Sunday 29 October 2006

Today's Bible reading

We need to read the Bible because,say religionists, it is "the book of comfort and hope." Let's see:
And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters.--Deuteronomy 28:53
No, perhaps not.

LINK: Skeptic's Annotated Bible
Brick Testament

RELATED: Religion

16 comments:

Berend de Boer said...

Not sure how YOU read it (as a commandment??), but it is a prediction what would happen, how low they would fall in case they would leave God's commandments.

And it actually happened, read about the actual cannabalism that took place during a siege in 2 Kings 6:26-31.

Peter Cresswell said...

That's right, Berend, this is part of a long list of what God's prophets threaten you with if you leave the fold.

Comforting, huh.

A. J. Chesswas said...

Peter, you clearly need to get out more, you seem to have quite a skewed understanding of Christians and The Bible.

I was always taught that while The bible is a book of comfort and hope to those who trust in God's goodness, it is clearly a book of judgment and damnation to sinners to care not to think of their creator. I find that quite comforting - that the sins of those of us who live to wrecklessly and irreverently do not go unpunished.

Berend de Boer said...

pc, it is not a threat. It is a prediction. You think Lord of the Flies was a threat? Or a prediction?

Peter Cresswell said...

"Peter, you clearly need to get out more, you seem to have quite a skewed understanding of Christians and The Bible."

You have a dispute with the word of your God, AJ?

"The bible is ... clearly a book of judgment and damnation to sinners to care not to think of their creator.

Nice chap, your God.\

"You think Lord of the Flies was a threat? Or a prediction? "

I think it was fiction. Just like your Bible.

phil_style said...

If you drive your car into a brick wall at over 100 kph your body will be mangled beyond recognition, and pieces of it will be eaten by scavenging birds and insects.

I am such an awful bastard for sayign that . . .

A. J. Chesswas said...

You don't like him Peter? Would you prefer Santa to rule the Heavens with a ho ho ho and a bottle of rum?

Personally, I don't think Santa would be able to handle running a cosmos as sophisticated as ours. He'd probably take liberals too seriously and start feeling guilty about being overweight, and feeling bad about his desire for his creation to honour him and seek after him. They'd convince him he was being selfish and had no rights over that which he'd created. And he wouldn't have had the sensibility to foreordain to writings of John Locke...

Libertyscott said...

Oh dear. when the choice is between the vengeful Christian God who treated his son like a carcass and Santa Claus - I'd happily take Santa. At least I know what he looks like and he only breaks the laws of physics to make kids smile.

The bible is a book, a historic collection of articles penned by numerous individuals a couple of thousand years ago and translated.

The logical fallacy that it could be anything else other than that is so enormous that it begs belief that intelligent people could think otherwise.

For example, the omnipotent God that immerses different continents of the planet with numerous different religions - why not just replay the Jesus game around the world? Why not just create holocausts of damnation for those who worship others, and let those who witness it write about it. Why grant people brains to reason and act to decisively go against that reason? Why keep hidden the supposed afterlife and manifestly create human beings that in different measure suffer happiness and misery, in some cases through not the slightest fault of their own?

Fundamentally - an omnipotent God that does nothing in the face of unconscionable evil and suffering being committed against millions is evil by neglect. Holocaust, the communist 100 million, Rwanda, Armenia, Crusades, the list is endless.

Either, it's not real or it's a sick game based on - I'm God, I wont give you evidence I exist or that an afterlife exists, in fact I'll supply adequate evidence to deny it or offer alternatives to me and I'll let evil people propagate my point of view and go unpunished - but believe in me, I'm true, I'm love, I really am, I really did love those people I watched getting railed into Auschwitz and gassed - just believe me, ignore your senses and your mind - just believe in me.

I may as well believe Santa Claus loves me.

Berend de Boer said...

libertyscott, is your argument that if an all powerful God exists, he would prevent humans from harming themselves and others by using force?

Peter Cresswell said...

"You don't like him Peter?"

It's not a matter of "like him" or "not like him." It's primarily a matter of "is" or "isn't."

He isn't.

What comes from that, and what I really do not like, is the book full of atrocities that is accepted on faith as being the word of this imaginary friend, the many people who take this absurd nonsense seriously, and the worrying observation of Voltaire's that it is those who believe absurdities who commit atrocities.

A. J. Chesswas said...

As I said, you guys clearly need to get out more. Either you've never met a thinking Christian who is willing to talk to you, or you have an you've run a mile...

I'd quit speaking authoritatively on something you clearly know nothing about if I were you...

Peter Cresswell said...

Is this irony, AJ?

A. J. Chesswas said...

Well there's not really much point having a conversation if you and Scott's description of Christians is definitive.

If you want evidence of Christian life and thought grounded in reality you can always visit my blog. Both of you argue from experience, so until you realise that your negative perceptions and experiences of Christians are not exhaustive you'll just be a big fat impermeable Non-Christian brick wall...

Peter Cresswell said...

Meantime we'll just stay in and read our Bibles, huh?

A. J. Chesswas said...

Sounds good, just try thinking while you're reading it...

Peter Cresswell said...

Ha. It really is irony, isn't it. :-)