B3-BibleC.txt Graham L. Kendall Modified 12/22/2009 Email grahamkendall74135@yahoo.com I am found on IRC Efnet/Undernet/Dalnet as glk http://www.grahamkendall.net/ ******************************************************************************* == http://www.godchecker.com/ list of gods lists over 2,850 of them. www.godfinder.org 5000 gods ==== Rev21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (KJV) == Doesn't it bother you that most people here think it's only justics that you scream and choke and cry and sizzle and howl and gnash your teeth in a furnace for eternity? .God had to sacrifice himself to himself to change a rule he himself made so that he wouldn't have to send his own creations to hell == We have become so accustomed to the religious lie that surrounds us that we do not notice the atrocity, stupidity and cruelty with which the teaching of the Christian church is permeated. - Leo Tolstoy. == It might be that I am wrong. It might be that I have not sought God sufficiently or studied the Bible thoroughly enough or listened carefully enough to the many Christians who have admonished me. Maybe if I could just be corrected in this or that point of misunderstanding, or if I could adjust my disposition in one way or another, then the beauty of Christ and the message of the gospel would dawn on me once again. Maybe. But the knowledge that billions of seekers have lived and died, calling out to God for some definitive revelation without ever receiving it, or receiving revelation that conflicts with the revelation others have found, contributes to my suspicion that there is no personal god who reveals himself to anyone. If we cannot imagine a good reason for the starvation or slow death of a child or a chimpanzee[18] due to leukemia, and our minds lead us to consider that God is either not good, not omnipotent, not omniscient, or nonexistent, is this grounds for the infinite wrath of God, even if he does in fact exist? Does God give us a mind and prevent us from drawing natural conclusions on pain of eternal punishment? It seems to me that such a stance is driven not by reason, or even by love, but by fear‹fear that, whether or not traditional notions make sense, God may indeed turn out to be an infinite, exacting judge to those who question him. Might makes right, if you will. I considered the millions of children who have died of starvation, wasting disease, and natural disasters, knowing that an omnipotent god could have come to their rescue in response to their pleas but did not, it was difficult not to see a parallel between God and the negligent driver. The more I contemplated the world in which we live, the harder it became to identify any clues that a benevolent, omnipotent Personality intervenes and orchestrates any of the events in our lives. I had nurtured a hope of an afterlife, but that prospect faded the more I considered evolution and the variety of life from protozoa to fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, apes, hominids, and humans. Through which twigs in this great bush of life can we draw a line between creatures that end their lives in the grave and those that continue through eternity? Do the immortals include tapeworms, insects, slugs, lizards, mice, dogs, dolphins, chimpanzees, Homo erectus, or just Homo sapiens? When defending God's purposes in relation to the natural suffering of animals, C. S. Lewis speculated that they may be given a place in the afterlife (Lewis 1970), yet it would be a stretch to think that all the lower animals could participate.[17] When a chimpanzee dies of hunger or cancer or as a result of blows from fellow chimps, is there any consolation of eternal bliss in the hereafter (and even if chimps go to heaven, of what benefit is their suffering on earth)? What leads us to believe that we, of all creatures, will live in a place where all our tears and pain will be wiped away and where we'll be reunited with our loved ones and our creator? == Robert Ingersoll: Most people, after arriving at the conclusion that Jehovah is not God, that the Bible is not an inspired book, and that the Christian religion, like other religions, is the creation of man, usually say: "There must be a Supreme Being, but Jehovah is not his name, and the Bible is not his word. There must be somewhere an overruling Providence or Power." This position is just as untenable as the other. He who cannot harmonize the cruelties of the Bible with the goodness of Jehovah, cannot harmonize the cruelties of Nature with the goodness and wisdom of a supposed Deity. He will find it impossible to account for pestilence and famine, for earthquake and storm, for slavery, for the triumph of the strong over the weak, for the countless victories of injustice ... How can the Deist satisfactorily account for the sufferings of women and children? In what way will he justify religious persecution‹the flame and sword of religious hatred? Why did his God sit idly on his throne and allow his enemies to wet their swords in the blood of his friends? Why did he not answer the prayers of the imprisoned, of the helpless? And when he heard the lash upon the naked back of the slave, why did he not also hear the prayer of the slave? And when children were sold from the breasts of mothers, why was he deaf to the mother's cry? It seems to me that the man who knows the limitations of the mind, who gives the proper value to human testimony, is necessarily an Agnostic. He gives up the hope of ascertaining first or final causes, of comprehending the supernatural, or of conceiving of an infinite personality. From out the words Creator, Preserver, and Providence, all meaning falls (Ingersoll 1889, 237-38). == Richard Dawkins: The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference (Dawkins 1995, 85). == deism.com and deism.org. == An empirical worldview were Harvard entomologist E. O. Wilson's Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (Wilson 1998), which painted a neodeistic vision of a universe that follows natural laws from the motion of the planets to the neurons in our brains; Roger Fout's Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees (Fouts 1997), which surprised me with the many cognitive similarities between chimps and humans; and Ed Babinski's Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists (Babinski 1995). == Other objections to the New Testament I began to consider at this time were the failure of Jesus to return in the generation of his disciples as promised and the significant discrepancies in the Resurrection accounts of the Gospels. == The New Testament suggests that unbelievers will spend an eternity of conscious torment in hell, an infinitely worse proposition than being stoned to death. == Thomas Paine If those accounts be true, [Moses] was the wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score or on the pretence of religion; and under that mask, or that infatuation, committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be found in the history of any nation. Of which I will state only one instance: When the Jewish army returned from one of their plundering and murdering excursions, the account goes on as follows (Numbers xxxi, 13 [KJV]): "And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp; and Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle; and Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known a man by lying with him; but all the women-children that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." Among the detestable villains that in any period of the world have disgraced the name of man, it is impossible to find a greater than Moses, if this account be true. Here is an order to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers, and debauch the daughters. Let any mother put herself in the situation of those mothers, one child murdered, another destined to violation, and herself in the hands of an executioner: let any daughter put herself in the situation of those daughters, destined as a prey to the murderers of a mother and a brother, and what will be their feelings? It is in vain that we attempt to impose upon nature, for nature will have her course, and the religion that tortures all her social ties is a false religion. After this detestable order, follows an account of the plunder taken, and the manner of dividing it; and here it is that the profaneness of priestly hypocrisy increases the catalogue of crimes. Verse 37, "And the Lord's tribute of the sheep was six hundred and threescore and fifteen; and the beeves were thirty and six thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was threescore and twelve; and the asses were thirty thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was threescore and one; and the persons were sixteen thousand, of which the Lord's tribute was thirty and two." In short, the matters contained in this chapter, as well as in many other parts of the Bible, are too horrid for humanity to read, or for decency to hear; for it appears, from the 35th verse of this chapter, that the number of women-children consigned to debauchery[15] by the order of Moses was thirty-two thousand. People in general know not what wickedness there is in this pretended word of God. Brought up in habits of superstition, they take it for granted that the Bible is true, and that it is good; they permit themselves not to doubt of it, and they carry the ideas they form of the benevolence of the Almighty to the book which they have been taught to believe was written by his authority. Good heavens! It is quite another thing, it is a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy; for what can be greater blasphemy, than to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty! (Paine 1794, 86-88; emphasis in original) == Must I be eternally damned because I can't believe that Samson, under the influence of your Spirit, avenged himself on his personal enemies by killing 1,000 of them with the jawbone of a donkey? == The Goliath episode, which is part of David's history in the mind of posterity, may well have been attached to him wrongly. The Bible gives us contradictory evidence concerning it. According to the main narrative, David killed Goliath. But this account occasions quite a bit of difficulty in that after the reputed episode is over, Saul and Abner forget completely who David is, whereas he is supposed to have been on the court staff for quite some time. Aside from this and other contradictions, the Bible itself contains a more plausible variant tradition: In 2 Samuel 21:19 it is the hero Elhanan who slays Goliath at the town of Gob. Furthermore, the name of Elhanan's father is obviously connected with the weapon used (the weaver's beam), whereas the latter is inappropriate in the case of the account whereby David is credited with the slaying of Goliath. The author of the Books of Chronicles had before him the Books of Samuel with both variants, which he tried to harmonize. Thus 1 Chronicles 20:5 makes Elhanan the killer of Goliath's brother. Since it is much more natural for a heroic event to be transferred from a minor personage to a great hero, than vice versa, the situation may be summed up as follows: Elhanan slew Goliath but the victory was popularly transferred to David. Both the true and the transformed versions appear in Samuel. The Chronicler, seeing the discrepancy, tried to harmonize them (Gordon and Rendsburg 1997, 186-87) == Alvin Plantinga's Warranted Christian Belief, Thomas Morris' Philosophy and the Christian Faith, Kelly James Clark's When Faith is not Enough, C. Stephen Evans' Philosophy of Religion, Donald Bloesh's Holy Scripture, Larry Richards' 735 Baffling Bible Questions Answered, Helmut Thielicke's The Evangelical Faith, Waldemar Janzen's Old Testament Ethics, John Barton's Ethics and the Old Testament, Willard Swartley's Slavery, Sabbath, War & Women, and Cyrus Gordon and Gary Rendsburg's The Bible and the Ancient Near East. I == The Bible's endorsement of polygamy[10] [2 Samuel 12:8], the magic of the striped sticks causing sheep's offspring to be striped [Genesis 30:31-43], the assertion that camels don't have split hooves [Leviticus 11:1-4],[11] the mixed use of round numbers and exact numbers in Numbers [3:39-51] to justify paying redemption money to Aaron's family, Yahweh's command to hamstring the horses [Joshua 11:6], the barbaric brutality of the Israelites in their holy wars, the contradictory teachings on divorce [Deuteronomy 22:19, 29; Ezra 10:2-3; Malachi 2:16; Mark 10:11-12], the many little historical contradictions, the attempt to explain language diversification through a "how-the-leopard-got-its-spots" Tower of Babel story [Genesis 11:1-9], the conception of a young earth which is clearly unattested to by the facts [Genesis 1-11], Why do some people get zapped instantly for touching the ark inadvertently [2 Samuel 6:1-8] Why do women suspected of adultery have to go through some bizarre ordeal of drinking bitter water and seeing their womb swell and thigh waste away, while no provision is made for women to test their husbands for the same offense [Numbers 5:11-31]? == Why does the Bible regard women in such a poor light? Why are the people of Yahweh supposed to wipe out men, women and children but are allowed to take the virgins for themselves [Deuteronomy 21:10-14; Numbers 31:17-18] == Beyond Born Again by Robert M. Price (Price 1993). Price spent his youth as a fundamentalist, attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary as an evangelical, transitioned to liberal Christianity, then went on to earn two doctorates in New Testament studies. He was still a liberal believer when he wrote this book, but he later became a humanist after some 20 years as a liberal Christian. == Integrity mandates the admission that God's reference to slaves as property poses not a little difficulty. And so it goes for the seeming lesser value attributed to females than to males in Leviticus 27:1-8. Some of the wartime acts of the Israelites carried out with God's sanction stir the soul to revulsion. == nineteenth-century apologetic work An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible (Haley 1876), == Progress flourishes only where free inquiry and the right to criticize are unhindered. == Those who cannot allow their views to be subject to revision by data or arguments they may not have yet considered live in a separate world from mine. == When it comes to matters beyond normal perception, you can only see what's already in your head. == John14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (KJV) Every person a pope. == The early "heresies" are the gnostics or Arrians or Docetists or Donatists or Nestorians or Pelagians or Monophysites == THe problem with ALL so called scripture is that it completely ignores the rest of the world outside of the world the religion was in. == http://www.ecis.com/~alizard/founding-fathers-xtianity.html == In religion it's okay to believe whatever you want to believe regardless of fact and/or logic. I reject religious belief altogether, because it's nothing more than subjective thoughts and desires and feelings and thus has nothing to do with empirical claims about reality, and "theology" has no more real meaning (and probably less) than which flavor of ice cream I like the most. == The first-century Roman historian Suetonius had written a book entitled, "The Full Grave of Jesus," documenting in intricate detail that the Resurrection was a hoax. == The Rev. Rod Parsley has issued a desperate plea for money, telling his flock that he is facing a "demonically inspired financial attack" that is threatening his ministry. == The God of the Jews revealed 613 commandments (called the mizvot) in the Torah. == Gen 19:8 Look now, I have two daughters who are virgins; let me, I beg of you, bring them out to you, and you can do as you please with them. But only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof. (AMP) == DEUTERONOMY 21:18 "If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, -NASB DEUTERONOMY 21:19 then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his home town. -NASB DEUTERONOMY 21:20 "And they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.' -NASB == Goliath height Later Septuagint manuscripts and the oldest Masoretic texts (Aleppo Codex, 10th century AD) read "six cubits and a span", which would make him about 290 cm or nine feet six inches tall. == Prov.13:16 Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly == The Old Testament states that during the night, an angel of Yahweh brought death to 185,000 Assyrians troops. == It had been observed that some LSD sessions had the form of profound religious and mystical experiences quite similar to those described in the holy scriptures of the great religions of the world and reported by saints, prophets, and religious teachers of all ages. == Welcome to Historical Criticism. The theory is that later writers retro-fitted their own doctrines into Jesus' mouth, after the church had begun to jell into the institution it became throughout the Roman Empire, as dispersed Jews sought alternative forms of worship to temple sacrifice. One Pharasaic group was given permission by Vespasian to convene at Javneh or Jamnia on the coast of Judea, headed by rabbi Ben Zakkai. They were the most formidable rivals Christians faced in converting Jews after the fall of the temple, and writers use Jesus as their mouthpiece for their vitriol against them. Writers also felt incumbent upon to prove that Jesus was the true messiah and therefore matched his description detail for detail with over a hundred messianic Old Testament texts. For a clearer picture of the escalating schism between Judaism and Christianity in the first three centuries, read Constantine's Sword by James Carroll or The Historical Jesus by John Dominic Crossan. Acts reports that Christians were routinely being thrown out of synagogues, so there is no question that Christians first met in synagogues. It wasn't until the second century that Jews proclaimed a formal anathema against Christianity. Josephus also reports diversity and fluidity within Judaism, and the more moderate Jews did not require circumcision or Kosher among converts, as is reported in the New Testament. Different sects of Judaism had greater and lesser loyalty to the second temple, and Essenes none at all. Rabbinical writings report that hand-washing was only required of priests before entering the temple. The entire attempt by New Testament writers to pin the crucifixion on the Jews is an obvious effort to win Roman favor. There is no record of any prelate at any time releasing one prisoner at Passover. The animosity against Jews implicit in the New Testament has led to 2000 years of persecution. Understanding that New Testament writers had an agenda to slam Judaism helps us mitigate some of this dange == If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition‹even when it seems to be doing a little good‹we abet a general climate in which skepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate. Figuring out a prudent balance takes wisdom (Sagan 1996, 298-299). == http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ken_daniels/why.html Guy P. Harrison Author of 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Dennett 2006) and the ambitiously titled "The Big Religion Questions Finally Solved" (Paul 2008). == They characterize the mother of Jesus as a virgin. This error appears only in the Septuagent. No Hebrew-language author would have made that mistake because the Hebrew uses the term ALMAH or young woman. == It is as though the Christian faith enjoys a special status not shared by other perspectives: to reject Christianity, we must obtain a doctorate in theology and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt it is untrue, but to accept Christianity, all we need is the faith of a little child, with no prior sympathetic or systematic study of other religious and nonreligious alternatives. == "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish." - Albert Einstein == Of the 661 verses of Mark, only 31 verses didn't appear in some form in Matthew and Luke. Out of the 11,205 words in Mark, only 132 have no parallel in Matthew and/or Luke. 97.2% have parallels in Matthew and 88.4% in Luke. == The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." -- Thomas Jefferson (letter to J. Adams April 11,1823) == I submit it is the rare person who can attain a technical education and maintain a perfectly rigid faith where every word of the Bible must be literal. == The mass of humanity still subscribes to the mythical religious framework of childhood --you know, do good and you get to go to heaven and sit next to God for all eternity. == Carl Sagan on God: "The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity." == Exo21:7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. (KJV) However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT) == The exact path we took during evolution is but one in a 'fantastically huge' number of possible paths. But we only took one of them, just as the shuffled deck ended up in one particular order. It didn't have to be in that order, and the path we took on our evolutionary journey didn't need to be precisely the one we took. There were a 'fantastically huge' number of possible paths. We could even extend this to say, there are an even larger number of possible sentient bipedes capable of asking the same questions we do regarding the orgin of things in our place. There is no known law that suggests the most intelligent mammal need be exactly what we are. In any case, whatever final intelligent mammal ended up on top of the heap as we are would also wonder. The exact path we took during evolution is but one in a 'fantastically huge' number of possible paths. But we only took one of them, just as the shuffled deck ended up in one particular order. It didn't have to be in that order, and the path we took on our evolutionary journey didn't need to be precisely the one we took. There were a 'fantastically huge' number of possible paths. We could even extend this to say, there are an even larger number of possible sentient bipedes capable of asking the same questions we do regarding the orgin of things in our place. There is no known law that suggests the most intelligent mammal need be exactly what we are. In any case, whatever final intelligent mammal ended up on top of the heap as we are would also wonder. Take a take of cards and shuffle it a few times, then write down the order of the cards. Note then, that the probability of them being precisely in whatever order you note is 1/10^68. Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up (Paperback) And were we somehow able to disprove God's existence, it is near certain that this same zealous audience would invent him anew. I fear that God is here to stay, if only in the fertile minds of designing acolytes. Bertrand Russell cites a seemingly different account of the beginning‹the Hindu myth that the world rests on an elephant and the elephant rests on a tortoise. When asked about the tortoise, the Hindu replies, ³Suppose we change the subject.² == Religious believers are unable to ascribe any well-defined properties to their deities. Most of their deities were invented by primitive people who imagined god as a kind of really big and powerful person. So contemporary believers either stick with that story, or replace it with a sort of fuzzy 'god is everywhere as a kind of spirit' concept, which inherently has no explanatory value whatsoever. Second, a 'deity hypothesis' that actually predicts and explains natural phenomenon is no longer in the realm of the supernatural, and therefore does not refer to a deity at all. Unless, of course, you want to think of natural laws as a deity. What most of these arguments have in common is human incredulity. That is, what exists or has happened is just too, too much for us to accept without calling on some supernatural explanation, and that explanation is God. Therefore God exists as the explanation for everything we can't understand, which is an "argument" for God the argument from coincidence: "1. All these remarkable events happening at the same time can't be an accident. 2. There must be some reason for their coincidence. 3. That reason is God. 4. Therefore God exists." the argument from being or ontology contends that God is the greatest and most perfect of all beings, and that one of the attributes of perfection is existence. Therefore God exists. I might say that an attribute of perfection is non-existence. Therefore God does not exist. The ontological argument is really a play on words and proves nothing. The second "classical" argument for the existence of God is the argument from design. This is the one creationists employ in their attempt to get around biological evolution. The world is too complex to have come about through the work of natural forces and/or it shows unmistakable signs of being designed. Therefore there has to be a designer and that designer is God. The problem with this argument is that what we think of as being "too complex" is more a statement about our lack of imagination than it is about anything else. The tendency for matter to self-organize along with the interplay of replication, mutation, and natural selection is more powerful in its ability to bring about complexity than our poor minds can imagine. Furthermore, the universe and its systems are not "designed." They evolve. The idea of a designer is an anthropomorphic notion alien to the way the universe works. Complexity means things are complex, but no designer is required, just time and opportunity. == Cognitive dissonance. This refers to the mental processes that go on when moderates of a religious faith deny parts of the book by using their own moral compass, while simultaneously claiming that God is the source of morality. "Respect" for "generations of theologians," eh? In a couple thousand years from the invention of sun-god monotheism during construction of the Old Testament, the best argument for the existence of any form of their God was Anselm's Proof, a jumble of fallacious axioms that Euclid might have found humorous. The next high point was St. Augustine, who rationalized torturing and killing all the heretics, the Proof by Absence of Dissent. The current pinnacle of theological thought is Plantinga, whose core axiom is that deeply held "core beliefs" must be considered true. Buddha might have merely laughed at them, but today's post-Christian humanist ethical standards dictate revulsion for the pain and destruction they have wrought. Michael Martin's Atheism: A Philosophical Justification (look it up here in Amazon), 536pp of careful, scrupulous, deeply-researched refutations of the arguments that Paulos throws darts at. Or, if you prefer less-weighty books, see Philosophers Without Gods edited by Louise M. Antony. "Why do so many in the media and elsewhere refer to the rescuing of a few children after an earthquake or a tsunami as a miracle when they attribute the death of perhaps hundreds of equally innocent children in the same disaster to a geophysical fault line? It would seem either both are the result of divine intervention or both are a consequence of the earth's plates shifting" analytic truths are true by the meaning of their terms, and synthetic truths are true because of the way the world is. ontological argument as described by its originator, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. Following his usual method of illustrating schematically the argument du jour, Paulos summarizes as follows: 1. God is a being than which nothing greater can even be conceived. 2. We understand the notion of God as well as the notion of God's really existing. 3. Let's also tentatively assume God doesn't exist. 4. If we understand the notion of a positive being and that being really exists, then this being is greater than it would have been if we only understood the notion of it. 5. From these assumptions, we conclude that if God did not exist, we could conceive of a being greater than God (a being just like God, but really existing). This is a contradiction since God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. 6. Thus Assumption 3 is refuted and God exists (39). Paulos's first response to the argument is to object that the argument "proves too much" (39). He supports this claim by summarizing the criticism of Anselm's contemporary, Gaunilo, who argues that Anselm's method of establishing the existence of God can also be used to prove the existence of all manner of perfect entities which clearly do not exist. Paulos gives the example of Gaunilo's perfect island, which he claims can be proved to exist by the same reasoning found in the ontological argument. Such name-dropping occurs frequently throughout the book, with the author presenting established arguments in one-sentence summaries. the fact that a recent "Science" article reported that of 32 European nations and Japan, only Turkey had a higher percentage rejecting Darwin than the Americans. == St. Cyril of Alexandria: A Bully for Early Christianity | Suite101.com http://medievalhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/st__cyril_of_alexandria   St. Augustine not only supports State coercion against heretics, but he provides Scriptural and philosophical support for such State involvement in religious matters. Armed with the arguments for his new view, Augustine calls on all Christian civic rulers to use their God-given State power to punish the Church¹s enemies. http://dannymcdonald.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/ st-augustine-on-state-coercion-even-great-theologians-made-mistakes/   Illustration of (St.) Charlemagne Forcing Baptism on the Saxons http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/christian/blxtn_crus_ill15.htm St. Charlemagne mass murdering followers of other religions: Though he did put priestly scribes on the royal payroll and tried hard to read and write, he mainly got on with butchering recalcitrant Saxons. He was very good at that. The Saxons resisted 'conversion' with a passion and in 772, at Quierzy (today an insignificant village on the Oise about a 100 miles northwest of Paris) a frustrated Charlemagne, urged on by his bishops, issued a proclamation that he would kill every Saxon who refused to accept Jesus Christ. From that time on he kept a special detachment of Christian priests who doubled as his executioners. Pagan practices, such as eating meat during Lent, cremation of the dead and pretending to be baptized ("dogs returning to their vomit") were all made punishable by death. In fulfillment of his vow, in a single day at Verden in 782, Charlemagne had 4500 Saxon prisoners beheaded for slipping back to their old gods. He then went off to Mass and had his dinner. What a guy! == "Christian No More" by Jeffrey Mark == I discovered that the latest UN Human Development Report the least religious countries are Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, Netherlands, Denmark and the UK. According to the same report these countries are also the healthiest, longest life expectancy, per capita income, education, gender equality and have the lowest incidents per capita of homicide, infant mortality, drug abuse, abortion, sexual diseases and teen pregnancy. The most religious countries have the opposite to be ashamed of in all categories. In fact the 50 lowest in ranking are extremely religious. The US is in that group. Within the US the most religiously literal states in the south and the midwest have the worst records in all of those categories while the more secular northeastern states are closer to the European norms. It would seem that religious belief really is bad for you. Literally and demonstrably. === luke 19:27 But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me.'" == "The best thing about religion is that it¹s so transparently absurd it can¹t possibly last forever. I¹m convinced it will only take a small shift in human consciousness for it to be laughed off the planet, and I hope I¹m still around when that happens. [Pat Condell] == Deuteronomy 20:16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. "They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man........Now kill all the boys [innocent kids]. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. (Numbers 31:7,17-18)" === Assertions without evidence and/or reason are acts of faith. == "BAthseba" is a mispronunciation of "beit sheva" or "seven houses" == If you paid any attention to history, you would know that the greatest wrath in such cases is usually reserved for those who have a rather similar faith but differ on some esoteric point. Sunni Shia ring a bell? Protestant Catholic? == Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were written by Moses. My understanding is that Jewish religious *tradition* [emphasis mine] ascribes authorship of the Torah to Moses through a process of divine inspiration. This view of Mosaic authorship is first found explicitly expressed in the Talmud, dating from the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, and is based on textual analysis of passages in the Torah and the subsequent books of the Hebrew Bible. The Zohar, the most significant text in Jewish mysticism, states that the Torah was created prior to the creation of the world, and that it was used as the blueprint for Creation. According to dating of the text by Orthodox rabbis the revelation of the Torah to Moses occurred in 1380 BCE at Mount Sinai. Contemporary secular biblical scholars date the completion of the Torah, as well as the prophets and the historical books, no earlier than the Persian period (539 to 334 BCE). Scholarly discussion for much of the 20th century was principally couched in terms of the documentary hypothesis, according to which the Torah is a synthesis of documents from a small number of originally independent sources. According to the most influential version of the hypothesis, as formulated by Julius Wellhausen (1844 - 1918), the Pentateuch is composed of four separate and identifiable texts, dating roughly from the period of Solomon up until exilic priests and scribes. These various texts were brought together as one document (the Five Books of Moses of the Torah) by scribes after the exile. * The Jahwist (or J) - written c 950 BCE. The southern kingdom's (i.e. Judah) interpretation. It is named according to the prolific use of the name Yahweh (or Jaweh, in German, the divine name or Tetragrammaton) in its text. * The Elohist (or E) - written c 850 BCE. The northern kingdom's (i.e. Israel) interpretation. As above, it is named because of its preferred use of Elohim (Generic name any heathen god or deity in Hebrew). * The Deuteronomist (or D) - written c 650-621 BCE. Dating specifically from the time of King Josiah of Judah and responsible for the book of Deuteronomy as well as Joshua and most of the subsequent books up to 2 Kings. * The Priestly source (or P) - written during or after the exile, c 550-400 BCE. So named because of its focus on Levitical laws. The documentary hypothesis has been increasingly challenged since the 1970s, and alternative views now see the Torah as having been compiled from a multitude of small fragments rather than a handful of large coherent source texts, or as having gradually accreted over many centuries and through many hands.[34] The shorthand Yahwist, Priestly and Deuteronomistic is still used nevertheless to characterise identifiable and differentiable content and style. The 19th century dating of the final form of Genesis and the Pentateuch to c. 500-450 BCE continues to be widely accepted irrespective of the model adopted, although a minority of scholars known as biblical minimalists argue for a date largely or entirely within the last two centuries BCE. The above is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah#Academic analysis == Every scholar knows that 1 John 5:7 is bogus, a counterfeit verse and isn't a part of any Bible translation but the KJV. == A "stable identity" for the Tanakh wasn't established until the 1st century Jamnian synod. In Western Christianity, the entire Christian Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) were not officially defined ('stable identity') until the Council of Trent in the 16th century. == 2sa 10:18 And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians the men of seven hundred chariots, and forty thousand horsemen, and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there. 1ch 19:18 And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians the men of seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand foot soldiers, and killed also Shophach the commander of their army. == http://unreasonablefaith.com/2009/10/13/christianity-is-self-projection-as-god/ == A common observation in this group is that christians are atheists minus one. They lack belief in all gods but theirs. Religion evolved in step with human evolution: First, we looked for explanations for all the phenomena around us. We then decided that it was a spirit in everything - animism. Then we evolved these spirits into a pantheon of gods - polytheism. As we developed more rational theories about the universe, these gods were replaced by science, and only one father god remained - monotheism. But the Christians could not quite make this leap to monotheism, and split their god into three, as well as adding a bunch of demgiod saints into the mix. == Humans also seem to have an instinctive urge for the supernatural, something beyond what their physical senses can experience. This urge takes different expressions, from ancestor worship to belief in one or more deities. Humanity displays both a willingness to cooperate together in groups, suspicion of those from a different group, and, for some, desire to dominate. These characteristics are shared with other primates. == God makes people tell lies. --"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." (1 Kings 22:23) "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." (2 Thessalonians 2:11) == Perhaps the most important reason to suspect the accuracy of Matthew and Luke is that Bethlehem in Judea did not exist as a functioning town between 7 and 4 BCE when Jesus is believed to have been born. Archaeological studies of the town have turned up a great deal of ancient Iron Age material from 1200 to 550 BCE 2 and material from the sixth century CE, but nothing from the 1st century BCE and 1st century CE. According to Aviram Oshiri, this included the ...Church of the Nativity and associated Byzantine and medieval buildings. But there is a complete absence of information for antiquities from the Herodian period--that is, from the time around the birth of Jesus. 3 So, it appears that Bethlehem was deserted at the time that Jesus was born there. == rsv mat 27:52 the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, rsv 2mat 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. == PSALMS 18:13 The \Lord\ also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High uttered His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. -NASB == Some biblical authors consider Yahweh, the god of Israel, as one of many gods fathered by Elyon whose wife was Asherah, to whom was given the people and land of Israel to rule over (Deut. 32:8). == You are enslaved. Your mind is bound, and even though the evidence shows differently you persist in believing a ancient tome whos goal was to convince you that the very attributes that make you human, are evil and make you in need of salvation. You dont need salvation, you need liberation. You have been brainwashed by a dogmatic religion that imposes fear and guilty to reach an imaginary kingdom that you will only find out doesnt exist after you're dead and it's too gone. Great Idea. Accept the FACT that over time science has found out a great many mysteries that remove the need for god of the gaps and you just keep on making up new gaps in your desperate attempt to hold on to your antiquated comforter. === Look, atheists. Here is the deal. You are bad people and you're going to be punished for not believing in God, but not only for not believing in God, but for not believing in the RIGHT God. It is so obvious that Yahweh, who was originally a Jewish tribal mountain god, is God the father. == http://atheism.about.com/library/decisions/religion/bl_l_McCollumBoard.htm == Foundation's Legal Victory Today in Scopes II Case Halts Illegal Bible Instruction in Dayton, Tennessee Schools February 8, 2002 The Rhea County Board of Education today was forcefully ordered by U.S. District Judge R. Allan Edgar of Chattanooga, TN, to stop conducting an illegal Bible Education Ministry program, the subject of a federal lawsuit taken by the national Freedom From Religion Foundation on behalf of parents with children in Rhea County public schools. Rhea County, Tennessee, is no stranger to religious controversy, writes Judge Edgar, in the opening of his 19-page decision. In 1925, the Rhea County Courthouse was the site of the well known 'Scopes' or 'Monkey' trial, wherein high school teacher John Scopes was tried for violating a Tennessee statute making it a misdemeanor to teach 'evolution theory' in the State's public schools. The trial pitted William Jennings Bryan, the 'Great Commoner,' representing the State, against Clarence Darrow for the defense. The legacy of that trial in some respects gives rise to this lawsuit. The Foundation's lawsuit on behalf of John Doe and Mary Roe, pitted the rights of the parents, who are under a protective court order in the hostile Dayton-area community, against an obdurate school system, which refused to honor more than five decades of Supreme Court precedent against religious instruction in the public schools. The bible instruction, carried out for decades in grades kindergarten through five in three Rhea County elementary schools, has been taught during regular school hours for 30 minutes each week without parental consent. The bible program is operated by students from Bryan College (a bible-based college founded after the Scopes trial) to help public schools students become exposed to the Bible, with no public school oversight. An assistant professor who is Director of Practical Christian Involvement supervises the program, which Judge Edgar characterized as what might be found in a Sunday School class in many of the Christian churches in Rhea County. The lesson plans retained by Bryan College, Edgar wrote, reveal that the children are being taught that the Bible conveys literal truth about God and Jesus Christ reflective of the Bryan College 'Statement of Belief,' that the bible is literally true. Students are asked to memorize bible verses, act out skits of biblical stories, and sing songs such as Jesus Loves Me, My God Is So Great, Pharaoh, Pharaoh, Twelve Men Want to Spy on Canaan, Shout to the Lord, Change My Heart, Oh God, and I'm In The Lord's Army. At oral argument, the judge's decision noted, counsel for defendants even admitted the bible is being presented as the truth. Aside from the content, Edgar said, the wholesale delegation of the administration of that program to Bryan College, a decidedly religious institution, by itself results in an impermissible entanglement of government and religion. . . . the government, through its public school system, may not teach, or allow the teaching of a distinct religious viewpoint. This is what the Rhea County School Board has done by allowing the teaching of the Bible through the BEM program. . . [acting] with both the purpose and effect to endorse and advance religion in the public schools, Edgar wrote. The Rhea County courses are being taught to the youngest and most impressionable school children by college students who have no discernible educational training and no supervision by the school system. This is not a close case, Edgar observed, pointing out that since 1948, when McCollum v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court, religious instruction in public schools has been barred. The Rhea County practices do not differ substantially from McCollum, except that, if anything, they make out an even stronger case for violation of the Establishment Clause, Edgar concluded. Vashti McCollum, the Champaign, Illinois mother who brought the McCollum challenge, is in her eighties, and is an honorary officer of the Foundation. The Foundation recently reprinted a new edition of her acclaimed account of her dramatic lawsuit, One Woman's Fight. Also cited as precedent is Abington v. Schempp, against prayers in public schools. Ed Schempp, who brought that case with his son, is also an honorary Foundation officer. We're delighted with Judge Edgar's eloquent opinion upholding the rights of public school children--who are a captive audience, to be free from such overt religious proselytizing, said Dan Barker, public relations director of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Bible Education Ministry program was a flagrant and atavistic First Amendment violation. It's tremendously satisfying to see the wall of separation between church and state be reinforced by such a strong decision. The lawsuit, filed in April 2001, arose after the school district ignored letters from the Freedom From Religion Foundation pointing out that the practice violates numerous Supreme Court decisions. The attorneys representing the Foundation and its plaintiffs are Joseph H. Johnston, Nashville, and Steve Doughty and Alvin Harris, Nashville. John Doe, Mary Roe, and Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Sue Porter, Supt. of the Rhea County School System, and Rhea County Board of Education, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Case No. 1:01-cv-115 The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., is a national association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and others) working since 1978 to keep church and state separate. == i saw my parents wrapping christmas presents when I was five. i figured out the reason for that was they had fun making believe for the benefit of the kids. I then deduced the whole God thing was similar - adults just play acting for the kids. then I realized they believed it == Num23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. (KJV) == The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. -- Albert Einstein == Herodotus writes history that includes a presumption the gods are real. ==     However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.  (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT) == According to the Harper's Bible Dictionary, "The ancient Hebrews imagined the world as flat and round, covered by the great solid dome of the firmament which was held up by mountain pillars, (Job 26:11, 37:18). The blue color of the sky was attributed to the chaotic waters that the firmament separated from the earth (Gen. 1:7) floydfp: The earth was thus surrounded by waters above and below (Gen 1:6,7, cf. Psalms 24:2, 148:4, Deut. 5:8). floydfp: The firmament was thought to be substantial; it had pillars (Job 26:11) and foundations (2 Sam. 22:8). When the windows of it opened, rain fell (Gen. 7:11-12,8:2). floydfp: The sun, moon, and stars moved across or were fixed in the firmament (Gen. 1:14-19; Ps. 19:4,6). It was also the abode of the birds (Gen. 1:20;Deut. 4:17). Within the earth lay Sheol, the realm of the dead (Num. 16:30-33;Isa. 14:9,15). == Suetonius regards the emperor Vespasians miraculously healing people in Alexandria. it's part of the trope of an emperor chosen by a patron deity (in this case, Sarapis) == http://faithskeptic.50megs.com/pwb.htm Bible errors -- Beuno's untrustworthy legend has him a monk in Wales who founded his own community and performed numerous miracles, among them, restoring St. Winifred's head after she was beheaded. == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna == mat 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. == Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. == http://www.bay-of-fundie.com/ anti-religion == You can see the bones of the Three Magi at the Cathedral in Cologne. it costs 10 Euros to see them. == mat 26:64 Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven." floydfp: rsv mat 16:28 CancelBot: rsv 2mat 16:28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." == Superstition and religion are waste products of survival thought processes. glk == Deu20:17 Completely destroy them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--as the LORD your God has commanded you. == http://www.carm.org/questions/about-bible/when-were-gospels-written-and-whom == http://www.preservedwords.com/rapture.htm date == Deu 23 :12 13 14  12Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:  13And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:  14For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. God walks and might accidently sep in poo? == "Masturbation is a crime against humanity" Aquinas. == An Incubus is a male Succubus == The Book of Enoch expanded on the idea of the "fallen angels" theory that was permeating the first century Jewish mindset. It was led by Shemjaza who in other texts became Satanael, and they disobeyed heaven because of their desire toward earthly things. Namely, women. A good story of symbolism regarding the corrupting nature of human passion. == Deuteronomy 14:26 And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household, == "Everything which God wills must be held to be righteous by the mere fact of his willing it. Therefore when it is asked why the Lord did so, we must answer, 'Because he pleased.'" - John Calvin == 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) == Pascal's wager is just a way to coerce people who are not familiar with logic into belief in a god. == Universally Preferable Behavior by Stefan Molyneux == "Few intelligent Christians can still hold to the idea that the Bible is an infallible Book, that it contains no linguistic errors, no historical discrepancies, no antiquated scientific assumptions, not even bad ethical standards. Historical investigation and literary criticism have taken the magic out of the Bible and have made it a composite human book, written by many hands in different ages. The existence of thousands of variations of texts makes it impossible to hold the doctrine of a book verbally infallible. Some might claim for the original copies of the Bible an infallible character, but this view only begs the question and makes such Christian apologetics more ridiculous in the eyes of sincere men." - Rev. Dr. Elmer G. Homrighausen, United Presbryterian clergyman, American theologian, former Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary - source "Christianity in America", == The New Testament, Its Background, Growth, and Content, 1965, p86, by Bruce Metzger == LUKE 11:23 He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. -KJV == Isa6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. (KJV) == "In other words, Sit down and shut up! But we are not answering back to God; we are answering back to fellow mortals who seem to think they are God. Mortals who think it lies in their power to condemn you to Hell for not believing in the doctrine of the atonement." - Robert M Price, Ex-evangelical apologist with 2 ph.D's == I hold that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the only true fictional deity. All other fictional gods are fakes. == I am now convinced that children should not be subjected to the frightfulness of the Christian religion.... If the concept of a father who plots to have his own son put to death is presented to children as beautiful and as worthy of society's admiration, what types of human behavior can be presented to them as reprehensible? -- Ruth Hurmence Green == "The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause...." --Eric Hoffer. == God equals a failed hypothesis and therefore is the answer to nothing. Sola scriptura was first proposed by St. Augustine around 400AD. He was talked out of it by Pope Damasus I and St. Jerome on the very reasonable grounds that scripture is not self-consistent enough to support such a doctrine and, in any case, does not teach it, thereby compromising the doctrine by its own test of authenticity. == "Atheism Advanced" by David Eller. == "For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life, and receive that fullness of joy and refreshing which shall come from the presence of the Lord: but the wicked, who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord" http://www.reformed.org/documents/westminster_conf_of_faith.html#chap33 == Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his book General Psychopathology. These criteria are: * certainty (held with absolute conviction) * incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary) * impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre or patently untrue) == Truth and facts are two different creatures, and you really want to be very clear in your mind which is which. Religion deals in truth, not facts. This allows them to distort, creatively interpret, disregard or otherwise massage facts to fit their truth. The problem is that God/Jesus/etc are absolutely certainl beliefs before they even look for evidence (actually confirmation), and it's human nature to rationalise confirmation where there isn't any. == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_sharpshooter_fallacy == Creation Judaism - September 22 or March 29, 3760 BCE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dating_Creation == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia killed by Christians == http://www.bible-researcher.com/ == I don't think anyone taking Pascal's wager will have time to enjoy much. Taking the 2,850 gods listed by godchecker.com as the base, and assuming 15 hours a day to worship after sleeping, eating, etc, you would only have about 20 seconds worship per deity per day. That's going to take some discipline (and a good quality Rolodex and stopwatch) to keep up for years on end, so I don't think enjoyment comes in to it. I mean, imagine if you got a phone call as you were working your way through Mayan Gods (X to Z) and jumped straight from Xamen Ek* to Xbaquiyalo** without giving Xbalanque*** his 20 seconds*? You might die and end up having to explain yourself to him. It doesn't bear thinking about. God created curious creatures and dangled forbidden knowledge in front of them. He also created a talking serpent to entice them and a powerful demi-god to deceive them, while He, all-seeing watched. . Even though this scenario was not what He, the all powerful, wished, he decided against simply starting over, perhaps tweaking our brains, or implementing the even simpler expedient of omitting Satan, serpent and forbidden tree. No, he decided instead to create a place of eternal damnation, punishing his imperfect invention for being imperfect. Moreover, he will punish us not only for wickedness, but for misunderstanding the nature of the universe and life, said misunderstanding helped along by one of God's more powerful creations. Even this he could easily remedy, by visiting us once in a while. But He does not. == If some kind of god exists, it appears suspiciously indistinguishable from the non-existent kind. == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus == Matthew 4:8 KJVR Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; Since this was at the time of Jesus, you're saying that all then extant nations - Greek, Roman, Han Chinese, early Japanese, Celtic, the Parthian, Indo-Greek, Saka, Satavahana Indian, the Mon, Funan, Kushan, Xiongnu, the Korean kingdoms, Pueblo culture, Teotihuacan, Mayans, the Moche, - could all be seen from a single high mountain? == Your god wants you to laugh at people in torment. People in torment because he deliberately falsified the evidence of the real world so that they were led into the error of accepting the fact of evolution. It is truly astounding that anyone would worship such a monster. == Accommodationists hold that even atheists should present science to the public as an intellectual activity compatible with religion. Critics of this position include those like University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne, who lashes out at the accommodationists because, as he wrote in an essay in The New Republic, ³a true harmony between science and religion requires either doing away with most people¹s religion and replacing it with a watered-down deism, or polluting science with unnecessary, untestable, and unreasonable spiritual claims.² == Chris Mooney. ³Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future² (Basic Books) === Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich FORT WORTH ‹ Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup of ³prosperity gospel² preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about the Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter. Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of emeralds and diamonds. ³God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you,² preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by C.E.O.¹s. Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the ³prosperity gospel² movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message ‹ that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold ‹ is reassuring to many in hard times. The preachers barely acknowledged the recession, though they did say it was no excuse to curtail giving. ³Fear will make you stingy,² Mr. Copeland said. But the offering buckets came up emptier than in some previous years, said those who have attended before. Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement¹s current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed them into the ministry. ³If God did it for them, he will do it for us,² said Edwige Ndoudi, who traveled with her husband and three children from Canada for the Southwest Believers¹ Convention this month, where the Copelands and three of their friends took turns preaching for five days, 10 hours a day at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The crowd of more than 9,000 was multiracial, from 48 states and 27 countries. There was no fee to attend. There were bikers in leather vests, pastors, blue-collar workers, professionals and plenty of families with children. A large contingent came in wheelchairs, hoping for miraculous healings. The audience sat with Bibles open, flipping to passages cited by the preachers, taking notes on pads and laptop computers. ³The folks who are coming aren¹t poor,² said Jonathan L. Walton, a professor of religion at the University of California, Riverside, who has written about the movement and was there doing research. ³They reside in that nebulous category between the working and the middle class.² Sitting in Section 316, eight rows up, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a Bible at lunch time, was a family who could explain the enduring loyalty the prosperity preachers inspire. Stephen Biellier, a long-distance trucker from Mount Vernon, Mo., said he and his wife, Millie, came to the convention praying that this would be ³the overcoming year.² They are $102,000 in debt, and the bank has cut off their credit line, Mrs. Biellier said. They say the Copelands rescued them from financial failure 23 years ago, when they bought their first truck at 22 percent interest and had to rebuild the engine twice in a year. Around that time, Mrs. Biellier first saw Mr. Copeland on television and began sending him 50 cents a week. Others who bought trucks from the same dealer in Joplin that year went under, the Bielliers said, but they did not. ³We would have failed if Copeland hadn¹t been praying for us every day,² Mrs. Biellier said. The Bielliers are now among 386,000 people worldwide whom the Copelands call their ³partners,² most of whom send regular contributions and merit special prayers from the Copelands. A call center at the ministry¹s 481-employee headquarters in Newark, Tex., takes in 60,000 prayer requests a month, a publicist said. The Copelands¹ broadcast reaches 134 countries, and the ministry¹s income is about $100 million annually. The Bielliers were at the convention a few years ago when a supporter made a pitch for people to join an ³Elite CX Team² to raise money to buy the ministry a Citation X airplane. (Mr. Copeland is an airplane aficionado who got his start in ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts.) At that moment, Mrs. Biellier said she heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her, ³You were born to support this man.