ah...wisdom at last.

And no. What I'd really like is a promise that you won't breed. But hey, I'll settle for silence.

Sometimes I miss trading barbs w/ Peter Pan. At least he was thoughtful. And funny sometimes. Crazy as a loon, perhaps. But then again, who isn't?

Technology gives no one power of anything. Technology only gives us a way to control some of the power God has given us freely. We have the power to learn and critical thinking. And is why we've evolved so much further then the animals of this planet. We have the power of knowledge.

Yes very true. Unfortunately this is true. Saddens

technology gives you power as well and as for god he could have been an alien from some other part of the galaxy doing a cloning experiment and we are the out come so how can you hold truth to a book that's basically a bunch of he says she says bull crap

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Think not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not to send peace, but a sword.
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I'm waiting for someone to create a video with two marionette Jesus dolls that constantly argue with each other using all the contradicting quotes that have been attributed to Jesus.

If you're speaking of Jesus this is absolutely untrue. I give Jesus the utmost respect. Far more than than the authors of the New Testament do.

You're just upset because I don't buy into their claims that Jesus was "the Christ".

There is no shame in the idea that Jesus was indeed a mortal man. There is no shame in the idea that he taught against the horrible moral values of the Torah. There is no shame in the idea that he was most likely educated in Mahayana Buddhism and was acting as a Bodhisattva. On the contrary to become a Bodhisattva is considered one of the most respectable and selfless things a person can do.

The picture that I paint of Jesus is highly respectable.

The pictured painted by the men who wrote the New Testament is not respectable at all, IMHO. After all, if Jesus truly was the "only begotten son" of God, then neither Jesus nor God are very bright.

So from my point of view, to recognize that Jesus was indeed a mortal man is really the only way to make him respectable.




That's where your mistake is. You just accept that these fables came from God and therefore you cannot question them without simultaneously questioning the wisdom of God. You have no choice but to assume that everything in them must be of the highest possible wisdom, even if it makes no sense to you. Surely God must know something that you don't know and that these stories aren't telling you, because you have already decided that these stories are necessarily the "Word of God". Therefore that cannot be wrong!

I see no reason to take view. No reason whatsoever.

In fact, if I took that view I would necessarily have to agree with everything in the Bible no matter how nonsensical it appears to me, because, like you, I would have already committed myself to accepting that it's the "Word of God" and therefore cannot be false.

If there's something that appears to be stupid to me, it can only be because I'm lacking the knowledge and wisdom to understand it.

That's the mentality that a lot of people accept with open arms. But I see no reason to behave in such a foolish way. And yes, I do indeed believe that such behavior is foolish.

After all, if you're going to just assume something to be true, why pick the Hebrew folklore? Why not pick one of the myriad of other religions throughout the world? You could just as easily have chosen Wicca, for example, and then you'd believe that the Moon Goddess is the true picture of our creator and all other religions are false myths.

Now you may argue, "But Jesus was a real person who actually lived!"

Well, maybe or maybe not. You can't even know that for sure. But even if he had lived (which I personally accept), that itself does not give credence to the rumors that the authors of the New Testament wrote.

The whole religion is extremely egotistical, like it or not.

The God of the Old Testament is an extremely egotistical God. Jesus is portrayed to be just as jealous and hateful toward anyone who refuses to worship him.

And finally, the whole theme is about personal salvation. Period. It's not a story about humanity in general or how to conduct great societies. It's all about getting your personal butt 'saved'.

It's a religion that is entirely about saving individual egos.

I've said many times, and I continue to hold this view:

Even if this biblical picture of God were true, I would reject his offer of "eternal life". I make no secret about it, I do not like the God that is portrayed in the Old Testament. He doesn't appear to be the slightest bit wise to me. I certainly have no desire to worship and serve and idiot for the rest of eternity.

Therefore, even if I knew that this religion was true, I would politely and without any emotion at all, simply decline this God's offer of eternal life. I'm simply not interested. I would ask that this God simple cause me to cease to exist. Or better yet, make it like I never had existed at all.

That would be my POLITE AND SINCERE request of this God.

If the God has any righteousness and wisdom at all he would understand and simply cause me to vanish painlessly from his silly games.

