My Thoughts And Questions About Religion - Religion (60) - Nairaland
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Religion / My Thoughts And Questions About Religion (230865 Views)
Questions About Religion For The Deep Thinker / Why Are Atheists Always Talking About Religion / Questions About Demon Possession - Nairaland Demonology Experts (2) (3) (4)
(1) (2) (3) ... (57) (58) (59) (60) (61) (62) (63) ... (130) (Reply) (Go Down)
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by BlueAngel444: 4:39pm On Aug 17, 2017 |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 5:09pm On Aug 18, 2017 |
Matthews 4:8 "Again, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him ALL THE KINGDOMS of the world and their splendor." FAIL! The earth is SPHERICAL, there's no where you can stay to see all the kingdoms of the world no matter how high the point is. This is another concrete evidence that the bible knows nothing about our earth. 6 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Elparaiso(m): 1:08am On Aug 19, 2017 |
joseph1013: Luke 4:5 too. I also checked to see if there was any English Bible that omits the word "all". There isn't. Isaiah 11:12 states: “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” The New International Version uses the phrase “four quarters of the earth” though the more correct translation is “four corners of the earth” which strongly alludes to a flat shape. After all, a round object does not have “corners”. Since there are four corners, the allusion is to a flat shape like a square or rectangle. http://quranandbible..com/2014/03/science-in-bible-and-quran.html? |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 9:38am On Aug 19, 2017 |
Elparaiso:  |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 6:35pm On Aug 22, 2017 |
HOW MUSLIM PARADISE COULD BE HELL What if you are a male Muslim who finds virgins unappealing? Or who likes feisty women who won't be told what to do? Or who likes older, well-read women with their own opinions? Being lumbered with a tent full of young, innocent, subservient virgins could turn eternity in paradise into an unending hell. Or do all male Muslims yearn for copious supplies of young, innocent, subservient virgins? 1 Like |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 3:31pm On Aug 23, 2017 |
WHAT ISLAMIC PARADISE TELLS US ABOUT ISLAM A close look at Islamic Paradise reveals much about the religion. Islamic Paradise was designed to appeal to poor, sexually frustrated men living in the harsh conditions of Arabia--sweltering heat, limited choice of food and scarce water, sometimes with only a tent to live in. Paradise offers these men the things they would have dreamed about. Unlimited sex: A man has his own harem of ever-willing, dark-eyed virgins (72 of them according to Muhammad in Hadith Al-Tirmidhi). The girls will be under lock and key so no other man can have them. There is no harem of virile young men for the wives but the wives do have servants. The number of servants is unclear but could be up to 80,000 (also according to Al-Tirmidhi). The husband is entitled to have sex with any of the servants too and is promised an erection that will never subside. And, if all this exertion should made him sweat, his sweat will smell like perfume. Unlimited, delicious food: Paradise will have rivers of water, milk and honey. There will be gardens with plentiful fruits, especially the delicious and scarce dates and figs. There will be sumptuous banquets where every dish will have a new taste. It will be possible to drink unlimited quantities of wine without becoming intoxicated. Tranquil environment: Residents in Paradise will live in huge palaces made from gold, silver and pearls with lofty gardens, scented fountains and cool, shady valleys. Mountains will be made of musk and valleys of pearl and ruby. Great riches: Everyone will have luxurious robes, precious jewelry and exquisite perfumes. People will lay on couches embedded with precious stones and gold and will eat from priceless vessels. Quite apart from the practicality of these promises, does anyone really think this is what humans need to be happy? Islamic Paradise sounds more like hell to me. We have learned a lot over the past 1,400 years about what really makes people happy--and it's not over-eating and over-indulging in sex. It is not even great wealth (indeed, the concept of being wealthy is meaningless when everyone has the same). Being guaranteed the essentials of life is important. But this does not make people happy, it only removes anxiety, fear and misery. People become happy when they feel valued, respected and loved; when they feel they are treated fairly, live with people they respect and trust and when they are able to contribute something to others. People need a foundational stability but with entertainment, diversion and novelty. People love to learn and develop, to set goals and achieve them. We love to make things with our hands, create things with our minds and solve problems. Islamic Paradise reflects its origins. It was designed to appeal to people who lacked the essentials of life and it worked from the premise that giving people an abundance of the things they lacked would make them happy. But it doesn't. We now know that a man with more than enough money is not necessarily happier than a man with enough money. The Islamic afterlife project is fundamentally flawed which shows it to be a crude carrot-and-stick mechanism to encourage the faithful to behave as the authors of the religion wanted. And nothing more. 9 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 7:13pm On Aug 23, 2017 |
