Donny

I don't know when I'm ever going to get it through my head that speaking
with someone that's decided they believe the Bible is a frustrating
experience and that a rational, scientific conversation is not possible.
I mean no disrespect by that, but it's pretty true.

The typical thing for Bible believers to do is to start proving their
points by quoting Bible scriptures. I'm sorry, but that is circular
reasoning. That's sorta like me writing a book stating that I am God.
And then when someone challenges my assertion that I am God, I take them
to page such-and-such of the book I wrote and say, "See, there's your
proof that I am God!".

Truth can be proven in many ways, yet the only way Bible believers have
to prove the Bible is circumstances that could just as easily prove the
Qur'an or several other alternate belief systems. Or by quoting
scriptures from the Bible itself, which, again, is circular reasoning.

Speaking of the Qur'an: are you aware that Muslims, though they call
him "Allah", serve the SAME God you do? Remember how Abraham had two
sons, one legitimate and one illegitimate? I'm sure you know the
illegitimate son is the ancestor of all Muslims. They descended from
him. Therefore, they serve the God of Abraham. Christians also serve
the God of Abraham. Same God. Yet there has been so much fighting
between the two groups. Why? Because Christians believe THEY have "the
only way" (whatever THAT is) and Muslims believe THEY have "the only
way".

God is NOT a God of faith. And faith is the cornerstone of Christian
belief. How can I say that God isn't a God of faith? By looking at his
creation. All of existence is very Scientific. We can predict, quite
accurately, the exact location of the earth in relationship to the sun
10 years from now. We have doctors and scientists that make incredible
breakthroughs on a daily basis. We're learning SO much... yet NONE of
it is based on faith. God is a God of FACTS and FIGURES. Men, not God,
made up both religion in general, and the Bible in particular. For some
men, it was a way to control people and instill fear. For others, they
honestly believed what they'd written.

Nevertheless, the Bible was indeed written by men. It's very ironic
that a Bible written by Jews happens to name Jews as "God's Chosen
People". The Bible is filled with hate and stories so ridiculous that
we must "accept them by faith". On top of oceans of water that part so
Israelites can cross, fire coming down from heaven to consume
sacrifices, an earth that was created in 7 days, and 2 loaves and 3
fishes miraculously feeding 5,000 people, we also have ridiculous
SENSELESS killings. Things that sound more like the angry writings of
poor-white-trash than something an all-knowing, merciful God would do.
For instance:

HOSEA 13:16 - "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled
against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be
dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up"

(I thought God hated abortion... what happened in that last verse?)

- or -

1 SAMUEL 6:19 "And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had
looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty
thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because
the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter"

That is 50,070 people killed because someone looked inside the Ark.
That is the same as the entire population of Chico. Imagine that.

- or -

How about having one million people killed? Not only is that an
ENORMOUS amount of people, but I wonder exactly how God killed so many
all at once. Here's the scripture:

2 CHRONICLE 14:8-12 "And Asa had an army of men . . . And there came out
against them Zera the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand . .
. Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said Lord, it is nothing with
thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power, help
us, O Lord our God . . . So the Lord smote the Ethiopians"


And do you remember what you were told about rainbows? What exactly are
rainbows? Refraction of light passing through water? Or a promise from
God not to ever flood the earth again? Well, if you believe the Bible,
it's the latter. How ignorant!

There are so many RIDICULOUS claims in that book. If GOD had inspired
it, he would have known that someday we'd become more educated about the
science behind how things work. Someday we wouldn't live our lives
based on legends and fairy tales.

To me, I see the Bible as "Santa Claus" for adults. Many people can't
handle many of life's truths. They would be shattered emotionally if,
for instance, they had to face the fact that once we die.... we die.
That's it. We're gone. There is NO afterlife. And no amount of group
peer-pressure to believe ancient myths is going to change that fact.

