Under the Word of God

[apathrev]

A few notes on religion. I post on a few other forums, and on some of them, religious and political threads are banned, and for good reason. Nothing brings up more passion and emotion than these topics. Views change, and it is best to respect each and every persons. I'm not going to publicly state my theological beliefs here to help maintain a since of neutrality. But when you tell someone that they need to worship God, and if you don't worship God, you worship Satan. That is a form of forcing your beliefs on someone. Matthew 7 states "judge not others, least ye be judged." Judgement is stated as God's role. I don't think there is a bigger turn off to non believers then someone who makes bold statements involving God. Show people how much God loves them through their actions. "They will know we are Christians by our love."

But when you post a topic concerning religion, please take into account other people's beliefs other than your own. Faith is not a truth. You cannot prove or disprove God's existance. That is where the concept of faith comes in. Asking someone to believe in God is like asking someone to believe there is someone in the next room, but not allowing them to use their senses to tell.

Here is a something for you to think about. The earliest dated gospels were dated in the year 70 AD. That is around 35 years after Jesus' death according to historical records.

 

[Boult]

Magatsu, I was former Episcopalian and now a Secular Humanist anyway I thought you and Banjo might find this interesting..

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/

this one list all the contradictions in the bible;
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html

and also check out this great Nova program
"Cracking the code of life"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genome/program_qt.html
(pay attention to first chapter) (needs Quicktime to watch it and it has cc)
Our DNA contains 4 billions years of history!


To others,
One verse that rang true... (something to that effect)
"Remember, you are from dust, when you die, you go back to dust"

Rest of the book are full of holes.

Ok, that's all I want to say..

I clearly don't want to get involved in this topic but two posts that got my attention:
1)
I am genuinely curious. Funny because I asked two similar questions and no one ever give me a satisfactory answer as well. Here's this question:

"Why does enormous percent of conservative christians on Earth tend to force or impose their beliefs (either, delusional or non-delusional) upon the intellectuals and freethinkers?"

I see these actions by many conservative christians/believers at anywhere on a daily basis. Frankly, it is quite tiresome and I never recieve a satisfactory answer from these believers. Maybe it is theocratical/theofascistical behavior or something... That does warrant a long-term research on them someday.

Now as for second question which is very, very important and always have been not answer for more than 2,000 years.... Here's question:

"Why does believers tend to contradict themselves or did not practice what they preach?"

I asked Theology Professor (he is a conservative christian) that question once in Virginia when I visited my *yuck* birthplace few years ago and he practically screamed at me and called me the names like "sinner" for asking him a question then kicked me out of his office. Interesting but anyway, that question hasn't been answer for more than 2,000 years and still hasn't. By that, I mean, pure satisfactory answer.

I am sure that some AD'ers already know that I am a ex-christian so hence I know their kind very, very well. Probably far more than some AD'ers would like to admit.

Now about second post that got my attention:
2)

Reba, on the contrary, there are many contradictions in the Bible. For some reason, I seem unable to find this book title that covers or reveals many contradictions in the Bible. For now, I will not comment until I find this book title and I would like to recommend either of you, Reba or netrox to pick up and read.


Since some people are arguing/discussing about Bible and religions. I think it is perfect time for me. There is one question that I would like to ask all of you, believers and non-believers, or rather, intellectuals.

Why did you invest your trust in Bible without any doubts or questions (unless you actually did...) while you didn't invest your trust in certain fields such as environmental science hmm? I mean, heck, the Bible is written by humans. To err is human. It means that it possibly does contain the lies, twisted words, fairy tales, etc etc... Use your imagination. See where I am going with?

I mean, why does believers so quickly bashed the Da Vinci Code book while they practically drool on the Bible (don't be offend, I am joking). Both books are written by humans. Yessir, both books are written by humans. So... why? Yes, I do believe in the Bible but not blind faith like many believers. Every thing requires the doubts and questions. Every. Thing. As Tom Brown Jr perfectly put in: "If you believe me or my words then you are a fool! Prove me right or prove me wrong!"

Based on Da Vinci Code bashers' words, does it mean that 2+2=4 is wrong too? That's what I would like to know.

Cheers.

Edit: Deaf258, your statement rocks. It deserves a spotlight in my signature.

 

[Vance]

Boult, God bless you for these useful links. Over 300 contradictions in the Bible? Oh man, it is worse than I thought.

Thanks for the links!! *back out of this topic*

 

[The Heretic]

Most of those contradictions depend on a literal reading of the bible, which is the same mistake Christian fundamentalists make.

So, I wouldn't recommend anyone trying to blandish those apparent "contradictions" to a liberal christian who can think past the level of surface grammar.

 

[apathrev]

One thing about contradictions; it depends on how you interpret the Bible, literally, figuratively, metaphorically, etc. But there is also several bits of proof that help support the Bible, although they can be disputed.