JPD

* John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."

* Acts 10:36 "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ."

* Luke 2:14 " . . . on earth peace, good will toward men."

Well that all sounds very positive.
But then we have these verses:


* Matthew 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."

* Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, . . . he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

So it could be a philosophical sword but he seems hell-bent on separating the young and impressionable from their families much as modern cults do. What does the Bible stress about the importance of the family?

JPD

God just wants to have fuh-hun
Ohoooh God just wants to have fun
That's all he wants, that's he really waaaaaaaannnts
And for us to read the Bible
And seek the truth within
Subject to contemplation beyond sense
And the numerous contradictions therein
We can see God's face
But no we can't
He's a regular peek-a-boo
And he slaughters people needlessly
And all the animals too
He's a lovely lovely entity
We hope you'll love him too

Wayne Delia

The Ninth Commandment is "Thou shalt not bear false witness," and it is frequently mistaken for "Thou shalt never lie." While that would be a good moral principle for Christians to adhere to, what it actually means (to my way of thinking) is that false accusations should not be brought against others. That was flushed down the dumper when rhutchin carried on about atheists being theives. He misrepresented what Jesus said in John 10:10 by way of an alibi, and couldn't bring himself to apologize or repent for doing it.

Beats me. Get yourself a statue, sprinkle some holy water on it, and fling it against the wall. That's gotta count for something.

Tell me about it! Try committing the Unforgivable Sin (Matthew 12:31-32) - I've been told by fundie spin-doctors that atheists can't possibly commit it, since they don't believe in the Holy Spirit at all, so words can't be said against something they don't believe in. I've jumped up and down claiming "The Holy Spirit is a lying, deceiving, servant of Satan!" to no effect.

What's a guy need to do to get condemned for eternity with no possibility of being forgiven?

WMD

Wayne Delia

Well, there are several different passages about Bible family values. I won't get into many of them, but the ones that stick out include:
1) According to Jesus, in order to be a follower of His, one must hate one's parents, spouse, children, and self.
2) In Genesis, after the Flood, Noah grew grapes, made wine, got drunk, partied naked, and passed out. (A standard Friday night at Phi Kappa Sigma.) When he woke with a major hangover, he condemned his grandson and all future descendents in that line to slavery, because his grandson's father covered Noah up while he was naked.
3) In Genesis, Lot offered his daughters to be raped by an unruly crowd of villagers in the town of Sodom, so that the crowd would leave his male houseguests alone. God somehow figured Lot and his family were the only ones morally worthy of being spared a shitstorm of fire and brimstone. After Lot's wife was killed for looking back at the shitstorm (by being turned into a pillar of salt), Lot's daughters got him drunk, had sex with their father, and produce hybrid son/brother children, who grew up to become leaders of nations.
4) In Deuteronomy, stubborn or rebellious children are to be turned over to the elders of the city, who will stone the children to death.
5) Proverbs 23 contains the verse which essentially says to beat children up to, but not including, the point of death, in order to purge evil.

A lot more instances are coming to me, but it's way past my bedtime.

You made a good point, and I would only add that it's a common Church recruiting strategy to indoctrinate children into the religious dogma at as early an age as possible, which makes it psychologically much more difficult to leave the Church later on.

WMD

Wayne Delia

You've confused yourself, and once again contradicted yourself. Read what you originally wrote at the top. The method used to "maybe get into some girl's pants," you said, was to seek Christ. Why would anyone seek Christ, you asked, except to "maybe get into some girl's pants." Seeking Christ is quite different - in fact, completely different - from claiming to be an ex-Christian. Why would you think that a Christian girl would let a guy into her pants if he claimed he was an ex-Christian? For that matter, why would a Christian girl put out for a guy who claimed he was actually a Christian? You've got some serious dysfunctional issues going here, along with what appears to be an unhealthy disrespect for Christian women.

WMD

rhutchin

The key part is that you say, “I love…myself.� After that, whether you love your family is irrelevant.

JPD

Do you love yourself and your family?

rhutchin

No. You can assume that I do not have Bishop Ussher's explanation on the method he used to get to his timeline (this because you get heartburn if people use secondary sources). If it it is on the internet and you are able to find it, let me know and I will look at it.

Maybe you can find the Bishop's work and start a thread.

JPD

The Bible is an ancient jazz mag. The Koran is much the same. I feel truly sorry for children who are brainwashed and find the fear too great to overcome later in life to leave it all behind them. One can see that the incestual activity had an effect on the minds of the Biblical authors.

rhutchin

Christians don’t agree with that. That’s what makes Christians and atheists different.

What the atheists have figured out is that, if the Bible is not true, then they should eat, drink, and be merry. That is why atheists love themselves and why it is irrelevant whether they love their families.