J. The Atheist

YouTube: Creationists Fail Again

2011-02-28T08:00:00.023-06:00

DarkMatter2525 recently posted a video that I thought I would share here. The title of it is "Creationists Fail Again."

In the Wikipedia Kepler article, in the section "Extrasolar planets detected," is the following: Based on the latest Kepler findings, astronomer Seth Shostak estimates "within a thousand light-years of Earth" there are "at least 30,000 of these habitable worlds." Also based on the findings, the Kepler Team has estimated "at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way" of which "at least 500 million" are in the habitable zone.

As DarkMatter asks in the video: "Still feel like it was all put here just for you?"

Since there are plenty of habitable planets obviously the next question is: How common is life, especially intelligent life like us humans?

I don't believe we are alone in the universe and based on Kepler's findings we probably aren't alone in our galaxy. Perhaps we have some neighbors closer to us than we think. Let's just hope they are friendly. :)

Time for some links. The first one is obviously the Kepler web site.

The next is the news article: Kepler: NASA Finds Earth-size Planet Candidates in Habitable Zone, Six Planet System.

And lastly: From Big Bang to Us -- Made Easy -- "This series explains the scientific evidence for our origins, from the Big Bang to the human migration out of Africa, in a way that most 7th-graders would understand. It challenges people who believe we were created by a deity 6,000 years ago to confront the evidence instead of ignoring it."

YouTube: Special Investigation - Evolution

2010-01-22T08:20:00.004-06:00

NonStampCollector recently posted a funny and informative video dealing with creationism and evolution which I have embedded below. Enjoy!

Magic In The Bible

2010-01-20T10:04:00.018-06:00

In my last post I talked about things magically popping into existence from nothing in the book of Genesis. In this post I am going to talk about some more magic contained in the pages of the Bible.

Let's begin in Genesis again. God decides to make a man and what material does he use to create the first man? Dust, of course. Here's Genesis 2:7:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

So let me see if I have this right: God makes the shape of a man out of dust on the ground, breaths life into said shape and his body magically transforms from dust into flesh and bones? His eyes, hair, teeth, muscles, brain, heart, circulatory system, blood and all the rest of the complexities in a human body magically came from... dust? And people think evolution is absurd??

Moving down two verses we run into another bit of silliness, this time in the form of magic trees.

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. -- Genesis 2:9

We'll get to these trees later. Trust me, they'll come into play in just a bit.

The next magical absurdity is a whole woman being created from only one rib. Take it away, Bible:

(21) And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
(22) And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
(23) And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. -- Genesis 2:21-23

While that isn't quite something from nothing, it's close. Take one rib, sprinkle a little divine magic on it and presto, you've got yourself a woman. It's nice that Adam had himself a wife now, but can you imagine those two arguing back and forth over whose fault the fall of man was? I wonder if God did a little marriage counseling for the two. Adam did have one good thing going for him though; to quote Mark Twain: "Adam was the luckiest man; he had no mother-in-law."

(1) Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
(2) And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
(3) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
(4) And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
(5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. -- Genesis 3:1-5

Yep, a talking snake. Kind of speaks for itself doesn't it? Wait, was that a bad pun? It wasn't intentional! Anyway, this isn't the only talking animal in the Bible, we'll come upon another one soon. Do you remember those magic trees mentioned earlier? Here's where the tree of knowledge comes into play:

(6) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
(7) And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. -- Genesis 3:6-7

That's some magic fruit; eat it and gain knowledge you didn't have before. But wait, there's a second magic tree...

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever -- Genesis 3:22

Eating fruit from the tree of life apparently could've made Adam and Eve live forever. Now that's some cool fruit. God didn't want that though, so he banished Adam and Eve from the garden and placed a cherub with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. You know, all of this could've been avoided if God had simply not put the trees there in the first place. Talk about a lack of omniscience. I wonder if God had a Homer Simpson moment and exclaimed "D'oh!"

Let's move on to the Exodus story. Moses was speaking to the burning bush version of God and God wanted him to go free the Israelites from Egypt, but Moses was being a doubting Thomas. So, God showed Moses some magic tricks that he could perform in front of the Israelites and convince them that God had truly sent him.