ooman:You're one reason I know God exist. Smiles. |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 7:23pm On Aug 23, 2017 |
aaronson:Bravo! ... and I laugh at those who Call themselves free thinkers. What is free about the thoughts Walk into a real herbalist shrine to explain theories if he will not turn you to an object or animal. Let's consider other possibilities. There's magic,witchcraft, which we cant ecplain with real powers and we're here disapprovingly God. hahahhah We will all admit sooner or later. Peace 1 Like |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 7:26pm On Aug 23, 2017 |
ooman:You really think you're an atheist. lol. No one is. you will understand what you are soon. |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 1:14pm On Aug 24, 2017 |
TRUE AND FALSE Has anyone else noticed how Muslims deny the authenticity of Hadiths when they are ridiculous or embarrassing but assert them to be the actual words of the Prophet when they are not. It seems Hadiths have the extraordinary property that they are true if you agree with them but false if you do not. 2 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 1:56pm On Aug 25, 2017 |
THE BELIEVER'S NIGHTMARE There is one thing every god-believer knows but will not admit. You can look at 4,000 gods and be completely confident that they were all invented by men. But the 4,001st god is different--this one you are convinced is real. Why? Is there evidence for this last god but not for the others? No. There is no evidence that any of these gods exist. Is this last god free from the fantasy stories associated with fake gods? Things like creating the universe in a magical way (a way that is always contradicted by evidence), being born of a virgin, performing miracles or dying and being resurrected? No. So what does uniquely distinguish the god you believe is real god from the 4,000 fakes? Only one thing--your mum or your dad believed it was real too. But you know, you really do know, the fact your parents and your grandparents and your great grandparents believed in this god is not evidence that it exists, it is evidence that it is the god of the culture you happen to have been born into. It is a reason to doubt your god, not to embrace it. 3 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 11:30am On Aug 26, 2017 |
CHATTING WITH GOD "I don't want to reveal myself to people, so I hide from them. I'm really good at that." "But you want people to believe you exist?" "Yes. I just want them to believe on faith that I exist." "But, if people have to rely on faith, they might believe in a different god in error--it becomes a lottery doesn't it?" "True. But if they believe in a different god, I'll torture them in an inhuman way. I'm good at that too." "Are you saying they should believe in you because you threaten to torture them?" "No. They should believe in me because they love me." "You're f**king insane." "I suppose so, hehehe hehehe! Please can I be your friend?" 8 Likes 3 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 1:44pm On Aug 28, 2017 |
PROVING GOD EXISTS It's pretty obvious God has a problem convincing people he's real but I have an idea he may not have thought of. He should have made 25 December a special day and made sure no babies were EVER born on that day, except one--his son. That would have shown there is something very special about Jesus. How would Muslims, Jews, Hindus and atheists have explained that? As it is, around 20 million living people were born on that day as were a clutch of human gods, such as Horus, Osiris, Attis, Mithra, Heracles, Dionysus, Tammuz and Adonis. It's almost as though, far from making Jesus unique, God made him look exactly like all the fake gods. Pity. What a missed opportunity. 7 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:54am On Aug 29, 2017 |
IT'S ALL IN THE TIMING It's such a pity Jesus was born so long ago. If he had been born in the 21st century, there would be no doubt about the truth of his claims. A gynecologist could verify his mother was a virgin, an astronomer could track the star in the East, TV crews could interview the wise men, scientists could verify his miracles, a team of doctors could sign his death certificate and verify his resurrection, and his ascension would be captured on video by hundreds of smartphones. Jesus could have worn a GoPro Headcam to the crucifixion, last supper and all his other big events, streaming everything live to the Internet. I suppose that's why he appeared when he did. In those days, all you needed was a good story-teller and a gullible audience, and there were plenty of them about. 11 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 1:38pm On Aug 29, 2017 |
