by toweragent 40 Replies latest jw friends
'Who wrote the bible' by Prof. Richard Elliott Friedman is an excellent book that looks at the history and different sources that constitute the OT.
For the NT anything by Bart Ehrman and Bruce Metzger are excellent. Robert M Price has some good books about the NT like Deconstructing Jesus, The Amazing Colossal Apostle and The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man. Despite the fun names they are actually serious scholarly works. It depends what you feel about a mythic Jesus as to if you take to them.
No. The same way I don'y waste time wondering if Thor is real. Bible God is an ancient myth that has as much relevance as Ra, Mithras, Baal or any of the other old gods.
OneEyedJoe pretty much sayed everything thatcould be talled. Read Bart Ehrman (easy start) and anything by the new atheists. Look for the Creation book misquotes and keep researching espesially about any doubts you have about god's existance. Keep brave, and very soon you will be quite confidend about your bealifs. After that you can start the not-so-easy journey of helping your wife.
I'm not atheist. I'm a person who doesn't KNOW.
I find the idea of a supreme being who plays peek-a-boo strangely immature and pointless.
If God wants to be known it is only because He is so absentee.
For a worker of miracles, the stretch to interpret something miraculous amidst all the dysfunction is rathy cynical of Him.
Ancient stories don't really make for much of an interface with humanity; especially when those stories are Iron Age/ Bronze Age
ethnic hodge-podge.
So, no--I don't wonder. I really shouldn't have to.
For those of you who are now athiest: Do you ever look back and wonder "what if"? What if the god of the bible is real? What if there is a creator who is not the god of the bible?
No. What's the point. Once you realise that no god or entity will answer you and no one really knows you give up bothering and decide to live what's left of your life.
I would like to free myself from religion...
Go for it. You're in control.
but it leaves such an empty void for me.
Yup. the truth hurts as they say.
You mean to tell me that my time with my super amazing and awesome wife (albiet hardcore) is limited? No paradise earth? No heaven? No afterlife? Did you have to get over this fact or was it pretty easy for you?
Yes....................to all of that! Apart from the wife bit.............mine left after I left the filthy disgusting cult.
Based on the facts around us - the existence of a creator makes perfect sense to me...
But no need to be in a religion though...
What if Star Wars really did happen a long time ago, in a galaxy far-far away?
What if middle-earth was real?
What if ...
They are all just stories - that 'what if' reasoning (or lack of?) could be applied to anything and the argument always assumes that the choice / price is free.
What if one of the other thousands of religions is true?
Is it worth wasting your life over?
For those of you who are now athiest: Do you ever look back and wonder "what if"? What if the god of the bible is real? What if there is a creator who is not the god of the bible?
I have to agree fully with the person in Darth Frosty's link on page 1.
Further, I have done enough research to know that the Bible is not facts. A god of the Bible would be self-contradictory and a bastard to humankind. As far as any god existing, atheism allows for that and waits for solid evidence.
But Homer Simpson pointed out the problem with going to church to appease that god:
Haha, I love that quote. Did anyone else notice that toweragent spelled atheism right once in his OP, but not the other three times?
"What ifs" can keep you paralyzed with fear, unable to make decisions. Most people are risk adverse, in other words they are afraid of losing something more than they desire something good. That kind of thinking can keep people stuck in an unfulfilled life, afraid of the million "what Ifs". For me it was very freeing to realize that there was no real proof we were living in the last days, and no proof God existed either. It meant I could life my life in a more positive way, free of fear of judgement by God and free of fear of dying in the big A. Primitive man lived in fear of the God of Thunder, Thor, because they didn't understand weather and atmospheric phenomenon. Now we know what causes thunder, so it would be ridiculous to fear Thor, yet we are supposed to fear the God of the bible, when there isn't any more proof of his existence, other than a two thousand year old book, filled with fairy tales, contradictions and the common fears and superstitions of the times it was written.
Your questions are good, keep asking then, keep seeking answers, it takes time to come to terms with all this, but it does get easier with time.
