₦airaland Forum

MaxInDHouse:
You called them "PEOPLE" He call them "DUST" because they are works of His hands and it's what He needs He preserves the rest He return them to the DUST from which they were made!

Exactly. He is the most merciful!

Lucifyre:
Damn! That's one apt, factual and well researched comment that stands up to scholarly scrutiny. Rare around here. Just to add a tidbit of info that i found recently that you didn't mention, the name and characteristics of the Shadday gods which were also conflated with Yhwh and El whence comes El shaddai. Found it reading an excerpt of Mark Smith's Early History Of God & History of Biblical Monotheism. The material on the Shadday gods is pretty small though. Anyways to buttress your point, there is no god of the bible, different depictions for different audiences at different time periods, especially as you said affected by the evolution or as some say revolution from polytheism to henotheism/monolatry to monotheism.

Monotheism as regards Yahweh evolved over time - in fact the ancestor of Judaism as we know it started post-Babylonian exile.
The Israelites as a Canaanite people never worshipped one God - they worshipped numerous other Gods in the Canaanite pantheon most notably Ba'al and Asherah.

Asherah who at some point was regarded as a consort of Yahweh had her sacred tree of worship right beside every yahweic shrine in Israel. Ba'al on the other hand was the God that Yahweh was most like. They were both youthful, storm deities although Ba'al pre-existed in Canaan before the emergence of yahweh. Their similarity and interchangeability is one of the reason why the fiercest political (which is often times theological then) battles that went on in the pre-Judaic Israel was between the cult of Ba'al and cult of Yahweh - the most famous depiction found in the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Ba'al. Both cults competed for their respective deities to be the chief God of the country.

The cult of Yahweh at the time had an advantage in the sense that they were far more prone to extremism to further their course. Each king who emerged in the society as a pro-yahweic figure often consolidated with a horrific genocidal purge of worshippers of competing deities like Ba'al - like the purge of King Josiah.

The very story of Elijah versus Prophets of Ba'al recorded that he killed every last one of the prophets of Ba'al.

Through out her history even from biblical accounts, the Israelites never at any point worshipped one God pre-Babylonian exile. That is why the theme of "Don't worship other Gods" is far too many in the old testament because it underscored a theological and political struggle between the Yahweic cult and the rest of the society who like other Canaanite tribes revered and worshipped other Gods.

As yahweh evolved, it continuously took on the characteristics and feats of other Gods. Assimilating El, Asherah becoming his consort, and appropriating Ba'al's feats.

MaxInDHouse:
In his haughtiness, the wicked man makes no investigation; All his thoughts are: “There is no God.” Psalms 10:4

Jehovah (Yahweh) is the most merciful personality in the universe. If You guys face the same situation You will hastily destroy even the good along with the wicked.

He sure is. I mean, why else would he drown everyone in the planet save 1 family? No mercy is greater than that.

Why not put yourself in His shoes before judging Him?
When things got bad for Job he began to think and talk like a mad man {Job 6:1-3} but Jehovah loving reprove this faithful man by explaining the situation of things to him:
Before God created the earth heaven was His first established {Genesis 1:1} in heaven there are many spirit creatures who are powerful but not as powerful as their Creator one of them became a rebel and challenged God's sovereignty saying why must He get all the glory since all heavenly creatures are powerful? Why not share the glory with some of them as they are His children? Why can't man be allowed to worship God's spirit sons (angels)?
Of course an unreasonable bully would have destroyed this rebel instantly but would that solve the issue raised?
What about other sons of God (angels) present and hearing what Satan said?

So Jehovah wisely decided to let time tell if any angel could make humans happy and secure under their godship.

But will God introduce Satan to Adam and Eve telling them what transpired in heaven?

NO! Satan needs to go and present the case to them himself however he chooses to, that's the import of what happened in the garden of Eden. Satan maligned God telling Eve that God lied to them and if they could file for total independence they will become Gods themselves. Genesis 3:1-5

You know the rest of the story so when Job was bitterly complaining about his condition God told him that there is a case that needs to be settled in heaven once and for all before mankind could enjoy life just as He purposed in the beginning. Job 38:4,7

So in the Old Testament Jehovah fought to establish His name in the midst of rebellious angels claiming Gods throughout the earth that's the import of the ten plagues that happened in Egypt, each has to do with a specific God as Egyptians had many Gods they revere.
For instance the Nile River was revered as a God until Moses struck it and turned it to blood.
They had a God which they worship back then as the protector of firstling in every creature so Jehovah proved that God powerless by killing all the firstborn in Egypt.
That's just the first and last plague for you so each plague has to do with a specific God in mind.
Today the Egyptians whose ancestors worshiped those Gods have surrendered by accepting the fact that the God who sent Moses is truly the Almighty God.

