Minimalist wrote:To be completely fair, I used to egg Arch on something fierce. However, he has stated to me via e-mail that if the bible is not "100% right" then there is no hope for mankind.
Looks like mankind is royally fucked, I guess.
If we're fucked royal or otherwise, we have only ourselves to blame. But if life really IS a circle (and for odd reasons, I tend to believe it is) then there really is nothing new under the sun and we will continue to do what we do Up and down, around....until we don't.
We don't need the bible to be OK. We need only use what was given us through time..our brains. I'll post a bit of a rant I went on a few months ago
"Jesus aka son of G_D, aka Allah et al, is supposed to be keeping people in line? That scares me. If the current day believers are IN LINE what the HELL would the world be like if they weren't?
Case in point, the eternal conflict in the middle east (thanks for that Abraham if you had just kept your robe down...) starvation in Darfur, Somalia, and the corrupt, evil government of the United States, whose leader feels it is immoral and against his religious belief to kill a cell, but dammit, its OKAY to torture prisoners and kill anyone else he feels like; because he's on G_D's side.
OK review..G_D gave us cells for the same reason he gave us grapes. We figured out a way to make wine, we also figured out a way to use cells to cure horrible diseases (also invented by G_D since he is the master of all creation)...OUR PRESIDENT who, by the way, utilizes the grape, thinks it is bad to use a cell to heal,
but OK to kill bigger cells as long as we really dont like them. I wish he'd get angry at the little cells so we can find a cure for horrible diseases.
G_D HATES SIN, but didn't he create sin? Using the religious logic (God is the creator of all) of course he did. Why, if he was so all knowing, and all he really wanted was little people to worship him, why the hell did he make that apple tree and tell them not to touch it???
Anyone who has kids knows the mere act of saying DON'T TOUCH IT, is a sure fire way to make sure they do...then he goes and blames the little, brand new, innocent people he just made for touching something as beautiful as an apple; something he knew they were going to do when he made them and then on top of that he punishes the woman MORE by making her suffer in childbirth...and then starts smiting them for stupid shit.
This can only be
man logic. Either that or a cosmic board game between the GODS. Taken at face value it does seem a bit masochistic. "Ah kids, heres an apple tree, I know you are going to touch it because I am G_D and I know everything. I am already thinking up a great punishment for you"...ZAP...SIZZLE...CRACKLIN' GOOD SNACK FOR SATAN
Jesus saves. And I'm darn glad he does. If he didn't save at least a small segment of the population and terrify them into good behavior, this world would be even MORE screwed up."
I can get going on a subject sometimes...I'm too logical to buy the Jealous ANGRY God...it's giving the supposedly Godly and Holy Being WAY too many human characteristics..and doesn't that make us comfortable?
I feel sorry for the kids (there really ARE kids like that) like the one in that CHICK tract. They come out of Xian homes and schools and get thrust into the real world and their faith is challenged at every turn. Either they bury their heads deeper, or they lose it all together, and neither is a workable solution.
Science is not religion the two can never be compatable. Science begins as theory and is either proven or disproven by empirical study...FACTS. (Like the earth is not flat, because we have proven that it is round...no matter what the bible says..link..and they are NOT kidding:
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/fe-scidi.htm)
Religion requires us to suspend reason in favor of the miraculous, and some of us do, because we need to, not because the miraculous is a fact. Most humans, having the nature that we do, NEED to have some sort of connection with what we feel is bigger than us, the divine. The fear of death is so pervasive in this world...and amazingly for the most part, the most fearful of death are the Xians, the very ones who are supposed to be looking forward to being with the Lord. I think they're afraid...because despite all the fire and brimstone, they aren't really SURE. ARE they good enought to avoid eternal damnation? WILL they live eternally on streets of gold singing hallelujah for infinity? Fear is born from uncertainty..and in my life experience I have NEVER seen anyone try harder to stay alive, including life support for years, than Xians. I never did get that.
Even as a child I chortled at the virgin birth. I thought...who does he think he's kidding (of the pastor)...unless the holy ghost has a holy penis and extra holy sperm an immaculate conception is the wishful thinking of the girl in trouble. I was unable to suspend reason in order to BELIEVE in the miraculous. (Not to mention that only ONE of the gospels mentions it, and that was written at least 90 years CE, and certainly NOT contemporary. Scholars believe the virgin birth was woven into the narrative to give the Xian God as much mystical importance as other contemporary-born-of-virgins Gods, you could say it was a case of "everybody's doing it"...link here for more information
http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/matthew.html)
As far as our being fucked, Dalai Lama said (December 8, 1999):
"Change only takes place through action, not through meditation and prayer."
The ones I feel saddest for are the suicide bombers who, deprived of sex in life, really believe there are 72 virgins waiting for them for eternal blow jobs and orgies. 72? I can't remember when the last time I met a virgin
And as for Arch and the "fucked if the bible's not right" comment. Considering the contemporary interpretations of the book of Revelations and the ferverent fundamentalist belief that it is literal, we're fucked if we do, and fucked if we don't

(except of course for those dancing skeletons raised from their graves rising in the sky to meet him...heaven help the bones in the museums

we're all in for a fright.)