On the other hand, if he starts throwing temper tantrums and claiming that he's going to 'punish' me for now wanting to play his stupid games, then he would have just proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that he's not nearly as mature and wise as even I am.

That's the problem with this God. In order for this God to be as "threatening" as the bible would like it to be, this God would need to basically be a real jerk. A far less moral being than myself.

But that flies in the very face of what an all-righteous and all-wise God should be.

It simply cannot be true that an all-righteous and all-wise God would be mean to people or even reject them for not believing in such horrible violent, and often absurdly ridiculous stories as are in the Biblical Cannon.

The very idea of a God who would be mean to people for not believing that he sent his only begotten son to be crucified to pay for their sins is itself an unwise and unrealistic thing to ask of people, IMHO.

You, as a Christian surely believe that "With God all things are possible".

Well, if you believe that, then why would such a God need to solve all of his problems using utterly stupid and violent means, when clearly he can do anything he wants?

If he wanted to get rid of sinners all he would have had to do was make them all sterile and within the span of a single generation they'd all be dead and there would be no new-born babies to even worry about.

To have some guy build a boat to save the animal species and then flood the entire planet just to get rid of a bunch of sinners is neither wise, nor powerful. That's a method you'd expect mortal men to dream up.

I mean, come on. Evidently you're afraid to even question whether these absurd stories are true. You've decided that they are indeed the "Word of God" and therefore to question them is to question God himself.

That's precisely what the authors of these tales were hoping you'd do! Don't question them, just believe them!

Well, I'm not going there. That's silly. I prefer to question them, and when I do question them I see precisely how utterly stupid they truly are.

The word of God is the sword of which Jesus brought to the world. The word is your sword and God is your armor.

Well, you can rest assured that it still didn't stop. I'm sure they didn't let Jesus bully them. They probably just set them back up again and continued on with their business after the scene was over.

It wouldn't have accomplished anything. Violence is never the answer to a problem Cowboy. This is the problem with the biblical stories they attempt to solve all their problems using violent methods because it's the only thing those people understood. They weren't wise enough to think up better solutions for the stories in their fables. This is why the biblical stories are far from being wise and cannot possibly be the actions and words of a supposedly all-wise supernatural being.

As I point out again, like Einstein and other brilliant minds have recognized, the biblical God is far too human. He has the same mentality as a lot of human. In fact, he has the mentality of humans who themselves aren't very wise.

Besides, the mere fact that Jesus referred to the churches of the Scribes and Pharisees as his "Father's House" proves that Jesus wasn't God. He was clearly thinking just like a mortal man.

Jesus himself was not educated enough, nor did he have the credentials to teach in a church. What sense would it make for a God to send his only begotten son to Earth and not even set things up for his son so that his son could teach from "The Father's House".

If Jesus felt that the Scribes and Pharisees were hypocrites, and he didn't approve of what they did in "Their Temples", then instead of referring to "Their Temples" as his Father's House, he would have renounced them as being dens of iniquity.

But he didn't do that. So it's clear that Jesus was just a mortal man like everyone else. He made the very kinds of mistakes we'd expect any mortal man to make.

Actually, either "a lot" or "alot" is acceptable in English. Oh yes, I'm sure you have a degree. Probably 98 of them.

And if you wanna trade insults, you'll just end up being schooled--again. Better quit while you're behind, kiddo.

so according to Jesus...it's neither a sin nor an act of violence to go into temples and turn over tables and pews

Cowboy, as I've said before, you seem like a good guy.
However, you are most definatly the exception to the rule.

Yes, some people were "simply wrong" in their assumption of "racism".
However, I would cut them a little slack

because they've probably experienced real "racism" a number of times before and now it's a knee-jerk reaction to any inconvenience. I'm not saying it's right and people should be able to differentiate between past and current situations. But how many people think past their knee-jerk reactions?

ummm...Those were both, "racial" and individual differences. Those aren't mutually exclusive concepts.
In any case, what's your point?

In all honesty, often in history religion was used as an excuse for doing bad things. W/o it, bad people would've, no doubt, found other excuses for doing bad things.
However, you are correct. Humanity would've had fewer conflicts and be much more advanced if it had not the encumberance of religion.

Fear of death compels people to look into religion. In order to remove the fear of death, I recommend ingesting psilocybin mushrooms. They are a remarkable tool in connecting your mind to your soul. :)