grogan2767
Banned
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- Sep 9, 2006
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From the point of view of a reasonable debate, it's easy to defeat someone who believes the Bible. Simply put, you have no proof and you acknowledge it. You further seem to tacitly acknowledge that it may be impossible to defend your faith thru reason. You claim it simply should be believed because it's true. Further, you claim that everyone else knows this. Any one hearing you who knows they are not suppressing the truth but simply and honestly don't believe the things you do, will be as unimpressed as you are with arguments for believing in Allah or Zeus.
As I was saying, you claim it simply should be believed because it's true. Further, you claim that everyone else knows this. I can assure you that I am suppressing no such knowledge. After spending close to 20 years as an evangelical bible believing Christian, walking with Jesus and trusting him for my salvation, abandoning these beliefs was not done without some careful thought. During this time I didn't experience "faith" which I was trying to surpress. I didn't experience a sense of guilt or conviction. For a period of time, I was trying to hold on to faith but I was increasingly becoming aware of the truth that Christianity is in fact, incorrect.
You see, I can say regarding anything "I believe it and it's simply true - God says so . . . " I can even get it from one of several self validating holy books (the bible is not the only one as you know). Here perhaps you may choose to demonstrate that the bible stands alone, but that's a silly argument. Christians are funny cuz they rip up other peoples' holy literature and find fault over anything and everything they can, then accept the weakest defenses in protecting their own holy book. If the defenses christians used are used with the koran, the bhagvagita and other holy texts, they'd all be considered infallible.
Anyway, the bible really is full of contradictions - and I've read books by evangelicals trying to demonstrate that it's not - and if you read some efforts written to resolve contradictions in the bible with an open mind, you will most likely find many such efforts unconvincing. I acknowledge that some efforts to find contradictions in the bible are misinformed from a poor understanding of the text but there are many scholarly examples of unresolvable contradictions in the bible - the resurrection accounts cannot be harmonized. Efforts by evangelical scholars that claim a high degree of harmonization without internal contradiction inevitably contradict the original gospel accounts - I would prefer to let you do your own homework on biblical contradictions - suffice it to say, if you want to be certain that the book is not infallible the evidence is there. It's also worth noting that a fair reading of the NT clearly implies the return of Christ within the lifetime of the d isciples.
But the morality issue is more troubling. You are willing to accept a claim that God can do anything - sanction murder, the slaughtering of babies? Is there anything so horrific that you would say God couldn't do it? He commands the slaughter of BABIES!! He will cause more suffering to more human beings (His "just" punishment of eternity in hell for the "lost") than any other evil being real or supposed in existence!! Hitler didn't even cause the kind of torment to the numbers of people God will.
It is clear that you claim a "standard of God" which allows your "imaginary friend (i.e. God)" to do any evil and be exhonorated because "his ways are not are ways" and we are evil sinners worthy of condemnation so blah blah blah - I'm sorry - this is a severe lapse in moral judgment and a critical flaw with Christian thinking.
A good being cannot be inferior morally to your average decent human. For the sake of argument, suffice it to say that we don't know for sure how it is that most humans the sense of right or wrong that we have. (Actually I believe there are scientific reasons, but rather than debate them, for the sake of argument I'm saying let's suppose we don't know). The fact remains that most of us do still have a sense of right and wrong. Most of us know it's wrong to slaughter babies, and most of us know nazi germany was wrong. We don't need to know why we know. We know!! And you can think you do know why, but you could be wrong.
It's very troubling though to say that since reason can be fallible and human morality can be imperfect, we should appeal to a suppose deity whose message to humanity is "I love you but I also feel you deserve eternity in hell. It's ok though because I slaughtered my son in your place - I'm still going to burn most of you for eternity though since many of you won't believe in me - oh, and by the way, offering your son as a sacrifice or slaughtering babies like I commanded in the Old Testament is good when I say do it. Come on man!! That book's going to be your source for absolute authority? Sure some of it's nicely written, and there are some nice moral standards, but actually there are some higher moral standards that people live with today than those found in the bible. It is, after all, 2000 year old morality. The sermon on the mount if taken literally will lead to obsessive compulsive neuroticism as you keep worrying about every sinful thought that crosses your mind.
I've known many Christians that are happy half the time but there life and emotional health is severely compromised by a concern that they might offend God - despite the fact that they profess to be completely saved and covered in the blood of Jesus. You may claim they don't understand grace. I claim that there's no such thing as God and you can tell people about grace all day long but when it's grace from a being who sent armies to slaughter babies and killed his own son to make peace with you and still monitors your everythought and wants you to continue to confess your sins, most people are going to remain a bit neurotic around that sort of imaginary friend.
I'm rambling a bit but suffice it to say that the truth is out there. If you want to be free from your dogma you can know with certainty that the bible contains errors, and certain archeological discoveries demonstrate that parts of it are false once and for all. Of course it was written in history so parts are validated by archeology. This is true of other religious texts as well. But some discoveries lead to conclusions that demonstrate certainly the once and for all false hood of the bible. For instance, we now know that at the time the red sea was supposedly crossed by the israelites, the egyptians actually occupied (military occupation) the wilderness that the israelites supposedly wondered, so they would've simply crossed into the hands of their enemies.
I would encourage you to free yourself of your imaginary friend. The real truth that's being suppressed is the realization that though you believe in him, you have not seen him, felt him, or heard from him in anyway. You simply keep telling yourself that you do. Perhaps when your mind is really most awakened to the reality that he's not there, fear of hell keeps you in line as you pray "I believe Jesus, help my unbelief". He does not hear you. He is not there. You're just being silly. But this silliness can lead to bad moral decisions and constrict you from living a truly healthy life. Abandon Christ. He is not there. He will not mind.