Osula Daniel Enahoro Narrates: Do you know my biological father is a chartered accountant? I didn't grow up and wasn't raised by him well enough to be detailed about what he's all about. But the man is a math genius. My mum has a TCII, BSc. (Delsu), MSc (U.I). No idea the courses she studied. But do you know religion and superstitious belief ruined their union, altered the original plans and have shattered the destinies of my siblings and I? Well; I pay a little too much attention, and even now holding conversations with them both, I've gotten to know more personal stuffs that I was too young to know back then. Dad landed a job for then Peugeot and was doing well for himself. He built his first house in the village in 1986 and his house in Ejigbo Lagos, in 1992, a year after my birth. In 1993, he landed a freelance contract for a company in Delta State and had to travel from Lagos. He had an accident along Ibadan expressway where a boy was killed. The whole occurrence cost him both the contract and his job. Somehow, he got a job a lot sooner with Longman publishing company and seemed to be on his feet in no time. We were still living at Maryland then, but his job with Longman seemed to fetch him good money and he was continuing his house at Ejigbo at the same time he bought his first car. The year was 94'. By 96', he had managed to buy two more cars and gave my mum one with a driver he paid. Mum was a full time housewife then. Later she began complaining of being idle and they started a CHALEX foundation, coined from their names; Charity and Alex. All was fine until 97' when my elder sister, now late, fell terribly ill. Her sickness defied all medications and for the two years before she died, her medical bills mopped up finances and even had huge debts piling up. All along, we had been devout catholics until my siblings later joined RCCG. But it seemed these churches were too gentle for my mum as she sort urgent spiritual revolution. Her prayer constantly was her not burying any other kids of hers. Then she found MFM. And this is how trouble that was mild escalated terribly. The pastor in the Ejigbo branch told her my father was a ritualist and he had used my elder sister to renew his pledge. That his loss of job was as a result of non renewal. He further went on to say the coconut tree in my father's compound was evil and we shouldn't eat from it anymore. This is coconut we had been eating from since we moved in. Meanwhile, my father was seeking his own spiritual assistance in white garment churches and they saw vision for him. They said 5 of his 7 kids alongside my mum, were witches sent to destroy him as he was the only well to do from his family. That is how an MSc and an ICAN holder began ridiculing themselves in front of their kids for months until the final divorce and separation. Religious leaders manipulated two adults who had spent years in school so much they hated each other. Now my siblings and I were torn apart. It was now a tale of who was more convincing in their story. I only narrated the lines that corroborated. The fight against religious indoctrination and brainwashing is a personal fight for me. It is an experience with my shattered family that still haunts me until tomorrow. It is the fear that I'm surrounded by a lot of people who albeit their certificates and level of exposure are easily fooled and brainwashed by these vision seers, prophets and prophetess of doom, paedophile priest, fundamentalist Jehovah witnesses and so on. I am scared. I am worried. If my father and mother after nearly 20 years of marriage with 8 issues can become worst enemies under the influence of religious and superstitious beliefs, how much more people who aren't related to me? You may think rationality is being applied with faith these days, but I tell you, tales like people getting worked up over Tasha Cobbs doing a song with Nicki Minaj is how this sickness starts. Then it escalates to pastors giving their congregation rat poison to drink, burning them to death, extorting them with seeds of faith and pastor's offering, to judging their decisions and actions. And the shocking thing is; THEY OBEY WITHOUT ASKING QUESTIONS. THEY AREN'T FORCED. THEY WILLINGLY SUBMIT THEMSELVES TO THESE DEHUMANIZING TORTURE. Adults are the ones with lord's chosen armour rolling all over muddy waters with megaphones claiming to be going radical for jesus. Think for a second what such person is capable of should Lazarus Mouka ask him to torch down his house because witches are holding meeting on the roof, and you happen to be a co-tenant? You may think people are becoming rational until a pastor mounts a pulpit and present responsibility as a marriage thing saying when you have a wife is only when you can be responsible, and at 35 or 37, being single makes you useless. And so you're pressured by these sermons to get into what you're not mentally, financially and emotionally prepared for and mess up kids lives on the long run. Birth kids to poverty, starvation and hunger. Where would your pastor be then? How is the church helping men and women from 30 and 35 get employed and raise families? Your pastors are divorcing, priests are giving relationship and sex advice. What they claim never to engage in. This is how we end up with so much mind chains that we can't freely express ourselves and human desires. Religious leaders demonize sex and make it an abomination until we catch priests in the inbox of our girlfriends begging them for sex. Until an Otobo comes out open about your pastor licking plate and you still defend with the 