Month: September 2017

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Skeptical Bible Study

Skeptical Bible Study Week 2

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This week I read Mark 2.

This chapter give us the story of the paralyzed man that Jesus healed.  For me this whole set up feels very staged.  He’s hanging out at Peter’s house with a bunch of people listening to him and wanting to be healed.  I’m betting dollars to doughnuts that he told one of his buddies to go find some guys to put this whole thing on.  Thinking about context I can’t imagine a paralyzed man at this time having 4 friends to carry him through the crowed and the dig through a strangers roof for this.  If you were paralyzed you were cursed by god and I’m pretty sure no one would want much to do with you.  So the lower him down knowing that the religious elders were there and he doesn’t heal him right away.  He says “Your sins are forgiven”.  He KNEW this would piss of the pharisees.  What better way to get a following than to piss of “the man”?

After the first show Jesus starts another by calling out a tax collector and parting with him.  Again this was going to piss off the religious leaders to no end.  Tax collectors at the time weren’t like the IRS today.  Rome required a certain amount of money from them and they got paid by how much over that they could collect.  So essentially they were ripping off their neighbors.  At least that’s what I was told back in the day….looking at it now I’m having a hard time finding sources out side of biblical theology that states this so….

The chapter ends with Jesus talking about fasting and the Sabbath and telling a different story than that of what the religious leaders were teaching…you know the stuff that was written down…from the god that sent Jesus….and is also Jesus…yeah there’s that.  So in short I feel like this whole chapter is Jesus being rebellious in public forums to gain a following.

Last Week’s study

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Ask an Atheist

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We’re back for week two of Ask and Atheist.  I pulled the list from this site.  Still not 100% sure if it’s a troll site or not but judging by some of the other posts…no.  Anyway on with the show!

1. If creationists can’t do science, then why do Kent Hovind and Duane T. Gish, who are creation scientists, have professional degrees in science? I’m unaware of any rule that says creationists can’t be scientists. 

2. If dinosaurs turned into birds, why are we not afraid of them? That’s not how evolution works…like at all.

3. If homosexuality is right, then how come two people of the same sex not produce a child? Homosexuality and hetirosexuality it are neither right nor wrong. They just are.  I’m assuming that you aren’t a big fan of just having fun. Everything has to have a reason? 

4. What purpose do we have if evolution is real? One has nothing to do with the other but putting that kind of lense on meaning my guess would be to propigate the species. 

5. You say Jesus never existed, but have you heard of the Shroud of Turin? 1) I never said that. An historical Jesus may very well have existed. 2) That claim has been debunked many times. 

6. Why do we not see humans being born in the zoos from monkeys if we came from monkeys? Again that’s not how evolution works. 

7. Why do we go to church if God is not real? I don’t. 

8. How did the Grand Canyon form?  Millions of years of water errosion. 

9. Do you know that Jesus loves you? But somehow his love for me is dependant on me loving him?  Wouldn’t call that unconditional. 

10. If Christianity is false, then why is it popular? The Roman empire. 

11. If you say Christianity is not true, then why do hundreds of people continue to become saved every day?  Indoctrination, finding people at their most vunerable, people at the end of their rope will cling to anything. 

12. Why do we not see half trees and half carrots, fronkeys, and crocoducks if evolution is real? You really don’t know how evolution works do you?

13. Why is Richard Dawkins afraid to debate Ray Comfort? Ask him

14. Did you know Christopher Hitchens was saved before death? Source please. 

15. Are you aware Ray Comfort disproved atheism with a banana? Yeah I saw that stunt… coconuts don’t seem to be built for the human hand and have much higher benefits to us so….

16. Why do people laugh at evolutionists? Not sure I’ve seen that happen. 

17. How did the planets form when the Big Bang explosion all of a sudden happen? After all, you don’t see round objects form when something blows up. Big bang wasn’t like a bomb going off. It was the rapid expension of both time and space. Gravity started pressing particles together until we had atoms.  This atoms we’re pressed together until we had stars. When those stars died out they created heavier elements that got together and formed…and so on and so on…I’m not a cosmologist. 

18. If evolution is real, how can it explain gravity, angular momentum, human emotions, and why we worship God?  Well it can’t. Evolution explains one process in biology.  You keep using that word…I don’t think it means what you think it means. 

