Tag Archives: Bible

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Silence Is Golden

Silence is golden.

“The universe,” wrote astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, “is under no obligation to make sense to you,” and, for the most part, it doesn’t, to anyone. Beyond the incomprehensibility of quantum mechanics—and our inability to reconcile the main branches of physics—we’ve only managed to discover, after 500 years of groping in the dark, a meager 5 percent of the observable universe. The other 95 percent, physicists tell us, is composed of imperceptible dark matter and dark energy, surmised to exist based only on its impact on the small sliver of reality that has managed to sift its way through our pitiable and corruptible senses.

Basing grand proclamations about the ultimate nature of the universe—including the existence or nonexistence of God—on this shaky and incomplete foundation is unjustifiable and, frankly, utterly foolish. Isn’t it clear, that we’re all, for want of a better phrase, just making shit up?

As long as your belief system allows my belief system to live, we can be friends.  However, if your belief system makes my belief system wrong or evil, I fear we will never walk this earth together in peace and harmony. 

The moment we step past what is immediately given and begin speculating about the “ultimate nature” of things, we invite agitation, disagreement, and distress. Better, then, to withhold judgment altogether.

 

I’ve got nothing else to say.

Do you have anything to say?

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Be Good For Gods’ Sake

He posted a Pay It Forward story, and attached two Bible verses which said that God would reward us for doing so.  I asked
Why can’t we just cut out the imaginary middleman, and do good for the sake of doing good??  😮

The “imaginary middleman” is the reason we do the good things! There is within each of us a “desire” to do good! We can embrace it or we can suppress it! It is God within us! The Bible says, “…we are God’s creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.”, Eph. 2:10. Jesus is the ultimate example who shows us how to do good!

Captain Kirk said, “What does God need with a starship?” Quoting the Bible will do you no good. I see that you accept what some other fallible, gullible men wrote, in a book that is no more reliable or believable than Harry Potter, but you’ve not presented any evidence that the existence of your rubber crutch is real. 

I would be willing to engage in an honest debate about the authenticity of the Bible if you like? 

No you wouldn’t, even if you honestly believe that you would.  Even your offer is linguistically, informationally, ridiculous.  Across a thousand pages, the Bible says a thousand different things – some of them observably true, some of them demonstrably false, many of them highly questionable.  It says a few soft, kind, loving things, and it says a bunch of disturbingly nasty stuff.  Even where it is wrong – it is authentically wrong!

Based on your writings, you don’t want to authenticate any part of the Bible; you want to convince me to agree with you, to justify your belief, which you continue to provide no evidence for.  Your entire argument is likely to be, “But I believe, and you just gotta have faith.”

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’26 A To Z Challenge – A

The Advent Of
Archon

The basis of my Archon alias is lost in the mists of history – literally.  My Grade 11 Greek history text had a story about the king of Sparta dying in battle.  His only son was just 12 years old, and the law insisted that he had to be 18 to assume rule.  Seven of the king’s closest friends and advisors formed a group of mentors called The Archons, who protected and trained him until he became of age.

That seemed to be the type of person I wanted to be, so I dragged the term with me through my life, applying it here and there, instead of my all-too-common and easily-confused real name.  When I registered with LinkedIn, it was as The Sage.

Later, I found that the term and concept also applied to other, and older, situations, especially among the fervently religious.  The name comes from the Greek, Arch – first, most powerful, most important.  My Bible with a concordance, says that there are 13 references to Archons, but they all speak of clan elders, city rulers, or chief Rabbis.  I cannot find the word Archon in the Bible.

Opinions are like assholes – everybody’s got one.  Some of the more-zealous Bible-thumpers think/believe that the Archons were the Nephilim – the giants who lived on the Earth before man was created.  Other equally-gullible convinced, feel that they are the seven arch-angels.  Another – just-as-sure and just-as-wrong – group insists that they are the seven major demons.  I found this bunch when I made negative comments on Christian blog-posts, and had them dismissed because I was obviously an agent of Satan.

There is only one Archon©™, accept no substitutes.  My super-hero name is much better than my secret identity.  Under it, I have had a paroled convict check in by phone – at 2 AM.  We finally listed the phone under the wife’s initials.  It helps sort out the scammers who want to talk to MR. J. T. Smith.

