Challenge to atheists: I find your lack of faith disturbing!

[WesOlsen]

WesOlsen Wrote: ....Again I also want you to tell me:

. Who was Joseph's dad?


In one thread we rejoice over same-sex 'marriage' and gay adoption. Of course a child can have two dads.

In another thread we whine about the bible's ambiguity about father, father in law.

Typical hypocrisy from the bible errancy crowd.

I'm not sure what your claim is here. I've not mentioned same sex marriage yet, not that I have a problem with two men living together in a loving relationship if that's what you're testing the water for. Neither do I doubt that two men can raise a child in a loving environment. I wouldn't have a problem with Joseph if he did have two dads, which wasn't common practice during the early roman period (unless you can demonstrate otherwise). My point is that the bible gives yet another conflicting character account. The lineage of jesus is already muddled when we look at claims he was of royal descent (we get a bunch of nice rounded sets of 7 by different authors). Joseph has two different dads as already mentioned by xpastor, because it's largely zebra poo.

WesOlsen Wrote: ..... How come nobody other than Matthew talks about the huge 'kill the firstborn' operation launched by Herod, which would have required enormous coordination and manpower?


You mean how come people were afraid to write bad stuff about a blood-thirsty dictator who murdered his own family members and who had an army?

Or maybe you are wondering why Herods day-to-day exercise of brute force in order to hold on to power wasnt particularly newsworthy back then. Abortion isnt very controversial and it is 2013!

"...enormous coordination and man power"
LOL
You dont even know how many new born babies were murdered in Bethlehem and yet you are a self-appointed expert on the coordination and manpower.

This is what really makes me laugh at these anti-theist bible skeptics.
On the one hand they rant about the slaughter of the Canaanites factually mentioned in the bible when it suits them.

But they claim Herod murdering babies never happened.

They claim the Exodus out of Egypt never happened.
...and yet it was the folk who left Egypt who went on to invade Canaan!!!

Come on WesOlsen. Make up your mind which part of the bible happened and which didnt.

I've not discussed in detail canaanites being anihilated, although as i'm sure you're well aware the bible is overspilling with stories of genocide. I'm not an expert on manpower, whatever the hell that might look like. But to arrange the murder of every firstborn child in the land WOULD require significant coordination and manpower by any rational historical standards. There would likely have been a heck of a lot of births around this period in this part of the world. Of course, Herod could have asked god to do it for him, the dude's pretty handy at slaughtering whole populations at the flick of a finger, if we take the bible literally. I think my point is that the bible is so vague, contradictory and bombastic that we can't take anything at 100% face value. Herod's tale appears only once because it's likely a steaming pile of shite. This is why most bible scholars and historians in general take it with a very large grain of salt. Unlike you. Which bloodythirsty dictator are you referring to by the way? Herod or God? Because both agencies are depcited as pretty repulsive characters.

"Or maybe you are wondering why Herods day-to-day exercise of brute force in order to hold on to power wasnt particularly newsworthy back then. "

Well if the bible can find time to talk about inane tales of jesus cursing a fig tree for bearing no fruit out of season then i'm sure it can find a few sentences to mention big nasty Herod. It managed to squeeze in a few sections on god's various population control techniques. One might suspect that the enemies of a bloodthirsty dictator might have a great deal to write about. The victims of the roman's various incursions certainly documented death and destruction. Your points are complete toilet, but then you rely on one secondary source for all your knowledge about the world. Try reading some cell biology journals, I gaurantee you'll feel liberated within minutes.

And why can't bible scholar Aractus answer the questions i've put to him, is it because it's a multiple choice questionnaire?

If you theist cranks so desire, I can spell out in plain English all the resurrection myths in full, just in case you aren't sure yourself who Jesus visited and at which point he flew off to his mothership (with or without the flying and talking cross from Peter's director's cut)? Although I suspect you know by this point that each of the resurrection myths contain huge discrepancies, as detailed in my previous post and by the other users of this forum.