Hee Haw
Offline Fundamentalist Christians believe the bible is the inerrant word of god, meaning that every word is the absolute truth. In the bible ( Numbers 22: 26-30 ) is a story about a donkey that has a conversation with it's rider. So this means that if fundamentalists are sincere in their beliefs, they believe that a donkey talked. They believe that an animal actually spoke a human language.
When I confronted a fundamentalist friend of mine about this bible story, he said that he wasn't familiar with the scripture I was referring to. But he said that if the bible says that a donkey talked.....then he believed that a donkey talked.
Talking donkeys? Can there be anymore proof of Christianity's insanity than this? Animals DO NOT TALK!
My fundamentalist friend says that I need to respect his religious beliefs. Respect? I do respect his right to believe whatever he chooses. But I DO NOT respect his beliefs. How can I respect the belief that animals can talk anymore than I can respect a belief that a witch can fly or that a snowman can dance?
Fundamentalist Christian beliefs are like a very bizarre Disney cartoon of the mind. How can any rational thinking person respect such absurd nonsense?
RickRebel
Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?
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Well I do know a theist who is crazy about disney movies...
Rick, dont be so quick to shout "Ah Hah, you are full of bullshit"
Why? You are correct in assesing the credibility of thier claim.
HOWEVER, You under estimate their ability to attempt to turn fictional playdough to sell it as reality.
OF COURSE it makes no sense that donkey doest talk. But when you face them with that it becomes metaphor to avoid claims of "poof" dirt turning magically into bone, or "spirits" knocking up women.
"Miracle" is laymens terms for " I dont have the real answer so by default my warm fuzzy feelings amount to magic existing"
We understand your objection to the claim, but we warn against simply objecting based on the claim.
The only reason to reject this tripe is lack of evidence. What they have is a fictional claim based on popular tradition. Believing what they say is the same as believing that by blowing yourself up you'll get 72 virgins and just as wastefull and pointless.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
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Brian,
I see your point. My friend and I have gotten into some heated debates about the bible. And no matter how much logic and evidence I produce of how absurd it is, he just dismisses it all and usually ends the debate by saying "I don't want to talk about this anymore."
It just boggles my mind that any sane individual could believe such utter nonsense. Even when I was a small kid I never believed that animals could talk. But for an adult to say "If the bible says that a donkey talked, then I believe a donkey talked," seems like a psychological disorder. I don't understand how a healthy brain can allow such a departure from reality?
Rick
Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?
It's not just donkeys that talk in the bible. Don't forget the talking snake in Genesis Ch. 3.
‘don't understand how a healthy brain can allow such a departure from reality?
Rick,
One way to consider how this is possible is to use Dawkin’s concept of the ‘meme’.
Instead of a psychological disorder, it might help to consider what is going on in terms of a healthy brain having been infected with a parasite, a mind virus.
The virus is bigger and more dangerous than any particular persons expression of Christianity, (or mental functioning). People with healthy brains, the intelligent, and the not so intelligent get infected.
It is frustrating when people can’t see what seems perfectly obvious, or when someone’s brain gets on the logic merry go round.
‘Conversational intolerance’ is tough in personal relationships. I shared what I thought about original sin and some other theological points with a friend of thirty years a while back, haven’t heard from him since. I regret it. I suppose it was inevitable, as I had began to start speaking up, writing stuff etc. Still, I think I would feel better about it today if I hadn’t made it personal in a conversation, at least not one that I started.
There was an article in Christianity Today a couple of months ago, entitled ‘God really is winning’. While Christians often seem to be ready to see persecution coming at them from all angles, this article was upbeat. God really is winning! The article went on to express with excitement the survey results that showed all the different wacky supernatural things that Americans believe, from Astrology to Ghosts, etc. It seemed clear to me that the good news for these people wasn’t just the number of Christians that self identified in the survey, but rather that such a large chunk of the population had super naturalist beliefs. This at least left the door open, that they might be open to coming to God, --becoming infected. It is not just Christians who believe wacky things, though it does seem to serve the meme’s interests.
It may be hard to respect some of Christianity more wacky elements, but I don’t have any problem respecting the meme as an adversary, it has been protecting it’s own interests for quite some time, sometimes surreptitiously. As far as individual Christians go, I try to respect them based on their actions and our common humanity, not their beliefs.
Anyway, you have probably seen this stuff already, but in case you haven’t here is a link that elaborates more on memes.
http://www.christianitymeme.org/
You could ask your friend why it says in Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. But later in Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
I wondered how he made light without a sun in 1:3. I always ask xtians this but have never gotten an answer that suffices.
Actually, I asked a few friends of mine who are pretty into the bible deal this question last night. One of them ended up telling me that they didn't have the Gregorian calendar back then, so days could have meant anything, and a week could mean hundreds of years, and something about the word for darkness in the bible could be translated from hebrew as "septic water" and God created light in the middle of that or something. Eventually it ended up being that there was just light, and nothing that emanated that light. It's actually not too bad an explanation, for a person who believes the rest of the bible. I guess if you've assumed that God actually exists and created things, then light without a sun isn't too far off. I don't even know anymore.
If all else fails, if all turns to dust, set sail on a ship built from trust.