Friday, December 08, 2006 . 12/08/2006
Okay, I'm pretty damn tired but I'm going to post this anyway.I've been following an atheist/religious debate on a forum for some time. I love reading others' opinions. As the page numbers reached well over 200, the theists actually made the atheists look pretty stupid.. for only a page or so.
"... for one, god has the right to. Secondly, killing the pharoah would have done nothing. If I am to prove something to someone is killing them going to do anything? If God were to kill the pharoah another ruler would then just take his place and think his Anubis or whoever the heck they believed in right then would protect them and he would continue to commit atrocities and they would not be freed. Yet with all the deaths on his shoulders his guilt would have been too much for him to ignore therefore it proved a purpose by freeing the Israelites. It was apparent that something drastic would have to have been done seeing as how they ignored the other plagues."
He has a point here. Killing the pharoah for a "sin" certainly wouldn't have taught him anything, as he'd be dead and wouldn't get the chance to repent it.
Revelations(1:3)
"..Things which must shortly come to pass"
John believed that the things that he wrote about would happen soon, within his own lifetime. After nearly 2000 years, believers still believe that "the time is at hand" and that the events described in Revelation will "shortly come to pass."
Claiming you knew what John was thinking is kind of dumb you think. Anyways, God exists outside time therefore shortly could be 4000000 billion yeras. Not necessarily by our time table that we created.
Revelation (1:5)Jesus "washed us ... in his own blood."
You should know what this means. He shed his blood for our sins thus cleansing us of them
Revelation (1:7) Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
I believe this is referring when he returns to earth, but if you disagree everyone will see him when he/she is judged.
It then talks about the Jehova's witness. Well apparently they don't read the bible seeing as how it says you WILL be able to see him. Unless Jesus decided to wear his invisibility cloak he stole from Harry Potter?
Revelation(1:13-16) Jesus has white hair, eyes of fire, feet of brass, and has a sword sticking out of his mouth.
Descriptions of his appearance given only the words of the earth. The sword is his teachings which could be known if you knew the bible/word of god is referred to as the sword of God.
These afore interpretations make sense even to me.
After awhile someone posted this:
"it doesn't matter if there is a god or not because no one will ever know. live life and experience this amazing gift while it is here. don't worry about things you don't have control over. just enjoy it."
And another this:
"This debate over the existence of God is pointless and can't be prove or disproved on both sides. You are no better than the people who push religion on others. Just have an open mind about things, the trials and tribulations of life can change your views on the existence of God. What Im trying to say its all about personal experience, let life play its self out maybe something will happen that will change your views on this whole thing. But as for religion I can't really speak of the various religions because I don't have full understandings of all them, so I would not go into them."
This is true. When both sides have been debating/arguing for a long time, it is obvious that neither will change their views, so further debating is pointless and most often than not leads to nowhere.
I find it a bit funny that the Bible (and other religious texts) seem to be the only books out there that can have various meanings depending on the person. Should it be taken literally, or does it mean something else? Let's say there is a god out there. Maybe this is a test, to interpret the bible.
But what of the people who have absolutely no knowledge about religion or their gods? What would become of them? If they try to be good all their life but have no knowledge of a god, will they still be doomed?
Perhaps the concept of heaven and hell are metaphors. Many take these places to be just that - actual places. But maybe when it is mentioned that we go to heaven or paradise, it means that we have found peace within ourselves, and hell is a metephor for the guilt you feel when you have done something you know is wrong. But what of the stories of Lucifer and his followers being dumped into hell?
It's impossible to know what the bible really means. To base your whole life around it is foolish, as for all we know, it could have been a mere storybook to begin with. Or ravings of madmen, who claimed they saw things and how they envisioned God.
It is a common theist argument to say that God is beyond time and so therefore is beyond all words. Perhaps there is another demention out there somewhere? Many atheists claim to be open-minded, yet they only go on solid evidence. They say a possibility of another demention are children's tales, like Santa. But maybe there is a place that defies all logic; however in saying this, one could make the claim that Santa exists beyond time aswell.
What about the pagan gods that existed in the past? Perhaps they were all the same god all along. You can truly never know. But like past religions and beliefs, Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, and others will eventually give way to newer ones, or perhaps in the far off future, none at all. Maybe people will come to their senses and stop basing their lives on something they cannot prove.
A theist explaination for proof in God might be that they "felt" it, but this is not hard proof that atheists like myself are likely accept. I personally think, and I think many atheists can agree with me on this, is that if you are raised in a religious family it will stick with you. Even if you come to think for yourself, whenever you try to "pray", that same feeling you had when you thought God was the truth will emerge. The same can go with any god, though some claim they've tried many religions and Christianity was the only one they felt was "right". Maybe it has to do with the fact that Christianity is the most practised religion.
Whatever the case.. if you believe in a god, great, and if you don't, that's great too. Life is to enjoy, to learn, to experience. If you base your whole life on a book written thousands of years ago, I wouldn't think you would be experiencing all that life has to offer. Unless Jesus or Zues or Ra were to appear infront of everyone, or until we die, we won't know the truth.
Phew, that was a shitload of typing, but now that I've typed all my thoughts out I'll be able to sleep. Oh, and here's a quiz result:
| You Are 52% Peaceful |
 In general, you think the world's a pretty great place - and you're happy to be a part of it. Sometimes you struggle with life, but who doesn't? You are quite level headed, though you have more inner angst than you'd like. |