(1) And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
(2) And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
(3) And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
(4) And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
(5) That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
(6) And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
(7) And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. -- Exodus 4:1-7

A snake turning into a rod and vice versa is cool, but the Egyptian magicians knew that trick too. In fact, in Exodus 7:11, it calls them sorcerers and magicians.

Skipping over the ten plagues we now go to Numbers 21. The Israelites were free and wandering in the wilderness, but there was a problem; the people were complaining because they didn't have any water to drink nor good food to eat. Speaking against God and Moses apparently ticked God off in a big way. What's an angry god to do? Send fiery serpents to kill those whiners and blasphemers, of course. It worked, and the people asked Moses to pray to God to make the serpents go away. Moses did so and God told Moses to make a fiery serpent statue out of brass. Whoever had been bitten and looked at this statue would live. Sounds logical to me (not really).

(4) And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
(5) And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
(6) And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
(7) Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
(8) And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
(9) And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. -- Numbers 21:4-9

If God would've kept his temper in check he would not have needed to save people from his own wrath. Oh wait, there's that whole being saved by Jesus thing. Anyway, by merely looking at this brass serpent those who were bitten magically lived to tell the tale.

Moving on to the next chapter, Numbers 22, we come to the second talking animal. The Israelites were almost done with their 40 years of wandering when they came into the plains of Moab. The Moabites were afraid of the Israelites and voiced their concern to the elders of Midian. Balak, king of Moab at the time, sent some messengers to get Balaam. Balak wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites so that he could defeat them and drive them from his land. Balaam sends back word that he will only do what God commands him to and God told him in a dream not to go. Balak then sent princes to Balaam, more of them and more honorable than the last ones, and offered Balaam a promotion to great honor. God eventually tells Balaam to go, but then for some strange reason gets angry at Balaam for going. An angel blocks Balaam's path and this is what happens:

(20) And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.
(21) And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
(22) And God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
(23) And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
(24) But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.
(25) And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
(26) And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
(27) And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
(28) And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
(29) And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
(30) And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
(31) Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. -- Numbers 22:20-31

How about that, a talking ass. And no, I'm not talking about the first Ace Ventura movie. God can apparently give animals the power to speak. If that isn't magic I don't know what is.

Moving on to the New Testament, we come to Jesus cursing the fig tree:

(18) Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.
(19) And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away.
(20) And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! -- Matthew 21:18-20

I've got to ask: Where's the love, Jesus? Instead of cursing the tree and making it magically die and wither, why not make it grow fruit? Then again, like father like son I suppose; in the Old Testament God was always using violence instead of finding a peaceful, loving solution to the problems at hand. Also, there's a contradiction about how quickly the fig tree withered which is discussed on Errancy.org.

There are many more examples of magic in the Bible, but I'll conclude things here.

All of the magic shown here is quite absurd isn't it? But what's even more absurd is believing these things actually took place. And if you're of the mindset that the Bible is meant to be taken literally, then that's exactly what you have to do, believe. Fictional stories in books, TV shows, and movies ask you to suspend disbelief, but that's only temporary. A strictly literal interpretation asks you to stay in suspended disbelief, and not only that, but it piles on absurdity after absurdity. Eventually, you're left with a mountain of nonsense that you're supposed to believe no matter how loud your common sense cries out "somethin' ain't right here!"

In this day and age we wouldn't believe someone if they told us God made their pet talk to them, in English, and rightly so, because it's absurd. So why do some people still believe these stories, full of magic and nonsense, from long ago in a superstitious age when they actually believed magic (and lots of other stuff) was real?

Believers completely dismiss such stories from other religions as nonsense, and same goes for the arguments in support of them. Yet when it comes to their religion, these types of stories and arguments for them are considered true and valid. But, if you don't find the arguments for another religion's stories convincing, why should anyone believe the similar rationalizations for your religion's stories?

Something From Nothing

2010-01-16T08:44:00.011-06:00

Creationists claim that when it comes to the origin of the universe we non-believers think that something (or everything) came from nothing, as if it was somehow magic.

First of all, something can come from nothing. No, not any all-powerful deity's, but "simple" things like electrons.

