My Thoughts And Questions About Religion - Religion (47) - Nairaland
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| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:31am On Aug 29, 2016 |
[b]AN ABSURDITY IN THE BIBLE Genesis 11:1-9 NKJV The bible contains many instances of absurdities but the Towel of Babel story is my personal favourite In the biblical account of it, it started abruptly as is usual with most of the Genesis stories, without any idea who was telling the story, no situation in time, and no context in which to place the events surrounding the story. If I say this is another written oral folklore now, some people will get annoyed. Anyway, moving on... Why this story always make me laugh is two fold. 1) It says that Humans of that era decided to build a tower that will reach Heaven using Bricks and Asphalt! Apparently, people of that era thought that Heaven was just up there in the clouds and that a building made of only bricks could reach it. LOL! 2) Even more ridiculous is the fact that God saw their efforts and instead of ROTHFL(Rolling On The Heaven Floor Laughing), He(?) actually became concerned and decided to “Come down and see.” Take a moment to digest that… God came down to see the city. And what did he do next? He now said “Come, let us go...(who’s Us?)” E sah, it apyars God was talking to other gods in verse 7 o! Anyway, They went down and confused the language of the people so that they wouldn't build a city reaching heaven. Oh well, I'm sure since then Humans have never attempted to go beyond the skies again. God wouldn't allow that.... Oh wait! Seriously though, as a historical account of anything, this story is all shades of ridiculous. An omnipotent god wouldn't be so ‘un-omnipotent’, petty and insecure that he would have to “Come down and see….” Eeeeish! Besides, if you try to put this story in a chronological context, you would see that in Chapter 10 of Genesis, there was already an account of people speaking different languages. This story then would not even make sense as an explanation for why humans have diverse languages. The only way this story can make sense is if it is admitted that it was just a copied folktale that was just inserted randomly into the bible and only serves to give an account of Jewish Traditions. This explanation fits in well because a variation of this story appears in the Jewish Tanakh and also in other ancient manuscripts of that era. Clearly, it was a folk story from the culture of that era much like the ones we have here of how the Tortoise broke his back.[/b] 7 Likes 4 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:45am On Aug 30, 2016 |
[b]MY FAVOURITE BOOK IN THE BIBLE Contrary to what many of you think, atheists and sceptics don't think the bible has nothing good about it. There are some good stuff intermixed with all the other horrible stuff. Personally, the book of Ecclesiastics is my favourite bible book. Pretty much all its 12 chapters are personal favourites of mine. I can hardly find anything to criticise about the book, except well, King Solomon didn't actually write it. Going by the bible's own genealogy, it was written long after Solomon must have died. This book reads like the contemplation of an ancient philosopher. Someone who doesn't believe in the afterlife and who believes that this life is the one, the only one. Sounds familiar? Hehe. It is also interesting to note that in the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures(Old Testament), there is virtually no mention of the afterlife. God's wrath was swift and immediate. You f**k up, you get murdered on the spot. No delay, no afterlife punishment. No wonder Jews right till this time in Palestine and everywhere in the world don't believe in Hellfire. It was gentle Jesus meek and mild that introduced the concept of an eternity of afterlife reward or punishment in the New Testament. Ironic, isn't it? Anyway, back to the good stuff. In the last 2 verses of the last chapter there was a passage that tries to make it about God, which in my opinion sounds much like an afterthought. It said: "13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil." Apart from this and the beginnings of the Book, this book gets an A+ from me.[/b] 4 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 1:30pm On Aug 31, 2016 |
[b]TOUCH NOT MY ANOINTED The problem with translating a text from one language to another is that some words and phrases can never have an equivalent word or phrase in the other language. Most of the time, we are left with the translators bias or understanding of what he is translating. Now imagine the bible which has been translated over and over again through many languages before it got to English. Imagine the time span and the fact that some phrases which may make sense in a specific time and culture will not make sense in another time and therefore the translators will have no idea how to make it make sense in their time etc etc. There is also the context of politics too. Compilers and translators may have an agenda to promote and this certainly showed in the compilation of the New Testament.... Well, I'll just focus on CONTEXT right now and I will pick one example Touch not mine Anointed. This is the favourite phrase for Pastors who want to stifle criticism and their followers always deploy it with great effect. But, is this a case of taking a verse out of context? Let us see what the bible passage says...
