JESUS HAD HIS WIRES CROSSED

The idea of hell is incompatible with the Golden Rule

If everyone who ever lived was doomed to suffer eternal torture then it would massively reduce the total suffering the human race had experienced to prevent that suffering. It would be a loving, caring thing to prevent that suffering. If a God had erased hell so that no human could go there then that would have prevented and avoided a nearly infinite amount of suffering and the suffering of humans while on Earth would seem relatively trival by comparison. God would have needed to jump into hell and abolish it to be worthy of love & adoration. To win the right to save people but then only choose to save a minority would be mostly cruel, bad, unjust etc.

What of the suffering of humans while on Earth ? After the human race has come to an end and if an account could be made, nothing could be done to undo the suffering that was experienced. Only by preventing  suffering by intervening, giving the knowledge to make medicines & avoid illness or stopping the crime before it happened could the total suffering have been reduced & the situation  made better. By contrast, sending all those who caused suffering to an eternal suffering would only  increase the total suffering of the human race.

I was brought up going to church. I have heard most of the views about the Bible. My conclusion is that the idea of hell is incompatible with the Golden Rule. 

The idea of a perfect, loving God is incompatible with the idea of hell.

 If a perfect God had practiced due diligence then hell would not have come into existence. 

If Jesus had won the victory over a hell then to be a hero he would have needed to save everyone or change the game plan so that it was a choice of heaven or extinction. 

If you have to do to others as you would have them do to you then since no one would wish to go to an eternal torture then you could not agree to send someone else to hell. 

A caring God would have had a duty of care to prevent anyone becoming liable for hell. With so many habitable planets in the universe it would have been easy to wipe out Earth as soon as a hell came into existence and start again on another planet.

 For God so loved the world that he not only allowed suffering in this world but also sent most to eternal suffering ? Doesn't really fit does it ? For God so loved the world that he erased hell so that at least when people died they could rest in peace; sounds better.

What can you say of a God who was all knowing yet stood by and did not inform humanity to the ways to prevent suffering. We now know from science & technology that there were many things that could have been done to reduce pain & suffering. Yet none of these ideas came from Jesus or Biblegod. In fact Jesus mislead people into thinking that the only thing that could be done was prayer / casting spells.

The idea of hell is incompatible with the golden rule

The golden rule says to aim to treat others as you want them to treat you.
So if you think that the golden rule is a good rule of thumb then ask yourself if you would want to be sent to a hell of eternal suffering ( if such a thing existed ) If the answer is no then how could you agree to send others to hell ? Not possible. How could a God who lived by the golden rule send any human to hell ?

The idea of hell is incompatible with the concept of a loving, perfect God. An almighty caring God would have needed to prevent a hell coming into existence and if it had would have had a duty to prevent any human becoming liable to go to hell. God could have terminated this planet as soon as a hell came into existence, before any human was liable to end up in hell. If there are many habitable planets in the Universe it should have been easy for a god to start another human race elsewhere and hopefully that god would have learned some lessons on how to prevent everything going pear shaped.

In any case hell / hades / Tartarus look like fictional places.
2 Peter 1v16 claims,"We did not follow cleverly invented tales"
Yet 2 Peter 2v4 uses the name Tartarus in the original Greek which was a dungeon in the mythical Hades. "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to tartarus, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgement"

I agree with the Bible passages which say, "Love your neighbour", "Treat others as you want them to treat you", "Love does no harm", "Do not murder", "Greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friend", "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness"
I think these ideas are not compatible with the idea of hell. The Bible has its wires crossed on this point. It is like sewing a patch of new cloth onto an old wine bottle, the bottle will split. Spotting and accepting that there is a contradiction about this matter is like rending in two the curtain separating the holy of holies in the Temple of Jerusalem. Or it is like Samson pushing apart the two columns holding up the pagan temple. Or it is like the story about Samson about finding the hive of bees in the carcass of the lion,"Out of the eater something sweet" or it is like saying if you had skepticism the size of a grain of mustard you would say to the mistaken ideas in the Bible to pick themselves up an be thrown in the sea.
The stories about Jesus can save us from the myths of hell and show that it is not real.

Universalism or atheism ? How can we react to people who have caused others to suffer?

 Why would I need to worry about any of Jesus ideas about heaven & hell  if I thought that there was a supernatural being who was definitely going to take us all to a happily ever after ?  I think if there was a loving God and if we had an immortal part and if there was a heaven to go to then I would be taken there along with everyone else, washed, cleansed, renewed. But if we have no spirit or soul then we will go back to nothing which isn't a problem either. I have to admit it grates to think of some of the tyrants of history going to a happily ever after, so they can just go extinct.
If you think that someone who has caused severe suffering to others should be punished then how much suffering can they be sentenced to before you have done a worse deed than the person you criticized ? If we sentence the Nazis to eternal torment will we be acting worse than they did ? I think prevention & restitution is the only real solution

The Jedi has again failed to return on May the 4th, will his record be as bad as Jesus ?

