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how is it a distraction?
metaphor fail... and another red herring to boot.
how is it a distraction?
that's the kernel of the idea of jihad. I struggle with it too.
Not really. I read the Bible several times before reaching any conclusions, thank you.
I will even acknowledge some admiration for a few of the ideas and ideals in it. There is wisdom there.
On the same token, there is wisdom in the Q'uran, Baghavad Gita, Iliad, etc.
The wisdom though, is in what we decide it is, not because it is the word of a God. That is all we ever have.
That is the particular dynamic that I think you don't want to admit is at play. You have rejected some things in the Bible, and accepted others based on your own natural judgment.
As for "republicanism," all bubbles pop eventually. I think there's still a future for the GOP, if they go back to being the self help party. I mean, REALLY being the self help party. Part of 'self help' is educating yourself on current issues and progressing both personally and as a society. There's so much negative stigma, including even about the word "progressive," that is holding the right back in this country.
And the pandering to socially conservative people, mainly Christians, has got to stop. Look around you, look at how people dress, act and speak in public. We live in a permissive society now, which is becoming increasingly more liberal at exponential rates IMHO. We have for over a generation now, maybe a few depending on who you ask. It just is what it is. You can't stop tidal waves with flood gates.
One of my favorite Bible passages:
Mark 12:41-44
Helping others when it is easy is not the mark of character and virtue. Helping them when it is difficult is.He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, "Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on."
FWIW.
Except that to do it at every turn, in every thread, with every issue, comes off as a deranged obsession - the schtick is annoying.
I get it that you all don't believe... FINE. I personally don't go knocking on your doors trying to get you to believe in GOD.
I also get that you all "hate" that I believe what I do... that you think it's idiodic... the part that you all don't see, is that you all get more worked up over my reasons to believe than I do about the reasons why you all don't.
What does get me worked up is the insistence from those in your camp to suggest that belief in GOD makes believers intellectually inferior. That you all constantly proliferate a revisionist view of history to suggest that atheism or humanistic naturalism brought about the Scientific movement (when that was most definitely not the case).
But whatever... People like Blake and clambake are going to use foul, scornful, derisive language every chance they get... meh... whatever floats their boat.
jesus dude, i've already conceded on why you believe. i understand it .....completely.
It isn't a red herring.
The topic at hand is people believing things without real evidence to do so, i.e. insulating them from the real ascertainable truth.
Believing in something that provably did not by the evidence available, bears directly on that.
"Noah's flood happened as the Bible said it did" is a verifiable, falsifiable claim. If you believe it happened, and ignore the physical evidence it didn't, that would seem to be pretty important.
Don't you agree?
It's pretty well do ented that religious people, on a whole, are less intelligent. The more educated people are, the less likely they are to believe in stupid stuff like creationism/the bible.
GoodOdor: smarts ain't everything, boss.
btw, is that good cause to treat individuals as if they were statistical abstractions?
I haven't dismissed anything in the bible... I simply understand that there's a context for it.
I didn't get to answer you question about the directives to "murder" entire peoples including children... like I said, GOD in his existence (not bound by time) likely chose to cut off said wickedness in order to spare the loss of far more lives. And like in the Noah example (whether or not you believe the flood story) he gave people MORE than enough time to turn away from their wickedness and repent.
As for children, they belong to Him anyways... they don't go to as they do not yet know or understand the difference between right and wrong. And no there is no set cut-off age... it depends on when they understand the consequences of their actions. GOD shows children mercy given that even they are sinful (seriously, most children are innately self-centered and selfish... which is why we have to teach them that sharing is good, among other selfless virtues).
Anyways, I have to head out for lunch (I mean can I step away to eat Blake, or is that a problem - given that you couldn't even contain yourself from mocking my absence a few pages ago - I don't live in the forum dude)...
"most definitely" is not that way because you say it is. I reject that.
Belief in God/Allah/Zeus/Odin/Vishnu does not make one intellectually inferior, per se.
I think one can certainly say though, that some ideas about God are illogical, and some are actively contradicted by what we understand and know about our universe.
Even you would agree with that last bit, albeit for different reasons.
god just assumed they'd be bad. great.
sounds like a guy in the white house that carries something called a football.
Those questions will remain for you, whenever you decide to address them, if ever. If you choose not to answer them meaningfully, you should ask yourself why that is. God should never be afraid of honest answers, IMO.
Have a good lunch. My time here is up as well.
It's a metaphor fail, because I never equated Stalin with GOD. GOD's decision to wipe out earth's wickedness (after hundreds of years of trying to get folks to repent, no less) cannot be placed on equal footing with Stalin's motivation to be a tyrannical dictator. One is an omnipotent infinite being and the other was bound by the finite limitations of his mortal body. Again not comparable.
Peace out!
he also killed people that committed no sin. thats tyranny.
That asshole Adam made sure we were all born with sin. It's called original sin. So even someone who lived a perfect life doesn't receive salvation without Jesu Cristo.
However I'm pretty sure everyone gets a second chance during the Second Coming. Pastors don't like you knowing that though.
no big deal. i found out you can stumble all you want as long as you praise the lord.
was just wondering if you were going to scold everyone equally.
I thought I would give you the opportunity.
You're the arbiter of scolding? What..are you a Catholic School Marm?
idiocy sometimes strikes a nerve with me.
Luckily for you, I'm not an OT prophet because I might send a bear to kill your children.
...
Last edited by RandomGuy; 11-14-2012 at 02:30 PM. Reason: PM's honesty is now beside the point, however dubious its existence
Q: Why would God murder children?
"They belong to him anyways".
Wow.
I missed that bit.
Restated:
"If God did it, it is moral". That is your working definition.
God ordering children hacked to death is ok.
Stalin ordering children hacked to death is not ok.
This is logically consistent to you, because you have placed God outside any reasonable standard of behavior that rational people could come up with.
I have been trying really hard to be respectful, but you have just rationalized murdering children in cold blood, be it drowning or put to the sword. That pisses me off at a very deep level. I can hang with you being dishonest with me, and yourself, but this...
Your beliefs do not make you intellectually inferior. They make you morally inferior.
Under no cir stances would I ever think that hacking children to death or drowning them for what their parents did is moral. Anyone ordering this is evil. The God you believe in, is by that simple understandable metric, evil. In time, out of time, omnipotent, infinite, finite, whatever. My moral system is superior to yours, and His, for that matter, on this basis.
Nothing makes butchering children acceptable. Nothing. Shame on you for even hinting at it.
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