The Reasons why "Just Following Jesus" Doesn't work

[Redbeard The Pink]

Wow...that is pretty long. Luckily, I'm pretty sure I can address it pretty tidily. Let's get started.


First off, I am familiar with the line of apologetics you're using to attempt to force-fit the differing accounts of the Resurrection. Nothing about the chronology of Jewish storytelling or any of the other stuff you mentioned would account for the kind of contradictions I described, especially not if the person in charge of the project is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the Universe. If that were the case, we should see no contradictions at all, even with humans involved. I remain unconvinced by your reasoning.


And no, the gospels are not backed by so much as a modicum of sound evidence. They are little more than folklore. They describe geography that does not align with other historical and archaeological evidence, and they assert various events and people for which there are no supporting, extra-biblical accounts. They also say that magic exists and people can do it, and we have no evidence of that whatsoever.

Just because you can't detect it with physical means does not mean that it doesn't exist. I was watching a vlog on Youtube and this man was speaking about an event that happened to him. He was in a marathon and saw one man his age stumble off the road. He went to see if he needed help and in the end the guy ended up dying. This truly affected him and even though he tried to do some more of his run he was struck with great grief. Now I have looked into what evolution has said about grief and I must say it is a cold and shallow explanation of what happens when someone loses something very important to them. This trauma does not benefit us if we are talking about surviving to pass on our genes. I would say that it speaks more to the fact that we have a greater dimension to being human than mere chemistry. Also the need to be something or someone, the need to be seen, and accepted, to be loved, to be valued also adds to that dimension. Why do so many people feel empty? Why do people find themselves stuck in harmful habits, and it doesn't depend on the person's education. We yearn for more. The fact all humans think there is a right way to live and a wrong way to live speaks to something deeper in all of us.

Pretty much everything you're describing can be explained by physical means. Whether you're willing to accept it or not, the evidence indicates that ALL emotions (yes, even grief) are neurological/biochemical processes in our brains and bodies. There is no evidence that they come from a spiritual plane of existence, and you would need to show me evidence before I could justify believing such a thing. Our need to be accepted, our belief that there are right ways and wrong ways to treat each other...all of that chalks up to being a social species because we evolved that way. Our brains do pretty much every bit of that.

How do you know when the porn used by people are from people who are agree with being videoed? Have you thought of the fact that when people show interest in porn no matter how it is produced that this act signals to other porn producers who use slaves that this is a desired product therefore aiding in their oppression of other people.



Expressing yourself sexually and selling your sexual acts are two different things. Sex is not a performance but an act of intimacy. It requires a vulnerability and is most enjoyed in safety, mutual trust and love by a man and woman who have made the choice to commit to one another for the rest of their lives. They make this commitment not just secretly but publicly. Porn is a degradation for all who are involved and is addictive. The effects on a male's (because I don't know about women) mind a body are ED, ADHD, socially awkwardness, and OCD. So when you say they are expressing themselves in reality it is the death of sex as well as a normal functioning man. Here is a Ted Talk from Philip Zimbardo EMBEDDED MEDIA  


This addiction isn't like normal addictions. It seeks new and different experiences. When you are addicted to something you are no longer concerned about people but your own wants and needs. This feeds and fuels the industry as well as sex slavery. There is nothing about porn that is good.

Well, I'll give you one thing: you do seem to be pretty good at memorizing and repeating the stuff your pastor tells you.


First off, porn producers are generally required by law to keep extensive records about the age and contracts (read: consensual agreements) of their actors. Porn actors also have to get regularly tested for STIs by doctors, and in California I think they still have to wear condoms in every scene. While I'm sure improprieties do happen (like with any profession), the simple fact is that there are extensive legal provisions geared toward keeping porn actors as safe and unexploited as possible, and I would bet that most producers follow those regulations for fear of legal repercussions, if nothing else.


The demand for consensual porn indicates a demand for consensual porn. You have no basis for the assertion that porn signals to slavers that their actions are wanted or acceptable. A separate demand exists for child porn and rape porn, and that demand is what tells slavers that there's money in what they're doing. People who watch normal porn are generally not watching illegal porn, and people who watch illegal porn generally aren't that into regular porn.


