Merged (edited) General thoughts about Christianity and the bible

[Beelzebuddy]

When, exactly, did we mess up?

When we began using pumpkin spice without the pumpkin. We were given a gift, dammit, a gift, and we squandered it! Wasted it on so many lattes, holiday-edition cookies and flavored condoms.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I see your problem.

You've confused an idiom - a figure of speech - for a claim of literal fact. You might want to check that, by which I do not mean that you should put a tally mark next to it.

Hey, be nice. It's apparently his first time out in public.

 

[theprestige]

Is humankind lost without God?

What is grace and are we in need of it?

It is by grace you are saved and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, so that no one can boast.

Should we extend grace to others even if we don't believe in God?

Where are you getting these thread topics? It's like you're reading some Evangelical pastor's book. This week was the chapter on saving grace. Last week, faith. The week before, evolution. What's next week? Biblical slavery? Tithing to the church?

 

[Foster Zygote]

When we began using pumpkin spice without the pumpkin. We were given a gift, dammit, a gift, and we squandered it! Wasted it on so many lattes, holiday-edition cookies and flavored condoms.

Hang on. I've got just the thing...

 

[lionking]

Catholic relatives were fond of saying he or she “died in a state of grace” which I think means they were given Extreme Unction.

No way I will die in a state of grace….

 

[Trebuchet]

I could use some grace if it'll help me not to fall down so often.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Not so fast.

Hebrews 8:7, 13 NIV
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant,
no place would have been sought for another.
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete;
and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Book of Gnasher 14:15

Yeah, and ye shall know the sign that when the moon rises gibbous trapezoid, the olden gods shall be deposed and a new one shall be created farting elderberries in great grace.

 

[Helen]

I'm not interested in convincing you (collectively) that you should "become" Christians.
If God wants you, He will come and get you.

So what is it you think you are doing here, by spouting bible quotes at us?

I don't think you understand what it means not to believe; gods arent a presence on my life, but they are not an absence either. I do not spend any time not believing in gods, no matter what else is going on in my life - if I ponder what to do in a difficult situation, I do not start by thinking "well, gods do not exist, so..."

If you lack belief in gods, they influence your life about as much as the Cottingley fairies, Russell's Teapot, or the invisible, but beautifully rose coloured, unicorn that lives in my guestroom.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Why do they use a Bible for swearing in? (hand on the Bible and repeat...)

Because christianity was imposed by the sword*. And like anything else forced on a recalcitrant population its existence must constantly be reinforced.

*And later by the Maxim gun.

 

[jimbob]

And both groups purport to believe in what is patently a ridiculous idea.

That would have been a lot less ridiculous and seem less obscene if one was an illiterate iron age pastoralist with the morality of that age.

The flood is less ridiculous if you don't question whether the world was flattish - the excess water just falls off the edge.

Of course slavery isn't questioned.
Of course, God replacing Job's wealth and getting him new wife and kids makes it better, because it was just replacing property. And of course God was perfectly within his (obviously s man) rights to do what he wanted with his property, which was Job and everything else.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Dowse, not X-Ray, they had dowsing rods and.. for the scyance.. attached a battery to them and apparently stuck a frequency generator output into the ground because... ◊◊◊◊ knows why.

Plus they took out one of Rusty's teeth, ground it down into a fine powder, sprinkled the powder over a sim card, stuck the card into a card reader and connected the reader to one of the rods with a wire.

That's how you dowse for cavities! Also bombs.

 

[bruto]

Faith is a poor substitute for a good phantasmagoria.

That might depend on the faith. I mean, some get gold statures and gargoyles and red shoes and a whole lot of pomp.

 

[catsmate]

Every analogy breaks down at some point.
I was comparing the scientists you said went to the site of Noah's ark and only looked around.

Your "analogy" was ridiculous, based on a wilful lack of understanding.

 

[The Norseman]

The analogy of dental care would work here.

I'm sorry, but it wouldn't.

Which dentist would you trust?
1) The whole asked you to open your mouth, took a look around and said you were fine. Or...
2) The dentist that took x-rays and gave you a thorough exam?

Oh, sigh.

Every analogy breaks down at some point.

True. Sometimes analogies can be informative. Not in this case.

I was comparing the scientists you said went to the site of Noah's ark and only looked around.

Not very successfully.

No, not a crisis of faith.
It could be a myth.

The bigger issue is the global flood that went with it.

Genesis 2:5-6 NIV
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up,
for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,
6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Don't care about your bible quotes.

They fail as all the rest of the bible quotes.

It is scientifically impossible for a global flood to have happened.

 

[Darat]

I'm sorry, but it wouldn't.



Oh, sigh.



True. Sometimes analogies can be informative. Not in this case.



Not very successfully.



Don't care about your bible quotes.

They fail as all the rest of the bible quotes.

It is scientifically impossible for a global flood to have happened.

I don't think you need to even add that "scientifically" in there, it's simply impossible. It seemed possible to the authors of Noah's ark story because of their incorrect model of the universe i.e. the earth being a flat disc with a bowl over it and surrounding all that was water. As soon as we discovered there was no such bowl above the earth, or that the earth wasn't a flat disc the Noah's ark story became impossible.

 

[Darat]

So what is it you think you are doing here, by spouting bible quotes at us?

I don't think you understand what it means not to believe; gods arent a presence on my life, but they are not an absence either. I do not spend any time not believing in gods, no matter what else is going on in my life - if I ponder what to do in a difficult situation, I do not start by thinking "well, gods do not exist, so..."

If you lack belief in gods, they influence your life about as much as the Cottingley fairies, Russell's Teapot, or the invisible, but beautifully rose coloured, unicorn that lives in my guestroom.

There is a subset of Christians that think atheists don't disbelieve in god but willfully deny god "because". This is why they think atheists must really be Satanists and other such nonsense. They can't get their heads around the idea that it is simply a lack of belief in any gods.

 

[The Common Potato]

My mom didn't let me watch them.

My mother wouldn't let me have one of these: https://tinyurl.com/preview/2ycbug7u

 

[Rusty Tyler]

It is scientifically impossible for a global flood to have happened.

Worthy to be reported in the Bible then.

The Israelites crossed the Red Sea too.
Which wasn't Moses' idea.

 

[Rusty Tyler]

I don't think you need to even add that "scientifically" in there, it's simply impossible. It seemed possible to the authors of Noah's ark story because of their incorrect model of the universe i.e. the earth being a flat disc with a bowl over it and surrounding all that was water. As soon as we discovered there was no such bowl above the earth, or that the earth wasn't a flat disc the Noah's ark story became impossible.

How would the water have been contained in a flat earth model?
The depth was over the top of the tallest mountains.

 

[catsmate]

Worthy to be reported in the Bible then.

The Israelites crossed the Red Sea too.
Which wasn't Moses' idea.

No. That's another fictional story.