penster_x

Well St Patricks day is almost upon us and being Irish I have been struggling with the question

How do I celebrate it? Do I stick to Guinness for the whole 24 hours or should I mix a little good Irish Whickey in with the celebrations too?

If I mix the Whiskey, should I drink

10 Year Old Bushmills

Blackbush

Jamesons

Jamesons Gold

All of the above.

The celebrations are taking place here in Hamburg too and everyone is invited.

When ever I learned about the bible and "god" as a child all the stories where those that played on the imagination - stories of magic by God (creation complete with talking snake, Noah, Moses and the Red Sea, Samson and his long hair, David and Goliath, Jesus walking on water and generally being David Blaine).

Never did I learn of the Levite sending his concubine out to be gang raped, or the man being stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, or Adulterers being stoned to death, or the wars where God commanded that women and children be slaughtered.

If I had learned these I would have rejected God much earlier.

Is this a typical religious indoctrination tactic for child recruitment? Isn't this a bit like hiding the small print?

refuse these vaccines?

The flu virus is a rapid mutating virus and we have to continue trying to keep up with its evolution.

Many other drugs now in development use genetic sampling to study individual response thanks to difference caused by evolution.

Virtually every scientist believes in evolution and use the influence of their evolutionary based learning to develop new drugs, vaccines and cures for mankind. If evolution had never been proposed we would be still back in the 60's regarding drug development.

Do Christians accept these new drugs? Do they deny evolution when faced with death or possible cure?

Source:

10 years experience in the Pharmaceutical industry.

Following on from the death penalty I don't see how Christians can support this and claim no contradictions.

Jesus was clear in his opposition to the death penalty when he asked that the first stone be cast by those without sin.

The OT tells us of stoning adulterers, homosexuals and those who work on the Sabbath.

So which is it? The word of Jesus or the word of the OT God?

To fellow atheists who support the death penalty I respect your views even if I disagree with them because I understand that our moral and ethical outlook is something that is thought through rather than taken as absolute becuase it was written in an old book.

I'm against the death penalty but in answer to a previous question regarding the death penalty some Christian stated that speaking out against the death penalty was blasphemy as God instituted the death penalty. Should we then stone people to death as this was the choosen method for adulterers homosexuals etc? Would Christians agree with this?

After all it was the God breathed, God chosen method for executing those who were adulterers, who worked on the Sabbath and who were homosexual.

Can I rape someone and claim her as my wife?

Can I allow a concubine/prostitute/daughter to be gang raped to save myself from being sodomised? (see Judges)

Can I stone someone to death for working on the sabbath?

When Christians make expected comebacks like "Thou Shalt Not Kill" please remember that the 10 Commandments were designed for inter Jew relations and did not apply to killing non Jews etc.

When the other expected come back regarding OT/NT arguments comes then you have just made my point. There are no moral absolutes because they change from OT to NT.

So Christians, please explain these moral absolutes to me.

the Pill works generally in three different ways? One of these ways is preventing the implantation of a fertilised egg in the wall of the uterus - thus aborting the fertilised egg. Is this not the same as abortion?

Essentially the pill is conscience free abortion because you simply aren't aware if an egg is fertilised or not.

Why do they concentrate on Evolution? There is no evidence for the creation myths of other cultures yet Christians try to attack the only explanation of creation (Evolution) with enough evidence to fill 6000 years worth of creation museums.

Is it precisely because Evolution is backed by such overwhelming evidence that Christians feel so threatened? Do they not feel threatened by Aboriginal dream time, or Rangi or Papa, or Japanese creation myths or Chinese creation myths?

Why does the poster (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) of this question not check the credentials of his so called "creationist scientists". Is what Carl Baugh does not lying? He is blatantly lying about his qualifications in order to force an agenda. Are lies and deceit not the tools of the devil?

Is lying and deception acceptable to Christians so long as it justifies their point of view?

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/paluxy/degrees.htm...

offer my girlfriends to gangs of men who want to sodomise me in order to save myself from being violated?

22 While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him."

23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, don't be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don't do this disgraceful thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don't do such a disgraceful thing."

25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go.26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door

genealogies from Mary and Joseph respectively?