Secondly, the origin of the universe and the big bang are two separate things. The big bang is about the universe expanding, not exploding, from a very hot and dense event around 13.3 to 13.9 billion years ago. It's how space, time, and our universe began but is not the ultimate origin of the universe.

And thirdly, cosmology and evolution are separate, although the universe has and still is evolving. So many wrongly think that the theory of evolution encompasses everything from the big bang to the formation of galaxies and solar systems to life on Earth. Only the last one is true. The theory of evolution concerns what happened after the origin of life on Earth and how it has changed since then. And no, it's not "just a theory." A theory in science is not the same as the everyday meaning of the word, which is a belief or a guess about something. Scientific theories have evidence behind them. And to be thorough, abiogenesis is the scientific study of the origin of life on Earth by natural processes.

Now, with all that out of the way, let's get back to that whole something from nothing business.

The origin of the universe is a great mystery, maybe the greatest, and science does not have a definitive theory for it yet. But to claim that this somehow proves God created the universe is absurd. All that is does is use God to fill in the blanks of our own ignorance. It's a belief that is based on faith, not facts.

The irony of it all is that there are plenty of times when something magically pops into existence from nothing in the Bible. Let's take a look...

1. Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

It doesn't say what God created the Earth with, but if the following verses are any clue, then he created it using a whole lot of nothing.

2. Genesis 1:3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

This light isn't the sun, we'll get to that later. Perhaps this light was like a lamp for God so that he could see what he was doing while he was busy making things pop into existence from thin air, just like he did with this light.

3. Genesis 1:6-7: (6) And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. (7) And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

This firmament comes from out of nowhere. Again, something from nothing.

4. Genesis 1:14-16: (14) And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: (15) And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. (16) And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Finally, we get to the sun popping into existence 93 million miles away from Earth. Maybe God should have made it before that lamp of his he made poof into being. I wonder what happened to that lamp. And did you catch God making the stars? All the stars in the universe, far too numerous to count, are confined to just five words. They were created as an afterthought and from nothingness apparently.

5. Genesis 1:20-21: (20) And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. (21) And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

6. Genesis 1:24-25: (24) And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. (25) And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

All those animals from... you got it, nothing. In other versions of the Bible (the verses I am using are from the King James Version) verse 21 says "great sea monsters" instead of "great whales."

That's a lot of something from nothing. Creationists will probably counter that God is all-powerful and can create things out of thin air if he wants to. A God speaking things into existence from out of nowhere certainly sounds like magic to me. And creationists wonder why they aren't taken seriously by non-believers and scientists? They can blame it on men rebelling against God, but that isn't it at all. It's because their creation story is a 4000 year old fairy tale, full of magic and absurdities, that they are trying to pass off as historical and scientific fact when it clearly isn't. The Biblical creation story is just one of many creation myths and obviously earlier man's beliefs and explanation of how things came to be.

Perhaps Christian creationists should ask themselves if they would believe the creation story from another religion. I'm sure its adherents could point to evidence they see as being the work of their deity or deities. It might even be more convincing than the evidence offered by creationists. But, considering they dismiss other Gods and religions as mere mythology, I don't think they would be convinced of any other creation stories being true. So what makes theirs more valid than the ones they dismiss out of hand? If they don't find arguments for the others plausible, why should anyone believe theirs? Doesn't each creation story have about as much merit as the next?

Just because a story is believed by many people doesn't make it true. If you don't have facts and evidence to back up your claims then all you have is a story and nothing more, no matter how long and loud you protest to the contrary.

Ultimately, all of the creationist's claims hinge on one major assumption: that God exists. That brings me to my final point: where did God come from? It would seem he magically popped into existence all on his own, just like creationists delight in saying the universe did. As people who believe in something so fervently will always do, they find a way to rationalize things. They claim God has always existed and that he doesn't have a creator, or that he somehow exists outside of space and time. But these are clearly their made-up answers to questions that they don't have the real answers to.

How did life begin on Earth? How did the universe originate? I don't know. But I highly doubt that the gods created long ago in the minds of men had anything to do with either, nor do they deserve the credit for them.

