Sometimes you have a new thought, an idea, or eureka moment, but it & # 39; s not gutsy enough to expand into a reasonable length article or essay. So, here & # 39; sa potpourri of irreligious thoughts that will not exactly put me in a favorous light with any deities (if any) that are too good not to record, but with not enough meat available to flesh out.
# We have probably all seen videos of evangelical or fundamentalist prayer, revivalist, etc., etc. meetings. Now I assume that God, assuming a God of course in the first place, has 20/20 hearing. So why is it for for all and sunday leading these meetings to scream their bloody fool heads off? Who are they really trying to impress by risk impose by risk only not laryngitis but their vocal cords? I mean it & # 39; s not small and normal "hallelujah, praise the Lord! but "HALLELUJAH, PRAISE THE LORD !!!" only in even larger type than this.
# Is it my imagination or have I noticed that the extreme religious right wing, those vehemently anti gay, anti same-sex marriage, anti abortion, anti national health care, anti environmentalism (ie - climate change), anti gay-adoption, always Any religious institution is religious institution and personnel. Any religious institution is good and God- fearing by definition; anything else is not good and has turned their back on God.
# Christianity, be it the extreme right wing variety of fundamental evangelism or the middle of the road varieties, is based on one and only one thing - that God exists. Yet they never, ever, offer up any proof, or even evidence of that challenged & quot; the very suspect document IMHO. From the pope right on down the theory line to your local vicar, no proof, even evidence, is in the offering.
If I am accuse someone of something, say murder, then the burden of proof is on me to the show beyond any doubt that is some guilty as charged, not on that someone to prove anything to the contrary. God exists and has certain attributes, then the burden of proof is on that person to prove his or her claim.
# Latest loony bit from the religious right - God does not want you to retire, because the word "retirement" or "retire" does not appear in the Bible! to then suffer the consequences of rapidly deteriorating health - God does not want that!
All have failed. All you failed. All you failed. The Cherubim and the Flaming Sword that God left to guard the east access to the Garden and the Tree of Life after There are many eastern? I mean how many Cherubim and Flaming Swords do you see day to day? There & # 39; s now in the Bible that states that they have been relieved of duty, so they must still be standing guard. Surely someone must have seen them in recent times.
See also: Wilensky-Lanford, Brook; Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden; Grove Press, New York;
# There are many hundred of alleged relics associated with Jesus, his family, disciples, the evangelists, etc. Unfortunately, none surfaced until hundreds, sometimes many, many hundred of years after the fact. to be THE one true relic. There are enough pieces of the holy [wooden] most floating around to build Noh & # 39; s Ark! Anything materials to the actual scientific analysis and dating has failed to date to the relevant time frame the most churches refuse to allow holy relics in their possession to be divisions scientific analysis - they probably do not want their illusions shattered. But no amount of proof that a relic is a fraud will shake the belief of the true believer.
See also: Nickell, Joe; The Jesus Relics: From the Holy Grail to the Turin Shroud; The History Press, Gloucestershire, UK;
Perhaps you maybe think a wicked city like Las Vegas should be destroyed. Thumbs down, but then you say Well, you god short to shod, if you advocate, you can advocate it, you can cute the biblical chapter and verse which states the exact same thing. Wacky ideas get the thumbs down; Biblical wacky events that mirror those ideas - thumbs up.
# Anybody reading the story of the crucifixion in Matthew, Mark or Luke will note that for three hours, between noon and 3 pm apparently, it became very dark. darkness. But Luke (23: 45) That clearly shows a solar eclipse., is there a few problems with this. or is celebrated when the moon is in its full moon phase (or when A solar eclipse can only happen when the moon is totally dark, that is when it is in the Moon phase (when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun) So, when the crucifixion happened, that is at Passover, the Moon was Full, not New, therefore no solar eclipse. that the New Moon only covers the Sun cause a solar eclipse that causing intense darkness, for a maximum just shy of eight minutes. That & # 39; s just a tad less time than Mathew, Ma rk and Luke allow for. The third problem happened as far as can be determined after April of 30, or 33 or 34 CE o solar eclipse in Jerusalem in April in any more months and years there is irrelevant, I, misleading and immaterial. So, all it fiction, added in for dramatic effect, or it was a miracle (which is probably the official church line.) I opt for the fiction myself.
# Be sure to check out Wikipedia ___ ___ 0 List of scandals involving evangelical Christians - very, very enlightening.
Gardner, Martin: "Prime-time preachers" (in) The New Age: Notes of a Fringe Watcher; Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York; 1988; p.223-245.
# This is an interesting Right Wing Watch Cindy Jacobs story.
"Cindy Jacobs & # 39; five-year-old daughter can stop tornadoes."
"Almost her trick is to shout out" I told you to be quiet in Jesus "#!" And the tornado just goes poof.