'touch not my anointed' BS. How many priests and Reverend fathers have been caught with underaged boys and girls? They'll demonize everything to make you fit into their tiny mind controlling box. They said high heels are demonic. They said human hair is evil. They said make up is Antichrist. So their wives come out looking like a blown up balloon in heavy shoulder padded skirt suits while they run after little girls with Brazilian hair high heels and miniskirts. What social impact has religion made other than tear people apart with segregation and condemnation? The catholics don't like Protestants. Deeper Life's sunday sermon is an indirect attack on christ embassy's lifestyle. RCCG think winners are overdoing it. MFM says Lord Chosen don't serve the real god. Ordinary campus fellowship canvas for new members like political campaign. JW is in an entirely different league. Heard the other day of a JW who lost her life because of blood transfusion. YET YOU ALL PREACH THE BIBLE. Now I tell you, the scarier thing is to think all is well until it happens to you. To grow fond of, fall in love with, build a family, start a business, make plans with a religious person whose pastor can call one day, sit him or her down, have a talk with them and see them bailout on all the plans you have made together. People have called wedding off after years of courting because the pastor didn't like the man or woman or they didn't worship in their church. Contracts, admissions, business proposal and the likes have been retracted for faith and belief differences. So people are left shattered, desperate, broken, not good enough, hurt, lonely, broke, hungry, jobless because of your sick faith. Because you found claim to have found Christ on your wedding eve and he ministered to you that your spouse isn't the right person for you after years. How do you think it isn't worrisome to be around folks who believe Isaac should have been killed for test of faith? People who can actually ridicule their mothers, Aunties and relatives because the pastor saw a vision and tagged them witches. Olu Bunmi had been running a series for DV and rape victims and people had been supporting sharing their stories and commenting their thoughts, well wishes, prayers and goodwill messages. Until when she put out a post about Oyedepo, hell was let lose on her wall. Religion sapped away every iota of common sense in most women on that thread as they took defence for their spiritual papa. I am scared for my society. Scared of my environment and the kind of people I'm surrounded by. I am scared I have lost and is bound to keep losing people who matter to me because of religious ignorance and overzealousness. I am scared I'll get hurt by people's insecurities and harms that would make them blame the devil, read psalm 21 and walk free. I am scared that notorious criminals and psychopaths use churches as rehabilitation centers by answering altar calls and making confessions that should ordinarily land them in jail to serve a life term, but would be anointed and become a pastor while his victims lie in the dirt. That people still give ill gotten monies to church and are glorified. That testimonies are coined from the inspirations of your fellow man's woes. I am scared there are still doctors, lawyers, professors and the likes who still believe faith in god is the solution to all these ills and unless the lord builds the house, the builders build in vain. Worse, I fear that this message will be read, not processed, not regurgitated, but pass through your eyes and mind with the glaring truth nearly blinding you, but deep rooted indoctrination won't allow you think for yourself. I fear for reasons too numerous to mention. 17 Likes 11 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 11:28am On Aug 31, 2017 |
WHEN THE PARTY'S OVER You're at a party. Enjoying the music, chatting with friends, eating and drinking. Life is good. But from time-to-time your mind may drift. How will you get home? Are the children safe with the new baby sitter? Have you got enough food at home for tomorrow? How will you cope with the project that starts on Monday? So far as we know only humans can do this--divorce themselves from the immediate and contemplate the future. This talent has enabled us to create great things: beautiful art, wonderful buildings, fantastically complex machines and much more. But it has also allowed us all to understand the party will end, and wonder what will come afterwards. The earliest indication that humans were thinking about this comes from chattels placed in graves around 100,000 years ago. From 4,600 years ago, the Egyptians created massive pyramids to keep their kings and queens preserved for their future life. The idea of reincarnation (the spirit continuing after death in a new human, animal or insect body) probably originated in the Indus River Valley at least 4,000 years ago. Reincarnation is a part of Hinduism and several other religions. There is evidence that afterlife beliefs were many, varied and widespread. More recently, Judaism included an afterlife from 3,000 or so years ago and Christianity enhanced and extended the idea from 2,000 years ago. Given the early roots of afterlife beliefs, their variety and our inability, even with sophisticated modern instruments, to show