19. How did pond scum make living things appear out of nowhere? What you’re referring to is abiogenesis. That is one of the thoeries of how life started on Earth. This process is something that’s been studied by much smarter people than me. While I understand the gyst of it in my head, I would have a hard time explaining. 

20. How can evolution be true if we don’t see pocket watches or airplanes form by themselves? Have you been to every planet? How do you know there isn’t a planet of sentiant pocket watches. 

21. Did you know that dinosaurs and man lived together? Yeah not so much. 

22. If evolution is real, then why do caring people like Rick Santorum argue that it must be challenged in the classroom? People get scared when you show evidence that what they believe is false. It’s called the backfire effect. 

23. Why are youtube atheists like AronRa and Thunderf00t afraid to debate Ray Comfort? Ask them. 

24. Why do we celebrate Christmas if Christianity is not real? Most of the traditions of Christmas are stolen from other pagan holidays. 

25. If creationists can’t do science, then why does the website Answersingenesis have proven science articles from creationists that do science? See answer one but as far as AIG there’s a great YouTube channel that debunks most of AIG. 

26. If evolution is true, then why can’t white people compete to be good in basketball like black people? After all, white people can’t jump! This a satirical right?

27. Where do you decide to fit God in your everyday life if you don’t believe in him? The same place I fit leaporcons and unicorns. 

28. Why is Christianity the fastest growing religion if it’s false? It’s actually not…that would be Islam…better convert there bud!

29. Do you feel free to commit murders, homosexuality, go to strip bars, steal, commit adultery, and do other sins since you believe there is no God?  I can tell you I’ve killed exactly the number of people I’ve wanted to! Zero.

30. Why do the fossils say no to evolution? Yeah but they actually say the opposite of that.

31. Why did Darwin admit that how the eye formed is impossible? I’m unfamiliar with that but Carl Sagan did a great job of explaining the evolution of the eye.

32. Where did everything come from if there is no God? Not sure but that’s a more honest answer than “god did it”

33. If there is no God, then why do we have laws that govern us, such as speed limits? Mainly to keep us safe from each other. I’m kind of a libritatan. Your rights end where mine begin. 

34. Do you know where you are going when you die? In the ground. 

35. Why do we not act like monkeys if it is true we came from monkeys? We actually act a lot like monkeys but we evolved differently so we just look better doing it. 

36. Why do we display The Ten Commandments in the courtrooms if you say the Bible is not real? We shouldn’t. There is the first amendment that is supposed to stop these things from happening and many organizations around to help as well. 

37. Why should be it wrong to rape if God is not real? Consent 

38. Why is The Passion of The Christ very high on the Box Office? People like torture porn. Same reason there are so many Saw movies. 

39. How can America not be a Christian nation if there are way more churches than mosques? So what happens when there are more mosques than churches, does that make us an Islamic nation?

40. How is the bible not real if it’s the most popular book read by man? By that logic there must be a wizard named Harry Potter somewhere in London right now…

41. How did the moon form? I haven’t looked into it. 

42. Did you know that famous scientists like Newton, Sir Richard Owen, Einstein, Galileo, and Copernicus were creationists? I’d like to see the sources on these. But if they were I’d be willing to bet it was more to cohesion than genuine belief. 

43. Why do we not see black people come from white people? What?

44. Why are fruitflies still fruitflies in the lab experiments if they are claimed to prove evolution? I think I know what your talking about here but I’m gonna have to guess as you didn’t leave much information as to what your talking about. I believe you’re talking about speciation which is essentially when different groups of the same animal can no longer mate and produce viable offspring. Well that’s was evolution is. It may still be a fruitfly but it’s a new species of fruitfly. 

45. Did you know that the Piltdown Man was a hoax used for Darwinist propaganda? Yup

46. Why do we not see frogs turn into birds? THATS NOW HOW EVOLUTION WORKS!!!!

47. Why is Fox News dishonest if it is a network run by truthful Christians? No Christian has ever lied… /sarcasm

48. Why did Hitler fail to make a superior race if evolution is true? Ah the good old Hitler troupe. Not even gonna aknowladge that one. 

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Deeper Story Pt. 2

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If you haven’t read it yet here’s Part 1.