A teacher at the local Community College where I once attended, and worked for three months as a substitute teacher, has the same name.  I’ve been sued because a contractor from 50 miles away, cut down a tree to build a house further up my street.  I’ve been threatened – by phone – because somebody’s transmission fell apart.  The bank bounced three rent checks, because they couldn’t keep two accounts straight.  I got someone else’s dental anesthetic – and then I got my own, and my face fell off for the rest of the day.  Recently, I received mail for a guy who lives four miles away, in a different voting district.  I’m trying to find how the sender got my address.

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Lack Of Proof And Proof Of Lack

SHOULD CHRISTIANS FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE, WHEREVER IT LEADS?

Is there any evidence of the Jews being held in slavery in Egypt?
Is there any evidence of the Jews escaping their slavery – The Exodus?
Is there any evidence of them wandering in the desert for 40 years?
Is there any evidence that the Earth is ten thousand years old?
Is there any evidence of a global flood?
Is there any evidence of the Jews conquering the Promised Land?

In order, the answers are
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO, and
Other than unsubstantiated Biblical claims, there is no evidence that ANY God ever promised any land to the Jews.  The cities that the Israelites took over were financially, socially, and militarily failed mini-kingdoms, where the populace welcomed new, more efficient, less corrupt administrators.

I agree that there is no good evidence for these Biblical events. I have learned that Christianity is not an evidence based faith, as some like to claim. Rather, Christianity is a spiritual experience based faith. When one encounters God through the reading of Scripture, then the Lord imparts that necessary knowledge of himself. Christians know these things happened, not because of the evidence, but because God has revealed it in his word. The Divinely self-authenticating Scriptures are all the evidence we need.

But then, why don’t we find the evidence for these things? My conclusion is that God is testing us, to see if we really love him, to see if we are willing to trust what he says in the face of doubts and contrary evidence.

So, you don’t actually follow the evidence.  You follow delusion, desperation, and pre-supposition.  You frantically try to make facts fit fiction, fantasy, and Faith.

If you go looking for something that you expect to find – that you’ve been told, over and over and over, that you will find – that you want to find – that you need to find….  You will probably find it – whether it exists or not!

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The Danger Of Believing In Nothing

My title, above, was his title, I presume as some sort of ‘gotcha’ Christian argument.  In his post, it changed to The Danger Of Belief In Nothing – Atheist Quotes.  I responded,

The Danger Of Believing That Atheists Believe In Nothing

and the debate was on.  In a 1000-word blogpost, he never actually described or explained what the danger was.

Hi Archon, thank you for the commenting. Feel free to share here. The floor is always open for discussion. Do you feel that Atheists believe in something and that the faith of no faith has faith?

Naah….  Despite my warning, you’re still couching your questions and statements in your belief in unverified assumptions.  Atheists believe in pretty much the same things that Christians believe, except the existence of an incoherent, ill-defined, unprovable, supernatural entity, which is the creator and ruler of the Cosmos.  Atheists, generally, have no faith.  Faith is the excuse that people give for believing something for which they have no good reason.  If they had a good reason, they would give that.  Atheists have reasonable expectations, based on inquiry, research, and previously-observed history.

His Atheist quotes included, Julian Barnes (Atheist novelist)
“I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.” and
Jean-Paul Sartre
“That God does not exist, I cannot deny. That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget.”

None of his ‘Atheist Quotes’ prove the existence of God, or even give convincing evidence.  Several of them speak merely of ‘meaning, purpose, or spirituality.’  They are statements from intelligent, insightful writers who recognize the desperate desire of many believers to want and need a softer, kinder, New-Age, Woke, benevolent Cosmic Overlord, which cannot be shown to exist.  Even the Bible – which should be the sole font of all that is Christian, but often isn’t – only shows an improvement in their imaginary God, from a smiting, judgmental psychopath in the Old Testament, to merely a sociopath in the New Testament.

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Religious Comedy

Pillsbury spokesperson Pop N Fresh died yesterday, at 71.  In attendance at the funeral home were Mrs. Butterworth, the California Raisins, Hungry Jack, Betty Crocker, and the Hostess Twinkies.
Fresh rose quickly in show business, but his career was filled with many turnovers.  He was not considered a smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes.  Still, as a crusty old man, he was a roll model for millions.
Fresh is survived by his second wife.  They have two children, and one in the oven.
The funeral will be held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.