that any part of us survives death, these beliefs look like forlorn hopes rather than knowledge. Hopes that arose because we evolved the ability to envisage the disagreeable fact that we all have to leave the party. Even today, the majority of people on Earth believe in some form of afterlife, despite the complete lack of evidence that it is true. As is often the case, Christopher Hitchens said it best. A few weeks before he died on 15 December 2011 he said, "It will happen to all of us, that at some point you'll be tapped on the shoulder and told, not just that the party is over, but slightly worse: the party's going on but you have to leave." .... PS As far as I can discover, Hitchens last words were not recorded but he did not convert on his death bed. Indeed among his last written words was this perfect gem, "If I convert it’s because it’s better that a believer dies than an atheist does." Loved that man...a most incredible man! 14 Likes 8 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 6:49am On Sep 01, 2017 |
THANK YOU, BUT I'M NOT INTERESTED If there is eternal life and you sign up for it, you've signed a contract with no termination clause. No matter what happens to you, there is no way out. You can't change your mind. You will be trapped and there's no way to escape, ever. And this contract has no specifics--just vague promises. Will you have to work? Could your employer's business fail so you have to be let go? Could you find yourself unemployed and, if so, will there be unemployment benefits? Could you become redundant? If you see how technology has changed our planet in 100 years, imagine what could happen in a thousand or a billion years. If you were not able to get a good education on Earth, could you wind up cleaning toilets, disposing of rubbish or picking fruit? If not, who will do these jobs? If you don't have to work; if all goods and services will be produced by some kind of heavenly magic, how will you spend the hours, years, decades, millennia, and thousands of millennia? What will you do for entertainment and to grow intellectually and emotionally? Will you have the same life partner in heaven that you had on Earth? What if you go to heaven and your partner does not? Will God assign you a partner or will you have to compete for one? Since women tend to be more devout than men, will there be a shortage of men and lots of lonely women? What if you died at an old age when you had become infirm and incontinent? Will you be restored to good health and your age reduced? What about your children? Will they also be made younger to maintain the age difference? Does this mean babies will have to be unborn because their parents have been reduced to six yours of age? Will you grow old? Will you be able to have children and, if you can, will they grow up and become old or will they stay babies for ever? Will you just get older and older but never die? I could go on all day, thinking of questions about heaven but the bottom line is, even if you believe heaven exists, you DO NOT KNOW the answers to thousands of questions like these. Yet you are willing to enter a contract for an unknown future with no termination clause. For me, the very idea of a life that can never end is horrific and I don't want it. Even if I knew all the specifics, I would say, "Thank you, but I'm not interested." 12 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 5:59am On Sep 03, 2017 |
Olayinka Ayinde We don't need more pastors and more churches. We need more entrepreneurs, more professionals, more technical people, more innovators, more scientists... And definitely more factories, more farms, more schools, more work shops... We can't be converting engineering graduates to pastors and factory spaces to churches and hope to pray our way to prosperity. It is called self delusion. 10 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:17am On Sep 05, 2017 |
Akorita Isaiah What Christians say: "I pay my tithe as the bible commands. I don't care how the church spends it. It's left for the pastor and God." What I hear: "I'm Sheeple." --- Imagine if your country is run that way... "I pay my tax as a law abiding citizen. I don't care what my governor does with the money. It's left for him and the UN." Last last, you're out here looking for small Cheese while Apostle is getting on Forbes list. 12 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:54pm On Sep 05, 2017 |
Steve Abia Buddhism has always been considered the most peaceful and tolerant religion. Current events in Myanmar is proving otherwise as minority Rohingya Muslims are systematically persecuted and killed by the majority Buddhist population. This is under the watchful eyes of a Nobel Peace laureate President. One can say that all religions are inherently violent and intolerant. Religion, whenever it finds itself in the majority and in power, naturally assumes a tyrannical disposition. We see it everyday - from the Middle east and Northern Nigeria where Islam terrorizes and harasses minorities and 'blasphemers', to United States (don't be shocked: KKK and far-right Evangelicals) and Southern Nigeria where Christianity intimidates and bullies every other groups, to Myanmar where Buddhists visit genocide on innocent Muslims. The only peaceful religion is a religion in the minority; a religion stripped of political power. All lives matter. No religion is more sacred than human life. 8 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:09pm On Sep 06, 2017 |
