B2-BibleB.txt

Graham L. Kendall
Email grahamkendall74135@yahoo.com
Modified 5/12/2008
I am found on IRC Efnet/Undernet/Dalnet as glk
http://www.grahamkendall.net/
Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact, or fact are transmission errors.
That makes it the fault of somebody else.
All are free to use any of this material without limit.
http://snipurl.com/yt8o my url
http://tinyurl.com/ydjvt3 my url
**
*******************************************************************************
==
Dawkins compares religion to a virus: religious ideas are memes that
infect vulnerable minds, especially those of children. Biological
metaphors may have their uses - the minds of evangelical atheists
seem particularly prone to infection by religious memes, for example.
==
http://www.atheistthinktank.com/
==
2Cor4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them. (KJV)

How many gods are there?
==
According to Greek mythology, Atlas fought in a war against Zeus and, as
punishment, was doomed to hold the heavens aloft for eternity. 
==
Scientists who rejected Bible claims.

Galileo believed in God, but not in the validity
of the Biblical history. He once said, "The Bible
was written to show us how to go to heaven, not
how the heavens go."

Albert Einstein didn't believe in the validity
of the Biblical history.

Marie Curie was an outright atheist.

Almost all of the Nobel Prize winners in the
scientists say that they are atheists or
agnostics. Here are some that you may have
heard of:

Paul D. Boyer (1918): American biochemist and
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1997.

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (19101995): Indian
American astrophysicist known for his theoretical
work on the structure and evolution of stars.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.

Paul Dirac (19021984): British theoretical
physicist, founder of quantum mechanics, predicted
the existence of antimatter; won the Nobel Prize
in Physics in 1933.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988): American theoretical
physicist, best known for his work in renormalizing
Quantum electrodynamics and his path integral
formulation of Quantum Mechanics . He won the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965.

Vitaly Ginzburg (1916): Russian theoretical
physicist and astrophysicist who was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2003. He was
also awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1994/95.

Frederic Joliot-Curie (1900-1958): French physicist
and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1935.

Harold Kroto (1939): 1996 Nobel Laureate in
Chemistry.

Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956): American biologist, sexologist and
professor of entomology and zoology.

Peter D. Mitchell (1920-1992): 1978-Nobel-laureate
British biochemist.

Jacques Monod (1910-1976): French biologist
who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
in 1965 for discoveries concerning genetic control
of enzyme and virus synthesis.

Hermann Joseph Muller (1890-1967): American
geneticist and educator, best known for his
work on the physiological and genetic effects
of radiation (X-ray mutagenesis) . He won
the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
in 1946.

Linus Pauling (1901-1994): Nobel Laureate in
Chemistry (1954) and Peace (1962)

Richard J. Roberts (1943): British biochemist
and molecular biologist. He won the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine in 1993 for the discovery
of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism
of gene-splicing.
-
Michael Smith (1932-2000): British-born Canadian
biochemist and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1993.

Alan Turing (1912-1954): English mathematician,
logician, and cryptographer. Turing is often
considered to be the father of modern computer
science. The Turing Award, often recognized as
the "Nobel Prize of computing", is named after
him.

James D. Watson (1928): 1962-Nobel-laureate
co-discover of the structure of DNA.

Steven Weinberg (1933): American theoretical
physicist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics
in 1979 for combining electromagnetism and the
weak force into the electroweak force.
==
God created all things good, except for a few bad things that he put around to
trick the people who existed, then when they were tricked and he had known
they would be he threw a fit and punished everyone forever.
==
http://talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html#CH400-CH599  refute Bible
==
Question: How can an omniscient being take an action that he will
later repent? 
==
"Secular" does mean "godless," and its neutral meaning
has always fought with the more negative one;
recently, though, the word has taken on a lot more
freight. Like the words "feminist" and "liberal,"
"secular" and its derivatives have come to mean
extreme versions of themselves. They are code in
conservative Christian circles for "atheist" or even
"God hating"they conjure, in a fresh way, all the
demons Christian conservatives have been fighting for
more than 30 years: liberalism, sexual permissiveness
and moral lassitude. The Fox News star Bill O'Reilly
frequently frames the culture war as "traditionals
versus secular-progressive s." Ann Coulter accused "the
liberals and the secularists and atheists" of using
religion as a wedge. In a speech last year, Newt
Gingrich decried the "growing culture of radical
secularism," and in a new book the diplomat John
Bolton critiques "the High Minded elite who worship at
the altar of the Secular Pope." In politics, where it
is efficacious to unite people against a common enemy,
"secularism" has become that enemy's new name.

To be fair, battles in the war against secularism have
been fought for about 150 years, dating back to a time
when discoveries in science (especially those of
Charles Darwin) and a disenchantment with organized
religion led a critical mass of mostly European
intellectuals to declare that one could lead a moral
life independent of God. By the middle of the 20th
century, their heirs had coined the term "secular
humanism," to mean a concern with values but not with
religion, and the Rev. Jerry Falwell took particular
aim at them. In 1986, he proclaimed that secular
humanists "challenge every principle on which America
was founded," including "abortion on demand,
recognition of homosexuals, free use of pornography,
legalizing of prostitution and gambling, and free use
of drugs." Pope Benedict XVI speaks out frequently
against the dangers of secularism.
==
Sir Bedevere: "What makes you think she's a witch?" Peasant 3: "Well, she
turned me into a newt!" Sir Bedevere: "A newt?" Peasant 3: [meekly after a
long pause] "I got better." Crowd: [shouts] "Burn her anyway!"--
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail," 1975
==
ACLU of Tennessee Fights for Religious Freedom in Wilson County Public School
NASHVILLE - Acting on behalf of a Wilson County family, the American Civil
Liberties Union of Tennessee today asked a federal court to end practices by
teachers and other officials that put pressure on students to engage in
religious activities at Lakeview Elementary School.
The ACLU said it is bringing the lawsuit after repeated attempts by the family
to end the school-sponsored religious activities, which they believe interfere
with their right to religious freedom.
It is unfortunate that we had to go to court to protect religious freedom but
we had no other choice. We are pursuing this lawsuit so that Wilson County
residents can decide for themselves whether or not they want to practice a
particular religious faith, said ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy
Weinberg.
School administrators repeatedly disregarded the familys requests and
continued to promote and sponsor activities like Prayer at the Flag Pole and
Praying Parents, whose members enter classrooms and tell students that they
have prayed for them. Rather than taking the familys requests seriously, the
school administrators encouraged the family to withdraw their child from the
school.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU of Tennessee argues that the pattern and practice of
promoting and endorsing religious activities by the Wilson County public
school system is unconstitutional. In addition to Praying Parents and Prayer
at the Flag Pole, the Wilson County school system promotes a range of
religious activities, including a National Day of Prayer event and teacher-led
classroom prayers, according to the lawsuit.
Families have the right to decide for themselves whether to pray, when to
pray, how to pray, and where to pray. It is the role of the family not the
public school to make those very personal decisions, added Weinberg. By
promoting their own personal beliefs, Lakeview officials are broadcasting a
divisive message to the religiously pluralistic community of Wilson County.
The ACLU filed todays lawsuit, John Doe and Jane Doe v. Wilson County School
System, in the United States District Court for the Middle District of
Tennessee. The family wishes to remain anonymous because they fear for their
childs safety. The ACLU said the fact that the family does not want to be
identified for fear of reprisals further demonstrates the divisions created in
a community when the government takes sides on religious issues.

==
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Walter Jones has re-introduced his "Houses of
Worship Free Speech Protection Act" which would insulate religious
groups from IRS scrutiny and permit churches to openly endorse and
campaign for partisan candidates.
==
http://WWW.SNAKESINTHEPULPIT.COM/
==
Genesis 1:26 Wayamar elohym nashah adam betselemnu 
kedemuthnu.. ..."And God(s) said, Let us make man in our image, after our 
likeness" This text is ancient and goes back to when YHWH had a 
wife...Asherah. At that time, YHWH was depicted as a bull with a big $%&&# 
and Asherah was a heifer.
==
Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are
caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate
and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. -George Washington, letter to
Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792
As to religion, I hold it to be the indispensable duty of government to
protect all conscientious protesters thereof, and I know of no other business
government has to do therewith. -Thomas Paine, the Rights of Man
Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are
mixed together. -James Madison
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every
noble enterprise. -James Madison
...our civil rights have no dependence on religious opinions, any more than
our opinions in physics and geometry. -Thomas Jefferson
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for
enslaving mankind ... to filch wealth and power to themselves. [They], in
fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ. -Thomas Jefferson
Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained
without religions. -George Washington
I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to
establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and
every species of religious persecution. -George Washington, to United Baptists
Churches of Virginia, May, 1789
Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and
irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. -George
Washington, letter to Sir Edward Newenham, June 22, 1792
...the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense,
founded on the Christian religion... -Treaty of Tripoli
==
The pope gave at the same university as a cardinal in 1990 -- claimed he
condones the 1633 trial and conviction of the scientist Galileo for heresy.
The astronomer had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun, in
contradiction to church teachings at the time, and he was forced to renounce
his findings publicly.
In comments made 15 years ago when he was still a cardinal, Pope Benedict is
reported to have called the trial "reasonable and just."
During his speech, the pope -- then Cardinal Ratzinger -- quoted an Austrian
philosopher Paul Feyerabend, saying, "At the time of Galileo, the church
remained more loyal (or faithful) to reason than Galileo himself.
==
Genesis 11:7
Go to (Come), let us go down, and there confound their language,
that they may not understand one another's speech.

1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion ...
==
The fundies usually argue that the "plural" god
represents the Trinity -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
in one. Alas, there are three problems with that ---
(1) the Jews who wrote Genesis never believed in any
Trinity, (2) neither did many Christians (until it was
forced upon them by later Christian councils --- and a
sizeable number still reject the idea of a Trinity),
and (3) there are many other places where god is
referred to in the singular.
==
 Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be
tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in
the presence of the Lamb: 
 
mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

mal 4:1 "Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the
arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will
set them on fire," says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be
left to them.

Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them
on the day of the LORD's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world
will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth."

mar 9:46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

I know the plans that I have for you, for welfare and not for calamity, to
give you a future and a hope. You will seek Me and find Me when you search
for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13

rev 20:10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of
burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.
They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
==
There is a proposed House Resolution 888, which designates
the first week of May as "American Religious History Week.

mar 9:45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee
to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into
the fire that never shall be quenched:  [offend...: or, cause thee to offend]
==
"The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no
basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our
Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders' political views were
strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters
of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete
with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government's
hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment
was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church
like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life."
--Ron Paul, 12/03
==
2ki 2:23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road,
ome youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!"
they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!"
niv 22ki 2:24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a
curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods
and mauled forty-two of the youths.
==
"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was
produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was
crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound
nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons
of Jupiter." (Justin Martyr--CHAP. XXI.--ANALOGIES TO THE HISTORY OF CHRIST )
==
Nasb Mathew 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they
entered the holy city and appeared to many.
===
Five days after the tornado tore through the state, this city of 10,000 lay in
ruins. The cyclone destroyed an office building, a bank, a pharmacy and 70
other businesses. The electricity was out. The National Guard patrolled the
streets. Six people were dead. In Little Rock, GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee was
reviewing a disaster insurance measure that he intended to support when he
became troubled: The bill, drawing on centuries-old legal terminology,
referred to natural disasters as "acts of God." In a time of emergency,
Huckabee would hold up the measure for more than three weeks to press his
personal objection that the Almighty could not be blamed for the region's loss.
 Baptist minister and 2008 presidential
candidate Mike Huckabee, who delivered a sermon of more than 20 minutes on how
to be part of "God's Army" in the middle school cafeteria where the
congregation meets. "When we become believers, it's as if we have signed up to
be part of God's Army, to be soldiers for Christ," Huckabee told the
enthusiastic audience. 

Mike Huckabee, a Republican relying on support from religious conservatives in
Thursday's hard-fought presidential caucuses, on Sunday stood by a decade-old
comment in which he said, "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this
nation back for Christ." In a television interview, the ordained Southern
Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor made no apologies for the 1998
comment made at a Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Salt Lake City. "It
was a speech made to a Christian gathering, and, and certainly that would be
appropriate to be said to a gathering of Southern Baptists," Huckabee said on
NBC's "Meet the Press." He gave the speech the same year he endorsed the
Baptist convention's statement of beliefs on marriage that "a wife is to
submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church
willingly submits to the headship of Christ." Huckabee and his wife, Janet,
signed a full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement with 129 other
evangelical leaders. The former governor, who rallied Christian evangelicals
to make him a surprise force in Iowa, has put his faith front and center in
his campaign. His stump speech sounds like a pastor's pitch from a pulpit.
Campaign ads emphasize faith and call him a Christian leader. He frequently
quotes Bible verses.
==
Jesus is portrayed as a child murderer.
"I will kill her children with death"    Revelation 2:22-23
==
http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/seb/comments/god_vs_science/
==
The preachers control the people. The people vote in the school board.
The school board hires and fires teachers. That explains the poor education
students get in the US.  glk
==
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_bibl.htm  Bible errors
==
exo 33:23  then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back;
but my face shall not be seen."

kjv exo 33:23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my
back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
==
amo 9:2 "Though they dig into hell, From there my hand shall take them;
Though they climb up to heaven, From there I will bring them down;
===
Children raised in strict religious families are more likely to have sex
earlier than otherwise.
==
Institutions for kids in atheist families also includes Camp Quest , a 
group of sleep-away summer camps in five states plus Ontario , and the 
Carl Sagan Academy in Tampa , Fla. , the country's first Humanism-
influenced public charter school,
==
"I cannot prove to you that there is no personal
God, but if I were to speak of him, I would be a
liar. I do not believe in the God of theology who
rewards good and punishes evil. My God created
laws that take care of that. His universe is
not ruled by wishful thinking, but by immutable laws."

W. Hermanns, "Einstein and the PoetIn Search
of the Cosmic Man" (Branden Press, Brookline
Village, Mass., 1983), p.132.
==
The role of science isn't to provide
spiritual support in moments of crisis. Neither
gravity nor evolution were discovered & shown valid in
order to fulfill this function. That's the realm of
belief systems, not the way of learning about the
natural world. Science & religion meet different
needs of human existence. I wish you & everyone else
would figure out how to separate them.
==
Eccl.3:19,20 "There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an
eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As one
dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there can
be no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity. All are
going to one place. They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all
returning to the dust."
==
Eccl. 9:5,10: "The living are conscious that they will die; but as for
the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all ... All that your hands find
to do, do with your very power, for there is no work, nor devising, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol
==
ThisNovember5th.com was created in memory of Guy Fawkes' failed
Gunpowder Plot in England in 1608. Fawkes planned to blow up Parliament
and kill King James I to restore the Catholic Church in Protestant
England.
==
The Episcopalians burned Edmund Champion, and beheaded Thomas More.
==
"Overall, translators know that the Bible is the product of cultures whose
modes of life and thought were very different from ours. In some cases, the
Bible's philosophy is so barbaric and violent that it defies explaining why
anyone would consider it sacred at all." - Bible Scholar Hector Avalos
==
Both sheep and goats are clean animals.
==
1st Timothy 2:11  A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire
submissiveness. (NAS)
==
It was on reflection of the behaviour of
some people during war, that, as an atheist, I started to study the
weird behaviour of those who have been affected. It seems to me
that fear is the key motivator in religion, especially when that
fear brings to the surface indoctrination from an early age. Fear
drives most people into herds/tribes and the need to seek
a "leader". The Gurus of religions may be the end result of this
need. Let's face it, the details set out in parts of the Bible
under the heading of Joshua, more that reflect the gullibility of
tribes, when the fear of a god's wrath stimulates their beliefs
centre. All rational thought appears to leave man when under its
influence. In the light of recent studies in Epilepsy, a brain lobe
thought to be a remanent of our early evolution, has been dubbed by
some partaking scientists, as the "God centre" for, when stimulated
by electro/magnetic signals, people, many of whom have no religious
affiliation (but not atheist), will reach a state of ecstacy
remininscence of religious people under the influence. Only those
who were atheist, showed little or no response to the stimulous.
I therefore consider that many of those who argue for creationism,
have not yet reached a stage in evolution when they have the ability
to use the reasoning side of the brain to overcome the adverse
influence of this brain lobe, which has been shown to be the part
responsible for causing hallucination and other adverse effects that
may be seen in Epilepsy.
==
"Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is
simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, "atheism" is a term that
should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a
"non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist. " We do not have words for people
who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the
galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing
more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of
unjustified religious beliefs. An atheist is simply a person who
believes that the 260 million Americans (87 percent of the population)
claiming to "never doubt the existence of God" should be obliged to
present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence,
given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in
the world each day. An atheist is a person who believes that the murder
of a single little girl -- once in a million years -- casts doubt upon
the idea of a benevolent God."
-- Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation pp 51-2
==
Vatican music
"Boys were castrated between the ages of 7 and 9 years, and underwent a long
period of voice training. A small number became international opera stars, of
whom the most famous was Farinelli, whose voice ranged over three octaves. By
the end of the 18th century, fashions in opera had changed so that the
castrati declined except in the Vatican, where the Sistine Chapel continued to
employ castrati until 1903. The last of the castrati was Alessandro Moreschi,
who died in 1924 and made gramophone recordings that provide the only
direct evidence of a castrato's singing voice."
Pope Sixtus V issued a papal Bull in 1589 which approved the recruitment of
castrati for the choir of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Castrati were later
widely employed by opera companies.
===
ATLANTA What to do when the rain won't come? If you're Georgia Gov.
Sonny Perdue, you pray. The governor will host a prayer service next week
to ask for relief from the drought gripping the Southeast.
==
2329 chuwg khoog from 2328; a circle:--circle, circuit, compass. <heb>02328
2328 chuwg khoog a primitive root (compare 2287); to describe a circle:
--compass. <heb>02287
==
DANIEL 12:2 "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will
awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace {and}
everlasting contempt. -NASB
==
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

The Aramaic says "yahwewh of the gods" (yy-el-ohim) not "god" (el)
or "gods" (el-ohim) nor "the god of this place"(elohe). And it
appears to be in the present tense: "In the beginning the yahweh
of the gods is preparing the heavens and the Earth...." The older
version has just "the gods" doing that job.

"The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament
(Genesis-Exodus)"
==
Matthew 24:38 Jesus believed in the flood. There was no Noah flood.
For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying
and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
==
An estimated 31,912 heretics were burned at the stake, 17,659 were burned in
effigy and 291,450 made reconciliations in the Spanish Inquisition.
In Portugal, about 40,000 cases were tried, although only 1,800 were burned,
the rest made penance.
In the beginning, the Inquisition dealt only with Christian heretics and did
not interfere with the affairs of Jews. However, disputes about Maimonides'
books (which addressed the synthesis of Judaism and other cultures) provided a
pretext for harassing Jews and, in 1242, the Inquisition condemned the Talmud
and burned thousands of volumes. In 1288, the first mass burning of Jews on the
stake took place in France.
==
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_virgin_births

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reports_of_unusual_religious_childbirths
==
Mat24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into
the ark, (KJV)
==
Time
10:12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the
Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel,
Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of
Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go
down about a whole day

The second passage, from 2 Kings, describes Hezekiah's request that God move
the sun ten degrees backwards as confirmation of his promise that Nezekiah
would be delivered into Heaven:

20:8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the LORD will
heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?
20:9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD
will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten
degrees, or go back ten degrees?
20:10 And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down
ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
20:11 And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow
ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.
[NOTE: All passages above are quoted from the King James Version.]
==
It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than
they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and
four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world,
and the pillar and ground of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life;
bartimaeos: St. Irenaeus
ChuckWaqon: it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out
immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh. From which fact, it is
evident that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sitteth upon the
cherubim, and contains all things, He who was manifested to men, has given.
Irenaeus (c. 180), Against Heresies, 3:11:8
==
ecc 9:5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing,
and they have no more reward; but the memory of them is lost.
===
"Science of God" by Gerald Schroeder
===
Num 31
"But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him,
keep alive for yourselves. "
==
mat 21:19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing
on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again."
Immediately the fig tree withered away.
"Let no fruit grow on you ever again."
The potential problem here is that Matthew says the fig tree withered
immediately, while Mark says the withered tree wasn't seen by the disciples
until the next day
==
http://www.homestead.com/philofreligion/files/Theisticarguments.html god proof
===
The Church has never repudiated the Syllabus of Errors, which condems freedom
of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly.
==
Joshua 10:11-13 reads: And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel,
and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones
from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died...Then spake Joshua to the
Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of
Israel, and He said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon;
and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon
stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this
written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven,
and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

Donald Patten, Ronald Hatch, Lorenc Steinhauer, The Long Day of Joshua and Six
Other Catastrophies, Baker Book House, Michigan, 1973

John C. Whitcomb, Joshuas Long Day, Brethren Missionary Herald, July 27,
1963

'The Earth is not Moving' by Marshall Hall
==
To an evloutionary psychologist, the universal extravagance of religious
rituals, with their cost in time, resources, pain and privation, should suggest
as vividly as mandrill's bottom that religion may be adaptive. -- Mark Kohn.

Elaborate religous ritual is extravagant and wasteful. It's an attempt to
explain (from a darwinian perspective) why human animals waste so many
resources on a behaviour that brings them no obvious benefit.

