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(May 9, 2017 at 2:47 am)Mamacita Wrote: See... this is all good stuff. I was one of those committed church girls growing up, but the church paid me with a spit in the eye. Everything from a Bible Institute shoving me into a tiny room for two months, to making me ask for forgiveness at the mic in front of 500 people and confess fornication. But! I still wanted to "make-up" with the god. I started to read the Bible start to finish again and this time things were different. The god sucked balls! He was selfish, cruel, petty, knew nothing of nature or science, hated women, and promoted violence. I still believed he existed, but that he was one mean mofo.
I'm sorry you never questioned that God or worse yet that there was no one there to help you see anything different.
Quote:This was good, though. I was in the midst of fearing him and thinking I'd have to keep trying to like him until I could come up with a better plan, when my already secretly atheist brother told me something like,"Dude. Think about it. Nobody is here, and nobody will know if you ask yourself these questions.
Heart breaking. You never actually read the bible for yourself have you? Only taught and trained what to think be reding certain passages.. I am sorry for that as well. Had you read the bible for yourself you would have come across 1 thess 5:21 Which says Question ALL Things and to hold on to what is good. This does not only mean for us to question the questionable but to question the foundational/doctrinal as well.. Question ALL Things. Meaning there is not a question man has that God can not provide to you, nor anyone else. It is so sad that you have to ask about the bible in secrete.
Quote:Just try. Who wrote the Bible?
My questions would be which part. The bible is not a book. it is a collections of books and letters. That would be like asking who wrote Wikipedia... Your question should then be to ask which part. Because the word bible or biblica literally means book of books. like wiki is a calibration of info so to is the bible. Now like wiki there are several incarnations of the book of books. meaning there are several different version based on source material availed and translation. Most bibles read the same but there are some stand out version that are radically different than the others. To understand the three main translation you must first understand where and when they came from. First there is the Septuagint which is a latin based bible who's orgins are supposed to be from the koine greek. This is most often identified as the Catholic's bible.
Then there is the koine Greek bibles based on different codices (or codex) which is a fancy term that describes a collection of 1st 2nd and 3rd century compiled and hand written copied in the 3rd and 4th century. (some even much older) the holy bible or one of the variants are based off of one or several difference codices. they were just compiled in the 3rd-ish century it does not mean they were written then.
Lastly you have the gnostic bible. know it or not your brother (and what you currently believe) was describing how the gnostic bible is/was compiled.
Quote: Literally who wrote it?" Hmmmmmm. Men inspired by the god? "Dude. People wrote it years and years after the events, with quotes and everything, then people without copy machines made copies by hand and translated it.
This is not true. The book of Luke was Paul's gospel and it had to have been written early to mid 60's AD. Meaning luke wrote down Paul's gospel first hand, like wise Mark maybe 10 years after luke wrote down peter's gospel. Meaning mark is a hand written copy of the first hand experience of Peter.
Quote:If brother Alfonso told you his writings with quotes from hundreds of years ago were truth and contained facts because god told him, would you believe him? With what authority?"
What if "brother alfonso" could place you before God in this life? Meaning he could give you 3simple steps and you could interact with God? would that then be authority enough?
Quote:And I sat there. Blink blink. Hmmm. That makes sense. And here I am today.
Sadly is the case of too many religious people.. they are so interested in grandiose displays of "fornication confession" they forget to read the bible themselves and they miss the little things.. like the bits that God says those types of grandiose statements are meaningless to him. To go into your closet and pray to him without making a show. And they miss out on God.. because the crap they do to worship Him is against what He has asked them to do.
Quote:You see... as a devoted Christian, I wasn't allowed to ask these questions.
Quote:I'd go to hell for doubting.
Did Thomas goto Hell for doubting? Or did GOD Give Thomas exactly what He needed to establish and maintain his faith.
Quote:I wasn't allowed to think outside the box I was born into.
My poor sister... "we" were never born Christian. That is a title that gets awarded to us by Christ! Nothing we can say or do will ever earn us that title or take it away.
Quote: Once I stopped having a "relationship" with the evil god, and I basically broke up with him, I didn't care if I angered him, so it was ok to ask.
Good! maybe try the God of the bible/Holy Bible this time round. You can ask Him or me anything you like.
Quote: I can't tell you about the feelings I had the first times I risked my eternal life by allowing myself to ask. The risk! The boldness! The gut! Yeah, this will get me killed...
I honestly never heard that there are Christian not allowed to ask questions. 1Thess 5:21 "QUESTION ALL THINGS!!!! And Hold On to what is good!!!")
Quote:but fuck it! My brain was like a loop... and suddenly I was stepping out of the loop and it felt amazing! Whoa! What's in that door?! Islam! Let me check it out. What's in that door? Satanism! What's in there? Porn! Lol! I was running around in my mind asking, curiously searching, opening doors in my head I never dared to even look at. Just thinking was a risk! It was a daredevil thing to do. I was exploring thought and reason. It was all new and unexplored. The moment of clarity came when I was driving home one day and I said my last prayer ever. I knew it was the last. I knew it was words to the wind. I was free. Alone and shaken... like discovering your parents were just imaginary friends and you grew up in psych ward. Kind of like... wait. The god was here just a second ago and poof! Gone. I didn't get to say goodbye. Confusing as fuck. But damn. Thinking felt extraordinary. It was right. It was liberating.
what if I were to tell you Jesus tells a story that describes your life perfectly?