I conclude this post with the following quote:

"It is easier to suppose that the universe has existed for all eternity than to conceive a being beyond its limits capable of creating it." -- Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (1792-1822)

More Atheism Vids On YouTube

2009-08-26T16:40:00.001-05:00

I checked out NonStampCollector's channel yesterday and he had a video up by Theoretical BS titled: God's Checklist 2.0.

It's a good video and NonStampCollector has some good, funny videos up also. Check em out.

Jesus Is Way Late

2009-08-17T08:08:00.024-05:00

I came across another article about Jesus' long overdue return. I added it to the bookmarks page also.

The title of the article is 2000 Years Late: The second coming of Jesus.

It's a little long, but worth the read.

New Layout

2009-08-16T08:02:00.001-05:00

I have updated my layout, changed most of its colors and added a navbar. Instead of having the bookmarks taking up space in the sidebar, I made them their own page and put the link as a navbar button. I also did the same for the quotes page I made as you can see above.

I've also removed the subscribe table from the sidebar and put the feed links in the header.

Here's what my old layout looked like (click the smaller image for the full size one):

I like this layout better, so until I get tired of it this is the new look of my blog. :)

Bookmarks

2009-08-16T08:00:00.015-05:00

Here are good articles I've come across.

Articles Dealing With The Bible, Christianity, And Religion

The Bible And Christianity - The Historical Origins

Old Testament Chronological and Historical Problems

What The Christian Fundamentalist Doesn't Want You To Know - A Brief Survey of Biblical Errancy

Bible Inconsistencies - Bible Contradictions?

The Pre-Christian Jewish Concept of the Messiah

The Resurrection: Discrepancies and Evaluation

Biblical Proof that Jesus is not Coming Again

2000 Years Late: The second coming of Jesus

Why I rejected fundamentalist Christianity?

Theories On The Origin Of Religion

Articles Dealing With Atheism

An Introduction To Atheism

Common Arguments

Quotes

2009-08-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

These are some of my favorite quotes about religion and atheism.

"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes." -- Gene Roddenberry

"I condemn false prophets, I condemn the effort to take away the power of rational decision, to drain people of their free will - and a hell of a lot of money in the bargain. Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all. For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain." -- Gene Roddenberry

"A God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice, and invented hell — mouths mercy, and invented hell — mouths Golden Rules and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who mouths morals to other people, and has none himself; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man's acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites his poor abused slave to worship him!" -- Mark Twain

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand." -- Mark Twain

"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination." -- Mark Twain

"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." -- Stephen Roberts

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." -- Robert M. Pirsig

More quotes to be added later.

In the meantime, check out AtheistEmpire.com's quotes and PositiveAtheism.org's big list of quotes.

Happy 4th Of July

2009-07-04T20:00:00.003-05:00

Have a good Independence Day everyone.

In the spirit of this holiday I changed the color of my links from blue to red to since I already had the blue and white on here. :)

I will keep the colors like this for awhile.

To all those who have made freedom for us Americans possible, and those currently fighting to keep us free, thank you.

Have a good 4th!

Atheism On YouTube

2009-07-01T17:57:00.001-05:00

Here are some YouTube videos I've come across that I thought I would share.

Instead of embedding them in this post, I will just link to them.

The first two are humorous, the last two are serious.

Enjoy!

An Atheist Meets God (4:52 long)

The Reason For Everything And The Purpose Of Life - Bill Maher On Rick Warren (contains some vulgarity -- 9:07 long)

Militant Atheists (5:05 long)

End Times Bible Prophecies: Last Generation On Earth - The Atheist Experience #586 (7:20 long)

The Day After The Day Of Prayer

2009-05-08T16:04:00.022-05:00

Yesterday was the National Day of Prayer.

You'd think with all the people praying for an end to the wars overseas, world peace and all that, things on this planet God supposedly loves so much would be vastly different today if he did indeed answer all those prayers. Yet things aren't changed. They are exactly as they were before the Day of Prayer.

I guess we should give God time to process all those prayers. Then again, many prayers in the Bible were answered immediately, so why should we not expect God to be prompt in his divine response now?

