DESTINY-I have to say I have learned so much about life, the world, and science since I have released myself from habitual, contrived thinking. On the other side, however, I have to say that it isn't the greatest feeling realizing the possibility that someone you've put so much time into and worshipped for 28 years may not even exist, but no matter how much we may not like the truth, it doesn't change it. I can relate it to the feelings I had when I was told that Santa Claus wasn't real. By the way, does anyone else see anything wrong with lying to your children? Santa maneuvering the sky delivering all the good children's presents sliding down those chimneys. Pretty ridiculous to believe in that isn't it? But I find it amazing that I clung to stories of equal absurdity in the Bible. Jonah living in a fish for three days, a talking snake, God as a burning bush (there's as much evidence for the veracity of these stories as there is Santa Claus.) Now I understand that some people hold that much of the Bible is non-literal, but it speaks rather oddly to me that an all-powerful, jealous-for-your-soul God would choose to present His case in such a way as metaphorical stories. For instance, if the Book of Revelation is just a metaphorical way of showing the triumph of good over evil, and it is meant to be non-literal, then did God not realize that billions of people everywhere would be self-fulfilling these prophecies in a literal way? Also, ask yourself this: does believing that the world is going to end at Armageddon with the salvation of good and the eradication of evil not conflict with people's desire to make this world a better place? Now you can say that evangelists are making the world a better place by spreading "eternal life," but in a scientific, humanistic, technological-advancement sense, religion is undoubtedly inhibiting our civilization. Students and professionals everywhere are spending countless hours developing new ways to fight disease, better our economy, and better our world, and religions everywhere are doing what? Giving eternal life for which there is no evidence provided? Reading out of bronze-aged books? Treating women as insubordinates? Fighting Jihad? Teaching their children to be slaves to their beliefs? Profiting off of false-hope? I also find it peculiar how end-time believers watch the news and rejoice in the fact that the world is becoming increasingly hostile. Nuclear weapon talks excite the end-times believer. Preachers everywhere praised God after 9/11 saying, "at last, the end is near." I look at this and shake my head. I used to believe in prophecy until I discovered self-fulfilling prophecy. When humans set plans, they tend to achieve them. I want the world to be better for my daughter, not worse, and organized religion is not making this a better world. While it is intended by some as a tool for hope and purpose, it is being used to exploit, enslave, and destroy.
In closing, I would like to say again that the purpose of this blog is to inspire curiosity into the readers. I'm not here to provoke or belittle anyone. However, it's very difficult to express a view on this matter without offending someone. Simply put, it just bothers me to see so many people that never give this any thought. I feel that it is a tragedy to live the only life we are certain of, bound by organized religion. I'm not trying to tell you what to think, I just want to encourage an open-mind. I want to help free people's minds so please read this blog for what it is, and not what it is not. -Jason
12 comments:
The Bible is God’s Words to mankind, meticulously handed down with incredible accuracy from the original written records that began over 6000 years ago when the earth was created. It should be read “plainly”, that is, as the author’s intended. The Bible makes it very clear which sections are literal history and which are stories or allegories. Revelation is a vision or dream provided to John. It is obviously not to be taken as literal history.
Nevertheless, we do know that there will be an end to this world. What does it matter when or how? The world could end for me tomorrow if I get hit by a car or I could die of a heart attack in the next 5 minutes, and what will I have done to make it a better place for my children who could also die in the next 5 minutes when the gas explodes in the house? Our time in this world is fleeting. What is truly important is where we will spend eternity.
In the meantime, God has instructed us to take care of this world and our families. Those who believe in Christ are motivated to do that. Those who do not have no motivation except to survive regardless of what it takes. Evolution teaches us that. Only the strong survive. Materialistic beliefs like evolution are a cancer to this world, a disease, which have done nothing but destroy and inhibit civilization.
You also falsely lump ALL “religions” into one bucket which causes skewed thinking. There are many false religions in this world, evolution being one of them. While usually described as a religion, Christianity is not a religion per say. A Christian is simply a follower of Christ who will spend eternity with Him after our life on this world ends. There are many organized “religions” which are based on Christianity such as Catholicism. Christianity represents truth and reality. Islam and some of the other religions you alluded to are false beliefs. If there is a devil, you would expect him to help create false beliefs as a diversion from the truth.
In closing, I would also like to state that I hope that my responses have inspired curiosity and new thinking. I agree that many people I know have not given this a lot of thought. However, I think there are many more people than you think that have. Unfortunately, many have not been exposed to the truth because of bigoted evolutionists who refuse others the opportunity to disagree in our schools, media and scientific establishments. They are attempting to bind people to the organized religion of materialistic evolution and I think that is the real tragedy.
Evolution is a religion? Please. Evolution has been rigorously studied under the scrutiny of thousands and thousands of scientists using the scientific method for support with thousands of evidences to prove that it is a reality. Yes, we could all be wrong. If so, maybe God will pardon those that are trying to promote a better world for us all. The doctors that are fighting disease that believe in evolution are going to Hell if they don't believe in Jesus? Their impact on the world has far greater importance for our well-being than any evangelist does. If a person is stricken with cancer, do you think they will be going to their pastor or their doctor?