IT'S A MIRACLE! When something you can't explain happens, you have two choices: 1. Accept you don't understand how it happened, or 2. Believe it was a miracle. You should only conclude it was a miracle if you have a way to be SURE science will never, ever be able to find a natural explanation. Since you cannot be sure of this, you can accept that a miracle is a possible explanation but you should never BELIEVE a miracle actually occurred. (Maybe it would be a miracle, if religious people could grasp this simple logic and stop claiming miracles have occurred!) 5 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 5:56am On Sep 07, 2017 |
Peter Adeosun Keyz wrote Ever wondered why some highly educated people can't do simple critical thinking? Ever wonder why a professor goes to a camp to collect water in a gallon for healing purposes? It's because ordinary academics can't make you a critical thinker. Here's why. Each academic discipline provides only a single view of life. So burying yourself in one discipline makes you very conversant with that singular view while it blinds your mind to other possibilities. So you're narrow-minded. Narrow-minded and close-minded are cousins while narrow-minded and ignorance are blood sisters. That's how you come up with a professor of medicine or sociology that's still very ignorant about life. He's only an aficionado in medicine or sociology & nothing else. So the remedy is to read wide. Widely read people are hardly ignorant. If you're a physicist, pick up a few things to read about anthropology or psychology. If you're a doctor, read some history and economics. Let the accountant spend some of his spare time reading some medical stuff while the lawyer should spend some time to read some astronomy. It broadens the mind & increases your intellectual horizon. If you're a pastor, don't just bury your head in the Bible alone: read some science & arts & learn a few things about African traditional belief, Islam & Buddhism. Contrary to what you've been brainwashed with, no knowledge is bad. In fact, saying any kind of knowledge is bad is an oxymoron in itself. You're a Christian & you believe that reading the Quran will pollute your 'spirit-man' or invite demons into your life but wait, how many Muslims have ran mad despite reading the Quran day & night? You have lots of Muslims around you — neighbours, colleagues at work, perhaps even family members — and you haven't even learnt the first thing about what they live their lives by and you think you know anything about your environment? I can only laugh at your ignorance! He that has visited new places is more enlightened than he that's stuck to one place: the former has gained a wider view of life while the latter can only boast in his parochialism. Similarly, he that has explored other people's views to life is more enlightened. Life is lived but once: explore it without limitations. And the best kind of exploration is not just going to new places or trying new things but acquiring new knowledge. We'll have a better society if those who claim to be enlightened are truly enlightened. #AMEN 9 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 11:09am On Sep 10, 2017 |
MY BEST FRIEND, THE SERIAL KILLER If you worship God and consider him to be your best friend, you should be aware that your best friend (if he exists) is a serial killer. I have written before about the death toll from God's own murderous acts and from the orders to kill he gave to others. Those deaths amount to around 25 million people. But some people say, I'm not being fair. I'm only taking one side of the story. What about the kind, loving things God did? What kind, loving things God did? Here is a challenge to you. Find me a SINGLE kind, loving thing God did. Just one. And don't say he sent his son to be a human sacrifice to himself (John 3:16), I can't count demanding a human sacrifice as a kind, loving act. And nor can you. 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:15am On Sep 11, 2017 |
HE DOESN'T COMPEL YOU? YEAH, RIGHT! I love it when Christians say God does not compel anyone to believe in him. Yet they simultaneously accept that people who do not believe in God will be tortured without mercy or end. What is it they don't understand about the word 'compel'? This is like saying a man who pointed a gun at you demanding your wallet did not compel you to give him your money! 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:55am On Sep 15, 2017 |
THE GREAT DIVIDE--WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? There is a line that divides humanity. On one side are people who understand they are born into a culture that has developed over thousands of years. It has a veneer of modernity welded to a solid base of ancient history. People on this side understand that culture changes but change is slow because we are programmed to respect and maintain our culture. People on this side appreciate the need to review and challenge culture. They do not see it as sacred truth and wholly good, but as a tool that should serve us well and not hold us back. We call this side of the divide the Not-Daft side. On the other side of the divide are people who are prisoners of their culture. They revere it and will not see it challenged and will fight change every step of the way. These people see the here-and-now but are blind to the big picture--they see their culture as a venerated shibboleth with intrinsic value rather than as a tool to be refined and improved. We call this side of the divide, the Daft side. Nowhere is this divide more apparent than in the aspect of culture known as religion. Fortunately, it is possible to change sides. 7 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:34am On Sep 16, 2017 |
