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Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by urahara(m): 2:59pm On Sep 10, 2016 |
Immorttal: Lol, so true |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by urahara(m): 3:04pm On Sep 10, 2016 |
Zellie: Lol |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 2:38am On Sep 11, 2016 |
[b] PAUL IS THE REAL VILLAIN I belong to the Richard Carrier school of thought who think the historical Jesus never existed; that he was merely a creation of the early church, just like Moses, Abraham and Elijah. But assuming Jesus existed, I believe he is not the sort of guy that could be hugely disliked. Anyone who has perused the biblical gospels will come to the quick realisation that Jesus was a compassionate kind of guy in his time. I don't think he ever tried to humiliate sinners who were accountable to themselves. He got closer, rather than gave them a distance. Those whose vices had the tendency to exploit the poor and the less privileged, were rebuked many times by Jesus. When he talked about a woman giving her widow's mite, he said it exemplified giving from the heart. That sermon had nothing to do with money and dollar denominated donations which characterise today's Christianity. You can be sure that were Jesus to exist today, he would never have been able to afford the expensive Pentecostal universities we have scattered all over the country and once old enough, would constantly preach against Pastorpreneurs of our day, just like he riled against the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin. Jesus never said women are second class citizens or that they ought not speak in a congregation of the faithful. It was St. Paul, scriptures tell us, who never had direct contact with Jesus, that wrote many letters stating do's and don'ts some of which are truly shocking. The cruel injunction to slaves and to women, to submit to their masters and to their husbands, came from Paul himself. And it is interesting that throughout his illustrious career, he claimed to be speaking for a man he never met. Apostle Paul was well schooled in Judaism which is steeped in misogyny and patriarchy....it's the reason, I can deduce, he gave all the instructions he did regarding women. It is more likely than not, that any words spoken by Jesus, in condemnation of slavery and the subjugation of women in his time, had been purposefully deleted from historical records in order not to attract the wrath of the Roman emperor. We know for a fact that so many books were expunged from the scriptures in this manner, just look up the Biblical apocrypha on google. Truly, I might get lynched online one day for antagonising an icon of Christianity, but my solace lies in the knowledge that virtual violence does not a martyr make. [/b] 5 Likes |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 3:26am On Sep 12, 2016 |
PAUL AND SLAVERY 1 Timothy 6:1 What does that tell us? It was against the message of St. Paul to view slave masters as immoral and wicked, inhuman and lacking in compassion. Fighting to end the practice of owning human beings as slaves (property) was controversial in Christendom because of Paul's letter to Timothy. Christians who fought against slavery actually discredited God, Christ and Christianity, according to St. Paul. If people did not question this aspect of Paul's teachings, black men and women might still be laboring cheerfully in plantations and tech factories in North America, without expectations of fair treatment, and certainly bearing in mind that they are not like brothers to their white masters. 4 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 4:35am On Sep 13, 2016 |
[b]THE MISDIRECTION OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY A church is a holy place, so we are told. When Christians are being persecuted in their communities, where do they seek refuge? But these days, you better not give anyone the impression that you're a sinner before you darken the doors of your local parish. You need to pretend, to act saintly, to show the neighbors that you are holier than they are. Forget that God is said to know your darkest secrets. Just pretend you're holy for thirty minutes. And I wonder, why turn people back for indecent dressing? Is morality something you force on people? The ill clad woman could be running from mortal danger, from personal demons. Chase them away and drive them right into the arms of despair. Everyone is welcome at a hospital. Even robbers fleeing from a crime scene, with life threatening injuries, trust nurses and doctors to attend to them without judgment. Do not be yoked with unbelievers, said St Paul. Perhaps he forgot that people muttered similar words when Jesus visited Zacchaeus the Tax Collector. The Messiah of Christians said people like the hated man were those he was sent for. The church is not concerned about poverty and disease, illiteracy and crime, income inequality and corruption. I have never