How Can Christians Still Believe??

[Godscreated]

Israel was in Egypt 400 years and a generation spans about 40 years, so there were 10 generations and without birth control couples had many children, this allows for sufficient time to produce a large number of people. As for the Sermon on the Mount, I do not know how big the mount is, nor do I know you were at the correct place, what I do know is Jesus was teaching His disciples and that would be a dozen even, well within your numbers. Yes there were many in attendance but Jesus voice wold not have been able to carry over a great distance, especially outdoors.

Wait now, just how long does a generation span, 40 years or 400, or 900? So you don't know anything at all about the sermon on the mount eh? No specifics, except those specifics that are important to you, with no way to verify the specifics themselves. I applaud you on such cheaply bought knowledge. A short aside- the best part of the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5:29, but it's always lost in translation. That Jesus guy, always cracking jokes. Course he'd have to be, he cracked that joke immediately after invoking thought crimes, and you can't let thought crimes float around in the air. Better to get a laugh, break the uncomfortable silence. People remember things better when there's a joke involved as well.

Your reply makes no sense, please try again, this time try and make some sense.

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Godschild. The story of Moses holding the sea back is another myth. There are no vowels in Aramaic nor Hebrew, therefore in the scriptures the Red sea would be wriiten as....rd s. This has been mistranslated and should be Reed Sea. [which would still be written as rd s] The Reed Sea is at the edge of the Mediterranean sea at the curve where Egypt meets Israel.
The volcano at Mt Etna had exploded thus causing a Tsunami. This in turn caused the sea to withdraw. That's when Moses and his people crossed. As the sea came back in with avengeance, it drowned all the warriors and covered their chariots. The flames in the sky, supposedly God's anger was the flames from the volcano but because of the curve of the earth, only those flames could be seen from the Reed Sea and not the volcano. There has been found lots of larva in the area. Yeah, I'm probably the crazy one...
There is a scientific explanation for stories in the bible.
Another problem I have believing is when God supposedly said...'I will send Satan to the four corners of the earth.'
Well, there aren't four corners, its a sphere and if God created/designed the universe he would know that and would have said, 'I will send Satan round the earth. People of those times believed the earth was flat, as a carpet and that the mountains were positioned to weigh it down so that it wouldn't float away.
Greek mythology....Jesus only spoke in parables. If you study them, it's very much like Greek philosophy to me.
I have read the New International Bible a couple of times. I find the old testament just full of violence. They smite them and we smite them etc.
Plus when Moses and his people had reached the desert and out of Egypt. The Lord supposedly went to Moses' tent daily. On one visit, he instructed that any families with teenagers had to pay shekkles and all the monies had to go to Aaron Moses' brother...nice eh? I do think that the reference to the Lord in this story should have read warlord.
If you'd study yourself instead of believing everything as read, you'd come to realise how silly a lot of the scriptures are.
BTW, I was a practicing Christian until my 40s, when it began to dawn on me that the whole subject is a load of fairy tales/parables and designed to keep the peasants of that time under control. Indeed control/power/wealth are still the essence of it today. A good example as to how hypocritical religion is, is when it was revealed that the Vatican City managed their own a birth control pill factory running at great profit!!!!

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I'm fully aware there were no vowels used, that however does not mean we have mistaken the Sea of Reeds for the Red Sea. The direction that Moses took does not lead them across the Sea Of Reeds, the crossing is at the Red Sea. The words reed and red are not spelled alike in the Hebrew.
As for your idea that a tsunami was responsible, when a tsunami wave pulls the water from the shore line there would not be enough time to get that many people across before the deadly water returned. Then you have to account for an army of chariots to move into place also, time of a tsunami event would not allow for your idea. Sorry you need to research thoroughly.
The idea of people of that time believing the earth was flat and square is crazy. When God spoke of the four corners of the earth He was referring to the cardinal directions of north, south, east and west. Those directions would cover the planet.
Jesus spoke in more than parables, I thought you said you had read the NT, Jesus used parables to teach truth and at times to hide the truth until He could reveal the truth to His disciples.
If smiting is all you have gotten from the OT then it's no wonder you have rejected scripture and the God who inspired it. I do study scripture and study seriously, I see nothing silly about scripture, what I do see is God's wonderful plan of salvation which begins in Genesis. The OT is a guiding marker to Christ, what do you think the disciples used when they preached the salvation that Jesus brought. I hope you do not think they used the NT.
You and others speak of control, who is doing the controlling and exactly why? Who would benefit from this control you speak of, and do you seriously believe that such an action could be keep from the churches of this day, that has to be one of the most ridiculous accusations I've ever heard. Just because you lost your faith does not in any way make christians stupid, how blind one must be to believe such nonsense.

