I'm so glad others can come along and articulate arguments I "feel" but cannot adequately put into words. Scott Clifton does a wonderful job.
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
...and why they are now fading out.
I watched a BBC documentary called Inside the Medieval Mind the other day and it all clicked for me. Atheists wonder how it's possible that so many people accept Christianity as true, and now I have an answer. Let me explain.
What the presenter, Robert Bartlett, FRHistS, FBA, FRSE, FSA, English historian and medievalist, pointed out is that people used to believe any damn thing they were told. He didn't put it so crassly, of course, but there you have the essence of his point.
Take as an example the belief in whole societies of dog heads. People were told of sightings of human men with the heads of dogs that lived in a distant land, and they believed these accounts with no evidence and no skepticism. This belief was so entrenched that the phenomenon was given a name (Cynocephaly), and the church leaders actually debated whether or not these creatures possessed human souls.
It's not that people in ancient times were stupid. It's that they were understandably credulous. After all, the natural world was largely unknown; the scientific method and the idea of skeptical inquiry were nonexistent. So one deranged or mischievous person starts with a tale of dog heads, and the rumor spreads until it's something everyone knows.
This phenomenon occurs today, but it tends to get started and then sputter, remaining among the kook fringe (take alien abduction, Bigfoot, etc. as examples).
So my theory is that stories about Yahweh and then Jesus circulated and were believed, then written down, with no evidence and little skepticism until the belief systems came to be accepted by so many people that they came to possess credibility by sheer force of numbers in our modern day, supposedly rational culture.
Your thoughts?
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
I received this in the mail yesterday from some people concerned about my spiritual wellbeing...
One of Christian apologists' more common themes is the statement that without God there is no basis for morality. With no "absolute authority," morality can change relative to the norms of the current culture, situation, circumstance, etc. But try confronting them with the morally repugnant commands of their god in the Old Testament and see how they use the relativism explanation without batting an eye.
For example: Why God allowed polygamy:
Why did God allow polygamy in the Old Testament? The Bible does not specifically say why God allowed polygamy. As we speculate about God’s silence, there are a few key factors to consider. First, there have always been more women in the world than men. Current statistics show that approximately 50.5 percent of the world population are women, with men being 49.5 percent. Assuming the same percentages in ancient times, and multiplied by millions of people, there would be tens of thousands more women than men. Second, warfare in ancient times was especially brutal, with an incredibly high rate of fatality. This would have resulted in an even greater percentage of women to men. Third, due to patriarchal societies, it was nearly impossible for an unmarried woman to provide for herself. Women were often uneducated and untrained. Women relied on their fathers, brothers, and husbands for provision and protection. Unmarried women were often subjected to prostitution and slavery. The significant difference between the number of women and men would have left many, many women in an undesirable situation.
So, it seems that God may have allowed polygamy to protect and provide for the women who could not find a husband otherwise. A man would take multiple wives and serve as the provider and protector of all of them. While definitely not ideal, living in a polygamist household was far better than the alternatives: prostitution, slavery, or starvation. In addition to the protection/provision factor, polygamy enabled a much faster expansion of humanity, fulfilling God’s command to “be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth” (Genesis 9:7). Men are capable of impregnating multiple women in the same time period, causing humanity to grow much faster than if each man was only producing one child each year.
One of the clearest proofs I know (of which there are too many to count) that all religions are the inventions of human beings is the way they change with changing societal values. The beliefs of Christianity, for example, have changed dramatically in my lifetime.
As we have become a less brutal and violent society, people have found it more and more difficult to believe the traditional, biblical view of Hell. As some preachers will tell you, the Bible ascribes to Jesus far more teaching about Hell than about Heaven. And yet the idea that a loving God would consign the vast majority of his human creation to be tortured by fire (literal of figurative, it matters not) without ceasing forever is beyond the pale.
Instead, they believe that Hell is simply annihilation, or that it doesn't even exist. A powerful expression of this view can be viewed below:
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
When I look back at my days and years in evangelical Christianity, I remember joining the crowd in falling prey to a curious phenomenon. There were a few of our top-level leaders who sometimes made no sense. We'd sit there listening to them preach and, because they were our top-level leaders, assume that their sermons must be so deep and profound that our puny, unspiritual hearts couldn't grasp their meaning. Rather than grasp the obvious, that they were spouting nonsense!
This phenomenon afflicts believers in general when it comes to the Bible. They begin with the dogma that God inspired every word in it and therefore every word is important and in there for very good reasons. So when they come to the Revelation of John, they must assign it profound and relevant meaning. As it turns out, this is exceedingly difficult.
A certain brand of Christians, the ones who get all hot and bothered about the "end times," actually make some pretty good hay out of the insane rantings of the author, whoever he was. The rest of the Christian world just continues to flounder in its efforts to make it seem relevant to the average believer. But, as has been true throughout the history of the church, most people continue to ignore it.
So I say, let's just admit what we all know deep in our hearts: The book makes no sense!