I still remember my dad “asking” my brother and me if we wanted to check out his girlfriend’s church.  Whenever he asked us a question like this it was never really meant to be evaluated by us.  We knew what the answer was to be, yes.  But even so I was kind of excited to check it out.  They told me it would be different than the church I used to go to, so I figured it couldn’t be any worse.  I did however find it a little odd that someone would go to church every single week…why?

So Sunday rolls around and we all pack in the car and drive the  half hour to a pizza place…wait what? Dad parked the car…on the street and I’m thinking to myself, “so this church is in a pizza place and doesn’t have a parking this is a joke right?”  As it turns out that the church was ABOVE the pizza place…still weird.  We got to the top of the stairs and looked around.  This was indeed very different from the Catholic church I had attended twice a year before.  There were no pews, just rows of what looked like fairly comfortable chairs.  The room was much smaller than I thought it would be.  The rooms was the size of  a gas station mini-mart instead of the size of a small mall.

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The big thing that was different, and the thing that got me hooked, was that there was a band.  Not like a group of people and an organ but like a real band.  Electric guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, a real real band.  I wouldn’t have thought that a church had something so cool!  We grabbed our little programs and my future stepmother and current father were chatting with friends as I stood there awkwardly.  We eventually took our seats and the music started.  As engaged as I was with the idea of it the actual production of it drew me in closer.

The words we on an overhead projector so it was easy to follow along.  I decided at that moment that, that was something I wanted to do.  I wanted to be someone on that stage playing and singing.  I didn’t know how to play anything other than the recorder I learned in second grade.  Nor could I sing…like at all…it was bad.  But I knew that’s what I wanted more than anything else (in my pre-teen mind).

That’s how I got hooked.  Next week I’ll talk about where that lead me.

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Thoughts

Saturday shorts – Trolls

No not the internet ones the DreamWorks movie. So there is a line in that movie that the antagonist says “There’s only one way to be happy. MY WAY!” I reminds me of the christian god. The only way to have eternal happiness is to listen to every word he has to say.  The alternative is eternal suffering.  

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Definitions

Definition Friday!

cognitive-dissonance

Today’s phrase is cognitive dissonance. Dictionary definition: the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

This has a very specific significance to me.  After I started questioning everything I was fought to hold on what I was taught to believe and the world that I actually observed.  I leaned a lot of personal anecdotal evidence to cling to my religion. Looking back all of those had perfectly natural explainations but I didn’t want to give it up. 

For me this came to a head during my wife’s second miscarriage. I tried to stuff it all down. All the conflicting views I held. The biggest being that god loves me and wants the best for me. At the same time hurting me so much. Also “all life is precious” while simultaneously taking this unborn life I already loved away before I had a chance to meet it. 

I hurt. I was confused but still played the “good christian” leading the worship service and hating good with every fiber of my being. I didn’t tell anyone about this and figured it was just a problem with my faith that I needed to sort out. I later found out this wasn’t just a me thing that didn’t effect anyone else.

Later on, after I told my wife about my atheism and how I came to this new conclusion, she told me how angry she was with me. Not that I didn’t believe anymore but that I didn’t tell her about my doubts as they came up. She had been feeling the same way too but didn’t think she could lean on me because she thought I thought god was infallible and couldn’t be questioned. 

My cognitive dissonance wasn’t just something that was in my own head, it was actively hurting the ones I love. 

I’m sorry doesn’t begin to cut it but it’s all I can offer. I denied my own thoughts to hold on to bronze aged fairy tales. I may seem cynical about the who thing but after hearing that from the person I promised to spend the rest of my life with I think I have good reason to be. 

 

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Thoughts

I don’t know

This is a phrase with which I’ve become more comfortable.  When I was a believer I thought I had a book with all the answers to everything.  That god had an explanation for the inner workings of the universe all the way down to my little life on a speck of dust in it. Any moral question, any cosmological question, any question about what I was supposed to do with my life, was written down for me.  Life was simpler then I suppose.  I didn’t have to do much thinking.

As I deconverted I began to realize I don’t know everything anymore, at least in my own mind.  This was a scary realization at first.  How was I going to make decisions?  I used to pray before nearly every decision I made and wait for a response from god.  That obviously wasn’t going to work now.  I used to look through my Bible and search for answers, also won’t work any more.