I think the evolutionary advantage of relgiousity is that it enforces social
strata, and tribal cohesiveness. It's herd instinct run amok.
==
Deuteronomy 4 32 For ask now of the days that are past, which were before
thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and [ask] from the
one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been [any such thing]
as this great thing [is,] or hath been heard like it? (KJV)

We have heros (people who've put the interests of the herd ahead of their own
interests in extravagant ways).
===

TULSA, Okla. - Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was
reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million
for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is
speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that
threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political
campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home
remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip
to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife,
Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding
nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text
messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as
"underage males."
At a chapel service this week on the 5,300-student campus known for its
60-foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, Roberts said God told him: "We
live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against
another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is
about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."
San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, a member of the ORU board of regents,
said the university's executive board "is conducting a full and thorough
investigation."
Colleagues fear for the reputation of the university and the future of the
Roberts' ministry, which grew from Southern tent revivals to one of the most
successful evangelical empires in the country, hauling in tens of millions of
dollars in contributions a year. The university reported nearly $76 million in
revenue in 2005, according to the IRS.
Oral Roberts is 89 and lives in California. He holds the title of chancellor,
but the university describes him as semi-retired, and his son presides over
day-to-day operations on the campus, which had a modern, space-age design when
it was built in the early 1960s but now looks dated, like Disney's
Tomorrowland.
Cornell Cross II, a senior from Burlington, Vt., said he is looking to
transfer to another school because the scandal has "severely devalued and hurt
the reputation of my degree."
"We have asked and asked and asked to see the finances of our school and what
they're doing with our money, and we've been told no," said, Cross who is
majoring in government. "Now we know why. As a student, I'm not going to stand
for it any longer."
The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by three former
professors. They sued ORU and Roberts, alleging they were wrongfully dismissed
after reporting the school's involvement in a local political race.
Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his
students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa
mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the
university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on
the campaign.
The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the
board of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on
the part of Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by
Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts' sister-in-law, according to the lawsuit.
An ORU student repairing Cantese's laptop discovered the document and later
provided a copy to one of the professors.
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend of
Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
Mrs. Roberts who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as
ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site frequently had cell-phone
bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between
1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided phones at university
expense."
The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a
senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed to
the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."
Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone in
less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She also
repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it off." The
document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual usage on TV.
Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by
ministry donors.
University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home
to do the daughters' homework.
The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use by
the Roberts' children.
The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.
Tim Brooker, one of the professors who sued, said he fears for the
university's survival if certain changes aren't made.
"All over that campus, there are signs up that say, `And God said, build me a
university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy Spirit,'"
Brooker said. "Unfortunately, ownership has shifted."

==
Tibetan Buddhist Goddess Altar Includes:
White Tara: Goddess of compassion and patron goddess of Tibet
Vasudhara: Goddess of prosperity
Kurukulla: Goddess of attracting and influencing all beings through
love and passionate desire
Vajrayogini: One of the highest yoga tantra deities
Tibetan Buddhist Altars Includes:
Shakyamuni Buddha: Helps to develop morality, meditation, and wisdom
Padmapani Avalokiteshvara: Patron diety of Tibet, also known as the
Bodhisattva of great compassion
Green Tara: Goddess of developing compassion and protects from all
fears. Also known as the Mother of all Buddhas
Manjushri: Boddhisattva of supreme wisdom and the gentle voice.
Hindu Altars Includes:
Lakshmi: Goddess of prosperity, abundance, fame, beauty, purity, and
grace
Shiva: Goddess which annihilates all delusions and false views
Durga: Goddess which annihilates all defilements, protects from all
fears, and grants success
Ganesha: Bestows wisdom, courage and confidence to start a new
enterprise. Also known as the remover of obstacles
===
Luke 19:27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over
them, bring hither, and slay them before me. Jesus
==
Fatima's facelift
Portugal's shrine of Fatima (one of the Catholic Church's better known money
making scams) has received a "facelift" to attract even more gullible pilgrims
than the 800,000 or so who flock there every year. The whole project cost an
unbelievable 80 million euros, all of which was thrown away on absolutely
nothing:
Fatima's revamped Holy Trinity church will be inaugurated next week in a
massive ceremony conducted by the papal envoy Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to
mark the 90th anniversary of the supposed last appearance of the Virgin Mary
to three shepherd children.
Fatima's new church, big enough for 9,000 seated worshippers, is low and oval,
built without internal columns so TV cameras can sweep unobstructed over
services for live broadcasts.
The facelift is also intended to smarten up the sanctuary's image and
eliminate what its rector, Luciano Guerra, calls "exaggerations in the
devotion to Fatima". Pilgrims from the impoverished north of Portugal often
make the stony final approach crawling on their hands and knees, with cloths
to bind their bleeding wounds. Such extremes of zeal lend the sanctuary an
atmosphere of medieval fanaticism that church authorities seek to discourage.
==
Deu 7:16 "And you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers
over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their
gods, for that [will be] a snare to you.
==
The Bible is very clear on what me must do.

Kill People Who Don't Listen to Priests
Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the
priest who represents the LORD your God must be put to death.
(Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT)

Death to Followers of Other Religions
Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed.
(Exodus 22:19 NAB)

Kill Fortunetellers
A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortuneteller shall be put to
death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their
death. (Leviticus 20:27 NAB)

Death for Hitting Dad
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus
21:15 NAB)

Death for Cursing Parents
1) If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the
coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)
2) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They
are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

Death for Adultery
If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and
the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)

Death for Fornication
A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and
thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.
(Leviticus 21:9 NAB)

Kill Nonbelievers
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their
fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not
seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether
small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)

Kill False Prophets
If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say
to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name
of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother,
shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)

Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God
Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you
that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens
astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases,
you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can
prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must
attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well
as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the
middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as
a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin
forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has
been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his
fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you
and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your
ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him
and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is
pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
==
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to
Christianity. "  Ann Coulter

"[Since 9/11] I am often asked if I still think we should invade their
countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity. The answer
is: Now more than ever!"  Ann Coulter

"God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the
trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'"
Ann Coulter, on Hannity & Colmes, 6/20/01
==
Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts*
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was
reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8
million for Roberts' university, or else he would be "called home."
Now, his son, Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts, says God is
speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that
threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.
Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political
campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home
remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior
trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his
wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding
nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of
text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the
lawsuit as "underage males."
Richard Roberts, president and chief executive officer of Oral Roberts
University, is shown in...
At a chapel service this week on the 5,300-student campus known for its
60-foot-tall bronze sculpture of praying hands, Roberts said God told him:
"We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit
against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This
lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."
San Antonio televangelist John Hagee, a member of the ORU board of regents,
said the university's executive board "is conducting a full and thorough
investigation. "
Colleagues fear for the reputation of the university and the future of the
Roberts' ministry, which grew from Southern tent revivals to one of the most
successful evangelical empires in the country, hauling in tens of millions
of dollars in contributions a year. The university reported nearly $76
million in revenue in 2005, according to the IRS.
Oral Roberts is 89 and lives in California. He holds the title of
chancellor, but the university describes him as semi-retired, and his son
presides over day-to-day operations on the campus, which had a modern,
space-age design when it was built in the early 1960s but now looks dated,
like Disney's Tomorrowland.
Cornell Cross II, a senior from Burlington, Vt., said he is looking to
transfer to another school because the scandal has "severely devalued and
hurt the reputation of my degree."
"We
have asked and asked and asked to see the finances of our school and what
they're doing with our money, and we've been told no," said, Cross who is
majoring in government. "Now we know why. As a student, I'm not going to
stand for it any longer."
The allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by three former
professors. They sued ORU and Roberts, alleging they were wrongfully
dismissed after reporting the school's involvement in a local political
race.
Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his
students and university resources to aid a county commissioner' s bid for
Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of
the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have
worked on the campaign.
The professors also said their dismissals came after they turned over to the
board of regents a copy of a report documenting moral and ethical lapses on
the part of Roberts and his family. The internal document was prepared by
Stephanie Cantese, Richard Roberts' sister-in-law, according to the lawsuit.
An ORU student repairing Cantese's laptop discovered the document and later
provided a copy to one of the professors.
It details dozens of alleged instances of misconduct. Among them:
- A longtime maintenance employee was fired so that an underage male friend
of Mrs. Roberts could have his position.
- Mrs. Roberts - who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to
as ORU's "first lady" on the university's Web site - frequently had
cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages
sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to "underage males who had been provided
phones at university expense."
- The university jet was used to take one daughter and several friends on a
senior trip to Orlando, Fla., and the Bahamas. The $29,411 trip was billed
to the ministry as an "evangelistic function of the president."
- Mrs. Roberts spent more than $39,000 at one Chico's clothing store alone
in less than a year, and had other accounts in Texas and California. She
also repeatedly said, "As long as I wear it once on TV, we can charge it
off." The document cites inconsistencies in clothing purchases and actual
usage on TV.
- Mrs. Roberts was given a white Lexus SUV and a red Mercedes convertible by
ministry donors.
- University and ministry employees are regularly summoned to the Roberts'
home to do the daughters' homework.
- The university and ministry maintain a stable of horses for exclusive use
by the Roberts' children.
- The Roberts' home has been remodeled 11 times in the past 14 years.
Tim Brooker, one of the professors who sued, said he fears for the
university's survival if certain changes aren't made.
"All over that campus, there are signs up that say, 'And God said, build me
a university, build it on my authority, and build it on the Holy Spirit,'"
Brooker said. "Unfortunately, ownership has shifted."
==
The Alhambra Decree, also known as the "Edict of Expulsion," which forced the
Jews to convert or flee Spain, was part of the Spanish Inquisition that began
in 1480. The Spanish Inquisition sought to rid Spain of Jews, Muslims, false
converts, and heretics (although it was also motivated by the desire for
political power and profit). It is interesting to note that on the Jewish
calendar the deadline for the Alhambra Decree was the 9th of Av, also known as
Tisha B'Av. The 9th of Av has become a symbol of all the persecutions and
misfortunes of the Jewish people. It is a day of mourning that marks the
anniversary of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
The Spanish Inquisition and its counterparts encompass one of the bloodiest
periods in the history of the church. During the Inquisition(s) millions of
people were slaughtered for the crime of "heresy" by Roman Catholic
persecutors. In fact, Pope Innocent III murdered far more Christians in one
afternoon than any Roman emperor did in during his entire reign.
==
Nicaragua became the third country in the world, after Chile and El Salvador,
to criminalize all abortions. There are no exceptions; not for rape, not for
incest, not for threats to the life of the mother.
So far, this law has resulted in the deaths of at least 82 women.
===
A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the
manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty - it is
this knowledge and this emotion that constitute the truly religious attitude;
in this sense, and in this alone, I am a deeply religious man. -- Al Einstein
==
I wonder what god meant when he said "i am a vain and jealous god" and then
He gave commandments about jealousy being bad and vanity being a sin.
==
It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be
mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not
consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists
in professing to believe what one does not believe. It
is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may
so express it, that mental lying has produced in society.
When man has so far corrupted and prostituted the
chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional
belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared
himself for the commission of every other crime.
- Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason
==
Laws of God
1. Exodus 22:20: He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord
only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
2. Leviticus 24:16: And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he
shall surely be put to death.
3. Exodus 31:15: Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall
surely be put to death.
4. Exodus 21:15: He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be
surely put to death.
5. Exodus 21:17: He that curseth his father or his mother, shall
surely be put to death.
6. Exodus 22:19: Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to
death.
7. Leviticus 20:13: If a man lie with mankind, as he lieth with a
woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely
be put to death.
8. Leviticus 20:10: And the man that committeth adultery with another
man's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.
9. Mark 16:16: He that believeth not, shall be damned.
==
Do extremism and an unconditional adherence to religious dogma result
from a failure of a portion of the frontal lobe to fully develop or, if
fully developed, to activate? Studies suggest that faithful adherence
to a single reasoning strategy on tests such as the Wisconsin Card
Sorting Test means that parts of the frontal lobes are inactive, have
failed to fully develop, or have even been damaged. Thus, unqualified
disdain for divergent beliefs,for personal interpretation, and for
creative theories like Darwin's theory of evolution, may indeed have,
at least a partial, biological explanation: a reduced utilization of
that section of the brain which has played such a vital role in
humanity's creative advancesthe frontal lobes. By unconditionally
obeying religious tenetsor any dogmasome people may be relying on the
phylo-genetically older, more posterior portions of the brain that
store knowledge and enable consistent or stable behaviors and,
unknowingly, circumventing the portion which has been gifted to humans
alone through evolution.
==
Pascal Boyer Religion Explained
Scott Atran In Gods We Trust.
Hamer The God Gene
===
Ps 107 They saw the works of the LORD, the wonders of God in the deep.
25 He spoke and roused a storm wind; it tossed the waves on high.

