XPost: alt.agnosticism, alt.athiesm, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.talk.creationism   
   From: kbjarnason@gmail.com   
      
   [snips]   
      
   On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:29:28 -0400, old man joe wrote:   
      
   > On Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:23:40 -0700 (PDT), Davej    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >>On Jun 21, 9:15 am, old man joe  wrote:   
   >>> " But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that   
   >>> hate me love death. " Proverbs 8:36   
   >>   
   >>The Bible is a fraud filled with crappy little sound bites.   
   >   
   >   
   > the above displays the usual ability the typical Atheist has when it   
   > comes to God's Word, the Bible...   
      
   If, as you assert, the Bible is God's word, you would seem to have more   
   than a few difficulties to overcome.  For example, you might ponder why,   
   if God Himself wrote (or caused to be written) the words, was it   
   necessary for mere mortals to *vote* upon which bits to include and which   
   to discard?   
      
   Then we have little issues such as God apparently suffering senile   
   dementia, as even his creation story contradicts itself within the first   
   couple of pages of the document - you'd think if he were actually extant   
   and sane, he'd manage to get at least that much right.   
      
   Or perhaps you're more an NT sort of fellow, in which case we have to   
   ponder the bits about "the same yesterday, today and tomorrow" and "I   
   tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest   
   letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from   
   the Law until everything is accomplished" - suggesting that the rules   
   haven't changed and they're still in effect.  Odd, then, that so few   
   believers seem to pay much attention to them.   
      
   Nor should we make any note of the endless contradictions in the books,   
   nor of their contradiction to reality; after all, it's God's word, so   
   when it says two contradictory things, both must be true, and when it   
   claims the impossible or the simply flat-out wrong, this, too, must be   
   true.   
      
   I'll admit, refusing to actually employ the brain you were born with   
   requires less energy and effort than does thinking, but if one is a   
   believer, one is then in the position of simultaneously believing God   
   granted one the gift of reason, then affronting God by refusing to use   
   the gift.   
      
   I pity the believers.  Their only way out is to achieve such a total   
   state of abject ignorance about everything that they have a basis for   
   rejecting the very things their beliefs give and require of them.  "I   
   didn't know, see, so you can't fault me."   
      
   One is forced to wonder, should they ever actually meet their God, just   
   how thrilled he'd be at such use of the gifts he supposedly bestowed.   
   Who knows?  If he actually exists, maybe he actually _prefers_ mindless   
   toadies.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)