Another May the 4th has come & gone with no sign of the return of the Jedi, seems like he might be as fictional as Jesus.
Jesus greatest error was to fail to notice that Hades was an idea invented by the Greeks or Zoroastrians. The ancient Egyptians fantasied about a judgement day too, with the ones whose heart weighed light being thrown to the crocodile god to be eaten or burned up like chaff in a fire. They needed to know the secret names of the gods and their mysteries to sail into the afterlife. Last time I heard their bodies were still with us.
Jesus also failed to recognise it isn't loving, caring or just to let people suffer for ever after death, in any case how could they if they have no spirit or soul ? Ecclesiates 9v5-6,"The dead know nothing...never again will they have a part in anything under the sun". [ How could that fit with Matt 27v52 which has folk resurrecting ? It contradicts Jesus alleged resurrection ] Even the author of Romans 13v10 scolds the ideas about judgement attributed to Jesus,"Love does no harm to its neighbour". How can you claim to love your neighbour while you approve the idea that they should suffer for ever more ? 1 John 2v9,"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ". If Jesus had won the victory over a hell why not save everyone & abolish hell totally ? Because then priests would make less money ? Jesus claimed to be the light but maybe he was the darkness - someone with his wires crossed ?
Jesus failed to note that the O.T describes a God who fails to prevent things going pear shaped.
Thomas Paine noted that the gospels have Jesus taken up to a high place but somehow he fails to notice the Americas.
To me Jesus was more like a detour, half truths and a degraded life
Jesus failed to explain the causes of earthquakes, he showed no knowledge of plate tectonics, he gave no advice about which areas of the planet to avoid building on or on how to design buildings that would be resilient to earthquakes. Luke 21v11 makes Jesus say that earthquakes are a sign & omen rather than just something that has always happened and always will until the Sun becomes a red giant.
Jesus or his creators failed to predict any detail of the science and technology that came after the first century. The 21st century we know was completely unknown to him or any other founder of a religion.
The religion of the 21st century that counts is the one of attention to detail and being on the ball.

James 5v16 Vs Roman 3v10

How is it that there are millions of 'holy' folk on the planet claiming a direct line to their personal God yet none of them has ever been able to give a 24 hour warning about an earthquake about to occur so that people can stand clear of the buildings ?

But now lets pray for the victims?

Like the Epicurean paradox sort of says, if there is a god then he is guilty of not doing the good he should ( if all knowing and all powerful ) However there are some decent excuses such as that he is so far away that he can't see Earth due to the brightness of our Sun. It is only in the last few years that astronomers have developed the technology to be able to make out the existence of exo-planets orbiting distant stars.

Recently David Cameron was at the Holy Ghost Festival of Life in London headed by pastor Daddy GO ( General Overseer / Witch doctor ) who was asking people to pray that there would be no earthquakes and natural disasters.
"The prayer of a righteous man is powerful & effective"-NIV James 5v16
Lack of success could be explained by
Romans 3v10 "There is no one righteous, not even one"

See point 5 from the International section, oops.

festivaloflife etc/event/2015-prophecy
Prophecy for the Year 2015 by Pastor E.A Adeboye

INDIVIDUAL:

For those who fasted for 100 days last year;

1. The Lord says the harvest for the 100 days fast will be given this year.
2. Daddy says this year will be full of testimonies; those who have none before will have this year.
3. Daddy says some of you will swim in the river of abundance this year.

4. Daddy says there will be miraculous completion of projects.
5. Daddy says there will be fulfilment of dreams.
6. Daddy says there will be miraculous restoration.
7. Daddy says the song of many will be - The Lord has been good to me.

INTERNATIONAL:
1. Scientific and medical breakthrough will be many, particularly in the areas of lack of sleep, dreams and brain disorder.
2. Daddy says Ebola will die out.
3. Daddy says all over the world insurgency will be considerately weakened.
4. He asked us to pray against massive calamities.
5. He asked us to pray against massive earthquakes, strong hurricanes and typhoons.

For RCCG:
1. This year all you need is to charge off your batteries by fasting for 40 days only.
2. Those of you who want to fast continuously 20 days and 20 nights will cover the 40 days.
3. If you miss one day, you have to cover it with two days.