² She gave $2,000 for the plane, and recently sent $1,800 for the team¹s latest project: buying high-definition television equipment to upgrade the ministry¹s international broadcasts. Mrs. Biellier said some friends and relatives would say the preacher just wanted their money. She explained that the Copelands did not need the money for themselves; it is for their ministry. And besides, even ³trashy people like Hugh Hefner² have private airplanes. ³I remember Copeland had to once fly halfway around the world to talk to one person,² she said. ³Because we¹re partners with Kenneth Copeland, for every soul that gets saved, we get credit for that in heaven.² But while a band primed the crowd, Professor Walton called the prosperity preachers ³spiritual pickpockets.² ³To dismiss and ignore the harsh realities of this economic crisis,² he said. ³is beyond irresponsible, to the point of reprehensible.² The Copelands refused an interview request, but one of their daughters, Kellie Copeland Swisher, and her husband, Steve Swisher, who both work in the ministry, spoke for them. Mrs. Swisher said the ministry gave away ³a minimum of 10 percent of what comes in² to other charities. Her father¹s current favorite, she said, is a Roman Catholic orphanage in Mexico. The ministry has resisted providing the Senate investigation with all the documents requested, she said, because the Copelands did not want to publicly reveal the names of the ³partners.² The investigation, which could result in new laws, is continuing, a committee spokeswoman said. Among those being investigated is Creflo Dollar, one of the ministers at the Copelands¹ convention. Mr. Swisher said that even in the economic downturn, the ministry¹s income going into the convention was up 3 percent over last year. Asked if they had adjusted the message for the economy, Mrs. Swisher patted the worn Bible in her lap and said: ³The message they preach is the Word of God. The Word doesn¹t change.² At the convention, the preachers ‹ who also included Jesse Duplantis and Jerry Savelle ‹ sprinkled their sermons with put-downs of the government, an overhaul of health care, public schools, the news media and other churches, many of which condemn prosperity preaching. But mostly the preachers were working mightily to remind the crowd that they are God¹s elect. ³While everybody else is having a famine,² said Mr. Savelle, a Texas televangelist, ³his covenant people will be having the best of times.² ³Any time a worried thought about money pops up in your mind,² Mr. Savelle continued, ³the next thing you do is sow²: drop money, like seeds, in ³good ground² like the preachers¹ ministries. ³Stop worrying, start sowing,² he added, his voice rising. ³That¹s God¹s stimulus package for you.² At that, hundreds streamed down the aisles to the stage, laying envelopes, cash and coins on the carpeted steps. == Theology would be rather like trying to explain the difference between invisible unicorns and invisible pink unicorns. Neither refers to anything real. == Christians think that 2000 years ago, a virgin gave birth to a man who later performed miracles, the most significant of which was returning from the dead after 3 days. and he thinks that if you accept these as facts, you will enjoy the afterlife in heaven. == The god of Abraham is a vindictive and abusive parent. Folks of 2500 years ago probably saw that as typical (if not universal) behavior for both kings and fathers, and never thought to criticize it. The only sin (crime) in the bible is disrespect of Yahweh or a representative, or disobedience. The sort of behavior we would expect from a king from the days before constitutions. He killed children for mocking on old man's bald head, he turned Lot's wife into salt for looking over her shoulder, overcome by curiosity or fear, he cursed Shem and *all his descendants* for telling his brothers that Dad was drunk as a skunk and naked (presumably telling them in a disrespectful manner). Were this the historical record of an ancient king, we'd say We're glad those days are past! == It has been suggested that religion is a meme which serves to perpetuate itself; it is beneficial to itself but not necessarily to its host. On the whole, I dunno. I'm inclined to say that religion has been harmful overall, mostly because it empowers a minority priest caste, and minorities in power tend to do nasty things to everybody else to keep and acquire more power. Optimized? With dozens of different religions and thousands of different sects, some of them persecuted, some of them so new they don't have an infrastructure organized, some of them rife with corruption? The question of whether religion is justified, I think, is best approached by asking what aspects of religion. Some aspects obviously are justified. Meditation is good for one's health, and prayer is (usually) a form of meditation. Congregations, by being a social support system, provide myriad benfits. Some of the ideals, such as caring for the poor and sick, benefit the giver as well as society as a whole. Other aspects, such as the peace of mind that comes from believing in life after death or an omnipresent source of love, are more problematic. If they make one happy and don't hurt anything, then I would say they are justified. I would say that belief in regular supernatural intervention is never justified. Praying for miracles doesn't work any better than not praying, it tends to lead either to false hopes or disillusionment or both, and it distracts from productive solutions. This is consistent with the idea that religion becomes disfunctional once dedicated professionals get into the business. One of the most visible forms of calling for divine intervention is sacrifices. These were done in ancient times by the Hebrews, Celts, Romans, and perhaps others. Clerics get involved in major ceremonies around sacrifices, but those are not the only sacrifices. In some Buddhist societies (e.g. Bali, rural South Korea), people daily set out small servings of rice as sacrifices to the local gods, and probably have been doing so for hundreds of years. === The Catholic Church fathers almost all considered Genesis 1-3 to be an historical account of God's direct creative acts. And in 1909 the Pontifical Biblical Commission----which at the time was part of the Church Magisterium (teaching authority)----made this position a part of Church teachings. It did not settle all the issues but did settle the position that Genesis 1-3 contains an account of real facts corresponding to objective reality and historical truth. They did not settle (for example) whether the 6 days were literal 24 hour days or indeterminate periods, but allowed Catholics to consider either possibility in their studies. == http://www.answers.com/topic/sargon-of-agade == http://www.didmancreategod.com/ == When the first commandment had come out of the mouth of God, thunder and lightning proceeded from His mouth, == In Danial, instead of dieing in a battle somewhere between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea as the writer predicted (11:40-45), Antiochus IV actually died far to the east in modern day Iran. In Daniel 9:2, Daniel is pictured studying "the books," wherein the prophecies of Jeremiah are contained. There was no such collection of sacred books in the alleged time of Daniel. == http://FreeThoughtAction.org/ == Christians claim as a fact that an ancestor of ours made from a rib ate a magic fruit after being tricked by a talking snake. Those who don't believe this will be tortured forever and ever by the god that loves us. == http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/by_name.html http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/2cs.htm errors http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_arhs.htm http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/apologetics.html http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2007/12/ summary-of-my-case-against-christianity.html == Ecc 9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Psa 6:5 For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? . Psa 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. == "There are more differences in our [greek new testament] manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament." - Biblical Scholar Bart Ehrman == The existence of thousands of variations of texts makes it impossible to hold the doctrine of a book verbally infallible. Some might claim for the original copies of the Bible an infallible character, but this view only begs the question and makes such Christian apologetics more ridiculous in the eyes of sincere men." - Rev. Dr. Elmer G. Homrighausen, United Presbryterian clergyman, American theologian, former Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary - source "Christianity in America", p. 121 == Measuring the dimensions, intentions, powers, morals, ethics, or purported real wold effects of a claimed deity, on the other hand, has never been accomplished despite many challenges by non-participants in the particular flavor of theism involved. == But of course that is an easy call. Theism is believing in things you cannot see, and for which you have no evidence whatever. Believing so strongly and obviously in anything _else_ than theism, with the same qualities but without the assistance of theism's powerful friends and long tradition, would find you locked away right away. Mental institutions are full of people who believe their lives are driven by personal, papable demons, which are quite real to them, but which others for some strange reason somehow cannot see. Believing in a personal deity is in no way any less insane than is believing in a personal demon. Since all theism practitioners think that all practioners of different theisms are delusional, and no theism has an absolute majority of believers planet-wide, all one has to do is generalize those theist's conclusions to their own case. Sadly for thiests, it is not. Instead, as is easy to demonstrate, it is theism which is illogical. No theist, ever, has successfully countered I find the evidence for deities of equal worth with the evidence for werewolves, so I believe in neither. All theists can do when presented with such a challenge is to change the subject. == Seeing as god does nothing now, it seems a very reasonable hypothesis that he didn't do anything back then either. == http://www.rejectionofpascalswager.net/apologetics.html == You may choose to believe that all life on earth was created a few thousand years ago, that the earth is flat and at the center of the universe, and that diseases are caused by sin and can only be cured by sacrificing livestock. Or, you can use the empirical observations of scientists everywhere to paint an actual picture of what this universe is like. Your beliefs are up to you, but the truth isn't. == == Psa58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. (KJV) == Why would an omniscient, omnipotent god create something that was imperfect? == As to your direct eye witness observation reports, the reliability of eye witness accounts in court trials regarding recent events is notoriously inaccurate. What does that say about purported events of 2000 years ago? == Irish Catholics say tree stump looks like Mary Associated Press DUBLIN - Thousands of Irish Catholics have flocked this week to a County Limerick church to pray at the stump of a recently cut willow that many observers say, has the silhouette of the Virgin Mary. The phenomenon at St. Mary's parish church in Rathkeale, population 3,000 or so, harkens back to decades when Catholic devotion and pilgrimages were the dominant feature of rural life in Ireland. Some are tying the fervor for Rathkeale's Holy Stump to Ireland's stunning economic decline over the past year. People have been crying out for something good to happen. And this is all good for the soul, said Noel White, who has been overseeing a church project to cut down trees dangerously overhanging the neighboring school playground. When one willow was felled near the church entrance Monday, he said, a major branch cracked off and made a funny shape. One worker cut through the stump at a near-vertical angle, revealing a wooden relief that inspires some to see the Virgin Mary. One lad beside the one who'd made the cut immediately saw the outline of Our Lady and blessed himself. It really is unreal. Every one of us could see it, he said. The workman who made the cut, Anthony Reddin, said he doesn't see the Virgin Mary. I see it as the grain of a tree myself, he said. Nonetheless, word of mouth brought about 100 to inspect and pray at the stump that first night. Numbers swelled to several hundred the next night. By Wednesday, more than a thousand came and went as a makeshift shrine of candles, rosaries and miniature statues of Mary grew. The praying continued past 2 a.m. Thursday. The parish priest is away on vacation. His summer replacement, the Rev. Willie Russell, is not impressed. He says locals are letting their imagination run wild and threatening to violate the commandment, Thou shalt not worship a false God. It's just a tree. You don't worship a tree, Russell said. The priest said he saw no harm in saying Hail Mary prayers at the spot - so long as the faithful don't actually find themselves praying to the stump itself. I don't believe in idolatry. That would be the danger, he said. The County Limerick diocese of the church said it viewed the stump with great skepticism. While we do not wish in any way to detract from devotion to Our Lady, we would also wish to avoid anything which might lead to superstition, the diocese said in a statement. White said he didn't understand the church's distinction between its age-old love of statues and this natural discovery. We pray in front of statues which are marble and chalk. What's the difference if it's timber? he said. Not all find what they come to see. Sometimes, the crowds prove too great to get a good look. Others wonder if the lighting has to be just right, or the wood dry and not damp. Irish Catholics saw images of the Virgin Mary during Ireland's last recession in the mid-1980s, when thousands prayed at village statues believed to gesture, nod or even hover. The stump has proven a boon for the local economy, with the curious traveling from neighboring counties to light votive candles and say rosaries - and sample the local pubs and shops. Rathkeale shopkeeper Seamus Hogan is leading a petition drive to deter village authorities from uprooting and removing the stump, as they originally planned to do Wednesday. The petition has more than 2,000 signatures - and White's tree-cutters have gotten the message. We won't be removing the stump. We'd remove it at our peril, White said == "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 == [Copyists] make additions or deletions as they please." - Early Church father Origen == Dean Hamer's *The God Gene* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_helmet == The rare bird who converses regularly with an imaginary friend, if not shunned or killed, might reach a position of power and influence where they begin to shape the mindset of a group and inject their delusions into its collective representative mental structures. Via this mechanism, personal delusion transforms into primordial religious belief of a group. Then when the visionary leader dies group dynamic process take over where followers jockey for position and try to take over where the dead guy left off. Legends form and the dead icon becomes superhuman and sacred. Schisms form about what the dead guy really said or meant. People die. Other cultures get conquered and converted. Once in a while another off-kilter visionary is born and if not killed as a heretic, their vision achieve a congruence with the already present belief system and widen its scope. More divisions form. More people are killed. More cultures are conquered and converted. Yet the conquered managed to sneak some of their previously cherished shared delusions into the dominant belief system. == "You can buy slaves from foreign nations! They will become your property! You can will them to your children! You can make them slaves for life!" == If a betrothed virgin is raped in the city and doesn't cry out loud enough then "the men of the city shall stone her to death." 22:23-24 = The Church banned dissection of human corpses, as there was a bone or organ that was needed for resurrection. This later was interpreted to mean it was sinful to practice surgery, and the Councils of Tours and Lateran (the Fourth?) banned surgery as sinful. I have read some conflicting accounts though- I know priests and monks were banned from surgery*, but I am not sure how far the ban extended. == According to the Catholic Enyclopedia, in the early seventeenth century, the church's dogma was that Galieo's heliocentric beliefs were scientifically false. == Deu 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD. == Iowa policy puts religion in school In Iowa officials are proposing a policy that will put religion back in the public school. The school board in Spencer, Iowa is proposing a sweeping policy change. A change that will sanction prayer at graduation exercises and other extra-curricular activities, allow for the distribution of religious materials on school grounds, and allow the employee (e.g. teachers) expression of personal religious beliefs. In addition, the school district wants religion in the curriculum, mandating two classes: "The Bible in History and Literature" and "Critic of Darwinism, a scientific approach". The proposal, "Religious Liberty at Spencer Community Schools", if adopted, paves a road to school-sponsored evangelizing. While it is possible the officials may have good intentions, the actual proposal is a blatant endorsement of Christian beliefs. If school sanctioned prayer and the allowance for distribution of religious materials on school grounds is not enough evidence for religious bias, than mandating two classes, Bible Study and a pseudo-science class challenging evolution, simply fails to pass the smell test. Add to that list "the employee expression of personal religious beliefs" (e.g. How Mr. Brown the Phys. Ed. teacher "got Jesus") and the proposal becomes a first amendment land mine. Why would any public school policy encourage teachers sharing their religious beliefs with students? The proposal claims to be a "recognition of both the Establishment clause, and the Free Practice clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution". Yet this is more than free practice, this is mandated and enforced practice. If you want to graduate, you must pray; If you want to play sports, you must pray, (or at least pretend to pray and/or be forced to suffer the superstitious non-sense of others); In class you must listen to your teachers testimonial if they choose to share... == mat 25:41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; == Psa139:22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. (KJV) == The story of Adam and Eve is the one where God carelessly allows two individuals to consign themselves to death, plus condemn *all* of future humanity to an endless torture in hell. God creates Adam and Eve so dumb that they listen to and obey a serpent in a tree, an obvious villain to anyone with a brain, and then God just carelessly allows them to follow their stupid choices and condemn themselves and all of future humanity. Why would a loving Creator create such dumb beings and then let them do something with such horrible results and far reaching consequences? Do these people ever think about anything they read? And yet Christian fundys accept and believe these stories without question, just because priests and preachers started calling the Bible the "word of God". == Victor J. Stenger, the physicist r ³God: The Failed Hypothesis, ³Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness,² === Canadian neurosurgeon named Wilder Penfield. Back in the 1940s and 50s, he began mucking around in the brains of patients as he operated on them. There arent any pain receptors in the brain, so hed go in and he could take an electrode and prod a part of the brain keep them awake prod a part of the brain and see what part of the body corresponded with that part of the brain. He would prod one little section, and hed get the right big toe; hed prod another section, and hed get the lips. He actually made a map of the brain and how it corresponds to different body parts. Well, when he prodded the temporal lobe, something very strange happened. People reported having out-of-body experiences and hearing voices and seeing apparitions. He hypothesized that he might have found the seat of religious experience, the physical seat of religious experience. But in a few rare cases, people have ecstatic seizures, and they believe that they are having a religious experience. They may hear snatches of music or words, presumably from their memory bank, and they interpret it as a message from God or the music from the heavenly spheres. They may see a snatch of light and think that thats an angel. Recently a group of Swiss researchers found out that when they electrically stimulated a certain part of the brain in a woman, she suddenly felt a sensed presence, that there was another being in the room enveloping her. A lot of people describe God that way: a sensed presence, a being nearby enveloping them. So they could conjure up God just by poking part of the brain. Making spiritual experiences disappear is, of course, far more common. Its what epilepsy specialists are actually trained to do: Its called treatment. You remove part of the temporal lobe or you medicate the brain and tamp down the electrical spikes and, voila, God disappears, all spiritual experience goes away. The brain research indicates that human beings have a tremendous desire for certainty, a kind of artificial certainty that comes from the brain There is an interesting question about how we can trust our own brains with things that we consider to be certainty when we recognize the mind has its own properties for wanting to arrive at certain conclusions. Actually, I think this is a good thing. I think we should be learning increasingly not to trust ourselves to arrive at certainty about issues for which there is insufficient evidence to claim certainty. == There is a wonderful book coming out this summer by John Walton, who is a professor of Old Testament theology at Wheaton College. He takes a completely new view of Genesis, which, by the way, makes me wonder how he could have signed the Wheaton College statement that youre required to about the literalness of Adam and Eve because he comes up with a very different interpretation and a very interesting one. It takes into account the original language, also the culture of the time the audience that Genesis was written for and comes up with a much more allegorical interpretation than I think most would have expected from a professor at Wheaton College. == What angers me is to see human beings acting stupid or malevolent towards others simply because they are too exercised in credulity to pause and consider their own beliefs. Theism is the cancer of good reasoning because it teaches humans to value and exercise credulity instead. == There was a Christian politician in Australia who campaigned that heart transplantation was a evil. He got to office and found he needed a transplant and got one. == http://members.optusnet.com.au/~ajwerner/ anti religion == No theist has been able to answer my question as to how Moses was able to finish writing his 5th book after he had died. == "If we expect God to subscribe to one religion at the exclusion of all the others, then we should expect damnation as a matter of chance. This should give Christians pause when expounding their religious beliefs, but it does not." Sam Harris == Pascal's Wager (inverted): "Any deity who makes himself as obscure and vague so as to make his very existence 100% a matter of faith needs must extend grace sufficient to cover the honest skeptic" == "Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains." – Robert G. Ingersoll == One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be found in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility, while claiming to know facts about cosmology, chemistry and biology that no scientist knows. Sam Harris == "To say that atheism requires faith is as dim-witted as saying that disbelief in pixies or leprechauns takes faith. Even if Einstein himself told me there was an elf on my shoulder, I would still ask for proof and I wouldn't be wrong to ask." Geoff Mather == "What's God ? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God's the guy that ignores you." Steve Buscemi == Isolated tribes have religions, none Christian. == Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion - several of them. -- Mark Twain == If the Bible does not mean what it says, what does it mean and who decides the matter? glk == Prv14:15 The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going. (KJV) 1Th5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (KJV) === "It is certain, from experience, that the smallest grain of natural honesty and benevolence has more effect on men's conduct, than the most pompous views suggested by theological theories and systems." - D. Hume === Names of God in the Bible: El, Elohim, Yahweh, Yahweh Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, El Elyon, Abhir, Kadosh, Shaphat, El Roi, Kanna, Palet, Yesha, El Gibhor == Genesis 1:25-27 Humans were created after the other animals. Genesis 2:18-19 Humans were created before the other animals. Genesis 1:27 The first man and woman were created the same day. Genesis 2:18-22 The man was created first, then the animals, then the woman from the man's rib. == http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/guess.html == http://www.isaiah53.info/resurrection-of-jesus-inconsistencies.html == Gen 10:5 Before the Tower of Babel, the land was divided according to tongues. Gen 11:1 Before the Tower of Babel, the whole earth was of one language. Gen 21:31 Beersheba was named by Abraham. Gen 26:33 Beersheba was named by Isaac. Gen 1:16-19 The stars were created after the earth. Job 38:4-7 The earth was created after the stars. == If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it is good enough for Texas schoolchildren Miram Ma Ferguson, Texas governor, 1924 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_A._Ferguson http://www.wisdomquotes.com/000536.html == So how come there is not one extant story of a native christian preceding a bible or a missionary into a newly discovered country? Why does it seem that Jesus manifests himself only to those previously or newly exposed to the bible/christianity. == Galileo In the end, seven of the ten Cardinals who tried him were willing to sign the sentence against him. This was the majority of cardinals who thought he was a heretic who should be punished. == The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died by Philip Jenkins == According to the Catholic Enyclopedia, in the early seventeenth century, the church's dogma was that Galieo's heliocentric beliefs were scientifically false. http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=4949 == I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. -- Carl Sagan, The Demon == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gospels == Mat27:53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (NIV) == How many people have been killed in the name of God, in the history of our species? We're in a religious war right now. Yes, religion tends to lead societies (not usually individuals) into killing each other. On the other hand, how many science wars (wars over differing opinions in science) have there been? == God heard the embattled nations sing and shout Gott strafe England and God save the King God this, God that, God the other thing - Good God said God I've got my work cut out! - J C Squire strafe = punish == God made Hell and then died to save us from hell. == According to Oppenheimer's NYT article about Flew's conversion, Flew admitted in his correspondence with Richard Carrier that he, Flew, had recently forgotten Hume's argument against miracles, thus explaining away why Flew was taken with Habermas's book about Jesus's resurrection. If Flew had anything at all to do with the book, There is a God, he obviously forgot many more atheistic arguments. But the better explanation is that Flew either never even read the book or that, if he did, he doesn't understand the arguments anymore, due to mental decline. So Varghese and friends are responsible for the book's contents; hence, the book's hack theistic arguments. For details, see here: www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id=369 www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04Flew-t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref= magazine Antony Flew has retracted one of his recent assertions. In a letter to me dated 29 December 2004, Flew concedes: I now realize that I have made a fool of myself by believing that there were no presentable theories of the development of inanimate matter up to the first living creature capable of reproduction Flew admitted that he lacked any expertise in chemistry. Flew already abandoned his prior claim that science has no viable hypothesis for the origin of life (since he renounced that to me in writing, as noted above), so it appears he has retreated and is now resting his belief in God solely on an invalid "God of the Gaps" argument: merely because no scientific hypothesis of biogenesis has been confirmed, therefore God exists. Flew also tried to make some argument about evolved life being too complex for evolution to explain, but it wasn't clear how Flew determined something to be "too" complex or how he determined that evolution hadn't or "couldn't" explain it. In short, it does not appear to me that Flew presented any sound argument for his position, Antony Flew is said to have published a book finally explaining why he is a Deist: There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind (2007). I was able to read an advance copy a month ago but promised the New York Times I would not discuss it until now. I could already tell upon reading it that Flew did not write it, but this has now been confirmed by Mark Oppenheimer, a journalist with the New York Times (see "The Turning of an Atheist," New York Times Magazine, 4 November 2007, pp. 36-41). As Oppenheimer's article confirms, Flew has now confessed to the fact that he did not write a word of this book (even though it is sold under his name), and apparently knows (or remembers) little of its contents, despite the publisher's assurance that he signed off on it (though even his publisher confesses doubts about Flew's ability to remember essential details). Oppenheimer presents sufficient evidence to confirm that Flew's failing memory is what I would call clinically serious, and I believe his mental decline is now more or less confirmed. As for the book written in his name, its arguments are so fallacious and cheaply composed I doubt Flew would have signed off on it in sound mind, and Oppenheimer comes to much the same conclusion. Flew appears to have simply trusted a couple of Christians to write on his behalf, without any need to check what they wrote. Its actual author turns out to be an evangelical preacher named Bob Hostetler, with considerable assistance from the book's co-author, evangelical promoter and businessman Roy Abraham Varghese. Though much is being made of Flew's admission to having a nominal aphasia, Oppenheimer spent two whole days with Flew and was fully aware of his aphasia. He certainly confirmed that that was not the only problem with his memory, as evidently Flew could not even recall the arguments of the book, not just who made them or what his sources were. Varghese and Hostetler already confessed to having written all the book's content, not just "some" of the "anecdotes." What they really claim is that they drew upon things Flew had written elsewhere, and (supposedly) things he said to them, and merely sought Flew's approval of the resulting text through many revisions--but otherwise they themselves did all the writing. But even if we focus on the anecdotes, why did they decide to pepper a book that is supposed to be by Flew, with anecdotes of their own invention? == Max Jammer Einstein and Religion == Babylonian documents show that Nebuchadnezzar was not the father of Belshazzar, which is contrary to the Bible. == Ruth Green, author of "The Born Again Skeptic's Guide to the Bible" == In Romans 5:12 God punishes everyone for someone else's sin; then he saves them by killing an innocent victim. == In the same year he spoke to Chirac, Bush had reportedly said to the Palestinian foreign minister that he was on "a mission from God" in launching the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and was receiving commands from the Lord. == Religion:The personal premise; based on authority; commitment; certainty; normative explanations; narrative/story explanations == "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:......"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'" == John12:28 Father, glorify your name!" Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." (NIV) == Religions enjoy favored status in this country, including significant tax breaks. Atheism is a threat to this favored status since it not only questions the truths of religions but tends to undermine their cultural authority.â¤? == Eze9:5 ....kill, without showing pity or compassion. == the story of Jesus anointing at Bethany in john 12. This is the story of how Mary (sister of Martha) poured oil into Jesus head during a meal, which was met by indignation by the disciples and a subsequent rebuke from Jesus. But thats strange, I thought. I had remembered it was some unknown, unnamed woman who poured the oil and got rebuked. I decided to do some research on the Internet. This was the beginning of the end of my faith. I found out that the anointing at Bethany is detailed three different times in the gospels: john 12, Matthew 26, and mark 14 (there is a similar account of anointing in Luke 7, but it is different enough to be considered a separate incident). In Mark and Matthew, the name of the woman is not given. However, the stories in all three accounts are almost identical: the woman, supposedly Mary, approaches Jesus and his disciples at a dinner table and pours an alabaster vial of expensive perfume of nard on him. The disciples, seeing this, say something to the effect of: Why are you wasting this expensive perfume? It could have been sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor. And Jesus rebukes the disciples, telling them to leave her alone, that she is preparing him for burial, that the poor would always be with them, but he wouldnt, etc. But this is the problem: the episode in John happens BEFORE Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, while in Matthew and Mark the anointing happens AFTER the triumphal entry. So there is no way it could have been the same event yet the stories are so identical, that I found it IMPOSSIBLE to believe it happened twice, within the space of a few days! == After the Rapture: Orlando man will deliver messages to those left behind By Jeff Kunerth | Sentinel Staff Writer 5:53 PM EDT, May 15, 2009 Atheist Joshua Witter sells cards to Christians that he will deliver to those left behind after the rapture. (Roberto Gonzalez, Orlando Sentinel / May 15, 2009) There are those who believe in the Rapture prophesied in the Bible. And there is Joshua Witter, avowed atheist. They need each other. At least some people think so -- those willing to pay Witter to be their post-apocalyptic postman, delivering cards and letters to their non-believing friends, relatives and neighbors who will be left behind when the Day of Reckoning arrives. About 70 people have paid the Orlando man about $5 apiece to get their messages to those doomed to face the plagues, pestilence and darkness of Armageddon. As sure as the True Believers are they will escape this earth when the Rapture arrives, Witter is just as certain he will be left behind to deliver their mail. He has committed blasphemy to make sure. "Anyway you look at it, I'm screwed. It's too late for me," said Witter, a 24-year-old computer software engineer who wears long sideburns and hip black-framed glasses. Witter started his website -- postrapturepost. com -- as a joke, a satiric jab at those who see things like the swine flu, economic collapse and the election of a liberal president as sure signs the end is near. But then he started receiving orders for his merchandise. Since 2005, Witter said he has sold more than 200 items, most of them T-shirts and coffee mugs, and many of those (he admits) to friends and fellow atheists. Among the best sellers are the line of I-Told-You-So cards, which sell for $8. Some of those who ordered the cards -- Witter suspects they are not true Christians -- are willing to pay extra to have them sent early as Christmas cards. Witter doesn't have a stack of cards or letters with Post-Rapture messages in a dresser drawer or safety deposit box. All the messages are stored in his computers, encrypted to protect their privacy and backed up by a fail-safe system. His website might be all in jest, but when it comes to his paying customers, Witter is a responsible entrepreneur. He doesn't share the contents of the messages with his friends over beers or mock those who take this whole end-of-the-world business more seriously than he does. He concedes that delivering on his promise to hand-deliver the cards and letters entrusted to him may be difficult. Witter has read all the books of the popular "Left Behind" series, so he knows what to expect. Covered with boils, he will have to fight his way through perpetual darkness, clouds of insects, and meteors falling from the sky to deliver the mail. "Your hope lies with me. I am your mailman," he vows. "I'll do my best come Hell or high water to deliver those letters." On the other hand, should the Rapture not arrive in his lifetime, he gets to keep the money, which he promises to use to subsidize his sinful lifestyle. == Ironically, the Catholic Church and other religious institutions around the world constitute the main cause for 46 million abortions performed planet-wide each year. Doctors perform 1.3 million abortions in the USA annually. Source: The reason for so many abortions: without birth control to prevent conception, abortion becomes the secondary means of terminating life. Why? The Catholic Church condemns birth control, which, in turn, yields millions upon millions of babies that cannot be cared for, or survive starvation and starvation related diseases. According to the World Health Organization, eight million adults die annually of starvation, but the greatest tragedy stems from a lack of birth control that explodes with 10 million children under 12 dying every year of starvation. In a ground breaking book by Lawrence Harrison, Underdevelopment Is a State of Mind, the author chronicles Catholic dominated societies that suffer from population overload, poverty, illiteracy, disease and futility. Those women birth so many babies so fast and so manythey cannot begin to feed, educate and care for them. It becomes a self-destructive feedback loop of human wretchedness. While the Catholic Church pretends to administer to the poor worldwide, its policies on birth control create and extend the problem. Harrison gave example after example in his book. It appears the Catholic Church in its quest for more followers augmented by birth rates does not care about the long term consequences of poverty and illiteracy. As long as it fills the pews with bodies, no matter how miserable, the Pope boasts of many followers. == In the first book of Corinthians,bthe Apostle Paul insists that women should remain silent in church (1 Corinthians 14:35-36). In the 16th chapter of the book of Romans, Paul's attitude is that women could and should be church leaders -- and he cites women who were serving as deacons and apostles in the early church, == http://atheist-community.org/atheisteve/?id=18 == "Atheism Advanced" by anthropologist David Eller == http://www.fixedearth.com/index.html fixed earth === Slavery 1 Corinthians 7:21 -- Were you called as a slave? Do not worry about it. Ephesians 6:5 -- Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling... Colossians 3:22 -- Slaves, obey your earthly masters in every respect... 1 Timothy 6:1 -- Those who are under the yoke as slaves must regard their own masters as deserving of full respect. 1 Peter 2:18 -- Slaves, be subject to your masters with all reverence, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are perverse. Leviticus 25:44 -- As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you -- you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. Exodus 21:20-21 -- Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property. Deuteronomy 20:10-11 -- When you approach a city to wage war against it, offer it terms of peace. If it accepts your terms and submits to you, all the people found in it will become your slaves. Ecclesiastes 2:7 -- I purchased male and female slaves, and I owned slaves who were born in my house... Paul's letter to Philemon is too long to quote, but it's short and easy to read. Philemon is a rich Christian who had a slave named Onesimus. When Onesimus ran away he met Paul and was converted. Then Paul sent Onesimus back to his owner. Did Paul chastise Philemon for owning slaves? No. In fact, Paul planned to visit Philemon again, where he would be served by slaves. Possibly by Onesimus himself. == Chad Hardy, founder of Mormons Exposed == Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB) == 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. Such evil must be purged from Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:12 NLT) == Prophecies by Joseph Smith claimed that, on April 6th 1843, he heard a Voice which said that if he lived until he was 85 years of age, he would see the face of the Son of Man. He wrote in 1843: "There are those of the rising generation who shall not taste death till Christ comes. I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written--the Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old--48 years hense, or about 1890." (History of the Church, 5:336) == Christian morality is but a smokescreen covering faith. Faith is believing in spite of what is real. Faith displaces reality with New Testament fantasy. Believe and be saved; fail to believe and become condemned to hell. The convoluted result of faith is best seen while considering this: A mass murderer or serial killer will be forgiven and gets a free pass to heaven, while a morally upright, kind unbeliever (or any non-Christian) is condemned solely for lack of faith. God so loves us to death! Faith belittles morality by placing itself (i.e. religious belief) above how we should treat each other (i.e. morality). The person who approves of this cruel injustice exposes his own deflated empathy-one divisive effect of New Testament mind control. == A Catholic German bishop has come under fire for his remarks condemning atheists. In a sermon given on Easter Sunday, the bishop of Augsburg, Walter Mixa, warned of rising atheism in Germany. "Wherever God is denied or fought against, there people and their dignity will soon be denied and held in disregard," he said in the sermon. He also said that "a society without God is hell on earth" and quoted the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky: "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." Most controversially, he linked the Nazi and Communist crimes to atheism. "In the last century, the godless regimes of Nazism and Communism, with their penal camps, their secret police and their mass murder, proved in a terrible way the inhumanity of atheism in practice." Christians and the Church were always the subject of "special persecution" under these systems, he said. However, critics accuse Mixa of rewriting history. The bishop's claim that humanity automatically arises from religious faith is "totally untenable," Rudolf Ladwig, president of the Germany-based International League of Non-Religious and Atheists (IBKA), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Mixa's words are part of a "long-term strategy by the Church to exculpate, in a historically inaccurate way, the history of its own institution as relates to fascism." The Nazi dictatorship targeted Communists, Social Democrats, liberals, trade unionists, Jews, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, the disabled and others, Ladwig said. "It was by no means the dictatorship of a dedicated atheist movement. Resistance from within the churches came only from individuals." The philosopher Michael Schmidt-Salomon, head of the humanist non-profit group the Giordano Bruno Foundation, also sharply criticized Mixa. "If you bear in mind that during the Nazi era it was precisely the Jews who were accused of being godless, then one sees how perfidious Mixa's reasoning is," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. He points out that freethinker associations were disbanded by the Nazis and avowed atheists were persecuted. The Nazi dictatorship targeted Communists, Social Democrats, liberals, trade unionists, Jews, Roma and Sinti, homosexuals, the disabled and others, Ladwig said. "It was by no means the dictatorship of a dedicated atheist movement. Resistance from within the churches came only from individuals." Mixa's claim that the Nazi regime was "godless" is "a massive distortion of history," Schmidt-Salomon said. Nazi ideology -- including its anti-Semitism -- was based largely on Christian traditions, he said, explaining that evidence for that can be found in Hitler's "Mein Kampf" and elsewhere. "The majority of the Nazi elite saw themselves as Christians," says Schmidt-Salomon. Although the Nazi movement included a wide variety of currents of religious thought, ranging from nihilism to neo-paganism to Teutonic mythology to Hinduism, atheism played no significant political role for the Nazis. Avowed atheists were not welcome in the Nazi party or the SS. The relationship of the Catholic Church to the Nazis was also an ambivalent one. Individual members of the clergy openly confronted the regime, which in some cases resulted in their persecution and murder. Others voluntarily collaborated with the dictatorship, while most simply did nothing. A systematic persecution of Christians did not take place in the Third Reich -- let alone the "special persecution of Christians and the Church" which Mixa spoke of. == "After all, there are castrated men who were born that way, and there are castrated men who were castrated by others, and there are castrated men who castrated themselves because of Heaven's imperial rule, If you are able to acccept this (advise), do so." - Matthew 19:12 SV translation == "Truth in Translation - Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament" by Jason David BeDunn (about 44 dollars) == "Atheism Advanced" by anthropologist David Eller == http://yoism.org/?q=node/99#atheodawg == At Aquinas and Tertullian loved the idea of sitting in heaven and watching people they didn't like burn in hell, the kings, the atheists and philosophers and poets...all the heretics who didn't subscribe to their beliefs. == "I say now, when they [his discourses] are copied and approved by me they are as good Scripture as is couched in this Bible . . . " (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, p. 264; see also page 95.) == "Encyclopedia of Gods" by Mivhael Jordan == In 1452 "Nickolus 5th" {208th pope} ,The head of Central Roman Catholic Church from 1447 to 1455... Introduced " Doctrine of Discovery ". This Doctrine killed millions of innocent people. The Pope wrote a letter to the king of Portugal "Alfansu" and said " You must kill all non christians ' attack and destroy ther property.. all these things are according to Christianity" == In the Sumerian tradition, in which much of the Bible is rooted, the story is called, "From the Great Above to the Great Below" or "The Descent of Inanna." There is also a Babylonian version of the myth, which is called "The Descent of Ishtar," and she is known elsewhere as Astarte. == According to the Harper's Bible Dictionary, "The ancient Hebrews imagined the world as flat and round, covered by the great solid dome of the firmament which was held up by mountain pillars, (Job 26:11, 37:18). The blue color of the sky was attributed to the chaotic waters that the firmament separated from the earth (Gen. 1:7). The earth was thus surrounded by waters above and below (Gen 1:6,7, cf. Psalms 24:2, 148:4, Deut. 5:8). The firmament was thought to be substantial; it had pillars (Job 26:11) and foundations (2 Sam. 22:8). When the windows of it opened, rain fell (Gen. 7:11-12,8:2). The sun, moon, and stars moved across or were fixed in the firmament (Gen. 1:14-19; Ps. 19:4,6). It was also the abode of the birds (Gen. 1:20;Deut. 4:17). Within the earth lay Sheol, the realm of the dead (Num. 16:30-33;Isa. 14:9,15)." == Priests, early on, had to be married - but to become a bishop, one could not have a so, but no son. == "Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth --- often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable." - Hypatia of Alexandria == While much of Brazil has been riled by the case of a 9-year-old girl who aborted twins this month after claiming her stepfather raped her, her ordeal was an all too familiar one at the clinic. The girls story of rape and pregnancy at such a young age seemingly caught the nation off guard, reviving a tense debate over reproductive rights in a country with more Catholics than any other. But doctors, clinic workers and other experts say her case is symptomatic of a widespread problem of sexual abuse of under-age girls one that has long been neglected and may be getting worse. Weighing just 79 pounds and barely four feet tall, the 9-year-old girl, from Alagoinha, a town in the northeast, underwent an abortion when she was 15 weeks pregnant at one of the 55 centers authorized to perform the procedure in Brazil. Abortion is legal here only in cases of rape or when the mothers life is at risk. The doctors actions set off a swirl of controversy. A Brazilian archbishop summarily excommunicated everyone involved the doctors for performing the abortion and the girls mother for allowing it except for the stepfather, who stands accused of raping the girl over a number of years. The law of God is above any human law, said Jos Cardoso Sobrinho, the archbishop, who argued that while rape was bad, abortion was even worse. The storm intensified when a high-ranking Vatican official supported the excommunications. == Bishop USsher came up with the 4004 BC date about 1650, based on his reading of various texts available to him: Faced with inconsistent texts of the Torah, each with a different number of years between Flood and Creation, Ussher chose the Masoretic version. Partly his reasons were sound scholarly ones - the Masoretic text claims an unbroken history of careful transcription stretching back centuries - but his choice was confirmed for him because it placed Creation exactly four thousand years before 4 BC, the generally accepted date for the birth of Christ; moreover, he calculated, Solomons temple was completed in the year 3000 from creation, so that there were exactly 1000 years from the temple to Christ, who was the fulfilment of the Temple (from Wiki) == Magicians can also manipulate the audiences memory, thus making it difficult to mentally reconstruct what happened. In the cognitive science literature, it is now established that providing misinformation about past events can reduce memory accuracy and create false memories, a fact magicians have intuitively known for centuries. == Skeptics * Daniel Loxton (Junior Skeptic magazine) * Benjamin Radford (Skeptical Inquirer magazine) * Dr. Eugenie Scott (National Center for Science Education) * Jeff Wagg (James Randi Educational Foundation) * D.J. Grothe (Point of Inquiry podcast) * Brian Dunning (Skeptoid podcast) * Dr. Karen Stollznow (The Skeptic magazine) * Robynn "Swoopy" McCarthy (Skepticality podcast) * Kylie Sturgess (Skeptic Zone podcast) * Tim Farley (What's the Harm? and Skeptools websites) * Dr. Randy Olson (Flock of Dodos documentary) * Pat Linse (Skeptic magazine) * Jay Novella (The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast) === God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory By Niall Shanks Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life By Daniel Dennett The Blind Watchmaker By Richard Dawkins Unweaving the Rainbow By Richard Dawkins The God Delusion By Richard Dawkins == [Richard P. Feynman "You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything, and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask, Why we're here, and what the question might meanI might think about it a little bit, and if I can't figure it out I go over to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't have toI don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by "being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose," which is the way it really is, as far as I can tellpossibly. It doesn't frighten me." == Babylonian documents show that Nebuchadnezzar was not the father of Belshazzar, which is contrary to the Bible. == Luke also seems to be inaccurate about that census in Acts 5:36. There, Gamaliel, supposed to be giving a speech in the early or mid 30s (shortly after the death of Jesus), mentions the uprising of Theudas, which did not occur till some ten years after Gamaliel’s speech, and compounds the error by implicitly dating the census and uprising of Judas the Galilean (A.D 6-7) after Theudas == "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 == The existence of thousands of variations of texts makes it impossible to hold the doctrine of a book verbally infallible. Some might claim for the original copies of the Bible an infallible character, but this view only begs the question and makes such Christian apologetics more ridiculous in the eyes of sincere men." - Rev. Dr. Elmer G. Homrighausen, United Presbryterian clergyman, American theologian, former Dean of Princeton Theological Seminary - source "Christianity in America", p. 121 == People invent gods all the time, whenever people invent gods they can shape them to suit their wants and prejudices and that makes repentance and faith very convenient indeed since their gods are crafted by their own wit. == 1.  God would not mislead his people therefore the Bible is infallible. 2.  If the Bible is infallible, God wrote it.   Catholics don't believe the Bible is infallible, but believe the Pope is infallible in matters of faith.   However you squeeze it, everybody has an infallible guide to lead them by the nose, therefore thinking is not required.  You must remember, thinking (really thinking) is actually very hard work. == "For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion. St. Augustine, The Literal Meaning of Genesis, Book 1, Chapter 19[3] == Now kill all the boys [innocent kids]. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. (Numbers 31:7,17-18) == The Cleansing of the Temple is at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in John, but at the end of the Synoptics. Jesus goes up to Jerusalem five times in John (three times for Passover) but only once in the Synoptics. Christ's crucifixion comes after his third Passover in John, but after his first in the Synoptics. The greater problem is that Jesus died the day after the passover meal in the synoptics, but right on that day in John (John 19:14: Now it was the preparation of the passover). == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Christianity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_consistency_and_the_Bible http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus == Modern hypotheses supporting a flat Earth originated with English inventor Samuel Rowbotham (1816-1884). Based on his interpretation of certain biblical passages, Rowbotham published a 16-page pamphlet, which he later expanded into a 430-page book, Earth Not a Globe, expounding his views." == If a person really belives that calling God by the right name can spell the difference between eternal happiness nad eternal suffering, then it becomes quite reasonable to treat heretics and unbelievers rather badly. People often kill other human beings because they believe that the creator of the universe wants them to do it. == It¹s another world, it really is. Bizarre, out of touch with obvious reality, perhaps a form of insanity ­ and they¹re not aware of it. == "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution." - James Madison == Numbers 22 28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? (KJV) == Eccl 3:19-21 BibleBot: Eccl3:19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. Eccl3:20 All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Eccl3:21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth? (RSV) 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." == http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/2000years.html == Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle, == http://www.offthemap.com/ebayatheist/index.php discussion == The cult leader endows himself with a mystical mantle, often an agent of divine powers on Earth. Confession and denunciation to the leader are ingrained. The victim acquires a pawn-like attitude, wherein devotion and obedience to the leader supersede standards of morality or self-preservation, even unto choices of life and death. If you surround yourself by people who agree with your views -- and if you also think there is something very noble, difficult, and praise-worthy about approaching life "as if you were a child" being lead by a parent-God -- then I think you can believe some very weird things. The smarter you are, the better (or more contorted) the rationalizations. A cult is the larval form of a religion. I love when the religious come and say "My cult is not a cult!" == Billy Graham has a column. DEAR BILLY GRAHAM: Why do people get involved in cults? My cousin has gotten involved in one, and no matter what we say to him, he refuses to listen. He says we are the ones who are in the dark, and he alone in our family has found the truth. -- S. McM. That's a real problem, and I'm sure we all know someone who has gone off the deep end with some weird belief. That's not the funny part; the good bit is Graham's oblivious reply. DEAR S. McM: One characteristic of cults is that they strongly believe they alone are right in their beliefs and everyone else is wrong. Thus they reject the central truths of the Bible that Christians have held in common for almost 2,000 years and substitute their own beliefs for the clear teaching of Scripture. Shorter Billy Graham: The difference between their cult and mine is that they think they have the absolute truth, when I know that I do. == In Harper's Magazine, December 1998, Billy Graham gave the size of heaven as 1,500 cubic miles. == "We tolerate no one in our ranks who attacks the ideas of Christianity... in fact our movement is Christian. We are filled with a desire for Catholics and Protestants to discover one another in the deep distress of our own people. " Hitler 1928 == A 9 year old girl was raped by her father, got an abortion, and the family is being excommunicated by the church. == Stem-cell policy change liberating to researchers Eight years of frustration are close to an end for scientists seeking ways to use embryonic stem cells to combat illness and injury. On Monday, President Barack Obama plans to reverse limits imposed by President George W. Bush on using federal money for research with embryonic stem cells. The long-promised move will allow a rush of research aimed at one day better treating, if not curing, ailments from diabetes to paralysis - research that is has drawn broad support, including from notables like Nancy Reagan, widow of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan, and the late Christopher Reeve. But it stirs intense controversy over whether government crosses a moral line with such research, and opponents promptly denounced the move. On Saturday, the Vatican's newspaper reiterated Catholic teaching that embryonic stem cell research is "deeply immoral." Obama will hold an event at the White House to announce the move, a senior administration official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not yet been publicly announced. Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body. Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases - such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics, cells that could help those with Parkinson's disease or maybe even Alzheimer's, or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury. "I feel vindicated after eight years of struggle, and I know it's going to energize my research team," said Dr. George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Children's Hospital of Boston, a leading stem cell researcher. But the research is controversial because days-old embryos must be destroyed to obtain the cells. They typically are culled from fertility-clinic leftovers otherwise destined to be thrown away. Under Bush, taxpayer money for that research was limited to a small number of stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001, lines that in many cases had some drawbacks that limited their potential usability. But hundreds more of such lines - groups of cells that can continue to propagate in lab dishes - have been created since then, ones that scientists say are healthier, better suited to creating treatments for people rather than doing basic laboratory science. Work didn't stop. Indeed, it advanced enough that this summer, the private Geron Corp. will begin the world's first study of a treatment using human embryonic stem cells, in people who recently suffered a spinal cord injury. Nor does Obama's change fund creation of new lines. But it means that scientists who until now have had to rely on private donations to work with these newer stem cell lines can apply for government money for the research, just like they do for studies of gene therapy or other treatment approaches. The aim of the policy is to restore "scientific integrity" to the process, the administration official said. "America's biomedical research enterprise experienced steady decline over the past eight years, with shrinking budgets and policies that elevated ideology over science. This slowed the pace of discovery and the search for cures," said Sean Morrison, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology. Critics immediately denounced the move. "Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for experiments that require the destruction of human life," said Tony Perkins of the conservative Family Research Council. "President Obama's policy change is especially troubling given the significant adult stem cell advances that are being used to treat patients now without harming or destroying human embryos." Indeed, there are different types of stem cells: So-called adult stem cells that produce a specific type of tissue; younger stem cells found floating in amniotic fluid or the placenta. Scientists even have learned to reprogram certain cells to behave like stem cells. But even researchers who work with varying types consider embryonic stem cells the most flexible and thus most promising form - and say that science, not politics, should ultimately judge. "Science works best and patients are served best by having all the tools at our disposal," Daley said. Obama made it clear during the campaign he would overturn Bush's directive. During the campaign, Obama said, "I strongly support expanding research on stem cells. I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations." He said he would lift Bush's ban and "ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight." "Patients and people who've been patient advocates are going to be really happy," said Amy Comstock Rick of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research. The ruling will bring one immediate change: As of Monday, scientists who've had to meticulously keep separate their federally funded research and their privately funded stem cell work - from buying separate microscopes to even setting up labs in different buildings - won't have that expensive hurdle anymore. Next, scientists can start applying for research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The NIH already has begun writing guidelines that, among other things, are expected to demand that the cells being used were derived with proper informed consent from the woman or couple who donated the original embryo. == 1Pet4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. (RSV) 1Cor7:29 I mean, brethren, the appointed time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, (RSV) Rom16:20 then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (RSV) Rev3:11 I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. (RSV) 1Pet4:7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore keep sane and sober for your prayers. (RSV) == cockatrices (Jer. 8:17, Isa. 11:8 59:5), unicorns (Deut. 33:17, Psalms 22:21. 29:6, Job 39:9-10), satyrs (Isa. 34:14, 13:21), fiery serpents (Num. 21:6), and flying serpents (Isa. 14:29, 30:6) == St Augustine said it quite openly: 'There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn' == 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) == For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:18-19 RSV) == Psalms 58 3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. (KJV) evil babies == Mark 16:15-20 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. == Dr. Lorne L. Dawson "When Prophecy Fails and Faith Persists: A Theoretical Overview" - == Great Pyramid was built by Khunum-Khufu about 2600 BCE. == Bible errors (a) the bat is a bird (Lev. 11:19, Deut. 14:11, 18); (b) Some fowls are four-footed (Lev. 11:20-21); (c) Some creeping insects have four legs. (Lev. 11:22-23); (d) The earth was formed out of and by means of water (2 Peter 3:5 RSV); (e) The earth rest on pillars (1 Sam. 2:8); (f) The earth won't be moved (1Chron. 16:30); (g) A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds and grows into the greatest of all shrubs (Matt. 13:31-32 RSV); (i) The earth has ends or edges (Job 37:3); (j) The earth has four corners (Isa. 11:12, Rev. 7:1); (k) Some 4-legged animals fly (Lev. 11:21); (l) The world's language didn't evolve but appeared suddenly (Gen. 11:6-9; (m) A fetus can understand speech (Luke 1:44). == Those in religious authority would have one believe transcendent experiences are something external to the human and call it the Holy Spirit. They also realize when our senses are overly stimulated we have transcendent experiences. Thus, the mega churches pull out all the stops concerning stimulating peoples senses, and call it the power of the Holy Spirit or say that the Holy Spirit is moving through the large congregation. In which case, Karl Marx was very accurate with his statement, Religion is the opiate of the people. Humans thrive on it, especially because religious services have numerous sensory stimuli, which trigger brain chemistry that gives people a sense of the aesthetic. In the end, people crave such numinous experiences like a drug and attach various superstitions to it all. == The Osiris/Horus myth, in much simplified terms, goes as follows: Set, the evil brother of the good Osiris, murders that god and cuts his body into 14 pieces. Isis, the wife of Osiris collects and reassembles the pieces, having to substitute a wooden phallus for that part of the dead gods anatomy. She copulates with the dead god in the form of a bird, conceives Horus and gives birth to him in secret, raising him on an island in the Nile amidst the reeds. She also raises Osiris from the dead, although this very physical resurrection is in the underworld. When Horus comes of age he does battle with his uncle Set. Set tears out the eye of Horus, while Horus rips off Sets genitals. Eventually, peace is made between the two, both are healed, and they divide the rule of the year by seasons of life and death. The physical resurrection of Osiris, even though it is in the underworld, is a significant precursor to Jesus as a dying and rising god, as is the physical resurrection of Dionysus, after he is killed, dismembered and partially eaten by the Titans. Horus being born and nursed in the rushes of an island in the Nile is an important parallel to the infant Moses being found among the rushes. The panels from Luxor depict the mother of Hatshepsut being told she will bear the divine child. Next, the god Amon-Ra consorts with Hatshepsut¹s mother. Then the divine child (Hatshepsut) is adored by gods and mortals. Those who saw the star are wise men, not kings. In the original Greek of the New Testament, what is translated as ³wise men² is magi, that is, Zoroastrian holy men. The Greek word magos is the source of our words mage, magic and magician. When they had heard the king they went on their way, and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him. Then, opening their treasures they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. == The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins The End of Faith by Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel Dennett == 1 Chronicles ch 21 verse 14 So the Lord sent an epidemic on the people of Israel, and seventy thousand of them died. Then he sent an Angel to destory Jerusalem, but he Changed his mind and said to the Angel, Stop! That's enough! The Angel was Standing by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite. David saw the Angel Standing in Midair, holding his Sword in his hand, ready to destroy Jerusalme. 1 Chronicles ch 21 v 27 The Lord told the Angel to put his Sword away, And the Angel Obeyed. == Deutronomoy ch 23 No man who has been Castrated or whose penis has been cut off may be included among the Lord's People. == Exodus ch 34 v 7 I keep my promises for thousands of generations and forgive evil and sin; but i will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and forth generations for the sins of their parents == The scientists assume that the best way of understanding how something works is to do an experiment and see ourselves, not trust what any religious text says or ask any supposed deity through prayer. Even if a scientist is a Christian, the Christian in his or her capacity as a scientist suspends Christian belief for the sake of practicing scientific methods. == In 1452 "Nickolus 5th" {208th pope} ,The head of Central Roman Catholic Church from 1447 to 1455... Introduced " Doctrine of Discovery ". This Doctrine killed millions of innocent people. The Pope wrote a letter to the king of Portugal "Alfansu" and said " You must kill all non christians ' attack and destroy their property.. all these things are according to Christianity" == The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond The Grave by Robert M. Price (Hardcover - April 5, 2005) == "the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish." "For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions." "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. " Albert Einstein. == ...and of course, the third tablet, which Moses dropped and broke, with the five serious suggestions. == Religious morality is just a game. God randomly selects things that you can't do (they are immoral because God says so, not because of any consequences), and you live your life trying to dodge the sins. == But it's clear that the author here, who is the Priestly author, c700BCE, after the return from Exile in Babylon... However the Babylonians took Jerusalem in 586/587. There are arguments that P is either prior, during, and after the exile, which in whole probably means that there are postexile revisions to a preexile version, not unexpected since R is assumed to be from the same school as P. == Exodus 4:24 says God wanted to kill Moses because Moses married a woman whose son by a previous relationship was uncircumcised. == New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis Willem A. VanGemeren, editor Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997 == Many scholars adhere to the Documentary Hypothesis, the idea that four or more authors were woven together by an editor at the time of the Babylonian Exile, when the need for a text for the exiled Jews became paramount. Two of them originated from the time of the divided kingdom: The Elohist text of the northern kingdom of Israel, so called because they named God Elohim, and the Yahwist text of the southern kingdom Judah who called God YHWH. Interspersed with these two texts was the Priestly account (which stressed ritual and Sabbath observance) and the Deuteronomist account (which blamed all of the Israelites' troubles on their sinfulness). That's why you get Doublets--the same story told twice with variant details. This is true of the creation, the flood, Moses' biography, and David and Goliath. == And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." (2 Kings 2:11 RSV) == The Book of Job appears to me unhistorical because it begins about a man quite unconnected with all history or even legend, with no genealogy, living in a country of which the Bible elsewhere has hardly anything to say; because, in fact, the author quite obviously writes as a storyteller not as a chronicler. - C. S. Lewis == "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. ... And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses." == Deuteronomy explains it like this: 21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 21:19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 21:20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21:21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all shall hear, and fear. == In ancient Rome a person living in a rural area or village was called paganus, a word derived from the Latin noun pagus, meaning "village, district." == http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm == In 1525-1526 the Tyndale New Testament became the first printed edition of the scripture in the English language. == Catholic theology evolution 1. Prayers for the dead -- 300 AD 2. Making the sign of the cross -- 300 AD 3. Veneration of angels & dead saints -- 375 A.D. 4. Use of images in worship -- 375 A D. 5. The Mass as a daily celebration -- 394 AD 6. Beginning of the exaltation of Mary; the term, "Mother of God" applied at Council of Ephesus -- 431 AD. 7. Extreme Unction (Last Rites) -- 526 AD 8. Doctrine of Purgatory (Gregory I) -- 593 AD 9. Prayers to Mary & dead saints -- 600 AD 10. Worship of cross, images & relics -- 786 AD 11. Canonization of dead saints -- 995 AD 12. Celibacy of priesthood -- 1079 AD 13. The Rosary -- 1090 AD 14. Indulgences -- 1190 AD 15. Transubstantiation (Innocent III) -- 1215 AD 16. Auricular Confession of sins to a priest -- 1215 AD 17. Adoration of the wafer (Host) -- 1220 AD 18. Cup forbidden to the people at communion -- 1414 AD 19. Purgatory proclaimed as a dogma -- 1439 AD 20. The doctrine of the Seven Sacraments confirmed -- 1439 AD 21. Tradition declared of equal authority with Bible by Council of Trent -- 1545 AD 22. Apocryphal books added to Bible -- 1546 AD 23. Immaculate Conception of Mary -- 1854 AD 24. Infallibility of the pope in matters of faith and morals, proclaimed by the Vatican Council -- 1870 AD 25. Assumption of the Virgin Mary (bodily ascension into heaven shortly after her death) -- 1950 AD 26. Mary proclaimed Mother of the Roman Catholic Church -- 1965 AD == JUDGES 1:19 And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. -KJV == In 1978 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced a new revelation ­ that men of African descent may enjoy the office of the Priesthood. Until then, the Mormon Church's 'Negro Doctrine,' had held that people with African blood should be barred from the Priesthood and flatly prohibited interracial marriages between black and white. == Alfred Edersheim, "The Old Testament," == I have seen MANY people who claim to be Christian, doing terrible things - almost like they've been given a license to be cruel, because they will be forgiven. == The pastor whose prayer Sarah Palin says helped her to become governor of Alaska founded his ministry with a witch hunt against a Kenyan woman whom he accused of causing car accidents through demonic spells. At a speech at the Wasilla Assembly of God on June 8 this year, Palin described how Thomas Muthee had laid his hands on her when he visited the church as a guest preacher in late 2005, prior to her successful gubernatorial bid. In video footage of the speech, she is seen saying: "As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he's so bold. And he was praying "Lord make a way, Lord make a way." "And I'm thinking, this guy's really bold, he doesn't even know what I'm going to do, he doesn't know what my plans are. And he's praying not "Oh Lord, if it be your will may she become governor," no, he just prayed for it. He said, "Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that's exactly what happened." She then adds: "So, again, very, very powerful, coming from this church," before the presiding pastor comments on the "prophetic power" of the event. An African evangelist, Muthee has given guest sermons at the Wasilla Assembly of God on at least 10 occasions in his role as the founder of the Word of Faith Church, also known as the Prayer Cave. Muthee founded the Prayer Cave in 1989 in Kiambu, Kenya, after "God spoke" to him and his late wife, Margaret, and called him to the country, according to the church's Web site. The pastor speaks of his offensive against a demonic presence in the town in a trailer for the evangelical video "Transformations," made by Sentinel Group, a Christian research and information agency. "We prayed, we fasted, the Lord showed us a spirit of witchcraft resting over the place," Muthee says. After the spirit was broken, the crime rate dropped to almost zero and there was "explosive church growth" while almost every bar in the town closed down, the video says. The full "Transformations" video featuring Muthee's story has recently been removed from YouTube, but the rest of the story is detailed in a 1999 article in the Christian Science Monitor, as well as on numerous evangelical Web sites. According to the Christian Science Monitor, six months of fervent prayer and research identified the source of the witchcraft as a local woman called Mama Jane, who ran a "divination" center called the Emmanuel Clinic. Her alleged involvement in fortune-telling and the fact that she lived near the site of a number of fatal car accidents led Muthee to publicly declare her a witch responsible for the town's ills and order her to offer her up her soul for salvation or leave Kiambu. Says the Monitor, "Muthee held a crusade that 'brought about 200 people to Christ.'" They set up around-the-clock prayer intercession in the basement of a grocery store and eventually, says the pastor, "the demonic influence -- the 'principality' over Kiambu -- was broken," and Mama Jane fled the town. According to accounts of the witch hunt that circulated on evangelical Web sites such as Prayer Links Ministries, after Muthee declared Mama Jane a witch, the townspeople became suspicious and began to turn on her, demanding that she be stoned. Public outrage eventually led the police to raid her home, where they fired gunshots, killing a pet python they believed to be a demon. After Mama Jane was questioned by police -- and released -- she decided it was time to leave town, the account says. Muthee has frequently referred to this witch hunt in his sermons as an example of the power of "spiritual warfare." In October 2005, he delivered 10 sermons at the Wasilla Assembly of God, the audio of which was available on the church's Web site until it was removed around the time Palin's candidacy was announced. The blog Irregular Times has listings and screen grabs of the sermons. It was during these sermons that Palin, who was then preparing for her gubernatorial run, was anointed by Muthee. His intercession, she says, was "awesome." Her June 8 speech was to mark the graduation of students from the Wasilla Assembly of God's Masters' Commission, which, as Pastor Ed Kalins explains, believes Alaska will be the refuge for American evangelicals upon the coming "End of Days." After her speech, Palin was presented with an honorary Masters' Commission diploma. == psa 82:1 A Psalm of Asaph. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. [of Asaph: or, for Asaph] Gods??? == Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. -- Richard Dawkins == Everyone has a philosophy. Everyone knows some facts. THe problem is one of honesty and pretending to be certain of dubious claims. 'Faith' is the license believers hand one another believe very strongly in things on insufficient evidence. Such misplaced confidence is not only dishonest, but makes one resistant to revising one's beliefs. It makes a virtue of holding fast to beliefs. == Christianity borrows its morality from evolution. We evolved moral standards because they're beneficial to our survival and growth. They start their argument with the questions that theists cannot answer themselves and throws it to atheists and tells them if they cannot answer that, there is no better solution than to believe in God. In reality we have no method of absolute moral authority and must instead rely on our own moral intuitions and the relization that certain moral norms are necessary in order to maintain a functioning society. In fact very powerful moral codes can be constructed simply by acknowledging that the purpose of morals is not to please a (mildly) benevolent dictator, but to reduce suffering as much as possible. Religions don't make people better. They just give good people bad reasons to be good and bad people bad reasons to be bad. == ³But if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?² A Bief History of Time p141. == The naturalist's cry for proof of God is meaningless when God is easily presumed. The true Catch-22 is that the honest atheist can offer no proof against God, since such proofs would require substantive access to a plane of existence atheists most commonly see as nonexistent, or at least, as absolutely distinct from their own. In this way, religion applies a forceful jiu-jitsu to its opposition, exploiting the naturalist's dependence on intellectual honesty based upon tangible evidence. Add to that a stunted ability among participants to interpret scientific information, a willingness to employ half-understood, but viscerally appealing logical concepts in serious argument (not assisted in any way by the debate routine practiced throughout Western society), and a lack of consequences for members repeatedly found to be practicing logic poorly, and rationalism, though ideally superior, bears reduced chances of survival against its boisterous competition == Conflicts between the creation stories: There are some apparent inconsistencies between the first and second creation accounts: There may be a conflict over the number of days over which creation happened. Genesis 1:3 and subsequent verses say that God created the universe in six days. In Genesis 2:4, some translations, including the King James Version, imply that it took one day. More details In the first account, God created fruit trees before Adam and Eve; in the second account, God created Adam, then the fruit trees, then Eve. In the first account, God created animals before Adam and Eve; in the second account, God created Adam. then the animals, then Eve. Genesis 1:20 describes how God had "the waters bring forth ...fowl" ; in Genesis 2:19, God formed them "out of the ground". In the first account, God created the fish on the 5th day; in the second account, the fish of the sea were not created at all. Exodus 20:11 Creation is described as taking six days. Exodus 31:17 God made the heavens and earth in six days. Job 38:4 to 38:7 The creation of the earth is described as occurring on a single morning "when the morning stars sang together." Creation battle: Many ancient eastern Mediterranean religions believed that the creation of the world was the end result of a momentous battle between a deity (typically a storm god) with chaos (typically symbolized by water). Some biblical scholars believe that traces of this belief can be seen in Psalms 74:12-17 and Psalms 89:9-13. Elements of this, with the violence removed, may also be seen in Genesis 1:1 to 2:3. Psalms 19:4 This describes how God placed a tabernacle (tent) in the heavens for the sun. Presumably, this is where the sun was believed to rest during the hours of night. (The writers of the Bible assumed that the earth was flat, enclosed by a rigid dome a few thousand feet upwards from the surface of the earth. The sun and stars were believed to have been pushed across the underside surface of heaven). Psalms 104:2 to 104:3 This tells how God stretched out the heavens like a curtain and laid the beams of his chambers in the waters (seas). Psalms 104:5 This discusses how God laid the earth firmly on its foundations so that it could not be moved. Biblical writers believed that the earth was fixed and unmovable.The stars, planets, moon and sun moved across the underside of the rigid dome, above which was heaven. Quite a few early scientists were executed by the Church because they taught that the earth moved around the sun, in apparent conflict with this biblical passage. Proverbs 8:22 to 8:32 This describes how God first created Wisdom. Wisdom is personified as a delightful female companion of God who existed before the earth was created. She describes being present during creation, which took an indeterminate time. == "Jeffrey Dahmer got saved and was baptised weeks before he was murdered in prison. So, we can add Dahmer to the list of people that christians will see in heaven." == For both groups -- the psychopaths and the religious -- there's no empathy for others, no concern for fairness, and no self-control. Morality instead has been reduced to nothing more than obedience to commands -- commands which only have weight because they're enforced by an authority which hands out inescapable rewards and punishments. Christians tend to love religion more than people. == "He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them." --Ezekiel 6:12 (King James Version) == "...Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirt of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life." --Adolf Hitler, 1933 == Myth - "A traditional story, typically involving supernatural beings or forces or creatures, which embodies and provides an explanation, aetiology, or justification for something such as the early history of a society, a religious belief or ritual, or a natural phenomenon" == The Code of the Jew" From the Talmud 1. 'We beg Thee, 0 Lord, inflict Thy wrath on the nations not believing in Thee. Take away, 0 Lord, all hope from them. Destroy all foes of Thy nation.' -Synagaga Judaica, p. 212. Minhagen, p. 23. Crach Chain, 480 Magah. 2. 'The teachings of the Talmud stand above all other laws. They are more important than the laws of Moses.' -- Rabbi Issael, Rabbi Chasbar, et. al. 3. "The decisions of the Talmud are words of the living God. Jehovah Himself asks the opinion of the earthly rabbis when there are difficult affairs in heaven." -- Rabbi Menechen Commentary on Fifth Book- 4. "Jehovah Himself studies the Talmud standing, he has such respect for that book." -- Tract Mechillo. 5. "It is more wicked to question the words of the rabbis than those of the Torah." -- Michna Sanhedryn 11:3. 6. 'It is forbidden to disclose the secrets of the law. He who would do it would be as guilty as though he destroyed the whole world." -- Jektat Chadasz, 171, 3. 7. "Every goy who studies the Talmud and every Jew who helps him in it, ought to die.', --Sanhedryn, 59a, aboda Zora 8-6, Szagiga 13. 8. "To communicate anything to a goy about our religious relations would be equal to the killing of all Jews, for if the goyim knew what we teach about them they would kill us openly." -- Libbre David 37. 9. "If a Jew be called upon to explain any part of the rabbinic books, he ought to give only a false explanation. Who ever will violate this order shall be put to death." -- Libbre David 37. 10. "A Jew should and must make a false oath when the goyim asks if our books contain anything against them."--Szaaloth- Utszabot, The Book of Jore Via 17. 11. "The Jews are human beings, but the nations of the world are not human beings but beasts.,, -- Saba Mecia 114, 6. 12. "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves." -- Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D. 13. "Jehovah created the non-Jew in human form so that the Jew would not have to be served by beasts. The non-Jew is consequently an animal in human form, and condemned to serve the Jew day and night." -Midrasch Talpioth, p. 225-L. 14. "As soon as the King Messiah will declare himself, He will destroy Rome and make a wilderness of it. Thorns and weeds will grow in the Pope's palace. Then He will start a merciless war on non-Jews and will overpower them. He will slay them in masses, kill their kings and lay waste the whole Roman land. He will say to the Jews: 'I am the King Messiah for whom you have been waiting. Take the silver and gold from the goyim.' .. --Josiah 60, 6. Rabbi Abarbanel to Daniel 7, 13. 15. "A Gentile girl who is three years old can be violated." -- .9boda Sarah 37a. 16. "A Jew may violate but not marry a non-Jewish girl." -- &ad. Shas. 2:2. 17. "A Jew may do to a non-Jewess what he can do. He may treat her as he treats a piece of meat." --Hadarine, 20, B; Schulchan 9ruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348. 18. "A Jew may misuse the non-Jewess in her state of unbelief." -- Maimonides, Jak. Chasaka 2:2. 19. " IF a goy kills a goy or a Jew he is responsible; but if a Jew kills a goy he is NOT responsible. " --Tosefta. 9boda Za,-a 8, 5. 20. "It is permitted to kill a Jewish denunciator everywhere. It is permitted to kill him even before he denounces."- -Schuichan Qruch, Choszen Hajpiszpat jog 21. "Thou shalt not do injury to thy neighbor (Bible), but it is not said, 'Thou shalt not do injury to a Goy.' " -- Mishna Sanhedryn 57. 22. "When you go to war do not go as the First, but as the last, so that you may return as the first. Five things has Kanaan recommended to his sons: 'Love each other, love the robbery, hate your masters and never tell the truth.' " -- Pesachis F. 113B. 23. "A Jew is permitted to rape, cheat and perjure himself; but he must take care that he is not found out, so that Israel may not suffer." -- Schulchan Aruch, Jore Dia. 24. "A Jew may rob a goy - that is,.he may cheat him in a bill, if unlikely to be perceived by him." -Schalchan Arach, Choszen Hamiszpat 348. 25. "If a goy wants a Jew to stand witness against a Jew in a Court of Law, and if the Jew could give fair evidence, he is forbidden to do it; but if a Jew wants a Jew to be a witness in a similar case against a goy, he may do it." -- Schalchan .9ruch, Choszen Hasiszpat 28, Art. 3 and 4. 26. "Those who do not confess the Torah and the Prophets must be killed. Who has the power to kill them, let them kill them openly with the sword. if not, let them use artifices, till they are done away with." -- Schulchan Qruch. Choszon Haviszpat 425.5. 27. "All property of other nations belongs to the Jewish nation, which, consequently, is entitled to seize upon it without any scruples. An orthodox Jew is not bound to observe principles of morality towards people of other tribes. He may act contrary to morality, if profitable to himself or to Jews in general' "--Schalchan arach. Choszen Hasisxpat 348. 28. "Should a Jew inform the goyish authorities that another Jew has much money, and the other will suffer a loss through it, he must give him emuneration. "--Schalchan Oruch, Choszen Maipiszpat 388 29. 'How to interpret the word 'robbery.' A goy is forbidden to steal, rob, or take women slaves, etc., from a goy or from a Jew. But a Jew is NOT forbidden to do all this to a goy."--Tosefta, Qbda Zara VIRZ, 5. 30. "On the house of the goy one looks as on the fold of cattle." -- Tosefta, Erabin VZZ, 1. 31. "All vows, oaths, promises, engagements, and swearing, which, beginning this very day or reconciliation till the next day of reconciliation, we intend to vow, promise, swear, and bind ourselves to fulfill, we repent of beforehand; let them be illegalized, acquitted, annihilated, abolished, valueless, unimportant. Our vows shall be no vows, and our oaths no oaths at all." -- Schulchan 9ruch, Edit. 1, 136. (The Jewish Kol Nidre ['All Vows"] Oath has been set to a morbid Jewish music, and is often heard on the radio. it is sung as a chant at each Yom Kippur [Jewish New Year] service [September 17].) 32. "Everything a Jew needs for his church ritual no goy is permitted to manufacture, but only a Jew, because this must be manufactured by human beings and the Jew is not permitted to consider the goyim as human beings." -- Schulchan Oruch, Orach Chaiw 14, 20, 32, 33, 39. TaIDud Jebamoth 61. 33.. "A Jewish mid-wife is not only permitted but she is compelled to help a Jewish mother on Saturday (Jewish Sabbath) and when so doing to do anything which otherwise would desecrate the Saturday. But it is forbidden to help a non-Jewish woman even if it should be possible to help her without desecrating the Saturday, because she is to be considered only as an animal." -- Schulchan gruch, Orach Chaim 330. 34. "At the time of the Cholhamoed the transaction of any kind of business is forbidden. But it is permitted to cheat a goy, because cheating of goyim at any time pleases the Lord." --Chuichan Qruch, Orach ChaiD 539. 35. "The Jews are strictly Forbidden to cheat their brothers and it is considered cheating already if onesixth of the value has been taken away from him. Whoever has cheated his brother has to return it to him. Naturally all that only holds towards the Jew, to cheat a goy he is permitted and he is not permitted to return to him what he cheated him out of. Because the Bible says: 'Thou shalt not cheat thy next brother,' but the non-Jews are not our brethren, but as mentioned above, worse than dogs." -- aruch hoszen Haniszpat 227. == Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator." == The atheists are crying out that 21st century technologies guided by Bronze Age priorities may bring about a scale of suffering that our ancestors could describe only as hell. == http://scripturecatholic.com/geocentrism.html geocentric Bible astronomy == lapidation the process or act of pelting with stones, sometimes as a form of execution. == "The Jesus Legend" by Eddy and Boyd == 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) == Each generation of believers has reconstructed what "God" meant for them, regardless of whether their reconstructions required the reinterpretation, deformation, or abandonment of the prevalent beliefs about God. == I looked the term up on Wikipedia, and a few other places and found a whole slew of differing ideas regarding demons from Greek, Roman and other mythologies. Mostly they seem to be something between divine and mortal. Some were good demons that helped and advised people, others were more of a hindrance. This is not really all that unexpected, as people attempted to make sense of the random events of the world and attribute these events to some intelligence that they assumed was moving behind the scenes. It also makes more sense to the ancient mind than a single god, since the random events of daily life are too sporadic to be thought of as being controlled by a single deity. Having lots of gods and/or demons interacting with humans and the world makes more sense in light of the complexities of daily life. It also helps get the Christian God off the hook for the bad things that happen, since you can blame it on one of those pesky little demons. == In 1758 Pope Benedict XIV removes Copernicus book from the Index, after editors removed nine sentences which taught that heliocentrism was a certainty. This was consistent with the Congregation decree in 1616 that the book would be banned until corrected. However, the Church condemnations of Copernicanism on the grounds that its teachings are heretical and contrary to Scripture is not (and never has been) overturned. == Luke22:36 Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one. (KJV) == CHICAGO A federal judge has ruled that a state law requiring a moment of silence in public schools across Illinois is unconstitutional, saying it crosses the line separating church and state. "The statute is a subtle effort to force students at impressionable ages to contemplate religion," U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman said in his ruling Wednesday. The ruling came in a lawsuit designed to bar schools from enforcing the Illinois Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act. It was filed by talk show host Rob Sherman, an outspoken atheist, and his daughter, Dawn, a high school student. Gettleman's ruling was not a surprise. He had already ruled in favor of Sherman in two previous decisions. As passed by the Illinois General Assembly, the law allows students to reflect on the day's activities rather than pray if that is their choice and defenders have said it therefore doesn't force religion on anyone. But Gettleman backed critics such as the American Civil Liberties Union, who say the law is a thinly disguised effort to bring religion into the schools. The "teacher is required to instruct her pupils, especially in the lower grades, about prayer and its meaning as well as the limitations on their 'reflection,'" Gettleman ruled. "The plain language of the statute, therefore, suggests and intent to force the introduction of the concept of prayer into the schools," he said. It remained unclear if Gettleman's decision would end the dispute or merely signal a fresh battle in a federal appeals court. == http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/ == An extremely complex, but very fair-minded attempt to reconstruct the life of the historical Jesus, read John Meier's 3 volume work "A Marginal Jew". A fourth volume is coming. == About 300 children have died in the United States in the last 25 years after medical care was withheld on religious grounds, said Rita Swan, executive director of Children¹s Health Care Is a Legal Duty, a group based in Iowa that advocates punishment for parents who do not seek medical help when their children need it. Criminal codes in 30 states, including Wisconsin, provide some form of protection for practitioners of faith healing in cases of child neglect and other matters, protection that Ms. Swan¹s group opposes. == Luke 19:27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. == Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America (Paperback) by Charles B. Strozier (Author) == 1th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. == ŒThe Origins of Christianity and the Bible¹ by Andrew Benton == Another problem was Jesus explaining his parables in private to his close apostles, withholding the correct meaning from the multitude lest they understand and repent and be saved. What in the world? A subset of this idea was Jesus lying at his trial, saying that his teachings were always open and to everyone. == Embryonic stem-cell line limitations. The only reason Bush froze embryonic stem-cell lines, crippling and delaying American medical and scientific research, was to kowtow to the Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops and assorted religious-right lobbies. More than 70% of Americans firmly support embryonic stem cell research. Congress supported it. Even Nancy Reagan supports it! If there was ever an object lesson in the harm of basing science on faith, it is these senseless vetoes by Bush. == http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_meritt/bible-contradictions.html == Scientific Breakthroughs from the Bible The Bible describes a flat, circular Earth sitting on pillars, with a dome over it, which contained the Sun, the Moon, and the stars. God lived in and on the dome. The Moon made its own light and the stars were just smaller lights in the night sky. The Earth was the center of everything. It remained still, while the Sun, Moon, and stars moved over it. Of course this is probably what everyone believed around the time the Bible was written, but wouldnt the creator of the universe, an omniscient god, know better? Here are some verses that illustrate the Bible authors obvious ignorance about these things: Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 1 Samuel 2:8 for the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he hath set the world upon them. 1 Chronicles 16:30 Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Job 9:6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Isaiah 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 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: Daniel 4:10 Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. Daniel 4:11 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: Daniel 4:20 The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth; Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; == In 1650, Archbishop Ussher published the Ussher chronology, a chronology dating the creation to the night preceding October 23 4004 BC. Ussher's proposed date of 4004 BC differed little from other Biblically-based estimates, such as those of Bede (3952 BC), Ussher's near-contemporary, Scaliger (3949 BC), Johannes Kepler (3992 BC), Sir Isaac Newton (c. 4000 BC), or John Lightfoot (3929 BC). == If you're going to allow for corruption of the story, then the obvious tack is to consider the noah story a corruption of the flood story in Gilgamesh, which is in turn a corruption of the Babylonian Atrahasis flood story. Oddly, all three stories ahve the same birds in the same order. Hard to explain if the stories are not copies of each other. == deu 20:13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: deu 20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. [take: Heb. spoil] deu 20:15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. == http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/4993144 like Jesus == Science doesn't set out to show biblical myths false.  It merely observes the universe & draws conclusions based upon evidence & reason. == Exo4:3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. (KJV) Exo7:9 When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. (KJV) == Is anyone really interested in a god that has such little effect that it can't be detected by the most powerful equipment known to human kind? == In 325 A.D.First General Council at Nicea, declared that the Son was from the beginning of the same nature as the Father. In 381 A.D.Second General Council at Constantinople, declared that the Holy Spirit was to be worshipped with the Father and the Son. In 451 A.D,.Fifth General Council at Chalcedon, decreed that the two natures in Christ constituted only one Person and one will. In 431 A.D.Third General Council at Ephesus, decreed that Jesus had two natures, a human and a divine; also that Mary was the "mother of God", in opposition to those who maintained that she was the "mother of Christ". The Athanasian Creed, of unknown date but certainly in existence soon after 500 A.D., is even more emphatic: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity . . . there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate . . ." All are declared to be eternal, "yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal person. == Indeed, when religious people quarrel about religion, or hungry people quarrel about victuals, it looks as if they had not much of either among them. - Benjamin Franklin == what a humanist is: A humanist is one who can say "no" to social standards and even to divine guidance when they see them as incompatible with justice and humanity. They rely upon reality to determine whether their actions are good or bad, and while possibly inspired by the metaphysical, seek the correct path by observing how their actions affect their fellow beings. == * The early founders of Christianity seem wholly unaware of the idea of a human Jesus * The Jesus of the Gospels bears a striking resemblance to other ancient heroes and the figureheads of pagan savior cults * Contemporary Christians are largely ignorant of the origins of their religion == 2Tim3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (KJV) Paul does not define what is scripture == deu 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely , the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: == luk 14:26 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. == rsv 2mat 24:37 As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. rsv 2mat 24:38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, rsv 2mat 24:39 and they did not know until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of man. == "History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it." - Rob't. Heinlein == - Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. - Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. - Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. - Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. - Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. - But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. -- Gautama Buddha == "In the long run nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is only too palpable?" -- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), The Future of an Illusion (1927) == Deism has historically been the only way to declare oneself an atheist without incurring social retaliation, discrimination, and even outright death threats from not-too-bright theists. == Most atheists would be quite happy if religion remained in the hearts, homes and places of worship, but indeed, as history past and present shows, theists want dominion, to invade every aspect of public life and dehumanize and marginalize nonbelievers and "heretics" in the process. That's actually putting it nicely given what some really would like to do. == When people are given power and authority through a religious belief, they tend to believe that they are chosen by GOD and everything they do or say is ordained of GOD, basically making them GOD themselves. == In 1076 A.D., the Muslims took over a town called Jerusalem. The Muslims thought it was the most holy place because their profit Muhammad had spent a lot of time there preaching and praying. The Christians thought this was an outrage, because they believed it to be one of the most holy places in their religion. Their savior Jesus was purportedly born in or nearby Bethlehem, and he was supposedly crucified on Calvary Hill in Jerusalem. The Christian and the Muslims fought for control of this city for nearly 200 hundred years. Thousands and thousands of people died, all because of a belief in a certain invisible being (The Crusades). In 1198 A.D. The Spanish Inquisition was under way. The Roman Catholic Church made up a tribunal to find out who was a backslider or an unbeliever. When they got confessions for these "crimes," they would torture, imprison and even burn people at the stake all in the name of GOD. In Seville, more than 700 Conversos were burned at the stake and 5,000 repented. Tribunals were also opened in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. An inquisition Tribunal was set up in Ciudad Real, where 100 Conversos were condemned, and it was moved to Toledo in 1485. Between 1486-1492, 25 auto de fes were held in Toledo. 467 people were burned at the stake, and others were imprisoned. (The American). After the smoke cleared, 31,912 human beings were burned alive, 17,659 were burned just for the cause. 291,450 people repented of their so-called sins to avoid being killed. 40,000 were tried, and 1,800 human beings were condemned to death by the loving arms of the Church (The American). == Preachers feed on the young, naive and insecure because they are so easily molded to their ideals. == Martin Luther was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church in 1521 === J Witnesses 1899 "...the battle of the great day of God Almighty' (Revelation 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914 with the complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already commenced." The Time Is at Hand, page 101 (1908 edition). 1918 "Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old, particularly those named by the Apostle in Hebrews 11, to the condition of human perfection." Millions Now Living Will Never Die, page 89. == Once you know something, you can't un-know it My journey out of fundamentalist Christianity began with an in depth study of the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch). I asked myself a simple question "what if the Pentateuch was written by men for men? Could I give a thoughtful explanation for why Moses (or other writers of the Pentateuch) would create such stories. (Remember these stories were written during a time when the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness - permanent camping!) Space does not permit me to give the in-depth analysis here so I will just give the recap: For ease of discussion I will refer to Moses as the writer of the Pentateuch, recognizing that there were probably several writers. The Creation Story: Why did Moses need a creation story? This is simple, he had competition. The first thing Moses had to establish was that his god was bigger better stronger and more powerful than all of the other gods. In ancient cultures everything that men could not control and did not understand (weather, sickness, infertility, the seasons, day, night, etc.) was controlled by gods. The gods were bigger than life men who lived in the "firmament" ie sky. You had to work very hard to keep the gods happy because if they weren't happy, you would have drought, or sickness, or infertility. So most of life consisted of doing things to keep the gods happy. Moses had to establish right off the bat that his god had created everything! so his god controlled everything! So keeping his god happy was the top priority! By the way, Moses never said his god was the only god, he said his was the best god, the greatest god, kind of like my favorite sports team is the greatest, the "only one". The Adam and Eve story: Why did Moses need this story? For a couple of reasons. First of all Moses needed to establish in the minds of the people that women are inferior to men. The Adam and eve story does this nicely. Remember Moses is meeting with the men to give directions THEY MUST FOLLOW. These same men have to go home and tell the wife "here is what we are going to do". Women have a nasty habit of asking things like "why" and "how does that benefit me and my kids?" So Moses needed a construct that would allow men to believe that there own wives could not be trusted, after all look what happened to Adam when he listened to his wife. In addition he needed the women to believe that the men knew what was best for them, that they could not trust there own instincts.I had to admit that the foundation of fundamentalist Christianity, and fundamentalist religion in general, was flawed and not trustworthy. The Adam and Eve story served another purpose. In Egypt there were two things the women had they did not have in the wilderness: birth control, and pain medication. Yes in Egypt archaeological digs have shown both, albeit primitive by todays standards, but better than nothing! So the Adam and Eve story (and the Creation story) conveniently COMMAND men to have as much sex as they can talk their wives into (be fruitful and multiply) and then leave the women with no recourse when it comes to the pain of childbirth, because it is God's will, i.e., the curse on Eve as a result of The Fall. The Noah story: What purpose does this story serve? I don't have the space to give a detailed accounting of any of these stories, remember I am only hitting the highlights with the main question being "how does this story benefit Moses?" So how did Moses and his relatives benefit from this story? It served a two-fold purpose. First it established that his god could wipe out the entire world! His god sent a flood! I think the Noah story has some element of truth, insofar as ancient cultures experienced natural disasters just as modern cultures do today (i.e., Katrina). In ancient cultures all such disasters were explained as occurring because the gods were not happy. Moses just said that the flood everyone had heard about was caused by HIS god, the biggest, baddest, to be feared, and to be worked for god in the pantheon of gods of that day. This story also served another purpose. Food. Specifically the food Moses and his relatives ate every single day, (including on the Sabbath day). One of the first things Moses did when they got out into the wilderness was to set up his own personal barbecue pit, i.e., the Tabernacle. Yes, contrary to popular belief the animals that were slaughtered at the tabernacle were not completely burned up, they were eaten by Moses and his relatives Aaron and Aaron's sons (not daughters!). Leviticus gives detailed instructions on how this food was to be prepared, by whom it was to be prepared, and who was allowed to eat it. Everywhere the word "burnt" is used substitute the word "cooked". Remember these are ancient people barbecuing while camping, they have no way of knowing when food is done cooking, plus they have no way of controlling the fire. As fat drips on the fire guess what you get? flare ups of flame that burn the food, hence "burnt offerings". I will quote one scripture from Leviticus 6:26: "The priest that offereth it for sin SHALL EAT IT: in the holy place shall IT BE EATEN,..." (emphasis is mine). Lev.6:29 "All the MALES among the priests SHALL EAT THEREOF:..." (emphasis mine). So let's get this straight. Moses and his top generals (i.e., his brother Aaron, and Aaron's sons) get to eat fresh barbecued meat everyday. There are plenty of "sins" for which it is necessary to bring your BEST lamb, calf, bull, etc. to Moses and his relatives for their daily steak, (remember the priests are eating the best cuts of meat), while the "common" people are eating seeds! Remember the "manna from heaven"? If you read closely this "bread" is made by the people at home out of seeds that they have to go out each day and gather. While at the same time they are taking their best meat to Moses and his priests to eat! Sounds like a good deal for Moses, et. al. So back to the Noah story. A careful reading shows that Noah took MORE of the "clean" animals. What was a "clean" animal? A "clean" animal was an animal you could eat! Hence the first thing Noah did after the flood, was to set up an altar (everywhere that word is used in the OT substitute the word "barbecue pit"), and ate a real meal! So the Noah story also establishes what food is acceptable to Moses's god. Only the freshest (less than a year old lamb), with no sign of sickness or injury (no "blemishes"), and only food from your own flocks and herds (don't be bringing me no squirrel to eat!) Get the idea? Now I have covered three of the most well known and debated stories in the Pentateuch. By asking a simple question "did Moses benefit from these stories, and is so, how?" I was quickly able to ascertain that the "Holy Book" was written by men for the benefit of those men. It was a short leap to go from there to asking the same question about the well known stories in the New Testament. Did Jesus walk on the water? What about the virgin birth? A few simple Internet searches and lo and behold, ancient cultures have always had deities that were born of a virgin! One by one I began to pick apart each story, easily! Until I finally had to admit this book was written by men and no more "inspired by the Holy Ghost" than say Shakespeare. I loved this book. It was a sad day when I had to set this book down, and admit that it was written by ancient people for ancient people. And so I had to admit that the foundation of fundamentalist Christianity, and fundamentalist religion in general, was flawed and not trustworthy. It's an odd thing. Once you know something, you can't un-know it. Which is why I think religions work so hard to keep their people from being exposed to other points of view. Because once you see things from another point of view, you can't un-see it.Related articles by Zemanta == Recently I have been looking into a learning theory which is new to me. It's called attribution theory. Attribution theory states that people will interpret their environment in such a way as to maintain a positive self-image. It emphasizes that a learners' current self-perceptions will strongly influence the ways in which they interpret the success or failure of their current efforts. We know that a person's self-perceptions come from both internal and external beliefs. We also know that beliefs come from a number of areas, life experiences; culture and education are but a few. This got me thinking about the apparent need people have to maintain a positive view of their beliefs. I'm writing about this based on my conversations with some people. == http://winace.andkon.com/proph4dums/ Prophesy wisdom == The Bible is a chaotically cobbled together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries. This may explain some of the sheer strangeness of the Bible. Unfortunately it is the same weird volume that religious zealots hold up as the inerrant source of our morals and rules for living. [Richard Dawkins 'The God Delusion] == The Roman-Jewish wars of 66-70, 115-17 and 132-35 CE == mat 24:36 "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Jesus is an ignoant god. == "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 ) == Some biblical authors consider Yahweh, the god of Israel, as one of many gods fathered by Elyon whose wife was Asherah, to whom was given the people and land of Israel to rule over (Deut. 32:8). == http://www.atheistrev.com/ == VATICAN CITY Pope Benedict XVI is marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope. Benedict said Sunday he wanted to salute all who are marking the 2009 anniversary and UNESCO's World Year of Astronomy. Speaking on the winter solstice, Benedict said understanding the laws of nature can stimulate understanding and appreciation of the Lord's works. The Catholic Church condemned Galileo in the 17th century for supporting Nicholas Copernicus' discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun; church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. In 1992, Pope John Paul II apologized, saying that the denuncuation was a tragic error. == Ancient Mythic Origins of the Christmas Story Most Americans know how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25: The Emperor Constantine chose the date because it was winter solstice in the Julian Calendar, the birthday of dying and rising gods like Mithra and Sol. Some people also know that our delightful melange of Christmas festivities originated in ancient Norse, Sumerian, Roman and Druid traditions - or, in the case of Rudolph, on Madison Avenue. But where does the Christmas story itself come from: Jesus in the manger, the angels and wise men? The familiar Christmas story, including the virgin conception and birth of Jesus, is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Scholars have pointed out that these stories are somewhat disconnected from other parts of these Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In fact, by the time he is a young boy in the temple, Jesus's parents seem to have forgotten the virgin birth. They act surprised by his odd behavior. There is never any other mention in the New Testament of these incredible events! These stories seem to be an afterthought, written later than the rest of the gospels that contain them. To make matters more interesting, the stories themselves have inconsistencies and ambiguities - contradictory genealogies, for example. Our Christmas story (singular) is actually a composite. Or consider the idea that Mary is a virgin. The Greek writer of Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying: "a parthenos shall conceive and bear a child." The Hebrew word in Isaiah is "almah," which means simply "young woman." But the Greek word parthenos can mean either a virgin or a young woman, and it got translated as "virgin." Modern Bible translations have corrected this, but it is a central part of the Christmas story. That's a lot of added complications. If the rest of the New Testament doesn't refer to these stories or need them, then how did we end up with them? Where do they come from? One part