Pennsylvania Church asks couples to bring in their AR-15's so they can bless the guns

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You people all have your own personal gods. You make them up as you go along.

 You are so much out of touch that your post have little to no validity.

GC

Says the man who worships a Bronze Age tribe's god.

[Godscreated]

 You are so much out of touch that your post have little to no validity.

GC

Says the man who worships a Bronze Age tribe's god.

 See what I mean when I say you are out of touch, God is an eternal being and He is worshiped by people from all over the world of which I am one.

 GC

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Says the man who worships a Bronze Age tribe's god.

 See what I mean when I say you are out of touch, God is an eternal being and He is worshiped by people from all over the world of which I am one.

 GC

Are you pretending to be slow or are you actually dim? The god you worship was thought up by a tribe of Bronze Age goat herders. That this bullshit has been propagated around the planet is irrelevant to that.

[Godscreated]

 See what I mean when I say you are out of touch, God is an eternal being and He is worshiped by people from all over the world of which I am one.

 GC

Are you pretending to be slow or are you actually dim? The god you worship was thought up by a tribe of Bronze Age goat herders. That this bullshit has been propagated around the planet is irrelevant to that.

 Denser by the day! The nation of Israel was more of a farming community than a herding one. The fact it has spread over the world to all peoples and classes of people should tell you there is more to it than you've been able to conceive. Because you haven't come to know God doesn't mean I haven't nor can't because I have and I haven't seen the first atheist here try and disprove God, why do you think that is, they keep spouting that I'm the one who has to do so. Well no I do not I already know Him so my proof has been receive from God, I have His eternal promise, just what do you think awaits you in the next life.

GC

[Joods]

Says the man who worships a Bronze Age tribe's god.

 See what I mean when I say you are out of touch, God is an eternal being and He is worshiped by people from all over the world of which I am one.

 GC

That doesn't make him real. That just makes you and the ones who subscribe to your brand of Woo similar. Remember: you too, are an atheist. You just so happen to believe in one more god than we do.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Are you pretending to be slow or are you actually dim? The god you worship was thought up by a tribe of Bronze Age goat herders. That this bullshit has been propagated around the planet is irrelevant to that.

 Denser by the day! The nation of Israel was more of a farming community than a herding one. The fact it has spread over the world to all peoples and classes of people should tell you there is more to it than you've been able to conceive. Because you haven't come to know God doesn't mean I haven't nor can't because I have and I haven't seen the first atheist here try and disprove God, why do you think that is, they keep spouting that I'm the one who has to do so. Well no I do not I already know Him so my proof has been receive from God, I have His eternal promise, just what do you think awaits you in the next life.

GC

Are you saying they didn't keep goats?

[CapnAwesome]

Lol, just like Jesus would do, he was super pro weapons, right?

[Godscreated]

 Denser by the day! The nation of Israel was more of a farming community than a herding one. The fact it has spread over the world to all peoples and classes of people should tell you there is more to it than you've been able to conceive. Because you haven't come to know God doesn't mean I haven't nor can't because I have and I haven't seen the first atheist here try and disprove God, why do you think that is, they keep spouting that I'm the one who has to do so. Well no I do not I already know Him so my proof has been receive from God, I have His eternal promise, just what do you think awaits you in the next life.

GC

Are you saying they didn't keep goats?

 Of coarse not, they did as many around the world do today they have benefits to mankind even outside of being food.

GC

---

 See what I mean when I say you are out of touch, God is an eternal being and He is worshiped by people from all over the world of which I am one.

 GC

That doesn't make him real.  That just makes you and the ones who subscribe to your brand of Woo similar. Remember: you too, are an atheist. You just so happen to believe in one more god than we do.

 The definition of atheist goes to zero belief, play with word all you want it changes nothing and enlightens some to your less than stellar knowledge. Whether you want to accept He is real or not is on you I personally know God is real and will never have doubts.

GC

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Are you saying they didn't keep goats?

 Of coarse not, they did as many around the world do today they have benefits to mankind even outside of being food.

GC

---

Then they herded goats.

---

Are you saying they didn't keep goats?

 Of coarse not, they did as many around the world do today they have benefits to mankind even outside of being food.

GC

---

That doesn't make him real.  That just makes you and the ones who subscribe to your brand of Woo similar. Remember: you too, are an atheist. You just so happen to believe in one more god than we do.

