Ahh the Bible, that ultimate authority for so many Christians. The next time someone says they believe that the Bible is 100% God’s word, you can pull out these gems where the Bible says…
You should kill your child if he strikes you (Exod. 21:15)
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death
If you work on the Sabbath, you should be put to death (Exod. 35:2)
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death
If you curse, you should be stoned to death (Lev. 24:14)
Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
Happiness is smashing children upon the rocks (Psalms 137:9)
Happy shall he be,that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Women should be subjugated by their husbands (1 Pet. 3:1)
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
Yay! Today marks the day of Zombie Jesus, the day that Jesus rose from the dead to atone for the sins of the world. The resurrection of Jesus is key to the Christian faith, if it didn’t happen then there was no atonement, and Jesus wouldn’t have been God in flesh. How do we know that the resurrection really happened? Well, we don’t, it’s one of those things that need to be taken on faith. Faith, belief in things without evidence, or things for which there is evidence against. No thanks.
Don’t forget that this also marks the Hebrew holiday of Passover, which marks the time that God decided to kill all of the first-born children in Egypt. That is unless you killed a lamb and spread it’s blood on your door post, as the Hebrew slaves had done, in which case the spirit of the Lord passed over that home and didn’t murder children.
God is good? God seems to be pretty focused on killing people that don’t obey his word to the letter of the law, sometimes on the pain of death. What is it that is supposed to be appleaing about these religions?
In a bold, hard-hitting display of brilliant investigative reporting, Faux News provokes thought and deepens our trusting relationship with this gem: the Science of Satan debates.
Oh, I wish I was kidding.
Sadly, the word “science” is invoked twice in this clip about the upcoming special. I certainly hope 70% or so of Americans, as O’Reilly mentions, don’t actually live their lives in fear of stuff that doesn’t exist.
O’Reilly brings it all back to free will; God created the Devil to give us some options and counts on us to choose wisely. We don’t have to love God, because there is a competing product. It’s the free market of the soul!
Neither being has so far made a verfiable appearance unto me, so I’m not sure how God expects me to properly conduct interviews and select someone to worship. I know, I know; mysterious ways.
A recent bushfire disaster in Australia has been blamed on, get this, legalized abortion.
Yep, this is another one of those whack jobs that equate any natural disaster with the vengeance of God.
The Catch the Fire Ministries has tried to blame the bushfires disaster on laws decriminalising abortion in Victoria.
The evangelical church’s leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah, claimed he had a dream about raging fires on October 21 last year and that he woke with “a flash from the Spirit of God: that His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb”.
Here’s my question for someone that makes a claim such as this… PROVE IT.
And they will try, with their Bible. After all, the Bible is full of examples of the vengeance of God, killing innocent children (first born of Egypt) and demanding obedience or he’ll bitch slap you to hell.
But the Pastor doesn’t stop there, oh no…
He had previously said drought and the world financial crisis could be partly blamed on human sin.
At this point shouldn’t we just blame every random thing on human sin? How about hangnails, how about back pains; are those punishments from your “just” God because of human sin? What about that whole Jesus thing where he forgives sin? Guess that doesn’t apply here. Howe about those faithful people that are affected by Gods wrath because of other peoples sins? Can’t God tell the difference between the good people and the bad people? Even Santa has a list!
If this is the way your God operates, I want no part of it.
We all know that the Lord is rad right? He cares about who wins football games, can help you find your car keys, and of course should be the one credited for watching out for those extreme athletes.
“God looked after him. He made him safe and kept him safe.”
So here’s my question, just what did God do for this young man? Why does he/she/it deserve any credit at all? How did God keep this young man alive? Perhaps God, if he really cared, would have prevented this fellow from getting lost in the first place. Perhaps he would have helped rescuers find the man after one day instead of three.
How about all of those people that have died on a mountain, that weren’t found in time? I guess God didn’t care about them. That God sure is a picky bastard isn’t he?
If they survive, God gets the credit for keeping them safe. If they perish, then it was “their time”. Either way, God comes out as the good guy. I suppose it’s comforting for a parent to believe that God was watching out for their child; it wouldn’t comfort me much, God doesn’t have a good track record of helping protect children.
Here’s a response to that conversation from orDover, a former Evangelical Christian turned atheist.