of the answer comes from Hellenistic culture. (It is no accident all New Testament books written in Greek.) In this tradition, when a man did something extraordinary there was the assumption that he did this because he was different, either divine or semi-divine. They would make up a story about how he came to be divine. Almost all Greek heroes were said to be born of a human woman and a god--even Alexander the Great, Augustus and Pythagoras. The father typically was Zeus or Apollo. The god would come and sleep with the woman, pretending to be the husband or as a bolt of lightning, or some such. Greek mythology also shows up in the book of Genesis: the gods lusting after the women and coming down and mating with them. Why were they added to the Christian story? Jewish Christians - the first Christians didn't believe in the virgin birth. They believed that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Part of their Christology was "adoptionism"--they thought Jesus was adopted as the unique son of God at some time later in life. There were disagreements about when - Mark suggests the baptism, Paul suggests the resurrection. Over time, gentile Christianity replaced Jewish Christianity. There were Jewish-Roman Wars. The Jewish Christians were marginalized and oppressed. The Gentile branch became dominant. Eventually we get the gospel of John which pushes the sonship of Jesus back to the beginning of time. This writer is at the other end of the spectrum from the Jewish Christians. But Matthew and Luke think that the Sonship of Jesus began at birth. And they want to tell a story that reinforces this point. Matthew and Luke are the source of the Christmas story as most of us learned it. Why didn't the writers do a better job of cleaning the contradictions? They did, some. This is called the "orthodox corruption of scripture." (Bart Ehrman article , book) . But it appears that these birth stories were added toward the end, so scripture got frozen before they could get integrated. I was raised that the bible was the literally perfect, "inerrant" word of God, essentially dictated by God to the writers. What you are saying about the Christmas story sure calls into question this point of view. Which Bible?! There are thousands of manuscript variations. Most biblical stories are probably fiction, not non-fiction. They are mythology in the deepest sense of the word. But we need to get beyond issue of whether biblical reports happened in the historical, physical sense to understand what they mean spiritually and mythically. Ok. Back to Christmas. Of all the images from the Christmas story, the one that people fall in love with most is angels. The Christmas story is full of angels, beings of light. Is this because of the solstice tradition? Actually it comes from the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish scriptures that were eventually adopted into the Christian Bible as the Old Testament. It also comes from the Jewish literature written between the Old and New Testaments that didn't get into the biblical canon. Some of these are even quoted in the New Testament, for example Enoch, from the 2nd Century BC. It's all about angels. What are angels in these stories? Who are they? The Bible calls them the sons of God, the Divine Council. The word used for God in parts of the Hebrew Bible, Elohim, is plural implying a family of deities. Angels are the lesser gods of the deposed pantheon of ancient Israel. They are under the rulership of Yahweh. Together with Yahweh they are part of Elohim, a plural word that we translate "God" in the book of Genesis. Elohim/God says "Let us make humans in our image." Christians understand this to refer to the trinity, but that is a later interpretation. These angels came from the ancient pantheons of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Many of these gods come from stars. There is a strong astral dimension. "Heavenly Hosts" are stars. The Luke story focuses on one angel specifically: Gabriel. Is he the archangel? Gabriel is the Angel of the Lord. He is one of two angels who are named in the Jewish canon and the Christian canon outside of the apocrypha: Gabriel and Michael. They are the angels of mercy and judgment. Gabriel means "Strong One of El." He is first named in Daniel. If you go into an Eastern Orthodox church you have two icons on the north and south. Michael is on the North to fight with Satan who lives there. Gabriel is on the south. He is more like what the angels originally were, which is messengers of the gods. That is what angel means. The idea that God has a special messenger is exactly what we read about in the Middle Eastern mythologies. Each of the earlier gods has his own special messenger. Enki, who becomes Yaweh, has Isimud. The goddess Inana has Ninshubur. Each high god will have an envoy or assistant, who is a lesser god. The angel of the lord is the same thing. The distinction between angels and gods came later. Is he a star person? Or one of those semi-divine descendents of gods and women? He is one of the gods who would come down to earth. Why do you say that? The offspring of the gods mating with women are called Gaborim--from the same root as Gabriel. In the second century, Gabriel appears in the Epistula Apostolorum. It talks about Jesus and these secret teachings that he gave to his apostles after the resurrection. One of the secrets is that he is actually Gabriel. After Gabriel took on flesh and united with Mary, then he becomes Jesus. The idea that Christ was an angel was extremely popular in the early church. Later we find this really strict separation between humans and angels; between gods and angels. (more) We have time for just one more favorite Christmas story: The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi. The Magi are astrologers. They are Zoroastrian priests. Just to the east of the Roman Empire was the Persian Empire, which was Zoroastrian. They see this star at its rising (the better translations don't say in the East). The astrologers paid a lot of attention to this. It is likely that what this refers to was a heliacal rising, which is the first time that a star appears over the horizon during the course of a year. They thought this was a sign of the Jewish messiah. Scholars speculate that they would have been living in Babylon, where there were lots of Jewish merchants. The Jews had been there from the time of the Jewish exile from Babylonia. We have cuneiform records from them. Are you assuming that this story is historical? Think of it as a frog and pond. The pond is real, the frog is not. They are fictional stories in a real setting. They don't always get the details of the setting right, but they are fictional characters in real places. The Magi follow their star from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The author has in mind a real star that would be in front of you in this situation. There are two candidates, Canopus or Alpha Centauri. Those two stars are visible for approx 6 mo of year, Canopus from about the fall equinox to spring equinox and Alpha Centauri from about November to May. Remember what I said about the Heavenly Host being stars? The star in Matthew and the angel in Luke are two variants of the same mythology. My former fundamentalist head is spinning. Is there anything else you'd like to say in closing? We need to be able to appreciate these stories as myths, rather than literal histories. When you understand where they come from, then you can understand their spiritual significance for the writers and for us. That sounds like another interview. Thank you. Ancient Mythic Origins of the Christmas Story Image via WikipediaValerie Tarico interviews Dr. Tony Nugent, scholar of world religions. Dr. Nugent is a symbologist, an expert in ancient symbols. He taught at Seattle University for fifteen years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and is an ordained Presbyterian minister.Most Americans know how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25: The Emperor Constantine chose the date because it was winter solstice in the Julian Calendar, the birthday of dying and rising gods like Mithra and Sol. Some people also know that our delightful melange of Christmas festivities originated in ancient Norse, Sumerian, Roman and Druid traditions - or, in the case of Rudolph, on Madison Avenue. But where does the Christmas story itself come from: Jesus in the manger, the angels and wise men?The familiar Christmas story, including the virgin conception and birth of Jesus, is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Scholars have pointed out that these stories are somewhat disconnected from other parts of these Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In fact, by the time he is a young boy in the temple, Jesus's parents seem to have forgotten the virgin birth. They act surprised by his odd behavior. There is never any other mention in the New Testament of these incredible events! These stories seem to be an afterthought, written later than the rest of the gospels that contain them.To make matters more interesting, the stories themselves have inconsistencies and ambiguities - contradictory genealogies, for example. Our Christmas story (singular) is actually a composite. Or consider the idea that Mary is a virgin. The Greek writer of Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying: "a parthenos shall conceive and bear a child." The Hebrew word in Isaiah is "almah," which means simply "young woman." But the Greek word parthenos can mean either a virgin or a young woman, and it got translated as "virgin." Modern Bible translations have corrected this, but it is a central part of the Christmas story.That's a lot of added complications. If the rest of the New Testament doesn't refer to these stories or need them, then how did we end up with them? Where do they come from?One part of the answer comes from Hellenistic culture. (It is no accident all New Testament books written in Greek.) In this tradition, when a man did something extraordinary there was the assumption that he did this because he was different, either divine or semi-divine. They would make up a story about how he came to be divine. Almost all Greek heroes were said to be born of a human woman and a god--even Alexander the Great, Augustus and Pythagoras. The father typically was Zeus or Apollo. The god would come and sleep with the woman, pretending to be the husband or as a bolt of lightning, or some such. Greek mythology also shows up in the book of Genesis: the gods lusting after the women and coming down and mating with them.Why were they added to the Christian story?Jewish Christians - the first Christians didn't believe in the virgin birth. They believed that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Part of their Christology was "adoptionism"--they thought Jesus was adopted as the unique son of God at some time later in life. There were disagreements about when - Mark suggests the baptism, Paul suggests the resurrection.Over time, gentile Christianity replaced Jewish Christianity. There were Jewish-Roman Wars. The Jewish Christians were marginalized and oppressed. The Gentile branch became dominant. Eventually we get the gospel of John which pushes the sonship of Jesus back to the beginning of time. This writer is at the other end of the spectrum from the Jewish Christians. But Matthew and Luke think that the Sonship of Jesus began at birth. And they want to tell a story that reinforces this point. Matthew and Luke are the source of the Christmas story as most of us learned it.Why didn't the writers do a better job of cleaning the contradictions? They did, some. This is called the "orthodox corruption of scripture." (Bart Ehrman article , book) . But it appears that these birth stories were added toward the end, so scripture got frozen before they could get integrated.I was raised that the bible was the literally perfect, "inerrant" word of God, essentially dictated by God to the writers. What you are saying about the Christmas story sure calls into question this point of view. Which Bible?! There are thousands of manuscript variations. Most biblical stories are probably fiction, not non-fiction. They are mythology in the deepest sense of the word. But we need to get beyond issue of whether biblical reports happened in the historical, physical sense to understand what they mean spiritually and mythically.Ok. Back to Christmas. Of all the images from the Christmas story, the one that people fall in love with most is angels. The Christmas story is full of angels, beings of light. Is this because of the solstice tradition? Actually it comes from the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish scriptures that were eventually adopted into the Christian Bible as the Old Testament. It also comes from the Jewish literature written between the Old and New Testaments that didn't get into the biblical canon. Some of these are even quoted in the New Testament, for example Enoch, from the 2nd Century BC. It's all about angels.What are angels in these stories? Who are they?The Bible calls them the sons of God, the Divine Council. The word used for God in parts of the Hebrew Bible, Elohim, is plural implying a family of deities. Angels are the lesser gods of the deposed pantheon of ancient Israel. They are under the rulership of Yahweh. Together with Yahweh they are part of Elohim, a plural word that we translate "God" in the book of Genesis. Elohim/God says "Let us make humans in our image." Christians understand this to refer to the trinity, but that is a later interpretation. These angels came from the ancient pantheons of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Many of these gods come from stars. There is a strong astral dimension. "Heavenly Hosts" are stars.The Luke story focuses on one angel specifically: Gabriel. Is he the archangel? Gabriel is the Angel of the Lord. He is one of two angels who are named in the Jewish canon and the Christian canon outside of the apocrypha: Gabriel and Michael. They are the angels of mercy and judgment. Gabriel means "Strong One of El." He is first named in Daniel.If you go into an Eastern Orthodox church you have two icons on the north and south. Michael is on the North to fight with Satan who lives there. Gabriel is on the south. He is more like what the angels originally were, which is messengers of the gods. That is what angel means. The idea that God has a special messenger is exactly what we read about in the Middle Eastern mythologies. Each of the earlier gods has his own special messenger. Enki, who becomes Yaweh, has Isimud. The goddess Inana has Ninshubur. Each high god will have an envoy or assistant, who is a lesser god. The angel of the lord is the same thing. The distinction between angels and gods came later.Is he a star person? Or one of those semi-divine descendents of gods and women?He is one of the gods who would come down to earth.Why do you say that? The offspring of the gods mating with women are called Gaborim--from the same root as Gabriel. In the second century, Gabriel appears in the Epistula Apostolorum. It talks about Jesus and these secret teachings that he gave to his apostles after the resurrection. One of the secrets is that he is actually Gabriel. After Gabriel took on flesh and united with Mary, then he becomes Jesus. The idea that Christ was an angel was extremely popular in the early church. Later we find this really strict separation between humans and angels; between gods and angels. (more)We have time for just one more favorite Christmas story: The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi. The Magi are astrologers. They are Zoroastrian priests. Just to the east of the Roman Empire was the Persian Empire, which was Zoroastrian. They see this star at its rising (the better translations don't say in the East). The astrologers paid a lot of attention to this. It is likely that what this refers to was a heliacal rising, which is the first time that a star appears over the horizon during the course of a year. They thought this was a sign of the Jewish messiah. Scholars speculate that they would have been living in Babylon, where there were lots of Jewish merchants. The Jews had been there from the time of the Jewish exile from Babylonia. We have cuneiform records from them.Are you assuming that this story is historical?Think of it as a frog and pond. The pond is real, the frog is not. They are fictional stories in a real setting. They don't always get the details of the setting right, but they are fictional characters in real places. The Magi follow their star from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The author has in mind a real star that would be in front of you in this situation. There are two candidates, Canopus or Alpha Centauri. Those two stars are visible for approx 6 mo of year, Canopus from about the fall equinox to spring equinox and Alpha Centauri from about November to May.Remember what I said about the Heavenly Host being stars? The star in Matthew and the angel in Luke are two variants of the same mythology.My former fundamentalist head is spinning. Is there anything else you'd like to say in closing?We need to be able to appreciate these stories as myths, rather than literal histories. When you understand where they come from, then you can understand their spiritual significance for the writers and for us.That sounds like another interview. Thank you. == Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason and Religion by Stuart Kauffman == 'Compartmentalization' refers to when a person holds inconsistent idea and maintains a belief in them despite their inconsistency because they have a kind of mental double standard. They have evidentiary standards for one type of beliefs and a different set of standards for the beliefs in the other compartment. == http://jehovahs-witness.suite101.com/article.cfm/failed_watchtower_predictions == "One of my favorite test cases for beliefs in the supernatural is the tale of Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism. Smith claimed to have been given gold plates by an angel, which he translated to become the Book of Mormon. The interesting thing is that he showed the plates to witnesses, who swore in notarized statements that they had seen them." == Early Christians recognized this: Fourth Century Bishop John Chrysostom wrote: "On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies, the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They call this (December 25th), the Birthday of the Invincible One (Mithras); but who is so invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disk, but Christ is the Sun of Righteousness." (The Fourth Century is our first record of a December Christ-mass celebration.) == The science of God" by GL Schroeder - Free Press ===== There are themes which human story-tellers seem irresistably attracted to. A fight between good and evil. Love that is stronger than death. A flawless hero who conquers all against overwhelming odds. A promised one who fulfils his destiny. A last battle that brings half the world down in the process. A new beginning won at a terrible cost. Redemption. == In my experience,individuals who can't keep their faith private aren't suffering a crisis of faith that manifests as a form of religious projection. On the contrary, the tenacity of their faith urges them to embrace the imperialist aspect of the dogma they've embraced which calls for prodiguous prosletyzing and a (sometimes not-too-subtle) campaign for unattainable religious homogeneity. == Christian No More: On Leaving Christianity, Debunking Christianity, and Embracing Atheism and Freethinking (Paperback) by Jeffrey Mark(ISBN0981631304) == Lying, or mythologizing, is a common human trait according to Joseph Campbell. == "Religion provides a perceptual filter, highly religious people look at information differently, it follows from the way religion provides guidance in people's everyday lives." == I simply know that convincing me to believe in a 'god' would be like trying to convince Stephen Hawking that our galaxy is the only one that exists. Impossible... he may not understand all of what the Universe is, but he does know what it is not limited to. == I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; also that the women should dress themselves modestly and decently in suitable clothing, not with their hair braided, or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. [1 Timothy, chapter 2] == http://www.daylightatheism.org/ http://www.carcosa.de/nojebus/ == The message is that Jesus, being the savior and messiah is no ordinary man, and so like Achilleus and many other ancient heros, he is described as having a miraculous birth - a virgin birth, attended by celestial signs, visited by wise men from afar who worship him. == A judge Monday refused to dismiss reckless homicide charges against parents accused of praying instead of seeking a doctor's care as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes. Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard rejected arguments that prosecuting Dale and Leilani Neumann violated their constitutional rights to freedom of religion and due process. "The free exercise clause of the First Amendment protects religious belief, but not necessarily conduct," Howard wrote in a 20-page decision. == http://www.christian-thinktank.com/ == Meredith F. Small, the Human Nature Columnist for LiveScience.com, made the assumption that the soul is an invention of the human mind when she wrote recently : "The idea of a soul, or any kind of human spirituality, might simply be the product of too much brain and too much free time. "It might also be an evolutionary strategy that takes us away from the anxieties of self-consciousness. Once fully modern humans knew they could die, it probably made sense to pretend that no one really died but that some part of us lived on into the cosmos. " ===* There is a Hindu myth about Krishna picking up Govardhana Hill and holding it on his little finger above a city full of people to shelter them from the rain. == Important US research to reduce HIV infection may have been prevented in recent years because scientists have censored their funding requests in response to political controversy, according to a study published on Tuesday. Writing in PLoS Medicine, the academic journal, Joanna Kempner from Rutgers University identified a chilling effect on researchers seeking grants from the government-backed National Institutes of Health after their work was questioned by Republican lawmakers and Christian groups. The findings suggest politics influence scientists willingness to conduct research, and raise warnings at a time of continued sensitivity over medical research topics from sexual behaviour to stem cells. Among 82 researchers polled by Ms Kempner, who had received money from the NIH, almost a quarter had dropped or reframed studies around sexual behaviour they judged to be politically sensitive, and four had made career changes and left academia as a result of the controversy. == In the Sioux tradition, Wakan Tanka also known as Wakan or Wakanda by the Omaha Tribe) is the term for the "sacred" or the "divine". It is often translated as "The Great Spirit". However, its meaning is closer to "Great Mystery" as Lakota spirituality is not monotheistic. Before the attempted conversion to Christianity, Waka? T?a?ka was used to refer an organization of sacred entities whose ways were mysterious; thus the meaning of "the Great Mystery". It is typically understood as the power or the sacredness which resides in everything, similar to many animistic and pantheistic notions. This term describes every creature and object as wakan ("holy") or having aspects that are wakan. == The Tanakh is a word formed by combining the three divisions of the Jewish Bible in Hebrew, Torah (the Law) or "Ta," Nevi'im (the Prophets) or "Na," and Kethuvim (the Writings)or "Kh, == The Roman Catholic Church signed a concordat with the Nazis in 1933, Cardinal Faulhaber writing to Hitler "This handshake with the Papacy ... is a feat of immeasurable blessing.... May God preserve the Reich Chancellor," and the "Chancellor" to whom he was referring was Adolf Hitler == Religion, and religious texts, are the by-product of people who ponder the questions about god/gods and how they interact with man. What began as innocent stories and speculations, over time became sacred texts and then religions. This is undoubtedly where the bible came from. == In "Evil Genes" Barbara Oakley argues that the immoral behavior of Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, and Slobodan Milosevic has a genetic basis. She argues, further, that certain disfunctional personality traits, such as narcissism, vindictiveness, and black-and-white thinking, are often found in politicians because these traits are advantageous in acheiving political success. == Matthew ch 11 verse 12 And from the days of John the Baptist; until now the Kingdom of Heaven Suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. == The supposed connection between the people of the British Isles and the Ten Lost Tribes started with the ideas of Richard Brothers (1757-1824). This Canadian-born, self-proclaimed prophet, who spent his later years of life incarcerated in a lunatic asylum, founded a millenarian movement that towards the end of the 18th century attracted many adherents in England. == Ge2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (KJV) Ge2:22 And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. (DRV) == Lamentably, Jonestown was not a one-time event. On March 26, 1997, 39 mem- bers of the Heaven's Gate cult drank a deadly concoction (and for good measure wrapped plastic bags around their heads for asphyxiation) in order to join the mother ship they believed was on its way to Earth. How can such tragedies happen? In general, these types of belief systems are coherent and logically consistent when you are inside them. It is not until you step outside the group and gain a different reference point that the coherence and logic vanishes. This is why cults control the movements of their members, and especially their access to outside information and contact with friends and loved ones in the real world. (Jones moved his group to Guyana from San Francisco.) There also are well-known social psychological effects at work in these groups -- such as the loss of individuality and the compliance of behavior and conformity of thought under group pressure, along with the diffusion of individual responsibility and group think. == Historians Ronald Walker, Richard Turley, Jr., and Glen Leonard recount the September 11, 1857 Massacre at Mountain Meadows in which over 120 emigrant men, women, and children were killed by a Mormon militia in Southern Utah. The authors were given access to previously unseen Mormon records in researching the event. This talk was hosted by Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City Utah. == Michael Novak is the author of several books of philosophy and theology, including "Belief and Unbelief" and "The Universal Hunger for Liberty." == The Vatican had tried to block a class action lawsuit alleging that it orchestrated a cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy with the argument that it was protected by laws granting sovereign states immunity from most US civil proceedings. Central to the case is a 1962 Vatican mandate unearthed in 2003 which outlined a policy of 'strictest' secrecy regarding allegations of sexual abuse by clergy and threatened those who spoke out with excommunication. A federal appeals court ruled that the case brought by three Kentucky men can proceed because exceptions in the law allow the Vatican to be held liable for the actions of church employees acting within the scope of their employment in the United States. 'The portions of plaintiffs' claims that are based upon the conduct of bishops, archbishops and Holy See personnel while supervising allegedly abusive clergy satisfy all four requirements of the tortious act exception,' Circuit Judge Julia Smith Gibbons wrote in a 20-page ruling on Monday. The Vatican cannot, however, be held liable for the actual abuse because these acts 'were not done while... acting within the scope of their employment,' Ms Gibbons wrote. == Jude 1:9 But Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. (ASV) == In 2004, the Catholic Church interjected itself directly into presidential politics. Referring to candidate John Kerry, the church declared that any person who is "personally opposed to abortion, but supports a woman's right to choose" incurs automatic excommunication. The Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley said that pro-choice Catholics are in a state of grave sin, and cannot take communion. If any doubt lingered that the target of these pronouncements was Kerry himself, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke went so far as to forbid Kerry from taking communion when the candidate was campaigning in the area. If that example is too subtle, O'Malley's predecessor, Cardinal Humberto Medeiros urged Catholics not to vote for Barney Frank and James Shannon, two liberal Democrats in Congress. == Burden of proof Most atheists argue that the burden of proof lies with the theist making the claim that a supernatural deity exists. In the atheist's view, it is a logical fallacy (argumentum ad ignorantium) to place the burden of proof upon the atheist. [1] Theists often try to shift the burden of proof to atheists by claiming that the atheist must prove that a supernatural deity does not exist. Atheists counter this argument by stating that it is a logical impossibility to prove nonexistence. To be able to prove nonexistence, the atheists claims, one would have to posses the ability to know all things perfectly (omniscience) and the ability to access all things simultaneously. [1] Since it is the theist making the claim of existence and since proving nonexistence is impossible, the atheist places the burden of proof upon the theist. Common arguments against theism Most modern atheists spend their time analyzing the Christian conception of God. In this light, atheists often put forward arguments that support atheism and oppose monotheistic religious beliefs. The Christian conception of God often presupposes several distinct characteristics: omnipotence (God is all-powerful), omniscience (God is all-knowing), omnibenevolence (God is all-loving), and omnipresence (God is all-present). Atheists employ the use of logic to construct many of their arguments for the nonexistence of gods. An exhaustive list of arguments used to defend and support atheism is outside the scope of this article. However, below is an example of one logic-based argument commonly used by atheists in debates with theists. == Mormon Missionaries told me that all churches were corrupt until Joseph Smith started the LDS. == The origins of religion, then, may in part be traced to the human capacity for attachmentfirst to the mother, then to other emotionally close individuals, then to groups, then to leaders, then to religious leaders, and eventually to God. == "If ye will not give glory unto my name saith the LORD ... I will spread dung upon your faces." Malachi 2.2,3 == My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. - The Dalai Lama == "Truth in Translation - Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament" by Jason David BeDunn (about 44 dollars) "In God's Name - Genocide and Religion in the 20th Century" by Omar Bartov and Phyllis Mack (about 30 dollars) 3. "The Doctrine of the Trinity - Christendom's Self Inflicted Wound" by Anthony F. Buzzard and Charles F. Hunting (About 28 dollars) 4. "Christmas Unwrapped" a DVD put out by the History Channel which you can buy from them, (about 30) dollars) , == Important US research to reduce HIV infection may have been prevented in recent years because scientists have censored their funding requests in response to political controversy, according to a study published on Tuesday. Writing in PLoS Medicine, the academic journal, Joanna Kempner from Rutgers University identified a chilling effect on researchers seeking grants from the government-backed National Institutes of Health after their work was questioned by Republican lawmakers and Christian groups. The findings suggest politics influence scientists willingness to conduct research, and raise warnings at a time of continued sensitivity over medical research topics from sexual behaviour to stem cells. Among 82 researchers polled by Ms Kempner, who had received money from the NIH, almost a quarter had dropped or reframed studies around sexual behaviour they judged to be politically sensitive, and four had made career changes and left academia as a result of the controversy. == Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium by Bart D Ehrman == on March 23, 1933, he addressed the Reichstag: "The National Government regards the two Christian confessions (i.e. Catholicism and Protestantism) as factors essential to the soul of the German people. ... We hold the spiritual forces of Christianity to be indispensable elements in the moral uplift of most of the German people."[9] At one point he described his religious status : "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so == Two federal regulations were a direct result of lobbying by religious lobbyists - the federal regulations limiting federal funding of stem-cell research, and those prohibiting international family planning groups from advising women about abortion. == "Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb." - Martin Luther == "First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians." - Martin Luther == Let us keep in mind the according to Christians and the Bible, God knows the past, present and the FUTURE. So, everything that is about to unfold, God foresaw ahead of time. Judges 11:29-40 -- our story is found here. So, if some lame ass Christian gives you crap, just give them this reference. At that time the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah... OK let's start right here. When the spirit of God comes upon you, that means everything you do, say, etc., is from God and under god's control and influence. ...and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and led an army against the Ammonites. Hmm, killing in the name of God. Yep, the spirit was on him alright. Are we surprised? And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. He said, "If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the LORD the first thing coming out of my house to greet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." OK, making vows to a deity, BAD! Ignoring the deity and living a decent life, GOOD! Notice how he promised to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house to greet him. What exactly was he expecting to come out? Makes you wonder doesn't it? When you come back from a war who usually is the first out the door to greet you? FAMILY! Wife, kids, etc. So what was this guy thinking? Why not just promise the best calf or something like that? So he goes out and wins the war and this passage even says GOD GAVE HIM THE VICTORY!!!! As he walks back to his house what comes out the door first? His daughter!!! God knew this from the very beginning and yet allowed this promise to be made! THIS IS SICK! Plain sick and anyone who denies it is just as sick and perverted and just plain stupid! But it doesn't stop there. His daughter begs to live two months in the hills so she can cry and say goodbye to her friends. She is even upset she is going to die a virgin. Hell if it was me that would be the first thing I would fix. Well actually the second, the first would be to get the hell out of there and not come back. When she returned home, her father kept his vow, and she died a virgin. The New International Version (NIV) says, "After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed." She came back! Not only that she allowed her father to kill her! Even she was messed up in the head. I don't know which is sicker, him killing his daughter or her actually coming back and letting him do it. But that's not all. She spent two months with her friends who also knew what was to come. They did nothing!!!!! Most important of all GOD DID NOTHING! God let this promise be made, God filled his end of the bargain so it could follow through, and God let it happen! == If people feel that they lost control they become desperate to make sense of the situation. They perceive patterns that don't exist and rather grab for any fast and simple explanation - however absurd - than considering that there could be none. This is the result of a study, published in the latest issue of the magazine Science, that sheds new light on "the psychology of superstition, urban legends and conspiracy theories." == The Italian Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, revered for bearing what he claimed to be Jesus' bleeding wounds - but what stands exposed by documented testimony of his pharmacist (till recently neatly tucked away in the Vatican archives) to be nothing but self-inflicted needle work. == Lev25:44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. (KJV) == Lev20:10 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. == Some of the other books that the RCC base their theology on are ... Mary, The Protevangelion, 1 & 2 Infancy, Christ and Abagrus, Nicodemus, The Apostles' Creed, Laodiceans, Paul and Seneca, Paul and Thecla, 1 & 2 Clement Barnabas, Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans (not Paul's epistle), Philadelphians, Smyrnaeans, Poly carp, Philippians (not Paul's epistle) 1, 2, & 3 Hermas, the Lost Gospel of Accordi == The Prophet Muhammad said: "If a fly falls into your drink, you should dip it in the drink, and then dispose of the fly, because one of its wings bears a disease, and the other wing bears the cure." This hadith was included in the Al-Bukhari collection. This hadith makes it absolutely clear that the Prophet Muhammad confirmed a clear scientific fact: If a fly falls into a vessel--before a person drinks from this vessel, he should dip the fly in his drink, before disposing of it. Then he should drink the beverage, because it won't do him any harm. Why? Because one of the fly's wings bears the disease, and the other one bears the cure. == GREENVILLE, S.C. A priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in downtown Greenville has told parishioners that those who voted for Barack Obama placed themselves under divine judgment because of his stance on abortion and should not receive Holy Communion until they've done penance. == Church is like a drug. You go on Sunday and get your fix, then it starts to wear off and you have to go back for more. You just can't make it on your own and need that constant fix. == 'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge Mary is a pretty five-year-old girl with big brown eyes and a father who kicked her out onto the streets in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Her crime: the local priest had denounced her as a witch and blamed her "evil powers" for causing her mother's death. Ostracised, vulnerable and frightened, she wandered the streets in south-eastern Nigeria, sleeping rough, struggling to stay alive. Mary was found by a British charity worker and today lives at a refuge in Akwa Ibom province with 150 other children who have been branded witches, blamed for all their family's woes, and abandoned. Before being pushed out of their homes many were beaten or slashed with knives, thrown onto fires, or had acid poured over them as a punishment or in an attempt to make them "confess" to being possessed. In one horrific case, a young girl called Uma had a three-inch nail driven into her skull. Yet Mary and the others at the shelter are the lucky ones for they, at least, are alive. Many of those branded "child-witches" are murdered - hacked to death with machetes, poisoned, drowned, or buried alive in an attempt to drive Satan out of their soul. The devil's children are "identified" by powerful religious leaders at extremist churches where Christianity and traditional beliefs have combined to produce a deep-rooted belief in, and fear of, witchcraft. The priests spread the message that child-witches bring destruction, disease and death to their families. And they say that, once possessed, children can cast spells and contaminate others. The religious leaders offer help to the families whose children are named as witches, but at a price. The churches run exorcism, or "deliverance", evenings where the pastors attempt to drive out the evil spirits. Only they have the power to cleanse the child of evil spirits, they say. The exorcism costs the families up to a year's income. During the "deliverance" ceremonies, the children are shaken violently, dragged around the room and have potions poured into their eyes. The children look terrified. The parents look on, praying that the child will be cleansed. If the ritual fails, they know their children will have to be sent away, or killed. Many are held in churches, often on chains, and deprived of food until they "confess" to being a witch. The ceremonies are highly lucrative for the spiritual leaders many of whom enjoy a lifestyle of large homes, expensive cars and designer clothes. Ten years ago there were few cases of children stigmatised by witchcraft. But since then the numbers have grown at an alarming rate and have reached an estimated 15,000 in Akwa Ibom state alone. Some Nigerians blame the increase on one of the country's wealthiest and most influential evangelical preachers. Helen Ukpabio, a self-styled prophetess of the 150-branch Liberty Gospel Church, made a film, widely distributed, called End of the Wicked. It tells, in graphic detail, how children become possessed and shows them being inducted into covens, eating human flesh and bringing chaos and death to their families and communities. Mrs Ukpabio, a mother of three, also wrote a popular book which tells parents how to identify a witch. For children under two years old, she says, the key signs of a servant of Satan are crying and screaming in the night, high fever and worsening health - symptoms that can be found among many children in an impoverished region with poor health care. The preacher says that her work is true to the Bible and is a means of spreading God's word. "Witchcraft is a problem all over Nigeria and someone with a gift like me can never hurt anybody," she says. "Every Nigerian wants to watch my movies." She denies that her teachings and films could encourage child abuse. One British charity worker is fighting to help the children stigmatised as witches. Gary Foxcroft, 29, programme director for the UK charity Stepping Stones, Nigeria, first came to the country in 2003 to research the oil industry for his masters degree. But he was so shocked when he learned about the children's plight that he decided to help raise money for the refuge - the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (Crarn) - and try to persuade the parents to take their children back. He has also helped to build a school for the children who are refused places at local schools. "Any Christian would look at the situation that is going on here and just be absolutely outraged that they were using the teachings of Jesus Christ to exploit and abuse innocent children," says Mr Foxcroft whose expose of what he describes as "an absolute scandal" will be screened in a Channel 4 documentary on Wednesday. The Niger Delta is an oil-rich region but the wealth does not reach the people who live there. The locals blame their hardship on the Devil but international analysts point to the oil industry's large-scale contamination of air, land and sea. In the documentary, the charity worker visits one of the pastors, a man who calls himself "the Bishop" and who claims to be able to drive evil spirits out of "possessed" children. At his church in Ibaka, the Bishop pours a homemade substance called African mercury, a potion of pure alcohol and his own blood, into the eyes of a young boy lying on a table. "I want this poison destroyer to destroy the witch right now, in Jesus' name," he says. The priest charges 170 - in a country where millions of people are forced to live on less than 1 a day - for "treating" a child every night for two weeks, and holds them captive until the bill is paid. He has recently refined his techniques for dealing with child witches. "I killed up to 110 people who were identified as being a witch," he says. He claims there are 2.3million "witches and wizards" in Akwa Ibom province alone. The children's shelter was started five years ago when Sam Itauma, a Nigerian, opened his house to four youngsters accused of witchcraft. Today, he and his five staff are caring for 150 youngsters. "Every day, five or six children are branded as witches," he says "Once a child has been stigmatised as a witch, it is very difficult for someone to accept that child back. If they go out from this community... there is a lot of attacks, assault and abuses on the children." Children often arrive at the shelter with severe wounds, but few clinics or hospitals will treat a child believed to be a witch. "Christianity in the Niger Delta is seriously questionable, putting a traditional religion together with Christian religion - and it makes nonsense out of it," he says. "If you are not rich and don't have anything to eat, you look to blame someone. And if you don't get anything, you blame it on the witches." Christians have been in Nigeria since the 19th century and the Niger Delta area claims to have more churches per square mile than any other place on Earth. The vast majority of the country's 60 million Christians are moderate, but an influx of Pentecostals over the past 50 years has led some churches to be dominated by extremist views. Five years ago, the Nigerian government passed a Child Rights Act, which made abuse illegal, but not every state has adopted it. At the refuge, a baby girl called Utibe and her five-year-old sister, Utitofong, are dumped at the gate by their mother because a "prophet" told her that Utitofong was a witch and had passed the spell to her sister. The mother, who spent four months' salary on an unsuccessful exorcism, left them at the centre because she feared they would be killed. The police are called but locals offer them no help. Mr Itauma goes to the village to try and convince the locals to accept the daughters' return, but the older girl is threatened by a man with a machete. "Get away from our food - I'll kill you," he shouts. Utibe is allowed to stay, but the older girl has to go back to the refuge. At the end of the film, Mr Foxcroft and all the "child-witches" stage a demonstration at the Governor's residence in the state capital, Uyo, and urge him to adopt the Child Rights Act." After four hours the Governor comes out and says the Act will be adopted. It has since been adopted, but so far not a single pastor has been convicted of any offence. And the rescue centre still takes in up to 10 children a week. Mr Foxcroft took Mary back to her village where he was told that her father left a year ago to find work in Cameroon. A cousin says: "She is a witch, we don't want her here." Mary is now back at the refuge. Story Link Related: African Christians declare war on child witches Comments: 'Child-witches' of Nigeria seek refuge Mary is a pretty five-year-old girl with big brown eyes and a father who kicked her out onto the streets in one of the most dangerous parts of the world. Her crime: the local priest had denounced her as a witch and blamed her "evil powers" for causing her mother's death. Children from Crarn accused of being witches and wizards, protesting outside the Governor's headquarters. Ostracised, vulnerable and frightened, she wandered the streets in south-eastern Nigeria, sleeping rough, struggling to stay alive.Mary was found by a British charity worker and today lives at a refuge in Akwa Ibom province with 150 other children who have been branded witches, blamed for all their family's woes, and abandoned. Before being pushed out of their homes many were beaten or slashed with knives, thrown onto fires, or had acid poured over them as a punishment or in an attempt to make them "confess" to being possessed. In one horrific case, a young girl called Uma had a three-inch nail driven into her skull.Yet Mary and the others at the shelter are the lucky ones for they, at least, are alive. Many of those branded "child-witches" are murdered - hacked to death with machetes, poisoned, drowned, or buried alive in an attempt to drive Satan out of their soul.The devil's children are "identified" by powerful religious leaders at extremist churches where Christianity and traditional beliefs have combined to produce a deep-rooted belief in, and fear of, witchcraft. The priests spread the message that child-witches bring destruction, disease and death to their families. And they say that, once possessed, children can cast spells and contaminate others.The religious leaders offer help to the families whose children are named as witches, but at a price. The churches run exorcism, or "deliverance", evenings where the pastors attempt to drive out the evil spirits. Only they have the power to cleanse the child of evil spirits, they say. The exorcism costs the families up to a year's income.During the "deliverance" ceremonies, the children are shaken violently, dragged around the room and have potions poured into their eyes. The children look terrified. The parents look on, praying that the child will be cleansed. If the ritual fails, they know their children will have to be sent away, or killed. Many are held in churches, often on chains, and deprived of food until they "confess" to being a witch.The ceremonies are highly lucrative for the spiritual leaders many of whom enjoy a lifestyle of large homes, expensive cars and designer clothes.Ten years ago there were few cases of children stigmatised by witchcraft. But since then the numbers have grown at an alarming rate and have reached an estimated 15,000 in Akwa Ibom state alone.Some Nigerians blame the increase on one of the country's wealthiest and most influential evangelical preachers. Helen Ukpabio, a self-styled prophetess of the 150-branch Liberty Gospel Church, made a film, widely distributed, called End of the Wicked. It tells, in graphic detail, how children become possessed and shows them being inducted into covens, eating human flesh and bringing chaos and death to their families and communities.Mrs Ukpabio, a mother of three, also wrote a popular book which tells parents how to identify a witch. For children under two years old, she says, the key signs of a servant of Satan are crying and screaming in the night, high fever and worsening health - symptoms that can be found among many children in an impoverished region with poor health care.The preacher says that her work is true to the Bible and is a means of spreading God's word. "Witchcraft is a problem all over Nigeria and someone with a gift like me can never hurt anybody," she says. "Every Nigerian wants to watch my movies." She denies that her teachings and films could encourage child abuse.One British charity worker is fighting to help the children stigmatised as witches. Gary Foxcroft, 29, programme director for the UK charity Stepping Stones, Nigeria, first came to the country in 2003 to research the oil industry for his masters degree. But he was so shocked when he learned about the children's plight that he decided to help raise money for the refuge - the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (Crarn) - and try to persuade the parents to take their children back. He has also helped to build a school for the children who are refused places at local schools."Any Christian would look at the situation that is going on here and just be absolutely outraged that they were using the teachings of Jesus Christ to exploit and abuse innocent children," says Mr Foxcroft whose expose of what he describes as "an absolute scandal" will be screened in a Channel 4 documentary on Wednesday.The Niger Delta is an oil-rich region but the wealth does not reach the people who live there. The locals blame their hardship on the Devil but international analysts point to the oil industry's large-scale contamination of air, land and sea.In the documentary, the charity worker visits one of the pastors, a man who calls himself "the Bishop" and who claims to be able to drive evil spirits out of "possessed" children. At his church in Ibaka, the Bishop pours a homemade substance called African mercury, a potion of pure alcohol and his own blood, into the eyes of a young boy lying on a table. "I want this poison destroyer to destroy the witch right now, in Jesus' name," he says.The priest charges 170 - in a country where millions of people are forced to live on less than 1 a day - for "treating" a child every night for two weeks, and holds them captive until the bill is paid.He has recently refined his techniques for dealing with child witches. "I killed up to 110 people who were identified as being a witch," he says. He claims there are 2.3million "witches and wizards" in Akwa Ibom province alone.The children's shelter was started five years ago when Sam Itauma, a Nigerian, opened his house to four youngsters accused of witchcraft. Today, he and his five staff are caring for 150 youngsters. "Every day, five or six children are branded as witches," he says "Once a child has been stigmatised as a witch, it is very difficult for someone to accept that child back. If they go out from this community... there is a lot of attacks, assault and abuses on the children." Children often arrive at the shelter with severe wounds, but few clinics or hospitals will treat a child believed to be a witch."Christianity in the Niger Delta is seriously questionable, putting a traditional religion together with Christian religion - and it makes nonsense out of it," he says. "If you are not rich and don't have anything to eat, you look to blame someone. And if you don't get anything, you blame it on the witches."Christians have been in Nigeria since the 19th century and the Niger Delta area claims to have more churches per square mile than any other place on Earth. The vast majority of the country's 60 million Christians are moderate, but an influx of Pentecostals over the past 50 years has led some churches to be dominated by extremist views. Five years ago, the Nigerian government passed a Child Rights Act, which made abuse illegal, but not every state has adopted it.At the refuge, a baby girl called Utibe and her five-year-old sister, Utitofong, are dumped at the gate by their mother because a "prophet" told her that Utitofong was a witch and had passed the spell to her sister. The mother, who spent four months' salary on an unsuccessful exorcism, left them at the centre because she feared they would be killed. The police are called but locals offer them no help.Mr Itauma goes to the village to try and convince the locals to accept the daughters' return, but the older girl is threatened by a man with a machete. "Get away from our food - I'll kill you," he shouts. Utibe is allowed to stay, but the older girl has to go back to the refuge.At the end of the film, Mr Foxcroft and all the "child-witches" stage a demonstration at the Governor's residence in the state capital, Uyo, and urge him to adopt the Child Rights Act." After four hours the Governor comes out and says the Act will be adopted. It has since been adopted, but so far not a single pastor has been convicted of any offence. And the rescue centre still takes in up to 10 children a week.Mr Foxcroft took Mary back to her village where he was told that her father left a year ago to find work in Cameroon. A cousin says: "She is a witch, we don't want her here." Mary is now back at the refuge. == There are 33,000 Christian denominations and sects in the world. === Religion: Bound to believe by Pascal Boyer http://naturereprin ts.com/nature/ journal/v455/ n7216/full/ 4551038a. html Atheism will always be a harder sell than religion, Pascal Boyer explains, because a slew of cognitive traits predispose us to faith. Is religion a product of our evolution? The very question makes many people, religious or otherwise, cringe, although for different reasons. Some people of faith fear that an understanding of the processes underlying belief could undermine it. Others worry that what is shown to be part of our evolutionary heritage will be interpreted as good, true, necessary or inevitable. Still others, many scientists included, simply dismiss the whole issue, seeing religion as childish, dangerous nonsense. Such responses make it difficult to establish why and how religious thought is so pervasive in human societies an understanding that is especially relevant in the current climate of religious fundamentalism. In asking whether religion is one of the many consequences of having the type of brains we come equipped with, we can shed light on what kinds of religion 'come naturally' to human minds. We can probe the shared assumptions that religions are built on, however disparate, and examine the connection between religion and ethnic conflict. Lastly, we can hazard a guess at what the realistic prospects are for atheism. In the past ten years, the evolutionary and cognitive study of religion has begun to mature. It does not try to identify the gene or genes for religious thinking. Nor does it simply dream up evolutionary scenarios that might have led to religion as we know it. It does much better than that. It puts forward new hypotheses and testable predictions. It asks what in the human make-up renders religion possible and successful. Religious thought and behaviour can be considered part of the natural human capacities, such as music, political systems, family relations or ethnic coalitions. Findings from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, cultural anthropology and archaeology promise to change our view of religion. Based on assumption One important finding is that people are only aware of some of their religious ideas. True, they can describe their beliefs, such as that there is an omnipotent God who created the world, or that spirits are hiding in the forest. But cognitive psychology shows that explicitly accessible beliefs of this sort are always accompanied by a host of tacit assumptions that are generally not available to conscious inspection. For instance, experiments reveal that most people entertain highly anthropomorphic expectations about gods, whatever their explicit beliefs. When they are told a story in which a god attends to several problems at once, they find the concept quite plausible, as gods are generally described as having unlimited cognitive powers. Recalling the story a moment later, most people say that the god attended to one situation before turning his attention to the next. People also implicitly expect their gods' minds to work much like human minds, displaying the same processes of perception, memory, reasoning and motivation. Such expectations are not conscious, and are often at odds with their explicit beliefs. Research has shown that unlike conscious beliefs, which differ widely from one tradition to another, tacit assumptions are extremely similar in different cultures and religions. These similarities may stem from the peculiarities of human memory. Experiments suggest that people best remember stories that include a combination of counterintuitive physical feats (in which characters go through walls or move instantaneously) and plausibly human psychological features (perceptions, thoughts, intentions). Perhaps the cultural success of gods and spirits stems from this memory bias. Humans also tend to entertain social relations with these and other non-physical agents, even from a very young age. Unlike other social animals, humans are very good at establishing and maintaining relations with agents beyond their physical presence; social hierarchies and coalitions, for instance, include temporarily absent members. This goes even further. From childhood, humans form enduring, stable and important social relationships with fictional characters, imaginary friends, deceased relatives, unseen heroes and fantasized mates. Indeed, the extraordinary social skills of humans, compared with other primates, may be honed by constant practice with imagined or absent partners. It is a small step from having this capacity to bond with non-physical agents to conceptualizing spirits, dead ancestors and gods, who are neither visible nor tangible, yet are socially involved. This may explain why, in most cultures, at least some of the superhuman agents that people believe in have moral concerns. Those agents are often described as having complete access only to morally relevant actions. Experiments show that it is much more natural to think "the gods know that I stole this money" than "the gods know that I had porridge for breakfast". In addition, the neurophysiology of compulsive behaviour in humans and other animals is beginning to shed light on religious rituals. These behaviours include stereotyped, highly repetitive actions that participants feel they must do, even though most have no clear, observable results, such as striking the chest three times while repeating a set formula. Ritualized behaviour is also seen in patients with obsessive-compulsiv e disorders and in the routines of young children. In these contexts, rituals are generally associated with thoughts about pollution and purification, danger and protection, the required use of particular colours or numbers or the need to construct a safe and ordered environment. We now know that human brains have a set of security and precaution networks dedicated to preventing potential hazards such as predation or contamination. These networks trigger specific behaviours such as washing and checking one's environment. When the systems go into overdrive they produce obsessive-compulsiv e pathology. Religious statements about purity, pollution, the hidden danger of lurking devils, may also activate these networks and make ritual precautions (cleansing, checking, delimiting a sacred space) intuitively appealing. Finally, studies of social and evolutionary psychology demonstrate a specifically human coalitional capacity, which has an impact on religion. Humans are unique among animals in maintaining large, stable coalitions of unrelated individuals, strongly bonded by mutual trust. Humans evolved the cognitive tools to achieve this. They know how to gauge others' reliability. They can recall episodes of interaction and infer what people's characters are like. They can emit and detect costly, hard-to-fake signals of commitment. This coalitional psychology is involved in the dynamics of public religious commitment. When people proclaim their adherence to a particular faith, they subscribe to claims for which there is no evidence, and that would be taken as obviously wrong or ridiculous in other religious groups. This signals a willingness to embrace the group's particular norm for no other reason than that it is, precisely, the group's norm. Cognitive cache So is religion an adaptation or a by-product of our evolution? Perhaps one day we will find compelling evidence that a capacity for religious thoughts, rather than 'religion' in the modern form of socio-political institutions, contributed to fitness in ancestral times. For the time being, the data support a more modest conclusion: religious thoughts seem to be an emergent property of our standard cognitive capacities. Religious concepts and activities hijack our cognitive resources, as do music, visual art, cuisine, politics, economic institutions and fashion. This hijacking occurs simply because religion provides some form of what psychologists would call super stimuli. Just as visual art is more symmetrical and its colours more saturated than what is generally found in nature, religious agents are highly simplified versions of absent human agents, and religious rituals are highly stylized versions of precautionary procedures. Hijacking also occurs because religions facilitate the expression of certain behaviours. This is the case for commitment to a group, which is made all the more credible when it is phrased as the acceptance of bizarre or non- obvious beliefs. We should not try to pinpoint the unique origin of religious belief, because there is no unique domain for religion in human minds. Different cognitive systems handle representations of supernatural agents, of ritualized behaviours, of group commitment and so on, just as colour and shape are handled by different parts of the visual system. In other words, what makes a god-concept convincing is not what makes a ritual intuitively compelling or what makes a moral norm self-evident. Most modern, organized religions present themselves as a package that integrates all these disparate elements (ritual, morality, metaphysics, social identity) into one consistent doctrine and practice. But this is pure advertising. These domains remain separated in human cognition. The evidence shows that the mind has no single belief network, but myriad distinct networks that contribute to making religious claims quite natural to many people. The findings emerging from this cognitive-evolution ary approach challenge two central tenets of most established religions. First, the notion that their particular creed differs from all other (supposedly misguided) faiths; second, that it is only because of extraordinary events or the actual presence of supernatural agents that religious ideas have taken shape. On the contrary, we now know that all versions of religion are based on very similar tacit assumptions, and that all it takes to imagine supernatural agents are normal human minds processing information in the most natural way. Knowing, even accepting these conclusions is unlikely to undermine religious commitment. Some form of religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems. By contrast, disbelief is generally the result of deliberate, effortful work against our natural cognitive dispositions hardly the easiest ideology to propagate. FURTHER READING Boyer, P. Religion Explained: Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought (Basic Books, 2001). Boyer, P. & Lienard, P. Behav. Brain Sci. 29, 156 (2006). Wilson, E. O. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (Little Brown & Co., 1998). == The Gospel According to the Apostles, by John MacArthur. End Times Fiction and Last Days Madness, by Gary DeMar. The Evolution of a Creationist, by Dr. Jobe Martin. New Complete Works of Josephus, The New Complete Works of Josephus, by Flavius Josephus, translated by Paul L. Maier, with William Whiston. The Gospel and the Greeks, by Ronald H. Nash. The Consummation of the Ages, by kurt M. Simmons. == As Bertrand Russell pointed out, they regard these actions as the supreme morality. That's because they regard morals as having nothing to do with the sum total of human happiness. == Pascal Boyer "Religion Explained" == Prehistoric shaman found buried with leopard, human foot Archaeologists have found the 12,000-year old skeleton of a female shaman buried in northern Israel alongside 50 tortoises, body parts of a leopard, a boar and other animals as well as a human foot. The burial site is among the earliest known of a shaman, or healer, according to the archaeological team led by Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "The grave was constructed and specifically arranged for a petite, elderly, and disabled woman, who was accompanied by exceptional grave offerings," the archaeologists wrote in this week's edition of the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The grave goods comprised 50 complete tortoise shells and select body-parts of a wild boar, an eagle, a cow, a leopard, and two martens, as well as a complete human foot," the experts said. "Several attributes of this burial later become central in the spiritual arena of human cultures worldwide." The grave was found during excavations of a 12,000-year-old cave site of the Natufian culture in Hilazon Tachtit, in the Galilee area of northern Israel. Analysis of the bones show that the shaman was 45 years old, petite and had an unnatural, asymmetrical appearance due to a spinal disability that would have affected the woman's gait, causing her to limp or drag her foot. The burial site was unlike any from the Natufian or the preceding Paleolithic periods discovered to date, said Grosman. "Clearly a great amount of time and energy was invested in the preparation, arrangement, and sealing of the grave," she said. "This was coupled with the special treatment of the buried body, which was laid on its side with the spinal column, pelvis and right femur resting against the curved southern wall of the oval-shaped grave. The legs were spread apart and folded inward at the knees." The Natufians lived in the eastern Mediterranean region 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. Grosman suggests the grave could point to shifts from foraging to farming that took place in the region at that time. == Society Without God, Phil Zuckerman == job 2:3 And the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you moved me against him, to destroy him without cause." == Col2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. == The Catholic Church didn't think that abortion was so important until 1869, when Pope Pius IX condemned abortion from the moment of conception. But some Catholic church scholars continued to teach that abortions performed to save the mother were morally acceptable. In 1895 the Roman Catholic Church declared that abortion is never justifiable. When a human causes a miscarriage, it's an abortion and wrong. When God causes a miscarriage, it's acceptable. Also, remember that only about half of fertilized human eggs implant. This makes nature/God the biggest abortionist. == In Peru, when "witches" were discovered, the Catholics got half the property .... and the ACCUSERS got half the property. So...there was of course no shortage of witches. == Some of the local nutters round where I live ban car radios for their employees on the grounds that somewhere in the Bible it says that the devil is in the air. == The fundamentalsts cannot stand the liberalism of the modern liberal democracy - theo only system that works. They see democracy only as a tool to impose their views on everyone else. When they can't get their way, they go screaming with the martyrdom complex. At the end of the day, they hate liberals because they don't believe in the rules democracy. == The Christians in control of government funds spent $200 million promoting abstinence only education. It has totally failed to change teen behavior. It is only money. == There were over 60 avid historians alive during Jesus' time, and those were the only possible accounts that could be related to Jesus. Unfortunately, they never mentioned the name Jesus == The word 'replenish' used to mean fill, back in 1611. == When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, "There's just something about you that pisses me off." ~Stephen King == Like most people on my side of the Atlantic, I have for many years been mystified by American politics. The US has the world's best universities and attracts the world's finest minds. It dominates discoveries in science and medicine. Its wealth and power depend on the application of knowledge. Yet, uniquely among the developed nations (with the possible exception of Australia), learning is a grave political disadvantage. There have been exceptions over the past century - Franklin Roosevelt, JF Kennedy and Bill Clinton tempered their intellectualism with the common touch and survived - but Adlai Stevenson, Al Gore and John Kerry were successfully tarred by their opponents as members of a cerebral elite (as if this were not a qualification for the presidency). Perhaps the defining moment in the collapse of intelligent politics was Ronald Reagan's response to Jimmy Carter during the 1980 presidential debate. Carter - stumbling a little, using long words - carefully enumerated the benefits of national health insurance. Reagan smiled and said: "There you go again." His own health programme would have appalled most Americans, had he explained it as carefully as Carter had done, but he had found a formula for avoiding tough political issues and making his opponents look like wonks. It wasn't always like this. The founding fathers of the republic - Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and others - were among the greatest thinkers of their age. They felt no need to make a secret of it. How did the project they launched degenerate into George W Bush and Sarah Palin? On one level, this is easy to answer. Ignorant politicians are elected by ignorant people. US education, like the US health system, is notorious for its failures. In the most powerful nation on earth, one adult in five believes the sun revolves round the earth; only 26% accept that evolution takes place by means of natural selection; two- thirds of young adults are unable to find Iraq on a map; two-thirds of US voters cannot name the three branches of government; the maths skills of 15-year-olds in the US are ranked 24th out of the 29 countries of the OECD. But this merely extends the mystery: how did so many US citizens become so stupid, and so suspicious of intelligence? Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason provides the fullest explanation I have read so far. She shows that the degradation of US politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies. One theme is both familiar and clear: religion - in particular fundamentalist religion - makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing. Jacoby shows that there was once a certain logic to its anti- rationalism. During the first few decades after the publication of The Origin of Species, for instance, Americans had good reason to reject the theory of natural selection and to treat public intellectuals with suspicion. From the beginning, Darwin's theory was mixed up in the US with the brutal philosophy - now known as social Darwinism - of the British writer Herbert Spencer. Spencer's doctrine, promoted in the popular press with the help of funding from Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller and Thomas Edison, suggested that millionaires stood at the top of a scala natura established by evolution. By preventing unfit people being weeded out, government intervention weakened the nation. Gross economic inequalities were both justifiable and necessary. Darwinism, in other words, became indistinguishable from the most bestial form of laissez-faire economics. Many Christians responded with revulsion. It is profoundly ironic that the doctrine rejected a century ago by such prominent fundamentalists as William Jennings Bryan is now central to the economic thinking of the Christian right. Modern fundamentalists reject the science of Darwinian evolution and accept the pseudoscience of social Darwinism. But there were other, more powerful, reasons for the intellectual isolation of the fundamentalists. The US is peculiar in devolving the control of education to local authorities. Teaching in the southern states was dominated by the views of an ignorant aristocracy of planters, and a great educational gulf opened up. "In the south", Jacoby writes, "what can only be described as an intellectual blockade was imposed in order to keep out any ideas that might threaten the social order." The Southern Baptist Convention, now the biggest denomination in the US, was to slavery and segregation what the Dutch Reformed Church was to apartheid in South Africa. It has done more than any other force to keep the south stupid. In the 1960s it tried to stave off desegregation by establishing a system of private Christian schools and universities. A student can now progress from kindergarten to a higher degree without any exposure to secular teaching. Southern Baptist beliefs pass intact through the public school system as well. A survey by researchers at the University of Texas in 1998 found that one in four of the state's state school biology teachers believed humans and dinosaurs lived on earth at the same time. This tragedy has been assisted by the American fetishisation of self- education. Though he greatly regretted his lack of formal teaching, Abraham Lincoln's career is repeatedly cited as evidence that good education, provided by the state, is unnecessary: all that is required to succeed is determination and rugged individualism. This might have served people well when genuine self-education movements, like the one built around the Little Blue Books in the first half of the 20th century, were in vogue. In the age of infotainment, it is a recipe for confusion. == The Assyriologist and Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer in his 1959 book History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine "Firsts" in Recorded History (1956) == According to the Greeks, There was first Nyx, the black-winged bird in the darkness. She laid an egg with the wind. The egg eventually hatched, producing Eros, the god of love. One half of the egg, the Sky, well in love with the other half, the Earth. They had many children - the Titans (giants). One of these Titans was Kronos, who fathered the first generation of Olympians. PROMETHEUS was the Titan god of forethought and crafty counsel who was entrusted with the task of moulding mankind out of clay. == Several South African churches, in the days of apartheid, demonstrated on biblical grounds that apartheid was right, and that indeed, such things as interracial marriages were sinful. Nowadays, those same churches can demonstrate on biblical grounds that apartheid was a sin. Go figure. == Karel van der Toorn "Scribal culture and the making of the Hebrew Bible". == Religion belongs to the terrified childhood of our species, before we knew about germs or could account for earthquakes. It belongs to our childhood, too, in the less charming sense of demanding a tyrannical authority: a protective parent who demands compulsory love even as he exacts a tithe of fear. This unalterable and eternal despot is the origin of totalitarianism and represents the first cringing human attempt to refer all difficult questions to the smoking and forbidding altar of a Big Brother. This, of course, is why one desires that science and humanism would make faith obsolete, even as one sadly realizes that as long as we remain insecure primates, we shall remain very fearful of breaking the chain. Christopher Hitchens is the author of "God Is Not Great" and the editor of "The Portable Atheist Early man did not know why trees grow or what the sun is. Religion was a way of looking at the world without facts. It made man sleep better at night to think there was a purpose for his life and gave him something to live for. So they made up some stories and passed them down from generation to generation until we come to the modern era. Today we have facts. Today we have science: a way of looking at the world with curiosity and factual knowledge. == ACCORDING TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY, there was once a bandit named Procrustes. He had a special bed which he would offer guests. This bed, he told them, would be exactly the right length for any person who slept in it. Anyone foolish enough to try to spend the night with Procrustes would discover that the bed was made of iron, and the kind host would either stretch them out or amputate them down to the precise length of his bed. == "Christianity persecuted, tortured, and burned. Like a hound it tracked the very scent of heresy. It kindled wars, and nursed furious hatreds and ambitions. It sanctified, quite like Mohammedanism, extermination and tyranny ... " --George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952), Little Essays, No. 107, "Christian Morality" == Jon 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. == Psa137:9 May the Lord bless everyone who beats your children against the rocks! (CEV) Psa137:9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. (KJV) == http://friendlyatheist.com/ == French philosopher Michel Onfray: "Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam" Victor J. Stenger's book: "God, the Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist" i == On October 19, 1928, Alton Lemon, who would go on to win a major state/church victory before the U.S. Supreme court, was born in McDonald, Ga. He grew up in Atlanta, Ga. As a youth, Alton played on the same basketball team as Martin Luther King, Jr. He obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Morehouse College in 1950. He was an aerospace engineer for the Naval Air Development Center in Pennsylvania, and an automotive design engineer at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Md. Mr. Lemon also worked as an Equal Opportunity Officer for the U.S. Department of Energy. He was a Citizen Participation Advisor for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and he was at one time the program director for the North City Congress Police-Community Relations Program in Philadelphia. Alton also served in the U.S. Army and saw duty in the Korean War. Alton Lemon served both as president and vice-president of the Philadelphia Ethical Society at one time, served on the board of the Parents Union for Public Schools and was an active participant in the American Civil Liberties Union. He has been married to Augusta Lemon for more than 50 years. Alton Lemon is an "honorary officer" of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a position reserved for freethinkers who have won Supreme Court cases in favor of the separation of church and state. He received a "Hero of the First Amendment" award at the 2003 FFRF convention (although health problems at the last minute prevented him from accepting it in person). Alton Lemon won the case, Lemon v. Kurtzman, 1971, which successfully challenged a Pennsylvania law, the first such law in the nation providing public tax funds to religious schools for teaching four secular subjects. As a member of the ACLU, Mr. Lemon volunteered to challenge the law, which resulted in a decision that is a watershed for the Establishment Clause, and which historic decision bears his name. The United States Supreme Court unanimously invalidated the parochial aid. In one of the enduring legacies of the Burger Court, it also codified existing precedent on the Establishment Clause into a test--called the "Lemon Test." Despite attacks against it and attempts to modify and chip away at it, the Lemon Test endures. aIf any of the three prongs of the Lemon Test are violated by an act of government, it is unconstitutional: 1) It must have a secular legislative purpose; 2) Its principal or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion; 3) It must not foster excessive entanglement between government and religion.a? -- The Lemon Test, promulgated in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 US 602 (1971) ____________ _______ == John W. Loftus "Why I Rejected Chrisitianity: A Former Apologist Explains" == 1 Kings 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. Littlefoot: 2 Chronicles 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. == circular logic. "God inspired the book." How do we know? "The book says so." Why can we trust that? "Because god inspired the book." And around and around she goes. == "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 == Vatican Bank Plaintiffs www.vaticanbankclai ms.com The Greatest Sins of Pius XII & The Genocide of Orthodox Christians Croatian Nationalism & Roman Catholicism are Intermeshed With the 50th Anniversary of the death of Pius XII, the Vatican is again pushing for his sainthood. While Pius can be legitimately criticized for his tepid condemnations of the Nazi Holocaust there is no question he was complicit in the deaths of at least 500,000 Orthodox Christian Serbs, Jews and Roma murdered in Croatia , Bosnia , and Krajina during the Second World War by the Axis allied Croatian regime. The First Sin of Pius Genocide The first sin of Pius, complicity in genocide of at least 500,000 Orthodox Christian Serbs, Jews and Roma in Croatia , Bosnia , and Krajina 1941-1945 by the ultra Catholic fascists known as the Ustasha. The mainstream Orthodox Christians (Pravoslavni) were killed because of their religion, the main difference between Croats and Serbs. The Ustasha ranks were swelled by clergy particularly Franciscan monks, priests and seminarians. A Franciscan monk known as Fr. Satan was commandant at Jasenovac, the chief Croatian concentration camp, where hundreds of thousands perished and the source of much of the gold in the so called Ustasha Treasury. The Ustasha leader Ante Pavelic was welcomed to the Vatican by Pius during the Second World War and his representative Fr. Krunoslav Drganovic became a fixture at the Holy See. While the Ustasha were busy butchering coreligionists, Pius praised Pavelic for outlawing abortion in Croatia . The Papal Legate Marcone in Croatia and October 15, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Vatican Bank Plaintiffs www.vaticanbankclai ms.com resistk@yahoo. com +;1-202-318-2406 Cardinal Stepinac of Zagreb kept Pius and the Vatican well informed about the extermination and forced conversions of the Serbs. Pius instead of condemning the Ustasha blessed them. The Second Sin of Pius Obstruction of Justice and Money Laundering After the collapse of the Ustasha regime in May 1945, the Ustasha leadership fled towards Italy with their plunder, 200 million Swiss Francs mainly in gold, robbed from their many victims. Waiting in Rome for the Ustasha Treasury and Pavelic were two high ranking churchmen. One was the former Ustasha official Fr. Draganovic now Apostolic Visitor for Croatia reporting directly to Pius Undersecretary of State Montini (later Paul VI). The other was the former treasurer of the Franciscan Order (OFM), Fr. Dominik Mandic, an Ustasha sympathizer who promoted bizarre racial theories of Croatian superiority. Pavelic and his associates were hidden at safe houses in Rome until they could flee to Argentina and the Ustasha Treasury was taken to the Vatican Bank for safekeeping. The Third Sin of Pius Historical Cover Up The Vatican hid Pius secret connection to the murderous Ustasha for decades. In 1998 the US State Department released the Eizenstat Report linking the Vatican to the Ustasha Treasury. This in turn led to the class action lawsuit, Alperin v. Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order, still pending in the US federal court system for an accounting and return of the Ustasha Treasury to its rightful owners, the victims of the Ustasha. The testimony of former US intelligence agent, William Gowen, who reported on the Ustasha in 1947, has aided the lawsuit. Gowen stated that his investigation in 1947 led him to believe that the Ustasha Treasury had been concealed at the Vatican Bank and that the Vatican was implicated at the highest level with Pavelic. Professor Michael Phayer followed in 2007 with a well researched book, Pius XII & The Cold War, setting the record straight. However, instead of seeking truth and reconciliation the Vatican and Franciscans have fiercely defended against the lawsuit on technical grounds while the few remaining survivors of the Ustasha atrocities dwindle to handful. For more information contact: Dr. Jonathan Levy Co-counsel for Plaintiffs Alperin v. Vatican Bank and Franciscan Order United States District Court for Northern California , Case No. C-99-04941 MMC == Kepler had been condemned by the Inquisition more than a decade before the Galileo trial == In a 1640s law code for the Puritan colony of New Haven, Connecticut in the 17th century "blasphemers, homosexuals and masturbators" were eligible for the death penalty. == DYNAMICS OF FAITH by Paul Tillich == I badly harassed a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses that came to my door this morning... . > > Neither could answer when I asked, if the Protestant Bible was > > the word of God, why it had taken God so many tries to get the > > book selection right, or why he needed a profit-minded > > publisher to do His work in finalizing it. I don't think > > they'll be coming back. > > What exactly are you referring to? The Protestant canon was > formalized before there were printing presses, much less > publishing companies. Here's the story: The movable type printing press, courtesy of Guttenburg, was a major advancement that revolutionized the world, but it wasn't the beginning of printing technology. Wood-block printing existed long before that, primarily limited to Bibles because nothing else was in demand enough to justify the expensive process of creating wood- blocks. When Martin Luther was putting together the trimmed-down Protestant Bible, one of the books he wanted to remove was Revelation. He argued vociferously that there was nothing of the Holy Spirit in the book, and that it should be removed forthwith as a travesty. But, he ran into a snag. There was only one printer in his area converted to protestantism and willing to print Martin Luther's new Bible, but he wasn't willing to kick out Revelation. Most of the people who might buy a Bible from him were illiterate, which meant that the pictures in the Bible were a major selling point. Revelation is a very visual chapter, and the vast majority of the illustrations that he had came from either Genesis or Revelation. Removing Revelation would have meant removing the Revelation pictures, and they didn't have the money to hire an artist to make new woodblocks to illustrate things from other chapters. A Bible without Revelation would look too much less snazy than the Catholic bibles from other printers, and simply wouldn't sell. So, Martin Luther swallowed his zeal and allowed them to include Revelation in the Protestant Bible. Not because he wanted it there, but entirely because of profit motive. It remains there to this day on the account of one publisher afraid of losing money. I mean, I've heard God moves in mysterious ways, but to this just strikes me as unbelievable. If you want to hold that the Protestant Bible, or the KJV specifically, is The Inerrant, Perfect, Intended Word of God, then what's with all the fiddling around? Why did the Catholics get it wrong/why didn't God make them get it right? Why was God's chosen selection of books the result of Martin Luther getting ALMOST right and then having to have his printer fix the last bit? So, the JW's today told me I was lying and left it at that. Must be nice. I've had fundamentalists explain to me in painstaking seriousness that everytime the Bible says "wine" it means "Non-fermented grape juice". Except, of course, when the Bible mentions wine in the context of drinking alcohol (to excess) being bad. It's the same word! But, clearly, Jesus would have never, ever turned water into wine, because Jesus would never touch the abomination that is alcohol! Pity about all those centuries of Christians getting confused about that, mistaking the Greek word for wine to mean wine. How one can call oneself a literalist while reading the same word two different ways based on nothing but your dislike of alcohol completely baffles me. == A letter \In the late 70s/early 80s, Falwell developed the idea that he was going to run the US, with his zombies carrying out his orders. At that time, I was living in Jackson, MS. The only way to get real news was to go to one certain newsstand and get the New York Times. This was also a porn shop, with the only access behind the counter, so it was constantly watched. About 1979/1980, I started noticing nerdy looking men in black suits standing by the door and making notes, just like the NKVD used to do. So I started asking them if they were NKVD, and how was Comrade Stalin doing, etc. They were unable to understand what I was talking about, and totally refused to say what they were really doing there. This was also happening at other booksellers. \Once Raygun was installed, we found out. MM had a number of model laws they were trying to force on city governments around the US. One was an obscenity law. Behold an obscenity law which never mentions pornography. It amounted to any individual could go to any media, libraries, booksellers, newstands, theater, whatever, and if this individual found anything he/she/it found personally offensive, obtain a copy, bring it to the City Court, which was mandated to stop distribution of it and hold a hearing to determine whether it was really offensive. MM dictated this law to the Jackson City Council. They insulted the City by saying that the City was not able to enforce their law the way they wanted, so MM had lined up 30 churches, names held secret, whose congregations would constantly patrol the city. Jackson City Soviet instantly passed it unanimously. \Now, MM was on record for opposing many authors, including Mark Twain and Shakespeare. They also blared a highly inflated membership. This was due to members also belonging to other Falwell front groups. He just added the rosters together, without regard to shared members. \The first to rebel was the City Library system. Some mainstream churches jumped in, the booksellers, and individuals, including me. I was quite adept at pointing out the real MM agenda, and satirizing the city government. The Jackson City Soviet finally met in secret with MM to amend the new law, which was also kept secret. They promised to unveil it just before the enforcement date. Louisville, KY sent representatives to talk Jackson out of the law. Seems they enacted it, and were instantly swamped with cases, making legitimate court business impossible. Finally Jackson came to their senses, and let the law drop. == http://www.asa3.org/ science and religion == Religion kills teen This is why religion is dangerous: The parents of an Oregon City teenager who died during attempts to heal him with prayer have pleaded not guilty to charges of criminally negligent homicide. A grand jury indictment accuses 50-year-old Jeffrey Dean and 46-year-old Marci Rae Beagley of failing to provide adequate medical care, in violation of their duties as parents. They made no statement in court Friday and were released on bond. The Beagleys belong to the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City. It favors spiritual healing and prayer over medical treatment. Their 16-year-old son, Neil, died in June from complications of a urinary-tract blockage that triggered heart failure. Doctors said a simple procedure could have saved his life. == You cannot reason with someone who does not really understand the intricacies of reasoning. Reasoning is a talent that man is capable of developing but it is not natural innate. If it was, we would have much less religion than we do. People have to be open to learning. He was not because this would have meant he had to concede part of what he believed with passion. == Now, one of the basic underlying concepts of modern Western science is that the proponent of an idea must prove her/his thesis, not that critics have to "disprove" it. This is quite different from traditional theistic approaches to science. For example, see Augustine's City of God, where this very logical and thoughtful man demonstrated that, while the earth was obviously a globe, there could be no land elsewhere than that known to the people of his time, i.e. Eurasia and Africa, but, he argued, if there were, then such places couldn't be inhabited, and so on, covering all his bases. What I believe Augustine was trying to get at was that our behavior towards one another (and for him this included a god) was more important than geological formations or climate or probability theory or anything that we associate with the sciences. Augustine was more focused on the "qualitative" than the "quantitative," it seems to me. == http://www.twoprophets.org/ == You have to rely on faith because reason and evidence proves the bible wrong in so many different ways. The biblical account of the development of both the physical and biological world is self-contradictory and contradicted by an overwhelming amount of science as well. == OFFICE OF PUBLIC POLICY OBJECTS TO PROPOSED HHS REGULATION In a bold move in the waning days of the Bush administration, the Secretary of Health and Human Services has issued a proposed regulation that would greatly expand the ability of health care workers to refuse to provide services because of their religious beliefs. This regulation could have a serious adverse impact on patient care. The thin rationale for the proposed regulation, known as the "Provider Conscience Regulation," is that supposedly there is confusion about the requirements of federal law and some individuals might be reluctant to enter the health care professions because they fear they would be forced to perform procedures to which they object. In announcing its proposed rule, HHS supplied no empirical data to support these assertions. The proposed regulation effectively gives health care workers an absolute and broad right to refuse to provide or participate in any service to which they object. The regulation states that it will apply to "any activity with a reasonable connection to a procedure" to which the health care worker objects. The regulation itself indicates it could cover a worker who refuses to clean surgical instruments because they may be used in an operation that offends his "conscience. " Moreover, the regulation makes no effort to balance the needs of the patient with the objections of the nurse, pharmacist, or technician. This places the regulation in stark contrast to other laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of religion, which do not permit workers to refuse to provide services if that refusal has significant adverse consequences for others. The regulation also would impose onerous reporting and certification requirements on health care institutions resulting in tens of millions of dollars in extra expenditures. The proposed regulation would affect all those with health care needs, but would have an especially severe impact on women and their reproductive rights, especially in light of the recent trend by pharmacists and others to refuse provide emergency contraception based on the erroneous and scientifically unsupported belief that this means of preventing pregnancy results in an abortion. Because the regulation provides no definition of "abortion," the "conscience" of the objecting health care worker can define it as s/he sees fit. The Office of Public Policy for the Center for Inquiry has vigorously opposed the Provider Conscience regulation since it was first announced, and has helped to organize pubic opposition to implementation of the regulation. On September 25, 2008, the OPP submitted official comments analyzing and criticizing the proposed regulation. The OPP's comments, for example, pointed out that there was no factual record to support the proposed regulation and the proposed regulation is inconsistent with existing federal law on employment discrimination. == Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.0 (King James Version) == Religiously motivated virtuous behaviour has likely played a vital social role throughout history, said Shariff, a doctoral student. One reason we now have large, cooperative societies may be that some aspects of religion such as outsourcing costly social policing duties to all powerful Gods made societies work more cooperatively in the past. == But I will, for sure, continue to flail my little sword of rationality 'every which way' hoping to smite the dragons of every irrational, unreasoned, faith based, evidence barren body of belief including liberal theology. I am a Naturalist.. ..I care about what is true. As Clifford stated in the quote at the end of my first post....It is "wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."? Credulity can never be a virtue. It's never desirable to live in a "cloud-castle of sweet illusions and darling lies"? I'm sorry, I have a hard time conjuring up a case for the individual or humanity at large benefiting from wallowing in unfounded beliefs nor for it's inevitability. When the perversion of faith, whether individually or culturally, is allowed to infect our interpretation of reality and conveniently and comfortingly fills in the gaps of our knowledge, especially of the hereafter, the results have been historically hideous. We can and should and MUST tolerate the believer, but never tolerate the unfounded belief. We should no longer be expected to respect and grant deference to beliefs of the unseen and unknowable, that demand exemption from critical thought and propose nonsense. Faith is the acceptance of the irrational, it virtually renders inevitable the exploitation of the delusions of the masses. It allows the buffoons (Falwell comes to mind) and aspiring despots among us to dupe those whose wishful thinking has been coddled and respected by the rest of us. Faith should be regarded as an evil, perverted abomination to be denounced, ridiculed, mocked, disparaged, belittled, insulted and generally derided at every opportunity. "Faith is a cop-out. It is intellectual bankruptcy. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits." -- Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist === David Linden wrote The Accidental Mind. He quite convincingly suggests that our propensity for religion comes from the structure of our brains, our natural tendency to create narratives that fill in the details in order to create a certain coherence to ourvision of the world. The "sense" made by believing in demon possession, evil spirits, deities causing thunder, lighting, pestilence, famine, infertility and floods simply allowed us to stop inquiring and thinking didn't it? Magic and superstition do not yield REAL sense of the world; they aren't true. == The root word of witch, in English is the teutonic "wik" meaning flexible, referring originally to flexible branches used for divining for water. == Eccl. 9:5,10: "The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . In the gospels, a dead man is quite talkative in hell. == Acts2:19 And I will shew wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood and fire, and vapour of smoke. (DRV) Acts2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and manifest day of the Lord come. (DRV) == "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. "No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this," he wrote in the letter written on January 3, 1954 to the philosopher Eric Gutkind, cited by The Guardian newspaper. Einstein == Deu7:2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. (NIV) Isa13:15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. (NIV) Isa13:16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished. (NIV) == Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography by Marincola == "Textual criticism, in fact, has helped destroy any notion that there was ever a stable entity called "the Bible"." - Bible Scholar Hector Avalos == "Many translations do not convey exactly what the orginal biblical languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek - say. In this way translators avoid shocking people by making the Bible seem like one book with internal consistency, rather than an anthology, exhibiting developments of doctrines and a concomitant inconsistency" - Bible Scholar Michael Coogan == Luther made an attempt to remove the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from the canon == The Gospels 45.4 Percentage of Verses with Variants The Acts 32.7 Percentage of Verses with Variants Pauline Epistles 24.4 Percentage of Verses with Variants The Catholic Epistles 29.9 Percentage of Verses with Variants Revelation 47.1 Percentage of Verses with Variants Total 37.1 Percentage of Verses with Variants == If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. == Although the Church officially rejected the Nazis extreme racism, Catholic teachings tolerated hostility toward Jews by blaming them for Christ's crucifixion. == HITLER'S PRIESTS: Catholic Clergy and National Socialism (Hardcover) by Kevin P. Spicer (Author) == Actually, the first animal called a unicorn (actually, monokeros) was the Indian rhinoceros, but the Greeks had only a vague second-hand description of it. That vagueness served well, for when the Old Testament was translated into Greek in the 3rd century BCE, "monokeros" was used to translate the Hebrew word "re'em" (now thought to refer to the auroch). The word was later translated into Latin as unicornus, and then into English as unicorn. == This is where science is at a great disadvantage in relation to religion, science is tied to concrete facts whereas religious meanings can be interpreted to anything that the proponent wishes even to the point of duplicity. Another advantage to religious 'proof' is knowledge after the fact, both the bible and koran are often claimed to have predicted complex scientific breakthroughs from the past couple of centuries by quoting vague passages. It is rare to prove a religious person wrong and even rarer for one to have the grace to admit that they are wrong even in the face of overwhelming proof. == Actions caused in the name of a church, religion, or religious belief are certainly open to criticism: it is not being intolerant or bigoted to castigate criminal, unethical, and immoral behavior. Indeed, it is a human beings duty to oppose criminal acts regardless of who commits them. Crimes committed in the name of religion are still crimes, and must therefore be denounced. Molko v. Holy Spirit (46 Cal. 3d 1092; 762 P.2d 46; 1988 Cal. LEXIS 236; 252 Cal. Rptr. 122) to wit: "However, while religious belief is absolutely protected, religiously motivated conduct is not." (Sherbert v. Verner (1963) 374 U.S. 398, 402-403 [10 L.Ed.2d 965, 969-970, 83 S.Ct. 1790]; People v. Woody (1964) 61 Cal.2d 716, 718 [40 Cal.Rptr. 69, 394 P.2d 813].) "Such conduct remains subject to regulation for the protection of society." (Cantwell v. Connecticut, supra, 310 U.S. at p. 304 [84 L.Ed. at p. 1218].) == Anthropologists note that storytelling could have also persisted in human culture because it promotes social cohesion among groups and serves as a valuable method to pass on knowledge to future generations. But some psychologists are starting to believe that stories have an important effect on individuals as wellthe imaginary world may serve as a proving ground for vital social skills. == I submit that anti-religious rhetoric is counter-productive. It actually hampers science education. By setting up an us verses them environment, the New Atheists are forcing non-scientists those with no training in hypothesis testing (and perhaps very little training in critical thinking) into a false dilemma. Consequently, a concept like biological evolution, which may run counter to someones deeply held religious beliefs, will automatically be considered irrelevant to that person, and the individual will be unlikely to discard any misconceptions related to the concept. The individual will not want to learn. == Defending Science Within Reason, Susan Haack == I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent' (1 Corinthians 1:19). == Here are some things that disturbed me about the Christian faith: 1) Doctrine of Hell. God chooses whether to save people or not. So if you're one of the billions who are not chosen, you never have a chance to save yourself from Hell. Thinking in human terms, what would you think of a person who would invent Hell, and send billions of strangers there because they don't love him enough? You'd think he's a tyrant, maniac, not to mention evil. 2) Book of Revelation. I read through this book and was appalled. Amongst many other atrocities, God wants to send locusts with human faces and scorpion stingers to do nothing but torment people for months as punishment for not loving him enough? How cruel and sick. How can anyone worship a god like that?? 3) Tower of Babel. Read this passage in Genesis 11. Really read it and think about it. Nothing is more clearly a myth than this segment. It also reveals a weirdly paranoid God who wants to slap humanity back down right when they're starting to show great teamwork and get things done! == The Pope indicated that limbo, supposed since medieval times to be a halfway house between heaven and hell, inhabited by unbaptized infants and holy men and women who lived before Christ, was only a theological hypothesis and not a definitive truth of the faith. == The complaint that the theory of evolution "encourages people to lead reckless and materialistic lifestyles" neatly exposes the true basis of religion - social control. Just because evolution doesn't keep people cowering in fear of eternal damnation, doesn't make it any the less true. Sadly pursuit of truth doesn't seem to be of much importance to religious leaders. == Why, when evangelical christians in America praise god for smiting their invented foes in Iraq or plead with god to make them rich is it called religion, whereas when people gather in animist churches in West African rainforests and call for god to smite their foes and make them rich it's called witchcraft? == If you viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist, you would observe it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well. == (Henry Louis) Mencken, was born in Baltimore. Although his father was agnostic, his Lutheran mother sent him to Sunday School, which he later defined as, "A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents" == http://www.KCFreeThinkers.org/ == Deities (called devas by the Hindu) do battle against demons (called ashuras by the Hindu) to protect the world against them. == John9:3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. (KJV) 1Pet2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (KJV) All have sinned? == As W. K. Clifford states in his essay The Ethics of Belief "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence" (Burr and Goldinger 1992, p. 176). == Hell is unbridled, unrelenting torment and anguish for "the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). Jesus also taught that those who reject him (Mt. 11:20-24), and the prophets reap hell as their "reward." Also those guilty of hypocrisy (Mt. 23:15), hateful language and intent (Mt. 5:22), unfaithfulness (Mt. 24:45-51), unrepentant (Mt. 5:29-30), and the disobedient (Mt. 7:19) are liable to its judgment. == Deu22:21 Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. (KJV) == Job 1 6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. (KJV) Satan a son of God? == The Catholic Church correcting itself about the heliocentric solar system without acknowledging that it took the church the better part of four centuries to make that concession and express any regrets. == Eze28:13 In Eden, the garden of God, thou hast been, Every precious stone thy covering, Ruby, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle, and gold, The workmanship of thy tabrets, and of thy pipes, In thee in the day of thy being produced, have been prepared. (YLT) == "Does the theology of Sarah Palin compromise the separation of church and state?" Early in June, Governor Palin used state money to fly to her Pentecostal home church in Wasilla to speak to a group of ministers in training. She suggested that sending soldiers to Iraq is God's will. Should political leaders defend policy with such religious convictions? Does anyone know God's will? She has also suggested that a gas pipe line in Alaska is God's will. This sort of theology is not uncommon, but problematic for a national leader." --Ian Lawton == Slavery "Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ." (Ephesians 6:5) "Slaves, obey your human masters in everything; don't work only while being watched, in order to please men, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord." (Colossians 3:22) "Slaves are to be submissive to their masters in everything, and to be well-pleasing, not talking back ." (Titus 2:9) "Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel. " (1 Peter 2:18) == Superstitions often seem irrational, even stupid, but they a widespread and pervasive part of human life. Why is this? Using a mathematical model, we investigated whether superstitious behaviours are a predicted product of evolution by natural selection. The results are clear: superstitions are a part of adaptive behaviour in all organisms as they attempt to make sense of an uncertain world. Humans are heavily affected by culture as well as evolution. Nevertheless, our analysis suggests that cultural effects are shaped by an evolved tendency to readily associate events, so readily that individuals often make superstitious mistakes. == Graham Robert Oppy :Arguments about Gods" Peter A.Angeles "The Problem of God: a short Introduction." == Calvin didn't convict Servetus. the Genevan State did. the same State that ignored Calvin's request for mercy on Servetus, to behead him instead of burn him. Calvin wanted Servetus dead. "Servetus has just sent me a long volume of his ravings. If I consent he will come here, but I will not give my word for if he comes here, if my authority is worth anything, I will never permit him to depart alive " Calvin's letter to Farrel == Believing in something beyond the self can have a hugely beneficial psychological impact, even if the belief is fallacious. == Muhammad Ali once asked: How can I lose when I have Allah on my side? == Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1 Corinthians i, 20 Science is the wisdom of this world and has great validity. == "We can pray over the cholera victim, or we can give her 500 milligrams of tetracycline every 12 hours...the scientific treatments are hundreds or thousands of times more effective than the alternatives (like prayer). Even when the alternatives seem to work, we dont actually know that they played any role." - Carl Sagan == So much of the debate turns on The Big Questions that involve Origins: the origin of the universe, the origin of the 'fine-tuned' laws of nature, the origin of time and time's arrow, the origin of life and complex life, and the origin of brains, minds, and consciousness. From theologians and philosophers to creationists and intelligent design theorists, the central core of almost all of their arguments centers on filling these origin gaps with God. But now science is making significant headway into providing natural explanations for these ultimate questions, which leaves us with the biggest question of all: Does science make belief in God obsolete? == Which arguments should definitely not be used? Darwin recanted on his deathbed. Many people use this story; however, it is almost certainly not true, and there is no corroboration from those who were closest to himeven from Darwins wife Emma, who never liked evolutionary ideas. Also, even if it were true, so what? If Ken Ham renounced the Bible, would that disprove it? See Did Darwin recant? and Did Darwin Renounce Evolution on His Deathbed? Moon-dust thickness proves a young moon. For a long time, creationists claimed that the dust layer on the moon was too thin if dust had truly been falling on it for billions of years. They based this claim on early estimatesby evolutionistsof the influx of moon dust, and worries that the moon landers would sink into this dust layer. But these early estimates were wrong, and by the time of the Apollo landings, NASA was not worried about sinking. So the dust layer thickness cant be used as proof of a young moon (or of an old one, either). See Moon-dust argument no longer useful and Moon dust and the age of the solar system (Technical). NASA computers, in calculating the positions of planets, found a missing day and 40 minutes, proving Joshuas long day [Joshua 10] and Hezekiahs sundial movement [2 Kings 20]. Though this story is not promoted by major creationist organizations, it is a hoax in wide circulation, especially on the internet. Essentially the same story appeared in the somewhat unreliable 1936 book The Harmony of Science and Scripture by Harry Rimmer. Evidently an unknown person embellished it with modern organization names and modern calculating devices. Also, the whole story is mathematically impossibleit requires a fixed reference point before Joshuas long day. In fact, we would need to cross-check between both astronomical and historical records to detect any missing day. And to detect a missing 40 minutes requires that these reference points be known to within an accuracy of a few minutes. It is certainly true that the timing of solar eclipses observable from a certain location can be known precisely. But the ancient records did not record time that precisely, so the required cross-check is simply not possible. Furthermore, the earliest historically recorded eclipse occurred in 1217 BC, nearly two centuries after Joshua. So there is no way the missing day could be detected by any computer. See also Has NASA Discovered a Missing Day? for historical and scientific documentation that this alleged discovery is mythological. (Note that discrediting this myth doesnt mean that the events of Joshua 10 didnt happen. Features in the account support its reliabilityfor example, that the moon was also slowed down. This was not necessary to prolong the day, but this would be observed from Earths reference frame if God had accomplished this miracle by slowing Earths rotation. See Joshuas long day.) Woolly mammoths were flash frozen during the Flood catastrophe. This is contradicted by the geological setting in which mammoths are found. Its most likely that they perished toward the end of the Ice Age, possibly in catastrophic dust storms. Partially digested stomach contents are not proof of a flash freeze, because the elephants stomach functions as a holding areaa mastodon with preserved stomach contents was found in the western USA, where the ground was not frozen. See also The extinction of the woolly mammoth: was it a quick freeze? The Castenedolo and Calaveras human remains in old strata invalidate the geologic column. These are not sound examplesthe Castenedolo skeletal material shows evidence of being an intrusive burial, that is, a recent burial into older strata, since all the fossils apart from the human ones had time to be impregnated with salt. The Calaveras skull was probably a hoax planted into a mine by miners. For the current AiG view on human fossil stratigraphy, see Where are all the human fossils? from the Answers Book. Dubois renounced Java man as a missing link and claimed it was just a giant gibbon. Evolutionary anthropology textbooks claimed this, and creationists followed suit. However, this actually misunderstood Dubois, as Stephen Jay Gould has shown. Its true that Dubois claimed that Java man (which he called Pithecanthropus erectus) had the proportions of a gibbon. But Dubois had an eccentric view of evolution (universally discounted today) that demanded a precise correlation between brain size and body weight. Dubois claim about Java man actually contradicted the reconstructed evidence of its likely body mass. But it was necessary for Dubois idiosyncratic proposal that the alleged transitional sequence leading to man fit into a mathematical series. So Dubois gibbon claim was designed to reinforce its missing link status. See Who was Java man? The Japanese trawler Zuiyo Maru caught a dead plesiosaur near New Zealand. This carcass was almost certainly a rotting basking shark, since their gills and jaws rot rapidly and fall off, leaving the typical small neck with the head. This has been shown by similar specimens washed up on beaches. Also, detailed anatomical and biochemical studies of the Zuiyo-maru carcass show that it could not have been a plesiosaur. See Live plesiosaurs: weighing the evidence and Letting rotting sharks lie. The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics began at the Fall. This law says that the entropy (disorder) of the universe increases over time, and some have thought that this was the result of the Curse. However, disorder isnt always harmful. An obvious example is digestion, breaking down large complex food molecules into their simple building blocks. Another is friction, which turns ordered mechanical energy into disordered heatotherwise Adam and Eve would have slipped as they walked with God in Eden! A less obvious example to laymen might be the sun heating the earthto a physical chemist, heat transfer from a hot object to a cold one is the classic case of the Second Law in action. Also, breathing is based on another classic Second Law process, gas moving from a high pressure to low pressure. Finally, all beneficial processes in the world, including the development from embryo to adult, increase the overall disorder of the universe, showing that the Second Law is not inherently a curse. Death and suffering of nephesh animals before sin are contrary to the biblical framework above, as