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
I am frequently dumbfounded by the things people will believe. It seems to be the case that you can find somebody, and likely many somebodies, to believe literally anything. (And I mean literally, not figuratively!) Here's an example that will make your socks go up and down:
CNN - 4 in 10 say Jesus is coming back by 2050
Not only do they believe that Jesus exists, or that he's returning, but that he plans to come back by 2050. What are the odds?
"...the public is divided over whether Jesus Christ will return to earth by 2050. About four-in-ten (41%) expect Jesus Christ to return while slightly more (46%) say this will definitely or probably not happen. Opinions about the return of Jesus Christ are little changed from 1999 when 44% said it would definitely or probably happen."
Daily Beast - Sam Harris
After weeks of dodging the issue, at a White House Ramadan dinner Friday night, President Obama came out in support of Park51, the planned Muslim community center and mosque two blocks away from the World Trade Center site.The President says he wasn't endorsing the ground zero mosque—only defending the right to build it. Sam Harris on his failure to acknowledge that Islam is different than other faiths.
Should a 15-story mosque and Islamic cultural center be built two blocks from the site of the worst jihadist atrocity in living memory? Put this way, the question nearly answers itself. This is not to say, however, that I think we should prevent our fellow citizens from building “the ground zero mosque.” There is probably no legal basis to do so in any case—nor should there be. But the margin between what is legal and what is desirable, or even decent, leaves room for many projects that well-intentioned people might still find offensive. If you can raise the requisite $100 million, you might also build a shrine to Satan on this spot, complete with the names of all the non-believing victims of 9/11 destined to suffer for eternity in Hell. You could also build an Institute of “9/11 Truth,” catering to the credulity, masochism, and paranoia of the 16 percent of Americans who imagine that the World Trade Center was intentionally demolished by agents of the U.S. government. Incidentally, any shrine to conspiracy thinking should probably also contain a mosque, along with a list of the 4,000 Jews who suspiciously declined to practice their usury in the Twin Towers on the day of the attack.
Read more>>
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
Yes, it's true, my friends. It's much more serious than whether or not to ordain women, or whether women should even be allowed to speak in churches. The real issue is, can women even go to heaven? And according to the Bible, the answer is a clear "No!"
Skeptical? Read on, brother!
According to Revelation 14:
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
A picture of heaven and the saved emerges that cannot include women! The 144,000 blameless ones, who have God's name on their foreheads, who alone can even learn the song much less sing it. They are the ones who "did not defile themselves with women." They remained pure!
Now I ask you: If not defiling yourself with women is required to enter heaven, how is it possible for a woman, the thing itself, to enter? It is not.
It all makes sense now, doesn't it? Why Jesus had no female apostles? Why priests can't marry?
I love it when the Bible comes through with such clear teaching, don't you?
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
Brother Warren's boastful tweet (assuming he wrote it) reminds me what it's like to be a preacher. You're just like regular people in that your ego is bound up in your ministry success/failure. It's a rare person who does not succumb to this phenomenon, and these precious few would be like with or without their faith.
The offending tweet?
I challenge any church in America to match the spiritual maturity, godliness & commitment of any 500 members of Saddleback
LA Times - 8.8.10 by William Lobdell
The Anne Rice defection: It's the tip of the religious iceberg
American Christianity is not well, and there's evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical than most realize — or at least want to admit.
Novelist Anne Rice's surprise post last week on Facebook — she announced she had quit Christianity "in the name of Christ" because she'd seen too much hypocrisy — brought cheers and smug smiles from critics of institutional faith, and criticism and soul-searching among believers.
But there's something more at play here than one of America's most famous Catholics — Rice re-embraced the faith of her youth in 1998 and published a memoir just two years ago, "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" — walking away from the church.
Read more>>
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
Consider the words to this well-known devotional ditty:
Without Him I could do nothing
Without Him I'd surely fail
Without Him I would be drifting
Like a ship without a sail
Without Him I would be dying
Without Him I'd be enslaved
Without Him life would be worthless
But with Jesus thank God I'm saved
Oh Jesus, oh Jesus
Do you know Him today
Please don't turn Him away
Oh Jesus, my Jesus
Without Him how lost I would be
Without Him how lost I would be
How does a miserable excuse for a human being keep another human being from seeking to escape his tyrannical company? One way is to threaten to kill you if you ever try to leave, and there's an analogy there, too, but we'll leave that one for another day. Today we will consider the other way, which is to continually brainwash you into believing you would be far worse off without them.
The truth is, you would be fine. Take a look around. Forget what your preacher tries to tell you every Sunday about how horrible it is outside the four walls of his fiefdom. You know what he's saying, what the song is saying, just isn't true. People outside are happy and doing fine. Any you would do fine too.
Why does your religion have to convince you that you would be worse off than a dung beetle apart from it? Why does your preacher have to make it seem that people outside his flock are miserable and out of control? Because life really isn't so nice inside and he's afraid you'll figure that out and make tracks.
Follow me on Twitter. Golden Platypus is updated often; the easiest way to get your regular dose is by subscribing to our news feed. Stay on top of all our updates by subscribing now via RSS or Email.
And makes a hash of both...
Big Questions Online - 7.28.10 by Michael Shermer
