I am an atheist thread 2

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I do too. Don’t worry, it is the reasonable thing to do, when the bible is so unreasonable.
The Bible is not unreasonable. It is entirely reasonable when it is correctly understood, and when considered in its proper circumstances and historical setting.

zerinus
 
A, you’re still around, still asking. Igore me if you prefer, fine. But Jesus has been my joy for over twenty years, that’s how I know He is real. 🙂 He is reality, more than you are real, more than I am real, He is real.🙂
 
A, you’re still around, still asking. Igore me if you prefer, fine. But Jesus has been my joy for over twenty years, that’s how I know He is real. 🙂 He is reality, more than you are real, more than I am real, He is real.🙂
Jacafamala! Welcome yourself! Ignore us if you prefer, but on behalf of atheism, welcome to reality. Reality has been my joy for my entire life, that’s how I know reality is real. Reality is reality is reality is omg. More than reality is reality etc.

I hope you don’t take offence to my post, if you even read it. But, I am not postulating anything supernatural. Without assuming anything that isn’t blatant I know the golden rule, as do most atheists and theists. Life is beautiful in and of itself, it has no requirement outside of itself to assign meaning to itself.

Your posturings are superflouous and serve to explain nothing, even at best they explain nothing.

These values precede Christianity, you have no more claim on them than anybody else.
 
phooney;Jacafamala! Welcome yourself!
Gee, thanks so much, phooney, so kind and inviting of you.🙂
Ignore us if you prefer,
Now if that were the case, what in the Sam Hill would I be doing here?
but on behalf of atheism, welcome to reality. Reality has been my joy for my entire life, that’s how I know reality is real. Reality is reality is reality is omg. More than reality is reality etc.
😃
I hope you don’t take offence to my post, if you even read it. But, I am not postulating anything supernatural.
How do you know that? You may just be hallucinating.
Without assuming anything that isn’t blatant I know the golden rule, as do most atheists and theists. Life is beautiful in and of itself, it has no requirement outside of itself to assign meaning to itself.
How do you know that?
Your posturings are superflouous and serve to explain nothing, even at best they explain nothing.
That’s only because you aren’t me. If you were me, they would mean something very dear to you. If you were me, it would then be something.
These values precede Christianity, you have no more claim on them than anybody else.
Come again? I am what I am, and that’s all what I am.
 
How do you select which parts of the bible to contradict?
Hmmm…? Well, I don’t know if *contradict *would be the right term to describe some of my feeling and actions toward the bible. There are definatly things I don’t understand, and I respectfully question those aspects. There are things I don’t like, and I try and discuss these things with people I respect and admire. A lot of the time these same people have the same questions.

I select the parts I don’t understand, my arguement being: If someone like *me *doesn’t understand (average, educated…) then there’s a problem. Explain it please, don’t make me guess or require me to study the Greek…

Yeah, I get annoyed and I annoy as well. But you know, often times there are moments of realization, someone will explain, or something will happen and I’ll understand better. It’s not usually anything dramatic, it’s often subtle. but for the moment it’s a profound experience. What I do with this insight is my responsibility to God, my family and everyone else.

That, I would put in the “Yahweh experience” category.

I had a dream last night, I was working in a fast food restaurant… that was a hallucination… (sorry, trying to be funny… but I did have this crazy dream, I’ll save it for another thread)

I believe my doubt, and my constant and irritating questioning keeps my faith focused, and keeps me Catholic. 🤷
 
Everything has its time and place. What may be right in one set of circumstances, and period in history, may not be so in another. Jesus recognized that fact by changing many of the harsher rules and penalties of Mosaic Law. For example, He rescued the woman taken in adultery from the hand of her prosecutors by saying, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). He also told the Jews that divorce in most instances was wrong, and that the reason why it was permitted in the days of Moses was because of the “hardness of their hearts” at that time (Matthew 19:8). So a law and a penalty that may be appropriate in one time may not be so in another.

Absolutely—for the time period, occasion, and circumstances for which it was given. It may not be appropriate now, but it was then.

zerinus
Which bible are you using?