Psa58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon
as they be born, speaking lies. (KJV)
==
Freedom of conscience in the military
The Secular Coalition for America opposes discrimination against nontheists
and religious minorities by military leaders.

A number of incidents in 2006 and 2007 indicate that there is a pervasive
misunderstanding among United States military leadership regarding the
required separation of church and state in the armed forces. When taken
together, they have the potential not only to result in lawsuits, but also to
undermine the effectiveness of our nation's interaction with other countries.
The incidents involve attempts to proselytize Christianity, to punish
non-Christians for lack of adherence to the "correct" religion, and to treat
non-Christians differently than Christians in the military.

*	In 2006 the House went along with a small group of military chaplains who
claimed that proselytizing all non-born-again Christians was a requirement of
their free exercise of religion. The House passed an amendment to a Department
of Defense spending bill which would have allowed military chaplains to
proselytize unwilling soldiers. (This amendment was killed in conference
committee.) For more information about this issue, see our Proselytizing by
military chaplains position paper.
*	Pentagon officials inappropriately endorsed the proselytizing organization
Christian Embassy. The Inspector General's Office recently concluded a report
which indicated that a number of officers in the Pentagon had given the
Christian Embassy group inappropriate access to and use of officials'
endorsements (in uniform) for their fundraising video. In the report, some of
these officials expressed the misunderstanding that this evangelical
organization was a "quasi-federal" entity. One officer stated in the video
that his god was more important than his country.
*	Wiccans have been treated unfairly in our military. Roberta Stewart was
initially denied the right to have a Wiccan symbol on her husband's grave
marker in a veterans' cemetery. She was later "inadvertently" left off an
invitation to meet with Pres. Bush which had been extended to the rest of her
family. (Pres. Bush later called to apologize.)
*	Pentagon officials invited individuals to come in to proselytize personnel.
The Pentagon employees were not informed that Christian proselytizers had been
invited to join them in their lunchroom to try to convert them on their lunch
break.
*	At least one atheist soldier in Iraq has been treated unconstitutionally. An
army specialist on active duty in Iraq alleges in a recently filed lawsuit that
a staff sergeant questioned him about why he wouldn't participate in a prayer.
After discovering that it was because the soldier was an atheist, he told him
not to sit with the others enjoying a Thanksgiving meal. Later, this soldier
organized a freethought group for which he obtained all necessary permissions.
However, the meeting was broken up by an army major who threatened punishment
for having the meeting.
*	The family of war hero Pat Tillman was insulted by a lieutenant colonel
based on their lack of belief in a heaven. Because of Tillman's atheism, his
family's concern over the coverup surrounding the true circumstances of his
death was chalked up to their belief that he"s just "worm dirt." The officer
who made the comments was one of the officers who initially investigated
Tillman's death. The investigation disclosed that someone had changed an
eyewitness account prior to its reaching the United States.
These actions come on the heels of rampant proselytizing at the Air Force
Academy in Colorado Springs, disclosed in the 2006 book With God on Our Side:
One Mans War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military by Michael
Weinstein.

==
Thess 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they
should believe a lie:
==
Num 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it
upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when
he looketh upon it, shall live.
==
1782 was the last european state-sanctioned witch burning.
==
Mormon church teach, annoint and ordain their faithful male members that they
will have muliple wives in the Mormon celestial heaven. It is through these
multiple wives that Mormons think they will give birth to spirit babies to
populate planets assigned to them to rule.
==
Lightning is not the spear of Zeus.
Rama's monkey army did not
build a bridge to Sri Lanka.
The human species is not 6000 years old.
===
You mean my New International Reformed English King James Contemporary
Living Word Translation isn't the divine word of God? Blasphemer!
==
One Christian wrote, "I just want you to know, if you use physics, if you
understand the laws of physics, bumblebees can't fly. They fly because God
wants them to.
==
Two Popes consecrated tombs to Mary in Jerusalem, which still stand to this
day. But one pope changed his mind and says she ascended bodily to heaven, and
OOPS! those shrines are marked off the tour route
==
A solemn and sad situation
Not long ago the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published an interesting article
entitled Passionate Atheists. This caught my attention immediately.
My first thought was, How do you get passionate about nothing ? If no God
exists, what is there to get passionate about ? Why do professed atheists find
it necessary to convert other people to their unbelief, since there is nothing
of substance there to convince them of ?
My second thought was, Isnt this statement, passionate atheists, close to
being an oxymoron ?
I have been in the ministry many years, and in every one of them the subject
of atheism has reared its head. However, periodically (usually about every
decade ) there is a push to convince people that there is no God. In the
United States, as it has become more liberal in theology, more people have, as
the article stated, come out of the closet and admitted their unbelief, much
in the same way as homosexuals have admitted their sexual preferences.
Both of these are symbols of the moral and spiritual decline of a nation, and
this is happening in the United States with disturbing rapidity.
Contrary to the apparent belief of atheists, their nonbelief is not a danger
to Christianity, nor to individual Christians. Nor does it change the
existence of God. It does pose dangers, however, and the dangers are these:
The first danger is the unbeliever himself. He is left with no god but
himself, no wisdom but his own (except the wisdom of men ) and no hope of a
life beyond this one. Worst of all, he is in danger of facing an eternity
devoid of the God he denied. In short, he wanted it that way, and that is the
way he got it. A solemn and sad situation.
The second danger is that the atheist may be able to persuade others (I knew
of one situation like this where an older man concentrated on young people )
that his unbelief is really true. This might consign those he persuaded to the
same fate that is in store for him.
The third danger lies in what kind of person the atheist may become when he
becomes his own god. If he does not recognize God, he may not recognize any of
the restraints that a belief in God generates. Thus, without restraint, he may
become a pedophile, a murderer, a thief, or any other kind of a deviant you
can think of. Or he might just become one who lives inward, with no concern
for the people or things around him. There are tragic examples of such people.
In the long years of being a minister I think I have known no more than two
dozen people who loudly declared that there is no God. I did not believe in
any of them. I have found that the man who so professes may be just whistling
past the graveyard. In short, because of the life he has lived, he may just be
hoping against hope that there is no God to whom he might someday have to
answer.
I was not raised in a church-going family, yet the name of God was revered in
our home. My parents never used the name of God in vain, nor any of the
by-words popular in those days. So I always believed in a God; I just wanted
him to leave me alone and let me live my life the way I wanted to. In fact, at
an early age I had planned my life, and no god was included in it.
However, my father died of a heart attack when he was 43, and I was 18. I had
just returned home after spending a year-and-a-half in a tuberculosis
sanitarium in Colorado Springs. When my father died he left my mother and me
with six little brothers and sisters to raise.
And, though I did not know God, I became terribly angry with him. In the old
days nearly everything was ascribed to God. If there was a tragedy in the
home, old preachers would declare that it was Gods will. I came to hate that
expression, and have refused to use it throughout my ministry, as it related to
things I just could not understand. I look askance at any preacher who always
seems to know what the will of God is.
Why are atheists coming out of the closet now ? Simple. The country has
become so secularized, and has adopted an anything goes attitude, so deviants
of any nature now feel it is safe to declare themselves. Also, led by many
prominent universities, it has now become politically correct for people to
try to be different. Factually, it does not brand people as intellectual or
brave, but contemptuous of centuries of solid beliefs and traditions.
In the Bible, few people are so chastised as are avowed atheists. In Proverbs
1: 7 are these words: The fear (awe ) of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
So, unless the avowed atheist is prepared to account for the universe, for man
in all of his complexities, and life in general, he certainly is not prepared
to declare that there is no God.
He is revealed, not as an intellectual, but as a gadfly with no answers to
anything. It is even more plain in Psalms 14: 1: The fool has said in his
heart, there is no God.
Ted Turner once said, in speaking of the Lord, I do not need anyone to die
for me. Well, perhaps he doesnt know all of the truth. Personally, I need a
Savior, and I am happy I found out the truth as young as I did. The sad thing
about the atheist is that he may find out the truth after it is too late.
So please dont feel sorry for those of us who believe in God, who build
churches, attend churches, send missionaries, and do every kind of charitable
work known to man. Even if we were wrong in all this, we would still be better
off than the atheist. At least we would have lived lives that helped us, and
more importantly, helped others.
I know that most atheists are probably not bad people. But they are sadly
misguided in their thinking, and in their hearts many of them probably know
it. One should not live his life as a fool when he can live it as a child of
God, and have the promise of everlasting life.
John Terry of Siloam Springs is an economist, minister and veteran.
==
Returning to a topic I feel was left hanging. Please
add this to the list of questions I'd appreciate
answered by creationists:

How did host-specific parasites survive before the
Fall? Please correct me if any of the following
biblical literalist doctrinal assumptions of mine are
wrong. I presume creationists believe that
host-specific insect parasites were made during
Creation Week along with everything else, perhaps on
Day Five or Six, since the Genesis doesn't specify. I
guess further that certainly humans & probably other
animals weren't bothered by blood-suckers & other
parasites until after the Fall. What then did these
insect species live on & how did they reproduce before
the Fall?
Host-specific parasites are legion. Birds, mammals &
other vertebrates have lots of them. Please read
about just one group of flies which has co-evolved
with mammals:

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Bot_fly
===
Changes in Catholic Doctrine - 850 AD Burning of Holy Candles
998  Good Friday:fish eating-red meat forbidden
1009 Holy water 1022 Penance
1090 Rosary beads
1095 Instrumental music
1123 Celibacy enforced for priests
1160 Canonization of Saints
1190 Sale of Indulgences or "tickets to sin"
1215 Transubstantiation
1215 Auricular confession to Priests
1215 Mass aSacrifice of Christ
1217 Elevation of Host
1230 Ringing bells at Mass
1268 Priestly power of absolution
1311 Sprinkling instead of immersion for baptism
1414 Laity no longer offered Lord's cup at communion
1438 Purgatory
1480 The Inquisition (of Spain)
1845 Immaculate conception of Mary
1870 Infallibility of Pope
1870 Intellectual supremacy of the Pope.
1908 All Catholics should be christened into the church
1950 Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
1995 The use of girls in the traditional alter boy duties
==
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give
assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." - Lincoln
===
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered
the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up
and down in it. (KJV) Did God not know the answer?
==
God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America By Hanna Rosin.
Harcourt.
===
The Bible Teaches That Our World Is Relatively Young

1. Jesus said have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made
them male and female (Mt. 19:4). Mark 10:6 Jesus said But from the beginning
of creation God made them male and female. There is no doubt that Jesus was
talking about the beginning of creation.