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So where does raping and murdering children come into this plan? Yahweh seems to hand out these things as rewards for conquest. He says "Have at it boys! You earned it!" Then celebrate it later in a Psalm "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." -- Psalm 137:9. Your enemy's child is so much fun to kill! So be happy while you do it!

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You need to read scriptures in full and come to an understanding of what is written, stop going to sights that put a negative spin on christianity and determine for yourself what scripture says, if you can. Psalm 137:9, the psalmist is writing about revenge, this is thoughts of the broken heart, God inspired this psalm to show how much suffering Israel was going through because of their disobedience. God told them if they continued down that path He would punish them.

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No he is very plainly celebrating the murder of children. Stop trying to put pearls on swine. This book is full of stories about the murder, rape, and abuse of children. This one just happens to be a celebration in psalm form of said events. This is a sick book full of sickening fables. As I said in another post: what other book in the WORLD would you be defending right now that contained the same kinds of things? My guess is none. But no I'M the one who is brainwashed and not thinking for myself. I'M the one who is believing religiously. I'M the one who won't accept this Iron Age book endorsing the murder of children based on pure faith in the face of all reason and evidence.

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Read Isaiah 40:22 and you will see stated that the earth is a circle, and if I'm not mistaken a circle has no corners, so hence the cardinal directions. You guys really should get some brains.

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Flat circle, I presume.
And yeah, I have have counter-arguments from your type that there was no word in Hebrew for sphere, so circle was meant to be sphere in this verse. What a joke! Why didn't god invent the word sphere at that time when he could very well see, with his foreknowledge, that the puny ideas of the medieval goat herders would be mocked in this age.

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He does seem to like arguing those little minute differences in words as though they make ANY difference in the general point. He's probably one of those people who says "Jonah says 'big fish' not 'whale'".

So you've read the Bible, well maybe it's time to study scripture, the psalmist was writing a lament, sadden by his despair and if you can not understand this by reading the psalm.... You read the psalm just like you read the book of Jonah, Jonah did say fish. The Hebrew word, dag, is translated fish, the Hebrew word, tanniyn translates whale or sea and/or land monster. Once again I say read and study scripture before you argue against it, really you make yourself look silly.

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Read Isaiah 40:22 and you will see stated that the earth is a circle, and if I'm not mistaken a circle has no corners, so hence the cardinal directions. You guys really should get some brains.

Flat circle, I presume.
And yeah, I have have counter-arguments from your type that there was no word in Hebrew for sphere, so circle was meant to be sphere in this verse. What a joke! Why didn't god invent the word sphere at that time when he could very well see, with his foreknowledge, that the puny ideas of the medieval goat herders would be mocked in this age.

Please study history, medieval times were long after scripture was written.
Unlike you it could be that the people of the time understood what was written.

[The Grand Nudger]

Jonah isn't speaking about a big fish or a whale, Jonah is speaking about a fucking leviathon, a monster of of the deep. Think swimming dragon. Scylla or Charybdis, etc.

[mediamogul]

Israel was in Egypt 400 years and a generation spans about 40 years, so there were 10 generations and without birth control couples had many children, this allows for sufficient time to produce a large number of people. As for the Sermon on the Mount, I do not know how big the mount is, nor do I know you were at the correct place, what I do know is Jesus was teaching His disciples and that would be a dozen even, well within your numbers. Yes there were many in attendance but Jesus voice wold not have been able to carry over a great distance, especially outdoors.

Wait now, just how long does a generation span, 40 years or 400, or 900? So you don't know anything at all about the sermon on the mount eh? No specifics, except those specifics that are important to you, with no way to verify the specifics themselves. I applaud you on such cheaply bought knowledge. A short aside- the best part of the Sermon on the Mount is Matthew 5:29, but it's always lost in translation. That Jesus guy, always cracking jokes. Course he'd have to be, he cracked that joke immediately after invoking thought crimes, and you can't let thought crimes float around in the air. Better to get a laugh, break the uncomfortable silence. People remember things better when there's a joke involved as well.

Your reply makes no sense, please try again, this time try and make some sense.

