Questions For God

This post is the result of a short email encounter that I had with a church of Christ minister after I challenged him to give me a biblical pronouncement against pedophilia - to which - he immediately responded . . ." you seriously defending pedophilia? " - to which - I immediately responded . . . "No, I am seriously asking you to tell me what the bible (God) has to say about pedophilia"   - to which - the church of Christ minister had nothing to say. My request to him was this, " . . . give me the exact age at which a child is no longer a child - and give it to me from your "Holy Book" where God lays down the law as to the age a child should be in order to be old enough to marry - old enough to have sex ." ~   ~   ~ Pedophilia is defined as sexual feelings directed toward a child.   I guess we can't pass laws against what a person "feels", but once they act on those feelings, those acts should rightly be considered unlawful and...

From Christians of varying denominations I have experienced many iterations of this posts title statement. The latest was in the form of a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet (Was Life Created) that was mailed to me by a Witness. In the chapter titled The Living Planet it discusses planet Earth being “ perfect ” and “ ideal ” to support life. It talks about the Earths orbit and axial tilt as well as its distance from the Sun and the Suns ideal light output. It even talks about how the size of the Moon is “ tailor-made ” for the Earths ability to support life. From the ICR website (The Institute for Creation Research): "Our solar system is filled with amazing planets, but none are perfect for life except the earth." ~ and ~ "The utter lifelessness of other planets in our solar system illustrates the fact that earth is unique and specially created for life . " These claims from Christians are quite bold and show an ignorance (willful or not) of what " life " ...

From my experience over the past 6 or 7 years, there is no neutrality when it comes to Trump - if you are a voter in the USA you either despise this man, like I do, or you found him qualified and deserving of your vote.  Of course I suppose that the support Trump receives is by degrees, ranging from "he'll have to do" - to - "he was sent by Gawd". Personally , and to put it mildly, I have always found Trump to be an incredibly objectionable human being .  From the moment I was made aware of his existence, way back in the mid 80's when I was in my 20's, I viewed him as a fluke.  I viewed him as another wealthy loudmouth who OBVIOUSLY thinks to highly of himself.   And - that was pretty much that.  I really didn't have to concern myself with him beyond the occasional TV news clip over the ensuing many years.   And then . . .  This man-child decided to make a serious run for the office of President of the United States of America. At 6:00am, No...

. . . then actually read the lines. Numbers Chapter 31 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take vengeance ( revenge ) on the Midianites for the sons of  Israel . . . "  So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, so that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance  ( revenge )  on Midian.”   So there were selected from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.   So they made war against Midian, just as the Lord had commanded Moses,  and they killed ( murdered )   every male .    And the sons of Israel took captive ( kidnapped ) the women of Midian and their little ones ( children ) ; and they plundered all their  cattle,  all their flocks, and all their property.   They brought the captives ( victims ) and the spoils and the plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the   congregation of the sons of Israe...

Dear Christian,  I think that you and I will agree that people are not born from a mother who is a virgin.  Granted, medical science has developed methods for artificial insemination, so technically a woman can be impregnated by a doctor using these artificial means and still be a virgin.  But before these methods were developed (late 1700's is the first recorded case, I believe) the only way a human female could get pregnant was by sexual intercourse with a human male.  I think that you and I will agree. ~ and ~ I think that you and I will agree that people who are dead, actually dead, people who have died, either from natural causes, disease, accident, or violence - once a person is dead, they do not come back to life , minutes later, hours later, or days later.  Once people die, they stay dead. ~   ~   ~ Christian , if I told you that I doubt the claims that Jesus was born of a virgin, and that I doubt the claims that Jesus was resurrect...

In his book, A Manual For Creating Atheists, Peter Boghossian explained faith as: " Believing something anyway " - I agree.  Let's give it a try. Me :  So you believe the bible where it says, "In the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth"? Christian :  Yes, I do. Me :  You do know that there is no scientific evidence backing up that claim, don't you? Christian :  It's a matter of faith, so I'm going to believe it anyway . The above is not an exact quote from conversations that I have had with believers in the past, but is a paraphrase of every single conversation that I have had with every single Christian in the past 20 years, concerning the biblical claims that they believe regardless of the complete lack of evidence supporting those claims - they believe it anyway - or - FAITH ! When did faith become a virtue?  You see it on numerous headstones in any cemetery with epitaphs like " He was a man of Deep Faith ".  Why is belie...

The Ten Commandments -  Where are they . . . What are they? Any good Christian would tell you what they have been taught in church - " the Ten Commandments" are found in Exodus Chapter 20, and perhaps they might even know that they are repeated again in Deuteronomy Chapter 5.  That is what any good Christian will tell you in answer, as to where " the Ten Commandments" are to be found in the bible.  Just ask this good Christian:  As to what " the Ten Commandments" say, in all actuality, most Christians might be able to, at best, quote a few of the "ten".  Heck, they even have fun kids versions of " the Ten": Here is a problem with teaching tradition in church: Ex. 20 does not contain " the Ten Commandments".  It does contain ten commandments that Christians have traditionally claimed are " the Ten Commandments", but they are NOT " the Ten Commandments".  Exodus 20 does not indicate that the commandmen...

  Can we all agree that most of the gods, past and present, were made-up? Most  gods were inventions of humans, based on ancient (and more modern) myths - can we all (even Christians) agree on that?   Even if you believe in a god, believe that your god is real, you very likely believe that all of the other gods that have been believed in over thousands of years, were made-up by people. Can we at least agree on that? We know that people in ancient civilizations made up gods.  Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, (Hebrews?), Inca's, Mayans, Native Americans, etc, all worshiped gods that were based on ancient mythical beings, creatures, celestial objects, and earthly objects, folklore, traditions, which means all these "other" gods were the product of their imaginations or the imaginations of their ancestors. What does the bible say about "other" gods? Exodus 20:3-5: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of...

  The men pictured above have been, shall we say, an oozing pustule on the ass of Martinsville and Henry County Virginia (and surrounding counties) for about as long as I can recall.  I remember once (and only once) I called into their  weekly  cable access religious TV Smack-Down back in the very early 2000's, so I know that they have been active since at least that far back. The main thrust of their arguments / accusations seem to be directed at every other congregation that is not a Church of Christ congregation (and even some Church of Christ congregations).  Their tactics include going to these churches, video camera or phone in hand, approaching the church leadership after the service and then recording their interaction in an attempt to get the minister to say something incriminating - incriminating biblically or politically - and then spending hours and hours on their cable access TV show / YouTube channel, verbally assaulting the unfortunate...