abyz, the god in the old testament is a gangster. nothing less. he throws down the hammer quite often. alot of christians like to dodge the old testament in my experience speaking with them.
God is love. What else is new? Even the Humanists who deny His existence admit that love is as close to the divine as animate beings can get.
i think it possibly says, i repeat "possibly", that the new testament was sweetened up a little to hook in more people.
You have added nothing to this forum, and less to this thread. Funny, considering that you profess to have some knowledge of religion. Why haven't you just fizzled out like the ember that you are?
Your previous post stated that "most" of the bible was fabricated. I think you may have exaggerated. edit: My bad - it was GordonGecko that said that. You just posted that Maher thing.
Of course it was. Thoughout the bible, gOD changes hIS methodology to suit hIS needs. Why should the "new" testament be any different? It's basically a revised rulebook.
gOD created some inferior cavemen-types who were able to survive, but not conceive of gOD. They worshipped fire. They died. The gOD created some more cavemen-types who were able to create fire and worship gOD, but they were still too stupid to create civilization. They built some bad-ass pyramid-like structures, though, those failed experiments. They died, too. Then gOD created a man-like species, but while they were able to conceive of gOD, they weren't able to conform to hIS rules. Not well enough, anyway. Died. gOD has killed so many species on this planet that hE could be considered the most accomplished seriel killer to ever exist. If, of course, we could prove hE ever existed. This planet is a giant petri dish, or a lab full of them, and gOD is the guy calling the shots. hE may even be some pimply junior lab tech that is trying to impress hIS boss. But hE is not good at what hE does, and has failed so many times that our species needs to dig thousands of feet into our own soil to realize hIS mistakes. And yet there are people still willing to believe that hE knows what hE is doing.
in the end though, how sweet is it in reality? if you don't accept christ and god as your savior, you will burn. i think the bible is a great read on how to and how not to treat people, but i don't need it to know that you should be cool to your fellow man. i think if you don't know that from the door, then you're damaged goods already right?
It is nothing more than a history-laden rulebook that contains a few truths of history and also contains an etiquette guide. The etiquette guide has some decent rules that pertain mainly to people 2000 years ago, but mostly it is a rulebook that politicians wearing religious garb use to govern people too culturally insecure to allow themselves not to listen to. Hey, gOD allowed hIS only begotten son to die for you. PSYCHE! HE DIDN'T DIE! THE MOTHERFUCKER WALKED ON WATER!! HE'S UP HERE WITH ME CHILLING IN THE MOTHERFUCKIN AFTERLIFE! DON'T EAT PORK!!!
My own preference. I'm sure I am not the first person that felt like he was being belittled by some fairie tale in order to have to capitalize the H in he and the G in god and the H in his. It's the first thing you learn about gOD in the bible and it's a crock.
I believe in God because I accept that things exist. To me the existence of something, anything is proof of an origin and that origin is god. I just don't pretend to know who god is or what form he/she/it takes. I think atheism is a total cop-out and more of a rebellion against organized religion than an actual philosophy. Likewise anyone who tries to convince you that they know god and know exactly what god is thinking is also a fool. After living close to 40 years what I am sure about is that individualism is a purely temporary practical material matter and in the grand scheme of things a complete waste of time. The only constant is a mysterious collective that we are all a part of and instead of working to enrich ourselves and seeking one temporary high after another, we should be working to improve the lives of others and the world in which we live
the problem is, as we have already discussed, there are no facts to prove or discount God, so your position disputing him isn't based on any facts. so, if that is your criteria, you have already negated your position. now, we come to the part of logical, reason, and believability. it was logical, reasonable and believable when the big bang first became the popular thought that gravity would eventually contract the universe because that was our perception of how gravity would work. of course the discovery of dark matter contradicts that and it is likely the universe will continue to expand infinitely. so our logic was merely an illusion of our ignorance, even if the belief appeared reasonable. and as our knowledge of quantum physics grows, it is completely destroying all concepts of the boundaries of what we thought was logical, reasonable and believable in the physical universe. the idea of supernatural falls into the same criteria as I described above, as just being the result of our ignorance. if you went back before the discovery of harnessing fire with a lighter, you would appear supernatural, but there is nothing supernatural about it. go back 10,000 years with a cell phone (and ability to make it function) and you would appear supernatural. the perception of supernatural is a result of our ignorance, not an indictment of those devices. and the more science reveals to us about the complexity of the physical universe, especially at the quantum level, the less supernatural a concept like a "spiritual" being existing on different plain of existence (multiverse?) appears. so dismissing them as supernatural isn't logical at all.
I believe in blenders because I accept that mixed drinks exist. To me, the existence of something, anything, is proof that I can touch it and understand it. What makes a rock such a magical item to you? Because a book told you so? I don't pretend to know who gOD is. But since we are provided with this amazing book that gOD supposedly helped write, I think I have a head start on understanding hIM. Not just what hE tells me to do, but how hE thinks. Define atheism. You already said that if you see anything, you believe that gOD created it. Doesn't that make you a hypocrite? How can you know gOD without recognizing his creations? I am also close to 40 years, and what I am sure about is that there are people out there that watch American Idol and then talk about it the next day, there are people that talk about what some useless actor is glamming on the red carpet after the Oscars, there are people that ask me day after day what my Facebook page is. Individualism is alien to the human race. We are closer to ants than anyone wants to care to admit. Except that we have some caretaker trying to lead us in a certain direction. Not just little workers building an ant mount or a pyramid. We would not still be here if there was not a purpose for this existence. How do you propose that we improve the lives of others? I havee given to charity, I have built houses, I have participated in drives to help disabled children. And yet it still does not truly help the human race. Because something else controls us.
this is good "GordonGodko"! It's basically all the spirituality one truly needs to be a decent person, and without the yokes of organized religion. i do like this post you made! :beer:
