Just to mention some verses.

"Psalm 14:1
For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good."
"Colossians 3:18-23 : 25
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism."

Fool in this sense doesn't really mean dumb as in a stupid person, it comes from the hebrew Word Nabai which basically means lack of moral guidance or something. You can Google it up yourself, probably some bible Word checkers on it.

In either case what i have a problem With the bible, although i am sure all 3 monotheistic religions have the same concept. Either you are in or you are out, there is no in between.

Atheists have no moral guidance.
Homosexuals are corrupt or sexual abusers in some cases.
Women can't be Church leaders
Drunkards are all crappy people.

So the bible is basically promoting black and white mindset, like they basically judge the origin of something not on the quality of something. So this means you have to essentially isolate and hate anything that upsets Your lifestyle. While i think the bible do have some good life lessons, like that part With Samson and Delilah in terms of lust, it would essentially lead to his downfall because he let himself become tricket and lost his self value due to it. And then there is the part about Jesus saying "anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has commited adultery in his hearth" which i Guess would mean dont get intention of stealing other wives. But it usually means by most believers to mean dont have lewd thoughts about women you see. In either case porn stars are having the life.

I either way have problems With this because it is more or less judging the origin of a person's lifestyle not the quality of it. So thats why i just couldnt join into this. The same could be said like "children should be obidient to their parents" while yes you should be good to the one who gave you birth, but if the idea is to obey an abusing father then no way, you dont have to give one hoot if that happens. And slavery is immoral, so that should be illegal in the first Place, dont care if the bible is ok With free slaves, slavery is in general not that cool.

But Yeah, thats the reason i kinda have some problems With it.

(February 10, 2017 at 7:07 am)Roksie Wrote: Just to mention some verses.

Atheists have no moral guidance.

The most reliable way to assess the claim if either religion or no-religion makes societies better is to simply look at the world and see if it does. If this is a real phenomenon, then we should find a pattern of social success in countries that have more Christians in their populations compared with countries that have fewer Christians. Interestingly, the world shows us precisely the opposite of the popular claims.

Take Scandinavia, for instance, it has the lowest rate of religious belief in the world, yet on virtually all measures of well being Scandinavian countries top every index.
Indeed when we look at societies today, the world over, we see that most of the least religious nations on Earth are faring the best-places like Japan, Sweden, etc.-while most of the most religious countries are faring the worst-places like Zambia, Uganda, El Salvador, etc. Extensive sociological research is clear on this front: religious beliefs do not correlate with positive societal outcomes. So how can atheists be wicked or have no moral guidance?
Is Bible lying to you? Was it written by people that didn't know what the heck they're talking about?

Hello.

When you stop reading faithfully and start reading the Bible critically, your eyes are opened to how ridiculous it is.

Proverbs was rammed down my throat for years, but reading it now, I hardly take it for an undeniable source of wisdom. Proverbs is mostly a father telling his sons to stay away from thugs and hoes. He tells them to listen to their parents and authority figures. He tells them don't be stupid, but not everything he says is necessarily true.

Proverbs 3:5 is translated by JWs as "Do not lean on your own understanding", and it gets repeated all the time. All the time. This verse does more psychological harm than good, as it is used to teach people to give up critical thinking and individualism.

And going with the OP, yeah, this divides the world between us and them.

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All religion, and organized belief systems work to make their followers feel different and special and shun everything and everyone outside their circle of influence.

This is one of the reasons I had trouble with Christianity. For instance, "lying lips are an abomination," is in Proverbs. Although it's important to me to tell the truth in most instances, I can think of a few instances where telling a lie certainly wouldn't be morally wrong. Also, "turn the other cheek." I think it's important not to provoke violence but sometimes standing up for yourself is useful and solves the problem.

Also, just a note about slavery. The Christians I know don't have a problem with the verses about slavery in the Bible because of the context. They say slavery, in those days, was a limited-term thing. People would get into financial trouble and sell themselves into slavery to pay back their debts. So it was more like an indentured servant type of thing, for a few years, that was part of the culture at the time.

...only for Jewish males. And if you give them a wife and kids, and they say they don't want to leave their wife and kids at the end of their servitude, then you get to keep them as slaves forever.

(February 10, 2017 at 9:54 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: ...only for Jewish males.  And if you give them a wife and kids, and they say they don't want to leave their wife and kids at the end of their servitude, then you get to keep them as slaves forever.

They taught that this indentured servitude also applied in the days of the New Testament, in Rome and such. Is that wrong?

(February 10, 2017 at 10:00 am)phoenix31 Wrote:

(February 10, 2017 at 9:54 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: ...only for Jewish males.  And if you give them a wife and kids, and they say they don't want to leave their wife and kids at the end of their servitude, then you get to keep them as slaves forever.

They taught that this indentured servitude also applied in the days of the New Testament, in Rome and such. Is that wrong?

Oh, that part I have no idea about, I'm just talking about what the scriptures say about slavery in the Old Testament.  It was chattel slavery for everyone but Jewish males, who could only be enslaved for 7 years (unless you used the loophole I described above). And of course you could beat them as much as you wanted, as long as they didn't die within a couple days of being beaten.

The in-or-out nature even continues into the New Testament. Jesus said that those who were not with him were against him, for instance. I think it's a big part of the reason that their way of thinking is so fucked up. If science can't explain something RIGHT NOW then the explanation they have, no matter how ludicrous, is correct by some sort of cosmic default. Black or white, right or wrong, you either have an explanation (that I will accept) or you don't, and I've already chosen the one and only explanation that I will accept.