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There’s a lunch wagon offering, “Filly Cheese Steaks” that I pass almost every day.  Each time I pass it, I chant to myself, “Please let it be a misspelling!  Please let it be a misspelling!”

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A man with six kids will always be happier than the man with six million dollars, because the man with six million dollars will always want more.

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After a worship service, a mother with a fidgety seven-year-old told me how she finally got her son to sit still and be quiet.  About half way through the sermon, she leaned over and whispered, “If you’re not quiet, Pastor Charlton will lose his place, and will have to start over again.”

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Religion is usually a verboten topic for everyone at work – except for Larry.  Recently, after he steered yet another conversation toward the subject, a co-worker whispered to me.  “That’s Larry.  He always has to put his two saints in.”

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After a flash flood had damaged their house and belongings, my aunt and uncle were forced to stay with friends.  One Sunday, as everyone got ready for church, my uncle borrowed a suit from his host.  The pants were too big, so my uncle said, “I’m going to need a belt.”
His humorless hostess shot back, “We do not drink before church.” 

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It Would Be A Sin

Many Christian debaters and apologists view and present Good, and Evil, Right, and Wrong, as real, concrete items, rather than abstract, human, mental concepts.  They claim that the existence of Sin and Morality somehow proves the existence of God.  Rather, it is the exact opposite.  It requires a God to prove the existence of morality, and especially, Sin.

Sin is a transgression against God.  No God = no sin.  No God to hand it out means that there is no morality.  What we have is social-animal, evolution-driven, ethics – The Greatest Good For The Greatest Number.

What’s the point?  What am I here for?  How can I live the most valuable life with the time I’ve got?
Interesting and productive questions…. but they can be both asked and answered, without stuffing God into the cracks.
It’s just tough to ask the questions without acknowledging Spirituality and Soul which then provokes one’s view of creation, humans, time, etc.
Two delightfully vague and tenuous terms whose definitions can be made to mean anything, without evidence, but which usually mean desperation and delusion.  Also, there is no evidence of “Creation,” and no evidence of the need for a God for the existence of humans, time, etc.

A.J. Swoboda, After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith Without Losing It.
That’s not the dumbest book title I’ve ever seen, but it’s well up on the list.
Cool.  What are some of the other dumb titles that have made your list?
Well, there was that one titled, “The Curious Case Of The Man With No Sense Of Irony, Or Humor.”   😮

As with so many things about Christianity, many Apologists have not done enough research about their religion to actually know what they’re talking about.  When the Jews were held in slavery in Babylon, each spring it was a ritual to go to the local temple, and engage in sex with the priests, exchanging seminal fluid – a sign of fertility – for a promise of abundant crops.

The SIN – even if God were to exist – is not gay sex.  It is using it to entreat and worship any deity who is not The Lord thy God is a jealous God.  Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

I have not found any evidence, especially in the Jewish Torah, that circumcision of baby boys was a command of God/Yahweh.  The Jewish people collectively tend to suffer from a DNA genetic likelihood of hemophilia.  While an individual tragedy, the death of a newborn boy from blood loss, would be far less of a drag on his family, and a tribe of nomads.

Similarly, circumcised boys would be far less likely to later develop penile and urinary infections, again being a noisy drag on a poor tribe of nomads, trying to evade and avoid human and animal predators in the wilds.  This is not a God/Yahweh-given religious procedure!  It is a social-evolutionary method to achieve The Greatest Good For The Greatest Number.  The Rabbis just ensured that they made a shekel or two for performing it.

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’25 A To Z Challenge – E

Enervate, effulgence, encomium, eristic, exody, euphemism

So many useless, esoteric words that begin with the latter E, I think I’ll irritate some Buy-Bull Thumpers, and discuss

EPICENE

lacking the typical characteristics of a particular gender or sex;
flaccid; feeble; weak, sexless, effeminate, unmasculine.

For some people, ‘Attention to Detail’ just means how far they can stick their nose into someone else’s business.  If there were ever calm discussion about the subject, this could be the upscale word to describe transgenderism.