heard that a notorious politician was barred from the church building for the part they might have played in impoverishing the people. Thieves are welcome to occupy front row seats in the cathedral; hookers are not. You will recall the story of a helpless man who was rescued by a Samaritan. Scriptures tell us that, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side." This has become the way of modern Christianity: ignoring vulnerable people, or even exploiting them. Imagine that the beaten traveller to Jericho had approached the doors of a temple. He would have been judged unclean and unfit to be in God's presence. Imagine if the newspapers reported that a priest saved a prostitute from rapists. People will sooner wonder how he came to be in their midst. Why then do religionists feign surprise that we do not take their churches, mosques and temples seriously? [/b] 3 Likes |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:27am On Sep 14, 2016 |
[b]YOU CAN BE A HONEST CHRISTIAN Francis Collins is a Christian and top scientist. He's a geneticist and the Head of the Human Genome Project (HGP). On two occasions, this is what he had to say about Evolution. "As someone who's had the privilege of leading the human genome project, I've had the opportunity to study our own DNA instruction book at a level of detail that was never really possible before. It's also now been possible to compare our DNA with that of many other species. The evidence supporting the idea that all living things are descended from a common ancestor is truly overwhelming. I would not necessarily wish that to be so, as a Bible-believing Christian. But it is so. It does not serve faith well to try to deny that."- "God Is Not Threatened by Our Scientific Adventures" , interview by Laura Sheahen, Beliefnet (undated) "Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things."- "Collins: Why this scientist believes in God" , editorial, CNN (April 6, 2007) ------------------- Some time ago, I had also watched a documentary where he was asked by Comedian Bill Maher why he was still a Christian and this is what he said (paraphrasing here), "I believe in God and reading through the Gospels, it appears to me that the accounts were true eye witness accounts and therefore I believe that Jesus Christ is really who he says he is...." This man here, is my example of how you can be honest even when holding contradictory positions simultaneously. He is a christian but he doesn't pretend like the aspects of science which contradict his beliefs are not so. He does not try to twist the bible's creation accounts to fit in with what he knows as a scientist. I wish many liberal religious people can actually be honest with themselves like this man. Yes, it is possible to be a 'Christian Feminist' 'Christian Evolutionist' etc. Just don't pretend like these ideas don't clash sometimes in your head. Above all, this is a clear case of cognitive dissonance. [/b] 3 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:07am On Sep 16, 2016 |
[b]WHAT IF YOU'RE WRONG? "What if you're wrong" is one of the most common but dimmest of the believer's arguments. Of course we could all be wrong. Don't forget, in choosing to worship one god you are choosing to reject thousands of other gods. You could be wrong about your choice of God, choice of religion, choice of denomination, even about what to believe or do in order to be saved. Truthfully, even if there is a blissful afterlife, getting there is a lottery with odds of many hundreds of thousands, or millions to one. Even worse, there is absolutely no evidence to guide you, so one choice is no more probable than any other. And you can't enter this lottery many times to improve your chances--this is a one-shot lottery! The odds are so high that not believing any of the options does not materially affect your odds of being wrong. It's like entering two lotteries, the first has odds of 1,000,000:1, the other has odds of 1,000,001:1. Your chances of winning either are virtually the same. If you do decide to enter the lottery and worship a god, it doesn't come free-of-charge. Many people spend a great deal of money and time on their religion. There is a good chance that the religion will require you to believe a list of things that are not true and, in some cases, may require you to behave in an immoral way or in a way that damages yourself, your family or your neighbours. Quite honestly, with these odds, the best way to approach this lottery, is not to enter at all.[/b] 4 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 9:52am On Sep 16, 2016 |
"Two thousand years of monotheistic brainwashing have caused most Westerners to see polytheism as ignorant and childish idolatry. This is an unjust stereotype. In order to understand the inner logic of polytheism, it is necessary to grasp the central idea buttressing the belief in many gods. 4 Likes 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 2:38am On Sep 17, 2016 |
