One thing atheists must continually endure is flawed logic from the opposition. It isn't enough that one lead a good and moral life with compassion for one's fellow beings. No, you must subscribe to a specific set of rules -- these differ from person to person -- or you shall suffer the eternal consequences. A common question posed to atheists is, "What if you're wrong?"
Jamie C. of Cookeville, TN posed the oft-repeated question in a discussion with myself and two other non-believers. What is the appropriate response to such an inquiry? The asker of such nonsense rarely gives pause to consider if they themselves may be wrong. The judgments they have passed and the hatred and bigotry they have been a party to because of their belief system would surely make them sick to their stomachs.
Being caught off guard, we only managed a "B-" answer, which was apparently good enough, as there were no follow up questions. The following video outlines a terrific answer to this question which atheists hear all too often.
User "TheoreticalBull****" provides a well thought-out answer.
Comments
While I agree that the video response was well thought out, I think the maker heavily relies on his own definition of God in his theoretical meeting with God. The Bible is very clear that salvation through Christ is the only way to Heaven.
The bible is also clear on stoning people to death and the proper way to beat your slave. It is also clear that it doesn't have a clue on the real process that the universe went through to get to it's present state.
Why would God require a baby to mutilate his penis (i.e. circumcision)? Fact: The American Academy of Pediatrics does NOT recommend circumcision.
Sarah Courtman, are you implying that your God isn't omni-benevolent and omnipotent? That's the definition of the God he's describing.
You guys are using worn-out arguments about religion and God. I'm sure this is partly because most of your practice is achieved by preying on the unprepared.
Anyway...the effort to toss "Molotov Cocktails" from Leviticus is ignorant at best, disingenuous at worst.
The Bible says many things. Some, when taken out of historical and literary context and perspective, can be "positioned" in such a way as to *seem* to advocate slavery, rape, and so forth.
Don't agree? In modern times we can't even agree on what the president said and/or meant in public, on camera, recorded and played back nonstop 24/7 for a month! But you say you understand (or can dismiss) the entire text of the Bible by excising a few lines, dropping it in an article and *trying* to make it say something it never actually said.
It's comparatively pretty clear that you couldn't possibly understand what the Bible authors intended by yanking out lines and dropping them in an online article! Study harder!
But you can somehow understand the whole bible, even though it was written thousands of years ago, has been added to multiple times and has been translated multiple times? How can you claim to know the Bible in it's whole when many of the things in it were not originally part of it, and it could have been mistranslated?
@JRDevo
I appreciate that you accept that the Bible is flawed in that it was written by humans who often have trouble perceiving what is meant to be perceived by a particular message.
The problem is that the prevailing attitude is that the Bible is infallible and the absolute word of God. Even more disturbing is that people use this book written by flawed human authors as the basis for legislation and public policy. At that point, it is the right of those who see the Bible as errant to call these people out.
As for picking and choosing, this goes back to the infallibility argument. I don't see the logic in claiming the a book is both a) the inspired word of God Almighty and b) containing conditional scripture that may have been based on a flawed human interpretation of some poorly recorded historical event. For this book to be the basis of millions of people's faiths, it can only be the first.
bingo!
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