Wow, news flash.
The Bible contains glaring contradictions.
Who knew?
Writers (not God) are at fault
by anointed1 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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scratchme1010
1) The incomprehensibly vast size of the universe teaches how insignificant our earth and all its inhabitants are (which means there is no basis for anyone to feel self-important)
So size does matter after all? What does the size of the universe has to do with our relevance? How important a given person or thing is has no correlation with its relative size in comparison to something else. Physical dimensions has nothing to do quality of life or morals.
2) The way planets and stars act too teaches us humility! They move around keeping to their orbits just like vehicles follow lane-discipline on a busy express highway (as though submitting themselves to some unseen authority)
Interesting that you use man-made things (a highway) to explain the vastness of "God's" creation. So let me see if I understand what you are saying: planets that are (some of them) not even part of our own galaxy, that we can't see, that we have no access to, that we need to study advanced Astronomy, mathematics and physics to begin comprehending them, along with the rest of entities that we don't even know... that's supposed to teach us humility, an arbitrarily chosen concept of morality. Not to mention that suck knowledge is available for those who choose to look into it. Sounds a little off-the-wall to me.
3) Plants produce fragrant and beautiful flowers and trees produce fruits for others to enjoy (not for themselves). They too are living lessons of humility.
Prostitutes provide services to men (or women) in dire need of having sex. Drug dealers provide a great wealth of supplies for those who really need to get a fix. Are those lessons of humility too? Besides, go ahead and look for information about these plants:
Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata)
Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna)
White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)
Castor Bean (Ricinus communis)
Rosary Pea (Abrus precatorius)
Oleander (Nerium oleander)
Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)and see how "joyful" what they produce is.
4) All the stories and histories written show that those who pursued self-importance reaped misery in the end. [shows that all the writers are somehow led by some imperceptible force to come to the same conclusion that ultimately truth wins and ego fails]
Yeah, right. I guess that depends on which stories you read and what you want to pay attention to.
If you don’t see any lessons in those beings—inanimate and animate, you can formulate your life in any way you like, and it is ok if it makes you happy.
But for me, taking lessons of humility from them makes me too happy, and those around me feel comfortable with me.
Yet, you need to come here to brag about it. Some humility. Classic passive/aggressive religious crap.
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Xanthippe
You think wondering what the universe is all about is being egotistical? Why? We should just feel humble and small? The masses have been held down for centuries by being told to be humble or else burn in hell, get stuck in purgatory, a lower caste or die at Armageddon blah, blah, blah.
It's been a ploy of religious and political leaders to keep control of people. If God exists why would he want you to be stupid to keep you humble? You can be intelligent, question everything and still not be egotistical. It's about the joy of learning new things, not about saying how clever we are.
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GoneAwol
So who decides which bits of the bible are relevant? You? The bits that fit your version of how life should be lived?
News flash! Its called cherry picking! Its dishonest. You should be asking instead: Why would an all powerful god ALLOW his precious book to become tainted by immoral writers in the first place? Did he allow it, or didn't he have control over it. Why is that? Cant or wont? Does he even exist?
By the way, waxing lyrical using floaty christian effusive language doesn't make you more religious or godly. It makes you come across as a bit mad. Just saying....
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anointed1
scratchme1010 you say: Yet, you need to come here to brag about it. Some humility. Classic passive/aggressive religious crap.
Speaking about humility is not bragging nor it is the monopoly of religions. Whoever practices it benefit, and others around the practicer of humility feels comfortable. On the other hand, the egotistic makes life a hell for himself and others.
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anointed1
GoneAwol
Says: “So who decides which bits of the bible are relevant? You?”
Even you can decide, anybody can decide.
When people find someone breaking a long queue and try to get things done ahead of others, everyone says it is wrong and unacceptable. We are all endowed with capability of knowing what is beneficial and what is not—especially when someone else does.
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schnell
if it makes you happy.
Forgive me, but while a person may believe whatever they want, that does not necessarily make it okay. A belief may be horrific, in which case we can agree that it's not okay, or a belief can be nonsense, which is less sinister but can spell problems for both this person and others as well. Those problems can even be deadly, or costly, as in the case of parents who don't get their toddlers vaccinated.
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anointed1
schnell
I got inspired to write the above when I read “Pale Blue Dot” (thoughts of Carl Sagan). Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. -
Heaven
The ancients created the gods to help them define the natural world. They thought the Earth was the center of the universe.
Luckily, we have various disciplines now such as Science, Archeology, Biology, Geology, Mathematics, Genetics, to name a few, that have lifted us out of the superstitious realm of 'god did it' to show that natural processes are just that. There is no spirit being behind volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, leprosy, epilepsy, HIV, ebola etc, etc. as the ancients all thought. Knowing that there are at least 12 other planets in our Universe that all reside in the habitable zones of stars and that the building blocks of life have been found in meteors means that life could very well exist on other planets. Suddenly, Earth and it's species are not so 'special' as the religionists want mankind to believe.
The Hebrews believed Yahweh to be all things, both good and evil. But there is a huge issue trying to sell one's god as "all-loving" when he condones and perpetuates mass genocide, infanticide, rape, slavery, misogyny, and a multitude of other ugly, nasty things that people in authoritarian positions have wrought on the rest of the human race for thousands of years.
Even religion evolves. One only has to research where their current beliefs came from to realize this. One day the human race will no longer need the gods. They are almost there now.
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punkofnice
My question to any believer is this:
If you were God, what would this world be like now?
I think the answer itself should show that if there is a God, it/they/she/nim doesn't care a jot about us. Believers of course, will do all sorts of vomit inducing mental gymnastics and take verses of their chosen 'holy book' and bend them to fit the current circumstances. It's rather sad. 2017 and no sign of a God. Open your eyes, minds and see.................it's all futile.