2. Paul wrote And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Here Paul was saying
that Adam was the first human being to ever step foot on this planet.

3. Paul wrote For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection
from the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive (1 Cor. 15:21,22). Here Paul was writing about the fall of Adam and Eve
in the garden.

4. The Bible teaches that there were only 20 generations (about 2000 years)
from
Adam to Abraham (Lk. 3:34-38). The Bible teaches that there were only 55
generations (about 2000) from Abraham to Christ (Lk. 3:23-34). Now, from Christ
to present day there are less than 2000 years. All this means that the world is
really less than 6000 years from creation to present day. This means that the
Bible teaches that the world is relatively young (no more than a few thousand
years).
==
James Robinson and Helmut Koester "Trajectories through Early Christianity"
==
The city of Ur, founded in about 4,000 BC, its Sumerian people established
the principles of irrigation, developed agriculture and metal-working.
It was thus founded 4 years before the creation of the universe.
==
Cor4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. (KJV)
==
"Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not
taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." -
- Matthew16:28

"But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall
not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God." -- Luke 9:27

"Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this
generation." -- Matthew 23:36

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all
these things be fulfilled." -- Matthew 24:34

"Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man
sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven." -- Matthew 26:64

"Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here,
which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of
God come with power." -- Mark 9:1

"Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all
these things be done." -- Mark 13:30

"And ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven." -- Mark 14:62

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all
be fulfilled." -- Luke 21:32

"Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee?" -- John 21:22
==
"The End of Biblical Studies" by Hector Avalos
==
Einstein "In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human
mind, am able to recognise, there are yet people who say there is no God. But
what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views."
==
"Through the reading of popular scientific books, I soon reached the conviction
that much of the stories of the Bible could not be true...it was a crushing
impression".
"Einstein, a biogrpahy "Walter Isaccon Pg 20
==
Many seem to think that believing in a God that can't be wrong, means that
they themselves can't be wrong. As if they are confusing God's infallibility
with their own limitations.
==
Contradictions and Improbabilities
Each of the four Gospels contains a large number of descriptions of
events that may be unique to one single Gospel or common to several if
not all of them. When they are unique to one Gospel, they sometimes
raise serious problems. Thus, in the case of an event of considerable
importance, it is surprising to find the event mentioned by only one
evangelist; Jesus's Ascension into heaven on the day of Resurrection,
for example. Elsewhere, numerous events are differently described-
sometimes very differently indeed-by two or more evangelists.
Christians are very often astonished at the existence of such
contradictions between the Gospels-if they ever discover them. This is because
they have been repeatedly told in tones of the greatest
assurance that the New Testament authors were the eyewitnesses of the events
they describe!
==
Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change by Flo
Conway and Jim Siegelman (Paperback - Dec 1995)
==
"All sects of heretics are condemned and various punishments are appointed for
them and their accomplices."
-Pope Alexander IV (1254-61)
(Directory for the Inquisitors p. 135)

Ears bored out
Tongue cut out
Set down (by pulley) into a fire by degrees
Thrown to dogs
Hung up by the heels and choked with smoke
Disembowelled
Sharp instruments forced under nails and into other body parts
Racked until their bowels broke out
Throats cut with butcher knives
Knocked on the head with axes

Torture Chambers
' For 1500 hundred years, the Christian Church systematically operated torture
chambers throughout Europe. Torture was the rule, not the exception. Next to
the Bible, the most influential and venerated book in Christian history was
the Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches), which was a step-by-step tutorial
in how to torture "witches' and "sorcerers".

Biblical Basis for Burning:
"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and
men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned"
(John 15:6).

"Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people
shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother."
Isaiah, 9.19

"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring
hither, and slay them before me."
Luke 19.27 *

Breaking on the Wheel.
The naked heretic had each limb and joint broken precisely to avoid any fatal
blows. He was then 'braided' into the spokes of the wheel and hoisted on to a
post. There he was exposed to the elements or left to be twirled by passers
by who wanted to join in the fun.

The Pope's Pears:
The vaginal pear was used on woman who had sex with the Devil or his
familiars. The rectal pear was used on passive male homosexuals and the oral
pear was used on heretical preachers or lay persons found guilty of unorthodox
practices. Inserted into the mouth, anus or vagina of the victim, the pear was
expanded by use of the screw until the insides are ripped, stretched and
mutilated, almost always causing death. The pointed ends of the 'leaves' were
good for ripping the throat, intestines or cervix open.

The Judas Cradle:
The victim is raised up by the rope or chain and then lowered until the
vagina, anus or the coccyx rests on the point. The torturer could vary the
pressure by hanging weights from the victim or rocking or raising and dropping
the victim from various heights.

Iron Spider:
The iron would usually be heated to red-hot and then used to slowly rip the
breasts from the body. It would be used for such crimes as heresy, adultery,
self-induced abortions, blasphemy and other "hideous" crimes.

Strapado:
Designed to dislocate the shoulders of a victim by hoisting him off the
ground, allowing him to fall, and stopping him suddenly before he touched the
ground. To add to the torment, weights (varying from 50 to 500 pounds) were
tied to the victim's body to dislocate a greater number of bones.

Slow Burn
A 16th century device to lift the victim in and out of the fire, roasting him
alive slowly instead of burning him all at once.

Cat's Paw
A clawed rake, used to rip the person's flesh and tear the flesh from the
bones of any part of his or her body.

Extreme Makeover
The rack everybody's favourite. Well, perhaps only of Inquisitors for whom it
was the instrument of choice after the pulley had failed. For the helpless
victim dislocation of every joint in the body and elongations up to 12" were
possible. 'Surgeons' might reset joints to allow the torture to be repeated.
Severe lacerations and loss of blood would result from racking even without
the additional use of red hot pincers to tear off nipples, tongues, ears,
noses, and genitals.

The Holy Trinity:
When a sinner had "blasphemed the holy name of god", or when he had perhaps
told some truth about the local priest, it was customary to apply the holy
trinity. The Iron mask was heated in an open fire until red hot, then put upon
his head. The scourge, also red hot, was then applied to his back. After the
mask had cooled, it was removed from the sinner, taking skin (and usually
eyeballs) with it. The prisoner's mouth was then opened and red hot pincers
were used to remove the prisoner's tongue.
It is interesting to note that the Holy Trinity was designed not to cause
death, so that the maimed, blinded and mute prisoner could live out his days
as a burden to his family and as a testimony to what happens when one lets his
tongue wag too freely.
==
Christians, within their own society, have a long track record of barbarism
towards outsiders, often murdering and pillaging with the serene mind that
comes from confidence that one is acting with the blessing of God.
==
"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, he is Jesus Christ
himself, hidden under the veil of flesh." Catholic National July 1895.

Roman Catholic Pope states "We hold upon this earth the place of God
Almighty" ...Pope Leo XIII

Documented Roman Catholic source states "For thou art the
shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the
husbandman, finally thou art another God on earth." Labbe and Cossart's
"History of the Councils." Vol. XIV, col. 109
==
Mussolini and (Cardinal) Gasspari sign historic Roman pact.
DakotaMan: Fact: "The Roman question tonight was a thing of the past, and the
Vatican was at peace with Italy... In affixing the autographs to the memorable
document healing the wound of many years, extreme cordiality was displayed on
both sides" -The San Francisco Chronicle. Feb. 11, 1929
==
Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god."
===
Luke14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother,
and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple. (KJV)
==
Mat10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not
to send peace, but a sword. (KJV)
==
Th2:11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will
believe the lie
==
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day
is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work,
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy
maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy
gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD
blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it (Exodus 20:9-11).
==
Rev 19:14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen,
white and clean, were following Him on white horses.
==
Mass delusion can be and is contagious and the vast majority of people fear
the unknown.ie:death.
===
A natural combination would be to combine Communism
and Catholicism, since both are top-down models of social control.
==
Revelation 19 15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he
should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he
treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (KJV)
===
Atheist Universe by David Mills

Dan Barker Losing Faith in Faith

Walker The Decline of Hell

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from
Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael
Hecht
===
Deuteronomy 5:6-21
21 Neither shall you covet your neighbours wife. Neither shall you desire
your neighbours house, or field, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey,
or anything that belongs to your neighbour.
Slavery is assumed.
===
Douglas Krueger _What Is Atheism_

Sir William M. Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the
Trustworthiness of the New Testament (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1915),

F.F. Bruce ( Jesus and Christian Origins), Edwin M. Yamauchi
Gary Habermas (The Historical Jesus).

