Church. Why?

[Tryharder62]

So Eve knew what was good before eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She saw that it was desirable for gaining wisdom. How did she learn that?

Well God only told Adam, and she did know, so who could have told her?

 

[pecksniff]

I attend an Independent Baptist Church.

Do you have the slightest idea how scary is that seeming innocuous statement?!

See here.

Jack Chick was an Independent Baptist.

 

[Tryharder62]

Do you have the slightest idea how scary is that seeming innocuous statement?!

See here.

Jack Chick was an Independent Baptist.

Do you know how scary it is that someone uses RationalWiki as their information source?

 

[pecksniff]

Do you know how scary it is that someone uses RationalWiki as their information source?

It is not Wikipedia, with its neutrality rule -- it is openly biased, not to say snarky -- but its bias is in favor of reason and science. Nothing scary about that.

 

[Tryharder62]

It is not Wikipedia, with its neutrality rule -- it is openly biased, not to say snarky -- but its bias is in favor of reason and science. Nothing scary about that.

So It can be bias as long as it agrees with you. Got questions..ask them.

 

[Pee4Fun]

The whole magical fantasy figure bit makes no sense to me. How do people fall so far as to believe in such silliness?

Let me give you a cigar, my friend!

There is no god. Never has been, never will be. It's all crap. All religions are cults. Pure myths. And, christianity is the absolute worst. No other tries to convert others. Add the Crusades and Inquisitions and there you have it. Pure evil.

There's not a shred of historical evidence for the existence of the dead guy on a stick. Yet, idiots believe this nonsense. There's a good reason that they're called sheep or fish.

If a person would like a philosophy of life to follow or a code of ethics, I'd suggest buddhism. Buddhism does not have a supreme being or an invisible man in the sky. Therefore, it's not really a religion by definition.

 

[pecksniff]

So It can be bias as long as it agrees with you.

So long as it agrees with science and reason. Can't go wrong with that.

 

[phrodeau]

Well God only told Adam, and she did know, so who could have told her?

What did God tell Adam? “You’re going to want to eat the fruit of this tree, because it’ll give you knowledge and you want to have knowledge. It also tastes great, and you would enjoy eating it. But We forbid you to have any, and if you do, We will make sure that you die in a few hundred years. And since you have no idea, We can tell you that dying is not something you’ll want to do.”

Is that about right?

 

[pecksniff]

Why did He make that tree anyway, if nobody was supposed to eat the fruit?

 

[pecksniff]

I've heard that fig leaves are kinda like poison ivy -- not something you'd want anywhere near your unmentionables.

 

[pecksniff]

There's not a shred of historical evidence for the existence of the dead guy on a stick.

He is not God, but I don't think there's any reasonable doubt he existed.

 

[colddiesel]

I have always said I believe in creation. I'm a literalist and believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, but the original Hebrew and Greek. I attend an Independent Baptist Church. Have worked in a Methodist and Catholic church. I think denominations tend to just divide Christians.

Thanks for that clarification. To reciprocate I am not so much a lapsed Presbyterian as a collapsed one. I was brought up in one of the more way out schisms of the Scottish Presbyterian Church (And can still recite large chunks of the NT in Gaelic - my first language) I started to reject this from about the age of 12 when I first decided that the christian doctrine of original sin was the most evil notion I had ever encountered.

For many years I have been convinced of the irrelevance of any notion of God. Jesus was a good man who definitely existed and taught the same things as Hillel the elder.
He would have faded into obscurity except for the intervention of Paul who I think is almost solely responsible for the creation of Christianity.

 

[Tryharder62]

What did God tell Adam? “You’re going to want to eat the fruit of this tree, because it’ll give you knowledge and you want to have knowledge. It also tastes great, and you would enjoy eating it. But We forbid you to have any, and if you do, We will make sure that you die in a few hundred years. And since you have no idea, We can tell you that dying is not something you’ll want to do.”

Is that about right?

Why did He make that tree anyway, if nobody was supposed to eat the fruit?

That was my thought. Why did He even put it there? If I were God, I wouldn't have. It was to allow choice. If you don't want to follow God you don't have to. Did you ever notice that he put two trees in the Garden? The other was the tree of life. They were suppose to stay by it. The only knowledge Adam and Eve would have lost if they hadn't eaten the apple is the knowledge of evil.