STOP BELIEVING IN 'SIN' Sin - that's the biggest conspiracy ever invented by people. If you believe that sh.it, you are bound to need salvation. Even as a newborn, before you open your eyes as a child, most of our belief systems say you are automatically a sinner. We need to teach our children that they are not born sinners. They don't need anyone to save them. All they need to do is do unto others as they would have others do unto them. We need a generation who can take responsibility for their actions. Have a great weekend. 14 Likes 6 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by CHARLOE(m): 7:59pm On Sep 17, 2016 |
joseph1013:Nice write-ups op, I'll suggest u compile it into a book format, more people need to read this, too many people, esp blacks stuck n high on d religion weed 3 Likes 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 6:48am On Sep 19, 2016 |
"Polytheism gave birth not merely to monotheist religions, but also to dualistic ones. Dualistic religions espouse the existence of two opposing powers: good and evil. Unlike monotheism, dualism believes that evil is an independent power, neither created by the good God, nor subordinate to it. Dualism explains that the entire universe is a battleground between these two forces, and that everything that happens in the world is part of the struggle. 2 Likes 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 6:52pm On Sep 19, 2016 |
"Dualistic religions flourished for more than a thousand years. Sometime between 1500 BC and 1000 BC a prophet named Zoroaster (Zarathustra) was active somewhere in Central Asia. His creed passed from generation to generation until it became the most important of dualistic religions – Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrians saw the world as a cosmic battle between the good god Ahura Mazda and the evil god Angra Mainyu. Humans had to help the good god in this battle. 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 7:03pm On Sep 19, 2016 |
A SHORT HISTORY ON BUDDHISM 3 Likes 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by PastorAIO: 11:39am On Sep 20, 2016 |
joseph1013:
No there isn't!! There is another logical way. That is the way of ATR, most specifically Ifa. Eledumare created everything. Including the Iyami (witches), the Orisha, The Ajoguns (evil forces), and Elenini (the Detractor/Obstacle dude) etc etc etc ... all the forces. He also created Esu who governs the interaction between all these forces. Esu does Eledumare's will of procurring food for all his children/creations. Witches feed on the wicked people. Witches need to eat. How will they find wicked people? Esu can tempt people to wickedness and thus expose them to the witches. Esu is a helper of all the Ajoguns and Eleninis. But he is also a helper for the righteous, and he helps them achieve their destinies etc. The entire theatre proceeds under the umbrella of the cosmic Law of Eledumare. In ancient Egypt Horus is in a perpetual struggle with Seth and this drives history. The struggle has a pattern. Sometimes Seth is winning and sometimes Horus is winning. Even that cosmic pattern called the struggle between Horus and Seth can come under threat from a greater disorder. That of Apophis.. So Horus and Set have to get together to fight Apophis. 2 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 9:07am On Sep 21, 2016 |
PastorAIO: Good stuff. Carefully weaved myth. A lot of thought must have gone to craft this. Then it's sad how Christianity has misrepresented the Ifa ATR. Not so many Yoruba Christians realize that Esu is not synonymous with Satan. Esu does not compete with God. He is a god like Orunmila, Sango, Ogun who has a specific role to play in Olodumare's universe. 4 Likes |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:44am On Sep 22, 2016 |
When you die, you finally become like God NONEXISTENT 7 Likes 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:18am On Sep 23, 2016 |
[b]THE GREATEST? HOW? Christians believe Jesus is the greatest man that ever lived (if there's anything like that), while Muslims believe Muhammad is. But aside the puerile fairy-tales of Jesus walking on water and ascending into the sky - and Muhammad flying to heaven on a flying horse, coupled with parting the moon with his finger, what exceptional feat did these guys achieve? Did they preach anything new from what those who lived before them preached? Did they preach the Golden Rule before Confucius? In what way were they more loving, more peaceful and more forgiving than Siddhartha Gautama? Did they speak against the buying and selling of human beings, like Frederick Douglas? Did they uproot the tyrannical forces of slavery, like Toussaint L'ouverture? Did they die a more horrible death for their ideologies, than Hypatia? Were they critical thinkers in the mould of Epicurus? Better philosophers than Aristotle? Good in mathematics than Euler? In economics than Adam Smith? Were they, in the knowledge of the human brain, the level of the Genius called Einstein? Do they hold us spellbound with the finesse and orgasmic ecstasy of language and expression, like Shakespeare? What exactly did they invent? Did they put man in space? Did they make us understand the vastness and mysteries of our universe, like Carl Sagan? What vaccines against diseases did they manufacture? All what Jesus and Muhammad (if they are credible) preached was a sky pixie in a La Campagne Tropicana in the sky, and a boogeyman in a celestial oven. And these are the greatest humans to ever live? What a joke![/b] 12 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 12:49pm On Sep 23, 2016 |
