When Christians point to the Bible with admiration and awe, sighting how wonderful a guide to life it is, you can't expect differently, because they think its written by the Almighty G himself!
Whats just plain silly though, is when atheists (including myself..) say there are so many life lessons to be learned from the bible, there's lots of good in it they say, in an effort to sound enlightened and accepting. Yes, there's some advice in the Bible that's probably worth taking if your gunning for happiness, but you certainly don't need the bible to get it.
Looking for good advice in the bible is like looking for edible food in a dumpster. You'll rummage through plenty of rotting garbage before finding anything half palatable.
Garbage like God slaughtering innocent babies:
"And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.” (Exod. 12:29)
Well at least he didn't eat them!
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I'm glad I stumbled on this site.
ReplyDeleteThere are more and more of us, coming out of the closet daily.
Thanks for a great read!!!!
It does seem more and more of us are coming out every day, and unlike theists with their claimed "revivals", we have statistics to back that up!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement.
Or, conversely, amongst the good that is there, some garbage can be found.
ReplyDeleteCornelius
Well, going by skepticsannotatedbible.com, we have 274 counts of good stuff, and tens of thousands accounts of garbage. So no, certainly not garbage amongst the good, unless you are willing to find a little more good.
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
ReplyDeleteBy the numbers you are irrefutably correct.
ReplyDeleteUnless I am willing to find a little more good?
~Cornelius~
p.s. thanks for the link to skeptics' bible. Interesting material.
I often question how many Christians actually read the bible, and of those how many actually paid attention or comprehended.
ReplyDeleteThey wouldn't be Christian for long if they started doing that! :P
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Christians approach the bible as if it's the word of God, explaining away every absurdity with yet another one. If they started with the question "Is this more likely to have been written by man or God?", the answer would very quickly become clear!
"Looking for good advice in the bible is like looking for edible food in a dumpster. You'll rummage through plenty of rotting garbage before finding anything half palatable."
ReplyDeleteAwesome quote, I must steal this! How may I attribute it, kind sir? :)
Eternal Critic,
ReplyDeleteProbably the same number as atheists who use comprehensive support/arguments to oppose the illiterate/uncomprehending Christians.
Curious - what logic is there in asking the question "is this more likely to have been written by man or God" when you don't even believe in God? Instinctively you'd have already answered the question and hence closed the possibility of a different answer, leading to the logical conclusion of closed-mindedness toward the question before it was even asked.
Cornelius
You seem to be implying that belief in God comes first, and then evidence. If that were true we should believe in all sorts of crazy things upfront. Asking the question "is the flying spaghetti monster more likely to be true or man made?" would be equally invalid because I don't already believe in the flying spaghetti monster!
ReplyDeleteYou have it very much the wrong way round. I don't believe in the Christian God, BECAUSE the bible is far far more likely to be man made.
I have examined the evidence and come to a conclusion (the opposite of closed-mindedness). How are you approaching the question "is the bible more likely man made or god made?"
In response to your very questionable use of the phrase "closed-minded" I'll point you towards this very succinctly put informative video.
Infidel,
ReplyDeleteYou misunderstand my point. I do not say you are closed minded but that one who doesn't believe in God would already be closed-minded to the question "is this more likely to have been written by man or by God". Closed-minded in the sense that they would never allow for any of it to be considered as written by God because they 'know' God does not exist. Your example of the spaghetti monster doesn't apply because the initial question does not ask "is God more likely to be true or man-made" ... you were asking about the writings, remember?
I also suggest you are incorrect about what I am implying. I do not suggest in my point anything regarding first faith, then evidence. I simply point out how one must have some faith in God in order to be able to answer your question. Without that, the question is moot.
I'll be sure to check out the links you sent. Thanks for providing them.
~C~
I realized full well what you meant. I was using myself as an example of how you are wrong. Many atheists as well as myself have examined the evidence and come to a conclusion, and when different evidence presents itself they may change their mind. Faith has nothing to do with it, and there is nothing about not believing in god that goes hand in hand with being closed-minded.
ReplyDeleteThose who claim they 'know' for reasons other than evidence could be considered closed-minded, but it happens that this is far more common amongst theists, which is why I proposed they need to step back and legitimately ask the question “is the bible more likely to have been written by god or man?”, without letting faith get in the way.