Dumb stuff in the Bible?

Ok, about to just give up on it. It has nothing to do with hygiene, or not needing the **** skin any longer. My point was that christians say their god created man in his image. That means your god had a **** skin. But he "turns right around" and commands that his followers cut off theirs. So why give it to them to begin with? It's just another one of those, here comes that hated word, contradictions. I'd like to make it clear that I don't say your god did anything. Your bible and christians say he did. Harry Potter is a work of fiction, if I'm talking to a child about the book and ask them something about it I am only commenting on the story, not saying I believe the book is true and hp existed. Book clubs do that all the time.

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You were just told that it has everything to do with hygiene, you were given a good explanation WHY more scrupulous hygiene was needed, and still you reject the answer. Kind of like asking why things fall when they are dropped. When someone explains about gravity, you insist that gravity has nothing to do with it.

Yes, I have said REPEATEDLY, I am not a Christian. I follow God but without a particular flavor.

So yes, something is wrong with me.

I follow the NT, not the old.

Can religion be used to control people? Yes.

Are religious people more insane, delusional, ignorant, sad, desperate, depressed, argumentative, obnoxious, or petty than anyone else? No.

Are they more saintly? No.

People are people, we all have our own way of dealing with the world.

I believe the Bible is divinely inspired. I don't like people insulting it. Discussing scripture is great, debating is great, assuming your opponent is an idiot is not.

So, yes, best, there is something wrong with me.  I spoke my mind. How dare someone who is not an atheist do that.

Are they more saintly? No.

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Are they more saintly and so much better than others? NO. Do they think they are? Absolutely.

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Coming from someone who labels all Democrats liars and all Christians deluded, I'd say it's YOU who thinks you are so much better than anyone else.

If religious people and conservatives could be reasoned with, there would be no religious people or conservatives.

OK, B. It's time - you'd better run faster because here it comes...

OBAMA'S SECOND TERM, COMING UP!!! 

I need an etiquette lesson. Just when would it be appropriate to say "Bless Your Pointed Little Head" instead of heart?

No, please, the pain, the pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I wasted all my pig's blood last night.

If he gets reelected, my lunch will be coming up!

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WHEN he gets re-elected, my general outlook on life will be coming up!

Ok, about to just give up on it.  But he "turns right around" and commands that his followers cut off theirs. So why give it to them to begin with?

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Jenn, I'm about to give it up too. I understand exactly where you're coming from with your questions. As usual, Christian's or those that follow Him but not saved,

chose to make fun of Atheist, unbelievers, or those that have doubts, & put us down if we have questions they don't understand.

I'm learning that debating scripture here is allowed only as long as we take their answer as fact & drop it.

Hardly semi. You only see one side of the issue. You always side with the atheists. You stated earlier you already knew what each scripture meant and have studied it thoroughly, so you also already knew the answers that you would get. Did you expect to get something different? As for making fun of you or anyone else, I think that is a false charge.

I stated my opinion of atheists just like they state their opinion of believers.

As for the little piece,  the only ones commanded to cut it off was the Jews. Gentiles were not. So I'm thinking it was a way for them to tell one group from the other. He had to give it to them in the first place to be able to make use of it later.

Or he wanted all the gentiles to die from infections, take your pick.

Don't give up.  There will always be those here who see both the ying and the yang.  Who see and sympathize with both the religionist and the non-religionist.

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Yes, you have said it repeatedly. But I have news for you & it’s not my words but what the Bible says. You won’t go to Heaven (if it exist) just by “following God”.

According to the Bible, if you repent of your sins (feel regret or remorse for them) & receive Jesus Christ into your life as Lord and Savior, you will be saved from eternal punishment in Hell. If a person does those things, are they not then a Christian? BUT you say you’re not a Christian, so will you go to Hell when you die? Look it up if you don’t believe me, after all, I’m just a heathen that doesn’t know Jack Crap!

You say you don’t follow the OT. Many parts of the OT is in the NT. Why would God put them there, if it means nothing?

You asked if religious people were more insane, delusional, ignorant, sad, desperate, depressed, argumentative, obnoxious, & more petty than anyone else? Yes, a lot of them are one of those, if not more than one.

Are they more saintly? No, but there’s a lot of them that believe they are. And Heaven forbid if you question something in the Bible or question the way they believe.

As far as your believing the Bible to be divinely inspired, your not liking people insulting it, & your think debating scripture is great, how do you determine if someone is an idiot & if they are worth debating with or not?

You evidently believe Jenn & I to be idiots since you don’t like our questions. You take them to be argumentive when they are not. You were the first one to turn this topic into a debate, & implied that I meant it as a way of making fun of the Bible.

I see people on here daily speaking their mind that aren’t Atheist. I do it quite frequently, as I am now.  I’ve seen Jenn attacked many times on this forum for doing no more than speaking her mind. I’ve seen her put down, mostly by Christians, for speaking what she doesn’t believe in & for her being a Republican, as though that is some huge sin.

I’m a Republican, & not ashamed to be. I don’t discuss politics because it’s much worse than discussing religion. You will get chewed up & spit out if you dare mention being a republican.

Ok, I'm through now & out of here. You can continue with your fun.

A message from Jimbo's Mother.

Skippy

We are talking about the same God regardless or which Testament, right? So I really don't understand why you guys keep trying to make some kind of distinction between the two. I know all about Jesus coming and making a new covenant, but didn't he say he did not come to take away the old but to fulfill it?

