Although I don't think it would be fair to label the church as a haven for pedophiles as any authoritative organization that has the position of looking after children can attract pedophiles in their ranks,simply because it's an attractive opportunity for those creeps with such tastes, I saw something on Anderson Cooper's show yesterday that made me sick to my stomach. They had a special show on sex offenders and pedophiles and they were interviewing a woman and her daugher, where the husband/dad had been molesting the daughter for many years before the wife found out about it. The woman said that the first person she went to for help was the pastor of the family church. She said the pastor told her NOT to report it to authorities as that would bring "shame to the family and the church" and furthermore, attempted to shift the blame to her by telling her that sex with her husband was "her duty and to never refuse him sex". In other words, he was insuiating that the molestation was the somehow the wife's fault.

GRAND FORKS, B.C. — The owners of a now-closed bed and breakfast in southern B.C. must pay more than $4,000 for refusing a room to a homosexual couple.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has ordered Susan and Les Molnar to compensate Brian Thomas and Shaun Eadie for injury to dignity and self-respect after their reservation was cancelled at the Riverbend Bed and Breakfast in Grand Forks, about 500 kilometres east of Vancouver.
The Molnars admitted to accepting the reservation in June 2009, but cancelled it minutes later, after confirming Thomas and Eadie are gay.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/18/gay-couple-wins-b-c-human-rights-case-after-being-barred-by-christian-bb-owners/

 I am sitting here this am feeling a bit better and can focus on something other than my recovery from surgery and future concerns.

Then the thought hit me "Isn't there one bible text has been meaningful to you?". I thought of Jefferson approach of cutting out all the mumbo-jumbo and seeing what is left. A text here and there popped into my mind, but I knew they didn't even originate with the bible. One would expect there would be many, but the text is twisted around a bizarre fairy tale, which is at time cruel, so it is hard to separate the chaff from the wheat. Ah...a parable type reference, from Matt 3, two paragraphs, where Jesus tells the Pharisees and Sadducees God will burn them in the hells of fire. So for no reason I take so little from it. But I really want to find those "pearls of wisdom" that had some meaning in my years. John 3:16 obviously has no meaning. I fear that anything poetic or helpful will be too couched into the simple-minded story line. God good, man bad, God commits suicide to save man, man must believe or burn. Surely the "most important book in the world" would have great gems. 

We all know Shakespeare

  "Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry"

  "This above all: to think own self be true"

  "The course of true love never did run smooth"

Police: Naked man crashes truck into Dallas mall, tries on clothes, jailed on burglary charge
DALLAS — Police say a naked man crashed a pickup truck into a Dallas mall, then drove over a few kiosks before stopping to try on clothes.

Dallas police were called to the Southwest Center Mall around 7:30 a.m. Friday. Officers say the man was apparently covered only in a blanket when he drove his truck through the glass entrance doors, then crashed through several kiosks before driving into a Champs Sporting Goods store.

Once inside the store, police say he left his blanket in the truck and started putting on clothes and a pair of Air Jordan shoes.

No one was injured.A police statement identifies the man as 35-year-old Arthur Walker of Dallas. He’s jailed without bond on a burglary charge. Dallas County Jail records list no attorney for him.Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 

From Atheism to Theism.
Why?

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? A man feels wet when he falls into water, because man is not a water animal: a fish would not feel wet. Of course, I could have given up my idea of justice by saying that it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too--for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies. Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist--in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless--I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality--namely my idea of justice--was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.--C.S. Lewis

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, sorry.

I should start by saying that I'm 35, married to my best friend, and have 3 kids who are well-adjusted, well-behaved, and a joy to be around. I grew up in a household that was staunchly christian. We went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Since most of my family are musicians, we also played in the church band and went to practices on thursday that, more often than not, turned into prayer sessions.

I was bored my whole life. Church really isn't any fun. How many times do we need to hear that we're going to hell if we don't believe in god?

I asked questions from the time I was a little kid, and was always directed to THE BIBLE as the absolute end-all of answers. To make a long story short: I don't believe any of that, and I really never did. I've told my folks about my beliefs (or lack thereof) and while they weren't thrilled, they always sorta quietly accepted it. Until yesterday.