You can go to Egypt and convince them to burn their Quran since it's boldly written that Moses the servant of the true God disputed with Pharaoh their own ancient king!

I don't even know what you are on about

gohf:
So different people cannot paint the same picture that's covered with a veil in different ways? For you to say that no it's not the painters but what they are painting that evolves. 😮‍💨

If two artists paint a picture of the same object - say a cup, and one cup is white while the other is pitch black then it is very clear they are not painting the same cup

Digitmktguru:
"If God is love, why did He harden Pharaoh's heart in Exodus 9:12?"
i will be glad if you can give me biblical explanation to this?

In the Bible, you could find instances of Yahweh being many things, often times contradictory. In one instance, he would be a vengeful, jealous, anger-prone, and downright vindictive deity yet on the very next book, he'd be described as merciful without bounds.

In another, he would be hateful to those who don't worship him, recommend death for heresy and apostasy and command genocide for nations that worship other Gods yet on the very next book, he would be described as loving without conditions.

These features may be confusing as they in fact contradict each other, but it begins to make more sense when you understand the evolution of Yahweh as a character. The Yahweh of Peganic Yahwehism is different from that of Apocalyptic Yahwehism and that is also different from that of Talmudic Judaism and eventually different from Christian Yahweh.

The reason why Yahweh possess so many contradicting traits in the old testament is because they were describing completely different Gods.
Yahweh was a storm and war God initially, not unlike the god Ba'al - they were youthful deities. No other God had as much influence in the Yahwehic cult through antiquity like Ba'al - Yahweh ultimately assimilated feats of Ba'al like in Psalm 29 which is originally an old Canaanite poem for Ba'al that the Hebrews repurposed for Yahweh.

When Yahweh is described as this compassionate fatherly figure in the old testament, such a person is likely describing a later conception of Yahweh that had incorporated the characteristics of El the chief God of the Canaanite pantheon.

Yahweh the strong wrathful storm God is an older idea to Yahweh the fatherly compassionate wise God.

So, most often when these features contradict, the writer of these respective parts were imagining a Yahweh that was different from the other. The hot-headed storm deity that theologically competed with Ba'al or the fatherly compassionate El elevated to the Chief amongst every other God.

In this very evolution of the Jewish religion from Pegan Yahwehism to Aocalyptic Yahwehsim to Talmudic Judaism, you could see how the bible went from admitting the existence of other Gods, to admitting that Yahweh would defeat and judge them to ultimately denying their existence entirely.

Yahweh as a deity has gone through tremendous evolution and as a matter of fact is still evolving

Garricszonne:
Are you still an atheist/freethinker?

Yes

Image123:
Is there a foolish question or no? Even the Bible says to avoid FOOLISH questions. So you cannot really ask foolish questions and expect divine answers or christian answers. You're free to keep asking foolish questions within your ranks and echo chambers, it is within your rights.

Well, that's convenient

Thugnificent:
I said what I said and mean it too with my last drop of blood .

Of course you did

Kobojunkie:
Was the following not a claim made by your person?

And what part of that told you anything about me?

Image123:
i've always asked questions and more times received answers, maybe because i'm not asking foolish questions but more of sincere questions. The Bible is inspired by God and written by men. Expecting men to be God is the chief source of your folly.

LOL. You have already tagged some questions foolish, for obvious reasons, which suggests that you are the last person anyone should to provide any form of clarity to people who ask these questions.

Kobojunkie:
Where in any of the books contained in your bible is it written that this faith you speak of is meant to to be used in overlooking errors and contradictions contained within? Where is it written in Scripture that this faith you speak of is meant to be used in the way you suggest?

You already making unfounded assumptions about me and beliefs presuming to know me without any information to inspire such confidence in your powers of deduction.

Thugnificent:
Absolutely not!

The word is spirit breathed

So, we could say that discrepancy or not, you would stick to your gun.

Thugnificent:
Nothing really, the Bible is not a novel, neither is it a scientific textbook. Every wording is believed by Faith with the help of the holy Spirit. So if you keep on looking for discrepancies and error it will take an eternity because God the author never made it a common book. You could go read Harry Potter if u bored.

But seriously, the word incarnate (Yeshua) has Fulfilled all written and unwritten aspects of Scripture by his death and resurrection. You choose to believe or not is your own cup of tea.

But all men must give account of his actions or inactions in this present realities.

