conniving cheaters, or have short tempers which causes them to lose their judgement etc. They are much like us, only with “kewl powerz”. >_>
5: The Atheist perspective, where the Gods don’t exist, the supernatural shouldn’t even be considered, and, well, tough luck, good luck to thee.
Don’t ask me about any of these, tho. I hardly agree with any of them enough to defend them.
Yes, it does sound like I’m sitting on the fence. Which I am, because I’ve declared my polytheistic beliefs ’round here a few times.
February 21, 2010 at 3:51 pm |
Chicken passeth by: I guess I don’t see it as a comparative thing – being loved makes me special already. That is already a wonderful thing.
February 20, 2010 at 11:56 pm |
Sure Mr. Z,
This post explicitly starts out by assuming that these things are true.
Actually I do have reasons for what I do believe, which is one reason I started a blog – so that I didn’t have to keep repeating myself over and over and over to everyone who asks me. You can find it at http://thoughtfulfaith.wordpress.com. Admittedly I haven’t got much up yet, because I am a slow writer, and also a pretty busy with my job (I’m a physicist) but you are welcome to come and comment as I do.
One post that might interest you is the earliest manuscripts we have, http://thoughtfulfaith.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/ten-early-new-testament-papyri/.
February 21, 2010 at 12:40 pm |
Side note: Thank you A chicken passeth by, it’s good for us to remember that not everyone believes the Christian dogma, and I don’t mean just atheists.
Chucky, I will visit your blog and comment. It’s no secret that I agree with the OP. The storyline for the Christian Bible is insanely silly in view of the larger scope of the universe. In some 2000 years, hopefully no one will dig up pieces of Harry Potter books and start a new religion. I would hate to see how that works out.. .meh, what am I worried about, I won’t be here. It’s the fairy tales being used today that I must worry about.
It would make me feel so much better though to discover another species on another planet somewhere. Even just evidence of their existence. While that doesn’t answer all the questions, it puts to rest the thought that humans alone are special in the universe. It will also raise the question of ‘why didn’t God tell us about them?’ but that is for another blog entry I suppose.
March 24, 2010 at 12:26 am |
Because God loves us so much! Isn’t it amazing to think (or pretend) that all of this (the universe, the balance, etc.) could just be about and for us?
But really, here are some clarifications…
- The Bible doesn’t say that “the other millions of billions of planets were less important to him” – not sure where that came from.
- The Bible describes God as “not a man” and as “spirit”, so humans having been created “in his own likeness and image” could not be referring to the physical – it must have been something (too much on that to cover here).
- The Bible says “the Flood” came before the Law and before Israel.
- And regarding “God incarnated himself as a fellow mammal to sacrifice himself to himself to save the world from himself” – yeah, too much theology around that to wade through here.
There, I think that helps to clarify.
And, because God loves us so much!
March 24, 2010 at 12:30 am |
Again, you are interpreting for me. Why? Why should a God as you believe in need you to convince me? I have many reasons to believe that your Bible is bs. Try to convince me with something I can believe in. If you truly know the mind of God, please give me some lotto numbers. If you do not, stop thinking that I am wrong.
June 13, 2010 at 8:33 pm |
It should be a point of interest to everyone that nothing was ever written down about Jesus during the course of his lifetime. We have factual historical accounts from Greek and Roman historians with respect to events which occurred 1000 years before his birth, yet not a single eye-witness account of someone capable of turning water into wine, feeding multitudes, raising the dead and numerous other miracles performed. Why? Because it’s mythology. Jesus may have been a master illusionist, say, the Cris Angel of his time. That doesn’t grant him God status and is only indicative of the superstitious ignorance of tribal societies at the time. Upon realizing the cash to be made from the unwashed masses, the Catholic church sprouted up and as they wrote their interpretations of the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, knowing full-well this “scripture” would remain anonymous, they solidified their base and having frightened those same masses with the possibility of “eternal damnation” convinced them to give up their Monday to Friday earnings and tithe them to the church on Sunday, that they might be saved from “hell”. What a scurrilous racket religion is.
June 13, 2010 at 10:27 pm |
Very well said. Fear breeds willful ignorance.
June 14, 2010 at 6:18 pm |
Society might be better served if it were to adopt “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” as the most recent Testament. That scripture, and it’s morality, is far more relevant to the human condition than the superstitious ramblings of the so-called OT or NT.
Several years ago I had the pleasure of visiting Croft-on-Tees, in northern Yorkshire, England. My father was stationed there during WWII. As he was busy ( at 84 ) attempting to seduce the local bar-maid, I wandered about town and found myself sitting at a small bench in a rectory. The plaque next to me indicated that this was the ancient oak tree under which Lewis Carroll wrote “Through the Looking Glass”. I was overwhelmed and inexplicably began to cry. I wonder if I would have had the same reaction were I to visit the Vatican, Mecca or the Wailing Wall. ( Actually, seeing a bunch of guys banging their heads against a wall would have been somewhat Monty Python-ish and I’m always up for that.)
Not entirely sure why I submitted this comment BE. Just one of those things you have to get off your chest on occasion.
Regards.