My oldest daughter had gotten into trouble for something dumb (not cleaning her room, so she got grounded for a day) and I called my father to ask his advice on one aspect of dealing with her. his IMMEDIATE response was "Well, FIRST of all, you need Jesus in your family. This whole business of you not raising them in the church is crap. They're OUR grandkids too, and we're going to teach them about God, whether you like it or not."

God loves the evil ones more than the good because he is the greatest sinner.
This love of sinners is the hinge pin on which his benevolent qualities depend and without evil and sin, God could never expressed his benevolence and we would never know of God’s mercy, forgiveness, compassion and all his other positive attributes. Love, like faith, can only be expressed by actions and for God to show his love of sinners and his other positive attributes, evil, sin and sinners must exist to receive this love.

Before the earth was formed, God planned to have Jesus sacrificed, murdered in fact, for those of us who are sinners. That is all of us. Jesus’ sacrifice was to be God’s example of the greatest evil and sin from the point of view of all who are wise. It shows our greatest loss and evil if we were to do as God did. Those of us who are evil without knowing good will try to profit from this greatest evil. We are to venerate life. Not take it or try to profit from its death. Though shalt not kill or try to profit from it.

As above so below.

The fact that God created evil and sin is a given. He created all that is to those who believe he exists. He decides what is evil or not and therefore sets this as our standard. It is a human standard. God is man.

This is something i often think about. I am not making a claim that this is 100% fact or this is how it should have been etc etc. Rather, i am merely throwing some thoughts out and trying to go through this logically.

Skeptics such as yourselves have been around since humanity began.

Meaning, skeptics were also around the time of Jesus and obviously after.

Here is the question. Why arent their any counter claims / writings at the time of Jesus or just after when the Gospels were written?

Think of this. At the time of Jesus and just after when the gospels were written, we saw a transformation of society based on these gospels. That is, the construction and establishment of Churches, persecution of Gospel followers, people devoting their lives to the gospel, ie, Priests , bishops etc etc....

So, if you are a skeptic at that time, society is changing, the world around you is changing. As a skeptic, wouldnt you go and INVESTIGATE the claims being made in the gospels epsecially considering you still had first hand access to many of the people where the claims are actually made to or their first generation after at the very least?

The first gospels were written approx 22 years after the crucifixion, therefore, many if not all of the people mentioned in the gospels, WERE STILL around, or most definitly there children....

In recent years a type of "pseudo cigarette" that utilizes water vapor instead of smoke has gained popularity. Users say that it gives all of the satisfaction of a real smoke with none of the harmful effects associated with cigarette smoking. Now, it would probably be impractical to think of the major tobacco companies marketing such a product in lieu of traditional cigs and other tobacco products as it would more than likely not be cost effective and would no doubt ruin the industry, but lets say for the sake of argument,it was possible. Let's say companies like Phillip Morris marketed a faux smoke and still raked in their profits. Let's say it replaced the cigarette, cigar and everything else and was virtually indistinguishable from the "real thing". Would smoking still be a sin? What if a "fake" and harmless cocaine could be manufactured and commercially marketed, that could give users the same buzz without the addiction and impairing side effects? Pseudo alcohol that tasted like the real thing, gave you a high that was just as good, but was completely safe? Would these things still be wrong?

I'd like to invite folks to check out a blog I have started that will include youtube video discussions. I invite you to make your comments at the site and I invite you to discuss here your views about subjects we raise there from week to week. I will gladly try to defend my views with you here at Rational Responders.

The site is http://www.truthiswhatmatters.com

Please respect our site in that I am not expecting the comments there to be rude or an attempt to bring our site to its knees. It's like inviting you to my house to invite you there. However feel free here to ask me to debate you in full about any topic I raise at my site. And feel free to put links back to this forum in your comments you make at my site.

I also invite Rook to give a review of this site as he did likewise in the past for my previous site which went down a year ago. www.bibledoor.com That site is up again but will eventually serve mostly as a site to sell books that I have authored.