is suffering (or groaning in travail [Rom. 8:2022]). It is more likely that God withdrew some of His sustaining power (Col. 1:1517) at the Fall so that the decay effect of the Second Law was no longer countered. See Did the 2nd Law begin at the Fall? If we evolved from apes, apes shouldnt exist today. In response to this statement, some evolutionists point out that they dont believe that we descended from apes, but that apes and humans share a common ancestor. However, the evolutionary paleontologist G.G. Simpson had no time for this pussyfooting, as he called it. He said, In fact, that earlier ancestor would certainly be called an ape or monkey in popular speech by anyone who saw it. Since the terms ape and monkey are defined by popular usage, mans ancestors were apes or monkeys (or successively both). It is pusillanimous [mean-spirited] if not dishonest for an informed investigator to say otherwise. However, the main point against this statement is that many evolutionists believe that a small group of creatures split off from the main group and became reproductively isolated from the main large population, and that most change happened in the small group which can lead to allopatric speciation (a geographically isolated population forming a new species). So theres nothing in evolutionary theory that requires the main group to become extinct. Its important to note that allopatric speciation is not the sole property of evolutionistscreationists believe that most human variation occurred after small groups became isolated (but not speciated) at Babel, while Adam and Eve probably had mid-brown skin color. The quoted erroneous statement is analogous to saying If all people groups came from Adam and Eve, then why are mid-brown people still alive today? So whats the difference between the creationist explanation of people groups (races) and the evolutionist explanation of people origins? Answer: the former involves separation of already-existing information and loss of information through mutations; the latter requires the generation of tens of millions of letters of new information. Women have one more rib than men. AiG has long pointed out the fallacy of this statement, which seems to be more popular with dishonest skeptics who want to caricature creation. The removal of a rib would not affect the genetic instructions passed on to the offspring, just as a man who loses a finger wouldnt have sons with nine fingers. Any skeptic who tries to discredit the Bible with this argument must be a closet Lamarckian, i.e., one who believes Lamarcks thoroughly discredited idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics! Note also that Adam wouldnt have had a permanent defect, because the rib is the one bone that can regrow if the surrounding membrane (periosteum) is left intact. Archaeopteryx is a fraud. Archaeopteryx was genuine (unlike Archaeoraptor, a Piltdown bird), as shown by anatomical studies and close analysis of the fossil slab. It was a true bird, not a missing link. See Q&A: Dinosaurs. There are no beneficial mutations. This is not true, since some changes do confer an advantage in some situations. Rather, we should say, We have yet to find a mutation that increases genetic information, even in those rare instances where the mutation confers an advantage. For examples of information loss being advantageous, see Q&A: Mutations No new species have been produced. This is not truenew species have been observed to form. In fact, rapid speciation is an important part of the creation model. But this speciation is within the kind, and involves no new genetic information. See Q&A: Speciation. Earths axis was vertical before the Flood. There is no basis for this claim. Seasons are mentioned in Genesis 1:14 before the Flood, which strongly suggests an axial tilt from the beginning. Some creationists believe that a change in axial tilt (but not from the vertical) started Noahs Flood. But a lot more evidence is needed and this idea should be regarded as speculative for now. Furthermore, computer modeling suggests that an upright axis would make temperature differences between the poles and equator far more extreme than now, while the current tilt of 23.5 is ideal. The moon has an important function in stabilizing this tilt, and the moons large relative size and the fact that its orbital plane is close to the earths (unlike most moons in our solar system) are design features. Paluxy tracks prove that humans and dinosaurs co-existed. Some prominent creationist promoters of these tracks have long since withdrawn their support. Some of the allegedly human tracks may be artifacts of erosion of dinosaur tracks obscuring the claw marks. There is a need for properly documented research on the tracks before we would use them to argue the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs. However, there is much other evidence that dinosaurs and humans coexistedsee Q&A: Dinosaurs. Darwin mentioned the absurdity of eye evolution in The Origin of Species. Citing his statement at face value is subtly out of context. Darwin was talking about its seeming absurdity but then said that after all it was quite easy to imagine that the eye could be built step-by-step (in his opinion, with which AiG obviously disagreessee Darwin vs. The Eye and An eye for creation). Earths division in the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:25) refers to catastrophic splitting of the continents. Commentators both before and after Lyell and Darwin (including Calvin, Keil and Delitzsch, and Leupold) are almost unanimous that this passage refers to linguistic division at Babel and subsequent territorial division. We should always interpret Scripture with Scripture, and theres nothing else in Scripture to indicate that this referred to continental division. But only eight verses on (note that chapter and verse divisions were not inspired), the Bible states, Now the whole earth had one language and one speech (Gen. 11:1), and as a result of their disobedience, the LORD confused the language of all the earth (Gen. 11:9). This conclusively proves that the earth that was divided was the same earth that spoke only one language, i.e., earth refers in this context to the people of the earth, not planet Earth. Another major problem is the scientific consequences of such splittinganother global flood! This gives us the clue as to when the continents did move apart: during Noahs Flood. See also comments on plate tectonics below. The Septuagint records the correct Genesis chronology. This is not so. The Septuagint chronologies are demonstrably inflated, and contain the (obvious) error that Methuselah lived 17 years after the Flood. The Masoretic Text (on which almost all English translations are based) preserves the correct chronology. See Some remarks preliminary to a biblical chronology. There are gaps in the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, so the earth may be 10,000 years old or even more. This is not so. The language is clear that they are strict chronologies, especially because they give the age of the father at the birth of the next name in line. So the earth is only about 6,000 years old. See Biblical genealogies for exegetical proof. Jesus cannot have inherited genetic material from Mary, otherwise He would have inherited original sin. This is not stated in Scripture and even contradicts important points. The language of the NT indicates physical descent, which must be true for Jesus to have fulfilled the prophecies that He would be a descendant of Abraham, Jacob, Judah and David. Also, the Protevangelium of Gen. 3:15, regarded as Messianic by both early Christians and the Jewish Targums, refers to the seed of the woman. This is supported by Gal. 4:4, God sent forth His Son, coming (genomenon) from a woman. Most importantly, for Jesus to have died for our sins, Jesus, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45), had to share in our humanity (Heb. 2:14), so must have been our relative via common descent from the first Adam as Luke 3:38 says. In fact, seven centuries before His Incarnation, the prophet Isaiah spoke of Him as literally the Kinsman-Redeemer, i.e., one who is related by blood to those he redeems (Isaiah 59:20 uses the same Hebrew word goel as used to describe Boaz in relation to Ruth). To answer the concern about original sin, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary (Luke 1:35), preventing any sin nature from being transmitted. The phrase science falsely so called in 1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV) refers to evolution. To develop a scriptural model properly, we must understand what the author intended to communicate to his intended audience, which in turn is determined by the grammar and historical context. We must not try to read into Scripture that which appears to support a particular viewpoint. The original Greek word translated science is gnosis, and in this context refers to the elite esoteric knowledge that was the key to the mystery religions, which later developed into the heresy of Gnosticism. This was not an error by the KJV translators, but an illustration of how many words have changed their meanings over time. The word science originally meant knowledge, from the Latin scientia, from scio, meaning to know. This original meaning is just not the way it is used today, so modern translations correctly render the word as knowledge in this passage. Of course AiG believes that evolution is anti-knowledge because it clouds the minds of many to the abundant evidence of Gods action in creation and the true knowledge available in His Word, the Bible. But as this page points out, it is wrong to use fallacious arguments to support a true viewpoint. On a related matter, it is linguistically fallacious to claim that even now, science really means knowledge, because meaning is determined by usage, not derivation (etymology). Geocentrism (in the classical sense of taking the earth as an absolute reference frame) is taught by Scripture and heliocentrism is anti-scriptural. AiG rejects this dogmatic geocentrism, and believes that the biblical passages about sunset and sunrise, etc., should be understood as taking the earth as a reference frame, but that this is one of many physically valid reference frames; the center of mass of the solar system is also a valid reference frame. See Q&A: Geocentrism and Geocentrism and Creation. Ron Wyatt has found much archeological proof of the Bible. There is not the slightest substantiation for Wyatts claims, just excuses to explain away why the evidence is missing. See Has the Ark of the Covenant been found? Missing solar neutrinos prove that the sun shines by gravitational collapse, thereby proving a young sun. This is about a formerly vexing problem of detecting only one-third of the predicted number of neutrinos from the sun. Also, accepted theories of particle physics said that the neutrino had zero rest mass, which would prohibit oscillations from one flavor to another. Therefore, consistent with the data then available, some creationists proposed that the sun was powered one-third by fusion and two-thirds by gravitational collapse. This would have limited its age to far less than 4.5 billion years. However, a new experiment was able to detect the missing flavors and seems to provide conclusive evidence for oscillation. This means that neutrinos must have a very tiny rest mass after all (since experimental data takes precedence over theory). Therefore creationists should no longer invoke the missing neutrino problem to deny that fusion is the primary source of energy for the sun. It cannot be used as a young-age indicatornor an old-age indicator, either. Einstein held unswervingly, against enormous peer pressure, to belief in a Creator. Using the normal meaning of these terms, Einstein believed no such thing. See also Physicists God-talk. What arguments are doubtful, hence, inadvisable to use? Canopy theory. This is not a direct teaching of Scripture, so there is no place for dogmatism. Also, no suitable model has been developed that holds sufficient water, but some creationists suggest a partial canopy may have been present. For AiGs current opinion, see Noahs Floodwhat about all that water? from the Answers Book. There was no rain before the Flood. This is not a direct teaching of Scripture, so again there should be no dogmatism. Genesis 2:56 at face value teaches only that there was no rain at the time Adam was created. But it doesnt rule out rain at any later time before the Flood, as great pre-uniformitarian commentators such as John Calvin pointed out. A related fallacy is that the rainbow covenant of Genesis 9:1217 proves that there were no rainbows before the Flood. As Calvin pointed out, God frequently invested existing things with new meanings, e.g., the bread and wine at the Lords Supper. Natural selection is a tautology. Natural selection is in one sense a tautology. Who are the fittest? Those who survive and leave the most offspring. Who survive and leave the most offspring? The fittest. But a lot of this is semantic wordplay, and depends on how the matter is defined, and for what purpose the definition is raised. There are many areas of life in which circularity and truth go hand in hand. For example, what is electric charge? That quality of matter on which an electric field acts. What is an electric field? A region in space that exerts a force on electric charge. But no one would claim that the theory of electricity is thereby invalid and cant explain how motors work; it is only that circularity cannot be used as independent proof of something. To harp on the issue of tautology can become misleading, if the impression is given that something tautological therefore doesnt happen. Of course the environment can select, just as human breeders select. But demonstrating this doesnt mean that fish could turn into philosophers by this means. The real issue is the nature of the variation, the information problem. Arguments about tautology distract attention from one of the real weaknesses of neo-Darwinismthe source of the new information required. Given an appropriate source of variation (for example, an abundance of created genetic information with the capacity for Mendelian recombination), replicating populations of organisms would be expected to be capable of some adaptation to a given environment, and this has been demonstrated amply in practice. Natural selection is also a useful explanatory tool in creationist modeling of post-Flood radiation with speciation (see Q&A: Natural Selection). Evolution is just a theory. What people usually mean when they say this is Evolution is not proven fact, so it should not be promoted dogmatically. Therefore people should say that! The problem with using the word theory in this case is that scientists use it to mean a well-substantiated explanation of data. This includes well-known theories such as Einsteins Theory of Relativity and Newtons Theory of Gravity, as well as lesser-known ones such as the DebyeHuckel Theory of electrolyte solutions. It would be better to say that particles-to-people evolution is an unsubstantiated hypothesis or conjecture. There is amazing modern scientific insight in the Bible. We should interpret the Bible as the author originally intended, and as the intended readership would have understood it. Therefore we should be cautious in reading modern science into passages if the original readers would not have seen it. This applies especially to poetic books like Job and Psalms. For example, Jobs readers would not have understood Job 38:31 to be teaching anything about the gravitational potential energy of Orion and Pleiades. Rather, the original readers would have seen it as a poetic illustration of Gods mightthat God, unlike Job, could create the Pleiades in a tightly-knit cluster, which is what it looks like, while God created Orion as a well spread-out constellation, again something well beyond Jobs ability. Similarly, Job 38:14 is not advanced scientific insight into the earths rotation, because the earth is not being compared to the turning seal, but to the clay turning from one shape into another under the seal. The speed of light has decreased over time. Although most of the evolutionary counter-arguments to this idea, known formally as c-decay, have been proven to be fallacious, there are still a number of problems with it (many raised by creationists). AiG currently prefers Dr. Russell Humphreys explanation for distant starlight, although neither AiG nor Dr. Humphreys claim that his model is infallible. See How can we see distant stars in a young universe? from the Answers Book. There are no transitional forms. Since there are candidates, even though they are highly dubious, its better to avoid possible comebacks by saying instead: While Darwin predicted that the fossil record would show numerous transitional fossils, even a century and a half later, all we have are a handful of disputable examples. See Q&A: Fossils. Gold chains have been found in coal. Several artifacts, including gold objects, have been documented as having been found within coal, but in each case the coal is no longer associated with the artifact. The evidence is therefore strictly anecdotal (e.g., This object was left behind in the fireplace after a lump of coal was burned). This does not have the same evidential value as having a specimen with the coal and the artifact still associated. Plate tectonics is fallacious. AiG believes that Dr. John Baumgardners work on catastrophic plate tectonics provides a good explanation of continental shifts and the Flood. See Q&A: Plate Tectonics. However, AiG recognizes that some reputable creation scientists disagree with plate tectonics. Creationists believe in microevolution but not macroevolution. These terms, which focus on small vs. large changes, distract from the key issue of information. That is, particles-to-people evolution requires changes that increase genetic information, but all we observe is sorting and loss of information. We have yet to see even a micro increase in information, although such changes should be frequent if evolution were true. Conversely, we do observe quite macro changes that involve no new information, e.g., when a control gene is switched on or off. == "When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint". Hesiod, 8th century BC == The New Testament, Its Background, Growth, and Content, 1965, p86, by Bruce Metzger == "Religion Explained", by Pascal Boyer == Ge30:37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. Ge30:38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. Ge30:39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. Ge30:40 And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. (KJV) dburzy: !kjv 30:41-44 Ge30:41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. Ge30:42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. Ge30:43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses. (KJV) == According to the Harper's Bible Dictionary, "The ancient Hebrews imagined the world as flat and round, covered by the great solid dome of the firmament which was held up by mountain pillars, (Job 26:11, 37:18). The blue color of the sky was attributed to the chaotic waters that the firmament separated from the earth (Gen. 1:7). The earth was thus surrounded by waters above and below (Gen 1:6,7, cf. Psalms 24:2, 148:4, Deut. 5:8). floydfp: The firmament was thought to be substantial; it had pillars (Job 26:11) and foundations (2 Sam. 22:8). When the windows of it opened, rain fell (Gen. 7:11-12,8:2). The sun, moon, and stars moved across or were fixed in the firmament (Gen. 1:14-19; Ps. 19:4,6). It was also the abode of the birds (Gen. 1:20;Deut. 4:17). Within the earth lay Sheol, the realm of the dead (Num. 16:30-33;Isa. 14:9,15). == rsv mat 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them; == "that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? (From the NIV Bible, Job 38:13)" == It has been estimated that between 50,000 B.C. and today, about 106 billion people were born. The Earth's population is presently about six billion. Of the 100 billion people born before us, every one of them has died, with not one returning to assure us that life continues beyond deathat least not to the high evidentiary standards of science (and we don't count the TV psychics that claim to talk to the dead)l. == The Catholic catechism calls masturbation "an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." Rabbi Shlomo Ganzfried, a popular 19th century Jewish theologian, called it "a graver sin than any other in the Torah." Mormonism teaches that "masturbation is a sinful habit that robs one of the Spirit," while Shia Islam forbids it completely, quoting sect founder Imam Ali as saying, "one who masturbates commits a sin equal to killing me eighty times." == http://beinghuman.blogs.fi/ atheism == http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?letter=A&artid=2052 Bible astronomy == There are so many different religions - each of them claiming to have the truth, each saying that their truths are clearly superior to the truths of others - how can someone possibly take any of them seriously? - Arthur C. Clarke == Pigliucci, Massimo. Tales of the Rational, Freethought Press, 2000. Shanks, Niall. God, the Devil, and Darwin: A Critique of Intelligent Design Theory, Oxford University Press, 2003 (paperback, 2007). Shermer, Michael. Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, Times Books, 2006. Stein, Gordon, ed. An Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism, Prometheus Books, 1980, pp. 55-59 and 88-104. == God tested Job for no apparent reason[a bet with Satan is given as to why] and as God himself confirmed Job was a completely righteous man. == Former chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef stated that the victims of the holocaust were the souls of former sinners reincarnated. == Consider A god so stupid that he had himself tortured to death to save humankind from his own wrath. A god so masochistic that it would conceive of eternal torment . An omniscient god who could experience jealousy , rage, the need for vengeance , or require anything from its creatures. An omnipotent god who could be denied anything, want for anything or have its creatures fail at anything. == In the letter, Einstein states: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." == Dawkins "What matters," he declares in The God Delusion, "is not whether Hitler and Stalin were atheists, but whether atheism systematically influences people to do bad things. There is not the smallest evidence that it does. == J.G. Frazer's survey of the myths of primitive peoples, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion. For Frazer, religion and magical thinking were closely linked. Rooted in fear and ignorance, they were vestiges of human infancy that would disappear with the advance of knowledge. == "Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief" by Andrew Newberg, Eugene D'Aquili, and Vince Rause David Kuo Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction Wayward Christian Soldiers: Freeing the Gospel from Political Captivity by Charles Marsh (Hardcover - Jun 11, 2007) John A. Paulos Irreligion The Religious Views of our Presidents Franklin Steiner == The early Christians acknowledged that Dionysus (his Greek name) / Bacchus (his Latin name) came before Jesus How? The Christian Father Justin Martyr, writing in the 100s AD, wrote that the Devil reading the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah sent Bacchus early, to trick men about Jesus: "The devils, accordingly, when they heard these prophetic words, said that Bacchus was the son of Jupiter, and ...having been torn in pieces, he ascended into heaven." [Justin Martyr, First Apology, 54] == Kjv 2 Corinthians 4:4 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. How many gods are there? == Rev19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; == Jer8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. == Rev19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. (KJV) Horses in heaven? == The whole idea behind Christian Zionism is to align America with the nation of Israel so as to "hurry God up" in his efforts to bring about Armageddon. As Hagee tells it, only after Israel is involved in a final showdown involving a satanic army (in most interpretations, a force of Arabs led by Russians) will Christ reappear. On that happy day, Hagee and his True Believers will be whisked up to Heaven by God, while the rest of us nonbelievers are left behind on Earth to suck eggs and generally suffer various tortures. == The National Government will regard it as its first and foremost duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built. It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the family as the basis of national life" Adolf Hitler, 'My New Order'. Proclamation of the German Nation at Berlin, February 1, 1933 == Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament (Hardcover) by Jason David BeDuhn (Author) == Mark 2:25-26 Jesus says "in the days of Abiather, the high preist, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread"...Jesus is citing 1 Samuel 21:1-6, but if you read 1 Samuel closely, Abiather was NOT the high preist at that time. The high preist was Ahimelech at that time, not Abiather == Mat27:52 The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. (NIV) Mat27:53 They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (NIV) == "My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment." -- Albert Einstein == In 897, Pope Stephen VI accused former Pope Formosus of perjury and violation of church canon. The problem was that Pope Formosus had died nine months earlier. Stephen worked around this little detail by exhuming the dead pope's body, dressing it in full papal regalia, and putting it on trial. He then proceeded to serve as chief prosecutor as he angrily cross-examined the corpse. The spectacle was about as ludicrous as you'd imagine. In fact, Pope Stephen appeared so thoroughly insane that a group of concerned citizens launched a successful assassination plot against him. The next year, one of Pope Stephen's successors reversed Formosus' conviction, ordering his body reburied with full honors. == Job1:7 The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it." (NIV) God asks questions? I thought He knew everything. == God killed 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21) . == Philip Davies: "The gap between the Biblical Israel and the historical Israel as we derive it from archaeology is huge. We have almost two entirely different societies. Beyond the name 'Israel' and the same geographical location, they have almost nothing in common." == What was the purpose of totally wiping out the Caananites? Gaining some farm land? How loving of God! == Religion a figment of human imagination Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination. That's the argument of anthropologist Maurice Bloch of the London School of Economics. Bloch challenges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists. Instead, he argues that first, we had to evolve the necessary brain architecture to imagine things and beings that don't physically exist, and the possibility that people somehow live on after they've died. Once we'd done that, we had access to a form of social interaction unavailable to any other creatures on the planet. Uniquely, humans could use what Bloch calls the "transcendental social" to unify with groups, such as nations and clans, or even with imaginary groups such as the dead. The transcendental social also allows humans to follow the idealised codes of conduct associated with religion. "What the transcendental social requires is the ability to live very largely in the imagination," Bloch writes. "One can be a member of a transcendental group, or a nation, even though one never comes in contact with the other members of it," says Bloch. Moreover, the composition of such groups, "whether they are clans or nations, may equally include the living and the dead." Modern-day religions still embrace this idea of communities bound with the living and the dead, such as the Christian notion of followers being "one body with Christ", or the Islamic "Ummah" uniting Muslims. Stuck in the here and now No animals, not even our nearest relatives the chimpanzees, can do this, argues Bloch. Instead, he says, they're restricted to the mundane and Machiavellian social interactions of everyday life, of sparring every day with contemporaries for status and resources. And the reason is that they can't imagine beyond this immediate social circle, or backwards and forwards in time, in the same way that humans can. Bloch believes our ancestors developed the necessary neural architecture to imagine before or around 40-50,000 years ago, at a time called the Upper Palaeological Revolution, the final sub-division of the Stone Age. At around the same time, tools that had been monotonously primitive since the earliest examples appeared 100,000 years earlier suddenly exploded in sophistication, art began appearing on cave walls, and burials began to include artefacts, suggesting belief in an afterlife, and by implication the "transcendental social". Once humans had crossed this divide, there was no going back. "The transcendental network can, with no problem, include the dead, ancestors and gods, as well as living role holders and members of essentialised groups," writes Bloch. "Ancestors and gods are compatible with living elders or members of nations because all are equally mysterious invisible, in other words transcendental." Nothing special But Bloch argues that religion is only one manifestation of this unique ability to form bonds with non-existent or distant people or value-systems. "Religious-like phenomena in general are an inseparable part of a key adaptation unique to modern humans, and this is the capacity to imagine other worlds, an adaptation that I argue is the very foundation of the sociality of modern human society." "Once we realise this omnipresence of the imaginary in the everyday, nothing special is left to explain concerning religion," he says. Chris Frith of University College London, a co-organiser of a "Sapient Mind" meeting in Cambridge last September, thinks Bloch is right, but that "theory of mind" the ability to recognise that other people or creatures exist, and think for themselves might be as important as evolution of imagination. "As soon as you have theory of mind, you have the possibility of deceiving others, or being deceived," he says. This, in turn, generates a sense of fairness and unfairness, which could lead to moral codes and the possibility of an unseen "enforcer" - God who can see and punish all wrong-doers. "Once you have these additions of the imagination, maybe theories of God are inevitable," he says. Journal reference: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, (DOI:10.1098/rstb.2008.0007) == Wis. parents who prayed as diabetic daughter died charged WESTON, Wis. (AP) Two parents who prayed as their 11-year-old daughter died of untreated diabetes were charged Monday with second-degree reckless homicide. Family and friends had urged Dale and Leilani Neumann to get help for their daughter, but the father considered the illness "a test of faith" and the mother never considered taking the girl to the doctor because she thought her daughter was under a "spiritual attack," the criminal complaint said. "It is very surprising, shocking that she wasn't allowed medical intervention, " Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad said. "Her death could have been prevented." Madeline Neumann died March 23 Easter Sunday at her family's rural Weston home. Her parents were told the body would be taken to Madison for an autopsy the next day. "They responded, 'You won't need to do that. She will be alive by then,'" the medical examiner wrote in a report. An autopsy determined that Madeline died from undiagnosed diabetic ketoacidosis, which left her with too little insulin in her body. Court records said she likely had some symptoms of the disease for months. The Neumanns each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The couple and their attorney did not immediately return messages left Monday by The Associated Press. Falstad said the Neumanns have cooperated with investigators and are not under arrest. They have agreed to make an initial court appearance Wednesday, she said. Randall Wormgoor, a friend of the Neumanns, told police that Dale Neumann led Bible studies at his business, Monkey Mo Coffee Shop, and believed physical illness was due to sin, curable by prayer and by asking for forgiveness from God, the complaint said. Wormgoor said he and his wife, Althea, were at the Neumann home when Madeline _ called Kara by her parents died. Wormgoor said he had urged the father to seek medical help and was told the illness "was a test of faith for the Neumann family and asked the Wormgoors to join them in praying for Kara to get well," the complaint said. Althea Wormgoor said she "implored" the parents to seek medical help for the girl, the complaint said. Leilani Neumann, 40, told the AP previously she never expected her daughter to die. The family believes in the Bible, which says healing comes from God, but they have nothing against doctors, she said. Dale Neumann, 46, a former police officer, has said he has friends who are doctors and started CPR "as soon as the breath of life left" his daughter's body. According to court documents, Leilani Neumann said in a written statement to police that she never considered taking the girl, who was being home-schooled, to a doctor. "We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her. My husband Dale was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor and I said, 'The Lord's going to heal her,' and we continued to pray," she wrote. The father told investigators he noticed his daughter was weak and slower for about two weeks but he attributed it to symptoms of the girl reaching puberty, the complaint said. A day before Madeline died, according to the criminal complaint, the father wrote an e-mail with the headline, "Help our daughter needs emergency prayer!!!!." It said his daughter was "very weak and pale at the moment with hardly any strength." The girl's grandmother, Evalani Gordon, told police that she learned her granddaughter could not walk or talk on March 22 and advised Leilani Neumann to take the girl to a doctor. Gordon eventually contacted a daughter-in- law in California who called police on a non-emergency line to report the girl was in a coma and needed medical help. An ambulance was dispatched shortly before some friends in the home called 911 to report the girl had stopped breathing, authorities said. One relative told police that the girl's mother believed she "died because the devil is trying to stop Leilani from starting her own ministry," the complaint said. The Neumanns said they moved to Weston, a suburb of Wausau in central Wisconsin, from California about two years ago to open the coffee shop and be closer to other relatives. The couple has three other children, ages 13 to 16; they are living with relatives. The family does not belong to an organized religion or faith, Leilani Neumann has said. Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said the parents once belonged to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church but later became what he called religious "isolationists" involved in a prayer group of five people. "They have gone out on their own," he said. "... They have a very narrow view of Scripture and I would say not many people hold to that narrow of view." In March, an Oregon couple who belong to a church that preaches against medical care and believes in treating illness with prayer were charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their 15-month-old daughter. The toddler died March 2 of bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been treated with antibiotics, the state medical examiner's office said. == Freethought http://ffrf.org/day/ == "Theism reduces God to a less than omnipotent creator who has to work miracles to keep his creation running in accordance with his will, while deism reduces God to a less than omniscient architect or designer whose design has resulted in endless generations of human misery". == A Good Boy Tomorrow: Memoirs of A Fundamentalist Upbringing (Paperback) by Charles Gidley Wheeler (Author) ex-fundie == Now the trouble starts, because if you believe in an infinitely powerful and wise creator who stands apart from the universe, you are presented with a choice. Either you believe in a theistic God who intervenes in human affairs, or you believe in a deistic "intelligent design" God who, having formed the universe out of nothing and issued immutable laws for it to follow, withdraws and leaves it to run on without further intervention. You can't consistently believe in a God who intervenes in human affairs and yet does not intervene. But here's the problem. Theism reduces God to a less than omnipotent creator who has to work miracles to keep his creation running in accordance with his will, while deism reduces God to a less than omniscient architect or designer whose design has resulted in endless generations of human misery, to say nothing of the prospect of eternal punishment in the fires of hell for the vast majority. The contradiction implicit in believing either in an intelligent design God who should intervene but doesn't, or a creator god who shouldn't have to intervene, but does is, I think, particularly fatal for the Christian religion, as belief in intelligent design rules out the need for the miracles of divine incarnation and bodily resurrection that are essential to the Gospel story; while belief in a creator who is careless enough to build into creation original sin, eternal punishment and the need for salvation rules out the possibility of belief that the original design was the product of an omnipotent and omniscient intelligence in the first place. The problem can be expressed as a logical inference that might be expressed as "If design infinitely intelligent, then no requirement for Divine intervention; and if Divine intervention required, then design not infinitely intelligent". == The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (Paperback) by Francis Collins (Author) == http://exchristian.net/exchristian/2008/04/ morality-as-truth-rogerian-argument-on.html == : The Catholic Church founded much of its early legitimacy on a document called the Donation of Constantine, which supposedly granted Pope Sylvester I and the Bishops of Rome sovereignty over Rome, Italy and the entire Western Empire in 324 CE. Constantine is said to have granted this to Sylvester for having cured him of leprosy. However, the Donation was proved to be a forgery in 1440 by Lorenzo Valla. It is believed that the Church manufactured it around the year 752 to give it greater authority against the secular kings of the day. Of course, by the time the forgery was uncovered, it was far too late to reverse a thousand years of Roman domination == Fabricating Jesus by Craig Evans Familiar Sranger by Michael McClymond The Evidence For Jesus by James Dunn esus Remembered by James Dunn Jesus and The Gospels by Craig Blomberg The Evidence For Jesus by R.T. France Unmasking The Pagan Christ by Stanley Porter Misquoting Truth by Timothy Paul Jones. == Mark 12:35-37 dismisses the Davidic descent of the Messiah. If these words were really said by Jesus, Matthew's and Luke's (different and irreconcilable) genealogies tracing Jesus back to David are untrue. In any event, the geneologies are through Joseph, not Mary, but Joseph is not the proposed father. Mark 8:11-12 rules out miracles by Jesus. If he really said this, we must dismiss all the miracles of the other gospels. Romans 1:4; Acts 2:36, 3:26 state that Jesus became the Messiah as of the resurrection. If these verses are true, all references claiming messiahship during his ministry are in error. Mark 16:1-8 rules out any resurrection appearances. If it is true, then the resurrection appearances in the other three gospels cannot be believed. I Corinthians 15:45, 50 is the earliest written resurrection story, in which Jesus was raised as a spirit. If this is true, physical resurrection stories in three of the gospels must be dismissed. == Whether or not a historical Jesus ever existed will probably never be known, but the historical battles that occurred in early Christianity are preserved in the gospel writings, which is what the gospels appear to be more than anything: what early Christians wanted people to believe, and not necessarily what actually happened. Thus, the gospels cannot be viewed as being either historical or authentic in spite of how many people have chosen to believe what is written within them, but how closely do believers actually read what is written in the gospels? If Jesus actually repudiated his Davidic lineage in Mark 12:35-37, then the lineages written in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 that claim a Davidic heritage for him are clearly wrong. Further, each of these lineages (both supposedly the lineage of Joseph) are completely different and include individuals whose offspring were condemned from ever sitting on the throne of David. If Jesus said "Verily I say unto you, there shall no sign be given unto this generation," (Mark 8:12), then all of the various miracle stories written in the gospels must be rejected as being inauthentic. If Jesus only became the messiah after his resurrection as indicated by Romans 1:4, Acts 2:36 & 3:36, then any messianic claims attributed to Jesus before his crucifixion cannot be authentic. If Jesus renounced all apocalyptic speculation with signs (Luke 17:20), then the so-called Olivet Discourse (or Little Apocalypse) as written in Mark 13, Matthew 24 and Luke 21 that was riddled with signs was clearly said (written) by someone else. The "Good Samaritan" parable (Luke 10:25-37) and the Great Commission could not have been given by Jesus when he is also attributed to having said "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and set foot in no village of the Samaritans" (Matt. 10:5). == Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition? (Hardcover) by Robert M. Price (Author) == Exo34:7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." (NIV) num 14:18 The LORD is slow to anger, and plenteous in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. == Always to remember what Amalek did (Deut. 25:17) That the evil done to us by Amalek shall not be forgotten (Deut. 25:19) To destroy the seed of Amalek (Deut. 25:19) The last commandment was interpreted to mean that not only male & female Amalekites of all ages were to be wiped out, along with all their livestock, but their name to be blotted out utterly. Out of humane feeling, Saul failed to comply fully with the Lord's commandment, so suffered a severe penalty, the loss of his kingship. http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Amalekite == Isa60:19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. (KJV) == If atheism is a belief that no gods exist, then theism is a subset of atheism, because a theist believes that all the other gods but his or hers does not exist. == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amalekite#War_of_extermination_against_the_ Amalekites == All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to demons; chiefly do they torment freshly baptized Christians, yea, even the guiltless new born infants. Saint Augustine == Diagoras of Melos (5th century BCE) is known as the "first atheist". He blasphemed by making public the Eleusinian Mysteries and discouraging people from being initiated. The Athenians accused him of impiety, and he was forced to flee the city. He died in Corinth. == Another god LLEU Mostly unkillable husband of BLODEUEDD. === Belief in a god seems to be a pervasive part of the human experience. Christians might say that this quality is a clear indication that there is a "god hole" in our hearts that only God can fill. In contrast to that opinion, others speculate that our tendency toward god belief is the result of a long chain of survival struggles. In other words, god belief helped our earliest ancestors gain evolutionary advantage and although this quality may no longer be needed for survival, its a quality we've retained as a sort of vestigial organ, like whale legs. == "fanatic" which comes from the latin "fanum" (sacred place) a religious term in its origin. == 1Pet4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. (KJV) == Consider the unhappy story of a Tennessee preacher who came to visit. He was from a snake-handling church, and he brought a couple of rattlesnakes that he wanted to barter for a cobra. MacInnes warned that cobras aren't very religious. If you handle a cobra the way you handle a rattlesnake, he told the preacher, you won't last long. The preacher insisted. He bought the cobra. "He didn't live a month." == We freethinkers espouse the value of reason, critical thinking, a naturalistic view of creation and scientific methodology as the most useful tools to interpret reality. The virtual antithesis of this position is dogma or beliefs held without evidence and on faith which is what traditional religion is all about. We naturalists ask questions for which there may be no answers and that may never be answered; religion gives answers that may never be questioned. The absence of faith is not faith; to eschew dogma is not dogmatic and atheism is no more like religion than not collecting stamps is like a hobby. == Prv30:4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell? (KJV) == Matthew 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. == Methodist Bishop F. H. Otto Melle took a far more collaborationist position that included apparently sincere support for Nazism. He felt that serving the Reich was both a patriotic duty and a means of advancement. To show his gratitude, Hitler made a gift of 10,000 marks in 1939 to a Methodist congregation to purchase an organ. == Revelation 3:21 - 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. (nas) == Study the Pope Boniface III. Plenary Indulgence for Killing a Heretic. == I asked a difficult question they could not explain away through some verse! They do this because they are scared! They know that they are wrong, so they take their anger and frustration out on us. That is why they can never answer any of your questions, not even the simple ones. I also agree that Christianity, much like slavery, will die out eventually, and I hope we both live to see it. == . .there are many gods and many lords, (1 Corinthians 8:5-6) == There are educated and intelligent people who are willing to subscribe to a religion. The more honest and self-critical of them will admit that they exclude their religion from rational thought. However, the higher you look in the strata of education and intelligence, the greater the percentage of atheists you will find, so not all are able to compartmentalize their thinking in that way. == "If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time." Bertrand Russell == "We can pray over the cholera victim, or we can give her 500 milligrams of tetracycline every 12 hoursthe scientific treatments are hundreds or thousands of times more effective than the alternatives (like prayer). Even when the alternatives seem to work, we dont actually know that they played any role." - Carl Sagan == Meanwhile, the LORD instructed one of the group of prophets to say to another man, Strike me! But the man refused to strike the prophet. Then the prophet told him, Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, a lion will kill you as soon as you leave me. And sure enough, when he had gone, a lion attacked and killed him. (1 Kings 20:35-36 NLT) == talking donkey Gen17:22 1Ki18:27 Es6:14 Job29:9 Ezk33:30 Mt17:3 Mk9:4 Ep5:4 Re4:1 Num22:28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? (KJV) pete-: Num22:29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. (KJV) == Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, "What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! "This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," Davis said. "Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon." Apparently it's still open season on some views of God. == What was the color of the robe placed on Jesus during his trial? white_powe: scarlet - Matthew 27:28 white_powe: purple John 19:2 == "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 "Many translations do not convey exactly what the orginal biblical languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek - say. In this way translators avoid shocking people by making the Bible seem like one book with internal consistency, rather than an anthology, exhibiting developments of doctrines and a concomitant inconsistency" - Bible Scholar Michael Coogan "If there be any mistake in the Bible, there may well be a thousand. If there be one falsehood in that book, it did not come from the God of truth." (John Wesley, Journal, Wed., July 24, 1776) == Search for Rational Religion by John Beversluis == Isaiah 40: 21. Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 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: == == Lawrence Kelemen Permission to Believe The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom by M.I.T. physicist Dr. Gerald Schroeder, The Language of God by Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind by Anthony Flew and Roy Varghese. == Bible says the Earth is flat (Is.40:22, Ez.7:2, Dn.2:35; 4:10-11,20, Mt.4:8) Sun and Moon do Move, earth does NOT move, whirl, spin or gyrate (1 Sam.2:8, 1 Chr.16:30; Job 9:6, 38:4-6; Ps.96:10, 104:5, Is.13:10, Mic.6:2) == http://www.scripturecatholic.com/geocentrism.html == "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, "Writings", Editor: Merrill D. Peterson, (New York: 1984), p 1469 == Paul Johnson "History of Christianity" "Atheism: The Case Against God", by George Smith "The God Delusion", by Richard Dawkins "Who Wrote the New Testament?", by Burton Mack "The Jesus Puzzle", by Earl Doherty 'Biblical Nonsense' by Jason Long Biblical nonsence is online http://www.biblicalnonsense.com/ http://bibleshockers.com/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx Daniel C. Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. Joseph Campbell on the origins and purposes of mythology - I'd recommend his four-volume Masks of God series. Both Dennett and Campbell will give you insight into why humans developed religion in the first place, and why mythic systems are so tenacious in our culture and personal lives. DEITY OF THE DAY NEREUS Son of URANUS and GAIA, he's the Sea God of Wet. Really really wet. == The Cathars at Montsegur Today marks a sad aniversary, one of the least-known but most tragic chapters in Church history, when the last of the European gnostics ended a long siege and walked willingly into the bonfires prepared for them by the inquisitors of the Catholic Church. Their only crime was believing differently than other Christians. The Cathars were a medieval Gnostic movement that flourished for a time in the Languedoc region of Southern France. They are thought to be an offshoot of the Bogomils, a Bulgarian gnostic sect, in turn most likely influenced by ideas from Manichean and other eastern gnostic sects,* brought West through trade routes from the Middle East. The Cathars believed themselves to be the only "true" church, and dismissed the Roman Church as corrupt, greedy, hypocritical, and power-hungry Roman paganism. They eschewed materialism and hierarchy, and attempted to emulate the earliest Christians, living simply and ascetically. Cathar Dualism Very little is known about the intricacies of Cathar doctrines, but it is known that they had a dualistic view similar to that of the Zoroastrians and the Manichean gnostics- that good and evil were eternal powers that existed in almost balanced measure, in constant opposition. They believed the material world to be a prison- that Satan was the personification of chaos, and the earth a construct that allowed the dark forces to imprison and partake of the nature of the light. The taught that it it was a Cathar's spiritual duty to liberate the spirit from its material prison. These beliefs led to a lot of supertistious misinterpretation by enemies of the sect, who have claimed that the Cathars utterly rejected the physical body, that they were favorable to or encouraged suicide, abortion, etc. The Cathars themselves seemed to interpret this "liberation of spirit" to be at least partially metaphorical, carried out by their rejection of material wealth and social rank and their emulation of Jesus. == "The son shall not bare the iniquity of the father" -Ezekiel 20:5 Supposedly Adam is the "father" of mankinds sinful nature, so we should not have to bare his iniquity. == Isaiah 14:29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. == Numbers 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. == http://www.scripturecatholic.com/geocentrism.html Daniel 4:10-11, The king "saw a tree of great height at the center of the earth...reaching with it's top to the sky and visible to the earth's farthest bounds." If the earth were flat, a sufficiently tall tree would be visible to "the earth's farthest bounds," but this is impossible on a spherical earth. Matthew 4:8 says, "Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory". The Hebrew word in Isaiah is "chwg", which can mean circle, but never "sphere" or "ball". The Hebrew word for "ball" or "sphere" is in fact used in Isaiah, so the the author could have used it in Isaiah 40, but didn't. == Isa40:22 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: (KJV) == 'Stealing Jesus" by Bruce Bawer == 1 ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 1 Timothy 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. == The use of the title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270?274); and Mithras, a soldiers' god of Persian origin. == Sextus Julius Africanus popularized the idea that Christ was born on December 25 in his Chronographiai, a reference book for Christians written in AD 221. == The Bible is emphatic about the immobility of the earth & the movement of the sun over it, as well as repeatedly asserting that the whole earth can be seen from a high place. In the Bible, the earth has pillars to support it, waters beneath it & waters above it held back by a solid dome, to which the stars are attached, with openings for the sun & moon & windows or floodgates through which God could let rain fall from the waters above. The stars are a heavenly host who sing. God's throne sits atop the dome. He looks down through the clouds & from His vantage point, people look like grasshoppers. You can read all about it right there in your Bible. This cosmology is just what you'd expect, since everyone in the eastern Mediterranean & Mesopotamia in 600 BC thought that the world was flat, with a solid dome above it & the sun traveling over it. The sun comes out of his tent like a bridegroom, a strong man keen to run his race over the earth, then hurry again during the night to his place of rising. In Genesis 1, you read that God made day & night, morning & evening before He made the earth or the sun, & that He made grass, herbs & fruit trees before the sun as well. The order of creation in Genesis 2 irreconcilably contradicts that in Genesis 1. == The abomination of desolation refers to the image of Zeus and a pagan alter in the Jewish temple put there by Antiochus IV in 165 BCE. == There are several prima facie examples of apparent contradiction in the Genesis account, including: * Gen 1:25-27 First plants are created, followed by animals, then man and woman. Gen 2:18-22 Adam is created, followed by animals, and then Eve. * Gen 2:17 God says to Adam, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen 5:5 Adam lives several hundreds of years after eating the fruit. * Gen 4:14-16 After killing Abel, Cain is worried that anybody who finds him will kill him, and then leaves to father many children, implying that there were many people to be afraid of, and that there were women to bear his children, and his sons' children. A literal interpretation would imply that the only humans alive were himself, Adam, and Eve. His next sibling is not born until later in the story (verse 25). * Gen 7:7-10 Noah entered the ark seven days before the flood began. Gen 7:11-13 Noah entered the ark on the same day that the flood began. * Gen 7:8, 9, 15 Noah brought two of every clean and unclean animal. Gen 7:2 Noah brought seven of every clean animal (or seven pairs, depending on translation). * Gen 8:4 The ark floated for about seven months. Gen 8:5 The ark floated for at least ten months. * Gen 10:5 Before the Tower of Babel, the land was divided according to tongues. Gen 11:1 Before the Tower of Babel, the whole earth was of one language. * Gen 21:31 Beersheba was named by Abraham. Gen 26:33 Beersheba was named by Isaac. In addition, there are elements of the Genesis story which are in apparent contradiction with other parts of the Bible: * Gen 1:16-19 The stars were created after the earth. Job 38:4-7 The earth was created after the stars. * Gen 5:3-18 Enoch was the sixth generation from Adam. Jude 14 Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam. * Gen 5:24 Enoch did not die, but was taken away by God. John 3:13 "No man hath ascended up to heaven." * Acts 7:2-4, Gen 11:26,32 Abraham was 135 when he left Haran. Gen 12:4 Abraham was 75 when he left Haran. == rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. == 2ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: Is Paul infallible? What was scripture back then? Not Paul? == Scientific Breakthroughs from the Bible (Part II) The book of Revelation includes so many ridiculous and horrible prophesies, it's obvious that "St. John" was either consciously trying to scare people into submission or he was on some kind of psychedelic substance; or both. To me, one of his most revealing claims is that the stars will fall to the earth. Of course at the time of his writing, people didn't know just how big and far away the stars really are. To them, they were just little lights in the sky. But if his "visions" where really coming from an omniscient god, wouldn't he have known? Here are the verses in question: Revelation 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. Revelation 8:10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; Revelation 9:1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Revelation 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. So long as we keep changing its meaning, there's no contradictions in the bible (except the ones we just flat out ignore). == S. Res 483 - US senate to create Tem Commandments Weekend! == Spirituality for the Skeptic The Thoughtful Love of Life, by Robert C. Solomon The Sacred Depths of Nature, by Ursula Goodenough Spirituality without Faith, by Tom W. Clark == "A religious person is a dangerous person. He may not become a thief or a murderer, but he is liable to become a nuisance. He carries with him many foolish and harmful superstitions, and he is possessed with the notion that it is his duty to give these superstitions to others. That is what makes trouble. Nothing is so worthless as superstition. . . ." Marilla M. Ricker, "Science Against Creeds," I Am Not Afraid Are You? (1917). == A quote from Thomas Hobbes' "Leviathan" is worth citing here. "From whence we may infer, that when we believe any saying whatsoever it be, to be true, from arguments taken, not from the thing itself, or from the principles of natural reason, but from the authority, and good opinion we have, of him that hath said it; then it is the speaker, or person we believe in, or trust in, and whose word we take, the object of our faith; and the honour done in believing, is done to him only." == Umberto Eco "Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking At A Blackshirt" to help us recognize the elements which go into the creation of a fascist state. == Catherine Crier Contempt: How the Right Is Wronging American Justice Susan Jacoby "Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism." == A high-living preacher was telling his audience to tear up their bills and send the money to him, that God will be displeased with them on judgment day if they do not send him money instead. This preacher of mercy stated that he wished he had a "Holy Ghost machine gun" to blow the heads off his detractors, because anyone who challenged him was a sin against Him! == Once one gives into "faith" of any sort, not susceptible to logic, then where is the stopping point? Once you accept that A and not-A can co-exist in your system, anything and anything at all can be made to follow logically. Does it make any difference to the public weal whether a woman's right to reproductive choice or stem cell research, to take just two examples, are legislated against because of the "moderate" religious or whether this happens because of the "extreme" religious? === Rev 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. (KJV) == I fail to understand how drowning planets, killing one's own son and ultimately destroying the planet constitutes "love". Must've missed the memo on that one. The New Testament itself proves the non-existence of Jesus. The Pauline Epistles (circa 50 A.D.) are representative of first century Christian thought (at least one major sect, the one that became dominant). They speak of a heavenly Jesus who never set foot on earth. There were no references in the Epistles to the 'historic' Jesus later found in the Gospels. Paul never spoke of the Second Coming of Christ - he spoke of the coming of Christ. Perhaps the most telling of Paul's letters is Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 8 and 9, Paul speaks of Jesus' blood sacrifice in Heaven, not on earth. (In fact, the term 'come again' is used, but the first coming is in Heaven, as well as the second.