A final note on this: the scientific method has been used throughout all of the modern technology that we have developed in our time. Over the years, science has done this world a far better service by extending our lives and helping our ailments than any superstition has. It's just a matter of fact. Nothing more. Nothing less.
@Raisemeup. The bible is the perfect word of god? really? So he wanted there to be a massively long list of inconsistent passages that contradict each other? I would draw your attention to http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/inconsistencies.html if I thought it would help or suggest you read Robert Green Ingersoll's work on why the bible is not divinely inspired.
The bible doesn't make it clear at all what bits are literal and which bits are just metaphors. Genesis-real or metaphor? Ressurection- Real or metaphor?
@Maws. I would also like to say that many Bible believers that I know afford themselves the right to "cherry-pick" which information is metaphor and which is literal. In no other, scientifically-based area would this be acceptable.
@Maws – The Bible makes it perfectly clear which parts are literal and which are metaphors. Both the Resurrection and Genesis are written as literal history. For example, each day in Genesis is associated with a number and with “evening” and “morning” to make it perfectly clear that it was an ordinary day. EVERYWHERE else in the Bible where it is used like this, it means an ordinary day. Why should we make an exception for Genesis? Also in general if the Hebrew literally structure goes VSO (verb, subject, object) it will be narrative but if it is SVO it will be poetic. Genesis is VSO (narrative). In addition, Jesus refers to Genesis as literal history, so if you’re going to deny one, you’ll have to deny them both.
God did not want a massively long list of contradictions in the Bible, YOU do. These are contradictions that are simply manufactured in order for atheists to justify and feel good about their beliefs. However, this is a simply an excuse not to accept the truth. Every one of these supposed contradictions from your link have been soundly refuted. You don’t even have to be a Bible scholar to refute 99% of them if you simply read the Bible “plainly” as it was meant to be read. For example, take the second one in his list. It says Genesis 1 tells us that trees were created before man and in Genesis 2 it says Man was created before trees. Have you read the passages yourself? It says nothing of the kind! Genesis 1 tells us the complete order in which creation occurred. Genesis 2 is a more specific description of man’s creation that includes greater detail. They are NOT two separate creation accounts. There is NO contradiction. The same will be found with all of the other imaginary contradictions
So the fact that science says that our sun is older than the earth doesn't bother you. The fact that we know that the universe is 9 000 000 000 years older than the earth isn't a problem? The fact we have fossils that show that the flying animals did not arrive at the same time as the swimming ones. None of this bothers you? Bet you a dollar. Proverbs 15:3 says The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. and yet he can't find adam and eve when they hide, he can't find able after he is killed and he has no idea where lucifer is before he decides to have his insanely cruel bet over Job. He also has no idea what the deciever is doing with his only TWO humans in the garden of eden. Or are these metaphorical episodes as well? Which son of David led to Jesus, Nathan or solomon? Yahdeyah and on they go.
Attributing human attributes to science is a logical fallacy. Science “says” nothing. Atheist evolutionists falsely claim that the sun is older than the earth. We do not “KNOW” that the universe is 9 billion years older than the earth. This is an ASSUMPTION, not a scientific fact. Fossils do NOT show that flying animals did not arrive at the same time as swimming ones. It shows that swimming animals got buried in the catastrophic flood of Noah before the flying ones did since it was much easier for them to escape. This only makes logical sense. It doesn’t bother me that atheists refuse to acknowledge the truth. It does bother me when they force their mythical stories on others including our children.
If the rest of your post is supposed to be “contradictions”, it’s simply nonsense. I suppose I could refute them individually, but here is a link which refutes them all: http://www.tektonics.org/lp/merrit01.html
Clearly, anyone with half a brain can see that these are not contradictions. But don’t’ get offended. I’m giving you credit for having more than half a brain under the assumption that you’ve simply been duped into thinking there are contradictions and didn’t bother to take the time to investigate the truth.
Your man from the apologetics page is more into using subtle tricks to solve these problems. My favourite is the answer to if bats are birds. The old guys didn't have taxonomic knowledge so bats get lumped in with birds. But wait- the bible is divinely inspired! Surely god might have mentioned that to the writers. If you want to know why the universe is a shit sight older than the earth you must be able to cope with some of the rules of the universe. The speed of light determines how far these objects we can observe must be. Slow light etc is a breach of the laws of physics. For the earth and the universe to be the same age it would all have to fit within 1/10th of the disk of the milky way. Since this isn't true there are two options open to us. 1 the universe is bigger and therefore older. 2 god massively accelerated the expansion of the universe and then hit the brakes. I guess you could go for messing with the speed of light but that really would require massive fudging of the numbers. As to the hydrologic sorting fallacy you should go and get a brain enema before you even think of dredging that puppy up. It is nonsense of the Kent Hovind variety and deserves a facepalm. If you can't see how stupid the idea of sloths out thinking or out running velociraptors it is you that has half a brain. Why did the marine reptiles and the ancestors of the whales not make it in a flood? Why would they get buried in different strata? Why would all of this take place but dinosaur eggs were not washed out of fossil nests? Why, why, why? Pulling creatard science out of your arse is not going to get you anywhere. Where did the water come from? If you like I can tell you how to work out how much water you need.
