The Bible - Kindness vs Harshness
- Thread starter Jason76
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So context is important and therefore I have to declare myself an atheist. I do believe in a higher power, I just don't think we understand the nature of it yet.
I also believe in balance. I guess yin and yang partially describes it best. I see genocide and loving your enemy (as written above) to be two extremes of the same equation. By knowing both can you determine balance.
I hope that makes sense!
I also believe in balance. I guess yin and yang partially describes it best. I see genocide and loving your enemy (as written above) to be two extremes of the same equation. By knowing both can you determine balance.
I hope that makes sense!
Like ZappaDPJ, I too am an Atheist.
I don't believe in the existence of deities and I reject every religion in existence. I have no valid reasons or objective evidence to believe in a deity.
How does the bible square with me? The bible was written by men. I didn't find it very convincing. I found a lot of it to be offensive.
I don't believe in the existence of deities and I reject every religion in existence. I have no valid reasons or objective evidence to believe in a deity.
How does the bible square with me? The bible was written by men. I didn't find it very convincing. I found a lot of it to be offensive.
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We can't even be sure about the eternal hell-fire doctrine. Why did that survive the Reformation but other stuff didn't?
I would say that we're quite certain. He just said it. Men wrote it and than other men re-wrote it later on. A collection of stories by unknown authors was collected and edited by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The list was largely the work of one man, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria. The bible is the claim, it is not the proof.
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Concerning the quoted image that shows contradictions happening in the bible, yes all those things did happen. There is a reason why though and that is the key to understanding things in order to go forth.
Starting from Genesis, after the fall of man, God gave the promise of a Savior who would be the redeemer. It went according to the timeline He had in mind and how it was to happen. He set apart a group of people from whom the Savior would be born and He gave them commandments to keep in order to keep them clean and faithful. Yet, they kept straying and turned away from Him. He kept turning them back to Him.
Their lives weren't all happy and thrilling, they went through miserable times and hardships. God gave them directions in order to keep them as His own and those directions weren't all what would be considered "Christ-like". That's the problem some people have though. God ordered His people to kill others among other things. But why? Because His plan was to keep His people set apart from the others who did not believe in the one true God. He promised them the land of milk and honey (if you know about milk and honey from history, you'll know it's not the same as cow's milk or bees honey today, but I digress). Milk and honey indicated prosperity and a future.
Once the Savior came, died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected and ascended to heaven, then things changed. Sacrifices were no longer required in order to receive absolution from God since the one true sacrifice happened. What God wanted all along is for people to trust in Him and that continues today. Kindness is special and anyone can be kind. That doesn't make them Christ-like if they don't have faith.
Starting from Genesis, after the fall of man, God gave the promise of a Savior who would be the redeemer. It went according to the timeline He had in mind and how it was to happen. He set apart a group of people from whom the Savior would be born and He gave them commandments to keep in order to keep them clean and faithful. Yet, they kept straying and turned away from Him. He kept turning them back to Him.
Their lives weren't all happy and thrilling, they went through miserable times and hardships. God gave them directions in order to keep them as His own and those directions weren't all what would be considered "Christ-like". That's the problem some people have though. God ordered His people to kill others among other things. But why? Because His plan was to keep His people set apart from the others who did not believe in the one true God. He promised them the land of milk and honey (if you know about milk and honey from history, you'll know it's not the same as cow's milk or bees honey today, but I digress). Milk and honey indicated prosperity and a future.
Once the Savior came, died on the cross for our sins, was resurrected and ascended to heaven, then things changed. Sacrifices were no longer required in order to receive absolution from God since the one true sacrifice happened. What God wanted all along is for people to trust in Him and that continues today. Kindness is special and anyone can be kind. That doesn't make them Christ-like if they don't have faith.
If it's unknown, we don't really know if it's God or not. It's like an agnostic claim.
Claim and Argumentum Ad Populum.
It's a historical fact that the Bible was written by men. It was just presented to you by myself and one other member. That's like denying Abraham Lincoln ever existed when there's pictures of him and historical records proving otherwise. So this is just a case of you deflecting what you've been told. You're speaking as though you yourself know 100 Percent that a deity exists. That's a claim and when you make a claim you automatically accept the Burden of Proof. My standards of evidence are the same as would be applied in a court of law. Thus to me, one can not argue a god into existence, one must provide evidence or proof.
What objective evidence can you demonstrate for the existence of any deity?
People make a lot of "claims". It’s your "claim" a deity exists, but here’s a novel idea, why don’t you demonstrate the best evidence you think you have for your claim. If you've come up with a science that can prove and collect empirical evidence that deities exist, go demonstrate it and turn it in to one of the major top science organizations in America and collect your Nobel Prize.
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Well, O.K., I made a mistake. Christians believe the Bible was written by men - under the guidance of God. However, wether there was guidance is an agnostic thing because there isn't no proof of God, a person only has faith.
Anyone or a group of people can go out, make a religion, write their own holy book, and claim that a god or group of gods told them to do it while offering no objective evidence to believe in it. They just claim it's a personal journey or an experience.
Why am I morally obligated to believe them? Why are we supposed to take up Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, etch without being presented with sufficient objective evidence?
When we're young children we have no concept of religion until someone close to us tells us we have to believe in their god and practice their religion or bad things will happen to us.
People are free to think how they want and free to express that to a large degree. However, people feel so strongly about certain things - and those things affect people so much - that conflict is inevitable.
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