Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Yes, Satan nailed Eve in the Garden of Eden and had a son.

Uh, no.

Which isn't to say "Faith" is necessarily a bad thing. If it makes you feel better, live better, treat others better, with no harm, it is a good thing.

Faith is believing something without logic or proof, but it may not be a bad thing, as above. It depends on how it is practiced.

Have at it.

Well, I'm going to throw my .02 worth in this discussion.....

Rocky, you asked Tyrone to prove his statements.... you prove yours! Both of you are just repeating what you've read or been told. Both of you, as I understand it, have valid points and some of what both of you stated is probably right. Me, I don't have the answers and as far as being a Christian is concerned, it doesn't matter. Either you believe or you don't.... simple as that.

And, while we're on the subject, this statement is a fact.... 'Religions are man made'. Christian religions came from people reading the same Bible and interpreting what they read differently. And there was enough difference in the interpretations that they formed different religions.

What a lot of people do not realize is that the Bible tells us 'not to judge'. That's God's job. My job is to 'witness and bear fruit', and I have my hands full, just doing that.

Another thing, lots of people think to 'witness and bear fruit', you have to go around banging on doors, or telling people how good you are and how bad they are, or telling people what they should do, and that is wrong. Witnessing can be just living a good life, setting good examples for younger people, and helping others when they are in need. You'd be surprised how impressionable young people are and how much they see and learn from grownups. I didn't say support the lazy, like our government does, there is a big difference.

I could say more, but then I'd be preaching and that is not my intent.

Again, just my .02.

IF there is a god, IMHO, he just doesn't GAF. We are on our own, make or break, and chit happens.

On the other hand, there are dogs, so maybe HE does.

Oldman, I'm not intending to prove or disprove anything. I'm merely pointing out that what a huge chunk of humanity has created to explain natural events is purest hokum and superstition. Just because things "are" does not imply, much less prove, that they had to have been created by some eternal and all-powerful being. Nor (and how this started) does any book of tales become the dictated message of that being just because somebody's great ancestor starting saying it was.

Hell, I wrote two books. How much of either of them came from God? You tell me. But if you say none of it, how the hell can you say every word of the other one did? Books is books, brother. They all contain morality messages.

Religions, I claim, were invented to give some people power over others. From the times of "Give up your goat as sacrifice - and now that it is holy, only I the High Priest may eat it" to "Tithe us this portion of your income so we can build a new marble and gold temple for the use of us High Priests." It has not changed. Nor has the inevitable result of "My Yahway or the highway and this way to the beheading block."

Morality programs like Buddhism and Taoism are well and good. There's a best way for humans to interact, and laying that way out is beneficial. If we could just somehow avoid what seems to be the hard-wired instinct to create gods in our own image, we'd be a lot better off.

excellent point...but he takes them back too soon!

I know it because I provided a counter example. If religion were simply a way of filling knowledge gaps then modern highly educated people would not believe deeply in it. Your claim that religion is the result of ignorance is hackneyed atheist propaganda.

jorge, that was FABULOUS. Especially the John Holmes snake.

I wish! Unless the Adirondacks had an outpost in Czechoslovakia, I am a mere impostor.

OK, Son of Carpathian Comedians arrives???

OldHat, my postulated Og didn't know a whole lot about orographic uplift, so he credited the appearance of clouds and rain to...well, something invisible up there. Which quickly morphed into somebody invisible up there. Somebody just like himself, but clearly all-powerful and all-knowing. In short, a god in his own image.

That's a scenario a whale of a lot more probable than any construct and web of highly improbable contradictions we made up to support the first manufactured one.

A&E were not the first humanoids.
They were just the first to have souls.

I thought Mohammed was supposed to be the third and most recent prophet.
Who both Christians and Jews don't hold much stock in.
And of course the Jews don't hold much stock in the second prophet either.

But perhaps a God is like a parent telling the kids whatever gets the kids to do what they want. And so different groups of kids get different stories.

And then who owns the "house of God" comes into question by the different groups and things get ugly...

How much of all of ancient history ‘was’ written as the story unfolded...? How much of what we know of all of ancient history ‘was’ compiled long after the stories were said to have occurred...?

Ahh yes, "souls." Great example of one of the web of improbable constructs we invented to support the earlier invented improbabilities.

"When we die we meet God in heaven." "Uh, we don't seem to go anywhere except to worm food." "Well...um...there's an invisible thing that goes to heaven. It's the 'real' us. it's called our...um...soul. Yeah, that's it. And we're the only animals to have one. Ain't we special?"

And, the New American Standard Bible is as much a word-for-word translation as is possible given the limits of ancient vocabulary and is based off of some of the oldest copies of Biblical books such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The actual canon was decided at the Council of Rome in 382AD.
If you want more detail on this huge subject, it's going to take a book. I suggest "Where We Got the Bible" by Graham https://www.amazon.com/Where-Bible-...mp;qid=1596735129&s=books&sr=1-2 or, for more modern language, "The Bible is a Catholic Book" by Akin https://www.amazon.com/Bible-Catholic-Book-Jimmy-Akin/dp/168357141X

Sorry, but it's a big subject and there's no way I can do it justice in one post. I find it's better to learn about a subject rather than be like a Democrat and just have a childish, ignorant view.

When you find a rabbit that's changed the course of the World through the force of their character, you let us know.

God,is there one or not?If there really is a God why is their disease,famine,wars?Because God gave us a free will and a soul .Our body is just a vessel that contains our soul during human life.We can think,write ,imagine and have the choice of doing right or wrong.God does not interfere.Hell and heaven.Neither are actually places.If you believe in God you have eternal life as a spirit or part of the eternal awareness.Hell is nothingness.You die ,you are done.Religions are mostly man made to make people conform to who ever is in power.They are bought and sold like whores in a cathouse.If we have a soul(and I don`t think everyone does)you know right from wrong and do not need someone to tell you.Souless people are ones like Hitler,Obama and just about any dimocrat.Plenty of Republicans also.How do I know there is a God?There for sure is Evil on this Planet.If there is evil their must be Good.If not this planet would be a raging clusterfugg.Yeah ,I know it is headed that way now.The Devil likes to tempt us.Free health insurance,free baby killing and anything that is good and righteous is bad.I believe we are here for a reason and we can accept it or deny it and determine our own fate.Of course denying it is the easy way.JMHO Huntz

I'll take that as an insult, Tyrone. No problem.

I didn't make this stuff up; all you believers did. It's up to you to defend it. I just get to point out the absurdities and sit back to watch the fun.

Just one to start: if the "every word is literal fact" in the Bible, and Jesus was God the Father's "only begotten son" then who was the Mrs God to help with that begetting?

It's how ingrates get weeded out.

ETA: I know that pisses you off, but it's true. what else is true is that God gave you the free will to choose whether or not to bomb babies. We all are accountable for our decisions and we all end up having to do one of two things - be sorry for the wrongs we committed or scream and pout and say that it can't be true that we are responsible.
Yes, we are sorted by not only what we do, but our response to it.

Why would God bring someone into Heaven who doesn't want to spend an eternity worshiping Him?

Interesting