@maws - The one pulling out the tricks is maws and they aren’t very “subtle”. I don’t mind someone having another viewpoint, but when they base it on such fallacious and straw men arguments it portrays an obvious and fundamental ignorance of the evidence that betrays their bias. In addition, he bases his rejection of scripture on such trivial matters it is clear he is desperately grasping at straws. Instead of pompously spouting fallacies, it would seem more appropriate to simply ask if he doesn’t understand something. However, I suppose that is asking too much of someone as arrogant as he appears to be.
Regarding bats and birds, did you even bother to read the explanation for this supposed “contradiction” or are you so caught up in your arrogance you didn’t think anyone would actually call you on it? God inspired the Bible to be understood in all ages. I’ve read this scripture hundreds of times and have never had a problem with it. However, for those critics that desperately need to support their false beliefs, the Hebrew word in the Bible (owph) simply means “to fly” or “has a wing”, not “bird”, which includes bats. The fact that we have classified species differently today is a perfectly reasonable explanation. As the explanation notes, if the Bible says “the sky is blue” and we change our definition today of what “blue” means, would you then accuse the bible of having a contradiction? That’s an utterly ridiculous and meaningless objection.
Regarding the age of the universe, that is too complex a topic to be addressed in this single response. However, suffice it to say that big bang theory has many more problems that you are ignoring than any creationist cosmologies. You are also using logical fallacies here by suggesting that there are only 2 options when there are many more. You are obviously ignorant of creationist cosmologic theories and therefore are again blabbering nonsense. As I mentioned before, perhaps you should ask first if you don’t understand something.
And I mentioned nothing about “hydrologic sorting”. However, this is not a fallacy at all. It has been demonstrated scientifically in the lab, so again you are in denial of actual science. The point that I was making is that the geological layers are clearly a result of a catastrophic event. The fossils are generally layered in ecological zones, not historical, and real scientific evidence bears this out. Ancestors of whales didn’t make it in the flood, because there were not ancestors of whales. The Whale kind has always been the whale kind. You find dinosaur eggs still in their nests because they were immediately covered with sediment. Dinosaur eggs would NEVER have fossilized if left to themselves for millions of years! They would either have hatched or been eaten. This is the kind of nonsense that comes from “half a brain” and “deserves a facepalm”. Where did the water come from? LOL! Have you ever bothered to look at a globe?
When someone lacks evidence, all that is left for them to do is fist pound and call their opponents names, which you have done in abundance. Based on that truth, you have obviously lost this debate due to lack of any evidence. If you actually want to discuss evidence, I’m prepared to do that, but if you are going to continue this tirade of derogatory language and false generalities, it does not deserve a response.
@Maws. Not sure if you saw my earlier comment on another thread, but I asked Raisemeup, regarding the Great Flood, what the purpose of it was if God knew he was going to send Jesus anyway to save mankind from our sin. Looks to me like the Old Testament God just had an affinity for wiping out massive amounts of humans. I just can't logically understand what the point would have been for this world-wide flood when God, who knows everything, had to have known he would send himself as Jesus to be sacrificed on the cross to save us from our sins. The whole thing just speaks of illogic to me, and I guess that's why I chose to deny the Bible. I was a Christian for a long time, but when I started to question why I was a Christian and why I believed what I believed, things started to change. I guess you could say, logic set in. We may never be able to prove or disprove Jesus Christ, but the way I feel about it is this: if Jesus Christ truly wants our souls, then He needs to provide us with something a little more obvious than a vague and illogical Bible that only confuses us more. He needs to make a television appearance, lol, and then there will be no arguments. You can either accept him or reject him. If God is truly omnipotent and omniscient, then appearing shouldn't be a problem as he seemed to do it many times throughout the Bible days. People say, well that takes faith out of the equation. And I say, well, God didn't mind taking faith out of the equation by talking to all of those people in the Bible and even appearing as an Angel to some so why is today any different?
There is a minister that I personally know that will not participate in our debate. He tried his "sales pitch" on me stating that Jesus is love and God gave His only child Jesus for me so I should believe in Him because of that. Then I started asking this minister what his views where about evolution and homosexuality and slavery in the Bible and he hasn't spoken to me since. Atheists have no problem answering any question you throw at us. We don't have to dodge questions about homosexuality. We don't have to dodge questions about evolution to keep our "investors" happy. What kind of man goes on a lifelong mission to spread the "good news of the Bible", yet cannot answer questions about "touchy subjects?" Yes, that's what he called my questions. "Touchy subjects."
@ragzy. Should have asked your minister to explain the trinity to you. It is a laugh watching them try to make any sort of sense out of who is what and why and how there is any sacrifice etc. If you want a bloody good laugh on this youtube Mr Deity and the identity crisis.
You raise an interesting point. Atheists are open to discussion on this stuff because I suspect that by their nature they are free thinkers. This is not to say smarter (but stats support that) but of a type of mind that is less accepting of authority for the sake of authority. The biggest question is always why. The next step is to find out. This is a different paradigm to simply taking things as true because they are traditional.
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