^^ LOL Pat ..
@Adam- Nicely written .
^^ LOL Pat ..
@Adam- Nicely written .
^^Yet another theology-turned thread turning into another "bash the religious" thread.
Why does everyone seem to think that my Book denies the possibility of biological evolution? Or a 5 billion year old planet?
One difference the Bible carries apart from any other text, is that it can claim to be written not by a man, but ~40 authors.
This is significant, because these authors wrote from the 2nd millennium BC all the way up to ~100 AD. None of them wrote with the intentions of their writings to be collected and published alongside the writings of anyone else - and yet the message throughout all of those texts is still coherent. If you say it isn't coherent - is it possible you haven't read enough of it to know and understand what that message is?
Muhammad was said to be illiterate. How the heck could he have written a Quran and had some idea of what he was doing.
@Steve: Find John MacArthur's "How to study scripture" for a nice set of tools for studying the book. It should give you more reasons to question your pastor. Keep him on his toes - they need that.
@ meatball - WADR if you read correctly and carefully...(using your words) we (I) are/am not "bashing the religious" if anything at all (using your word bashing) I would say (not speaking for others) I am "bashing religions" not "the religious".
Couldnt have Muhammad "spoke" his word to the writers? Very similar to a man getting a message from a burning bush?
The Bible...is full of contradictions and frankly MANY EVIL verses...so picking and choosing from the bible is not allowed in "my book" (pun intended)
Bottom line...is you have to tell me how Noah got all of those dinosaurs on the ark.
Pat B
laserman532 on ebay
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt & selling it in a garage sale.
Its just a common trend I find commonly occurring on the internet. You bash Liberalism, and you bash what most Democrats stand for, what they believe, what makes them operate. Its all in the same thing, I think you could find that a reasonable analogy.
Perhaps. Except the authors of the Bible were also either direct eye witnesses to the event described, and the words spoken within their original context, or they were in direct contact with eye witnesses of the same. Muhammad just sat down on a rug and "spoke" these things to some scribe? Muslims claim it is by a miracle of allah, that Muhammad authored the Quran.
Very different than a flaming shrubbery that the author saw.
That many? You must give an example. By doing so, you claim to understand the texts in their original context, the authors intentions for the intended audience, and prove that these EVIL things are actually being taught as what Christians are to do. i.e. Me. These are not my rules. It is basic argument format from a correct understanding of a text. No argument is what it says, but instead why it is being said to whom.
There is no picking and choosing. Any chunk of text is meaningless until its context is understood. Basic interpretation I suppose.
Was Noah around dinosaurs? I didn't know that.
Something about them dying out ~65m years ago must've made me doubt it.
I could just say "They were baby dinosaurs on the ark, right next to the blue whales and unicorns" to make you happy.
Bottom Line... is you must tell me what "your book" is. How many revisions has it had?
@ meatball - one of many
"Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
Dinosaurs on the ark - was for the new earth christians
This thread should stop, because of what I said earlier...discussion of religions is divisive...hence...anti-theisism is my religion and I have no book only my mind given to me by a creator or not.
anywhoooo...How 'bout them Cowboys?
Pat B
laserman532 on ebay
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt & selling it in a garage sale.
Given my understanding of Israel's history and culture, there is no contradiction. The book you googled that text from is the book of Deuteronomy, which is a addressed to the Israelites before entering their "promised land". This is far before the time of Jesus, when God had to teach his people to follow Him, and Him only - the hard way.
Then Jesus came along and uttered these words:
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...48&version=ESV
Matthew 5:21-48
The famous, "You have heard, but here I say..." statements.
And radically changed everything by never breaking that law, which is the only possible way for him to have become the sacrifice.
If you feel I'm being divisive, I'm sorry - only being defensive.
I say never stop asking the hard questions.
The problem is that other parts of the old testament are still taken as God's word. You can't pick and choose like that. If the Bible is truly the word of God, then these inconsistencies should not be there.
For that matter, they are still present in the new testament. There are contradictions even among the 4 gospels. Remember Matthew 10:34-35? "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother..." That was Christ talking. (Just a little bit off-message, don't you think?)
I don't think you're being divisive at all.If you feel I'm being divisive, I'm sorry - only being defensive.
I do think you are deperately trying to defend something that is indefensible though. There are far too many contraditions, errors, and mistakes in the Bible to defend it as anything other than a collection of inspiring (though sometimes horribly misongynistic) stories.
I agree, but I should point out that those hard questions may lead you down a path that you might find uncomfortable. Remember: once you agree to start questioning religion, the same standards of evidence apply to those questions as they do for everything else. This includes things like Cold Fusion, the Hutchison effect, or even the Loch-Ness monster.I say never stop asking the hard questions.
Adam
Is that anything like the Hawking Effect?
My 2 cents worth.
Time was created in the Big Bang. Before the Big Bang there was no time, therefore no time for a "God" to create the Universe.
It just goes to show what an agnostic can do if he doesn't know if he believes in anything or not.
Monty Python
This space for rent.
No, the "Hutchison effect" is the name given to the distortion that is shown in the highly dubious video that was posted above. (See post # 38) That video is what sort of skewed this thread towards the discussion of pseudo-science and it's similarities with religion. I mentioned it in my post in a lame attempt to try to be remotely topical.
Adam