There is a California, First Amendment Auditor, who goes by the name ‘Chris.’  I don’t know if he’s a guy, trying to be a girl, or if she’s a gal, trying to be a guy.  It’s about 4’ 10”, in any direction, and exhibits the characteristics of a beach ball.

An approaching female police officer began a conversation with, ‘Can you explain what you’re doing here, sir…. Uh, Ma’am…….. Uh, what do I call you?’  The response was, “Good Citizen.”  This is a difficult word for religiously indoctrinated people, who have been taught to expect answers to every question – whether they are entitled to answers or not.  Sometimes the honest answer is, I don’t know.

I do know that there will be a Fibbing Friday post in a couple of days.  I look forward to seeing you there, when you can question my sanity and/or sense of humor.

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Religious Thoughts From Atheists

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

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When people share their beliefs, they also share their insecurities about their beliefs, and sharing is a way to harvest validation.

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“Faith allows an evasion of those difficulties which the atheist confronts honestly. And to crown all, the believer derives a sense of great superiority from this very cowardice itself.” Simone de Beauvoir

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For those who claim that the Bible is inerrant – Jeremiah 8:8 – “How can we say that we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?”  But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.  This is the Bible itself, saying that the Bible is intentionally dishonest.

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Religion poisons everything.
Christopher Hitchens

We are all Atheists about most of the gods that mankind has invented.  Some of us just go one god further.
Richard Dawkins

God is dead.  God remains dead.  And we have killed him.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for Atheism ever conceived.
Isaac Asimov

I would rather live my life as if there were no God, and find out there was, than live my life as if there were a God, and find out there wasn’t.
Albert Camus

All thinking men are Atheists.
Ernest Hemingway

Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world.  It is simply a refusal to deny the obvious.
Sam Harris

You are—your life, and Nothing Else.
Jean-Paul Sartre

Beliefs don’t change facts.  Facts, if you are rational, should change your Beliefs.
Rickey Gervais

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Carl Sagan

An Atheist believes that a hospital should be built, instead of a church.
An Atheist believes that a deed should be done, rather than a prayer said.
Madeline Murray O’Hair

Religion is just mind control.
George Carlin

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
Voltaire

If you’re an Atheist, you don’t have to explain why bad things happen to good people.
Salman Rushdie

One can’t prove that God does not exist, but science makes God unnecessary.
Stephen Hawking

For an Atheist, all religions are the same.  He is against the very institution of religion.
Javed Ahktar

Religions are like fireflies.  They require darkness to shine.
Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.
Mark Twain

I think all the great religions of the world are both untrue, and harmful.
Bertrand Russell

 

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In The Beginning

And God said, “Let there be a Big Bang,” and there was a big bang; and from the Big Bang emerged matter and radiation.

And God saw the Big Bang, that it was a great explosion; and the evening and the morning were the first billion years, 14 billion years ago.

And God said, Let there be hydrogen and helium and let them swirl randomly; and let some of the gas swirl into regions of higher density; and let those regions of greater density contract themselves into proto-galaxies; and let the proto-galaxies contract themselves further into galaxies.

And when they had done so, God said, Let there be stars.

And the first stars began to form within the galaxies; and when the gases whereof they were made had sufficiently compressed, there began thermonuclear burning and lo, there was starlight.  And the evening and the morning were the third billion years, 11 billion years ago.

And to assure that man would not quickly understand His great works, God gave unto the speed of light, a finite limit of 300,000 kilometers a second, and to the atmosphere of the Earth, when He got around to creating it, five billion years ago, He gave turbulence and distortion, and opacity to many kinds of radiation; and further to confound Man’s understanding, He placed throughout the universe, quasars, neutron stars, black holes and other strange peculiarities.

And God looked upon the work of His singularity approvingly and said, Lo, it is a puzzlement.  And it was a puzzlement.

Could we ever expect a universe with anything as strange as Man in it, to be simple?  God the mathematician, God the astrophysicist, moves in mysterious ways.  Simple theories set forth by simple men with very limited knowledge mean that the creation story of the Bible is likely to be wrong, and the likelihood of the Bible being wrong on any given subject increases as Mankind’s knowledge and understanding increases.

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?  Then he is not omnipotent.  Is he able, but not willing?  Then he is malevolent.  Is he both able and willing?  Then whence cometh evil?  Is he neither able nor willing?  Then why call him God?

Epicurus: circa 300 BCE