Anything enjoyable can be addictive. That doesn't make porn a natural path to child slave pornography. That is a slippery slope fallacy, and in this case it is not borne out by the evidence. There is no real indication that watching regular porn necessarily leads to wanting to watch illegal porn. It may be the case that most people who eventually got into worse stuff started out with regular porn, but that's the "Gateway Drug" fallacy. That's like saying 90% of heroin users started with pot while ignoring that less than 1% of pot smokers actually go on to try heroin.


Did you know that 100% of child pornographers drank water first? Obviously drinking water leads to making child porn.

How do you think I am using information? It is the instructions used in the growth, development, and functions of all living organisms (and many viruses).

In other words it is the instruction manual for an entire living organism, its individual parts, and even its reproductive possibilities.

It's not, though. It's a little more accurate to describe it as a building block. It doesn't "tell" the process how to go, it is the basis for the process itself. DNA does what it does because of the way it is shaped. Literally. It is a long chain of chemicals, and depending on what order those chemicals are in, the reactions they start will work out in different ways. It's not quite like feeding a disk into a computer and getting a document back out.


Regardless of what term you want to use, though, there's nothing about DNA that indicates it had to be assembled by a designer of any kind. It consists of naturally-occurring chemicals and can form and replicate under naturally-occurring conditions, so it is perfectly reasonable to believe that its origins are probably natural and probably not supernatural.

Actually it is quite amazing and I find it difficult to believe that it came together without the hand of an extremely knowledgeable and powerful designer. I also happen to know God so it is easy to attribute this to Him.

"I do not know how this could have happened, and I find the scientifically accepted explanation difficult to believe, so it must have happened because of _____."


Insert anything you want into that blank...anything at all...and that is still an argument from ignorance. Just because you don't believe or understand how DNA could have formed under natural conditions with nobody watching, doesn't mean you get to substitute an answer for which there is no evidence whatsoever.

What kind of thing are you talking about?

Well, the Universe, for example. If God doesn't require a creator, why should the Universe? If God is eternal, why couldn't the Universe be eternal? The thing in question doesn't matter; what matters is that you're setting up a rule like "Everything requires a cause" or "Everything is finite" and then trying to say that your god is the only thing that gets to break those rules.


That...is...special...pleading!

Do you believe that things were created from nothing? Then why is God not being created special pleading?

I do not believe the Universe was created at all. God not being created is special pleading because you say everything else has to be created/caused by something. Either that includes god, or god is the only exception, which is what makes it special pleading.

My husband has informed me that there are things that don't require space or time and have dimensions that don't work like ours.

Has he now? Interesting. That settles that, I guess. I certainly wouldn't want to contradict some person's husband.


What's his field of expertise, exactly?

There are three persons that are outside of time and space but one being. So God is in many ways different from humans or anything else that he has created. He isn't bound by space like we are. He has the knowledge, ability, power and will to create. He isn't bound by time either.  When we speak of God being Holy it isn't just His moral perfection but the fact that He is like no other being in creation. He is in a category all His own.


Logically it makes more sense for some all powerful being creating the universe, than for it to have sprung out of nothing.(not to say you believe that)

First off, no, it doesn't, and second, you still have yet to demonstrate the existence of this being that you have no problem defining and making claims about. If you can't demonstrate your god, I am not interested. He's no more real than the version I used to worship.

From your standpoint point either the Bible is a fabrication therefore God is not genocidal. Or He is genocidal, therefore He must exist.

Then if he does exist, He owns every human being because He made them and determines their life span. He controls History. He is the one that gives purpose and meaning and if He chooses to remove them by war or sickness it is for His purposes, whether He makes us privy to them or not. When He wipes out people it is never without warning or a grace period.

Also a regulation on an act is not the same as an endorsement of the act. As I spoke about above God regulates certain behavior for the person who is in the weaker position.

Man, you and these straw men you build. Do you make them little clothes? Is there a pink hat on mine?


If the Bible is a myth, then the god it depicts is a mythical genocidal maniac (like Lord Sauron, only infinitely worse), and if it is true then he is an actual genocidal maniac (like Hitler, only infinitely worse). That is my position. I'm not even sure what you said there.


So he created us and is bigger than us, therefore he gets to squish us of he wants? That is not a moral god, that is "might makes right." That, my good lady, is a common thug. You worship a common thug. Congrats.


As for the slavery stuff, you're really just chasing your tail. I've already pointed out the passages in the Bible that endorse and regulate slavery. Ok, so one of the letters to Timothy says god punished some enslavers, and therefore that contradicts those other passages. What does that tell you?


That the Bible contradicts itself. You still didn't win