As I was saying, you claim it simply should be believed because it's true. Further, you claim that everyone else knows this. I can assure you that I am suppressing no such knowledge. After spending close to 20 years as an evangelical bible believing Christian, walking with Jesus and trusting him for my salvation, abandoning these beliefs was not done without some careful thought. During this time I didn't experience "faith" which I was trying to surpress. I didn't experience a sense of guilt or conviction. For a period of time, I was trying to hold on to faith but I was increasingly becoming aware of the truth that Christianity is in fact, incorrect.
You see, I can say regarding anything "I believe it and it's simply true - God says so . . . " I can even get it from one of several self validating holy books (the bible is not the only one as you know). Here perhaps you may choose to demonstrate that the bible stands alone, but that's a silly argument. Christians are funny cuz they rip up other peoples' holy literature and find fault over anything and everything they can, then accept the weakest defenses in protecting their own holy book. If the defenses christians used are used with the koran, the bhagvagita and other holy texts, they'd all be considered infallible.
Anyway, the bible really is full of contradictions - and I've read books by evangelicals trying to demonstrate that it's not - and if you read some efforts written to resolve contradictions in the bible with an open mind, you will most likely find many such efforts unconvincing. I acknowledge that some efforts to find contradictions in the bible are misinformed from a poor understanding of the text but there are many scholarly examples of unresolvable contradictions in the bible - the resurrection accounts cannot be harmonized. Efforts by evangelical scholars that claim a high degree of harmonization without internal contradiction inevitably contradict the original gospel accounts - I would prefer to let you do your own homework on biblical contradictions - suffice it to say, if you want to be certain that the book is not infallible the evidence is there. It's also worth noting that a fair reading of the NT clearly implies the return of Christ within the lifetime of the d isciples.
But the morality issue is more troubling. You are willing to accept a claim that God can do anything - sanction murder, the slaughtering of babies? Is there anything so horrific that you would say God couldn't do it? He commands the slaughter of BABIES!! He will cause more suffering to more human beings (His "just" punishment of eternity in hell for the "lost") than any other evil being real or supposed in existence!! Hitler didn't even cause the kind of torment to the numbers of people God will.
It is clear that you claim a "standard of God" which allows your "imaginary friend (i.e. God)" to do any evil and be exhonorated because "his ways are not are ways" and we are evil sinners worthy of condemnation so blah blah blah - I'm sorry - this is a severe lapse in moral judgment and a critical flaw with Christian thinking.
A good being cannot be inferior morally to your average decent human. For the sake of argument, suffice it to say that we don't know for sure how it is that most humans the sense of right or wrong that we have. (Actually I believe there are scientific reasons, but rather than debate them, for the sake of argument I'm saying let's suppose we don't know). The fact remains that most of us do still have a sense of right and wrong. Most of us know it's wrong to slaughter babies, and most of us know nazi germany was wrong. We don't need to know why we know. We know!! And you can think you do know why, but you could be wrong.
It's very troubling though to say that since reason can be fallible and human morality can be imperfect, we should appeal to a suppose deity whose message to humanity is "I love you but I also feel you deserve eternity in hell. It's ok though because I slaughtered my son in your place - I'm still going to burn most of you for eternity though since many of you won't believe in me - oh, and by the way, offering your son as a sacrifice or slaughtering babies like I commanded in the Old Testament is good when I say do it. Come on man!! That book's going to be your source for absolute authority? Sure some of it's nicely written, and there are some nice moral standards, but actually there are some higher moral standards that people live with today than those found in the bible. It is, after all, 2000 year old morality. The sermon on the mount if taken literally will lead to obsessive compulsive neuroticism as you keep worrying about every sinful thought that crosses your mind.
I've known many Christians that are happy half the time but there life and emotional health is severely compromised by a concern that they might offend God - despite the fact that they profess to be completely saved and covered in the blood of Jesus. You may claim they don't understand grace. I claim that there's no such thing as God and you can tell people about grace all day long but when it's grace from a being who sent armies to slaughter babies and killed his own son to make peace with you and still monitors your everythought and wants you to continue to confess your sins, most people are going to remain a bit neurotic around that sort of imaginary friend.
I'm rambling a bit but suffice it to say that the truth is out there. If you want to be free from your dogma you can know with certainty that the bible contains errors, and certain archeological discoveries demonstrate that parts of it are false once and for all. Of course it was written in history so parts are validated by archeology. This is true of other religious texts as well. But some discoveries lead to conclusions that demonstrate certainly the once and for all false hood of the bible. For instance, we now know that at the time the red sea was supposedly crossed by the israelites, the egyptians actually occupied (military occupation) the wilderness that the israelites supposedly wondered, so they would've simply crossed into the hands of their enemies.
I would encourage you to free yourself of your imaginary friend. The real truth that's being suppressed is the realization that though you believe in him, you have not seen him, felt him, or heard from him in anyway. You simply keep telling yourself that you do. Perhaps when your mind is really most awakened to the reality that he's not there, fear of hell keeps you in line as you pray "I believe Jesus, help my unbelief". He does not hear you. He is not there. You're just being silly. But this silliness can lead to bad moral decisions and constrict you from living a truly healthy life. Abandon Christ. He is not there. He will not mind.