I’d add to this that besides lies not helping children or anyone else deal with death, they also belittle the experience of living. If this is all the time I have with any person, place or thing that I love, then every moment is precious and should be savoured, in case it’s my last.
I recently got Fox News; call it a hate hobby. I had it on for not 5 minutes when I learned this penetrating piece of news…an angel has been spotted outside the hospital room of teenage Chelsea Banton in North Carolina. The angel healed Chelsea (who was this close to getting taken off life support!) thanks to the vast quantity of praying the family was up to.
Chelsea’s mom had the good sense to snap a photo of the monitor on which the angel made its appearance. She also noted the light appeared at the one time on this rainy day when the sun made an appearance.
Chelsea will celebrate her 15th birthday tomorrow, which is Christmas. Coincidence? I think not!
No word on whether the doctors and nurses of the pediatric intensive care unit mind sharing the credit for Chelsea’s survival with the Heavenly Host.
It’s wet, snowy and frigid here, and the malls are ass-to-elbow packed with irritated Christmas shoppers. iPod Touches are all sold out at Best Buy, and the lines at Starbucks (eggnog latté, what!) are around the block.
In the Mwanga district, near Mount Kilimanjaro, a baby girl was dressed in black by her mother and left alone in the family hut.
A group of men cut off the pale girl’s legs, slit her throat, poured the blood into a pot and drank it.
In another sickening case a man was caught trying to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo with an albino child’s head in his luggage.
Someone please send some rationalist missionaries to Africa to explain to people there that magic doesn’t exist and human sacrifice is really mean.
Fishermen believe if they weave the red hair from an albino into nets, fish will be attracted by the glimmer.
Better fishing is reason to murder the local oddball? There’s nothing else shiny in Tanzania they could try first?
Human sacrifice is the worst of superstition, the darkest side of religion. The government has lately been supportive of the albino population, ordering the police to conduct a census that may allow them to keep track of people’s disappearances. But the Tanzanian Albino Society says only more legal prosecutions will help turn public opinion; to that end they’re looking for donations to their legal fund through Action on Disability.
According to a stuidy released in Poetics, 90% of American adults admit to praying in troubled economic times. Impassioned pleas regarding the lottery do count.
The top 3 prayer strategies include:
Asking God for stuff – 28%
Distracting God with thanks while asking Him for stuff – 28%
Kissing God’s ass by just thanking Him for your current stuff – 22%
Classic American Christian George Bush, meanwhile, in an interview on ABC’s Nightline suddenly got reasonable about religion. Now that he doesn’t need the approval of the rabid right, George doesn’t mind admitting he doesn’t take the Bible literally, doesn’t see a problem with evolution, didn’t go into Iraq because God told him to, and indeed doesn’t know God well enough to believe he was personally recommended for his presidency. Where was that message 4 years ago?
A recent documentary by Channel 4 called “African Witch Children” shows one of the lowest, most disgusting forms of magical thinking; accusing small children of being witches. While most of these children don’t meet the same horrible fate that women accused by their Christian neighbors did a few hundred years ago, they are still ostracized by their families and communities. The local “Bishop” decrees that he can save them and perform an exorcism for the right amount of money, and he will do it in the name of Jesus.
They are confessed that some of thier children have become possesed, bringing destruction, disease, and death in their wake.
In order to compel children to confess, they are tortured. One girl, Uma Eka, who looked to be about 6 or 7 years old, had a nail hammered into her head about 3 inches deep to force her to confess. She has recovered, but as the guide on the documentary said “It’s a bit healed now, but she is not all that normal as you can see.” They are burned, and made to drink poison, all in the name of Jesus.
This post isn’t necessarily a condemnation of Christianity, since they could be doing the exact same thing in the name of any number of deities and it would still be horrible just the same; it is a condemnation of “magical thinking”. To believe in demonic possession, angels, magic cures, divine healing, etc., is magic; and can lead to destruction.
From the article quoted above..
Africans generally are superstitious. Witches and wizards are part of the African world-view and the fear of Satan is such a living companion of the Christian doctrine.
Which is why truth is what sets you free. Satan is a myth, he does not exist, he is a fairy tale used to scare people, and which is why these superstitions can have such a great effect on people, so much of an effect that it compels them to tortue and even kill small, innocent children.
You can see the entire documentary on YouTube. It contains some disturbing images.
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