YOUR INNER CAVEMAN For at least 94% of the time our species has existed, we have been Stone Age hunter gatherers. For more than 99.5% of our time here we had no reliable method for understanding our world and we relied on gods, magic, stars and superstition. We must not forget that we are not just related to those Stone Age men and women from 200,000 years ago—we ARE those people. We are the same species, made of the same stuff and to the same design. We have evolved slightly over those years but negligible changes have occurred in the last 1,000 years. We could still mate with one of our Stone Age ancestors and produce viable offspring. This perspective may explain why, after the scientific approach has thoroughly proven itself and gods, magic, stars and superstition have been thoroughly discredited, that 85% of us still want to believe that gods, magic, stars and superstition are real and valuable. They are not. That is our inner caveman speaking. It's time to let him go. 5 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by TheEminentLaity: 11:17pm On Sep 16, 2017 |
Funny but if you actually read through this thread, I believe the grammar is not in the least sophisticated, you will learn a great deal and not be commenting about your favorite bed-time superstitions. eelipumpin: |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 12:46pm On Sep 17, 2017 |
Olayinka Ayinde My grandmother knew her commercial maths intimately. The complex maths that would require almost 15 minutes of written calculations would take my grandmother all of 15 seconds. 17 naira 50 kobo multiplied by 219 is not a sum she would require a calculator for. She was one of the smartest traders I knew, but the concepts of algebra, calculus and infinity, and their practical applications were beyond her. She needed to be trained for those. Many of us are very smart, but it takes a certain kind of training to think in large or complex numbers. We assume we know how to think in large numbers, but we don't. Astronomical distances and cosmic calendar periods are not straight forward and intuitive. A billion years is a long time and it seems pretty straightforward to manipulate that number in one's brain, yes? Interestingly, a medical doctor may not be able relate well with it because saving a life is a matter of minutes or hours. Whereas a well trained geologist, archeologist or evolutionary biologist is trained to understand seamlessly the complex inter related events that could have happened in that time, and how to work out these events and their time lines. So, it is understandable if a smart medical doctor can't understand the geological time frame taken for a rock formation to attain its current structure and how the story of a billion years can be reconstructed by a geologist. Same for when a palaeontologist begins to lay out a 5 billion year history of the earth simply by looking at a rock. Similarly, astronomical distances are difficult to understand by persons who are not trained to think in large numbers. So pronouncements by astrophysicists and related professionals are baffling to lay persons. Yet these are common day to day knowledge in these circles, and are neither supernatural nor works of gods. So when next you hear: if evolution is true and we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys, you are listening to someone whose elementary biology is poor and who is not trained to think in geological time scales. Not necessarily someone who is not smart. 3 Likes |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 5:40am On Sep 19, 2017 |
TWO BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD The most brilliant mind in the universe, an infinite mind in which all knowledge resides, inspired men over a period of 1,000 years to write a book of almost 900,000 words. This gargantuan effort was intended to reveal truths about the universe and our planet previously unknown to men. Ultimately, this book aimed to make the world a better place. In less than two years, from 1686 to 1687, a finite man wrote a book of some 300,000 words with a much less ambitious aim. The aim was to help us understand the behaviour of bodies in motion. The first book was an abject failure. It revealed no truths about the cosmos. Indeed, we now know almost everything it said about our planet and the universe was horribly wrong. Furthermore, it did not make the world a better place. On the contrary, it laid the foundations for several thousand years of killing, torture, brutality and discrimination on a scale unprecedented in human history. The second book was a great success. Its propositions have been shown to be fundamentally correct and they were crucial to enabling the industrial revolution, our modern world and our current deep and extensive understanding of the cosmos. The successful book was Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Sir Isaac Newton. The failure was The Bible, by God*. _ *Authorship of The Bible not yet verified. 6 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 9:19pm On Sep 20, 2017 |