But let's say there was an afterlife... good or bad. Does it make ANY
sense to you that a God, a better father than any earthly man could ever
possibly HOPE to be, would punish us FOREVER for screwing up during our
EXTREMELY SHORT time here on earth? Our minds are mortal. We can't
comprehend the idea of never-ending, everlasting life. But isn't it
ridiculous to think ANY father would punish his children FOREVER when
they screw up for a SHORT time? Should I spank my son daily if he talks
back to his mother a few times? And keep spanking him for the rest of his
life for that sin? "Well, I warned him!" just wouldn't be a good enough
explanation to the courts that would take him away from me if I did
that. And that example is not even as ridiculous as sending a person to
ETERNAL damnation for a short life of sin, no matter HOW many times they
were warned. Whatever happened to "forgiving 70 x 7 times in one day"?
490 sins a day is what Jesus commanded that we allow people. I guess
it's different on matters relating to "eternal life", eh? For some
reason, that makes me snicker.

If our children believed things that were as ridiculous as those that
are described in the Bible, and they WEREN'T events described in the
Bible, we'd eventually educate them and let them know that fairy tales
aren't real, the tooth fairy doesn't exist, and Santa Claus doesn't
bring presents to the good boys and girls of the world.

Why, then, do adults believe the fairy tales in the Bible? It was
written by angry, mostly uneducated Jewish men that want everyone to
believe what THEY believe.

My ex-sister-in-law recently wrote:

"God's way is the ONLY way that works. Your spirit knows it Donny, and
you will NEVER have peace until you recognize this as truth."

My response was:

"Absolutely incorrect. My 'spirit' knows nothing of the sort. I simply
can't stand the fact that so many thinking adults still believe in fairy
tales. Just as I'm sure it irritates you to hear an un-educated person
talking about ridiculous beliefs in astrology, talking adamantly about
Hinduism or Buddhism, or professing absolute belief in some weird voodoo
type crap. And I particularly get bothered that such beliefs are being
taught to my son. And I'm even MORE bothered that I can't tell him the
truth because it would immediately put him at odds with his mother's side of
his family, pull him in two different directions and confuse the hell
out of him."

Some day you MAY face the fact that the Bible has NOTHING to do
with God. Although it talks a lot ABOUT God it has NOTHING to do with
him. It is indeed a load of crap. It is a book filled with hatred.
Yes, it has some great stories of love when it comes to the story of
Jesus, but it is overwhelmingly filled with hatred. If you mess up,
you're killed or eternally punished. If you're rebellious, God rips
your unborn children from your womb. Many people try to explain away a
lot of that hatred (not all of it) by saying that the New Testament in
some way "does away" with many parts of the Old Testament. That, too,
is a load of crap. It's a nice cop-out and is, in fact, an attempt to
try to explain away some of the Bible's inconsistencies. And such
ridiculous explanations are only accepted by people who blindly accept
anything they're told, as long as it has to do with the Bible.

I believe people need religion to be able to psychologically deal with
life's problems. So many of life's issues get people down, so humans
made up many different forms of spiritual belief. Don't you think that
God is powerful enough that if he wanted an organized religion he would
have revealed the same thing to EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE? The Bible was all written in a pretty centralized area in the middle east. There aren't
books written by men in what we know as Russia, what we know as Africa,
what we know as Australia, or North or South America. Nope. All those
regions of the earth have their OWN form of religion. But Bible
believers, for some reason, think the "truth" revealed in the middle
east is the ONLY way. I'm sorry but they are WRONG. There IS no "one
true way". There is no place to go to when we die. And there is no
"way" to go ANYWHERE.

Let me tell you, when you die, you're dead. There is no eternal life.
You won't see your Grandmothers again. You won't see anyone that has
died again. If my son dies before me I won't see him again. The thought
of that is so mind blowing and painful that it's no wonder people make
up religions to cope with death and other such issues.

Delude yourself if you'd like. I guess it doesn't hurt you. But it
sure has hurt others (how many wars were started over religious
disputes... in fact, Sept 11th happened simply because of one group's
religious beliefs). I greatly dislike all forms of religion and pity
those enslaved to ANY religion, including Christianity.