Francis A. Schaeffer How Should We Then Live
==
http://www.caseagainstfaith.com/
===
Ugaritic includes not only the original versions of
biblical creation myths & cosmogony, but entire Psalms
& Proverbs virtually identical to those in the Bible,
although written before the Israelites even entered
Canaan, along with parts of many other books, such as
Habakkuk. Many biblical words have been elucidated
only through comparison with Ugaritic. Even
conservative Christian theology schools teach & study
Canaanite (Ugaritic & Phoenician), plus other dead &
living Semitic languages, in order better to
understand the Bible. Some linguists lump Hebrew with
the Canaanite languages, others with Arabic. Three
thousand years ago, Arabic & Hebrew were probably the
same language, or dialects of the same one.
==
Sianatics also has Barnabas and Hermas
(both serious contenders for canon.
==
Philip Jenkins The Next Christendom
==
In a recent CBS News poll, 82 per cent of Americans said they believe in
God 9 percent in a universal spirit. Just 8 percent say they don't believe
in either.
A Gallup poll not long ago found 44 percent of Americans view atheists harshly
and 53 percent said they would never elect an atheist president.
==
Americans gave $97 billion to religion last year, according to the Giving
USA Foundation.
===
The kjv of 1611 consists of 81 books , not the 73 of the Catholic faith or
the 66 of the Protestan.
===
Th 1:7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1:9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
==
One seller of indulgences was robbed of his money as he left town, but the
robbers had signed indulgences that pardoned them of any guilt.
==
If you picked 100 adults out of the population who attended their house of
worship nearly every week or more often, they would have 223 children among
them, on average, according to the 2006 General Social Survey. Among 100
people who attended less than once per year or never, you would find just
158 kids. This 41% fertility gap between religious and secular people is
especially meaningful because people tend to worship more or less like their
parents. According to data collected in 1999 by Gallup, 60% of adults who
were taken to church at least once per month as children grew up to attend
at least this often; only 15% stopped attending as adults.
===
The scientific approach to trying to explain how the universe works is a
useful enterprise because it leads to new ideas. Invoking God as an
explanation of how the universe works does not lead to new ideas (and tends to
impede new ideas). One can believe in God, but still seek a rational
explanation for how the universe works.
==
Astrology promotes the worst thing in the world: uncritical thinking. The more
we teach people to simply accept anecdotal stories, hearsay, cherry-picked data
(picking out what supports your claims but ignoring what doesn't), and,
frankly, out-and-out lies, the harder it gets for people to think clearly. If
you cannot think clearly, you cannot function as a human being. I cannot
stress this enough. Uncritical thinking is tearing this world to pieces, and
while astrology may not be at the heart of that, it has its role.
==
Rev 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give
every man according as his work shall be.
It has been about 2000 years. Quickly?
===
The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis,
by David G. Dalin,
==
Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust (Paperback)
by Robert P. Ericksen (Editor), Susannah Heschel (Editor)
==
In 1987, the [[Federal Election Commission]] fined Falwell US $6,000 for
illegally transferring US $6.7 million in funds intended for his religious
ministry to his political action committees.

In 1972, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an
investigation of bonds issued by Falwell's organizations. The SEC charged
Falwell's church with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in
unsecured church bonds. Falwell claimed that the SEC was "technically"
incorrect as God himself was supposedly underwriting the bonds. Standard and
Poor's declined to confirm Falwell's 'AAA' credit rating of the Almighty - the
court case continues. However, while his church won a 1973 federal court case
prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, thousands of small religious investors
who had bought church construction bonds lost their money through the
bankruptcy and reorganization of Liberty University.
According to Falwell, the survival of the University could be attributed to
the work of Daniel Reber and Jimmy Thomas, as leaders of the non-profit
Christian Heritage Foundation in Forest, Virginia. A secret benefactor was the
South Korean Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial self-proclaimed "messiah."
Covertly, Moon helped bail out Liberty University through one of his front
groups which funneled US$3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage
Foundation, the non-profit organization that had purchased the school's debt.
-
In 1987, the [[Federal Election Commission]] fined Falwell US $6,000 for
illegally transferring US $6.7 million in funds intended for his religious
ministry to his political action committees.

In 1972, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an
investigation of bonds issued by Falwell's organizations. The SEC charged
Falwell's church with "fraud and deceit" in the issuance of $6.5 million in
unsecured church bonds. Falwell claimed that the SEC was "technically"
incorrect as God himself was supposedly underwriting the bonds. Standard and
Poor's declined to confirm Falwell's 'AAA' credit rating of the Almighty - the
court case continues. However, while his church won a 1973 federal court case
prosecuted at the behest of the SEC, thousands of small religious investors
who had bought church construction bonds lost their money through the
bankruptcy and reorganization of Liberty University.

According to Falwell, the survival of the University could be attributed to
the work of Daniel Reber and Jimmy Thomas, as leaders of the non-profit
Christian Heritage Foundation in Forest, Virginia. A secret benefactor was the
South Korean Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial self-proclaimed "messiah."
Covertly, Moon helped bail out Liberty University through one of his front
groups which funneled US$3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage
Foundation, the non-profit organization that had purchased the school's debt.

===
US minister asks followers to pray for deaths of those questioning backing of
Republican
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas: A minister who endorsed Republican Mike Huckabee's
presidential bid is asking his followers to pray for the deaths of those who
are challenging his church's tax-exempt status because of the political
statement.
The Rev. Wiley S. Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park,
California, called for "imprecatory prayer" targeting Barry W. Lynn, Joe Conn
and Jeremy Leaming of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
"The prayer does call for serious, serious punishment on people. But I didn't
call for that, God did," said Drake, who completed a term in June as second
vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Drake used church stationery and an Internet radio program to endorse
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who is a Southern Baptist minister.
The Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the U.S. tax
agency, the Internal Revenue Service, to investigate whether it was proper for
Drake to endorse Huckabee. Churches that endorse candidates are subject to
losing their tax-exempt status.
Drake said in a telephone interview Thursday that neither he nor the church
violated the law and insisted he could use church stationery and the Internet
program to "personally" endorse a political candidate. He said the Bible calls
for imprecatory prayer when someone "attacks the church."
On his Internet show, in a news release on ChristianNewsWire and in an e-mail
to Americans United, Drake called on others to pray that the Americans United
officials be punished.
He gave as examples of imprecatory prayer:
"Persecute them. ... Let them be put to shame and perish."
"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."
"Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg."
==
Hans Kung Does God Exist?

Philip Jenkins The Next Christendom
===
Michael Shermer in his book "Why People Believe in Weird Things", describes
why smart people believe in weird things. Smart people believe in weird
things because they are very good at defending positions they arrived at
through non-smart reasons.
===
Isaiah
40:22 [It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as
a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
===
Re 19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should
smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty
==
E.O. Wilson wrote, The enduring paradox of [faith] is that so much of its
substance is demonstrably false, yet it remains a driving force in all
societies.
==
According to official Mormon doctrine, in 1820 God chose Joseph Smith, a young
farm boy living in rural New York, as his prophet. He instructed Smith to dig
up a long-buried series of golden plates that related the precepts of the true
Christian faith. Smith's translation of these plates from an ancient language
("Reformed Egyptian") into English was published as the Book of Mormon in 1830.

The Book of Mormon is a religious and secular history of the inhabitants of
the Western Hemisphere from about 2200 BCE to 421 CE. It relates that three
groups were led by God from the Near East to America. Many of the descendants
of these immigrants were Christians, even before Christ was born. Believers
and unbelievers fought many wars from which only the unbelievers -- the Native
Americans -- survived.

The most important event during this long history was the visit of Jesus
Christ to America after his crucifixion, when he ministered to and converted
all the inhabitants. The early Christian church fell from the truth and "in
the latter days" Christ has been restoring it through modern-day prophets,
starting in 1820 with Mormon Church founder Smith.

The Church espoused several controversial beliefs that it has since renounced,
such as polygamy (renounced in 1890) and that African Americans had received
"the Curse of Cain" and could not hold the priesthood (renounced in 1978). It
still espouses other controversial beliefs, such as that the Garden of Eden
was in actually in Missouri, all humanity lived in the western hemisphere
before the Great Flood, and The Ark transported Noah and the other survivors
to the eastern hemisphere.

===
Exodus 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.
===
Michel Onfray In Defence of Atheism

Richard Swinburne "The Existence of God,"

Coming to Peace With Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology by
Darrel R. Falk

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without
Design by Richard Dawkins

On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson

Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould

Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in America by
Larry A. Witham

The Wedge of Truth: Splitting the Foundations of Naturalism by Phillip E.
Johnson


God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science by Neil A. Manson
on 4 pages

The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent
Design by William A. Dembski

Jiddu Krishnamurti Freedom from the Known

Coming to Peace With Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology
by Darrel R. Falk

Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction by Eugenie C. Scott

Can a Darwinian be a Christian?: The Relationship between Science and Religion
by Michael Ruse

God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution by John F. Haught


The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S.
Collins
==
Psa18:11 He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him
were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. (KJV)
===
Joshua 10:

12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD
delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the
sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon,
in the valley of Ajalon.

13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people
had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in
the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and
hasted not to go down about a whole day.
==
There is no fixed meaning to the Bible and its imterpretation can change with
the general mood of the people at the time?
==
Voice of Reason: The Truth Behind the Shroud of Turin

While science and scholarship have demonstrated that the Shroud of Turin is
not the burial cloth of Jesus but instead a fourteenth-century forgery, shroud
devotees continue to claim otherwise.
In medieval Europe alone there were more than forty "True Shrouds," although
the Turin Cloth uniquely bears the apparent imprints of a man, crucified like
Jesus in the gospel narratives. Unfortunately, the alleged "relic" has not
fared well in various scientific examinations--except those conducted by
Shroud partisans like those of the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP),
whose leaders served on the executive council of the pro-authenticity Holy
Shroud Guild.
The following facts have been established by various distinguished experts and
scholars:
The shroud contradicts the Gospel of John, which describes multiple cloths
(including a separate "napkin" over the face), as well as "an hundred pound
weight" of burial spices--not a trace of which appears on the cloth.
No examples of the shroud linen's complex herringbone twill weave date from
the first century, when burial cloths tended to be of plain weave in any case.
The shroud has no known history prior to the mid-fourteenth century, when it
turned up in the possession of a man who never explained how he had obtained
the most holy relic in Christendom.
The earliest written record of the shroud is a bishop's report to Pope Clement
VII, dated 1389, stating that it originated as part of a faith-healing scheme,
with "pretended miracles" being staged to defraud credulous pilgrims.
The bishop's report also stated that a predecessor had "discovered the fraud
and how the said cloth had been cunningly painted, the truth being attested to
by the artist who had painted it" (emphasis added).
Although, as St. Augustine lamented in the fourth-century, Jesus' appearance
was completely unknown, the shroud image follows the conventional artistic
likeness.
The physique is unnaturally elongated (like figures in Gothic art), and there
is a lack of wraparound distortions that would be expected if the cloth had
enclosed an actual three-dimensional object like a human body. The hair hangs
as for a standing, rather than reclining figure, and the imprint of a bloody
foot is incompatible with the outstretched leg to which it belongs.
The alleged blood stains are unnaturally picture-like. Instead of matting the
hair, for instance, they run in rivulets on the outside of the locks. Also
dried "blood" (as on the arms) has been implausibly transferred to the cloth.
The blood remains bright red, unlike genuine blood that blackens with age.
In 1973, internationally known forensic serologists subjected the "blood" to a
battery of tests--for chemical properties, species, blood grouping, etc. The
substance lacked the properties of blood, instead containing suspicious,
reddish granules.
Subsequently, the distinguished microanalyst Walter McCrone identified the
"blood" as red ocher and vermilion tempera paint and concluded that the entire
image had been painted.
In 1988, the shroud cloth was radiocarbon dated by three different
laboratories (at Zurich, Oxford, and the University of Arizona). The results
were in close agreement and yield a date range of a.d. 1260-1390, about the
time of the reported forger's confession (ca. a.d. 1355).
Those who defend the shroud as authentic offer explanations for each damning
piece of evidence, but these often veer toward pseudoscience and
pseudohistory. For example, they offer various objections to the radiocarbon
date, suggesting that it could have been altered by a fire in 1532, or by
microbial contamination, or by imagined medieval repair in the sampled
area--even by a burst of radiant energy from the Resurrection! However, none
of these claims has merit. Clearly beginning with the desired answer, shroud
enthusiasts work backward to the evidence, picking and choosing and
rationalizing to fit their belief--a process I call "shroud science."
Some researchers have even claimed to see--Rorschach-like in the shroud's
mottled image and off-image areas--a plethora of objects that supposedly help
authenticate the cloth. These include "Roman coins" over the eyes, "flowers of
Jerusalem," and such crucifixion-associated items (c.f. John, ch. 19) as "a
large nail," a "hammer," "sponge on a reed," "Roman thrusting spear,"
"pliers," and other hilarious imaginings including "Roman dice."
Also reportedly discovered were ancient Latin and Greek words, such as "Jesus"
and "Nazareth." Even shroud author Ian Wilson (The Blood and the Shroud, 1998,
p. 242) felt compelled to state: "While there can be absolutely no doubting
the sincerity of those who make these claims, the great danger of such
arguments is that researchers may 'see' merely what their minds trick them
into thinking is there."
In contrast, the scientific approach allows the preponderance of objective
evidence to lead to a conclusion: the Shroud of Turin is the work of a
confessed medieval artisan. The various pieces of the puzzle effectively
interlock and corroborate each other. In the words of Catholic historian
Ulysse Chevalier, who brought to light the documentary evidence of the
Shroud's mid-fourteenth-century origin, "The history of the shroud constitutes
a protracted violation of the two virtues so often commended by our holy books,
justice and truth."
==
Hell

