All the problems with Christianity

[The Reality Salesman01]

Not just any axe, but the Esquilaxe! (sorry, couldn't resist)
Anyway...
There's still something I think you might be missing from the idea of slavery, but I'll save that for another time. It seems like a lot of this discussion on slavery is basically an assertion that the Bible must be wrong because it doesn't agree with all of our moral standards. (Not just yours, to be honest some of these laws don't make sense to me either.)
But that's the thing - if the Bible was in complete agreement with what most people already believe, what a problem that would be!

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We can never seem to understand why you don't take the Bible for anything other that what it so blatantly looks like, so you have tho get into the details of it, pointing out problems and contradictions and just hoping we'll come to think of what you've been thinking all along:
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I don't think there's anything subjective about whether or not it's wrong to treat people like objects and hold them as slaves, nor do I think that's what you believe either.

But ask yourself why God doesn't make this implicitly clear when He gives Moses The Ten Commandments?

Not only that, but consider that The 10 commandments are written in Exodus 20:1-17.

4 of the 10 commandments (not worshipping other Gods, not making idols, not saying God dammit, not working on the sabbath) are completely useless when trying to create a loving peaceful society, and in fact (without evidence of authority) CREATE hostility among disbelievers or believers of other Gods.

Why would an all knowing God omit valuable laws such as: Don't rape, or Don't have slaves in favor of the seemingly insiginificant and petty laws listed above? This can't make sense to you.

Keeping this in mind, let me add in another thing that should definitely raise doubt about the kind of God that is depicted in The Bible Vs the way he is described by Christians that don't read it.

From Exodus 20 containing The Ten Commandments, turn the next page to Exodus 21:20, one of the instructions is given from Moses to deliver from God, and it reads:

"If a man beats his male of female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property."

It says he's to be punished, but not killed. Beating a slave to death is not worthy of a death sentence, however, direct your attention to this verse in Leviticus where Moses continues to spread the laws given to him by God:

Leviticus 20:9
"If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother and his blood will be on his own head."

What in the world is open to interpretation about this? What does anybody disagreeing have to do with recognizing that these things are inherently wrong?

The Bible is fantasy, about on a level with the Quran and the Gilgamesh Epic. I mean, we might as well translate the Grimm brothers into the world's languages and say it was inspired by Rumpelstiltskin or something!

Is this kind of what you guys are thinking a lot of times? Or am I way off?
P.S. I'm not trying to mock what you guys are thinking, I just want to understand why you think that way.

My friend, you do understand why we think that way. When you read the about the things that the ancient Greeks attributed to Zeus, you are unconvinced.

I want you to be honest when you examine the real reason why those tales are not convincing to you. I'm willing to bet that they sound absurd to you, but not only because you believe in a different God, but you also know a bit about lightning, you don't think Neptune sounds ridiculous because you believe in a different God, but you think it's crazy that people think an entity is living in the water and creating the tides and guiding the animals to carry out his bidding. I'd also be willing to bet there's nothing anyone could say to convince you about you needing to really read the text that teach about Neptune in order to see the subtle nuances that ring of truth.

There's nothing that proves that Neptune doesn't exist, but that doesn't stop you from recognizing the blatant absurities one would have to ignore in order to support claims of him.

We agree with eachother on nearly all other Gods that man has created over time, but for some reason, you are still clinging to one that makes you feel good.

I was brought up Christan in a small town in Texas, and at 18 years old I started noticing signs that there was something more to my experience than the trees around me had been leading me to believe. Leaving the trees, I was able to see the entire forest, in all of it's magnificent complexity. But seeing the big picture of where I once was-was not the end, but the beginning of a process that opened my eyes to so many things in the world that my religion kept me from noticing. I can't explain to you how liberating it is to embrace ignorance and accept it as an inherent part of being a human, and enjoy the process of seeking knowledge through an examined life.

I would reccomend reading The Allegory of The Cave by Plato while imagining the cave as religion, and the people chained within it are Christians that think they have knowledge.

Read what Socrates says on his trial in The Apology about what is important in life, and try to disagree with him (it's no easy task).

It's okay not to know. When you think you have the answers, you stop looking. But, nobody has all the answers. If you think you have truth, you stop looking for it. But whether or not you think you have truth, how can you KNOW that you actually do without examining it?


Socrates said:

"Man does not seek that which he thinks he does not need"

Realizing your ignorance and accepting that it's okay not to know some things, opens the doors to all possibilities of truth. If you think you already have it, you can't go on that journey.