The Admiral

Dearly Beloved

It is only within the last two years or so that I have come to realise that it is not just the holy rollers who believe that the bible is literally inerrant. That the Lutherans, Baptists and Methodists all believe that the universe is 7 to 10 thousand years old, that Adam and Eve were real people, that god created the universe in 6 normal earth days and that Jonah swallowed a whale which lived inside him for 3 days until he drank a 7up and burped it up. I haven't got around to the Episcopalians and Presbyterians yet. I know that the Catholics no longer believe these things.

Yesterday I had a lengthy face to face conversation with the minister of the Baptist church in which I watched the Newdow/Knechtle debate. We talked for nearly an hour in his church office. He is a clean cut friendly young man of about 30. He was raised in the Baptist church, in fact his entire life has been centered on it and his father was also a Baptist minister. He assured me that he believes all of this without question. Also that demons and angels exist and surround us warring for our souls at all times. After leading him all the way into my trap I then said, well James, Then you believe that the earth is flat do you not? He froze in contemplation for awhile and said, no, what makes you say that. Because the Bible says so I said. This truly baffled him and he didn't know how to respond. Somewhere along the line he said that there were some people who believed that god created evil. I said well why not James, god said that he created evil. I couldn't give him chapter and verse but I think ir occurs more than once. I was rather surprised at his lack of knowlege of the Bible. It was very interesting. We might even talk again and I proposed a book exchange with him which he said he would consider.

The Admiral

Javaman

I tend not to be surprised by any Christian's lack of Biblical knowledge anymore. I just got back from a trip to Crete where I had the opportunity to speak casually with friends new and old about the OT and NT. I didn't mean for it to turn into a lecture but, at the time, I was forced to expound on some parts of the Bible that these folks had never heard of.

That's not entirely true. I discussed my problems with the book of Job. They knew who Job was and the basics of the story but had never really thought about what it all meant. I started my retelling of the book with, "So Jehovah and Satan are sittin' on the front porch kickin' back a couple of Mint Julips..." all the way through the end and then asked if anyone could reconcile their beliefs with the God described in the book. They all had to think about that one for a while. I supposed the easy answer is that it's all a parable.

Javaman

A couple of days earlier I did say something kind of offensive that I really wish I hadn't. We were talking about the Newdow case and that led to talk of "Cerimonial Deism". I then paraphrased someone here on II and said I'd love to run into a church and yell out "F**k God up the Ass!". And then say, "Oh, not YOUR God, I was talking to the God of Cerimonial Deism. One of the folks was LDS and I really do feel for those folks. It must be hard to deal with that much goofiness when you've got a brain in your head. He was a really nice guy and there was no real call for something that would only rile people up.

Uzzah

Only once that's extremely clear. Isiah 45:6-7. However be careful with it, because some translations render "evil" to something like "disaster" to make it sound less damning.

Uzzah

The Admiral

Uzzah

Thanks, that's what I was looking for.

The Admiral

The Admiral

One other thing I forget to mention. I brought up Mithraism. He had never heard of it.

The Admiral