User:Baloogan

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I don't know when I'm ever going to get it through my head that speaking with someone that's decided they believe the Bible is a frustrating experience and that a rational, scientific conversation is not possible. To those of you who are very religious: I mean no disrespect by that, but it's pretty true.

The typical thing for Bible believers to do is to start proving their points by quoting Bible scriptures. I'm sorry, but that is circular reasoning. That's sorta like me writing a book stating that I am God. And then when someone challenges my assertion that I am God, I take them to page such-and-such of the book I wrote and say, "See, there's your proof that I am God!".

Truth can be proven in many ways, yet the only way Bible believers have to prove the Bible is circumstances that could just as easily prove the Qur'an or several other alternate belief systems. Or by quoting scriptures from the Bible itself, which, again, is circular reasoning.

Speaking of the Qur'an: are you aware that Muslims, though they call him "Allah", serve the SAME God you do? Remember how Abraham had two sons, one legitimate and one illegitimate? I'm sure you know the illegitimate son is the ancestor of all Muslims. They descended from him. Therefore, they serve the God of Abraham. Christians also serve the God of Abraham. Do you not see that this is the same God. Yet there has been so much fighting between the two groups. Why? Because Christians believe THEY have "the only way" and Muslims believe THEY have "the only way".

Let’s talk about FAITH for a second. Faith is the cornerstone of Christian belief. For this argument let’s assume that there IS a God. God is NOT a God of faith. How can I say that? By looking at his creation. All of existence is very scientific. We can predict, quite accurately, the exact location of the earth in relationship to the sun 10 years from now. We have doctors and scientists that make incredible breakthroughs on a daily basis. Scientific breakthroughs happen all the time, yet NONE of them are based on faith. This proves that God is a God of FACTS and FIGURES. Men, not God, made up both religion and the Bible. For some men, it was a way to control people and instill fear. For others, they honestly believed what they'd written.

Nevertheless, the Bible was indeed written by men. And don’t you find it ironic that a book that claims that the Jews are "God's Chosen People" just happens to be written by Jews?

The Bible is filled with hate and stories so ridiculous that we must "accept them by faith". On top of oceans of water that part so Israelites can cross, fire coming down from heaven to consume sacrifices, an earth that was created in 7 days, and 2 loaves and 3 fishes miraculously feeding 5,000 people, we also have ridiculous SENSELESS killings. Things that sound more like the angry writings of ignorant men than something an all-knowing, merciful God would do.

Let’s use scriptures directly from the Bible to illustrate what I mean:

NUMBERS 11:1 - "And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord: and the Lord heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the Lord burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp"

How about this one:

HOSEA 13:16 - "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up"

(I thought God hated abortion... what happened in that last verse?)

Here’s another classic:

1 SAMUEL 6:19 "And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter"

So 50,070 people were killed (almost the entire population of Chico) because someone looked inside the Ark. Imagine that.

How about having one million people killed? Here's the scripture:

2 CHRONICLE 14:8-12 "And Asa had an army of men . . . And there came out against them Zera the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand... Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power, help us, O Lord our God… So the Lord smote the Ethiopians"

And do you remember what you were told in the Bible about rainbows? What exactly ARE rainbows? Refraction of light passing through water? Or a promise from God not to ever flood the earth again? Well, if you believe the Bible, it's the latter. How ignorant!

There are so many RIDICULOUS claims in that book. If an all-knowing GOD had inspired it, he would have known that someday we'd become more educated about the science behind how things work. Someday we wouldn't live our lives based on legends and fairy tales.

To me, I see the Bible as "Santa Claus" for adults. Many people can't handle many of life's truths. They would be shattered emotionally if, for instance, they had to face the fact that once we die.... we die. That's it. We're gone. There is NO afterlife. And no amount of group peer-pressure to believe ancient myths is going to change that fact.

But let's say there was an afterlife... good or bad. Does it make ANY sense to you that a God who is supposed to be a better father than any earthly man could ever possibly HOPE to be, would punish us FOREVER for screwing up during our EXTREMELY SHORT time here on earth? Our minds are mortal. We can't comprehend the idea of never-ending, everlasting life. But isn't it ridiculous to think ANY father would punish his children FOREVER when they screw up for a SHORT time? Should I spank my son daily if he talks back to his mother a few times? And keep beating the crap out of him for the rest of his life for that sin? I could claim, "Well, I warned him!" but I just don’t think that would be a good explanation to the courts that would take him away from me if I did such a thing. And that example is not even as ridiculous as sending a person to ETERNAL damnation for a short life of sin, no matter HOW many times they were warned.

Whatever happened to "forgiving 70 x 7 times in one day"? 490 sins a day is what Jesus commanded that we allow people. I guess it's different on matters relating to "eternal life", eh?

If our children believed things that were as ridiculous as those that are described in the Bible, and they WEREN'T events described in the Bible, we'd educate them. Just like we let them know that fairy tales aren't real, the tooth fairy doesn't exist, and Santa Claus doesn't bring presents to the good boys and girls of the world.

Why, then, do adults believe the fairy tales in the Bible? It was written by angry, mostly uneducated men that want everyone to believe what THEY believe, and are willing to try to scare people into believing them with claims of eternal damnation for those who don’t believe.

Even if you choose to believe in God, can’t you see that belief in God and belief in the Bible is not the same thing? Just because the Bible mentions God does not mean you must believe it. Many Christians have told me, “But the Bible mentions so many things that really happened”. Let’s assume that is true: Stephen King mentions the falling of the twin towers in several of his books, but all of us know that they are still fiction. Do you see the point I’m making?

The Bible is a book filled with hatred. Yes, it has some great stories of love when it comes to the story of Jesus, but it is overwhelmingly filled with hatred. If you mess up, you're killed or eternally punished. If you're rebellious, God rips your unborn children from your womb. Many people try to explain away a lot of that hatred (not all of it) by saying that the New Testament in some way "does away" with many parts of the Old Testament. That, too, is a load of crap. It's a nice cop-out and is, in fact, an attempt to try to explain away some of the Bible's inconsistencies. People who blindly accept everything they’re told, as long as it has to do with the Bible or is spoken from their Pastor’s lips, are the only people who accept such ridiculous explanations.

I believe people need religion to be able to psychologically deal with life's problems. So many of life's issues are difficult, so humans made up many different forms of spiritual belief. Don't you think that God is powerful enough that if he wanted an organized religion he would have revealed the same thing to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE? The Bible was all written in a pretty centralized area in the middle east. There aren't books written by men in what we know as Russia, what we know as Africa, what we know as Australia, or North or South America. Nope. All those regions of the earth have their OWN form of religion. But Bible believers, for some reason, think the "truth" revealed in the middle east is the ONLY way. I'm sorry but they are WRONG. There IS no "one true way". There is no place to go to when we die. And there is no "way" to go ANYWHERE.

Let me tell you, when you die, you're dead. There is no eternal life. You won't see your Grandmothers again. You won't see anyone that has died again. If my son dies before me I won't see him again. The thought of that is so mind blowing and painful that it's no wonder people make up religions to cope with death and other such issues.

Delude yourself if you'd like. Maybe it doesn't hurt you, but it sure has hurt others (how many wars were started over religious disputes... in fact, Sept 11th happened simply because of one group's religious beliefs). I greatly dislike all forms of religion and pity those enslaved to ANY religion, including Christianity.