(1 Thess. 17, " ... to meet the Lord in the air." (NIV)) Read it. Christians didn't begin to believe that there was a historic Jesus until way after the supposed time of Christ, about 80 A.D., after Mark's Gospel was first written. And Mark's Gospel is filled with outright lies: 1)'Jesus preached in the synagogues in Galilee.' There were no synagogues until after the Diaspora (70 A.D.) Jewish society was a temple centered society. Synagogues were established only after the Diaspora. They were teaching establishments for the purpose of preserving the Jewish faith in lieu of the absence of a temple. 2) 'Jesus would return in this generation.' Mark quotes Jesus twice (9:1, 13:30) saying that the Second Coming would occur within this generation. What? Jesus, the creator of the universe, got it wrong? No, Mark lied. (These verses are echoed in Matt 16:28, 24:34, Luke 9:26 -27) The New Testament and Bible are full of errors, inaccuracies, and outright lies. (Read Randel Helms' books: Who Wrote the Gospels?, Gospel Fictions, The Bible Against Itself: Why the Bible Seems to Contradict Itself) Paul and the early Christians didn't believe that Jesus ever set foot on earth. Why should you or I? A critical study of the New Testament reveals that the whole thing is bogus, a sham. Jesus never existed. For further reading: "Who Wrote the New Testament?" by Burton Mack. "The Jesus Puzzle" by Earl Doherty "Jesus Never Existed" by Kenneth Humphrey's == How do you write about something that you yourself saw? You say: "I saw Jesus stand up in the boat. I heard him telling the waves to be still. I saw the waves collapse." Or it can be in the third person: "We saw Jesus stand up in the boat. We heard him telling the waves to be still". This is first- person testimony. This is an eye-witness account. The gospels are not written that way. They are written in a narrative style. In a narrative style, the assumed preface is: [This is what I was told happened.] "Jesus stood up in the boat and told the waves to be still." A narrative style implies that the writer is admitting that he was not a part of the action he is describing, because if he had been he would have written in the eye-witness style. The story may be true, but we have no eye-witness account of it. == Stories about miracles are not miracles. == Act of God--- 1 The kind of disaster insurance doesn't cover. == Religion Summed Up: Start an idea -> ignore all contradicting evidence -> keep idea forever -> the end == MATTHEW 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. -NASB ==== MATTHEW 23:33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? -NASB == Consider. The basic underlying premise of every religion ever known, from Evangelical Christianity to Buddhism to the worship of the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, is that there is something innately wrong with us. We are born wrong somehow. If not, then why would we need to learn how to propitiate gods, seek salvation from god(s) or attempt to achieve the enlightenment of the Buddha? == Isa40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. (NIV) == The Gospel of James, also sometimes known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protoevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel probably written about AD 150. The Gospel of James may be the earliest surviving document attesting the veneration of Mary by stating her perpetual virginity == In France, for example, the bishop of Treves had a whole village put to death because of an especially harsh winter, which he determined had been caused by Witches. Not knowing who the Witches were, he executed everyone. == "Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As vice-regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports areanas, our entertainment media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society." The Dominionist agenda calls for a restoration of harsh ancient laws from before the time of Jesus or of modern Judaism: the death penalty for adultery, homosexuality, blasphemy, incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, unchastity before marriage. Beyond this. To put trust in secular institutions is to lack faith, to give up on God's magic and miracles. Islamic and Christian militants are on the same side. It is hard to tell them apart. Both are waiting for their prophet (Jesus/12th Iman) to lead the final showdown Both have members that are eager for nuclear war Both want control of Jerusalem Both want a form of Biblical/Sharia law Both want religious Christian/Madrassa schooling Both have their own television networks Both are swarming mega churches/mosques that dominate daily life Both see themselves in a global Crusade/Jihad Both traffic in tales of Christians/Muslim oppression around the world Both encourage nonstop outrage on behalf of Christians/Muslims who are mistreated anywhere on earth for any reason Both justify the taking of human life for relisious reasons Both promise Heaven for those killed in battle Both demand subsidies from the government Both espouse a merger of church and state Both reject evolution Both of them have contempt for wimpy nonpolitical mainstream religion Both have declared the right to strictly define Christian/Muslim and to declare other people as being heretical Both of them have an obsession with sex that creeps out people outside their groups. == In the Bible, God instructs Moses to tell the children of Israel that ".. When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;/Then shall ye drive out all the inhabitants of the land.../And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land..." (Number 33:50-55). == President Bush has opposed condoms for Africa. A true Christian!! == "Religion is poison because it asks us to give up our most precious faculty, which is that of reason, and to believe things without evidence. It then asks us to respect this, which it calls faith." Christopher Hitchens, author of god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything == Of course there's proof for God; you only need to reject all other religions and philosophical writings, trash modern science, ignore history and carefully select key Biblical verses. == 1st Thessalonians 4:17 - Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. (nas) Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. == 2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. == Biblical authors viewed God anthropomorphically . Man is literally made in His image. Their view of YHWH was the same as the Babylonian's view of Marduk & the Greeks of their Olympian gods, big & immortal, but otherwise like mortal men. Zeus came down to the mortal realm to mate with women, just as the giants & Sons of Man did in the Bible (a story glossed over in Genesis, but explicated in Enoch). All God had to do to walk & talk with Abraham was to downsize himself. == 2000 is the death toll as of 1490. The General Secretary of the Inquisition gives a figure of 32,000. But some sources give figures as high as 135,000. We'll never know, but it certainly exceeded 2000. == According to the Harper's Bible Dictionary, "The ancient Hebrews imagined the world as flat and round, covered by the great solid dome of the firmament which was held up by mountain pillars, (Job 26:11, 37:18). The blue color of the sky was attributed to the chaotic waters that the firmament separated from the earth (Gen. 1:7). The earth was thus surrounded by waters above and below (Gen 1:6,7, cf. Psalms 24:2, 148:4, Deut. 5:8). The firmament was thought to be substantial; it had pillars (Job 26:11) and foundations (2 Sam. 22:8). When the windows of it opened, rain fell (Gen. 7:11-12,8:2). The sun, moon, and stars moved across or were fixed in the firmament (Gen. 1:14-19; Ps. 19:4,6). It was also the abode of the birds (Gen. 1:20;Deut. 4:17). Within the earth lay Sheol, the realm of the dead (Num. 16:30-33;Isa. 14:9,15). == Luke 21:25 - "There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (nas) == All religions have origin myths, and all religions keep secrets from the uninitiated. A spirit present as God before the creation of the universe splits off from Godhead after billions of years of Earth time and is born again as a flesh-and-blood person to a Jewish woman. The son gathers adherents, casts out demons from afflicted people, works miracles and finally confronts the evil king in the Jewish capital city. The evil empire's soldiers try, convict and kill him in a public execution. He then is resurrected before his disciples and tells them to spread his kingdom throughout the world. He promises to appear again and save those who believe in his message and condemn to eternal punishment those who do not. All of his followers will be resurrected after our Earth is destroyed by seven years of heaven-sent catastrophes that kill off most of the human race. == Britain's blasphemy law no longer sacred Thus began a period of collective soul-searching on free speech and secularism, traditional values and the church that anoints Britain's queen. It culminated Wednesday in a 148-87 vote in the House of Lords to abolish the laws on blasphemy after a wrenching, two-hour debate. "It is crystal-clear that the offenses of blasphemy and blasphemous libel are unworkable in today's society," Kay Andrews said in introducing the government-backed amendment, adding that "as long as this law remains on the statute books, it hinders the UK's ability to challenge oppressive blasphemy laws in other jurisdictions." But in a debate that underscored Britain's continuing strong roots in the Church of England, there was substantial doubt about the wisdom of abandoning what for many is a symbol of the increasingly multicultural nation's reliance on Christian values as a foundation for law and society. "The essential question is: Should we abolish Christian beliefs and replace them with secular beliefs? As long as there has been a country called England, it has been a Christian country, publicly acknowledging the one true God," said Detta O'Cathain, a Conservative member of the House of Lords. "Noble lords may cry freedom, but I urge them to pause and consider that the freedom we have today was nurtured by Christian principles, and continues to be guided by them," she said. Most remaining blasphemy laws in Western democracies are either little used or, like Britain's, on their way out. This week, the Massachusetts Legislature began consideration of a bill to phase out that state's blasphemy proscription, along with other outdated "blue laws." Wednesday's vote in the upper house of Parliament was an amendment to a broad proposed law on criminal justice that must still go back to the House of Commons for approval before taking effect. Still, the vote was seen as a crucial hurdle in a process that is now all but assured. "The law on blasphemy will be abolished. And good riddance, is what we say," Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said in an interview. "It's an unusable law, as it stands at the moment, and in the past it's been a very cruel law." In fact, Parliament has never passed a blasphemy law. It is a common-law crime established centuries ago and clarified by judges in the 19th century to protect the beliefs of the Church of England; citizens may fall afoul if they insult God, Christ, the Christian religion or the Bible in a way that is scurrilous, abusive or offensive, or in a manner that may breach the peace. Attacks on other religions are not covered, prompting many critics to brand the law as discriminatory. In practice, the law has seldom been used, and in 2006 a new law making it a crime to incite religious hatred was adopted as a more equitable alternative. The last time anyone was imprisoned for blasphemy was in 1922, when a man was convicted after comparing Jesus Christ to a circus clown. The last successful blasphemy prosecution occurred as a result of a private complaint in 1977 against a gay newspaper for publishing a poem that describes a Roman centurion's homosexual lovemaking with Christ's dead body, and legal analysts say it is doubtful any new prosecution could survive under European human rights laws. Just this week, a Christian activist organization, Christian Voice, lost its appeal under the blasphemy laws of a challenge to the musical " Jerry Springer: The Opera." "Far from being abolished, the laws against blasphemy should be strengthened to remove the loopholes the courts have created," Christian Voice's national director, Stephen Green, said in an interview. "This is all part of a move by the atheists to turn us into a secular state." The case of the teacher in Sudan, Gillian Gibbons, ended with a pardon and release after eight days in custody, negotiated in part by Muslim members of the British Parliament. Gibbons said in a statement that she had "great respect for the Muslim religion" and had intended no offense when she allowed her students to choose a name for the bear, but protesters in Sudan continued to call for punishing her. The Church of England has cautiously elected not to oppose abolishing the British law, though senior clerics have emphasized that any change in the law should not be seen as a move toward secularism. == Animal sacrifice is pure barbarism. What kind of a god would want animals butchered just to keep him happy? == In Genesis God used to walk & talk in person with people like Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel & Abraham, but by the time of Moses, He appears only in voice-over from burning bushes or roiling clouds on mountaintops. == As Church Father Tertullian said, "I believe precisely because it is absurd". And then there's Luther, "Who would be a Christian, must rip the eyes out of his reason." == Germany suffered more mass devastation in the Thirty Years War of 1618-48 than it did during World War II. == Mythic Origins of the Easter Story In this post about the mythic origins of Easter, Valerie Tarico , author of The Dark Side, interviews Dr. Tony Nugent, scholar of world religions and mythology. Dr. Nugent is a symbologist, an expert in ancient symbols. He has taught at Seattle University for the past fifteen years in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies and is a Presbyterian minister. Tarico: Easter is coming. Some people are saying that the crucifixion and resurrection narratives simply retell the cycle of seasons, the death and return of the Sun. Others say that these stories are literal histories. But you say the reality is more complicated than either of these. You argue that the Easter stories the death and resurrection of Jesus have very specific mythic origins. Nugent: I view the story of Christ in the Gospels of the New Testament as a powerful and spiritually wise sacred story. While the story is told as if it happened, it is a theologically and mythically constructed history. The conclusion of the story, the account of Christ's crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to heaven, has many layers. But at its core I would say it is an historicized version of a very ancient myth from Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilization, the land we today call Iraq. Tarico: What does that mean? Nugent: Some stories speak to people in a deep spiritual way. These sacred stories are what are called "myths" in the field of religious studies. Despite our common usage, a myth traditionally is not just a false tale. Rather, it is a story that, at least at one point in time, had a very powerful spiritual resonance. The story of death and resurrection I refer to is one such story. In the Sumerian tradition, in which much of the Bible is rooted, the story is called, From the Great Above to the Great Below. It is also called "The Descent of Inanna." The Sumerian goddess Inanna is the personification of the planet Venus and a major deity in the Sumerian pantheon. There is also a Babylonian version of the myth, which is called "The Descent of Ishtar." Tarico: Let's hear the story! Nugent: A long, long time ago, before humans were even created, Inanna, the "Queen of Heaven," took a journey to the Underworld, a realm under the control of her sister Ereshkigal. She says she's doing this to attend a funeral, but her real motivation is unclear. Before heading out Inanna gives instructions to her assistant about rescuing her if she runs into trouble, which she does. As she descends down through seven gates to get to the underworld city where Ereshkigal's palace is located. Tarico: I cant help but notice that the number seven is a sacred, just like it will be later in the Bible. Nugent: Yes, the sacred numbers in the Bible such as 7, 3, and 12 all have their roots in these ancient Sumerian and Akkadian cultures. Anyways, Inanna instructed by the gatekeepers to take off one article of clothing at each gate in order to pass through. She thus arrives naked at her destination, where she is arrested, put on trial by the judges of the Underworld, convicted of an undisclosed crime, sentenced to death, tortured, and hung on a wooden stake. The result of her death is that the earth becomes sterile. Plants start drying up, and animals cease having sexual relations. Unless something is done all life on earth will end. After Inanna has been hanging on the stake for 3 days her assistant realizes her mistress is in trouble and goes to the other gods for help. First to Enlil, then to Nanna, and neither of them will help. Then she goes to Enki (the precursor of Yahweh), who creates from his fingernails two creatures who take the plant and water of life down to the Underworld, sprinkle them on Inanna, and bring her back to life and to the upper world. Tarico: So Inanna is the prototype for Jesus in the Easter story? Nugent: Not quite. She is part of the prototype. After Inanna gets out of the underworld we are introduced to her husband Dimuzi. When mythic stories get passed from one culture to the next, sometimes one character can split into two or two characters come together. In this case, the Jesus of the resurrection story blends parts of Inanna and Dimuzi. Tarico: Ok, let's hear about Dimuzi. Nugent: The Underworld has a number of names, including "the Great Earth" and "the Great City", and it is also called the "Land of No Return." If, by chance, as a result of an extraordinary resurrection from the dead, someone does escape from there the rule is that a substitute must be provided. So when Inanna comes up she searches for a substitute. She doesn't want to send anyone who has been missing her and mourning her down there, but when she finds her husband Dumuzi on his throne and totally unconcerned about her being gone, she decides that he will be her substitute. He protests vigorously and is helped to escape by his brother-in-law Utu, the Sun-god. But then a compromise is agreed upon, whereby Dumuzi will be required to spend 6 months of every year in the Underworld, and for the other 6 months his devoted sister will substitute for him. Life and fertility thus return to the earth. And that's how the story ends. Tarico: Six months up and six down. Now I am reminded of Persephone. Nugent: Yes, and many other dying and rising gods that represent the cycle of the seasons. In Christianity one way the story changes is that it is detached from this agricultural cycle. The dying happens just once. Tarico: But this story of Inanna/Ishtar is the oldest, the prototype? Nugent: It is one of the earliest epic myths recorded. We know this story because it has been found inscribed on cuneiform clay tablets dug up from the sands of Iraq by archaeologists, and because linguists have deciphered the Sumerian language and provided translations in English. This was a popular myth, and so we have multiple copies of it, or of portions of it. The earliest tablets inscribed with this story date to the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC, and it is thought to have been originally formulated about 2100 BC, i.e., 4200 years ago. Tarico: Lay it out for us. How do you see this being a prototype for the story of Christ's death and resurrection? Nugent: Let's start with the first part of the myth. Inanna and Jesus both travel to a big city, where they are arrested by soldiers, put on trial, convicted, sentenced to death, stripped of their clothes, tortured, hung up on a stake, and die. And then, after 3 days, they are resurrected from the dead. Now there are, to be sure, a number of significant differences between the stories. For one thing, one story is about a goddess and the other is about a man who is thought to be a god. But this is a specific pattern, a mythic template. When you are dealing with the question of whether these things actually happened, you have to deal with the fact that there is a mythic template here. It doesnt mean that there wasnt a real person, Jesus, who was crucified, but rather that that event is structured and embellished in accordance with a pattern that was very ancient and widespread. Tarico: So what about the 2nd part of the myth? Nugent: The 2nd part of the Inanna myth really focuses on her husband Dumuzi. Dumuzi is the prototype of the non-aggressive, non-heroic male; he cries easily; he is the opposite of the warrior-god in the ancient pantheon. The summer month which corresponds to our month of July is named after him in both the Babylonian and Hebrew calendars, and during this month each year his followers, mostly women, mourn his death. From this myth we are talking about, and from a few other references, we also know that he is resurrected. But unlike Jesus, who dies and is resurrected once, he is imagined to die and be resurrected over and over, each year. There are other major differences. However, there really are a lot of similarities between the personalities and the stories of Jesus and Dumuzi. They both are tortured and die violent deaths after being betrayed by a close friend, who accepts a bribe from his enemies. They both have a father who is a god and a mother who is human. Dumuzi's father, the god Enki, also has many similarities to Yahweh, the father of Jesus. Tarico: Other than this gospel story, are there any other signs of Inanna's influence on Christianity or on Easter? Nugent: There are a few points I would mention. Inanna becomes known outside of Mesopotamia by her Babylonian name, "Ishtar". She is a personification of Venus as an evening star, and there is also a male aspect of the deity who is usually the morning star. At the end of the Book of Revelation when Christ speaks to John he says, "I am the bright morning star." In ancient Canaan Ishtar is known as Astarte, and her counterparts in the Greek and Roman pantheons are known as Aphrodite and Venus. In the 4th Century, when Christians got around to identifying the exact site in Jerusalem where the empty tomb of Jesus had been located, they selected the spot where a temple of Aphrodite (Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna) stood. So they tore it down and built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest church in the Christian world. Also, our holiday of Easter was traditionally called 'Pascha', and still is in many languages, named after the Jewish festival of 'Pesach' or Passover. In the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon world we have, however, come to name the holiday 'Easter'. This name is almost surely a reflex of the goddess Ishtar. In the pagan spiritual traditions of Germany and England in the medieval period Ishtar, who came to be called the goddess Easter, and who as a deity of resurrection and rebirth became strongly associated with the season of springtime and ultimately gave her name to Christianity's main holy day. Tarico: No rudeness intended, but how can you call yourself a Christian? Rev. Mark Driscoll, at Mars Hill megachurch in Seattle told his congregation: If the resurrection of Christ didnt literally happen, there is no reason for us to be here. Nugent: Well, many Christian theologians see the crucifixion and resurrection as a spiritual story about hope beyond despair, redemption and new life, but they are not the ones who get the media attention. I consider myself to be a Christian in a spiritual sense, not in a doctrinal sense. This means my Christianity is defined by values, spiritual practices, and faith rather than belief in a specific set of doctrinal agreements. Before the 4th Century orthodoxy was established Christianity was characterized by heterodoxy -- many different forms of belief. If the resurrection of Christ didn't literally happen, or if there is no life beyond this one, that has no bearing for me on whether life now is worth living. Nor is Christianity for me the only true religion. I think Judaism, Islam, and other faith traditions are just as true and holy as Christianity. From my vantage, where values and practices are the heart of Christianity, what is strange to me is how people like our president who think it's ok to practice torture can sincerely call themselves Christians. Like the bumper sticker says, Who would Jesus waterboard? If Christs torture and crucifixion mean anything, I think they mean that we should put an end to such practices in human affairs. Right-wing evangelical Christianity is really the opposite of what Christ was about. The intolerant and arrogant form of Christianity is in a real sense, to me, the religion of the Antichrist. == 2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: == According to the "dominionist" preachers, theologians and politicians the only ones who have the right to enter Heaven are those who submit unquestioningly to their authority. Democrats, liberals, pro-choice advocates, gays, believers in evolution and nonbelievers in the Rapture need not apply. And, when America is made truly "Christian," there will be no place for them at all. == Catholics Lose More Faithful Than Any Other Group In the marketplace of American faith, Catholicism is the big loser. Catholics have lost more members to other faiths, or to no faith at all, than any other U.S. religion, according to the new survey released by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The survey, based on interviews with 35,000 U.S. adults, found that 31 percent of Americans were raised Catholic, but only 24 percent still identify as Catholic. Perhaps more worrisome for church leaders, while 2.6 percent of Americans converted to Catholicism, four times as many -- 10.1 percent -- of cradle Catholics have left for another faith or no faith at all. Roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics, the study reported. Still, despite the loss, Catholics remain steady at one in four of all Americans, the nation's single largest religious group. That stability is fueled in part, researchers said, by waves of Hispanic immigrants, much like generations of Irish and Italians built up the church in earlier generations. "It may well be that a factor in the Catholic numbers are the repeated waves of immigration," said John Green, senior fellow at the Pew Forum. The study found that almost half of all immigrants coming to U.S. shores are Catholics, most of them from Latin American countries. Latinos now represent 45 percent of Catholics aged 18 to 29, but only 20 percent of Catholics in their 50s. Much of Catholicism's loss can be chalked up to previous generations of immigrants who assimilated into American culture and as a result became less faithful to their ethnic identities and religions, Green said. == "One of the monumental ironies of religious discourse can be appreciated in the frequency with which people of faith praise themselves for their humility while condemning scientists and other non-believers for their intellectual arrogance. There is, in fact, no worldview more reprehensible in its arrogance than that of a religious believer: 'the creator of the universe takes an interest in me, loves me, and will reward me after death; my current beliefs, drawn from scripture, will remain as the best statement of the truth until the end of the world; everyone who disagrees with me will spend an eternity in hell....' An average Christian, in an average church, listening to an average Sunday sermon has achieved a level of arrogance simply unimaginable in scientific discourse--and there have been some extremely arrogant scientists." --Sam Harris, in "Letter to a Christian Nation," pp 74-75 == In the Bible, heaven, the seat of God's throne is not hundreds of thousands of miles away, like the moon, nor even tens of thousands. The earth is like God's footstool. Men can build a tower to heaven, as at Babel. Stars can fall to earth. The dome over the earth upon which God walks & sits in the Bible, operating the floodgates in the dome to let rain fall to earth from the waters above, is not even a thousand miles above the flat earth, nor a hundred. It might be less than ten. It's close enough so that people look like grasshoppers. You can compute the distance. == Matthew 24:34 "...This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" == It is a fact that the stars do not fall to earth, for instance, as they are in danger of doing, according to scripture. Nor does rain fall from a reservoir of water above a solid dome through floodgates operated by God, nor snow, sleet or hail from their storerooms outside the dome. Nor does the sun pass over the earth then hurry back to his place of rising by traveling under the water below the earth. == Genesis is a reworking of much older myths. The Hebrew author of Genesis 1 substituted "Elohim", literally "the gods" for Babylonian Marduk & Canaanite Ba'al, although "Elohim" is also a Canaanite word, since Ugaritic, Phoenician & Hebrew (plus Arabic) are closely related West Semitic languages. === Job 22:14 "Thick clouds are a covering to Him, that He seeth not; and He walketh in the circuit of heaven." (KJV) == The word in question, "circuit or compass", spelled consonantally "chwg" & pronounced "khoog", clearly does not mean sphere, since the Hebrew word for ball, "rwd", is used elsewhere in Isaiah (Chap 22, Verse 18) & would have been employed here if that's what they really meant. == Joseph Smith, Jr. instructed, "The inhabitants of the moon are more of a uniform size than the inhabitants of the earth, being about six feet in height. They dress very much like the Quaker style and are quite general in style or the one fashion of dress. They live to be very old; coming generally, near a thousand years." "Who can tell us of the inhabitants of this little planet that shines of an evening, called the moon? When we view its face we may see what is termed "the man in the moon," and what some philosophers declare are the shadows of mountains. But these sayings are very vague, and amount to nothing; and when you inquire about the inhabitants of that sphere you find that the most learned are as ignorant in regard to them as the most ignorant of their fellows. So it is with regard to the inhabitants of the sun. Do you think it is inhabited? I rather think it is. Do you think there is any life there? No question of it; it was not made in vain." from a sermon given on July 24, 1870, LDS Church President Brigham Young == http://freedomainradio.com/religion.html Introduction to Religion My shows on the nature of religion seek to establish several claims that are often upsetting to people. I don't expect you to accept these assertions at first glance, of course. In a series of podcasts on superstition, I use reason and evidence to establish, prove and back up each one of these claims. 1. Religion is no different from any other superstition. 2. Religion is as destructive as any other child-indoctrinating cult. 3. Telling children that sky-ghosts exist, are always watching and judging them, and will send them to hell for disobedience, is child abuse. 4. There is no more chance that God exists than square circles or leprechauns exist. 5. By any objective moral standard, the fictional deity of the Old Testament is stone evil - genocidal, vain, vindictive and vengeful. 6. The Bible approves the following actions as the highest moral values: * Genocide * Slavery * Rape * Child rape/abuse * Ritual human sacrifice * The murder of innocents * The killing of false prophets and unbelievers * ...and so on. 7. Imagine your horror and disgust if you found my podcasts advocating the above crimes. This is a rational view of the cultish superstitions of religion. There are even uglier details if you look around. 8. Jesus is little better. Since there are no gods, very best that can be said about someone who claims to be the son of a god is that he is merely insane. 9. The Bible commands believers to put atheists to death, both in the Old and New Testaments. The fact that most cultists do not follow these commandments does not excuse their continued allegiance to evil doctrines. You're responsible for staying in the Ku Klux Klan Even if you don't want to kill blacks. 10. In 20 years of debating people, I have never once seen a cultist reject his superstition based on the evil nature of its doctrines. 11. Religious cults have nothing to do with morality or truth, but rather are mere superstitious conformity based on fear of social disapproval and pompous self-righteousness. 12. "Faith" is a synonym for prejudice - willed belief in the direct opposition of reason and evidence. == Benny Hinn leaves Australia $800K richer PROSPEROUS pastor Benny Hinn flew into Brisbane a multimillionaire. He left, 28 hours and three shows later, an estimated $800,000 richer. The Queensland capital was a goldmine for the flamboyant televangelist who left with cash, cheques and the bank account and credit card details of more than 50,000 Australians fans. Some attendees, who travelled from as far away as Hong Kong and Perth, handed over gold earrings and wedding rings instead of cash. An Australian Taxation Office spokeswoman said Pastor Hinn's Australian haul part of an estimated $110 million donated to the World Healing Centre Church each year was seen as a "love offering". "The tax office is unable to comment on individual tax matters," the spokeswoman said. "However gifts received by churches aren't usually tax-exempt unless they're given in a personal capacity. It's a very complicated issue." An Australian Customs Service spokeswoman said Pastor Hinn's visa allowed him to leave the country two hours after his 3pm show on February 16. He travelled aboard his $36 million Gulfstream jet to Auckland, part of a 27-stop world tour expected to generate more than $10 million. The 105,000 Australians who attended Pastor Hinn's shows in 1998 were believed to have donated more than $1 million. Brisbane attendees at his February 15 and 16 shows were urged to give as much as $10,000 each. Conservative estimates place the Australian donations, minus merchandise sales, at $800,000. Pastor Hinn says he is accountable to God and authorities which oversee not-for-profit organisations. But on November 6, the US Senate Committee on Finance announced he would be investigated. Senator Chuck Grassley said he believed Hinn, and other wealthy pastors, had experienced personal gain through tax-exempt work. It was believed Pastor Hinn had profited from financial donations. == Missouri House backs right-to-pray amendment The Missouri House gave preliminary approval Monday to a proposed constitutional amendment that would emphasize the right to pray in any public setting, including public schools. The action came after more than an hour of debate over whether such an amendment would make any difference and whether the names of individual deities should be inserted into the Missouri Constitution. At one point, lawmakers voted to insert into the constitution a citizens right to acknowledge the inerrancy of the Bible.? But they deleted that reference on a subsequent vote. Rep. Ray Salva, a Sugar Creek Democrat, tried to insert a requirement that all sporting events include a time to pray between recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and the start of the event. That proposal was ruled out of order. The sometimes wild maneuvering reflected the feeling of most Democrats that the proposal was nothing more than meaningless verbiage designed to go on the ballot to drive religious conservatives to the polls in November. Republicans, including the proposals sponsor, Rep. Mike McGhee of Odessa, acknowledged that the new wording would not change the law. But McGhee said it was needed to highlight that children had the right to carry Bibles on school buses and could write about Jesus in class. == The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition (Paperback) by Paul Rhodes Eddy (Author), Gregory A. Boyd (Author) John Loftus "Why I Rejected Christianity" == ecc 3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ecc 3:21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal [5] goes down into the earth?" == The Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs came under fire earlier this month for inviting to a conference on terrorism three men who make questionable claims to being former terrorists, and whose message was more about religious conversion than counterterror strategies. Claiming to be reformed Muslim jihadists who have since embraced evangelical Christianity, the three men are being criticized for telling a gathering of cadets and other students that one way to fight terror is by converting the planet's Muslim populationabout a fifth of the world's peopleto Christianity. == Judaism has ha'satan, which is a role played by various members of God's divine court. == http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html == IRS Target Wiley Drake Asks Followers To Engage In Imprecatory Prayers Against "Americans United" Staff Members Controversial Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake has again urged his followers to pray for the deaths of staff members at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Last August, Americans United filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service about Drakes use of church letterhead and a church-based radio program to endorse presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Federal tax law forbids tax-exempt groups from endorsing or opposing candidates for public office. In a Feb. 5 letter, the IRS notified Drake that his First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park is being investigated. In response, Drake issued a Feb. 14 e-mail and website appeal to followers to engage in imprecatory prayers (curses) against Americans United and three of its staff members. Said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director, We deplore Pastor Drakes reckless and repugnant antics. Introducing this kind of religious extremism into American life is reprehensible. We have asked the IRS to investigate what we believe to be Drakes violation of federal tax law, Lynn continued. If Drake thinks he is innocent, he has more than adequate legal representation, and there is ample opportunity to make his case. Trying to turn God into some sort of heavenly hit man is repugnant, Lynn concluded. There is more than a whiff of the Taliban in this action Wrote Drake, In light of the recent attack from the enemies of God I ask the children of God to go into action with Imprecatory Prayer. Especially against Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Specifically target Joe Conn or Jeremy Learing [sic] and their leader Rev. Barry Lynn. They are those who lead the attack. Drake directed his followers to Psalms 109 (as well as Psalms 55, 58, 68, 69 and 83) for examples of imprecatory prayers. Verses from those texts ask God to bring death and destruction to those targeted. Let his days be few; and let another take his office, says one passage. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg. Another passage says, Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell. Drake waged a similar campaign last year after Americans United filed its complaint against him with the IRS. Religious leaders from a wide variety of faiths repudiated the pastors tactic. Drake is a prominent pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention, the nations largest Protestant denomination. He recently completed a term as second vice president of the group, its third highest post. He currently is running for president of the denomination, which became increasingly political after a fundamentalist takeover in the 1980s. == DEUTERONOMY 14:26 "And you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of theLord your God and rejoice, you and your household. -NASB == When a mob of Christian Nitrian monks, perhaps at the instigation of "Saint" Cyril of Alexandria, raged through the streets of Alexandria murdering the neo-platonist scholars, they targeted Hypatia. Hypatia was the quintessential enemy..she was a woman, brilliant, decried mystic BS and encouraged logic, science and math. Books were burned and scholars were killed. We see this same mentality in the "creationist crowd." Make no mistake about it....if they had the freedom to do so today, Most on this list would be a pile of gray ashes and mythological bull would be taught in the schools instead of just at "home-schooling. " Christians have murdered more Jews in one day than the Romans against Christians in the history of the Empire. Jews were scholars, doctors, ethicistswho enforced learning as a mitzvah and actually encouraged debate over religious matters. Learned Christians who questioned myths were dragged before the "Holy Office" and were tortured to "repent" and incinerated. One so threatened for "heresy" was Galileo in 1633 for claiming the sun was the center of the solar system. It was only 359 years later, in 1992, that Pope John Paul II said "ooops!" History demonstrates that this idiotic stance against evolution by religious morons will continue for at least another 500 years. == Kjv James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: == In Summa Theologica, for instance, written between 1265 and 1274, Thomas Aquinas produced five arguments for the existence of God, one of which was the "argument of design." Aquinas said that an intelligent being whom we call God guides natural bodies. == Genesis 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. (KJV) == The Salem Witch Trials in 1692 resulted in 18 hangings and one man being crushed to death. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm == Joseph Smith had the first Book of Mormon printed in 1830. == Stalin OUTLAWED Darwin's theory, condemned Darwinists to exile in horrific places, and legally mandated an anti-Darwinian "theory" known as Lysenkoism? Yes, he was clearly a committed Darwinist!!!??? This would be the Hitler that justified his actions with religious motives and never mentioned evolution once in his works? "The ironic thing for the creationists is that Hitler grounded Aryan superiority as a God-given quality." == kill Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Exodus 12:29 "And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt..." 2 Samuel 12:14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. Isaiah 13:16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Isaiah 13:18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children. Isaiah 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. Numbers 31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. == From "An Historical Sketch of Slavery" (page clvi in the Google Books version): "The Negroes thus imported were generally contented and happy. Careless and mirthful by nature, they were eager to find a master when they reached the shore, and the cruel separations to which they were sometimes exposed, and which for the moment gave them excruciating agony, were forgotten at the sound of their rude musical instruments and in the midst of their noisy dances. The great Architect had framed them both physically and mentally to fill the sphere in which they were thrown, and His wisdom and mercy combined in constituting them thus suited to the degraded position they were destined to occupy. Hence, their submissiveness, their obedience, their contentment. " - Thomas R. Cobb, 1858 == Documenting the ravages from religious intolerance over the centuries, there is a strong case against the three religions for demanding faith, belief, obedience and submission, and for extolling the "next life" at the expense of the here and now. == "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes." --Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, 1813. ME 14:21 == How did Basha build Ramah in the 36th year of Asa when Basha died in the 26th year of Asa? Who captured Debir? Joshua or Othniel? In Genesis 1, Adam is created after the animals; In Genesis 2, he appears before animals. == At a Bethlehem church built over the manger where Jesus was alleged to have been born, two groups of "robed and bearded" Greek Orthodox priests and Armenian priests fought each other for over an hour "using fists, brooms and iron rods as weapons." Seven people were injured in the brawl. == Religious Right Poster Boy: California Pastor Uses Board Position To Plump For Fundamentalism In School The religious poster victory was another effort by Vegas, in his school board capacity, to shove his religion into the faces of teachers, students and administrators of the school district. A California public school board member who is also an evangelical pastor is apparently bent on injecting the schools with his brand of religion an unfortunate mishmash of Religious Right canards and fundamentalism. Chad Vegas, pastor at an evangelical church, the Sovereign Church of Bakersfield, and member of the school board of the 36,000-student Kern High School District, sounded a triumphant note to The Los Angeles Times recently after the district adopted a policy of festooning its classrooms and offices with an In God We Trust poster. Were not going to accept the agenda of some radical leftists who want to expunge God from public dialogue, Vegas said after the Kern school board voted 4-1 in favor of the In God We Trust policy. Instead, were teaching our citizens including our children that the very foundation of government is that God gave them unalienable rights that cannot be usurped by the will of the majority or anyone else. The religious poster victory was another effort by Vegas, in his school board capacity, to shove his religion into the faces of teachers, studentsand administrators of the school district. And members of the community and media who are taking notice should probably not be terribly surprised. The Bakersfield Californian reported that when Vegas campaigned for a seat on the board in 2004, half of his contributors were from his church. Part of the churchs mission, according to its Web site, is to help people to catch a glimpse of the vision of the Glory of Christ so that you might delight in Him, develop in your understanding of Him, and declare Him in all things to all peoples. Trying to encourage people to see Christ is something Vegas takes seriously and in this nation has the freedom to do so robustly. But it is troubling that hes also taking advantage of his seat on the Kern school board to plump for his religious beliefs. Hes using that position to great effect, so far. And Vegas in a blog that can be accessed via his churchs Web site, called The Foolish Preacher, meanders on about his school board work and solicits input. The Bakersfield newspaper reported that in early October, the pastor posted and item asking his readers what they think about his proposal to adorn the Kern schools with In God We Trust posters. Last fall he successfully steered through the board a measure that required calendars used in all the districts schools refer to winter recess as Christmas recess and spring recess as Easter recess. After that policy was adopted, Vegas again crowed to the media that hewasnt buying the secular atheist agenda that we should expunge all religious dialogue from the public forum. And in 2005, Vegas unsuccessfully tried to force the neo-creationist intelligent design package to be taught in all the high schools biology classes. After his God-poster victory in November, Vegas told a reporter with The Los Angeles Times that he still thought evolution is nonsense and that he remained open to another push for intelligent design. The only board member to vote against plastering Kern schools walls with the In God We Trust poster was its president Bob Hampton, who told his colleagues that the spiritual side of the student belongs in the home and in the church not in the school. Was it a subtle suggestion to Vegas as well? No doubt Kern students would be better off if pastor Vegas would cease using his perch on the school board to push a Religious Right agenda. == Sheesh. Another bit from the Blumenthal piece in The Nation links Robertson to Colson through a GOP representative. Who could have foreseen they were connected? Here's the paragraph I originally pulled, with the next two presented in the order of the original article. Right under our noses, they're building an American kleptocracy under cover of "Christian charity". Far from the media's gaze, Robertson has used the tax-exempt, nonprofit Operation Blessing as a front for his shadowy financial schemes, while exerting his influence within the GOP to cover his tracks. In 1994 he made an emotional plea on The 700 Club for cash donations to Operation Blessing to support airlifts of refugees from the Rwandan civil war to Zaire (now Congo). Reporter Bill Sizemore of The Virginian Pilot later discovered that Operation Blessing's planes were transporting diamond-mining equipment for the African Development Corporation, a Robertson-owned venture initiated with the cooperation of Zaire's then- dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. After a lengthy investigation, Virginia's Office of Consumer Affairs determined that Robertson "willfully induced contributions from the public through the use of misleading statements and other implications. " Yet when the office called for legal action against Robertson in 1999, Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley, a Republican, intervened with his own report, agreeing that Robertson had made deceptive appeals but overruling the recommendation for his prosecution. Two years earlier, while Virginia's investigation was gathering steam, Robertson donated $35,000 to Earley's campaign--Earley' s largest contribution. With Earley's report came a sense of vindication. "From the very beginning," Robertson claimed, "we were trying to provide help and assistance to those who were facing disease and death in the war- torn, chaotic nation of Zaire." (Earley is now president of Prison Fellowship Ministries, an evangelical social-work organization founded by born-again, former Nixon dirty-trickster Charles Colson. PFM has accepted White House faith-based- initiative money and is currently engaged in hurricane relief efforts in Louisiana. Earley remains a close ally of Robertson.) [end of excerpt - go read the whole darn thing at, http://www.thenatio n.com/doc/ 20050919/ blumenthal] == Rapture. For some unexplainable reason, it is now the 1,974th year in succession that rapture has failed to materialise. God is clearly saving it for fundies. == The motivation for soul in the first place was to explain the things now covered by neurobiology. == At one point Catholics were attacking Daltonian chemistry because it undercut the form-substance distinction of Thomism... == Creator Reminder An Algonquin myth tells of when Nanahbozho, creator of the Earth, had finished his task of the creation, he traveled to the north, where he remained. He built large fires, of which the northern lights are the reflections, to remind his people that he still thinks of them. == Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life. This verse quite clearly authorizes the taking, buying, and selling of slaves. ...totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys == Benny Hinn curses all those who speak against his ministry Yes, Lord, I 'll do it. I place a curse on every man and every woman that will stretch his hand against this anointing. I curse that man who dares to speak a word against this ministry. - Benny Hinn == According to the Jewish account of Creation Adam was created in 3761 BC. == The Christ Myth, Arthur Drews, 1910; Pagan Christs, J.M. Robertson, 1903. == English Revised Version They fought from heaven, the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. == Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: == 1560 = The Geneva Bible was the first Bible to add numbered verses to the chapters, so that referencing specific passages would be easier. == Einstein religion http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/spinoza.html http://www.einsteinandreligion.com/personal.html http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/einstein/einsci.htm == Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God.