I began to realize what I was really doing all that time was mulling over the options in that prayer time and settling on what I thought was the best direction to go.  So with that problem somewhat solved I still had some of those big questions up there that I didn’t know the answer to.  What happens when we die?  Where did the universe come from? How did life start? The more I thought about it the more comfortable with “I don’t know” as an answer.  Sure I can do some research and learn as much as I could about those things if they really bothered me.  The truth of the matter is they don’t.  I don’t have any real vested interest in those things.  They don’t have any bearing on my day to day life.  I don’t plan on becoming an expert in cosmology or biology, nor to I have a plan to be a professional debater on these topics, so I don’t know is a comfortable answer for now.

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Skeptical Bible Study

Skeptical Bible Study Week 1

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Welcome to something new!  I’m beginning a weekly study/commentary on the Bible.  This will be my first time reading the Bible through an atheistic lens.  I’m curious to see what comes out to me re-reading.  I’m going to start with the New Testament simply because it’s where I spent a bunch of time in there in the past.  I’m also going to jump a little bit and start where I started in my reading as a Christian.  So this week I’ll be looking at the book of Mark.  I’ll also be use the NIV translation, after all it shouldn’t matter the translation it’s all the word of god right? Anyway Mark Chapter 1.

So I’ll start with a quick summary.  Interestingly enough this chapter doesn’t talk about the virgin birth of Jesus at all, It starts right in with his baptism.  After a bit of research it turns out that this might be the first book ever written in the new testament.  I guess that makes sense it being the least sensationalized gospel.  It starts with Jesus’ baptism, goes into his temptation (very briefly), then starts to talk about his early ministry.

I’d like to talk about John the Baptist first.  This character is very…different.  If you plucked him out of his time and put him in modern times he seems like he’d be one of those guys in the quad of a college with a billboard sign and a megaphone.   He makes mention of him being the voice in the wilderness clearing the way for god’s coming.  But in other gospels when asked if he was Elijah he says no.  The prophesy about being the voice in the wilderness specifically refers to Elijah.  So is he either lying or mistaken?

So on to the big show.  Jesus is baptized and a voice from the sky says “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”  He was so well please with him that he marked him for a horrible horrible death?  I never understood that whole thing.  Why would he torture his son/self that he was happy with?  Seems like the kind of thing a sadist would do.  And right after saying how happy he was with himself(?) he sent him to be alone in the desert alone for 40 days?

So he goes through all that and comes back to town saying that the “Good News” is here.  Essentially announcing who he is.  This is important for later.   He then goes out to recruit his new posse.  He calls out to two guys on a boat who have spent the last few hours fishing.  Not like relaxing with a beer fishing but like fishing for a business.  He tells them that he’ll make them fishers of men.  Now I’m pretty sure that slavery was a thing back then so it’s possible (at least in my mind) that they thought he meant joining the slave trade…would probably make a lot more money than fishing.  Also these two guys left their dad to do all the work while the went off with this other guy…seems like a dick move.  They had no idea who this guy was.

After he’s got his new friends, he goes to another town to preach.  While preaching some guy stands up and says that Jesus is the “Holy one of God”.  He tells him to be quiet and expels the “demon”.  Here’s something I never got the whole be quiet thing?  Why all the secrecy, he’d already announced who he was once before (see I told you it would be important later).  This is a big theme in his early ministry.

He then goes on to heal a bunch of sick people (I can’t help be envision Benny Hinn).  Apparently he gets so popular he can’t even go into the main portion of the towns anymore.  This kinda gives me the “The fish was THIS big” vibe to the story.  Keeping in mind that none of these were written down as they happened but suffered from 50-70 years of the telephone game.

That kinda sums up Chapter 1.  As it’s my first go at this I’m open to feedback!

 

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Ask an Atheist – 1

pexels-photo-356079Well as I don’t quiet have a large following I figured I’d search online for some questions for Atheists.  So here’s my best go at answering them.  Please let me know if you see any flaws in my logic.  These questions are taken from here.  I’m not going to spend time going into each of his “gotcha” points under each question, I’m simply going to answer the question.

QUESTION 1
Is Atheism a LACK of Belief in God or a BELIEF that there is no God?