Tony Rush wrote: Why don't you want your 6-year old hanging out with boys and girls who don't listen to their parents and who have bad attitudes? Because it causes them to engage in poor behavior and poor choices. Why don't you want your 12-year old spending time with kids who think education is stupid and that being kind is for wimps? Because it causes them to engage in poor behavior and poor choices. Why don't you want your 16-year old who just got his/her license around with people who drink and do drugs? Same reason. It causes them to engage in poor behavior and poor choices. Question: at what age does this cease to be true? Answer: NEVER You will become who you spend your time with. And most people aren't choosing those people deliberately; they're just hanging out with the crowd that showed up in their lives by default. And there's nothing wrong with that....IF they're helping you reach your full potential. But, if they're not.....then you have to consider whether they're leading you to engage in some poor behavior and poor decisions of your own. 5 Likes 2 Shares |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:52pm On Sep 21, 2017 |
How can you tell the difference between a thought and a message from God? If you can't, don't claim you receive messages from God because you cannot possibly know. If you can, please tell us how. 2 Likes 1 Share |
| Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 3:04pm On Sep 23, 2017 |
THEOPHYSICISTS We've all met them, there are probably millions of them in the wild. They believe in God but they are not theologians. They believe in science but they are not scientists. I call them theophysicists. They say physics, in particular Big Bang Cosmology, is proof that God exists. Somehow they miss the fact that only 7% of the 2,000-odd members of the National Academy of Scientists (the most distinguished scientists in the USA) believe in God †. They also miss the fact that physicists and astronomers have the lowest levels of belief of all scientific disciplines ‡. If physics really did show God exists, these are the people who should know. And they resoundingly reject the idea. How do theophysicists get it so wrong? They base their arguments on speculation, not on facts, and they assume the laws that govern matter in the everyday world they inhabit must also have governed the infinitesimal pre-universe in which no matter existed. They say this despite knowing that the quantum world works in unexpected, bizarre and counterintuitive ways. They will insist there was nothing, then there was the Big Bang and suddenly there was everything. Since something cannot come from nothing, they conclude God must have created everything. But was there nothing? We don't know. Physicists now doubt there is such a thing as nothing. It seems there is always something--even in an apparently empty vacuum. It seems that the nature of nothing is to be something. There are other paradoxes that should make our theophysicists think. Here are two more. In July 2012, CERN scientists at the Large Hadron Collider confirmed the existence of the Higgs Boson. The Higgs field and its associated particle, the boson, are now known to give mass to elementary particles. Current models show the very early universe was extremely hot, around 10 ^32 degrees Kelvin. At that temperature, the Higgs field would not have been able to give mass to the first electrons and quarks. It looks as though the mass of the universe in its earliest moments, was exactly zero. The current universe contains both negative and positive energy. Recent measurements have shown the net energy content of the universe is zero. Remember that energy and mass are interchangeable, so we have zero mass transforming into a zero energy universe. Evidently, the universe is very strange indeed, perhaps, stranger than we can yet imagine. We are at the foothills of understanding it but there is one thing we can already be pretty sure of--if you apply the same thinking to it that works for cars, football and steak dinners, you will never understand it. The man or woman who finally cracks this problem will likely do so by throwing out all our everyday intuitions. And that brings us back to our theophysicists. These people are applying kindergarten logic to humanity's most intractable problems. The truth is, they don't do this to solve these problems--they do it to find a gap to plug their pet god into. They are either ignorant or dishonest. - - - † Edward J. Larson and Larry Witham, Nature 394, 313 (23 July 1998) ‡ Religion and Science in the United States, Pew Research Centre, November 2009 3 Likes 2 Shares |
(1) (2) (3) ... (57) (58) (59) (60) (61) (62) (63) ... (130) (Reply)
Jesus is coming soon. This thread is for faithful watchmen / Scandal: Pastor Chris Oyakhilome In South African Trouble! / Rhapsody Of Realities: A Daily Devotional
(Go Up)
| Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 158 |