Imagine for a moment all the things people pray for. Shouldn't there be a lot of healed sick people by now? What about people of no religion and other religions being converted to Christianity after seeing the "truth" shown to them by God? There should be millions of new Christians today, but there isn't. There should be cures for current and future deadly diseases, but none exist. All the hungry people in the world should have an abundance of food, but do not. Flood waters should have subsided and wild fires should have been extinguished before they destroy more homes, but they continue. The global economic crisis should be fixed, but it hasn't been. And warring factions should have made peace, but they continue fighting.

Naturally believers will make up excuses why God didn't answer their prayers, but the fact that they even have to make excuses for what God didn't do says a lot. It's interesting that believers say that when a prayer is answered, that is God's will... but when it isn't answered, that is also God's will. It must be nice to have it both ways.

There's no need to make excuses why prayers aren't answered, it's just time to admit the obvious: there's no God listening.

Resurrection Discrepancies

2009-05-07T10:22:00.027-05:00

I should've added this Resurrection Discrepancies link on my Easter Thoughts post, but I wasn't aware of it then. But I am now, so here it is.

There are other good articles on the Investigating Christianity site which you might want to check out when you the spirit moves you. Err, umm, I mean... when you come to the conclusion to do so based on sound reasoning and solid logic. :)

The Second Coming Isn't Coming

2009-04-17T14:08:00.010-05:00

Many Christians believe that Jesus is going to return soon.

There have been countless predictions, by many people all throughout history, about when this event will occur. But all of them have one thing in common: they were all wrong. Of course that will not stop others from predicting it will happen sometime in the future, but those predictions are also unlikely to come true.

As for the reason why, I refer you to this article titled: Biblical Proof that Jesus is not Coming Again.

The only thing I would add to the linked article above are the following verses which also show that Jesus' return wasn't meant for any other time than his own. These are Jesus' own words to his disciples:

Matthew 16:28: Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Mark 9:1: And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

Luke 9:27: But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God.

Here are some good articles dealing with the second coming issue:

Jesus' and Paul's predictions about the end of the world.

Second Coming on Wikipedia

Biblical Bizarreness

2009-04-14T10:07:00.012-05:00

In the book of Exodus, chapter four, we come upon a very strange part in the Exodus story.

Moses had just finished talking with the burning bush version of God and had been given the instructions of what he was to do in Egypt. Moses left and got his wife and sons and put them on a donkey, then began their trip to Egypt. Along the way, when Moses and his family were at an inn, God appeared and was very angry at Moses because his son Gershom wasn't circumcised. God was about to kill him until Zipporah, Moses' wife, made God's divine anger go away by circumcising the tyke. And with a sharp piece of flint no less! This apparently pleased God, so he let Moses live.

Um... what?!

This is one of the weirdest passages in the Bible and I have a theory about why the circumcision part of the story appears in the text in such an abrupt, out of nowhere kind of way. Here goes...

The high priest dictating this story to the young scribe has just finished telling the part about Moses visiting with God who was in burning bush form and the instructions God had given him to do in Egypt. Then he suddenly remembers that he left out a crucial part about Moses' firstborn son not being circumcised yet and how that is a bad thing in the eyes of God (refer to Genesis 17:10-14). So the following dialogue takes place:

Priest: Curses!
Scribe (nervously): But sir, I wrote it down exactly as you said it...
Priest: No silly boy, I am not cursing you. I suddenly remembered something.
Scribe: Oh thank...
Priest: Bite your tongue boy! I forgot to convey the circumcision of Gershom. He was not yet circumcised and that is a covenant breaker to the Lord. We can't allow one of God's chosen men to have a covenant destroying kid now can we? Hold on, let me think...

(The priest paces back and forth in deep thought as the scribe waits dutifully with his feather-pen in hand. After a minute or so, the priest has an idea.)

Priest: Aha! I know what to do now. Write this down young scribe.

(He then proceeds to say the following passage in the Bible:)

And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him (Moses). Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son (Gershom), and cast it at his (Moses') feet, and said, "Surely a bloody husband art thou to me." So he (God) let him (Moses) go: then she said, "A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision." (Exodus 4:24-26)

Scribe (after he has jotted it down): Umm... sir, that is kind of out of the blue and really messes up the flow of the story. Moses had just been chosen by God to go and perform the signs before Pharaoh, right? Now all of sudden God wants to kill the man He just picked to do these wonders and then lead the Israelites out of Egypt?? And how did Moses' wife know what to do to please God??

