What difference does that make? Why would it matter? Here we are on a public forum devoted to taking up the position that they don’t exist thousands of years after they were supposedly made up. Here you are, taking the time to express to me that something doesn’t exist. In what other possible ways do these make believe deities effect your life and thinking?
Do you have children? If you have or had young children did you celebrate Christmas and Easter by telling them about make believe events and make believe characters like the Easter bunny, Santa, and even the tooth ferry? Why would you do that? Why would you like the idea of some make believe characters like that but not others? What’s wrong with fiction? Did Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, or Luke Skywalker, Spiderman, Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter, etc. have some meaningful impact on your life though they weren’t real?
What impact have the made up gods had in real life?
Luke, a physician, was uneducated? Matthew the publican? Ezra the lawyer? Paul was uneducated? They could read and write; Moses wrote amazingly complex laws that are used to this day. Li Erh (Taoist) and Kong Qiu (Confucius) were uneducated?
The problem I have with atheists who suggest the sacred texts were written by ignorant and uneducated people is that the atheists making those assumptions are so ignorant and educated on the subject.
So where do these ignorant and uninformed assumptions come from? Earlier in this thread I suggested that believers like to think they are morally superior while unbelievers like to think they are intellectually superior. Would you agree?
I can’t? Why not? I can’t object to or reject Santa, The Exorcist, Harry Potter or the Bible?
Because you’re acting like they’re real and that we’re “ignorantly” rejecting them. That’s not the case. There is simply no evidence supporting their existence. You’re telling David what you “think” he believes. That’s like me telling you that you believe in “Allah” or “Kali” when you actually believe in “God”. What are you? Fucking psychic?
Because you gave me the impression you don’t know what Atheism is. You’re not an Atheist yourself. I thought it would help. I guess it was wrong.
I’m not going there with you.
It’s something that parents just do. There’s really no major thought in it than wanting your children to have a childhood and give them the same opportunities you were given. It’s just a tradition a lot of people do. Some kids think Dora The Explorer is real. They have no concept of reality. Often times you don’t have to tell them Santa isn’t real. They figure that out on their own.
Nothing until it makes you delusional and crazy.
Not really. But I did enjoy the Lord of the Rings books and movies. They gave a moment of happiness.
None. Because they’re not real to me.
I don’t give a fuck. Anyone who peddles a bullshit religion is an idiot in my book. I could give two shits about them. They never proved a deity existed. Not even this asshole. Don’t get me started for those who fall for their cons.
Men wrote those books and sold a religion in 325 AD. They never once proved that deities existed or that they ever spoke to one. That’s the part you’re missing by a landslide. You don’t believe the claims being made about the Loch Ness monster and tons of eye witness’s say it’s real. Christians today claim Jesus is real but give no evidence. They just agree with the Bible without wanting evidence for it’s claims. What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
LOL… Can you demonstrate the authors of the gospels were written by the names of the people who appear on them. Not even your bible asserts knowledge of the authors of the gospels. We don’t know the authors of the gospels.
It’s commonly accepted that the authors of the bible, NT, were well versed in Greek. I don’t know of any modern main stream theologian who asserts he knows the authorship of the gospels. We also have to question 9 of Paul’s epistles and their authorship.
Regardless: No one cares who wrote the bible. The bible is a book of stories. It is not evidence of anything. It is the claim. It is a book of claims and assertions not eyewitness and testamony,. It is a collection of ancient stories written by believers.
It has nothing to do with whether or not a God exists. I can get the exact same evidence about Big
Foot, Space Aliens Visiting Earth, and Reptilians hiding among us. What you present with the bible is the worst possible evidence you could possibly present. Stories about stories and assertions without evidence.
All this Bible stuff is a Red Herring. Why would anyone give a damn what the bible said or who wrote it? It’s an anthology. A collection of ancient Christian stories that were cherry-picked from among ancient stories. Although the 19 books contained within this text were included in the Holy Bible for thousands of years, they were removed a little over 200 years ago .Missing biblical texts include; 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, The Book of Tobit, The Book of Susanna, Additions to Esther, The Book of Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, The Epistle of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Mary.
Suddenly, after 1800 years, someone has the power and insight to change the Bible? Really? This is all just silliness.
@Semmelweis_Reflex bible also doesn’t say that Moses wrote first five books, it doesn’t say that Luke wrote gospel of Luke, nor Matthew, Mark or John have written gospels named after them.
But it does say that earth is created in 6 days
I’m not acting like anything. Most of them aren’t real. Some of them are. You are ignorantly rejecting them but that doesn’t matter. You should reject them for whatever reason you see fit. That’s none of my business. I’m here to observe you. If you act like children that’s what I observe. If you are ignorant smart asses that’s what I observe. If you want me to express my observation I will. I won’t necessarily react. If you want to have a meaningful dialogue I’m up for that. If you want to learn from me that would be cool. If you don’t, that’s cool. But, I observe you. Right now I see arrogance and ignorance. Everything’s a joke until you get pissed. I see spoiled children. I’m not here to make friends and I don’t need a slap on the back from the head of the pack.
All I want is to climb every mountain , ford every stream , follow every rainbow, 'till you find your dream. A dream that will . . . sorry. I got confused.