 

[BBCfan]

Thanks for that clarification. To reciprocate I am not so much a lapsed Presbyterian as a collapsed one. I was brought up in one of the more way out schisms of the Scottish Presbyterian Church (And can still recite large chunks of the NT in Gaelic - my first language) I started to reject this from about the age of 12 when I first decided that the christian doctrine of original sin was the most evil notion I had ever encountered.

For many years I have been convinced of the irrelevance of any notion of God. Jesus was a good man who definitely existed and taught the same things as Hillel the elder.
He would have faded into obscurity except for the intervention of Paul who I think is almost solely responsible for the creation of Christianity.

Yeah...it's also crazy...wasn't "Saul" was an admitted murderer before he saw the "light" and became "Paul".

Imagine a homicidal maniac starting a religion now. Well Manson kinda tried but he was a bit too cray.

Well, there is Scientology though. Isn't the leaders wife still missing? Guess he's not an admitted murderer though.

Christians are sheep...just don't get me started on the religion with inbred sheep.

 

[BBCfan]

If a person would like a philosophy of life to follow or a code of ethics, I'd suggest buddhism. Buddhism does not have a supreme being or an invisible man in the sky. Therefore, it's not really a religion by definition.

I agree on Buddhism, but it does have a lot of silly rules too...but they are more just guidelines...no threat of punishment if you don't adhere.

Hinduism is actually pretty cool too. Most of the gods are so silly they can't really be more than fun representation of aspects of man's good or evil potential.

Much is positive thinking through use of mantras and peaceful interactions, although it has radical offshoots. Gandhi was assassinated by one after all.

 

[Lazaran]

.
Still waiting for someone to explain why there are no female-centric major religions or schools of philosophy.

So weird........

 

[BBCfan]

.
Still waiting for someone to explain why there are no female-centric major religions or schools of philosophy.

So weird........

although none MAJOR...lots of minor. Isn't it kinda self explanatory in a male dominated warring culture why none of these made it to the big leagues?

1. Magoism : worships the Korean creator-goddess Mago. Magoists believe that Mago was the original cosmic mother goddess of Asia. Helen Hye-Sook Hwang wrote of it in The Mago Way: Re-discovering Mago, the Great Goddess from East Asia.

2. Deanism : A modern religion that worships Dea or "Mother God" and reveres the feminine godhead exclusively as the one and only divinity. Their holy text is A Gospel of Our Mother God.

3. Filianism : Another modern religion that is related to Deanism, but focuses on the Mother God and her Divine Daughter and the Janyati (feminine angelic beings).
4. Shaktiism : A version of Hinduism (some say that Shaktiism pre-dates Hinduism) that worships Shakti as the supreme Goddess and original creatrix of the universe. Shakti is also the life-force within all beings. The Devi Gita or Spiritual Counsel of the Goddess is the text most often associated with Shaktiism.

5. Lakshmi-worship : Another Hindu path wherein Lakshmi is worshipped as the Supreme Feminine Godhead, the female face of God.

6. Kuan Yin-worship : Kuanyin, also called Guanyin or Guan Yin Bodhissatva is a bodhisattva / immortal / buddha, a well-known figure to Taoism, Hinduism, Shinto, and Buddhism. She is also called Goddess Kuan Yin and revered by many as the Goddess for our times, or the avatar by which the Goddess reveals herself to humanity. I listed this here because she is worshipped by many people around the world as their one and only goddess, or as a "patron goddess". A similar phenomenon can be seen with Tara, a major female buddha.

7. Gaianism : honors Gaia, the divine Earth mother in spiritual thought and in protecting the physical planet Earth from pollution. Recognizes the Soul of Nature as Gaia, the earth's Goddess and mother of all life on the planet.
10. Goddess Movement: The general modern term given to all goddess-related paths, especially those who honor the divine feminine as a primordial, intrinsic or first-cause being. It encompasses many religions as well as including people who practice no religion but believe in the Goddess.

11. Goddessian: Any belief in the Goddess, usually as supreme deity, outside of belief in Wicca or Witchcraft. (People who believe in the Goddess but who are not Wiccan or Witches).