De 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the
lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on
fire the foundations of the mountains.

2Sa 22:6 The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death
prevented me;

Job 11:8 It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell;
what canst thou know?

Job 26:6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.

Ps 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that
forget God.

Ps 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Ps 18:5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death
prevented me.

Ps 55:15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into
hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.

Ps 86:13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my
soul from the lowest hell.

Ps 116:3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat
hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

Ps 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed
in hell, behold, thou art there.

Pr 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

Pr 7:27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

Pr 9:18 But he knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her guests
are in the depths of hell.

Pr 15:11 Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then
the hearts of the children of men?

Pr 15:24 The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from
hell beneath.

Pr 23:14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul
from hell.

Pr 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are
never satisfied.

Isa 5:14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth
without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

Isa 14:9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy
coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the
earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Isa 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass
through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

Isa 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

Isa 57:9 And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase
thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase
thyself even unto hell.

Eze 31:16 I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I
cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the
trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water,
shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth.

Eze 31:17 They also went down into hell with him unto them that be
slain with the sword; and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his
shadow in the midst of the heathen.

Eze 32:21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the
midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie
uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

Eze 32:27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the
uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war:
and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities
shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in
the land of the living.

Am 9:2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them;
though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down:

Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD,
and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my
voice.

Hab 2:5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man,
neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as
death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and
heapeth unto him all people:
===
Robert Minor, a Kansas University professor of religious studies, published a
book titled When Religion is an Addiction.
The Kansas University professors eighth book, When Religion is an Addiction,
may become his most controversial. He suggests that some members of the
religious right have become so addicted to their church activities that they
have to continue advancing their causes to get new highs.
Its like any addiction, he says. At some point, it doesnt do the trick for
you, so you need to strengthen it. Religion wasnt enough for them, so they
entered politics to get a stronger affirmation of righteousness.
A high of righteousness, he adds, is the same as a high of cocaine.
And, before any liberals think theyre off the hook, Minor has a message for
them: Im not really writing it to convince people theyre addicted to religion.
Its more written for people who are liberals, who are enablers.
The book, published by Humanity Works!, came out on Wednesday. Minor is
expecting to rile people on all sides of the political spectrum.
Thats all right, he says. Ive written things that got hate mail before.
Family drunk
Minor has been a professor of religious studies at KU since 1977. His areas of
study and teaching include religions of south Asia, sexuality and religion and
gender.
His previous books include Scared Straight and Gay and Healthy in a Sick
Society.
He says hes been thinking about the concept of religious addiction for years,
and he admits its not a new concept. Religious scholars and authors such as
John Bradshaw and Leo Booth have written about it before.
But Minor hopes to cast it in terms of the rise of the religious right in the
past 20 to 30 years.
He says the high of advancing beliefs through political activism has replaced
the highs of church activity.
Like the family drunk, he writes in the books introduction, they are high on a
bender, and their current drink is political.
The addiction can manifest itself in other ways, Minor says, including winning
a political battle, doing political work, feeling like youre doing the work of
the Lord ... more Bible readings, more studies, more testimonials.
He gives the example of gay unions and marriage as an issue. Passing the
federal Marriage Protection Act wasnt enough, he says. Conservatives then
decided to work for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, or work so
gays cant adopt children.
The fix never lasts, Minor says, so you need another issue.
Why?
Minor doesnt profess to be a psychologist, so he doesnt know the exact cause
of the religious addiction. But he thinks it is connected to low self-esteem
issues, because some fundamental Christians believe they deserve eternal child
abuse from a heavenly father, and that you can only be OK if somebody else
(God) likes you, he says.
And, he says, the media has helped further the right-wing cause. He notes a
study by the watchdog group Media Matters of America that said right-wing
religious leaders were interviewed, quoted or mentioned 3.8 times as often as
other religious issues.
The media thereby define the debate in almost all national discussions as the
religious right-wing on one side and the other side occupied by science,
social science, academics or anything and anyone else, Minor writes in his
introduction. Its as if, for example, debates over stem-cell research pit
science against morality with only a right-wing Christian religio-political
version of morality posed as the other side.
Liberal enablers
Minor blames liberals for enabling conservatives in their religious and
political changes through the years.
Through minimizing the potential power of the religious right-wing, denial,
obsessive positive or negative emotional attachment to it, and even
self-blaming, we often became like abused spouses believing that there must be
something we could do to control, change or save the addicts, Minor writes. Our
focus became changing them. That, we believed, would solve our problems.
Liberals reactions, Minor contends, includes several responses:
Liberal guilt, of not wanting to offend conservatives.
Covering up for explaining to be nice. Its basically like abused spouses
wanting to explain the actions of their abusive husbands, Minor says.
Needing to atone to past mistakes, saying things like I need to understand
them better, to educate them or to love them more.
Theres a liberal guilt, he says. They dont want to offend them.
Psychological take
Though the concept of religious addiction has been around for decades, its
safe to say that field is still in its infancy in terms of scientific and
clinical research, says Steve Ilardi, a KU associate professor of psychology.
Ilardi says chemical or substance addictions tend to activate the same reward
pathways of the brain that process addictions such as gambling or binge
eating also activate.
But, Ilardi says, there is enormous controversy in the literature right now
when it comes to determining what qualifies as a process addiction, which is
the area where Minors idea of religious addiction would fit.
The big factor clinically speaking, Ilardi says, is whether theres harm in
religious involvement.
Religious addiction what does that mean? he asks. Does it mean a person who
spends hours a week in religious practice at church or at meetings, who reads
the Bible daily or prays daily, and its somewhat rewarding to them? Are they
addicted? From a clinical perspective, I would say no, unless its something
thats clearly harmful.
That would include neglecting other relationships, work or other life
responsibilities, Ilardi says.
Is it impairing a persons functioning? Ilardi asks. Thats the question I would
want to see addressed before Id consider labeling something a religious
addiction.
Pastors reaction
Shaun LePage, pastor at Community Bible Church, 906 N. 1464 Road, is among
those questioning Minors logic.
The Journal-World asked LePage to read the introduction to Minors book, which
was posted on his Web site, www.fairnessproject.org.

==
"The Pope is not only the representative of Jesus Christ, but he is Jesus
Christ Himself hidden under the veil of flesh." -- Pius X
===
Enlightenment values of mental liberty via reason and rejection of blind
adherence to authority and faith gave rise to the free societies of the modern
world
==
Scientists, unlike theologians, produce evidence for their claims.
==

The Twilight of Atheism, by theologian Alister McGrath

Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from
Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson by Jennifer Michael
Hecht

Alien Intrusion by Gary Bates

The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God)
by N. T. Wright

Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life by Alister McGrath

The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by
Alister E. McGrath

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion by
Dale McGowan

Doubt: A History Jennifer Hecht

The Resurrection of the Son of God
(Christian Origins and the Question of God) by N. T. Wright

Alister McGrath The Dawkins Delusion

The Science Of God: An Introduction To Scientific Theology by Alister E.
McGrath

Wells' Jesus of the Early Christians

Ehrman's Jesus

Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium

Price's Incredible Shrinking Son of Man

Gellner's Postmodernism, Reason and Religion
==
Psa 82:6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the
most High.
==
Rev22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for
ever and ever. (KJV)
===
"If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not
contributed you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven,"
Paul Crouch, co-founder of the Orange County-based network, once told viewers.
Meanwhile, Crouch and his wife, Jan, live like tycoons.
I spent several years investigating TBN and pored through stacks of
documents some made available by appalled employees showing the Crouches
eating $180-per-person meals; flying in a $21-million corporate jet; having
access to 30 TBN-owned homes across the country, among them a pair of Newport
Beach mansions and a ranch in Texas. All paid for with tax-free donor m
One of the stars of TBN and a major fundraiser is the self-proclaimed faith
healer Benny Hinn. I attended one of his two-day "Miracle Crusades" at what
was then the Pond of Anaheim. The arena was packed with sick people looking
for a cure.
My heart broke for the hundreds of people around me in wheelchairs or in the
final stages of terminal diseases, believing that if God deemed their faith
strong enough, they would be healed that night.
Hinn tells his audiences that a generous cash gift to his ministry will be
seen by God as a sign of true faith. This has worked well for the
televangelist, who lives in an oceanfront mansion in Dana Point, drives luxury
cars, flies in private jets and stays in the best hotels.
At the crusade, I met Jordie Gibson, 21, who had flown from Calgary, Canada,
to Anaheim because he believed that God, through Hinn, could get his kidneys
to work again.
He was thrilled to tell me that he had stopped getting dialysis because Hinn
had said people are cured only when they "step out in faith." The decision
enraged his doctors, but made perfect sense to Gibson. Despite risking his
life as a show of faith, he wasn't cured in Anaheim. He returned to Canada and
went back on dialysis. The crowd was filled with desperate believers like
Gibson.
I tried unsuccessfully to get several prominent mainstream pastors who
appeared on TBN to comment on the prosperity gospel, Hinn's "faith healing" or
the Crouches' lifestyle.
Like the Catholic bishops, I assumed, they didn't want to risk what they had.
==
`The Brothers Karamazov' (1880) the last novel
written by Dostoyevksy.