Quote:I had to stop loving the imaginary character to be bold enough to disobey him by allowing myself to doubt.
Again God commands us to Question. Your Religion is bad if it says do not doubt.
Quote:So, good that the god character was such a bully. I hate bullies. Let me just add... I don't hate the god. I don't believe he exists anymore, but if it were proven that he does exists in any shape or form, I'd rather face eternal hell than serve a terrorist like that.
And if "God" is not a bully?
Quote:I don't like saying this story, because theist have a field day thinking ah ha! You're mad at god, so you mask it with atheism! Wrong. I was mad at an imaginary creature years ago. Now I know better. I sincerely do not believe there is a god. Any god.
Having said that... thank god I'm atheist
As an 'athesit' do you have questions you wish you could have asked and got an answer to?
(May 9, 2017 at 4:34 pm)Cecelia Wrote: Might doesn't make right, though. Might makes the laws--but that does not make the laws just. Therefore God (if he actually existed) would be an unjust god, and all who follow him would be just as unjust (not to mention cowards).
Again I asked you for one example where might does not make right in human History. Even with the Nazis Their might made it right to kill jews by the millions, then the western allies 'might' made what the Nazi's were doing wrong again. Might has always made right in every human example. So then what makes you think this is not a hold over or character of God?
Quote:This God hasn't appeared in 2000 years,
That's not true.. God has nothing to do with knot heads... but for the rest of us we know He is alive and well.
Quote:so I'm not sure what everyone's worried about with regards to his might.
till the next tsunami or 911 then it's "oh God why did thy smight us oh lord.. mercy oh great smighter or were you not around then, when CNN was even broadcasting prayers.
Quote:Sounds to me like if he actually existed the Romans succeeded in killing him. Only a few people didn't like that, so they lied about their god coming back to life so people would still fear their almighty dictator.
Also I find it kind of funny that conservative christians essentially support a fascist dictator who throws political opponents and those he disagrees with in prison forever. If a dictator like that rose in the US, most of them would be the first to exercise their second amendment rights--even if it gets them killed.
So this is what "thinkers" do when asked to provide evidence that 'might does not make right." they seek to win the argument based on an appeal to popularity rather than sound theology or even basic judgment.
Dude. I said I read the Bible. Again. I've read it. I won't argue about what's in it anymore. First you'd need to prove there is a god, then that it's your specific one. Good luck with that.
"Hipster is what happens when young hot people do what old ladies do." -Exian
Hmm...let's see. l'm going to go with....
Because, sin to this "God" character is simply a matter of disobedience, as opposed to good/bad, right/wrong. And, I'm guessing He certainly can't disobey himself, being all la-di-da, and such.
So, if He tells you not to kill as a general rule, don't.
If He tells you to get to killin', best hop to it.
Yes, disobedience: It's what's for dinner. My final answer.
(May 9, 2017 at 6:13 pm)Thena323 Wrote: Hmm...let's see. l'm going to go with....
Because, sin to this "God" character is simply a matter of disobedience, as opposed to good/bad, right/wrong. And, I'm guessing He certainly can't disobey himself, being all la-di-da, and such.
So, if He tells you not to kill as a general rule, don't.
If He tells you to get to killin', best hop to it.
Yes, disobedience: It's what's for dinner. My final answer.
Yup religious morality is essentially
Obey our dear leader and his nature makes it right somehow
Seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.
May 9, 2017 at 6:34 pm (This post was last modified: May 9, 2017 at 6:44 pm by Aroura.)
"A God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell—mouths mercy and invented hell—mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites a poor, abused slave to worship him!"
~Mark Twain, A Mysterious Stranger.
I love that line from the, "I can do no wrong, for I do not know what it is", even though the line in the books is a bit different, it conveys the same alien monstrosity that Twain seemed to view as God in the latter part of his life.
(May 9, 2017 at 4:45 pm)Drich Wrote: So this is what "thinkers" do when asked to provide evidence that 'might does not make right." they seek to win the argument based on an appeal to popularity rather than sound theology or even basic judgment.
Once again, Christians are being killed by some Muslim countries by their regimes.
Is this right just because the might in those countries are Muslim, and have passed blasphemy laws?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
(May 9, 2017 at 6:13 pm)Thena323 Wrote: Hmm...let's see. l'm going to go with....
Because, sin to this "God" character is simply a matter of disobedience, as opposed to good/bad, right/wrong. And, I'm guessing He certainly can't disobey himself, being all la-di-da, and such.
So, if He tells you not to kill as a general rule, don't.
If He tells you to get to killin', best hop to it.
Yes, disobedience: It's what's for dinner. My final answer.
Yup religious morality is essentially
Obey our dear leader and his nature makes it right somehow
Oh and assert bible passages
Seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.
Theists wrongfully believe that their god is good no matter what he does. He can do whatever he wants and call himself good because he is god.
My boyfriend was watching a reality show on television about women escaping polygamy. These women who escaped are sharing their experiences such as being informed that The Order, as it is called, is good and knows best how these women should live their lives.
The Order and God are one and the same; both use fear and intimidation tactics.
Those who finally realize that God is not good can escape. Those who prefer the fantasy over reality are forever stuck in their own bubbles.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter