The Bible (2 Viewers)

[Josie]

South Park sure was right about Atheism.
"Mere logic doesn't work, you must also be a dick to others who disagree with you."

It's all the pent up steam of having Theists banging on your door, stopping you in the street, lecturing you at school, and trying to join their wonderful club, for years and years.
If they'd just leave everyone the fuck alone, the world would be a much better place.

 

[Tulipa]

It's from being told I'm going to hell so many times.

That's the most frustrating part.

 

[bazookajoe]

Yeah, it's okay for discriminate against the faithless but when you start making jokes about theism all hell breaks loose.

If this refers to South Park, they portray Jesus as a gun wielding maniac who beats up Santa and kills numerous Iraqis, and still they've said the only major problems they've had with religion is with the portrayal of Muhammad and Scientology

 

[Josie]

It's from being told I'm going to hell so many times.

That's the most frustrating part.

Nah, I look at it this way. All the best people will be in hell. Think of all the friends, indecent rock stars, etc.. Can you imagine the parties?

 

[Not-That-Bright]

I think they just took shots at Dawkins because he's seen as the "major player" (so to speak) of Atheism. All Dawkins complained about was his accent and the fact he had sex with Mrs/Mr Garrison, interesting that he didn't respond to the views of Evolution and atheism in general seen in the episode (Stan says "Couldn't evolution be the answer to how and not the answer to why?")

I think you'd be mistaken if you think they've got a problem with atheism. Their problem isn't with atheism, it's with people that attack the faithful as stupid.

 

[bazookajoe]

Well they say the notion of us being here "just cuz" is ridiculous, but I don't think they have a "problem" with atheism, they just see it as a source of humour similar to religion

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Well they say the notion of us being here "just cuz" is ridiculous, but I don't think they have a "problem" with atheism, they just see it as a source of humour similar to religion

One thing I gathered from their talk was that they're definitely nihilists. So while they say us being here 'just cuz' is ridiculous, I think they also accept that such a thing is true.

 

[bazookajoe]

One thing I gathered from their talk was that they're definitely nihilists. So while they say us being here 'just cuz' is ridiculous, I think they also accept that such a thing is true.

Yeah, that actually makes sense, I can see them leaning towards that view.
Oh, and insanely jealous of you both being in Vegas and seeing Parker/Stone

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Oh, and insanely jealous of you both being in Vegas and seeing Parker/Stone

It was a surprise because they weren't comming until the very last minute. They're libertarians and TAM's been a bit of a beacon for that political persuasion - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAM5

 

[student.hsc]

ok, to be honest I didnt read the last 15 pages, so please dont get mad if these contradictions have already been mentioned, however, first I have a few questions?

1) Should Christians ignore the Old Testament? because it seems to me like that most of them just pick convenient bits to follow (i.e. no more ritual human sacrifice)- it seems to me that they should still follow the old testament e.g:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest part or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place." (Matthew 5:17 NAB)

"It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid." (Luke 16:17 NAB)

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness..." (2 Timothy 3:16 NAB)

“...the scripture cannot be broken.” -Jesus Christ, John 10:35

2) You dont think that the world was created in 6 days (plus 1 day rest- whats up with that?) but, you fail to mention that in the origional hebrew in which genesis was written, the word used was yom; which literaly refers to a 24 hr period and secondly "...there was evening and there was morning, a second day." the use of the word day in this passage to me seems like they are refering to a standard day due to it having evenings etc.

3) God is a bastard

3a.) When god asks Abraham to sacrifice Issac he does so to test his loyalty and tells him to stop just before he actually kills his son- but- god is all-knowing so this seems like an unnecessary and painful thing to put Abraham through.

3b.) The whole egypt thing: God "hardens the pharaoh's heart" then punished the people of egypt for their leaders disobedience and reluctance to relinquish his property (slavery is endorsed by the OT- Jews own slaves etc.)- explicitly shown in his slaughter of all the first born sons of egyt.

4) God is an invisable pink unicorn; God is both just and merciful- how is that possible?

5) God knows all- hence he creates people that he knows will go to Hell (actually the "lake of burning fire") and then sends them to Hell- presumably for kicks. WOuldn't it be more mericful not to create them at all?

6) It's hard enough to read 400 year old Shakespeare- but the bible is 6-2000 years old and translated form ancient hebrew and greek, how can you possibly claim to understand this text given it's distance form our culture and language?

7) God sends CHristians who never question their faith to heaven, but muslims who do the same to hell- hence he discriminates on the basis of birthplace/ religion of the family your born into

8) ... I'll let you answer the above 7 before I go on.

 

[Lucid Scintilla]

All people, in particular theists, please read this:
http://www.apu.edu/infocus/2002/03/crucifixion/

If all holds true and the laws of physics and nature held ~2000 years ago, look at your Savior now and the validity of The Bible.

Also, say if God, Jesus, and the Spirit are Almighty and omnipotent, right, can they microwave burritos and enchiladas so hot that they cannot eat them?
Oooh, a paradox. Now, can it possibly be? This whole thread's been about this, and evidently, what is the true point of this; what's the point of Christianity; what's the point of religion, in general?

False hope?

None of you people (myself included) will burn in Hell; nor will you live for eternity, unfortunately (?), though.

 

[Legham]

Did Matt Groening give you permission to use that paradox?

 

[M-turkey]

I'll give some answers to some of the above points:



1) Of Course Christians should read the Old Testament, the OT gives the New Testament its context.
Some parts of the Old Testament are ignored because they have become replaced by new ways, there is not longer Human/Animal sacrifice (Yom Kippur for example) because, thanks to Jesus, the sacrifices are no longer needed.

2) "Yom/Yoma" doesn't nessessarily only translate to "a 24-hour day". That is one of many translates that also include a general period of time

3) He may seem like a bastard, he's sorta like John Howard, the things he does may make him look like a dick at first, but if you look closer, there is logic and reason behind the things he does. This goes for (4) too.

5) This is an arguement over whether we have free-will or not, I have looked at this via religion, physics and biology and have not found a good answer from either, so I wont make a proper comment.

6) The Bible is surprisingly easy to read, esspecially translations like the New International Version, which is fairly accurate. lol, its no where near as bad as Shakespeare.

7) No Shit, its not descrimination over birthplace, but he definately judges people by religion, but of course he does, almost every religion does.
It has it's own commandment:
Exodus 20:3
"you shall have no other gods before me."


Also, if you don't believe in Christianity and Jesus Christ, you better be at work today as this weekend of the religous holiday of Easter

 

[Legham]

Also, if you don't believe in Christianity and Jesus Christ, you better be at work today as this weekend of the religous holiday of Easter

i WISH i was at work today.. Double-time and a half ftw. Too bad they didnt give me a shift.. I represented my atheism by eating meat instead (not fish). I've told my parents i don't want anything for Easter to.. Although, im not saying anything about christmas I'll just refer to it as 'presents and family-seeing day' or PAFS Day for short!

 

[Josie]

I'd be at work if I had a job- double time and a half rocks.
Since I don't, I'll bask in this long weekend.

 

[miss-emma]

The concept and actual existence of God is massive. For argument's sake say he is real, and he created us and the world we live in. The Bible tells us that we as humans have a significanlty minute mind and intellectual capacity in contrast to God's. This is necesssary to recognise when i attempt to answer/give my thesis on point number 5. If God just created us and placed us straight into heaven, which is where Christian's go, our fear and respect would be very minimal for God, rather that after we experience his judgment in regards to the choices we make on Earth. Does that make sense? it is a very difficult situation to examine, and even as a Christian i have difficult grasping the concept. I mean did we really make the choices or are we just pupets of God? I have faith in God, this has enabled me to believe everything he tells us in the Bible. i mean even if i am wrong about believing God what have i lost?

also the new testament provides christians examples of how we should behave in certain situations, among other things.

i would also like to say that whilst some people believe that Christians only pick the most convinient bits to follow, athiests and non-Christians take verses from the bible out of context to justify things that aren't Christian, such as homosexuality

 

[Josie]

No, we use verses out of the bible to point out the flawed nature of the book.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

The concept and actual existence of God is massive. For argument's sake say he is real, and he created us and the world we live in. The Bible tells us that we as humans have a significanlty minute mind and intellectual capacity in contrast to God's.

This is of little worry. Just because we don't have the ability to know everything doesn't mean we shouldn't believe what we have the best evidence to know at the time anyway.

If God just created us and placed us straight into heaven, which is where Christian's go, our fear and respect would be very minimal for God, rather that after we experience his judgment in regards to the choices we make on Earth.

Perhaps? But then of course our flaw in not fearing/respecting God is one which God himself has implimented - is it not? Of course ultimately whatever he feels is best (if he exists) is what is best though.

I mean did we really make the choices or are we just pupets of God? I have faith in God, this has enabled me to believe everything he tells us in the Bible.

How do you know that the concepts you are taking from the bible come from God? How do you know they're not from satan? You cannot know this.

i mean even if i am wrong about believing God what have i lost?

Perhaps a chance to understand the world, as best we can, in a way which doesn't need to evoke Gods/magic? I don't think you've really lost too much if you're wrong, but would that bring any more comfort to you if you were to discover these things were actually wrong?

also the new testament provides christians examples of how we should behave in certain situations, among other things.

I'd argue while the stories of the bible may provide a nice play in your mind, alot of the parables themselves are actually created by your pre-concieved notions of morality.

i would also like to say that whilst some people believe that Christians only pick the most convinient bits to follow, athiests and non-Christians take verses from the bible out of context to justify things that aren't Christian, such as homosexuality

There's no objective rule which states what is 'christian' and what is not. People take out of the bible whatever they want, all we can really say is that we have an operational definition of what it is to be christian by the collective agreement of groups of people who purport to be christians.

 

[S1M0]

Yeah, it's okay for discriminate against the faithless but when you start making jokes about theism all hell breaks loose.

correct.

 

[miss-emma]

" Just because we don't have the ability to know everything doesn't mean we shouldn't believe what we have the best evidence to know at the time anyway."


What do you suggest we all belive in or have faith in then?