gallinipper

i am my own god.

he already came back. you missed it.

based on yahweh's past practices, i don't think he'll be blessing anyone with anything. he did lie dormant while his chosen people were conquered and persecuted by the romans and nearly exterminated by the nazis. maybe he was biding his time.

he sells advertsing space. people who run websites cater to as many people as possible (the "freeloaders") because it sells space. of course, i'm sure he would rather everyone buy a membership, but he knows it won't happen. i just don't see the advantage of paying. public servants should not be allowed to organize unions. the guy on the other end of the negotiating table has only one business interest...getting re-elected. good luck. it ought to be a great game. go tigers!

My link sorry, i forgot the link.

jefferson was a deist by most accounts. he believed in an eternal watchmaker who set the laws of physics in motion and walked away. in several of the founding fathers' views, the "creator" did not intervene, judge, or otherwise have anything to do with humans. below is the letter to john adams in its entirety. there are dozens of quotes from letters and speeches of jefferson confirming him as a deist. there is no heat in this argument.

you presume to know my background and depth of knowledge on religion, and because my take on scripture is different than yours, you have presumed that i don't "know how to use" it. have you ever thought that your interpretation (or the person who interprets scripture for you) is wrong? for your information, i attended a christian school for eleven years and church every weekend for nearly all of that. i have read several books by biblical scholars and scientists alike and pretty much the entire bible at least a couple of times. i have a very devout mother and grandfather who have the noblest intentions in everything they do. faith serves a purpose for them...and, i presume for you also. it simply doesn't for me. i don't need faith. some people need someone else to guide them morally or to be a crutch or to take over when times are tough. i do not. this independence leaves me open to viewing religion objectively, and when i do, i find that the less complicated answers to debatable questions discussed previously are evident. in my opinion, man created the gods for selfish purposes. they needed the gods for explanations...for crutches...for hope that the world would be better. powerful men like moses and king david came along and took advantage of the masses' hysteria and superstitions to make them do things they would not normally do (midianites, edonites, ammonites, etc.). eventually, these people found that they could conquer everyone except the romans and the paradigm changed. if they couldn't beat them, they would join them. they would kill them with kindness. they would love them as they love themselves. it worked, of course...maybe too well. before anyone knew it, the romans were themselves of this new religion and would soon be using it as moses and king david had. you see, i think that we, the people, are the problem. we create and destroy. we love and hate. and to compensate and deflect the blame from ourselves, we invent and rejoice in religion. i'm not saying it's not important. it definitely is. it is needed by most people...right now, but it will slowly die away only to be replaced by another religion or another leader or something else entirely. sorry i was so long-winded.

your're right. i shouldn't speak for anyone else. do you really believe in santa claus, unicorns, leprechauns, etc. ? you seem to be angered by my non-belief. to be honest, yahweh would not be my choice of supreme being if i had to choose. in the words of jefferson above, he would be "cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust". how could he possibly be upset with me for questioning him when he is the source of my skepticism? doesn't he have the power to simply show himself? why play games? by the way, how would you feel if i told you that you were going to my hell? unfortunately, this is what happens when one tries to have an enlightening, civil discussion about religion. blind belief and fear take over.

here are a few quotes from an enlightened mind nearly 200 years ago. enjoy. It is between fifty and sixty years since I read the Apocalypse, and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.... what has no meaning admits no explanation. -- Thomas Jefferson, to Alexander Smyth, January 17, 1825 We find in the writings of his biographers ... a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications. -- Thomas Jefferson, to William Short, August 4, 1822, referring to Jesus's biographers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. That sect had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. -- Thomas Jefferson, referring to the god of the Jews under Moses, in his letter to William Short (August 4, 1822) The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

i don't believe that your god is real. i don't believe that santa claus, unicorns, fairies, nymphs, leprechauns, or any other such fantasies are real either. neither do you.

are you people really saying that you would kill a child...any child...because someone told you that a supreme being ordered it?

actually, several references are made to the old testament in the post. i am simply pointing out that we tend to pick and choose parts of the bible that we like, ignore parts we don't like, and interpret things the way we want to interpret them. then, when the bible doesn't fit together, we tend to make up excuses for it when the simplest, most obviously answer to most of these questions is right in front of us.

my personal favorite... They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho. Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. "Why have you let all the women live?" he demanded. "These are the very ones who followed Balaam's advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves. (Numbers 31:7-18 NLT)

the bible also states that children who curse their parents should be put to death, children who strike their father should be put to death, adulterers should be put to death, a priest's daughter who fornicates should be burned to death, those who work on the sabbath should be put to death, fortune tellers and sorcerers should be stoned to death, rapists should pay silver to the victim's father, betrothed rape victims should be stoned to death, as well as much more craziness. let's leave the rv up to the humans rather than the supreme beings.