(The high priest is silent in thought for a moment, then suddenly blurts out...)

Priest: Oh whatever! You better hope that the Lord forgives you! (stomps out of the room in a huff)

It's just a theory. :)

Here's a link for you to check out: The Wise Fool has an article dealing this weird portion of the Exodus story on his blog.

Easter Thoughts

2009-04-12T16:04:00.009-05:00

Today is Easter once again: the day that Christians believe that their savior rose from the dead in the first century. According to Acts 1:3, Jesus was seen for forty days after his resurrection.

I don't think the risen Jesus was seen by any historians during that time though, because they are silent on the matter. In fact, we only have the New Testament to rely on when it comes to the authenticity of this allegedly miraculous and divine event.

There are plenty of good reasons not to believe this story. The first being that the four gospels are hopelessly contradictory not only when it comes to the crucifixion and resurrection parts of the story, but in many other areas as well. Another reason is that these stories, and many others in the Bible for that matter, contain special numbers that suggest they are mythological in nature.

One more good reason not to believe it is because there is no independent evidence. As the saying goes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. But we don't have any. All we have are these contradictory accounts, and those aren't good evidence at all. So you have to either have to have faith and accept that they are true - in the face of all reason and common sense - or not accept them. Since you already know I am an atheist, that kind of spoils things for you, but no, I do not accept them. I'd like a good reason to believe the resurrection story, but there isn't one. The believer would probably say something along the lines of "But if you just believe it, accept Jesus as your savior and repent of your sins, you'll get to go to Heaven and have eternal life!" The problem with that is that it sounds too good to be true. And usually when that happens, it is too good to be true.

Some believers might say I am the crazy one for disbelieving that Jesus rose from the dead. Yep, I am a nutcase because I reject these claims that go against my own common sense. I am out of my mind for believing science when it says you can't get up and walk around after being dead for three days and for not being able to "just believe." I am apparently cuckoo (and not for Cocoa Puffs either) for believing that these stories are merely the products of men and not divinely inspired. If believing and disbelieving what I do is the definition of crazy, then I guess I am. I define it as being rational, however.

As it has been said, Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection story. For me, it comes up way short.

Enjoy the day, whatever you believe or do not believe... and don't eat too much candy. :)

I got some good links for you to check out:

A chart showing many of the contradictions in the Crucifixion/Resurrection accounts. -- If you only visit one of these links, make it this one.

The Jewish view of the resurrection story. -- This goes along with the above chart.

Richard Carrier: Why I Don't Buy The Resurrection Story

The history of Easter on History.com. -- Be sure to check out the Pagan Origins page also.

Fun With The Church Sign Generator

2009-04-10T22:28:00.014-05:00

Imagine driving down the road on a nice sunny afternoon and seeing the following sign in front of a church.

That might make you slow down and do a double take.

According to the Bible (here and here) you aren't allowed to eat anything from the seas and rivers that don't have scales and fins. That means none of the items in the sign image, along with oysters, clams, and mussels.

The GodHatesShrimp.com about page describes in better detail than I can why following Leviticus 20:13 concerning homosexuality and not following the unclean seafood law is a bit contradictory.

Now let me tell you about the Church Sign Generator. Using it, you can do serious, or not so serious church signs - like mine. :)

The newer signs you can generate even let you specify a symbol to go on your sign, and there are lots of those to choose from. There are other generators available too, not just church signs. There's also a collection of real church signs that have funny sayings on them. I'll stop now since I am starting to sound like a commercial for the site. If you want to make your own sign, click the one I made above to be taken to the website. Have fun.

Check This Article Out

2009-04-08T22:25:00.008-05:00

Just in time for Passover, Steve Wells (creator of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible - check the sidebar for the link) has re-posted his article titled: The Passover Plot -- God's Intelligently Designed Mass Murder.

First.Post.Ever.

2009-04-08T22:00:00.011-05:00

This is my first post.

Let the fun begin. :)