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[quote='average' pid='254794' dateline='1331812840']

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Godschild. The story of Moses holding the sea back is another myth. There are no vowels in Aramaic nor Hebrew, therefore in the scriptures the Red sea would be wriiten as....rd s. This has been mistranslated and should be Reed Sea. [which would still be written as rd s] The Reed Sea is at the edge of the Mediterranean sea at the curve where Egypt meets Israel.
The volcano at Mt Etna had exploded thus causing a Tsunami. This in turn caused the sea to withdraw. That's when Moses and his people crossed. As the sea came back in with avengeance, it drowned all the warriors and covered their chariots. The flames in the sky, supposedly God's anger was the flames from the volcano but because of the curve of the earth, only those flames could be seen from the Reed Sea and not the volcano. There has been found lots of larva in the area. Yeah, I'm probably the crazy one...
There is a scientific explanation for stories in the bible.
Another problem I have believing is when God supposedly said...'I will send Satan to the four corners of the earth.'
Well, there aren't four corners, its a sphere and if God created/designed the universe he would know that and would have said, 'I will send Satan round the earth. People of those times believed the earth was flat, as a carpet and that the mountains were positioned to weigh it down so that it wouldn't float away.
Greek mythology....Jesus only spoke in parables. If you study them, it's very much like Greek philosophy to me.
I have read the New International Bible a couple of times. I find the old testament just full of violence. They smite them and we smite them etc.
Plus when Moses and his people had reached the desert and out of Egypt. The Lord supposedly went to Moses' tent daily. On one visit, he instructed that any families with teenagers had to pay shekkles and all the monies had to go to Aaron Moses' brother...nice eh? I do think that the reference to the Lord in this story should have read warlord.
If you'd study yourself instead of believing everything as read, you'd come to realise how silly a lot of the scriptures are.
BTW, I was a practicing Christian until my 40s, when it began to dawn on me that the whole subject is a load of fairy tales/parables and designed to keep the peasants of that time under control. Indeed control/power/wealth are still the essence of it today. A good example as to how hypocritical religion is, is when it was revealed that the Vatican City managed their own a birth control pill factory running at great profit!!!!

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I'm fully aware there were no vowels used, that however does not mean we have mistaken the Sea of Reeds for the Red Sea. The direction that Moses took does not lead them across the Sea Of Reeds, the crossing is at the Red Sea. The words reed and red are not spelled alike in the Hebrew.
As for your idea that a tsunami was responsible, when a tsunami wave pulls the water from the shore line there would not be enough time to get that many people across before the deadly water returned. Then you have to account for an army of chariots to move into place also, time of a tsunami event would not allow for your idea. Sorry you need to research thoroughly.
The idea of people of that time believing the earth was flat and square is crazy. When God spoke of the four corners of the earth He was referring to the cardinal directions of north, south, east and west. Those directions would cover the planet.
Jesus spoke in more than parables, I thought you said you had read the NT, Jesus used parables to teach truth and at times to hide the truth until He could reveal the truth to His disciples.
If smiting is all you have gotten from the OT then it's no wonder you have rejected scripture and the God who inspired it. I do study scripture and study seriously, I see nothing silly about scripture, what I do see is God's wonderful plan of salvation which begins in Genesis. The OT is a guiding marker to Christ, what do you think the disciples used when they preached the salvation that Jesus brought. I hope you do not think they used the NT.
You and others speak of control, who is doing the controlling and exactly why? Who would benefit from this control you speak of, and do you seriously believe that such an action could be keep from the churches of this day, that has to be one of the most ridiculous accusations I've ever heard. Just because you lost your faith does not in any way make christians stupid, how blind one must be to believe such nonsense.

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So where does raping and murdering children come into this plan? Yahweh seems to hand out these things as rewards for conquest. He says "Have at it boys! You earned it!" Then celebrate it later in a Psalm "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." -- Psalm 137:9. Your enemy's child is so much fun to kill! So be happy while you do it!

---

---

You need to read scriptures in full and come to an understanding of what is written, stop going to sights that put a negative spin on christianity and determine for yourself what scripture says, if you can. Psalm 137:9, the psalmist is writing about revenge, this is thoughts of the broken heart, God inspired this psalm to show how much suffering Israel was going through because of their disobedience. God told them if they continued down that path He would punish them.

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No he is very plainly celebrating the murder of children. Stop trying to put pearls on swine. This book is full of stories about the murder, rape, and abuse of children. This one just happens to be a celebration in psalm form of said events. This is a sick book full of sickening fables. As I said in another post: what other book in the WORLD would you be defending right now that contained the same kinds of things? My guess is none. But no I'M the one who is brainwashed and not thinking for myself. I'M the one who is believing religiously. I'M the one who won't accept this Iron Age book endorsing the murder of children based on pure faith in the face of all reason and evidence.