Also, I wanted to point out that you are choosing which parts of the bible to take literally as applying to you, and which to consider as things that used to be needed, but aren’t anymore.

Can you tell us about 1 Nephi 14:10?
 
The Bible is not unreasonable.Once again, which bible?
zerinus;3086512:
It is entirely reasonable when it is correctly understood, and when considered in its proper circumstances and historical setting.

zerinus
Yes, it makes perfect sense
when you select just what you want to accept and what you discard as ‘allegory’ or ‘historical’.
I could make anything sound perfect if I could take such liberties.
 
Hmmm…? Well, I don’t know if *contradict *would be the right term to describe some of my feeling and actions toward the bible. There are definatly things I don’t understand, and I respectfully question those aspects. There are things I don’t like, and I try and discuss these things with people I respect and admire. A lot of the time these same people have the same questions.
Speaking as someone who loves questions far more than answers, I would encourage you to keep asking them…and ask them in these open forums! This communication format is such a new and exciting phenomena that we don’t know how good it will get, but it has already gotten quite good.
I select the parts I don’t understand, my arguement being: If someone like *me *doesn’t understand (average, educated…) then there’s a problem. Explain it please, don’t make me guess or require me to study the Greek…
What about someone too dumb to understand the subtle answers? Does that guy deserve to burn for eternity?
 
Well, I do know of one guy, name starting with L.
If you mean Lenny Bruce, I must say I am surprised at the obscure reference. Funny stuff, though, and I notice he inspired another famous ‘cradle-catholic’ comic, George Carlin.
If you mean some make-believe being who you can not provide evidence for, then I think it is simpler to just keep track of the fact that your own mind can fool you quite effectively.
 
But what did she tell you? She must have said something about this Jesus character in all those years.
Not really, she let me find my own way, (other than going to church regularly when we were young and the songs around xmas and such)
We talked about it recently. She believes, but also could offer no reason why. She is quite smart, quite old, and a keen observer. I don’t want to brag, but my Mom is WAY above average. Still in all her experience she cannot say why she believes. Like many here, she was also willing to talk about it at length.
I am quite lucky.
 
Which bible are you using?
That is a cheap diversion, a distraction, and a red herring. I was commenting on a passage of the Bible that you had quoted and questioned. It makes no difference which Bible I am using. I was referring to the Bible that you were using.
Also, I wanted to point out that you are choosing which parts of the bible to take literally as applying to you, and which to consider as things that used to be needed, but aren’t anymore.
I was doing no such thing. I was merely clarifying for you your erroneous ideas on certain passages of the Bible that you had quoted, and objected to.
Can you tell us about 1 Nephi 14:10?
It says what it says. What do you want me to tell you about it? And what relevance does that have to what we are talking about here?

zerinus
 
Once again, which bible?
The same one that you were using.
Yes, it makes perfect sense when you select just what you want to accept and what you discard as ‘allegory’ or ‘historical’.
I could make anything sound perfect if I could take such liberties.
I don’t recall saying anything about “allegory”. I did, however, say that the laws and penalties of ancient societies should be judged by the times and circumstances in which they lived, not by our standards; and there is nothing mysteries about that assertion.

Such historical developments can be seen within our own recent history. For example, until a few decades ago capital punishment was the norm in most industrialized Western countries; but nowadays it has been banned in most of them. Sixty years ago being a homosexual was considered a crime punishable by law in most Western nations; but nowadays it is not. Some people still believe that the older laws were better, and campaign for their reintroduction. You don’t judge the laws of Moses issued three thousand years ago by today’s standards. You judge them by the times and circumstances in which they lived.

Even by today’s standards some those laws were more civilized than those of today. For example, under the Law of Moses, if you didn’t want to go to war because you were afraid to die, you didn’t have to (Deuteronomy 20:8). War was the job of the brave! But in our recent times under the draft laws if you refused to go to war and fight, you could be charged with treason and severely punished. During World Wars I & II, conscientious objectors who refused to go to war and fight were severely punished.

zerinus
 
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