What if we point out some of these discrepancies right now would it change what you believe about the bible?

AntiChristian:
What Christians?

A Unitarian Christian and Jehovah witness will support me that 1+1+1= 3, and that their God is one not three!

A Trinitarian will try to prove his own...

In the end i will end up more confused than before!

I heard you are a Muslim so on this thread I am going to completely ignore you since your input is irrelevant to my Inquiry

LordReed:
I refused to question it back when I believed. I could see the discrepancies but I waved it away so it wouldn't disturb my faith. Now that I no longer have to do that it looks so glaring I wonder why I was determined to ignore those discrepancies.

Faith is an important thing in the lives of those who have it hence it makes sense they'd seek to protect it at all cost

AntiChristian:
The belief that Jesus is God turned man!

The belief that Holy Spirit is God!

The Belief that the father is God!

1 + 1+ 1= (1 x 1 X 1) = 1 (Trinity)

The three are one, coequal, coeternal, omnipotent, omniscient, etc but only the son can die!

Sin against the Holy Spirt may not be forgiven!

I found out in the Hausa Bible! Jesus turned water to Fruit-Juice not wine! As Hausa man no dey drink wine!

What if Christians provide logical explanations to this, would it change your mind?

I have heard many atheists, agnostics and irreligious people mention that they started down the rabbit hole of skepticism after reading the Bible and giving it a bit of a thought.

It may not be anything serious, something as tiny as a numerical inconsistency in biblical canon can shatter someone’s preconceived notion of biblical perfection which prompts them to start asking more profound and daring questions about everything derived from biblical canon.

What made you start asking questions?

Jackanda1:
I don't believe in Santa clause, budha or mohammed and i don't see the need to spend time bashing them online. For someone to put in so much effort resisting the work of fiction it's either anger,depression or madness.

I'm only interested in answering questions from geniune and honest atheist.

You are still insisting on an irrelevant point while actively evading confronting the point of a post you yourself originally started.

Dishonesty seem to be a trademark of folks here when confronted with difficulties in justifying their own arguments. Lol

Dtruthspeaker:
Consemned for doing what, is the question.

And the question is, have you not done things you could and should be condemned for?

If you have, then you are condemned already.whether you believe in Christ or not.

And knowing tbis, is what leads to the question what does belief in Christ mean since we are already guilty and condemnable? But this question is of course for only those who understand the meaning of being condemned and definitely do not want to remain so.

For since the beginning to the end of the bible God had always clearly stated what makes a person liable to be condemned and not one of these is because of a mere refusal to believe in Him.

Read the Bible quote again perhaps slowly.

18Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Again, you are either aren't reading the Bible or being deliberately dishonest.

The biblical deity right from the old testament has viewed unbelief and worship of other gods as sins punishable.

PoliteActivist:
*Politeness*
You don't understand, he effectively said it was all handed to him and refused to take personal credit for any of it.

That belief is irrelevant to everyone else.

How many lifetimes would it take you to figure out just one of the things he figured out - example, that gravity is just a curvature in space-time, and not a force in the earth pulling you towards it?? And if you did figure it out wouldn't you be so proud of yourself??

Hence, it makes him and expert and authority in his field not an authority in what is real.

PoliteActivist:
Einstein's expertise was beyond scientific because at the time he came up with these things they were based entirely on his thinking - but later proved correct in real life. So if based on same his thinking he concluded that free will is an illusion, you better pay attention. Based on his antecedents, Einstein wouldn't believe golden dragons existed unless there is high probability they actually do exist!

Lol. It is called theoretical physics - it is based on mathematics.

Einsteins expertise on relativity again does not make him an authority on reality it makes him an authority on relativity.

Jackanda1:
Before i answer you, i see from your posts that you spend alot of time talking against GOD and the bible.

This is shocking for someone who doesn't believe in the existence of God.

Why do you spend so much time and effort fighting the work of fiction?

Could it be that you know the Bible is true but you're hidding it from us?

Do you have beef with GOD?

Please tell us the truth.

You are remarkably dishonest person. No one checked your posts before answering the question you asked because it is irrelevant to that point.

You bringing up a completely irrelevant matter and dwelling on that instead of addressing the problem he raised which plays into the original point of the post alludes to your dishonesty.

You should work on that.

Answer his question.