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Read Isaiah 40:22 and you will see stated that the earth is a circle, and if I'm not mistaken a circle has no corners, so hence the cardinal directions. You guys really should get some brains.

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Flat circle, I presume.
And yeah, I have have counter-arguments from your type that there was no word in Hebrew for sphere, so circle was meant to be sphere in this verse. What a joke! Why didn't god invent the word sphere at that time when he could very well see, with his foreknowledge, that the puny ideas of the medieval goat herders would be mocked in this age.

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He does seem to like arguing those little minute differences in words as though they make ANY difference in the general point. He's probably one of those people who says "Jonah says 'big fish' not 'whale'".

So you've read the Bible, well maybe it's time to study scripture, the psalmist was writing a lament, sadden by his despair and if you can not understand this by reading the psalm.... You read the psalm just like you read the book of Jonah, Jonah did say fish. The Hebrew word, dag, is translated fish, the Hebrew word, tanniyn translates whale or sea and/or land monster. Once again I say read and study scripture before you argue against it, really you make yourself look silly.

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Yeah he sounds really heartbroken over these kids who were dashed against stones. Simply heartbroken. I can just feel his sorrow and compassion.

I make myself look silly? I'm not the one who is advocating for a book that commands you to beat children. Also, if your father beat you then you should understand WHY it is not OK. And if you don't then you are probably one of those assholes who beats his kids. You need to think about what you are advocating instead arguing piddling little semantics and trying to explain away violence towards children in your pathetic excuse for a book. Why would I want to read that thing more than once? I may become physically ill if I tried.

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Jonah isn't speaking about a big fish or a whale, Jonah is speaking about a fucking leviathon, a monster of of the deep. Think swimming dragon. Scylla or Charybdis, etc.

Oh, well now the story makes perfect sense. Haha.

[The Grand Nudger]

What part of my post did you have trouble with GC?

I see you playing a numbers game to salvage a fairy tale, I've seen you play the same numbers game using different figures. I want to know if it's the numbers or the narrative you're actually deferring to. Are you interested in whether or not the narrative has any real plausibility, or just interested in shoehorning numbers into a narrative to create an illusion of credibility (plugging in whichever numbers you need to depending on the narrative you're attempting to defend).

You had opinions about the sermon on the mount, which is all that they can be with no facts attached. I also have opinions of the same, I shared them.

Did you have trouble understanding my post, or did you have nothing to respond with but felt the need to respond anyway?

[Minimalist]

You need to read scriptures in full and come to an understanding of what is written,

And you need to get your head out of your ass and stop trying to con yourself into believing that there is anything of significance in this ancient old shit pile you call the bible.


And I guess you have punted on trying to date your so-called exodus? No surprise there. That's a hard one for jesus freaks to face.

[YahwehIsTheWay]

Spare me my life from this monstrosity!

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Read Isaiah 40:22 and you will see stated that the earth is a circle, and if I'm not mistaken a circle has no corners, so hence the cardinal directions. You guys really should get some brains.

Amen brother Child. The world is clearly a flat circle with the sky being a dome stretched over top of us, just like a tent. Isaiah 40:22, the verse of the Holey Babble I quoted earlier, is clear evidence that the world is flat, contrary to the assertions of those lying demonic scientists!

[BeeDeePee]

But those theories directly contradict the Bible.

Only if you think that the Bible is a scientific book.
I also accept those theories and I can't see problem between science and my faith.

If these Christians are going to say the Bible is completely wrong as far Genesis is concerned and stories like those of Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark are untrue why would you not start to question and wonder if maybe everything else in the Bible is completely made up including the 4 Gospels?

Genesis is not wrong. It's just not a scientific book. The purpose of that book is not to show how the world was created, but why, while the details of the story are not too important. It states that everythin that exists is created by God, what is an ontological claim.
And, even if the Bible Bible contradicts to scientific facts, it's not a problem for me(for example, when it is said that bats are birds). I believe that the Bible is divine and human book at the same time. A human factor can not be disregarded when we speak about the development of the scriptures. So, it's not a perfect book.

[Minimalist]

So, it's not a perfect book.

The xtians are going to hate your ass..... but I'll give you a point for that one.

[YahwehIsTheWay]

So, it's not a perfect book.

Two options:

1. The Bible IS the Word of God.
2. The Bible IS NOT the Word of God.

Pick one. There is no "sorta-kinda" option.

[NoMoreFaith]

*sigh* After April Fools, likeable reasonable theists just don't do it for me anymore