As can be seen clearly from the beginning of the Chapter, this verse is about Israel as a Nation and NOT about any individual person. The Psalmist here was praising Yahweh for keeping the Nation of Israel safe as per the covenant he made with the forefathers of the Israelites. Now this phrase has been taken out of context to suit the bias of shady pastors who want to stifle any criticism of their actions and words, and trust their followers to repeat after them like demented parrots. When religious people say that sceptics like to take passages of the bible out of context, I usually laugh because even they, most of time, have no idea what the right context of what they parrot is supposed to be. LOL![/b] 6 Likes 3 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 2:39pm On Aug 31, 2016 |
An atheist worth $53Billion who is from a foreign country walked the streets of Lagos without armed bodyguards, but your Pastors who bathe and drink "blood" of Jesus, Yahweh, Peter and Paul daily, cant walk 3 streets in their own nation without mobile Police with guns and koboko as escorts. 14 Likes 4 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:25am On Sep 01, 2016 |
[b]THERE IS TETRAGRAMMATON OH! According to a Jewish tradition, the Jewish/Christian god’s divine name, the Tetragrammaton can be written but is too holy to be vocalized. Consequently, over the centuries, various substitutes mainly from the Hebrew orthography known as Niqqud (a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels) were used to replace the divine name wherever יְהֹוָה appears in text form. Noted for coining a number of those replacement names were the Masoretes, a group of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked between the 6th and 10th centuries. The fear of vocalizing Tetragrammaton led to the Masoretes substituting the name with the now often used YHWH, (Yahweh), Adonai (“Lord” or “My Lord”) and Elohim (now define as "God"  . The Masoretes subsequently inserted the Hebrew vowel points of Adonai to the Tetragrammaton, and the resulting form was transliterated (essentially a Latinization) around the 12th century as “Yehowah” and popularized as “Jehovah” in William Tyndale’s translation of the bible. Though the etymology of the word “God” is largely disputed, some ascribe it to ancient Teutonic pagan origin, however legend has it that Tyndale sought a word that captures the ruler of a vast expanse of land, the closest English equivalent being “Lord”…thus he coined “God” as a corruption of ‘Lord”. It is said that Tyndale’s work was probably made easier because, he was “so skilled in eight languages – Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, English, and German, that whichever he speaks, you might think it his native tongue!” Though this skill was sufficient to help in the translation, it was the advent of Gutenberg’s movable-type press that made printing of several copies of the newly translated bible possible. Of course, the Church considered Tyndale’s actions heretical and for his efforts, his translation of the bible (which has since become the root of all translations and to which we owe a number of English words) was banned on the orders of King Henry VIII and the Anglican Church. Tyndale was subsequently tried for heresy and treason, convicted, and on October 6, 1536 strangled and burnt at the stake in the prison yard. Thank Tetragrammaton for William Tyndale. There is Tetragrammaton oh![/b] 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by visita: 5:11pm On Sep 01, 2016 |
lol @ demented parrot, that cracked me up real bad. 1 Like |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by frank317: 9:50pm On Sep 01, 2016 |
Great thread... Addicted to it 3 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by ramonchang(m): 2:18pm On Sep 02, 2016 |
I see religion (and consequently “God”) as mans invention probably so that man will be able to move the burden of blame of his failure from himself. I came to this conclusion because virtually alltribes on the earth have one or more religion (and consequently gods/Gods). Why?? Why ll all peaple on earth want a being that they havent seen to exist….its because they all av one basic feature -they dont want to take blames they dont want to be responsible for their failures But unfortunately…religion (and consequebtly God/gods) has ended up creating more problems for us leaving the problem it was createc to solve unsolved!! |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 4:24pm On Sep 02, 2016 |
frank317:Thanks boss. |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 4:27pm On Sep 02, 2016 |
ramonchang:I think a more fundamental reason is the need to know. All tribes start off as being primitive in nature and therefore do not have a good knowledge of their natural environment. Their inability to explain some phenomena led them into the god-of-the-gap fallacy. |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by ramonchang(m): 7:01pm On Sep 02, 2016 |
yh...i think i agree with that. if the abrhamic religions are exempted.something tells me the sole purpose of their formulation was to establish slavery ,extortion(on a large scale) dictatorship( ie islam) etc etc...thats just my thought no harm intennded |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:33am On Sep 05, 2016 |
[b]"When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me-it still sometimes happens-and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous-not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance. . . .That pure chance could be so generous and so kind. . . .That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. . . .That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it’s much more meaningful. . . .The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful." ~Ann Druyan, wife of Carl Sagan[/b] 6 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:01am On Sep 06, 2016 |