Why do most (wo)men always pray for a God fearing partner? Are they saying those who ain't God fearing can't make good partners? 4 Likes 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 4:51pm On Sep 25, 2016 |
joseph1013:best thread ever ,,,,and samething with virgins 1 Like |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:47am On Sep 26, 2016 |
WRONG EDUCATION I came across a primary school owned by a church with the moto boldly written on the gate: "Discipline and Fear of God", and I had to observe a minute silence for the poor kids being fed with "knowledge" diluted with religious superstitions. Kids go there to acquire knowledge and all they teach them (so the motto says) is the "fear of God"!. In colonial times, education came through the missionaries. But the aim of African education then was to produce literate adults just to service the church and the colonial government. Nothing more. Today, not much has changed. Academics and religion still are intertwined. Even in higher institutions, religion takes up the major space in campus life. How do you reconcile the contradiction between an institution driven by knowledge and one driven by blind faith? How do you expect religious groups to teach critical thinking skills to their students? That would be suicidal! 5 Likes 2 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 12:11am On Sep 27, 2016 |
[b]I KNOW WHY YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN EVOLUTION When I say, "People who believe Adam and Eve existed are either (i) delusional, (ii) ignorant, or (iii) intellectually deficient," I'm making a statement of fact. It is not an ad hominem insult. Evolution is fact, like gravity is fact. We have seen it happen before our eyes. DNA sequencing technology has provided incontrovertible proof of it. And evolution precludes the existence of a "first" man or woman. So Adam and Eve—as a matter of *fact*—are mythological characters we made up, like Papa Bear and Mama Bear. This evidence is out there, available and accessible to anyone living in 2016. There are only three reasons why anyone today would still genuinely believe in the existence of Adam and Eve: (i) the person has been brainwashed, indoctrinated, or chosen him/herself to adopt a demonstrably false belief, which, by definition, is a delusion; (ii) the person has normal intelligence but is simply not aware of how it is that evolution, a factual phenomenon, makes it impossible for there to be an Adam and an Eve—that is, the person is ignorant; (iii) the person doesn't have the intellectual capacity to process ideas like evolution or gravity despite being presented with all the evidence for them; that is, the person is stupid (the actual definition of the word), and/or intellectually deficient. None of this means that people who genuinely believe in the myth of Adam and Eve are bad people, or don't have other skills or attributes that the rest of us can admire or appreciate. It simply means that in this specific area, they are delusional, ignorant, or intellectually lacking. There's nothing wrong with saying that.[/b] 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 1:06pm On Sep 28, 2016 |
[b]MORE ON EVOLUTION Steve Chika Abia For the records, Darwin's theory of evolution may not be the final truth. It surely doesn't claim to be the ultimate truth given that so many questions are still unanswered. But it is an attempt to give an account, with evidence and factual records, of how life originated in our part of the cosmos. Darwin's theory of evolution says that each new organism is subtly different from its parents, and these differences can sometimes help the offspring or impede it. As organisms compete for food and mates, those with the advantageous traits produce more offspring, while those with unhelpful traits may not produce any. So within a given population, advantageous traits become common and unhelpful ones disappear. Given enough time, these changes mount up and lead to the appearance of new species and new types of organism, one small change at a time. "Why have we not seen an evolutionary change in humans in our time?", asked someone who lacks basic knowledge of biology. The answer is simply that evolution takes a long time to make big changes. To see evidence of that, you have to look at older records. You have to look at fossils. BTW, I love the level of scepticism folks display whenever Evolution is discussed. They don't want to swallow it. So they put on their armour of 'logic'. They beam their searchlight on every 'loophole' they can possibly find. Why should we believe "a mere theory"? It's not even a scientific law! If only you can apply a fraction of that scepticism to the creation myths you peddle as facts, your worldview would change for the better. It boggles the mind that your 'sophisticated' brain could find 'loopholes' in a scientific theory, yet it couldn't differentiate mythical stories from factual records. [/b] 3 Likes |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by ValentineMary(m): 3:22pm On Sep 28, 2016 |
