Pete

It's funny but if the OT God was a human and went about saying kill without remorse or compassion or empathy, he would be labelled a psychopath. To insist that someone had to die for each transgression and have his son die for that reason then they have a severe personality disorder. Yet, when they say they are God then all this is overlooked. I don't get it. They worship a psychopath and someone with severe personality problems. Yet, I just think people wanted to have law in a deeply religious population and what better way to control them by saying God said it.

When I was a child of two, I had poliomylites. It left me with some paralysis. The church said the reason I was still paralyzed in some muscles is because my parents did not believe strongly enough. It mattered little that the minister could not heal me either. Madness.

Socrates was poisoned. So was Arius. He argued Jesus was a man filled with the spirit rather than a God. The early church banned him and then invited him back and poisoned him.

Sorry but, I hadn't become aware that every topic had devolved into a political diatribe. Can you show examples of this in this section.?

It's funny but it is not only religion that will fight fact. I studied NLP and hypnotherapy and there is this thing called self limiting beliefs. This is having a belief about ones limitations and holds one back from progress. I remember someone who also studied it, ask me why I had not cured someone with severe dementia using psychotherapuetic NLP. I pointed out that no one has found a psychotherapy that puts back the brain cells they had lost from dementia and without that psychotherapy could not help. Memories were often fleeting and remembering that they had seen me a few moments before had been forgotten. It is totally tragic. With that, my fellow student became cross and said it was my self limiting beliefs that was at fault. He just could not see the limitation that a reality check would bring that was beyond the psychotherapy. He wanted to believe he had the answer to everything and for him it was as a religion. i found this insistence in a number of approaches that people had got excited about. You must believe something to make it real and happen. My usual approach was to say you can believe you can fly all you want but I still don't recommend jumping off high buildings. Some reality checks can be fatal if not painful.

It matters little whether divorse is allowed or not now. These are the laws instructed by your god and are used to judge sin. The idea of refusing to believe crushing a woman's skull with rocks is ever justified as righteous has nothing to do with pacifism. Not everyone who is against such vicious punishments is a pacifist. This is just Dan justifying the unjustifiable again.

God's law was to stone women who we're not virgins on their wedding night. I don't care if she had even committed adultery, stoning is a sick rule by a sick god.

I remember you justifying wives who were not virgins on their wedding night being stoned.

I can understand that. Feeling apathetic to the idea of a God or indifference is very close.

That should be =Jonathan did not say that no Christian was ethical and caring. Just no more than other people who do not profess spiritual guidance.

Key, Jonathan did not say no Christian ethical and caring. Just no more than anyone else.

The creation narrative in Genesis divdes it into days, but a day is formed by.the earths rotation in relation to the sun, as it is on all the planets. Yet, the sun was not created till the forth day. Night and day light was created without the sun. Plants and fruits grew before the sun was formed, so I guess photosynthesis was out. It goes on. Some wisdom. Oh! and of course evolution is out and yet early humanoids had differences both physically and genetically. The earth was around billions of years (4.54) and humanoids in various forms only about 2 million. The idea that the earth and the vastness of space was built for us is ludicrous. Known space is about 13 billion light years across and the miniscule earth only has significance to us because we live and grew here.Genesis makes no sense. How much of space we don't know of, who can say. The idea the stars are there to light the night is also daft as many of them are not even visable to the naked eye.

I deliberately avoided that qoute, but yes it makes no sense.

The night sky without light pollution is magnificent. The sheer scale of it all

Some of our churches go back to the 11 century and took years of labour to build. Many of the artisans who crafted the stone and timbers were pagan. Which you can gather from the ornamentation on the outside of the building. Their labour and the use by the community echoes of bygone years. I find it a good place for meditation. Not on the religion but the peace. I also used to like mountain and hill tops when I was younger and fitter.Even sitting in a wood is inspiring. It's not religion. It is finding that balance in life.

Exactly. Nature has its wonders.

I get a feeling of peace being in the countryside or even places of worship. It's not worship but I feel a link with the generations before me. I also get a lift helping some of the needy but also a drop knowing I cannot stop their need or cure it for everyone. Life is hard for so many people.

The dictionary describes spirituality as:- noun the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things. "the shift in priorities allows us to embrace our spirituality in a more profound way How would members describe it for themselves in a none religious sense?

Happy new year to you too. 😀✌

I could answer the Jews who wrote the OT know the real meaning and it was not to forecast Jesus over 800 years later. Still if I do Dan will be back preaching again. Oh! Well I let it ride.

No I assert that your peddling religion in a no religion section. Can you talk about something that is not your view of your religion and your faith . Fulfilled nothing. The story of Jesus is choriographed to fit the verses. Verses whose original meaning had nothing to do with Jesus. Yet, I know you believe this stuff but your still talking religion in a no religion section.

True, but I am not asking people to accept any of them as a god and circumventulate their reason based on someone else's unsupported belief structure. Even if they were written approximately two thousand years ago.

Also Dan talks about Jesus personified love and therefore I should listen. Even on a basic , I have to say whom am I listening too. I don't know if god or Jesus existed and the story line was not just made up by his followers. I see no book written directly by any god in the bible. Nearly all is written by people who were not there or never met Jesus or god. You yourself are prepared to assert things as fact that you have not seen or experienced in other than emotional substance. How am I not to believe that there was not people back then who did not do the same, but this did not stop them writing stuff in your book. It was this blind assertions that convinced me Christianity does not know what it is talking about and if any of this is true. That is why I am an agnostic and your not.

Taken from each others perspective. We both feel that the other believes in nothing. I personally dont believe in religion but I dont believe in nothing. I believe in doing my best for humanity. You may dress your beliefs up in a god or religion but your beliefs are just beliefs founded on nothing of substance.

I am not looking for meaning or religion. You play around with the bible as you want but I am not interested. Life's meaning for me is what I make of it. I am not trying to impose religion upon it. That is your thing.