Best, this is something that has been answered before. I preface this statement by saying if you don't believe the Bible, you won't accept the reason. When God created the world (in whatever manner He created it), all was perfect. Alas, sin entered the world and genes (all genes) began to mutate and deteriorate. Circumcision wasn't needed when man was created, but it became needed, just as did regulations concerning what one might or might not eat.

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No, it hasn't been answered before. It has nothing to do with genes. God gave a man a ******** and then told him to cut it off. It has nothing to do with my disbelief.

First of all I never got an answer to any of my questions. If I did I missed them. One I ask was about circumcision, the other was why the bible stories are "cleaned up" when read to children. I ask too why the bible was written in languages that people couldn't understand because according to that bible a god made the different languages. Didn't he want ALL his followers to understand what he meant? This thread only touched the surface of the ridiculous things in the bible. Some things are just observations and not questions requiring answers because there really are no answers.

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What?!?! Why the hell would you substitute words in a definition that do not mean the same thing? Please use a dictionary to 'understand' the difference between the words "evolve" and "arise". There is a world of difference between the two. They are in no way congruent or synonymous and your statement, which arises solely from ignorance, is ridiculous.

No, most who study and teach evolution, do not attempt to explain abiogenesis, because they can't, but it makes it no less part of the process--much like attempting to teach a class on pregnancy without first teaching the process of fertilization.

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To use your simple pregnancy example, Evolution is like the study of the development of a fetus without concern to the moment of conception. Abiogenesis is like the study of conception without concern for fetal development. Feel free to ask questions if you still don't get it. And feel free to rely on an English dictionary to understand the not-so difficult distinction between the words evolve and arise. You and b are smarter than this, aren't you?

Look, if you look at any other literature written during those same times, you will see not just a reflection of religion/myth/story/history, or whatever other genre of literature you choose, but you will see a reflection of the CULTURE of those times. And you will find all kinds of things in ALL of these other types of literature that we would find to be barbaric in our time.
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Yet, the other types of literature were not claimed to be the inspired word of a god, and people do not live their lives in supposed worship of the messages in that literature. Shakespeare or Homer don't guide the everyday lives and morality of their readers. They don't affect how their readers raise their children or vote. They don't dictate to the reader's personal beliefs or that of their neighbors, or warn children that they're going to sear in fiery torment for not following their rules. Murders, massacres & wars are not started over the words in Homer or Shakespeare.

But you must admit, there are an awful lot of good ideas/philosophys/poems/social commentary, or what have you, that make these other types of literature worth reading. One can often derive LESSONS from reading "barbaric" stories. Look at Beowulf, for example. Violent, bloody, degrading to women, and one of the greatest pieces of literature ever written.
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A tome inspired by an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present god would need no defense or apologetics. It's awesomeness and truth would be completely self-evident. There definitely is good stuff in the Bible. But that there are horrors ascribed directly to your god is a strike against the idea of an all-loving, infallible deity worth worshiping. The Biblical God is very human, emotionally fragile and weak.

And yeah, Beowulf is great. But yet again, no one consults Beowulf for moral guidance or murders others because they don't agree with their interpretation of Beowulf.

Because amid all of the violence, there is something to be learned about the human condition that transends time.
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The Bible is fine for the above stated purpose, as literature about the human condition. But to also claim it to be the divinely inspired message from a magnificent deity is silly since nothing written in it is at all special for it's time. There is much greater wisdom to be found in much older writings and without all the Biblical gore and depravity.

Well, if you read these so-called dumb things in the Bible, keeping in mind that the Old Testament was written for the Jews of that time, you will see that there is a lot of hidden instruction in these stories, on how to live. And these instructions can apply just as well today as when they were written, if you look at them from a human, and societal perspective, instead of just as stories.
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You mean like not mixing fabrics, not cutting the corners of one's beard, or how to properly shun menstruating women?

And even though we Christians are under a NEW covanent with God, it can profit us to take the lessons we are given in the Old Testament. But that doesn't mean that either the Jews or the Christians need to LITERALLY do all of the things we are told to do in the Old Testament. We are to derive the LESSON, and apply that lesson to TODAY'S culture. So instead of piercing the ear of a slave who does wrong, we apply that lesson to perhaps, an employee, and write up a warning. Because we don't have slaves nowadays, and we don't commit bodily harm to those who mess up at work, but we DO still let a person who works for us know when they messed up and that we will be watching them.  
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Without a doubt, the OT is quite a joke. Is it not the very same God though? I'll look for some NT absurdities next to see if the NEW covenant to which all Christians must adhere, is beyond reproach. We'll see.

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So, when you keep asking us how we can reconcile all of the "dumb stuff" in the Bible, this is how. And this IS THE TRUE ANSWER. And that is why it is so hard to keep coming back to this forum to face the same questions over and over. The TRUTH is, this answer I just gave satisfies me. It may not satisfy YOU, but it is MY answer, it makes sense to me, and I won't likely be changing that answer. But I will confess, I am tired to death of the question.
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Funny how you guys are so fed up with us asking questions and making statements, as if we should stop inconveniencing you. As if we don't hear the same repeated nonsense from theists. No one is forcing any of us to be here, or read posts, or answer anything. Life goes on whether any of us are posting here or not. Feel free to back away and save yourself the discomfort and indignity. Otherwise, suck it up and keep typing responses, because A) we're not going away, that B) we won't stop asking questions.