My response: Hello, my name is Alice and I 've gone through the looking glass into wonderland - whee!
(Brian Fischer), Bindan Fischer (especially Brian Fischer), Cindy Jacobs, Glenn Beck; and dozens more, show that these individuals and the organizations that representative like the American Family Association are stridently anti-President Obama, and have been since Obama rose to the fore in 2008. I never witnessed any American president being treated to the vitriol and abuse that President Obama has been routinely been by Obama is not believe in the Bible Obama is a closet gum; Obama is America <Obama is not closer to Obama is America>; Obama is not closer to Maslim; Obama is a closet Muslim; Obama is a closet Muslim; t Obama should be impeached. There 's more negatives, but you get the drift.
Obama is declare himself god; Obama wants to destroy the American Obama wanted to raise a black army and kill whites, especially right wing Christian whites; Obama wants to disarm his enemies; Obama wants to precipitate another Civil War; Obama will turn America into an Islamic state; Obama discriminates against Christianity; Obama declares war on white America; Obama is out to destroy the family unit; and on and on it goes without any shred of evidence whatever.
I am afraid that I will not have any of these individuals will in apologize in January 2017 when Obama leaves office and nothing whatever has come to pass that even remotely confirmed these outlandish shock, horror , 'it' s got feeling is that there will not be an "I & # 39; m sorry" or "I got it wrong" from anyone that & # 39; sa By then they will have moved moved on and will be bucketing some other person.
The nice thing about atheists? The nice thing about atheists? It is a religious conviction feel they have a religious conviction feel they have a religious conviction feel they have a religious conviction feel they have a religious conviction they are do not disturb and inconvenience you; they do not do doorknocking!
Jesus / Mary themed context: Why? Perhaps because of the religious figures central in the artistic works are not supernatural but flesh-and -blood of an & # 39; ancient astronaut & # 39; variety.
# Imagine the following: Destroy every religious text of any persuasion in existence; sack anyone involved in organized religion (or even disorganized religion); purge the name of any and every deity ever proposed, and then for good measure wipe Let 's turn the individuality of humanity into a flock of another kind, just like real sheep who usually have no concept of all the sorts of things religions go on, and on, and on about.
If the human race all of a sudden had no inking of religion and associated rituals like prayer, deities, and you shall not, and miracles, and associated baggage - the slate wiped clean - we would invent it all over again and you would all be in the same old form as we know it now?
Assuming that & # 39; s the case, could there be out a really bona-fide god or gods - supernatural deities - with some sort of associated baggage that we have no comprehension of ?? Say these hypothetical supernatural entities have never made contact with Planet Earth.
# Why is religion (and history too for that matter) so popular vis-à-vis say science or economics. Religion (and history) is told in story form and we 're natural born story tellers and recipients of say bedtime stories There are multi-tens of thousands of movies and movies and they are up for need stories. So that & # 39; s All the Big Questions (is there a god, your purpose, the meaning of life, free will, your soul, an afterlife, etc.) are are wrapped up together in a nice box with a lovely pink ribbon. Reject religion, reject the pretty box of answers to your Big Questions, and you have to actually do some hard intellectual yakka to find out your own answers to those questions, individually, one at a time. So most take the easy road, the package deal, instead of striking out on their own, seeking their own intellectual answers come what may.
# In May of 2013, the current Pope (as noted on the "Huffington Post") that that atheists were okay for salvation and a place in heaven offer they had lived the sort of life that God intended. Alas, the very next day a Spokesperson for the Vatican refuted that - no way can an atheist get on the good side. Well, so much for papal infallibility! It really is all so phony - an absolute joke.
# Miracles (if they exist exist) are God & # 39; s correction fluid (whiteout) - assuming God exists. If existence is affirmed on both counts that actually makes a mockery of an all-knowing, all-powerful supernatural silence since it would have have for example, do not bother to raise the dead; rather ensure they do not snuff it in the first place!
He quiet many references in the Bible of God talking to someone, Adam and Eve, Cain, Jacob, Jonah, Moses, etc. we never get an actual description of what God looks like. He speaks in a cloud or as a burning bush. Perhaps God does not want to to be seen because He is imagination. So, what did God really look and like. was starkers - absolutely naked - and sometimes, assuming some mortal actually saw God, well no one dares mention the & # 39; emperor & # 39; who has no clothes. If humans were made in God & # 39; s image, and God was Accused of His nudity (as Adam and Eve were accused of there luck of clothing post their nibbling on a forbidden snack), then that accounts for our conductance in most public environments to show off our birthday suits.
Is it winning the Nobel # Is it reputation? Is it winning the Nobel # Is it reputation? Is it winning the Nobel? Is it consisting? Is it pitching a perfect major league ballgame? Is it becoming POTUS, or despite Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Is it (fill in the blank)? No! More It is NOT DIEING! Well good luck with that 'cause it is not gonna happen.