`... The church, out of a deeper concern for humanity, wishes to deny them
freedom, and replaces the curse of freedom with the intellectual and spiritual
opiates of miracle, mystery, and authority. By revering the mystery, believing
and accepting the miracles, and following the dictates and directives of the
church, people can live their lives with the heavy load of accepting
responsibility for their own actions. The majority of people, according to the
Grand Inquisitor, are weak and are likened to sheep. Happiness can only be
achieved by the surrender of human freedom. People may cry out for it, but in
fact they prefer slavery. Only the strong, those few at the top of the power
structure, should have to bear the weight and responsibility of freedom.'
==
The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of
God) by N. T. Wright

Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life by Alister McGrath

The Dawkins Delusion?: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine
by Alister E. McGrath

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World
(Paperback)
by Alister McGrath (Author)
==
"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of
spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the
divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God."
(Martin Luther)
==
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/bible.htm contradictions
==
Natural Atheism by David Eller
The book starts off by refuting classical arguments for the belief in a god
and presents logical arguments against the existence of god. Next, he provides
a brief 'course' on reason which is outstanding because many people use
improper reasoning not just in arguments about religion, but in their everyday
life. Eller then describes atheism in detail and puts to rest many stereotypes
of atheism and atheists. The last part of the book is devoted to the
applications of atheism; such as, the separation of church and state and
living in a disenchanted world.

Dianna Narciso "Like Rolling Uphill
==
Fixed earth
1 Chronicles 16:30: He has fixed the earth firm, immovable.

Psalm 93:1: Thou hast fixed the earth immovable and firm ...

Psalm 96:10: He has fixed the earth firm, immovable ...

Psalm 104:5: Thou didst fix the earth on its foundation so that it never can
be shaken.

Isaiah 45:18: ...who made the earth and fashioned it, and himself fixed it
fast...
==
http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/jesus_myth_history.htm
==
Deut 8:4. Thy raiment, with which thou wast covered, hath not decayed for
age, and thy foot is not worn, lo this is the fortieth year,
==
http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/clearair.html deconversions
==
The Secret Gospel: The Discovery and Interpretation of the Secret Gospel
According to Mark by Morton Smith (Paperback - May 30, 2005)

Jesus the Magician: A Response to Morton Smith (Unknown Binding)
by Frederick W Norris (Author)

Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? by Morton Smith
(Paperback - Sep 1998)
======
Ecc 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit
of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
===
v 2job 12:10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind. Animals have souls?
==
The believer is not burdened with the need for empirical evidence,
therefore his mind is not "available" for changing. One rather sad side
effect of this is willful ignorance.
==
Christopher Hitchens "God Is Not Great:
How Religion Poisons Everything" (2007)
==
1 Kings 22 22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go
forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he
said, Thou shalt persuade [him,] and prevail also: go forth, and do so. (KJV)

1Kings 22 23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the
mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee
(KJV)
==
The bible was compiled under the direction of the 37th Pope, Damasus about
384 AD. It was then that the Catholic Church determined which writings were
apocryphal and which were the inspired word of God.
==
"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no
religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious
foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion
must be derived from faith. . . we need believing people." -From Hitler's
speech, April 26, 1933

"It was only the disintegrating effect of Christianity, and the
symptoms of age which appear in every country, which caused ancient Rome to
succumb to the onslaught of the Germans."
==
The Fifth plague (pestilence, Exodus 9) wiped out the Egyptian livestock,
including horses. Yet, Exodus 14 talks about the Pharaoh pursuing the Jews
with chariots and horsemen.
===
Thunder is the voice of God
"On the third day, as morning dawned, there was thunder (kolot), and
lightning, and a dense cloud upon the mountain, and a very loud blast
(kol) of the shofar, and all the people who were in the camp trembled;
" (Exodus 19:16)

Zechariah 9:14: "And the Lord will manifest Himself to them, And His arrows
shall flash like lightning; My Lord God shall sound the ram?s horn And
advance in a stormy tempest."

Psalm 29:3f:
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the
LORD is upon many waters. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the
LORD is full of majesty. The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the
LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.

Psalm 18:13f:
The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail
stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and
he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

Job 40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder
with a voice like him?

John 12:29:
Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it,
and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard
it, said that it thundered ...

(Rev 11:19):
And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple
the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and
thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Psalm 77:18):
The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven (galgal): the lightnings lightened
the world: the earth trembled and shook.
==
Huston Smith The Illustrated World's Religions
==
"Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" God
==
Surely those who disbelieve . . . Allah has set a seal upon their hearts . . .
and there is a great punishment for them (Koran 2:6-7).
Surely those who disbelieve and die while they are disbelievers, these it is
on whom is the curse of Allah and the angels and men all (Koran 2:161).
[W]hen the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In
flaming fire taking vengeance of them that know not God, and that obey not the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction from the presence of the Lord . . . (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).
[H]e that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God
abideth on him(John 3:36).

2. Whose god orders the most violent plight for nonbelievers while on Earth?
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the
wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee
secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods . . . thou shalt surely kill
him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards
the hand of all the people . . . If thou shalt hear . . . Certain men . . .
have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve
other gods . . . Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants ofthat city with the
edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the
cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword (Deuteronomy13: 6-15).
Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they
prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion
of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in
acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection (Koran
9:29).
3. Whose god orders the cruelest warfare?
So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until
when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either
set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war
terminates (Koran 47:4).
And when the Lord thy God hath delivered [a city] into thine hands, thou shalt
smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the
little ones . . . shalt thou take unto thyself . . . But of the cities of
these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou
shalt save alive nothing that breatheth(Deuteronomy 20:13-16).

4. Whose god has the least pity and most contempt for the enemies of his
followers?
And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city,
and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and
young, both males, and little children, and women: but come not near any man
upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the
ancient men who were before the house. And he said unto them, Defile the
house, and fill the courts with the slain: go you forth. And they went forth,
and slew in the city (Ezekiel 9:5-7).
Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you
on account of (your) religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes,
that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the
doers of justice (Koran 60:8).
And if they incline to peace, then incline to it and trust in Allah; surely He
is the Hearing, the Knowing (Koran 8:61).

5. Whose god has more contempt for homosexuals?
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall
be upon them(Leviticus 20:13).
And if two (men) of you commit it, then hurt them both; but if they turn again
and amend, leave them alone, verily, God is easily turned, compassionate (Koran
4:21).
Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind . . . shall inherit the
kingdom of God(1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
"And there shall wait on them young boys of their own, as fair as virgin
pearls" (Koran 52:24). They shall be attended by boys graced with eternal
youth, who will seem like scattered pearls to the beholders" (Koran 76:19).

6. Whose god has prescribed the more vicious physical punishment of sinners?
(As for) the fornicatress and the fornicator, flog each of them, (giving) a
hundred stripes, and let not pity for them detain you in the matter of
obedience to Allah, if you believe in Allah and the last day, and let a party
of believers witness their chastisement (Koran 24:2).
And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge
shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face . . . Forty
stripes he may give him, and not exceed(Deuteronomy 25:2-3).

7. Whose god should you fear most?
What! will you not fight a people who broke their oaths and aimed at the
expulsion of the Apostle, and they attacked you first; do you fear them? But
Allah is most deserving that you should fear Him, if you are believers (Koran
9:13).
But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath
killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him (Luke 12:5).
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but
rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew
10:28).

8. Whose god places the least value on the lives of women?
Allah enjoins you concerning your children: The male shall have the equal of
the portion of two females; then if they are more than two females, shall have
two-thirds of what the deceased has left, and if there is one, she shall they
have the half (Koran 4:11).
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and
sayunto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for
the Lord by thy estimation. And thy estimation shall be of the male from
twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty
shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. And if it be a female,
then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels. And if it be from a month old
even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five
shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of
silver. And if it be from sixty years old and above, if it be a male, then thy
estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female, ten shekels"
(Leviticus27: 1-7).

9. Whose god puts women in their place with the harshest of restrictions on
their speech?
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" ; (1
Timothy 2:11-12).
"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto
them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the
law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for
it is a shame for women to speak in the church" (1Corinthians 14:34-35).
"Allah has heard and accepted the statement of the woman who pleads with you
(the Prophet) concerning her husband and carries her complaint to Allah, and
Allah hears the arguments between both of you for Allah hears and sees all
things(Koran 58:1).

10. Whose god is the champion of deceit?
Surely Allah is not ashamed to set forth any parable-- (that of) a gnat or any
thing above that; then as for those who believe, they know that it is the truth
from their Lord, and as for those who disbelieve, they say: What is it that
Allah means by this parable: He causes many to err by it and many He leads
aright by it! but He does not cause to err by it (any) except the
transgressors (Koran2:26).
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but
had pleasure in unrighteousness (2Thessalonians 2:11-12).
===
"Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want
to. ... If he wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not
want to, he is wicked. ... If, as they say, God can abolish evil, and God
really wants to do it, why is there evil in the world?" (Epicurus, as quoted
in 2000 Years of Disbelief)
==
I do not claim there is no god, even though that is what I believe.
Since I did not think up a god and no god has introduced itself to
me, I have to analyze the gods of others. I do claim there is not a
god as described in the OT. There are several points that show that
the god of the OT, as described in the OT, cannot exist.

1st. The OT says that the god is omnipotent, yet this god cannot
defeat chariots of iron. If it were omnipotent, it could defeat the
chariots of iron. Please show me how an omnipotent god can ever not
defeat chariots of iron.

2nd. The OT says that the god never changes, yet this god changes
many times in the text. Please show me how a never changing being can
change.

3rd. The OT says that the god is omniscient, yet this god does not
know what will happen on several occasions. Please show how an all-
knowing being can ever not know something.

4th. The OT says that the god is omnipotent, omniscient, and exo-
temporal. This excludes a god from ever wanting, yet this god wants
lots of things. He could not have existed without a thought of
creating the universe and then decide to create the universe. That
would be change. He would have always known he was going to create.
This creates a problem. If he knew he was going to create, would he
then have been able to not create. Would he have been a slave to his
own knowledge?

5th. The god of the OT did his creating in "days", yet this god is
supposed to be outside of time, unconstrained by time.

There are more but this is a good start. These show that the authors
of the OT did not do their homework and think the stories through.
These show a fictional character because the traits a