A bunch of chinks in Noah story

[Epidemic]

Just could not have happened


Hmmmm,
Agnostic, atheist, humanist, atheist, perhaps there is a god.

Which way to turn.

[kranich]

I think that the general concept is that miracles such as the ones described in the Bible cannot be explained using modern scientific methods or from human observation.

[Optimus Prime]

Man, you can just tell you're gonna get flamed by the religious zealots in this forum , you might need this,

*hands Epidemic a flame-retardant suit*.

Toodl-oo.

[Redwolf]

It is believed the flood happened at the time of the Sumerians, not the Egyptians as the article stated. I don't doubt the story of the ark is exaggerated, but I can see it happening still.

[Epidemic]

I forget the show but on the history channel or science channel they describe a flood which may have flooded the middle east as the natural earth dam broke an inland sea spilled over a huge area. Probably gilgamesh was the guy floating on a barg full of livestock with his girlfriend was spared from death of his fellow townies.

[CMonster]

I think it important to look at principle rather than deify the written word; like looking for the real person rather than the painted portrait that can never accurately capture all the attributes of the genuine article. The problem as I see it is that most human beings have not only given up on the search for God -they never start looking.

********
A first grade teacher is talking about whales to her class when a students hand goes up:

"Yes?"

"Jonah was swallowed by a whale." a little girl stated matter-of-factly

"Well, my dear, that is a cute STORY but most whales have throats too small to swallow a man, and it's physically impossible for a man to survive in the stomach of a whale for three days." The teacher explained.

"When I get to heaven I'll ask Jonah." said the girl.

"What if Jonah went to hell? the teacher asked in exasperation.

"Well then you ask him." replied the girl.

[Optimus Prime]

And once again, you are getting God mixed up with Religion.

Anyway.

Most religious people don't actually open their own eyes, they just read their holy book/scripture and take it for what it is, or go deeper and search it out, but they don't want to listen to other people. What if i told you that I believed in God, but not in religion. I believe that everyone finds God in their own way and that's how it should be, God does different things for different people and it can't be forced upon you. Would you tell me to shut up, or say that i'm going to go to hell? Or would you say that i can believe in what i believe? If you look closely, most religious types are so into their religion that they cannot see anything for what it actually is anymore, they won't listen to anybody, they will only believe in their book or a "holy" person. It goes both ways. Think carefully about what you say, before you say it. I've seen many hypocrits around these forums saying that their country is great because of free speech then slag off another member because of them saying what they feel?

Later,
Adam.

[CMonster]

And once again, you are getting God mixed up with Religion.

That's exactly what I said, though my semantics may have been a little complex -so who would that confused party be? who is the "you" ?

You are right, God is not religion anymore than what you believe or have read about George W. Bush is anything like knowing the actual man face to face.

But it seems rather obivous that no religion (defined as system of faith) could exist without the concept of diety, god, gods, creator, giant-karmic-energy-ball, etc. (however esoteric and foreign the concept may appear to the average pragmatist, agnostic, atheist or whatever).

Religion:

The outward act or form by which men indicate their
recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having
power over their destiny.

[Epidemic]

Ok Ok Ok now you can add jonah to the list of the unbelievable.

Why does god not send angels down to smite nasty people. for 8,000 years god was all about whacking people around and now he does not make personal visits.

The changes in his MO are what really get me. If he changes the rules then he must have disagreed with the rules and therefore he was wrong in that he created rules he did not like.

He used to feed people to whales or what ever and then bring them out three days later.

Trash cities and turn people into salt.

yet he leaves NYC and the bunny ranch open for business.

He flooded the earth because he did not like the way things were going. Mistake there, he made a flawed being which he gets angry with up until about 2000 years ago. Of course he rectified that by letting us kill his son. That always makes me happier when someone whacks my son. But we will go with the strange and mysterious ways thing.

All in all god could have given us free will and installed a bible in each of our brains that guaranteed we knew the law and reality of his existance and we would be allot better people.

A little genetic memory and poof everyone is the right religion. Follows the right rules generation to generation regardless of false profits.

and back to the stories which make no sense. God in a bet with the devil decided to make jobes life miserable (now he is god and he is allowed to do so) But the reason was to prove to the devil that jobe would remain faithful. (The devil knows god on a personal level, He knows that god created the universe without even a kit or instructions. Do you really think that the devil would need anything proven to him.)

Of course there is the other problem god (an all knowing all powerful being) created the devil or at least the angel who became the devil. Now that would appear to be another flawed decision as it has caused him to get angry at people ever since..

These are just a few things which lead me away from the bible and its teachings. Just dont make sense to me.

[Ritalin Kid]

What you have to take into account is that the reason God no longer goes around smiting people in wrath is that because Jesus died on the cross the rules that apply to the consequences for sin changed. That is why there is an old testiment (which is basically a testiment to how people lived and worshipped before Jesus died.) and the new testiment (which explains how Jesus died for every person's sin).

In the old testiment you normally had to sacrafice something pure (i.e. lamb) to cover your sins and in some cases some sins were considered worse than others so you had to die for them.

Under the new testiment Jesus (being God's only son thus he is a pure sacrafice) dies to cover all sin. Thus the main thing that God asks of you to be forgivin of sin is to believe that Jesus died for those sins.

The message is a very simple one.. though alot of people like to disect the Bible piece by piece I believe the best way to understand it is to read it completely for yourself at most it does have a great wealth of moral value to it even if you choose not to believe in God.