I spent 17 years of my life using mental gymnastics to justify what I believed. I was living a mental simulation where god was real. this greatly skewed my perspective on reality.
to any one that believes these verses were taken out of context or misinterpreted please read the following verse
2 Peter 1:20" "no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation."
You do a good job showing all the bad stuff in the bible but you turn a blind eye on the good side of Christianity and the positive stuff in the bible. Bravo, you're blinded by hate and ignorance.
The reason I focus on the negative parts of the bible (genocide, slavery, rape, war etc) is because the negative is usually justified using the bible. The positive things in the bible ( love thy neighbor, the golden rule, charity etc) prove to be true with or without the bible.
My eyes are open by my love of truth....no fear, hatred or god necessary. If the evidence presents itself I will believe.
Its cool dude. We just have different understandings
Albert Einstein: "Your question [about God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist."
"science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
""Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."
"Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
"a person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because of their super-personal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content ... regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a Divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation ... In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be"
Let us not forget the New Testament. I was always taught that Christianity was based on "Faith" & not on on works but lets see what Jesus Himself has to say about it:
Matt 25 v31~ : "For I hungered and you fed me!" : Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called 'The Sons of God'"
A christian would say "Don't take the bible out of context." Yet How many songs have they read lyrics to and taken out of context? Then gone on and tried to censor or protest.
Hey, bible was written by man, and man can lie and cheat and steal. It doesn't make the religion itself evil. Religion doesn't kill people, people kill people.
Like i said, it doesn't make the religion evil, just the people who follow it. I'm Christian and some crazy guy up the street who kills people could be too. The religion had nothing to do with that, it's just the person.
My eyes are open by my love of truth....no fear, hatred or god necessary. If the evidence presents itself I will believe.
Its cool dude. We just have different understandings
Albert Einstein:
"Your question [about God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an Atheist."
"science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
""Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."
"Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly."
"a person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because of their super-personal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content ... regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a Divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation ... In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be"
Matt 25 v31~ : "For I hungered and you fed me!" : Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called 'The Sons of God'"
Amognst others.
My opinion, so feel free to ignore it.