PoliteActivist:
Nope, this is his particular area of knowledge and expertise: insight into the true nature of our reality and existence. Read again what's posted in the OP: "considering that Einstein is arguably the most insightful human that has ever lived (in terms of insight into the true nature of our reality.)"
Someone who all by himself, in his study, through what he called "thought experiments" was able to determine that space and time are one fabric (space-time), that mass is condensed energy (E=mC²), that gravity is just a curvature in space-time, that nothing can travel faster than light, that a person on earth would age 50 times faster than a person traveling near speed of light, black holes, teleportation, time travel, etc! Then he refused to take credit for any of it - apparently because the answers were given to him!

Einsteins expertise was scientific and last I checked there is a distinction between that and spiritualism.

Einstein's beliefs are not science and hence bears no scientific relevance to anyone... Recognizing his insights on science bears no weight on his insights on metaphysical matters.

Einstein can believe golden dragons exist, his remarkable work on theory of relativity does not make that any less idiotic neither does it make him an authority in determining what is real.

Dtruthspeaker:
No where did God Say He punishes people for their unbelief. What He did Say is that no evil person will go unpunished.

JOHN 3:17 "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn* the world, but that the world might be saved through him. 18Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Is it that you don't know your own Bible or you were just being dishonest?

So, how do you want to play this?

Threads like this often raise important questions yet when you open it, the OP is just a hot mess of incoherent babble. No meaningful sequence, the question isn't effectively addressed and Bible verses thrown in at writers whims.

All in all it ends up making unjustified conclusions that often times is not justified by the contents of the post.

You guys needs to do better because something like this does not inspire engagement or discussion.

Education for Muslim northerners in Nigeria is a matter of national emergency.

Jackanda1:
Dear atheist who don't believe in the concept of spirits, devil and God.

But assuming you grow old and die one day, then suddenly appear before satan himself. Realizing that you have been decieved into thinking the supernatural doesn't exist.

What would you say to satan? What would be your reaction?

Absolutely nothing.

Knowing fully well that Jesus and Bible was real the whole time.
What would you do?

I'd have no regret either way because a God that is so mundane and petty that he punishes people for unbelief (you would think that something powerful enough to create the cosmos is above such petty vulnerabilities and insecurities), a God that petty and small as to punish unbelief isn't far remove from what you'd imagine Satan to be.

So my question to you is, why is your conviction a dividend of your fear of the unknown? Don't you see how that betrays its shallow insincerity?

PoliteActivist:
*Politeness*
Atheists & Religionists,
Considering that Einstein is arguably the most insightful human that has ever lived (in terms of insight into the true nature of our reality), how do you reconcile these his views with your beliefs? Especially juxtaposed with traits of an "old soul" below.

So basically, your question is making the assumption that since Einstein was insightful in one area of knowledge, his insight in other areas should carry the same weight enough for Atheists to try and reconcile their beliefs with his?

Do you see the problem with that thought?

Image123:
APC will get the votes while i help to ignore the insults. Elections is not a game of insults but numbers.

Elections are not games, it's people's lives, future, wellbeing.

There's no personal victories or loss in elections, if the wrong man wins, everyone, irrespective of who they support, loses. Everyone.

If the right man wins, everyone wins.

After all this years, you still fail to improve on your thought processes and how you approach relevant issues.

This is not a game, it's our lives for God's sake. Jesus! ��‍♂️

CoronaVirusRelo:
Smh….

2023 will humble you!

2015 didn't just humble those who did not support Buhari, it humbled even Buhari supporters.

Everyone in this country is equally partaking in the increased hardship and insecurity no matter who they voted.

We all lost after Buhari won.

So, if we vote wrong in 2023, it will humble all of us including you.

Elections are not personal Victories. If the wrong person wins, the whole country loses (all of us irrespective of who you voted for will lose).

But if the right person wins, all of us wins.

It's up to you search your soul and know this isn't about humbling anyone and more about doing what is best for everyone.

Tobdek:
I'm an atheist. Something strange happened to me today and I can't stop thinking about it.

Someone mistakenly sent me airtime this morning. He called me to resend it because he wanted to send it to his father. A while later, he called me to thank me and gave the phone to his father who thanked me profusely and prayed for me. His father told me that he was an ifa priest from Ile ife.He told me to go and buy pure water and call him back in exactly three minutes. I decided not to but I was curious to hear what he wanted to say.

I called him and to my surprise, this man told me my surname! It felt so strange. He told me to ask for three things I want. He asked me if I had gotten the pure water, I told him no and he said I should go and buy it and call him back. I don't know if he's a scammer or a real priest. This has never happened to me before.

Cc Hahn
Hopefullandlord
Seun
Martinez39s
Johnydon22
Lordreed
Hardmirror
Pansophist

Looks like scam bro

Why?