NO GOD, NO PURPOSE? Christians often ask me what is the purpose of my life without God. If I was made for a purpose, it was because my parents wanted a child to nurture (or maybe they just wanted sex--I don't know, I never asked). Beyond that, I was not conceived for a purpose. But that doesn't mean I have no purpose in my life. I have made my own purposes--many of them. Perhaps, too many of them. Now my life is so packed, I barely have time to sleep. Just too many things to do. But, if you think you were created to glorify a fictional god, YOU really have no purpose at all. PS You may be convinced that your god is real but gods remain fictional unless proven otherwise. So right now, your god should be considered fiction--just like all the others. 4 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 2:04pm On Sep 06, 2016 |
ON MOTHER THERESA AND SAINTHOOD. The Catholic Church decides who qualifies as a saint. I don't care much for the Catholic church. I think they are as bad, if not worse, than other religious bodies. Ergo, if they like they can make Hitler a saint. Not my business. 3 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 2:21pm On Sep 06, 2016 |
[b]WHY STOP US? I was skimming a thread earlier about Azuka's article with the title, "What If Zuckerberg Were A Nigerian Atheist?". On the thread a comment was made along the lines of Nigerian Atheists being very rude, proud and condescending to people. It commanded one of the highest 'likes' on the thread so we can assume that alot of religionists agree with that submission. Several apologists, led these days by a certain winner01, regularly say that Atheists are hateful and lack common sense. That's all well and good. But can we at least all come to an agreement that online arguments with freethinkers do not pose a grave threat to anyone? The worst that happens is that people get butthurt or feel insulted when the beliefs and values they hold sacred have been subjected to ridicule. Besides, if anyone is overly concerned with the presence of argumentative anti religionists, they are at liberty to unfollow the thread on nairaland, to use the block option on twitter and I am aware that some people get Facebook to pull down the accounts of those they do not agree with. The consensus argument should be that though religion may be helpful in the lives of a great many people, it is responsible for an ordinate amount of ills in our society and must be subjected to criticism. Our newspapers are inundated with stories of Christian pastors sexually molesting underage children, and Muslim fanatics lynching people for imaginary offences. Yet many believe that the extremists are those trying to stem the tide of intolerance and violence by advocating reason and rational thinking on social network platforms. The con artists and crooks who have found the perfect cover in religion for their unscrupulous activities, will naturally go into extinction from the moment we all realize that "touch not my anointed" as originally intended, should work to our benefit rather than make lords and masters of a privileged minority.[/b] 5 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by kingkaspa: 12:23pm On Sep 07, 2016 |
Finally i am here, i have read all posts and comments from page 0 to this page. You are doing a wonderful work Joseph1013. I believe it is just a matter of time, it may take a 100 or a thousand years the monotheistic religions will be a thing of the past. 1 Like |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Ubenedictus(m): 10:07pm On Sep 07, 2016 |
joseph1013:What is d point here? or is this simply a 'we hate catholics' thing. |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:48am On Sep 08, 2016 |
Ubenedictus: [b]The Catholic church is one of the most dangerous organizations in the world. Because of its great political influence, it often gets away with heinous crimes. Here are but a few: - Excommunicating doctors and nuns for saving lives. In 2009, a 27-year-old mom, pregnant with her fifth child, was rushed to a Phoenix hospital, St. Josephs, where her doctors said she would almost certainly die unless her pregnancy was aborted immediately. The nun in charge approved the emergency procedure, and the woman survived. The local bishop promptly excommunicated the nun. "There are some situations where the mother may in fact die along with her child. But — and this is the Catholic perspective — you can't do evil to bring about good. The end does not justify the means," said Rev. John Ehrich, the medical ethics director for the Diocese of Phoenix. - Protecting even non-Catholic sex-offenders against child victims. In New York, a bill that would give child molestation victims more time to file charges has been blocked seven times by the Catholic hierarchy led by none other than Cardinal Dolan. Why? "We feel this is terribly unjust, we feel it singles out the church, and it would be devastating for the life of the church.” In other words, regardless of whether the abuse really happened or what the consequences were for victims, what matters is how much additional lawsuits might cost the Church. - Using churches to organize gay haters. When the Washington State legislature approved marriage equality, Archbishop Peter Sartain jumped to the front of the pack, decreeing that Western Washington parishes under his "moral authority" should gather signatures for an anti-equality initiative. - Lying about contraceptives to poor Africans. Of all the mortal sins committed by the men of the cloth, the most devastatingly lethal in the last 30 years has been the Catholic hierarchy’s outspoken opposition to condom use in Africa. In 2003, the president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family publicly lied about the efficacy of condoms in preventing both pregnancy and HIV: “The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom.” The archbishop of Nairobi told people that condoms were spreading HIV. Some priests told parishioners that condoms were impregnated with the virus. So, do you think this is just a 'we hate catholics' thing?[/b] 2 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:50am On Sep 08, 2016 |
