Christian Gospel=Extortion
Offline I had a discussion with an evangelical Christian yesterday. I asked him if, according to the Bible, the act of extortion is wrong. He said emphatically "YES!". I asked him if ANY act of extortion is wrong, to which he again answered "YES!".
I then compared what the Mafia does when it offers you an offer you cannot refuse. If you accept the offer, you live a comfortable life and have money, and if you reject it, you find yourself in the bottome of the river with concrete shoes.
I then said..."What is the difference of the Mafia offering you a deal you cannot refuse and the Bible saying, "Accept Jesus...or you go to hell?"
The Christian gave me a 'Deer caught in the headlights look'. He said..."it is not the same"...I answered..."How is it not?...For that matter, how is any religion not?"
He tried to dance around the white elephant in the middle of the room that he did not want to talk about that I just pointed out. I suspect he will run to his minister...ROFLMAO!!!...I am truly EVIL.....
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Yeah, you are truly evil....but right. Way to go.
This is GREAT!!!!!!!!! You have been a member here for over 3 (three) years why do you NOT give us more of these Juicie TIDBITs more often? I love it and so will most rational members here. Keep up the good work!!!! Yeah..........eh? Canadian, eh?
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Nice one! I'll have to remember that.
Jeffrick,
To answer your question, I am not Canadian but Southern Redneck from the panhandle of Florida living in Bible Belt USA. I am an educated redneck...
Tell you the truth, I don't even have much personally against most Christians, as long as they don't try to drag me back into the whole faith thing. I was a Christian for around 25 years and I deconverted. I don't have any real dislike of most Christians. My wife is still a believer and my daughter is too. We don't go to church. When I deconverted, I had a little anger that passed after a few months. My politics are even Libertarian to conservative. Mainly, I just want to be left alone by anyone claiming to be of some group, be it religious or of some strong belief. That is why my screen name is 'Burnedout'. Hope I did not disappoint.
That was well put.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
Wow, you really owned him!
I don't see why a theist who endorses a god which frequently murders and tortures people would have any problems accepting that the same god also extorts people. Yahweh makes it very clear that the moral absolutes he dictates in the Bible do not apply to him, because he breaks them all the time.
I don't understand why the Christians I meet find it so confusing that I care about the fact that they are wasting huge amounts of time and resources playing with their imaginary friend. Even non-confrontational religion hurts atheists because we live in a society which is constantly wasting resources and rejecting rational thinking.
Whatthedeuce ,
You are correct by technical standards. What one must realize is that most Christians, even pastors and ministers happen to not pay attention to those sections where it is so bloody, or they will attribute it to being Old Testament and THEY are New Testament. My little analogy shatters their little wall no matter whether you are referring to Old or New Testaments.
Folks,
I want to say something.
I have found that the best way to over come the programming they are under is not to be confrontational, but the opposite. I genuinely try to get along with Christians. I don't even see everything in the Bible as evil by nontheist standards. To me there are some genuinely good things. What I have a problem with is when they try to compel me to do or live in their prescribed way. I have many good friends who are Christians and whom I care about greatly.
If you are a nontheist and you want to defeat a Christian or win him in your direction, I follow the precipts of Sun Tzu...."The best way to defeat an enemy is to make him your friend...."....
If it does come to a confrontation, the main thing to remember is that they expect YOU to be a total ass. If you approach them with a smile and very low key but to the point and knowledgeable response with as little confrontation as possible, YOU WILL SCARE THE SHIT OUT OF THEM.
OK Burnedout, I understand what you are saying. Honestly, the whole idea of trying to be nice to people seems to me to be a fine way to live for the most part.
That much being said, I am under no illusion that I can really get past the programming that the worst theists have going on. Sometimes I will run into a theist who is behaving like a world class ass. However, he will not define his actions as assholery.
When that happens, one way that I have found to deal with them is to be an ass myself but to do so in a way that they simply will not expect. The only thing is that you have to be nice to them for a bit while you size them up to determine what the specific attack will be.
One of my “greatest hits” has been dealing with literalists. When that happens, I find it useful to take some part of the bible and interpret it so literally that I come off to my interlocutor as more insane than he is. Then he has to correct me. After all, in his view, I am trying but I have missed the point.
As an example, Rev 7:4~8 has a list of all the people who will get into heaven and it happens to be limited to jews only. Not a big deal when you consider the context. However, if you assert that anyone who is saved must be a jew, that will knock the idiots for a loop. They will try to correct you. Here is how that goes:
At that point, I can stop the guy and ask why the bible says that only those people will get into heaven. I fully expect to be told that it only refers to the jews who will get into heaven. I will play with them for a while before I drop the bomb.
Before I tell you what that is, let me cover two points of relevance.
First, literalists rarely read the bible. They are indoctrinated to the idea that it is so hard to understand that only a highly trained pastor is capable of knowing what any specific passage means. The fact that a minute ago, the same person told me that when the bible say that 12,000 of the tribe of Simeon will go to heaven that meant that 12,000 of the tribe of Simeon will go to heaven. Somehow he can know that much without being prompted by pastor.
Second, everyone who is anyone in the bible self identifies as a jew. So the idea that only jews will go to heaven is hardly a huge surprise.
Here is the bomb:
Where in the bible does it explicitly say that Christians will go to heaven?
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Answers,
I don't disagree with what you're saying. Everybody has to do what works for them. It is just my finding for me, is that I keep my answers low key and my trump card words as few as possible but highly effective, like the strike of a deadly snake or the shot of a sniper's rifle.
I am an old political activist (Mainly Libertarian Politics, but I work with anyone who's issue I agree with). I have been involved in politics heavily for over 10 years and more recently in a minor way. I have found when I write speeches and have candidates in a race or speakers on an issue deliver them, it is the first 5 to 10 words which grabs an audience and wins the debate ultimately. I also have a background and a degree in Speech Communication (public speaking) as well as one in Business Administration. When you are dealing with Theists, for me, that is mainly Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians in the part of the country I live in, I mainly do the opposite of what they expect. I find it unnerves them and disarms them. I even had a Th.D., tell me that I was a dangerous man.....LOL... My response was to smile, laughly just lightly and softly say..."Sir, does a simple but honest question cause you discomfort?".
FYI, just some background on me....I was one of the founders of this group www.tntaxrevolt.org and I was one of the people involved in bringing some sleazebags down that ultimately become known as 'Operation Tennessee Waltz', Google that term. I used to live in Tennessee but now live in the Panhandle of Florida.
I'm only playing devil's advocate here (pun intended), but the Christian response to this passage is two-fold. First, that the 144,000 people who will be taken to heaven before Armageddon (this is "The Rapture" ), will be 12,000 descendants each from the 12 Jewish tribes; most fundamentalists consider themselves part of that group whether they are Jewish or not. Second, just because they are not part of the Rapture group does not mean they will certainly not go to heaven, only that they must then endure "The Tribulation" where the remaining people are tested with war, famine, torture, etc. etc. They might still make it in after going through the Tribulation.
Regardless, it all still sounds like a delusion from a not-so-original apocalypse story to me.
Reckless,
You are indeed correct. They will also come back by saying that 'The Church' is a "Grafted in branch" . They are a part of the tribe of Judah by adoption and thus, spiritually are Jews. They believe that the church will be 'Raptured' out off the earth.
I would say Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/