Are u Steve Chika Abia ? |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 8:53am On Sep 29, 2016 |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by ValentineMary(m): 9:42am On Sep 29, 2016 |
joseph1013:U share some of his post on ur thread. 1 Like |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:18am On Sep 29, 2016 |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 11:29pm On Sep 29, 2016 |
THERE IS NO TEST Christians say life on Earth is just a test to see who is fit for heaven. The death of a child is just a test; an earthquake is a test. Cancer, birth defects, tsunamis, volcanoes, tornadoes, malaria and ebola are all tests. God has an entire arsenal of tests for us. What Christians don't tell us is why an infinitely-loving, omniscient God needs to put humans through untold suffering to find answers he knew anyway. This is self delusion of the highest order. There is a much simpler explanation that requires no apologetics, no mental gymnastics and no suspension of disbelief. We are small, fragile beings on an unstable and indifferent rock surrounded by a chaotic atmosphere hurtling through a hostile universe. We evolved together with a host of other life forms, many of which can harm us. That's why bad things happen. Simple. 8 Likes 3 Shares |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 10:05am On Oct 05, 2016 |
[b]SIX WORDS WE ARE AFRAID TO SPEAK I haven't counted but I'm pretty sure I have asked far more than 1,000 people why they believe in God. And, without a single exception, I have always seen the same result. The result is that people give me no reason or they give me reasons that rely on fallacious logic or are epistemologically unreliable. I have also spoken to dozens of atheists who have asked believers the same question and they consistently report the same result that I find. Without exception. Thousands of books have been written about gods but, to my knowledge, none has managed to offer even a single evidentially and logically sound reason to believe any particular god exists. I am a cautious man and I hate to jump to conclusions based on inductive logic but there must come a point where we draw a line and recognise we have conducted enough trials. Just as a man dropping a stone a tens of thousand of times must eventually conclude that dropped stones fall to the ground, surely it is now time to draw the conclusion that humans have no good reasons to believe their gods are real. We learn of gods when stories are passed from person to person by word of mouth or by the written word. But did anyone, from the first person to talk about a god to the last to hear of it, EVER have evidentially and logically sound reasons for his belief? It's vanishingly unlikely. Because, if there ever were good reasons, why have the good reasons been lost and only the bad reasons retained? We should expect the opposite. We should expect the billions of human minds these ideas have passed through to act as an effective filter to eliminate bad reasons and retain the good ones. The only reasonable conclusion is that there never were any sound reasons to believe in gods; which is another way of saying: ALL known gods are human inventions. This may be a conclusion we are afraid to voice but it is not as radical as you may think. Even the most dedicated god-believer knows that thousands of gods have been invented by humans--he just hopes that his own god is the single exception. But the compelling weight of evidence is that there are no exceptions. Gods are our babies, we conceive them, we birth, nurture and protect them. But still they grow old, and eventually they die. Let them go.[/b] 5 Likes |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 11:39am On Oct 05, 2016 |
joseph1013:where can i download this book na ,brief history of homo sapiensor do you have the pdf |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by joseph1013: 12:17pm On Oct 05, 2016 |
stephenmorris: What's your email? |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 12:18pm On Oct 05, 2016 |
joseph1013: |
Re: My Thoughts And Questions About Religion by Nobody: 12:19pm On Oct 05, 2016 |
joseph1013:copy and tell me so i can delete it sir |
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