kingkaspa: Good to have you, bro. One day at a time, we keep hope alive. 1 Like |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:39am On Sep 09, 2016 |
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS I am the LORD thy God, your daddy G.O and anointed pastor! 1. Thou shalt have no other gods, except daddy G.O. 2. Do not keep no graven images or likenesses, except of Jesus, Mary, Yahweh and the Saints. 3. Do not take your pastor's name in vain. 4. Remember the sabbath day, but forget other days. 5. Honour thy father and thy mother, and to thy pastor, give thy first fruit. 6. Thou shalt not kill, unless they're gay or blasphemers. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery, except in secret. 8. Thou shall not steal, unless from the public treasury. 9. Thou shalt not bear good witness for thy neighbour, except they are of same tribe as thee. 10. Thou shalt not covet your neighbour's wife, for it is their property. I repeat, IT IS THEIR PROPERTY!!! 7 Likes 3 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Immorttal: 8:36am On Sep 09, 2016 |
joseph1013:the bible is one book that tries to answer ALL questions but failed woefully. Ranging from creation, language,rainbow,races,afterlife, etc 4 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 12:39pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
As a parent, you envy the parent of Albert Einstein, you wish your child could be the next Isaac Newton, you have this strong belief in you that your child is the next Michael Faraday or the next Archimedes but your child is registered in a school where children are taught with the fear of God, where the best student is mostly the student that recites the longest chapters of Psalms and knows more Bible verses than others, where the best student is the student with the best knowledge of Qur'an. Go home parent, you're drunk. Your child is training to become an evangelist 7 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by PastorAIO: 1:30pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
joseph1013: The child is training to become a drunkard and an emotional wreck. 1 Like |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 3:07pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
joseph1013:i know who you are now ,,,naemeka agah on fb no lie oh ,,,,,,,,,nice post though |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Zellie: 3:07pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
Nice. Following |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by visita: 6:25pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
stephenmorris:you're wrong |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 6:59pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:00pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 9:19pm On Sep 09, 2016 |
joseph1013:why you dey laugh |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 2:41am On Sep 10, 2016 |
[b] RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 101 One of the first things I hope to teach my children is the concept of religious freedom. I want them to know that they can choose any religion they want after being exposed to the teachings of many religions. It's disheartening that a lot of adults have no idea what the concept is, and it's so evident in daily conversations with them. What Religious Freedom means... 1) You have the right to believe in and worship anything, for example a stone. I have the right not to believe in and/or worship anything. 2) You have the right to imagine that the Stone you worship is all powerful and performs amazing feats. I have the right to think that what you worship is just, well, a stone. 3) You have the right to attempt telling me about your amazing Stone. I have the right to tell you to f**k off! ---------------------- What Religious Freedom doesn’t mean... 1) You do not have the right to insist that whatever your Stone tells you to do applies to someone else other than you. In other words, keep your religion to yourself and don't constitute a nuisance to others with it. 2) You can think that your Stone is the best thing since Jollof Rice but you can't expect everyone else to think so. Therefore, it is not acceptable to harm or threaten to harm people who don't think your Stone is nothing more than a stone. In other words, criticism of any form is not an excuse to harm people. You don't have to like me. I don't have to like you. You just need to recognise that we can exist in a society where you don't force your beliefs on others. We can exist in a pluralistic and multi-religious society without trying to kill each other over whose Stone should dictate how everyone should behave. That's religious liberty 101. [/b] 5 Likes 3 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Zellie: 8:56am On Sep 10, 2016 |
Saw this somewhere The following is an actual question given on a University of Liverpool chemistry final exam. 4 Likes 4 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:21am On Sep 10, 2016 |
^^^DAMN!  |
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