So? I’m asking him questions. I want to know why he believes what he believes and he was, up to a point, very helpful. You have a problem with thinking? You don’t think you have some ideas about what I believe? You don’t question, criticize, mock, scorn what billions of people believe on a daily fucking basis?
So, correct me. Simply, rationally, without the childish hyperbole to impress your group. Start a new thread on the subject. Mention me and I’m there.
That doesn’t make any sense. A typo? You thought my not being atheist would help what? I was an atheist for 27 years. For the past quarter of a century I have devoted most of my time debating atheists online. Everyone I know, friends and family are atheists with only one exception. I have a website devoted primarily to atheism.
Atheists fascinate me. Theist bore me. Atheists are damaged in some way. If you made androids and some of them acted in a peculiar manner you would be puzzled, curious, maybe if the behavior were extreme you would be fascinated. My perspective on atheists is like that.
You’ve just described religion. Is militant fundamentalist atheism primarily a product of sociopolitical frustration with theocracy? And don’t give me the bullshit about atheism only being about disbelieving gods.
Interesting. There are two possible ways it could do that. Theism and atheism.
It doesn’t matter. If science corrects itself that means at some point the science you thought was real wasn’t. How did that impact you? Now you know better? Okay, but what about then and how can you know what you know now is real. It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not.
Besides, you don’t have the merit to make that claim. In effect it becomes real in a sense at least. Even if it isn’t real, and most of it isn’t, it still impacts you. You wouldn’t be here proclaiming atheism or agnosticism or whatever it is you proclaim if it didn’t matter.
Okay. Then what the fuck was the point in you saying it in the first place?
More than you? Sounds like an ideologue to me. Just another side of the same coin.
And you want to tell the world about that? It’s important to be a vocal part of a group of like minded ideologues? Why waste your time? How is that different than the idiots you don’t give two shits for?
I’ve done it like 5 times in this thread. A deity is simply something or someone who is worshipped. Some exist and others don’t. Besides which, if you want to confirm your hypothesis and prevent any possible danger it may incur then the first step is to educate yourself on the subject. Your typical atheistic response to debate is scorn, mock, shame, anger, ignorance and in effect plugging your ears and saying “blah, blah, blah.”
I have to keep saying this. Christians are idiots. I’m talking about you and I. If I had my evidence in my left hand and yours in my right I would fall over on my left tit, 'ya fuck. It’s a tired ass lame excuse. You won’t even get to the point of looking at the evidence. Evidence doesn’t mean anything. It’s just examination.
Oh. You’se guys. Poor bastards. Somone’s always moving the goalposts or splitting your hairs. You’re just paralyzed by these distractions. Just answer the questions for fuck’s sake.
[Sighs] Finally. A reasonable comment is like a cool summer breeze.
Look. This thread should have been done. I don’t like fucking around with them more than 24 hours and I have a post limit. At least for now, apparently. The six days comment I will address in my other thread. Your comment on authorship isn’t entirely accurate, but I don’t think it’s terribly important.
Part of my problem here is that whatever I write is like it’s printed on toilet paper. Pearls before swine. You get the point of that expression? It isn’t that you are pigs, it’s that swine have no use of pearls.
Moses is credited, others are, but it doesn’t really matter enough to get into it when the supposition only really intends to establish documentary theory anyway. Just cut to the chase. But not in this tired and convoluted thread. That sound reasonable?
It’s just that most people whom are of a religion that come on here want me and the others to believe in it. Most Christians I have met or know in my real life want me to believe in their god. You seem different though.
Someone told me on here that no amount of evidence would satisfy me. They’re wrong. I don’t buy into the Bible or the other claims. That doesn’t show me a god nor does it prove one. Gods aren’t normally silent as the grave. Look at Zeus. That guy liked getting attention. He even couldn’t resist raping women. He and Poseidon were just alike. Thor couldn’t resist showing off his powers to mortal men. These gods made themselves known. They wanted fame and glory. The Christian deity made itself known to men in the Old Testament. It made itself pretty damn obvious. It had a “do as I command or I’ll kill you complex”. But we’re not seeing that behavior outside of those mythologies.
Those deities left no evidence even though the stories claim they did many many things. They talk to no one. Not even their own followers. Their followers lie about talking to a god. When you pray, you talk to yourself. All I see Christians wanting me to do is pray, go to church, and give the church MONEY!!!
It’s kind of like Big Foot or Loch Ness. If you can capture it, get DNA evidence, or bring me a corpse. I’ll buy it. If you have a machine that can locate a deity and communicate with it, I’ll buy it. If you can do magic like Jesus from the Bible, I’ll buy it. If you can summon a deity, I’ll buy it. If you’re a Satanist and can summon Lucifer to make me filthy rich, okay. But no Christian ever demonstrates Jesus’ promises or they themselves ever do miracles.
So there’s a lot not being demonstrated. I can’t go off of a book written by men. I can’t go off of other people’s pretty words that there is a deity. I need objective evidence. Give me something super duper compelling.
It’s a tired ass lame excuse. You won’t even get to the point of looking at the evidence. Evidence doesn’t mean anything. It’s just examination.