Skip the first two thirds of the bible, and get to the somewhat palatable part.

If more christians read the bible, there would be way more atheists.

And I mean actually read it, like you would read any other book. Would you just read a few "important" lines here and there, as suggested by you friend, from Lord of the Rings and call that a day?

It astounds me the number of christians who have blatantly not read through the bible in its entirety even once, considering they are the ones claiming it is actually a message from God. Clearly you cannot really believe this if you can't be arsed to spend a few hours actually reading this most holy of messages.

There are two responses I would expect: being horrified, or cracking up. Punctuated by extreme boredom.

(February 22, 2015 at 9:33 pm)robvalue Wrote: If more christians read the bible, there would be way more atheists.

And I mean actually read it, like you would read any other book. Would you just read a few "important" lines here and there, as suggested by you friend, from Lord of the Rings and call that a day?

It astounds me the number of christians who have blatantly not read through the bible in its entirety even once, considering they are the ones claiming it is actually a message from God. Clearly you cannot really believe this if you can't be arsed to spend a few hours actually reading this most holy of messages.

There are two responses I would expect: being horrified, or cracking up. Punctuated by extreme boredom.

Hey, don't forget massive amounts of eye rolling.

(February 22, 2015 at 6:02 pm)Chad32 Wrote:

(February 22, 2015 at 4:57 pm)Drich Wrote: If 'religion' doesn't follow what the bible says, then is the God of the bible who commands us through the bible obligated to follow the precepts in a given religion?

Rather is he obligated by what non biblically relevant priests/leadership says concerning who goes to heaven?

Or does God retain full authority despite what a given religion says and follow through with what he has told us in scripture?

Thought crime rephrase:
In mat 5 (where Jesus identifies thought crimes) he only does so to show the futility of trying to follow religious law. He is making it impossible to be found righteous according to the law. Which show point a good Jew to the second part of the law. Atonement. Once you have atonement for sin 'thought crime' becomes a non issue.

The bible is the only source of anything we know about your god, so if there's something in the bible that doesn't fit with what he wants, he's obligated to fix it. As it stands, there's no way to know exactly what he wants because the holy text is faulty.

Normally if we see someone making a scenario that other people can't escape from, and punishing them for not following in line, we call it evil. setting a standard too high for people to reach, and saying they're wretched for not being able to meet it is wrong.

....

So your not familiar with Jesus the Christ and His purpose here?

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(February 22, 2015 at 7:00 pm)Stimbo Wrote: I think it's worth pointing out that baptism isn't some sort of irreversible surgery that forever changes a person's character (like the capping process in The Tripods). It's just water and a few 'magic' words.

Did I just slip and fall into the dark side or this this like when a broken clock is right twice in a 24 hour period?

That is not a fix. Evidenced by the fact that only a minority of the population even believes in him, and the ones that do are generally split into three groups that think the other two are heretics. Protestants, catholics, and orthodox. Whatever good Jesus did to bring people to Yahweh was very minimal. He even told people this wasn't going to do much good while he was still alive.

(February 22, 2015 at 7:05 pm)Norman Humann Wrote: It's a funny thing, baptism. I've been taught that you have to say the exact words in the exact order, otherwise the whole thing just doesn't count. Imagine that, you can't get into heaven because some lousy preacher had one glass of service wine too many that day. I'd be pissed.

Thankfully 'priests' have nothing to do with any of us getting to heaven.

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(February 22, 2015 at 7:17 pm)Norman Humann Wrote:

(February 22, 2015 at 7:14 pm)professor Wrote: Norm, could you just dump all the stuff you learned from religionists and read the bible for yourself?
Think if it as a spiritual enema.

The 'don't wear mixed fabrics' and 'stone adulterers' parts too, or should I just call them metaphorical?

No, you should keep reading... There is a bit about those who 'sin' and how they can be forgiven from it. This 'forgiveness' part of the law is just as valid as the dos and don'ts

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(February 22, 2015 at 11:32 pm)Chad32 Wrote: That is not a fix. Evidenced by the fact that only a minority of the population even believes in him, and the ones that do are generally split into three groups that think the other two are heretics. Protestants, catholics, and orthodox. Whatever good Jesus did to bring people to Yahweh was very minimal. He even told people this wasn't going to do much good while he was still alive.

What makes you think it was Christ purpose to bring one religion, one version of Christianity into the spot light?

(February 22, 2015 at 11:29 pm)Drich Wrote: Did I just slip and fall into the dark side or this this like when a broken clock is right twice in a 24 hour period?

..?

Thanks for the back-handed compliment, however I'm not sure what part of the observation in this case wouldn't be obvious to anyone.

(February 22, 2015 at 7:14 pm)professor Wrote: Norm, could you just dump all the stuff you learned from religionists and read the bible for yourself?

Why? When asked how you know the bible hasn't been corrupted by Satan, which is entirely in line with your earlier claims here, your only answer was tat you don't feel like it has been. That's the same as having no answer, and hence, within what you think of as christianity, the bible has equal odds at the very least of being from the devil.

One wonders who's holding the spiritual enema nozzle, one really does.

(February 22, 2015 at 11:33 pm)Drich Wrote: What makes you think it was Christ purpose to bring one religion, one version of Christianity into the spot light?

Good point! Since Jesus would know the truth, he would have known it wouldn't be much fun if everyone else knew too! So he probably did encourage false information to be furthered within christianity to create divisions.

(Whose side are you on now?)

(February 21, 2015 at 5:57 am)Norman Humann Wrote: Christians: how do you sleep at night?

Easy, As drich, huggy and GC demonstrate, they simulate sleep at night by being brain dead just as they simulate being brain dead during the day by being brain dead.