As I’ve stated in an early post Atheism is a lack of belief in a god or gods.  Gnostic would be someone who claims knowledge of the existence of a god or gods.

QUESTION 2
If God Exists Would You Become A Christian?

Having read a lot of the bible (not all admittedly) I would say no.  God has shown himself to be a jealous, angry, petty, vindictive god with few redeemable qualities.  Sure I wouldn’t be an Atheist any more but I wouldn’t be a Christian.  Unless it’s been shown the the god of the bible isn’t the same one that appears (such as people didn’t accurately put down what this god thinks or how he acts) but in that case you wouldn’t be a the same Christian you are now.

QUESTION 3
How Do You Determine What’s Right & What’s Wrong?

Mainly empathy.  When facing  a moral dilemma I ask how would I feel if everyone else did what I’m about to do.  This allows me to see things in a case by case basis instead of a broad stroke.

QUESTION 4
How Do You Deal With Guilt & Sin in Your Life?

Well I don’t think there is such a thing as sin so I don’t?  As far as guilt I do my best to set things right with whomever I may have offended or wronged.  I don’t just ask an invisible man in the sky forgiveness.  That doesn’t help the situation in anyway.

QUESTION 5
Do You Act According To What You Believe or According To What You Lack In Belief?

I act in accordance to what I believe.  I believe things that have acceptable proof.  I know some theists will asks atheists how can you believe what you don’t see, like air and gravity.  Well those things have observable effects (or is affects I can never get that right…).  I can grab a stopwatch and see how long it takes object to fall at different heights.  If I wanted to know that I’m breathing air and what’s in I can run the experiments that were documented in the 18th and 19th centuries.

QUESTION 6
Can You Prove HOW the Universe Was Created?

I can’t but neither can you.  Saying you have an ancient book whose only validation is itself is not the same as a claim to knowledge.

QUESTION 7
Can You Prove That God Does Not Exist?

Nope.  Can you prove that he does?  If so I’d love to see that information.

QUESTION 8
Do You Know Where You’re Going When You Die?

My body will slowly decompose in to more basic elements and the energy that was stored in my body will be transferred into the microbes and eventually larger organisms that use that as food.

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Deeper Story Pt.1

onceSo I’ve given a brief synopsis of my journey from Christianity to Atheism but I thought I’d give a deeper look into how my worldview has changed through out my life.

I was born in upstate New York.  It’s recently been dubbed the safest place to live from natural disasters so we got that going for us…I guess.  About five years later my brother was born.  I don’t remember much about life prior to my parents divorce.  I remember my dad going to fight in the first American intervention into Iraq.  He was gone about six months.  There were a lot of days spent in front of the TV to see if he would be in the line of fire…he was, a lot.  I remember not knowing what any of that meant but I knew that it was worrying for my mom.  When he came home I didn’t recognize him.  He had grown a mustache.  Being a father now I can’t imagine how that must have felt to him.  His own son not knowing who he is.

It wasn’t long after that my parents separated and eventually got divorced.  I had no say in who I would be living with.  My parents thought “Boys should be with their dad.”  I thought that was bullshit.  Even at the age of 12 I knew my dad was an asshole and I wanted to live with my mom.  My dad was definitely a military man.  “Boys don’t cry” “Man up” were just a few of the phrases that were commonly thrown around in my home.    Being an emotional child this was difficult.  I dealt with this by learning to stuff every emotion I had as far down as I could.  It’s unfortunately a trait I’ve kept along with me well into my adulthood.

As you’ve may have noticed that until this point I’ve not talked at all about religion.  That didn’t come into play until the second act of my story.  Church for me until now had been reserved for twice a year, Easter and Christmas.  My future stepmother would be the catalyst to my indoctrination.  Which I will save for the next post.

Continue to Part 2

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Housekeeping

Site updates

Hey all.

I’ve come to the realization that writing a post every days is easier said than done. With that being the case I’m going to kinda break things up in to sections per day. 

I’ll be starting a series of my thoughts while reading the Bible with my new skepticism. I’ll have a day on definitions (I know those will be short lived and I’ll replace it with something with more substance once I run out of words). I’ll have a day on my observations and a day that’s a deeper explanation of my background. 

Thoughts? What would you like to see?  Maybe an ask an atheist day?