12. Classical Taoism : many believers in Classical Taoism (based on the Tao Te Ching, writings of Lao Tzu and perhaps Chuang Tzu as well) also believe that the Tao is a feminine force, and that the "Valley Spirit" or "Cosmic Female" mentioned many times in the Tao Te Ching is actually the Goddess. They usually believe that Tao is the ultimate reality, therefore Goddess is ultimate reality.

13. Dianic Wicca: a form of Wicca that worships the Goddess Diana exclusively and does not acknowledge other deities.

14. Stregheria : A form of Italian witchcraft tradition that also worships Diana as the first and most important divinity. Some forms of Stregheria acknowledge a male god also, but many do not.

15. Avalonian or Druidry: a Celtic and British belief which focuses on the Great Mother Goddess and the mystical Isle of Avalon. It is difficult to find information on the subject since much of it is tied up with Arthurian legends and myths, but practitioners of it still exist today. It is somewhat related to the Celtic pantheon of Tuatha De Dann "the tribe of the Goddess Danu" and their Great Goddess is named Danu.

16. Shinto: Many believers in this Nature-spirit religion (the original religion of Japan) believe that Amaterasu the Sun Goddess is the mother of all "kami" (the most important of all nature spirits).

17. Collyridianism (ancient): A derivative of Christianity, mostly consisting of women, who worshipped Mary as the supreme Goddess. It was a devotional religion wherein they offered cakes and libations to images of Mary.

18. Great Cosmic Mother (ancient): The primordial, theoretical religion proposed by anthropologists as the world's "first faith". It was written about in When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone and The Great Cosmic Mother, Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth by Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor.

 

[Tryharder62]

.
Still waiting for someone to explain why there are no female-centric major religions or schools of philosophy.

So weird........

Female dieties are called Goddesses. They hold places of importance in Hinduism, Buddhism, paganism and other less known religions.

 

[Tryharder62]

Yeah...it's also crazy...wasn't "Saul" was an admitted murderer before he saw the "light" and became "Paul".

Imagine a homicidal maniac starting a religion now. Well Manson kinda tried but he was a bit too cray.

Well, there is Scientology though. Isn't the leaders wife still missing? Guess he's not an admitted murderer though.

Christians are sheep...just don't get me started on the religion with inbred sheep.

Paul was a tax collector, an occupation that made him a very hated man to the Jews.
(I WAS WRONG. See KEITHD's post)

 

[jaF0]

Do you know how scary it is that ...

.... anyone believes any of this shit ever happened? It's all FICTION assholes. ALL of it.

 

[KeithD]

Paul was a tax collector, an occupation that made him a very hated man to the Jews.

Paul was a wealthy tent maker and he was a Pharisee, a particularly strict and highly respected (by the Jews) sect of the Jews. Before conversion he was a leading persecutor of those not adhering to the traditional Jewish line.

 

[BBCfan]

Paul was a wealthy tent maker and he was a Pharisee, a particularly strict and highly respected (by the Jews) sect of the Jews. Before conversion he was a leading persecutor of those not adhering to the traditional Jewish line.

Does persecution in that era generally represent possible death through stoning etc.?

If so I was maybe a bit correct he was a murdering cunt before starting Christianity?

I don't remember much from Sunday School but the death and destruction parts tend to stick out.

I also remember a Sunday School teacher telling me my dog wouldn't go to heaven, which was very traumatic news. Talk about cunts.

 

[KeithD]

Does persecution in that era generally represent possible death through stoning etc.?

If so I was maybe a bit correct he was a murdering cunt before starting Christianity?

I don't remember everything from Sunday School but the death and destruction parts tend to stick out.

Yes, he was a stoner before starting Christianity (assuming, as has been mentioned, he was real).

 

[Tryharder62]

Paul was a wealthy tent maker and he was a Pharisee, a particularly strict and highly respected (by the Jews) sect of the Jews. Before conversion he was a leading persecutor of those not adhering to the traditional Jewish line.

You got me. I was wrong. Thanks for clarifying that. Had a brain fart.

 

[BBCfan]

Yes, he was a stoner before starting Christianity (assuming, as has been mentioned, he was real).

LOL...well played.