--Martin Luther == Huckabee has a Christmas ad out, in which he says that "what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ." == Numbers 22 28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? (KJV) Numbers 22 23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way. (KJV) == F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents, Are they Reliable? == "God's Strategy in Human History" by Forster and Marston == Moses and the Egyptian priests had a battle. The Egyptians threw their sticks down, and their gods turned them into snakes. Moses threw his stick down, and the Israel god turned his stick into a snake, which ate the Egyptian gods's snake. Rod of Aaron devours the other rods. == Most Americans consider themselves quite religious. And yes, fundamentalists and evangelicals are very appealing to a lot of people because (a) as you point out, they have a certainty about their lives that the rest of us may or may not have, and (b) they are joined in a community of like-minded people. This combination is hard to beat, especially when atheists appear not to have such a community. It was easy to see the unholy allure of fundamentalism: all questions are suddenly answered, all doubts vanish, you never have to wonder and worry about things anymore, and you have literally millions of friends all over the planet. But these people are not idiots. They are ignorant about science, but they are not ignorant about social and political organization, and devastatingly effective propaganda techniques. And they will not hesitate to use democracy to bring an end to democracy. We seem to be living in interesting times. == Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. === The crescent moon and star are used as symbols of Islam. However, these were not adopted until the mid 15th century and the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. Most of the Arab armies would have carried black, green or white flags. == Weinstein is certain that fundamentalists will stop at nothing to transform the United States military into an army of God. He notes that Officers Christian Fellowship, with chapters in every major U.S. military installation in the world, envisions-and here he quotes its mission statement-a "spiritually transformed military, with ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit." The group has helped boost fundamentalist Christianity among the armed forces from a negligible presence 20 years ago to a faith currently held by 30 percent of U.S. soldiers, according to Weinstein. He adds that many of those soldiers-hardcore end-timers and Dominionists-desperately want America to invade Iran, thereby triggering the biblical prophecy of the Rapture. This summer he uncovered plans by the Pentagon to ship "freedom packages" to soldiers in Iraq that were to contain Bibles, proselytizing material in English and Arabic, and Left Behind: Eternal Forces, a video game inspired by post-Rapture novels in which "soldiers for Christ" hunt enemies who look suspiciously like U.N. peacekeepers. Partly due to Weinstein's efforts, the packages were never sent. "It's not just the Holocaust or the inquisition or the pogroms or the nine-count 'em: nine-crusades," Weinstein cautions. "It's everything that's happened since then. Whenever a virulent form of any faith has engaged the machinery of the state, in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, we have ended up with tidal waves of blood." And so Weinstein is laying sand bags. He has fielded more than 6,000 complaints from soldiers who claim to have been persecuted by Christian evangelicals; 95 percent of the complaints come from mainstream Christians. Tipsters helped him catch uniformed military officers publicly endorsing an evangelical group and ferret out an anti-Semitic Bible study guide on an army base website. In September, he shunted many of the complaints into a massive lawsuit against the Department of Defense. His lead plaintiff, U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Hall, alleges that a major at Iraq's Speicher base threatened to block his reenlistment in the Army in retaliation for organizing a meeting of atheists. A then-Democrat, now-Republican who represented Reagan during the Iran-contra affair, Weinstein criticizes the former president for creating an opening for evangelical Christians in the military, but excoriates George W. Bush for dropping the floodgates. Bush, he says, is a "suboptimal human being." The Military Religious Freedom Foundation's supporters include refugees of the Bush years such as David Iglesias (one of the U.S. attorneys dismissed this year) and Ambassador Joe Wilson (husband of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame). "A lot of the anecdotal evidence that Mikey told me I found very troubling from a constitutional perspective," said Iglesias, who is an evangelical Christian. Wilson cites security implications: "They are proselytizing not on behalf of the Constitution of the United States and the national security interests of our country," he said, "but rather on behalf of some sort of fanatical view of end times. And they are using our army to affect that." For Weinstein, the battle has been personal from the start. In 1973, during his freshman year at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, he repeatedly found anonymous anti-Semitic notes in his dorm room. He had nearly forgotten the experience when his son, Curtis, entered the Air Force Academy in 2003 and discovered that strains of anti-Semitism had metastasized. (By then Colorado Springs had come to be known as the "Vatican of the Religious Right" for its concentration of evangelicals.) Cadets and officers targeted Curtis Weinstein on eight or nine separate occasions during his freshman year with anti-Jewish remarks. During a football game, an upperclassman reportedly asked, "How does it make you feel to know that you killed Jesus Christ?" That year Mikey Weinstein tried to work with the academy's leadership to reform its religious culture, but he faced disinterest from high-ranking Generals. That's when he gave up on diplomacy and launched the foundation. It began as a two-person operation in 2005 run out of his home. (He currently employs the equivalent of 25 full-time workers.) Due to his agitating that year, the air force investigated the Colorado Springs academy and substantiated many of the foundation's early findings: Football coach Fisher DeBerry had hung a "Team Jesus" banner in a locker room; Brigadier General Johnny Weida had taught a class a "J for Jesus" hand signal; and 250 faculty members and officers had signed a campus newspaper advertisement declaring, "We believe that Jesus Christ is the only real hope in the world." Since then, the academy has created a mandatory training session on religious sensitivity, a cadet interfaith council, and a religious pamphlet for commanders. Still, Weinstein says, it has spawned a generation or more of evangelical Christians who promote their faith with impunity in the Air Force at large. Take the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, which he claims makes the academy look like the ACLU. Reportedly, at a mandatory retirement ceremony, a lieutenant colonel opened a Bible at the podium and used the occasion to conduct a sermon. (A spokesperson for the base did not respond to a request for comment.) Weinstein continues his aggressive fight. In October, he returned to the Air Force Academy and delivered the invocation at his 30th class reunion. As he began speaking, a classmate stood up and screamed, "Jesus Christ!" Weinstein just kept talking. This month his foes discovered that he'd held a fundraiser for the foundation at the Los Angeles home of activist Jodie Evans. A few days after, Evans received a bomb threat in the mail. Weinstein long ago stopped believing that evangelicals in the military will grow more tolerant or less militant when faced with calm talk and logical reasoning. The Constitution is the only weapon there is against them, he says, and he has faith that it's a powerful one. "If you don't agree with me," he often scoffs, "then tell it to the judge." == When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy's body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. == rev 4:4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. == 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 == The Greeks invented science, not the Jews. When (Saint) Paul landed in Greece, he was laughed at, because his entire viewpoint was based on Dogma, not based on rational discourse. The Bible contains multiple mathematic errors, not to mention multiple highly questionable moral positions. Without Greece and Rome, we would live in a non-scientific world based totally on dogma and superstition. Who persecuted Galileo, relgious people ? Logically, the foundation of modern science is ancient Greek philosophy, particularly the secular, this-worldly philosophy of Aristotle. It was only after classical philosophy was rediscovered in Europe that science was able to bloom. == One person saying there were 500 unamed, unplaced, undated witnesses is still only one man's claim. == Philo never mentioned Jesus but visited Jersalem in that time period. == rev 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. == The King James Only Controversy: Can You Trust the Modern Translations? by James White (Paperback - Mar 1, 1995) == Hector Avalos "The End of Biblical Studies" Marshall McLuhan, of "the medium is the message fame," used to say that his books did not sell well, because they contained more than the 25% of new material that most books did. For most people, "The End of Biblical Studies," a new book by Hector Avalos, Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, will contain material that is at least 75% new to them, even though much of what Professor Avalos has to say has been well known within the Religious Studies community for many years. What Avalos brings to this book is incredible scholarship, remarkable attention to detail, and, most of all, willingness to tell it like it is. A variety of scholars, among them Bart Ehrman, William Dever, John Dominic Crossan, have been busy popularizing what translators, literary critics, and biblical archeologists, have been saying for years. Much to the distress of fundamentalists, there is no single definitive text of the Bible, the Bible has no claims to distinctive literary merits, and the extensive archeological research of the last hundred years has done nothing but puncture holes in the hope of establishing any claims anyone might have that the Bible is in any way historically accurate. (Avalos has an excellent section pointing to the radical discrepancy between the Big Bang theory and the origins account of Genesis.) Avalos, who has a Ph.D. from Harvard in Biblical Studies, points out that few people even in very religious America, really read the Bible, and even fewer have anything but a bowdlerized grasp of what is really there. His erudition in this regard is exceptional, taking apart the popular softenings of texts like Luke 14:25: "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother...cannot be my disciple." Christian exegetes have soft-pedaled this, but the text really does say "hate," a verb that has no other possible translation. (One Christian exegete says: "this is indeed a hard saying.") What does Professor Avalos hope to accomplish? As he says: "Our purpose is to excise from modern life what little of the Bible is being used and also to eliminate the potential use of any sacred scripture in the modern world." Jews and Christians are quick to find quotations in the Koran that relate to killing of the infidels, but are eager to pass over all those references to slaughter of the innocents that occur in various books of the Bible. Avalos makes the case that the Bible was written by primitive people in a cultural context so foreign to our own that the Bible no longer makes sense. "What I seek is liberation from the very idea that any sacred text should be an authority for modern human existence." He refers constantly to the "bibliolatry" that has gotten us into so much trouble historically, and laments that the publishing industry and academia have such a vested interest in keeping such a form of idol worship alive. "Abolishing human reliance on sacred texts is imperative when those sacred texts imperil the existence of human civilization as it is currently configured. The letter can kill. That is why the only mission of biblical studies should be to end biblical studies as we know it." This is an extremely well written book, but written at a sufficiently popular level that even someone not well versed in biblical studies can benefit from it. Even those who read the Bible continually will find at least 25% new material, and everyone who reads it will come away with 100% satisfaction. You may not agree with what Professor Avalos concludes, but his well-put together arguments deserve your thoughtful attention. == The brain develops from the back to the front. The back of the brain is the more primitive part of the brain, and the front of the brain is the more developed part, the more sophisticated part. So the last part of the brain to come on line is that prefrontal cortex, which is literally in the front." Children are unable to judge theology ideas. == 1956 "In God We Trust" replaces "E Pluribus Unum" as national motto in July == "The Neuropsychological bases of god beliefs" Dr. Michael A. Persinger MD, psychiatrist 1987 "Religious people are just like my temporal lobe patients" "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bi-Cameral Mind" Julian Jaynes Professor, Harvard University 1976 "Religious people are just like schizophrenic patients" "The Psychiatric Interview in Clinical Practice" Roger A. MacKinnon, M.D., Robert Michels, M.D. W. B. Saunders Co. 1971 "Religiosity is a common symptom [of] schizophrenic patients" "The God delusion" by Richard Dawkins. "Religion is caused by a kind of computer virus that infects the living computer, the human brain." "The Science of Good and Evil" by Michael Shermer, 2004 "Morality and Ethics are now in the jurisdiction of Science and greatly improved thereby." "God: The Failed Hypothesis" byVictor Stenger Scientific proof that god does not exist. "The Accidental Mind" by David J. Linden, 2007. No INTELLIGENT designer could have had anything to do with such a klugey brain. "Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism" edited by Petto & Godfrey, 2007. The ID and creationist crowd are trying to do away with science. They see science as a "godless religion." The creationists are wrong. Science is a method, not a religion. == Matthew 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? "The Accidental Mind" by David J. Linden, 2007 Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Religion is caused by the extreme klugeyness of the "designed" by evolution brain. In particular, the narrative creation system cannot be turned off. It generates false narratives that are believed by the generating person. This is seen in experiments done in the laboratory. This book has the best explanation of resistance to evolution: "There has also been an assumption that if one accepts the idea that life developed without divine intervention, it necessarily follows that all aspects of religious thought must be rejected. Those who take this line of argument to extremes argue that when religious thought is rejected moral and social codes will degenerate and "the law of the jungle" will be all that is left. It is imagined by religious fundamentalists that those who do not share their particular religious faith are incapable of leading moral lives." These suppositions are not true many times over. Linden later mentions that the creationists [intelligent design advocates] are exactly 180 degrees wrong rather than just a little wrong. Being exactly wrong, they are unable to unlearn their error. See Sociobiology or Sciobio. If you want to know the TRUTH about life, the universe, humanity or anything else, your only real choice is to go to college and get a degree in science. If you want to know where the universe came from, you will need a post doctoral degree in physics. If you want to know how mankind originated, get a degree in biology. If you want to know about morals and ethics, study sociobiology. Science is a method, NOT a religion. We are devolving. The end of the world scenarios predicted by those of the christian faith have become more guideline and roadmap than prophecy. Fanatical christians and other religions along with their mindless, panicky flocks have taken and will take, methodical steps to overthrow anyone and any group that doesn't agree with their doctrines, including lying, bullying, condemning, ostracizing and murdering, (all very unchristian activities) to ensure the success of the death of free thought and the right to question (something Jesus encouraged,) in the name of a book rewritten to fit political disgusting agendas for untold centuries, starting with creating a martyr and spokesman out of the very person they had killed. Someone who spoke of peace, tolerance and acceptance. All those things that interfere with profit from fear, control through fear and war. Our biggest mistake as a species was inventing the concept of good and evil. We really ran with that ball. == Matthew 24:37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Matthew 24:38 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; == The archbishop, his brother and the church are being sued by former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk admitted to the affair in front of the church last January. == Physicist Steven Weinberg: "Those who seek extra-scientific messages in what they think they understand about modern physics are digging dry wells." == God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist by Victor J. Stenger == The apparatus of the State has always found religion a magnificent and efficient tool to either rally or subdue the hoi polloi. == The Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1909 gives the following answer, which has never been withdrawn in any way since 1909. James Stenson says the official document states that the literal historical meaning of the first three chapters of Genesis could not be doubted in regard to: 1.) the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time 2.) the special creation of man 3.) the formation of the first woman from the first man 4.) the unity of the human race 5.) the original happiness of our first parents in the state of justice, integrity, and immortality 6.) the command given by God to man to test his obedience 7.) the transgression of the divine command at the instigation of the devil under the form of a serpent 8.) the degradation of our first parents from that primeval state of innocence 9.) the promise of a future redeemer. == As early as 1636, the English settlers engaged in a genocidal campaign to wipe out the Pequot tribe. In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford described the carnage wrought by the Puritans as a "sweet sacrifice" and "gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully." == The people who do best in a crisis/survival situation are those who keep their wits about them and act coolly and deliberately, and take precise steps towards their survival goal. People who depend on their emotional feelings, and who fatalistically and passively put things "in the hands of god", don't do well at all. == Plato said afterlife beliefs were necessary, otherwise you could not get soldiers to die for causes. == "I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs." -- Bertrand Russell, "Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?" (1954) == "It is quite likely, though certainly by no means definitively provable, that the central figure of the gospels is not based on any historical individual. Put simply, not only is the theological "Christ of faith" a synthetic construct of theologians, a symbolic "Uncle Sam" figure, but if you could travel through time, like Superboy, and you went back to First-Century Nazareth, you would not find a Jesus living there. In broad outline and in detail, the life of Jesus as portrayed in the gospels corresponds to the worldwide Mythic Hero Archetype in which a divine hero's birth is supernaturally predicted and conceived, the infant hero escapes attempts to kill him, demonstrates his precocious wisdom already as a child, receives a divine commission, defeats demons, wins acclaim, is hailed as king, then betrayed, losing popular favor, executed, often on a hilltop, and is vindicated and taken up to heaven. These features are found world wide in heroic myths and epics. The more closely a supposed biography, say that of Hercules, Apollonius of Tyana, Padma Sambhava, of Gautama Buddha, corresponds to this plot formula, the more likely the historian is to conclude that a historical figure has been transfigured by myth. And in the case of Jesus Christ, where virtually every detail of the story fits the mythic hero archetype, with nothing left over, no "secular," biographical data, so to speak, it becomes arbitrary to assert that there must have been a historical figure lying back of the myth. Specifically, the passion stories of the gospels strike me as altogether too close to contemporary myths of dying and rising savior gods including Osiris, Tammuz, Baal, Attis, Adonis, Hercules, and Asclepius. Like Jesus, these figures were believed to have once lived a life upon the earth, been killed, and risen shortly thereafter. Their deaths and resurrections were in most cases ritually celebrated each spring to herald the return of the life to vegetation. In many myths, the savior's body is anointed for burial, searched out by holy women and then reappear alive a few days later." -- Robert M Price, "Christ a Fiction" (1997) == Ecclesiastes 3:18-22 (King James Version) 18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. 19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. 20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth? 22 Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him? == Up to 100,000 people were burned alive in Europe on suspicion of sorcery, mainly between the 15th and late 17th centuries, according to historians. Eighty percent of them were women. === Religious moderates make the world safe for religious extremists. == Are you over 60? Try and remember word for word what someone said as far back in your memory 60 years or as far as possible. Remember too your words will be taken literally as gospel as soon as the books settle as holy in a council decision for centuries. Better have a photographic mind. == Suppose I'm in Saul's army and I believe that the Amalekite enemy, especially the non-combatants, are not to be slaughtered. Does God honor what I believe? If God tells me to slaughter them but my spiritual sense tells me not to, then how could my spiritual sense have come from God? A Jewish tribe in preIslamic Arabia supposedly had a tradition that they were descended from those who were expelled from Israel for refusing to commit genocide against the Amalekites. Where did they get their spiritual sense that impelled them to refuse to commit genocide? == The unusual writings of R. J. Rushdoony and Gary North, actually want to make the United States a theocracy, with the constitution trumped by the laws in the Bible. == COLOSSIANS 4:1 Masters, grant to your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven. -NASB == Verses 1 & 2: "In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters." This section introduces the whole Pentateuch. It shows how God brought an orderly universe out of primordial chaos. The "abyss" refers to the primordial ocean imagined by ancient Semitic cosmogony. The starting point for the Hebrew version of this cosmogony was the Canaanite variant of the originally Mesopotamian creation myth, in which Canaanite Ba'al Zaphon replaces the Babylonian hero god Marduk, just as Yahweh replaces Ba'al in the Genesis account. Marduk uses the wind as his primary weapon in slaying the sea goddess Tiamat, just as does Ba'al against Yam. The Hebrew word for these primordial waters is also Yam. Canaanite was a West Semitic language closely related to Hebrew. Indeed, Hebrew might be regarded as a dialect of this language, like Phoenician & Ugaritic. Marduk uses the body of the slain Tiamat to make the earth below & the heavens above, as if she were a domed shellfish. Similarly, after Yahweh's creative activity, part of this vast body forms the salt-water seas (Genesis 1:9-10); part of it is the fresh water under the earth (Psalm 33:7; Ezekiel 31:4), which wells forth on the earth as springs and fountains (Genesis 7:11; 8:2; Proverb 3:20). The other part of it, "the upper water" (Psalm 148:4; Daniel 3:60), is held up by the dome of the sky (Genesis 1:6-7), from which rain descends on the earth (Genesis 7:11; 2 Kings 7:2, 19; Psalm 104:13). A mighty wind: literally, "a wind of God," or "a spirit of God"; cf. Genesis 8:1. Thus "wind" is a preferable translation to "spirit". Verses 3-5: "Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." Thus evening came, and morning followed--the first day." In ancient Israel a day was considered to begin at sunset. According to the highly artificial literary structure of Genesis 1:1-2:4a, God's creative activity is divided into six days to teach the sacredness of the sabbath rest on the seventh day in the Israelite religion (Genesis 2:2-3). Interestingly, the Babylonian Enuma Elish, a source for the first of the two Genesis creation stories, was written on seven tablets, the last of which celebrated Marduk's creative activity & victory over chaos, in the form of Tiamat. To imagine anachronistically that this passage in any way refers to the modern "Big Bang" theory of an expanding universe is simply egregiously preposterous & outrageously delusional. Instead of misreading science into Genesis, anyone who actually venerates the presumed word of God should in my opinion more properly rather try to understand what those words actually mean in their original language & culture. As I've noted here before, observe that God's creative acts are a separation of dry land from ocean, of sky from earth, of the waters above from the waters below & of day from night. This too harks back to Marduk's creation of the earth & sky by literally cleaving Tiamat in two. Ba'al similarly divided Yam, using not only the wind but his thunder clubs, as he's the Canaanite equivalent of the Norse storm god Thor, the hammerer. Also as I've posted in this group, it's obvious that the author of Genesis 1 didn't know that night & day result from the earth's spinning on its axis as it goes around the sun, since God has yet to create the sun. Verses 6-8: Then God said, "Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other." And so it happened: God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it. God called the dome "the sky." Evening came, and morning followed--the second day. The Hebrew word "raqiya" refers to something hammered out, as a brass bowl, & indeed elsewhere in the Bible the solid "vault of the heavens" is described as mirror-smooth & metallic (Job 37:18). In the New American Bible, "raqyia" is correctly translated as "dome". It was translated as "stereoma" in the Septuagint, the translation of the OT into Greek by Jewish scholars in third century BC Alexandria, relied upon by the Christian apostles, & as "firmamentum" in Vulgar Latin by Jerome. The firmament was the eighth sphere carrying the fixed stars and surrounding the seven spheres of the planets in the geocentric model of the universe which by then had replaced Babylonian cosmology. All ancient Near East & Mediterranean cultures, including pre-scientific Greeks, thought of the sky as a vault or dome over the earth. To the Egyptians, the sky goddess Nut arched over the earth, protecting its inhabitants. The Canaanites & Mesopotamians conceived of a dome, from which or in which the stars were hung, with openings for the sun & moon to enter the intervening sky, travel above the earth, then exit by other openings, with windows or floodgates which God opened or shut to let rain, snow or hail fall to the land, or not, from the "waters above". He is also pictured as sitting on a throne or walking atop this dome. The Jewish Encyclopaedia describes the Firmament as follows: "The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, swimming on water. Over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars. So slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse." Recall also that the Tower of Babel was supposed to be built to reach the highest heavens. The sun & moon are thought of as celestial beings, subject to punishment for lack of promptness (Book of Enoch). The Bible envisions storehouses for snow & hail outside the dome of heaven (Job 38). The stars are the "Heavenly Host", the campfires of an angelic army (Gen. 32:1-2, Ps. 91:11-12, Jdg. 5:20 & Job 19:12, & also in the NT in Matthew & Revelation). The stars also sing (Job 38). So God's throne atop the dome is surrounded by the waters above just as the earth below it is ringed with salty sea water. Under the earth is fresh water, which bubbles up to the surface in places. To create Noah's flood, God not only opened the floodgates in the dome to let the waters above the earth fall down to it, but also opened up the fountains below the earth to let fresh water well up out of the ground. Verses 10 & 11: "Then God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin, so that the dry land may appear." And so it happened: the water under the sky was gathered into its basin, and the dry land appeared. God called the dry land "the earth," and the basin of the water he called "the sea." God saw how good it was." Not only this conception of land drying out from the primordial seas but various specific passages in both Testaments clearly show that ancient Jews & Christians believed the earth to be flat. Early Church Fathers insisted that the earth was flat, based on its description in the Bible. In "On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis", c. 400 AD, Augustine, the most important of all Christian theologians, inventor to the doctrine of Original Sin (based on his mistranslation of NT Greek), wisely advised believers not to maintain that the Bible teaches a world different from that known to exist by educated pagans, since it hampered the propagation of the faith. The Bible insists repeatedly that the earth is immobile, set firmly on its foundations or pillars, with the possible exception of earthquakes. The biblical earth is also definitely flat, & usually rectangular, having four corners, but once, in Isaiah, it might be described as circular (although it's unclear what is being described in this verse), like a disk rather than a tablet. What it definitely is not is round like a ball, ie spherical, since the author of Isaiah elsewhere uses the Hebrew word for "ball", which is different from "circle", just as in most languages. If it were obvious that the biblical earth is spherical & moves, then why after over 1500 years of Christianity did the Church persecute Galileo for saying that the earth moves? Protestant leaders like Luther & Calvin also ridiculed adherents to the Copernican theory that the earth goes around the sun. Verses 11-13: Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it." And so it happened: the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed and every kind of fruit tree on earth that bears fruit with its seed in it. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed--the third day. Not that any proof be needed to counter the absurd, totally baseless assertion that Genesis 1 describes solar flash & the Big Bang theory, this passage plainly contradicts such a ludicrous claim. If the sun were just starting up but hadn't yet been created, as Genesis clearly states up to this point, then how is it possible for the earth already not only to exist but be bringing forth vegetation, dependent as green plants are upon sunlight? Here we have yet another morning & evening passing with the sun still not in existence, let alone shining upon the earth. Verses 14-19: Then God said: "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky, to separate day from night. Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth." And so it happened: God made the two great lights, the greater one to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night; and he made the stars. God set them in the dome of the sky, to shed light upon the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw how good it was. Evening came, and morning followed--the fourth day. Note again that the author of Genesis 1 regards the sun not as the original source of light, since God let that be on Day One, separating day from night, but merely as a sign marking fixed times. Nor is there any hint of understanding that the moon shines by reflected light from the sun. Like the stars, the sun & moon are set in the dome of the sky, although elsewhere in the Bible they move across the dome, over the earth, then hurry to the place of their rising, as the Egyptians imagined the sun moving under the earth to hasten back to its morning place in the east. It should be clear that reading our present theories of the Big Bang & an expanding universe, 14 billion years old, into this creation myth is execrable science & even worse theology, or biblical exegesis. Why does it only now become suddenly apparent what God was talking about? Why didn't He just describe the origin of the universe as it is now thought to have happened, rather than misleading people all these millennia? As I've posted before, it would surely have been easy for God to have inspired a simplified version of what actually happened after the Big Bang (if indeed that's what occurred), understandable to Iron Age people. Why would God, if He inspired the Bible to be literally true, incorrectly attribute cud chewing to rabbits & rock hyraxes, then highly cryptically hide references to modern cosmogony in this obvious reworking of Mesopotamian & Canaanite material? Evolution can more easily be read into the Bible than can the universe as we know it to exist today. There can be no doubt that the Bible describes the earth as flat, surrounded by salt water, with fresh water below it & above, the latter separated from the earth by a solid dome enclosing the sky, with God perched atop this dome, operating floodgates that let the waters above fall down to the ground, with the singing stars embedded in or hanging from the dome, from whence they're in danger of falling to earth. == The name "Vatican" is ancient and predates Christianity, coming from the Latin Mons Vaticanus, Vatican Hill. == DEUTERONOMY 14:26 "And you may spend the money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the \Lord\ your God and rejoice, you and your household. -NASB == Rom 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. == Tim2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. (KJV) == The burning of unbelievers during the Inquisition was based on the words of Jesus: "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) == "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." (II John 10-11) == In the 1860's the papal states were alot like Iran is now. Books were censored, railroads were outlawed as the devil's work, movements were restricted, and blasphemy was a criminal act. == The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church (Paperback) Letters From a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with His Father's Questions about Christianity by Gregory A. Boyd Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament by Randall Balmer == I read somewhere 90% of all Americans believe in god, and I'm pretty sure all cultures have some supernatural something or another to look up to. These capacities to change you speak of; lets apply them to god. Everything says in the modern world the probability of the existence of god should be about 0. With a little education it should be an easy change for those that believe in God to acknowledge the low probability of a gods existence, but its not. Mostly people that believe in god no matter what refuse to give up on any of those beliefs The only thing that comes to my mind and some others - is the possibility of a predisposition for that type of behavior lurking somewhere in somewhere our DNA. So much for cultural influences when it comes to the big things! == Jerome, one of the most celebrated "church father" said "Keep menstruating women away from small animals and tender flowers, as they may cause them to wither and perish. == http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments 9 For six days you shall labour and do all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any workyou, your son or your daughter, your male or female SLAVE, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 17 You shall not covet your neighbours house; you shall not covet your neighbours wife, or male or female SLAVE, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour == According to surveys by ethnographers, religion is a human universal. In all human cultures, people believe that the soul lives on after death, that ritual can change the physical world and divine the truth, and that illness and misfortune are caused and alleviated by a variety of invisible person-like entities: spirits, ghosts, saints, demons, cherubim or Jesus, devils and gods. All cultures, you might ask? Yes, all cultures. I give you an example of a culture we're well familiar with, that of the contemporary United States. The last time I checked the figures, 25 percent of Americans believe in witches, 50 percent in ghosts, 50 percent in the devil, 50 percent believe that the Book of Genesis is literally true, 69 percent believe in angels, 87 percent believe Jesus was raised from the dead, and 96 percent believe in a god or a universal spirit. == Shock at archbishop condom claim The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately. Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected "in order to finish quickly the African people". The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence. Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them "nonsense". "We've been using condoms for years now, and we still find them safe," prominent Mozambican Aids activist Marcella Mahanjane told the BBC. The UN says anti-retrovirals (ARVs) have proved very effective for treating people with Aids. The drugs are not a cure, but attack the virus on several fronts at once. The BBC's Jose Tembe in the capital, Maputo, says it is estimated that 16.2% of Mozambique's 19m inhabitants are HIV positive. About 500 people are infected every day. 'Serious matter' Archbishop Chimoio told our reporter that abstention, not condoms, was the best way to fight HIV/Aids. Condoms are one of the best manners of getting protection against catching Aids "Condoms are not sure because I know that there are two countries in Europe, they are making condoms with the virus on purpose," he alleged, refusing to name the countries. "They want to finish with the African people. This is the programme. They want to colonise until up to now. If we are not careful we will finish in one century's time." Aids activists in the country have been shocked by the archbishop's comments. "Condoms are one of the best ways of getting protection against catching Aids," said Gabe Judas, who runs Tchivirika (Hard Work) - an theatre group that promotes HIV/Aids awareness. "People must use condoms as it's a safe way of having sex without catching Aids," he told the BBC. Archbishop Chimoio, who made the remarks at celebrations to mark 33 years of independence, said that fighting the disease was a serious matter. "If we are joking with this sickness we will be finished as soon as possible. "If we want to change the situation to face HIV/Aids it's necessary to have a new mentality, if we don't change mentality we'll be finished quickly," he said. "It means marriage, people being faithful to their wives... (and) young people must be abstaining from sexual relations." Our correspondent says the archbishop is well respected in the country and the Catholic Church played a leading role in sponsoring the 1992 peace deal that ended a 16-year civil war. Some 17.5% of Mozambicans are Catholic. == Loss of religion Billy Graham, Robert H. Schuller and Greg Laurie appear on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, benefiting from TBN's worldwide reach while looking past the network's reliance on the "prosperity gospel" to fuel its growth. TBN's creed is that if viewers send money to the network, God will repay them with great riches and good health. Even people deeply in debt are encouraged to put donations on credit cards. "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 began looking into TBN after receiving some e-mails from former devotees of the network. Those people had given money to the network in hopes of getting a financial windfall from God. That didn't work. By then, I started to believe that God was calling me, as he did St. Francis of Assisi, to "rebuild his church" not in some grand way that would lead to sainthood but by simply reporting on corruption within the church body. 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 money. 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. == You're a Fundamentalist Christian if....... 10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours. 9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt. 8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God. 7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees! 6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky. 5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old. 4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs - though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving." 3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to onvince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity. 2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God. 1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian. From: Evilbible.com == The Shakers built 19 communal settlements that attracted some 200,000 converts over the next century. Strict believers in celibacy, Shakers maintained their numbers through conversion and adoption of orphans. Turnover was very high; the group reached maximum size of about 6,000 full members in 1850, but now has only four members left == THE RESSURECTION OF THE SON OF GOD. People of the New Testement and the Question Of God, _Christian Origins and the Question of God_ N. T. Wright Wright is thoroughly convincing in documenting that Christians of the first century really, really believed that Jesus was the first fruits of a general resurrection that was immanent. He further proves that Christians believed that God would soon give believers transphysical bodies that are no longer subject to the laws of nature (such as death). In short, God would soon be wiping out the powers of this world (including not just Roman law but natural law) and instituting on earth a patriarchal oligarchy (governed by no women, but just Jesus and the apostles). Wright even believes that Matthew 27:51 (where many dead saints are said to have risen on the same weekend as Jesus did and walked around Jerusalem) just might have occurred, however improbable. Some stories are so odd, he states, that they may just have happened (p. 636). Wright falls off the rails of common sense like this occasionally, but he is still very good at laying out the radical consequences of resurrection belief. Wright, at the end of his book, tries to go too far with his evidence and persuade us that not only did the first Christians believe that Jesus rose physically from the dead, but that they also had compelling reasons to believe this. He is dismissive of natural evolutionary speculations concerning the development of Christianity. He rejects, for example, cognitive dissonance as an explanation for the behavior of the first Christians. But there is a very good book on cognitive dissonance that might suggest a natural explanation for how Christianity started that need not postulate a miracle. Its title is Expecting Armageddon by Jon R. Stone. It is published by Routledge. At bottom, the last few hundred pages of Wright's book is, like Behe's Intelligent Design books against evolution, a God of the gaps argument. Historians have had enough time to piece together a probable natural explanation for the start of Christianity and have not yet come up with anything that more naturally fits the evidence than that a miracle occurred. Therefore, we can abandon the search for a natural mechanism and reasonably conclude that the laws of nature were violated at the beginning of Christian history. This is Wright's argument in a nutshell. But this hasty conclusion will only be convincing to someone who already believes. For two good books on the liberal side of the resurrection argument, I recommend Burton Mack's excellent The Christian Myth and Qumran scholar Israel Knohl's The Messiah Before Jesus. The latter book, if correct, undermines a number of Wright's premises. Wright talks about the earliest ideas of resurrection developed in Daniel 12:12 and Ezekiel 37 which became more personalized in 2 Maccabees in which martyrs or those suffering from injustice would be vindicated in the world to come by obtaining a new physical but incorruptible life and inheriting a transformed earth. In other words, by forcing us to confront in instance after instance Jews and Christians professing literalist resurrection belief, we are overwhelmed by a sense that they lacked common sense and were apocalyptic fanatics, akin in their sensibilities to those in UFO cults. At the end of this Christian Magical Mystery Tour, I started whispering to myself the words of King Lear: This way lies madness. The last two hundred pages of the book is where Wright attempts to confront in as direct a way as possible what this belief in bodily resurrection entails. He tries valiantly to convince us that virtually every resurrection story in the gospels is a reflection (however dim or embellished) of something that actually happened. Wright even believes that Matthew 27:51 (where many dead saints are said to have risen on the same weekend as Jesus did and walked around Jerusalem) just might have occurred, however improbable. Some stories are so odd, he states, that they may just have happened (p. 636). Wright falls off the rails of common sense like this occasionally, but he is still very good at laying out the radical consequences of resurrection belief. Wright, at the end of his book, tries to go too far with his evidence and persuade us that not only did the first Christians believe that Jesus rose physically from the dead, but that they also had compelling reasons to believe this. He is dismissive of natural evolutionary speculations concerning the development of Christianity. He rejects, for example, cognitive dissonance as an explanation for the behavior of the first Christians. But there is a very good book on cognitive dissonance that might suggest a natural explanation for how Christianity started that need not postulate a miracle. Its title is Expecting Armageddon by Jon R. Stone. It is published by Routledge. At bottom, the last few hundred pages of Wright's book is, like Behe's Intelligent Design books against evolution, a God of the gaps argument. Historians have had enough time to piece together a probable natural explanation for the start of Christianity and have not yet come up with anything that more naturally fits the evidence than that a miracle occurred. Therefore, we can abandon the search for a natural mechanism and reasonably conclude that the laws of nature were violated at the beginning of Christian history. This is Wright's argument in a nutshell. But this hasty conclusion will only be convincing to someone who already believes. For two good books on the liberal side of the resurrection argument, I recommend Burton Mack's excellent The Christian Myth and Qumran scholar Israel Knohl's The Messiah Before Jesus. The latter book, if correct, undermines a number of Wright's premises. Wright talks about the earliest ideas of resurrection developed in Daniel 12:12 and Ezekiel 37 which became more personalized in 2 Maccabees in which martyrs or those suffering from injustice would be vindicated in the world to come by obtaining a new physical but incorruptible life and inheriting a transformed earth. I recommend Burton Mack's excellent The Christian Myth and Qumran scholar Israel Knohl's The Messiah Before Jesus. Read Raymond E. Brown: The Virginal Conception and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus == KJV - DEUTERONOMY 20 20:10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. 20:11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, [that] all the people [that is] found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. 20:12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: 20:13 And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: 20:14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, [even] all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. 20:15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities [which are] very far off from thee, which [are] not of the cities of these nations. 20:16 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: 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; [namely], the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: 20:18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. == Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman "The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism" by Kurt and Barbara Aland Dr. Daniel B. Wallace's review titled "The Gospel According to Bart" 3) "New Testament Textual Criticism: A Concise Guide" by David Alan Black (author) 4) "Rethinking New Testament Textual Criticism" by David Alan Black (editor) - a collection of essays by various scholars in the field "The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration" by Bruce Metzger == "Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends." (Surah 5:51) "Seek out your enemies relentlessly." (Surah 4:103-) "Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it." (Surah 2:216) === Vatican Bank Lawsuit Plaintiffs Pius XII The Tainted Saint While the debate about proposed sainthood for Pius XII rages between the Vatican and its critics, a lawsuit pending since 1999 against the Vatican Bank and its ultimate disposition may prove the case for or against Pius. The pending lawsuit, Alperin v. Vatican Bank (USDC ND CA No. C99-4941), filed in federal court in San Francisco and backed by a coalition of Serbian, Jewish, Roma and Ukrainian individuals and organizations seeks compensation for Axis plunder from Yugoslavia laundered through the Vatican Bank in 1946, well after the atrocities of the Second World War were revealed in full. The funds in question were the proceeds of genocide by the Ustasha, Nazi allied Croatian forces, who murdered over 500,000 Jews, Serbs, and Roma in former Yugoslavia 1941-1945 and plundered their possessions. In addition to the money and gold in question, the Vatican also sheltered the top Ustasha leadership including wanted war criminals. So far, testimony in the Alperin case by a former US Army counterintelligence agent, William Gowen, who investigated the Ustasha in Rome in 1947 for the US Army, has stopped short of directly implicating Pius, instead pointing to Montini, Pius' Undersecretary of State, who later became Pope Paul VI. According to the witness, a top Vatican official tasked with overseeing Croatian affairs in Rome, Monsignor Draganovic, who reported directly to Montini, admitted being the mastermind behind the smuggling and deposit of the Ustasha "treasure" at the Vatican bank. To date, the Vatican attorneys have taken a hard line with the case, insisting that the Vatican Bank's money laundering scheme for Axis plunder violated no international law since the Ustasha's victims, mainly Orthodox Christian Serbs, were technically citizens of "Independent" Croatia. The unrepentant tone of the Vatican bodes poorly for Pius XII and the current controversy involving his elevation to sainthood. While Jewish organizations like The Anti-Defamation League have concentrated on Pius' wartime record, the Vatican's sheltering of the perpetrators of genocide and their funds after the Second World War may be even more significant. For more information: www.vaticanbankclaims.com http://www.vaticanbankclaims. com/ == Numbers 31:14, 17, 18: "And Moses was wroth...And Moses said unto them, "Have ye saved all the women alive? ... Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman, ... But all the women children ... keep alive for yourselves." <-- Num.12:3: "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the fact of the earth." == Tobias's foibles go beyond right-wing hypocrisy. As the Global AIDS Coordinator, he was responsible for overseeing the $15 billion President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and as director of all U.S. Foreign Assistance, ultimately responsible for all foreign assistance for HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, family planning, and women's programs. He was one of the strongest proponents of abstinence-only sex education, which prevented the distribution of contraceptive information and condoms that could have saved the lives of millions worldwide. Under the "prostitution pledge," U.S. policy forbids organizations from receiving U.S. global AIDS funding if they refuse to sign a pledge stating that they will not in any way promote or support prostitution. Violating this pledge means loss of funding. This policy, vaguely written and defined as is the pattern of the far right, has led to the closure of drop-in centers, classes, and health clinics serving the needs of sex workers in several countries in Asia, and has turned health professionals into snitches for the Administration. == House approves funding for Head Start, rejects religion amendment The House approved more money for the popular Head Start program after rejecting a GOP-led attempt to allow religious groups participating in the program to hire and fire staffers based on religious grounds == I think the debate on the subject of God or Gods and religion does matter. As long as we allow people to offer the answer to the important questions as "God did it," we lose the impetus to seek the right answers. Religion is based on fear, not love as they proclaim. We see the result of this delusion all around us. Belief in the supernatural should be laughable. It is time we got with the real facts and let the fear and fantasy go. This debate is absolutely necessary, although I think it should have been put to rest a very long time ago. == Loss of faith reports http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/testimonials/nahigian.html http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=72552 "In order that the happiness of the saints will be more delightful ... they are permitted perfectly to behold the sufferings of the damned. ... The saints will rejoice in the punishment of the damned ... which will fill them with joy." --St. Thomas Aquinas "The happiness of the elect will consist in part of witnessing the torments of the damned in hell, among whom may be their own children, parents, husbands, wives and friends; ... but instead of taking the part of their miserable being, they will say 'Amen!', 'Hallelujah!', 'Praise the Lord!'" --Rev. Nathaniel Emmons (1745 - 1840) "You are going to see again the child ... that was condemned to hell. See! It is a pitiful sight. The little child is in this red hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out.... It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor of the oven. ... You can see on the face of this little child what you see on the faces of all in hell - despair, desperate and horrible." --Rev. J. Furniss, in "Tracts for Spiritual Reading", a popular booklet for children (late 19th Century) Not least was the Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, perhaps the third best-selling book in Christendom (after the Bible and The Imitation of Christ) In the very last paragraph of Part 1, I read how a poor hopeful soul, after a long struggle, manages to reach the very gate of heaven. But at the last instant, with sweet salvation in sight, angels grab him and thrust him into a burning Hell forever - because of a slight unorthodoxy of faith. == Dureing the Protestant initial rebellion over 100,000 Roman Catholics were murdered, even children, by the followers of Martin Luther-some even slayed as they worshipped in church == Regardless of authorship however, there is no way to reconcile the two creation myths. God made Adam, then animals so that he wouldn't be alone & would have a help meet, but the animals not providing a help meet, God then made Eve. But the Seven Day story is clear that God made animals on the fifth (water creatures & birds) & sixth (earth creatures) days, & only then after them, both male & female humans on the sixth day. The orders are irreconcilable since the Adam & Eve story requires separate creations for the first man & the first woman, out of Adam's rib. Incidentally, men & women have the same number of ribs. The discovery of this fact by Vesalius in the 16th century of course led to his persecution by the Church (postponed since he was physician to Emperor Charles) & led to his death. === Shelley Lewis: Gov. Huckabee, Here's "What In the World" Evolution Has To Do With Being President Mike Huckabee is confused. He was one of the three candidates who confidently raised his hand at the GOP "debate" to be counted on the anti-evolution team. But he doesn't understand why we care. Perhaps in an effort to scrape off the wingnut patty he stepped in on national television Thursday night, he said Friday that if he'd had the chance to elaborate on the evolution question, he would have told Chris Matthews: "If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, I'll accept that....I believe there was a creative process." He also said he has no problem teaching evolution as a theory. But then he said "I'm not sure what in the world that has to do with being President of the United States."Maybe we can help. You see, Governor, it was you and your fundamentalist buddies who dragged your religion into everybody's government. From evolution to abortion to stem cell research to abstinence-only sex education to HIV prevention to global warming to the Middle East, Republican policy follows the religious doctrine of right wing Christian extremists. It dictates policy on every single social issue. As Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee (a former Baptist minister) pushed through a "covenant marriage" law, which virtually prohibits divorce. He toured the state with the head of the FamilyLife ministry, urging pastors to refuse to perform noncovenant ceremonies. On Valentine's Day in 2005, Huckabee and his wife Janet invited all (straight) couples to join them at a Little Rock stadium to bump up their own marriage vows to covenant marriages. Thousands of people watched Janet Huckabee pledge to "submit to her husband" and when the Huckabees were finished, the couples in the crowd re-did their own vows, too. As a candidate for president, Huckabee's politics are just as infused with religion. In an online q/a at Time magazine in April, he was asked why he was so "progressive on issues like fitness and proactive national health yet so fixated on relatively unimportant topics such as gay marriage and abortion?" His reply: "I would disagree that protection of innocent life is insignificant. It is what separates us as a civilization from the very jihadists we are fighting." So...if you're pro choice you are with the jihadists, Governor? Or is there another way to interpret that comment? When Karen Hughes said basically the same thing a few years ago she was lambasted and ultimately backed down. But Huckabee probably won't understand "what in the world" that statement has to do with being President, either. On the stage Thursday night we saw the bleak state of the Republican party--there were candidates who pander to the rightwing Christian base, candidates who resent them, and candidates who represent them, like Huckabee and and Sam "Snowflake" Brownback. And not one of them electable. No wonder the place reeked of desperation. Governor, in case you're still confused, your faith-based views on matters like evolution have everything to do with being President, because you won't stop trying to impose them on the rest of us. Your faith puts you on the wrong side of a lot of social issues; luckily, it looks like Darwin's theory is about to be proven again. == When adults are frightened, they often take psychological refuge in what they think is a safe place -- belief in their god. They will offer placating prayers to their god, in an attempt to assuage their fears. == The word "Brahman" is derived from the verb brh (Sanskrit:to grow), and connotes greatness. == Loosening the Stem Cell Binds The Senate easily approved a bill this week that would free embryonic stem cell research from the worst shackles imposed by the Bush administration. The House passed its version earlier. A substantial majority of Americans tell pollsters they support embryonic stem cell research. Yet one man, President Bush, and a minority of his party, the religious and social conservatives, are once again trying to impose their moral code on the rest of the nation and stand in the way of scientific progress. Mr. Bush is threatening a veto, and neither house had enough votes for the bills on initial passage to override him. Concerned voters will need to ratchet up the pressure on recalcitrant Republicans to help stop the president from killing the second enlightened stem cell bill in less than a year. Under the presidents current policy, federal funds can be used to support research on only some 20 stem cell lines that have limited scientific value. Many of the lines are deteriorating or contaminated, and the group as a whole lacks the diversity needed to conduct a wide range of studies. There is no doubt that progress is being hampered. The director of the National Institutes of Health, who had initially been a good soldier in trying to live within the presidents policy, told the Senate last month that American science would be better served if the nation let researchers have access to more stem cell lines. The restrictions on federal financing have led to absurdly complicated and costly maneuvers. Scientists are forced to buy extra equipment and laboratory space with private money to perform off-limits research while using equipment and supplies bought with federal money on the permitted stem cell research. In a shocking example cited during Senate debate, a California researcher who had been cultivating stem cells in a makeshift privately financed lab suffered a power failure but was unable to transfer her lines into industrial-strength freezers in another lab because they were federally financed. Two years of work melted away because of this inanity. The Senate bill would greatly expand the available stem cell lines by tapping into the thousands of surplus embryos left over at fertility clinics. The bill would allow federal support for research on stem cell lines derived from embryos originally created for fertility treatments but not needed for that purpose and thus doomed to be discarded. The donors would have to give their informed consent and could not receive any financial or other inducements to donate their surplus embryos. In a nod to the religious conservatives, the bill also calls for research on alternative techniques to derive stem cells without the use of human embryos, an approach that is certainly worth pursuing but is deemed less promising by most experts. At the same time, the Senate passed a bill proposed by supporters of the presidents policy that seeks to derive stem cells from embryos that might be judged naturally dead, perhaps because they were considered unsuitable for transplantation at a fertility clinic. This is a poorly considered proposal that can only be deemed a diversion from the main business at hand the need to free American science from the chains imposed by the president. == http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Dragon.htm test for religion validity == It is fashionable to wax apocalyptic about the threat to humanity posed by the AIDS virus, 'mad cow' disease, and many others, but I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate. -- Richard Dawkins == James Charlesworth's "Old Testament Pseudapigrpha" 2 Volumes == Exodus 35:2 God demands that we kill everyone who works on the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 21:18-21 God demands that we kill disobedient teenagers. Leviticus 20:13 God demands the death of homosexuals. Deuteronomy 22:13-21 God demands that we kill girls who are not virgins when they marry. Exodus 21:20-21 God says that it is OK to own slaves, and it is also OK to beat them. Colossians 3:22-24 Slaves need to obey their masters. Ephesians 6:5 Slaves need to obey their masters just as they would obey Christ. 1 Peter 2:18 Slaves need to obey their masters, even if their masters are harsh . == 10 myths -- and 10 truths -- about atheism SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term "atheism" has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or homosexual is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist for president. Atheists are often imagined to be intolerant, immoral, depressed, blind to the beauty of nature and dogmatically closed to evidence of the supernatural. Even John Locke, one of the great patriarchs of the Enlightenment, believed that atheism was "not at all to be tolerated" because, he said, "promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of human societies, can have no hold upon an atheist." That was more than 300 years ago. But in the United States today, little seems to have changed. A remarkable 87% of the population claims "never to doubt" the existence of God; fewer than 10% identify themselves as atheists and their reputation appears to be deteriorating. Given that we know that atheists are often among the most intelligent and scientifically literate people in any society, it seems important to deflate the myths that prevent them from playing a larger