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 convince 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.
A new add from the folks over at the National Organization for Marriage shows confused kids that apparently weren’t taught by their parents about the different kids of folks in the world; you know, those people that happen to be attracted to the same-sex and want to consecrate their relationship in marriage like any other couple might.
Prepare to gag.
One of the kids say “God created Adam and Eve? That’s so old-fashioned.” Thank you little girl, for speaking the truth.
In North America, we have advanced from the days of demonizing gay people, to where they can live their lives how they choose without the threat of violence. Unfortunately there are still people out there that want to force gay people to adhere to their religious beliefs, we still have growing to do.
This is a continuation of the “lessons from the scriptures” series. This is to show how great the scriptures are as a moral guide and how it must be the place to get your morals from, whereas we hell-bound agnostics are a people without morals since we don’t hold this ancient book up as a moral compass. Check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
O.K., incest.
Incest in the Bible? Oh yeah, even with the righteous people.
Let’s talk about Lot. Remember him, the man whose wife God turned into a pillar of salt for just turning her head? (Genesis 19:23) Well, Jesus considered him pretty righteous.
“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 2 Peter 2:7-8”
Lot was so righteous that he got drunk and impregnated his two virgin daughters.
Genesis 19:32-36
“Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. ”
Now that’s a party! This is of course not long after Lot offered his two daughters to be raped by a horny mob. (Genesis 19:5-8)
So Jesus called this man righteous, yet he (Lot) was willing to have his daughters raped, and ended up having sex with them himself. Yep that’s pretty righteous.
Now, some people may say “hey, he was drunk, he didn’t know what he was doing!” As many males can attest to, that is just a cover story that males will use to try and not take responsibility for their actions. It says that he didn’t know that he was having sex with them. Right.
Another excuse given is that the daughter thought that they had to “preserve the seed” of their father, and continue the human race after the destruction of Sodom, believing that they were the last tio survive. I’ve heard that before, “Hey baby, there’s a war coming, tonight might be our last night on Earth, and I don’t want to die a virgin”.
Moving on from Lot, the great Patriarch of the Christians, Muslims and Jews, Abraham, had his share of family fun.
Genesis 20:11-12 (New International Version)
11 Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.
I’m so glad that the world has this wonderful book to help guide our actions and teach us the morals to live by.
A team of scientists recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world’s first known reference to Christ.
The full engraving on the bowl reads, “DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS,” which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, “by Christ the magician” or, “the magician by Christ.”
In a way it makes sense. Let’s suppose that the Biblical account is somewhat true, that Jesus really did appear to turn water to wine, or really did appear to walk on water. Can it be done today? Of course! Magicians have been imitating and duplicating the illusions of Jesus for many years. I suppose this ancient cup may just confirm it; Jesus was a hell of a magician.
I say it’s time for a show down. Let’s see Jesus walk on water without the misdirection of a storm, in front of a live studio audence and video taped for all to see. Criss Angel did it, Scottish magicians Barry and Stuart did it, will Jesus accept the challange? Will he sign over the Pay-Per-View rights to the Catholic church?
An intersection of forces - low birth rates in rural areas, historically family-run temples with no sons willing to take over the business, and a trend away from $20k+ Buddhist funerals (and towards the pernicious, pervasive & persistent funeral industry’s rent-a-monks) combine to oust the peaceful path from modern Japanese life. Truly, “funeral Buddhism”, so-called because the funeral was the last real bastion of the practice, lost it’s spiritual power after WWII, when close ties with the Japanese military exposed a certain hypocrisy. Honourable Buddhist names were bestowed on dead soldiers, and soon the selling of such names became a mere transaction.
You can see on this map the current distribution of Buddhism. I wonder if the complexity of the philosophy is also contributing to it’s demise in Japan; if this most industrialized, computerized, and futuristic of the Asian Buddhist nations has an attention span anything like ours in North America, there may not be time to work towards satori in between text messaging and reading novels on your cell phone.
Alright, artistically this is a pretty stinky video, but suspend your aesthetics and take a peek at the evidence that Jesus is an amalgamation of the myths and fables of previous civilizations. Specifically, he used to be Horus - a god who was betrayed, crucified, buried for 3 days, and then resurrected, like it ain’t no thang.
Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? What evidence is there for it past the text of the Bible? While a negative can’t be absolutely proven, there can be evidence presented for it’s argument.
Recently an Ancient tablet was found with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus. It’s causing a stir in biblical and archaeological circles because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.
It makes the case that the story of the resurrection wasn’t unique to Jesus but may have been a part of Jewish folklore at the time, and the the writers of the Bible incorporated this tradition into their writings.
The letter that definitively dashes theist hopes of claiming Einstein’s allegiance, written by the scientist to philosopher Eric Gutkin in 1954, sold at auction Thursday for an astonishing $330 000. Four times the record price for an Einstein letter, it was expected to fetch $10-$16k.
“For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions,” wrote Einstein.
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