 The definition of atheist goes to zero belief, play with word all you want it changes nothing and enlightens some to your less than stellar knowledge. Whether you want to accept He is real or not is on you I personally know God is real and will never have doubts.

GC

There's where you're going wrong.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's stunning to me how little believers know about their religions.  The faction which came to dominate judaic cultural affairs were the Pastoralists.  They leave their value setting to us in the contents of magic book.  From the begining (lol) god preferred the shepherd to the farmer.  This continues throughout and echoes in the new magic book with it;s constant invocations of pastoral imagery.  

We understand how this came to pass, and it's an interesting story.  There's a reason the culture is referred to as jewish..rather than isreali.  That has it's heart in an ancient grudge between judah and israel...but we'll have to start earlier to understand the tension.  

Stable ag first came to the levant by way of the phillistines in the 13th century in coastal southern judah (the phillistines invaded from Aegean islands).  We know this due to the sudden appearance of both a: the philistines...and b; the philistine ox goad (later referred to as a dorban).  We'd call it a cattle prod, today, lol - but it was used then to spur on oxen pulling plows.  They established an authoritarian regime over the hebrew tribes they conquered.  The hebrews, in turn, worked the land in small intensive holdings with superior philistine tools and skills.  Superior in that the ox goad of the philistines was not the long stick of the hebrews....it had a nail driven through the end....and a metal spade affixed to the other.  Hebrews were allowed to take these implements to philistine smiths to be repaired...but they were prohibited from doing so (or possessing the tools to do so) themselves..for fear that they would literally beat their plows into swords.  

The trouble begins in the first temple period.  Up until this time ag in the region is defined or described as an autarchic.  An independent family farm.  This was not a state of affairs conducive to the establishment of a nascent monarchy or the practical necessities of civilization, or one that would persist..in israel...at least.  The small land holdings were assumed in the public interest and developed within the range of extensive landworks convenient to isreal and where the topography of israel was superior to that of judah...all to feed the larger population than the relatively uninhabited judah.  This was the peak of agriculture in the region in antiquity.  As the more suitable lands were developed the focus of production and population shifted and exploded, but the reality of terrain and empire (or lack their of) in judah left it in a state of undeveloped hills and the continued existence of the autarchic small holding.  To understand how this looked..then, we can turn our eyes to california (or anywhere, really..today).  Where extensive public works catering to ag have been completed we see extensive and intensive cultivation....where the land has been left in it's natural; state...we see pasture and range and small family operations.   It's the difference between farm country and cattle country.  One has been irrigated, the other has not.

Now, culturally, israel and judah were in competition.  The value setting of the Pastoralists expresses...from the beginning..as it were, that god prefers the shepherd over the farmer.  That one is, to take the phrase..his favorite son.  This is, unsurprisingly, a judaite tradition.  As is the notion that some farmer was the father of cities and metalworking.  The Patoralists felt themselves to be outsiders in ways that they had been since the caananite conflict.  Stuck on the hills and excluded from the fertile fields below.  Only now..it was israel in possession rather than the canaanites or the philistines.  The destruction of the kingdom of israel, however.....would provide both confirmation and a sort of retribution to the people of judah for their insistence on the superiority and divine favor of their cultural values.  Tenant farmers were left, in the main part, to work the fields and it may be that a few skilled personnel were left behind to manage production but whatever the number those people would have been whats apparent is that ag cratered in the region in the wake of this.  The remaining population could not maintain the system.  They lacked skill or labor or both.  

It was this desolation that any exiles would have returned to, and in conceptualizing their history and it's relationship with the divine..culturally, at least, the Pastoralists had won.  The destruction of israel was a judgement by god on the inferior values and culture of the former agricultural powerhouse.  Not only can this be observed in the areological record..one can surmise each and every particular above..from the state of hebrew agriculture in prehistory all the way up to the talmudic period...by reference to the narrative in magic book.  This, as a point of interest, is what legitimate scholars mean when they say that there are valid historical facts to be gleaned from the text.  You'll find all of this in gen, duet, judges, ruth, isa, kings, chronicles, jer, neh and judith.  To argue against the description of the pastoralists goid is to argue against the contents of both the record..and magic book.

So..just fucking own it.  Yes, you worship a goat herders god.  If your god exists..that's the god it is..and why would that be a problem..except insomuch as you have a similar contempt for the values of those hicks in judah as any israelite did...and look what gawd did to them...man.