Matthew is clearly referring to Joseph:

Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 And Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. 17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

Luke makes no mention of Mary, only Joseph. Joseph is clearly linked to David and God.

23Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,

the son of Heli, 24the son of Matthat,

the son of Levi, the son of Melki,

....the son of David, ....Son of Adam

How could these 2 gospel writers have gotten the genealogy so wrong? They simply don't concur.

If Luke refers to Mary (which it clearly doesn't) then Joseph and Mary are related and thus interbreeding when they have children later.

over-sexed societies in the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, South America, North America and Africa when they were colonised. Sure there was violence but no more or less than that in Europe and elsewhere at the time.

These societies had their own moral codes, their own laws, and indeed the fact that they lived in societies shows an organisation and structure based on mutual trust, help, communication and law.

Now interestingly these societies did not have the Bible, which of course Christians claim is the source of morality, yet they still developed.

The Romans, Greeks, Persians, Egyptians all developed a certain morality and structure of law and order and they were Pagan i.e. without a Bible. They philosophised about these concepts.

So Christians, please explain how this came about if the Bible is the source of morality?

Was it more God magic?

Atheist input is more than welcome.

I had a quick read through it and there are things that simply cannot happen like predicted. Why do Christians ignore the impossibilities in this book?

Firstly a flat eart is implied in the book as it talks of the four corners of the earth - only a flat earth can have those corners; a spherical earth cannot.

Then there is much talk of casting stars down from the sky upon the earth. Now anyone would think that the creator of the universe would know that stars are many times bigger than the earth - millions of times bigger in fact. How can that dragon sweep one third of the stars in the sky down upon the earth? This would utterly obliterate the earth - but does it? No. There is more to come.

As for the plague of Locusts, I'm not sure God counted on man developing pesticides.

And as for the army on horse back. How easy will it be for our armies to wipe out 200 million men on horse back?

Of course not.

Why then do Christians keep insisting that Atheists "hate" God? I don't believe in Satan so obviously I "hate" him too by Christian reasoning!

How can you hate that in which you don't believe?

Here are a list of things I don't believe in and obviously can't hate.

Orcs

Goblins

Elves

Rumpelstiltskin

God

Satan

Santa

The Easter Bunny

And then Luke has many more - 41 generations?

The names in the genealogies are also different.

Which one was lying? Isn't lying a sin? What sort of sin is lying in a sacred text? Lying about the "Son of God"?

The Bible is the unlitimate proof of the non-existence of God.

It seems simply that we are born inton a religion dictated first by family and then by culture. I know culture is a broad word but its influence can never be denied. Take any Christian and rewind time and have them born randomly in the Middle East. They would be Muslim and just as fanatic about that.

We choose a religion not because it is correct but because we want to fit in with our culture.

This may apply more to North America than to Europe. Here in Europe the pressure of religion is not great. Maybe that explains the higher proportion of Atheists here in Europe. We choose to be Atheist not only because religion doesn't make any sense but because the pressure to conform to religion is not as great.

I lived 30 years in Belfast with daily bombings and shootings (committed by Christian - both Catholic and Protestant).

I have been within 30 meters of large bombs going off and I have been shot at once and was standing beside a friend as he was shot 3 times in the face and neck. These are only a few of many lifethreatening experiences that I dealt with on a daily basis. I guess these were my foxholes. Never once did I cry out for God. I acted instinctively. I had no opportunity to think about a God. My body took over - genetic impulses for survival drove a fight or flight system and that was all that happened.

So, is the old addage that there are no atheists in a foxhole simply wishful thinking on their part?

Here in Germany you must register your religion with the state and you are taxed on it. For me it would amount to roughly €85 per month (a little over $100). I am of course registered as having no religion (atheist). Would this seperate the true believers from the wannabes in Christianity/Islam etc. Would such a thing reduce the number of non-believers.

Germany has a population of 82,425,000 and 41 - 49% (33,794,250 - 40,388,250) are atheist/agnostic.

20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.

How can be omnipotent and all seeing and not know what was happening a few miles away?

If of course he even existed in the first place?

How can Christians be sure that they haven't backed the wrong horse? After all Jesus did not fulfil the messianic prophecies.