So, what & # 39; s the next best objective? An afterlife! Why? What really conspicuous that you spend a lifetime building up from scratch will just dissolve into You may still be old and gray and can not get it up; you may not have access to alcohol to grill it pretty abhorrent. If you have an afterlife, the minimum you must remain is consciousness or self-awareness. you may only get TV reruns and old magazine issues to read; you may have pizza may not be on the menu; you may have have a share your afterlife with your ex-boss, or your ex or your in -laws, others you & # 39; ve not ten miles (or kilometers) of; in short not everything will be just hunky-dory, but at least you & # 39; ll retain your consciousness for all eternity (and be bored witless even before the first several thousand years or so p Is that a price you are willing to pay?
They will have a majority of the population, who will claim to have had some sort of up close and personal experience with God, or Jesus, or angels, or some sort of supernatural entity. , I am extremely difficult to counter argument their conviction based on their experience. I, I have have an intimate up close and personal experience too, but one of which I & # 39; m sure showing that these sorts of diverse spiritual experiences are some combination of wishful thinking (a desire to believe) and mental hallucinations.
I like to put out food for wild birds, especially in environmentally stressful times like winter or during a daught. Over the course of many years, I & # 39; ve had thousands of visits - what bird is going to turn to turn down the easy free feed? At the end of the day, there 's usually some cleanup to be done like sweeping up all the leftover birdseed husks, etc. And so it came to pass one early And so I went outside to start the cleanup, but there was sitting on the apex of the We are looking up at them, they looked back at me, and for some inexplicable reason, I received a telepathic message from the two birds: "thanks for all the food; we & # 39; ll be back tomorrow "And then they flew off. It was so real an experience that I just stood there stunned, in fact so moving was th at experience, so bonding was that human-animal encounter that tears immediately started well in up in me.
But clearly I was imagining the whole thing. Birds can not speak the human language. Telepathy Birds probably have no idea of gifted and then no mental concept of giving thanks.
I 'm sure that they are 100% sincere and a believer. But I & # 39; m equally convinced it & # 39; sa case, as was mine with the two birds, of self-deception.
# Despite anti gay, anti same-sex unions, anti marriage equality sentiments vehemently expressed ad nausea by extremists from the religious Far Right Wing, and endlessly going on and on and about how the Bible states or defines marriage as between one man and one woman and thus the constitutional legality of gay marriage is a violation of god 's law, I fail to find any such Biblical reference or conformation. It & # 39; s certainly not one of the Ten Commandments!
I fail to spot in Genesis where Adam and Eve were living in sin right under God 's righteous nose! Well one could suggest that Genesis 2: 21 - 24 suggests marriage since the last "verse," that is apparently nonsense since that same verse also used the term "mother" and "father" before there ever was such a thing as parents or Matthew 19: 4-6; and Ephesians 5: 31 this if you are sarlings and rebirths in Mark 10: 6-9 there is no place that says Adam and Eve were married or were husband and wife. take the general phrase, one not referring to any particular pair or twain of individuals, that phrase "one flesh" might be a synonym for "marriage". just come right out and say "marriage is between one man and one woman" - but it does not.
However, that did not stop a lot of the upper crust patriarchs from practicing polygamy (Genesis 29: 15 - 30).
# Of all the various world people people possess, they seem most inclined to fight over their concept of God, not over country, not over politics, but over their religion. It & # 39; s being said there many times that while good people do good things and bad people do bad things, it takes God and religion to make good people people bad things.
Ancient alien (was God as astronaut) books like Von Daniken & # 39; s "Chariots of the & lt; / & gt; Gods "(and film) are bestsellers. S documentary TV series" Ancient Aliens "is their most viewed and the best selling DVD they have put out. Then there have been sci-fi movies and TV series like "Stargate" that have picked up on the theme, as well as countless documentsaries, websites, and articles. Collectively, all of this testifies that the idea has hit a very responsive neve indeed. People everywhere realize that there is something very unusual, even anomalous about the human species, the origins of humanity and our ancient history that traditional religions and supernatural deities inevitably come to terms with, fail with plausible explanations, fail entirely with respect to these hundreds of enigmas.
# If Islam is the religion of peace, how come so many Muslims kill other Muslims (Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)?
It should have absolutely hilarious been It 's not the the most massive degree of death and suffering religious belief has inflated on the relatively helpless. It' s all that true believers will never have any coming to terms with their delusions since once they snuff it, there ' s no resurrection or afterlife to bask in.
# Name the most evil thing Satan or Lucifer did (past tense) in the Bible. Now name the most evil thing God did (past tense) as related in the Bible. Now ask yourself, who is the more evil of the two? Who most approximates Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao, Saddam Hussein, and those of ilk? If you should have spell that entity.