NIGERIA:
By the end of the year - you will say all is well that ends well.
The fasting begins January 2nd 2015.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Chronicles of Narnia are interesting stories. One interpretation of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is that the white witch represents superstition & fantasy whereas Aslan represents a naturalistic view of the world or maybe even the scientific method. Some people while attempting to assert a supernatural story onto the world have tried to suppress the scientific method. They may at times celebrate as if they have won something. However looking at the deeper writings - in the genetic code, the fossils, the geology, astronomy and even the widest picture of what is known of human history, the evidence shows that the supernatural view was not real. ( Like Aslan we can have been lured into the Christian fantasy under tales about it being for the greater good or a necessity or under fears of hell, we may have been damaged and left without hope, left for dead but Aslan says to use the scientific method to study more deeply and widely, to see the secret writings which reveal that evolution is true, that there was no Adam & Eve etc So we realize that there is no hell, we have fresh hope and freedom from the nightmares of religion )

The gospels only claim that Jesus restored the sight of blind people to average naked eye vision, nowhere is there a claim that Jesus gave bionic vision to people, no where does Jesus say that if people could magnify the images then they would find the way to improve the quality of life for humans. Lenses have been one of the most major break throughs towards greater understanding of the world about us, both as used in microscopes and telescopes. Close & detailed observation has been the way to new truths.

Exodus 7v8 has the Lord turn a staff into a snake but if rocks (sand) had been turned onto lenses to make a telescope & microscope then a far greater miracle would have been demonstrated.

The scriptures are the story of people who were walking in darkness and didn't have a clue as to how to get to the light. The story is of people trying to improve their lives by casting spells and following arbitrary rituals which had little root in reason or reality.

Science showed us that many of our fears were misplaced, it revealed what the real challenges are. Science shows that some of our worst fears were unfounded but also that some of our greatest hopes are also unlikely. It has given us immensely greater understanding of our universe but also that there are vast mysteries that might never be answered.

The Bible is a book that contains the golden rule and ideas like Romans 13v10, "Love does no harm to its neighbour" and yet the authors and characters often fail to live by these ideals or to use them as a plumb line by which to test handed down doctrines, even though 1 Thessalonians 5v21 says to test everything. Hold onto the truth. John 16v13 talks of the need to be guided into all truth.

In Exodus chapter 11 & 12 are we to guess that the unnamed Pharaoh was not a firstborn and for that reason wasn't too worried by the threat of the first born dying ? Was it only first born males or females too ? Exodus 12v30 has all of Pharaoh's officials getting up so are we to assume none of them were first born or did it mean all the remaining ones that hadn't been smitten ? What about the claim in v 30 that there was not a house without someone dead, is it likely that every house would have had a firstborn person ? Did everyone live in longhouses with extended families, no houses with only a young childless couple or single old person who weren't first born ? Could the Egyptians of that time have determined when midnight was, what sort of clocks did they have pre 1000 BCE ? Why doesn't Exodus mention water clocks or star & merkhets as the means to determine midnight ?

The real question is that if a God could wipe out first born people then why not just go the whole way and wipe out all the Egyptians thus leaving Egypt for the Israelites ? Why not do it more humanely by just causing the Egyptians to be infertile over the previous 430 years ? If God could be so targeted in taking out the first born then why couldn't God have done a precision strike on Hitler & other cruel dictators ?

Ted Wright mentioned the partially fictional story of the "Raiders of the lost ark" which mentions the story of 2 Chronicles chapter 12 where Shishak swept up from Egypt with his army, I guess over the course of a few weeks, and v4 captured the fortified cities of Judah then raided Jerusalem v9 of 'everything' in the Temple of the Lord & palace of Solomon. So Shishak was able to do what Moses & co took over 40 years to do ? Also how come we have a name for the Eygptian king whereas in Exodus the Pharaoh is anonymous ? Do any of the Bible characters claim to have seen the Ark of the Covenant again after the 2 Chronicles events or could the Ark really have been stolen by Shishak and no one noticed ? The Bible certainly does not record when the Ark disappeared, it just forgets all about it.

How could it be possible for people to raid the Temple of the Lord when it clearly shows in "Raiders of the lost ark" that the presence of God was able to look after itself ; smiting all those Nazi soldiers ? Even 2 Samuel 6:1- 7 has Uzzah struck down for touching the Ark of the covenant even though he was well intentioned, trying to protect it.

Jesus the ergot ridden bread of madness

My saviour from babble looks like Valerie Tarico.

John 6v25 has Jesus say,"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty"

On one hand this could be false advertising but on the other hand does Christianity act like a poison which subdues appetite and thirst for knowledge? Maybe Jesus is the bread with ergot in it. It certainly has errors got. But maybe as modern science has derived uses for ergot chemistry, Valerie's analysis of the Christ myth offers a cure and shows the scriptures are evidence that the supernatural realm is a failed hypothesis.

Ergotism is the effect of long term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the Claviceps purpurea fungus that infects rye and other cereals. The symptoms can be roughly divided into convulsive symptoms and gangrenous symptoms.

Convulsive symptoms include painful seizures and spasms, diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, mental effects including mania or psychosis, headaches, nausea and vomiting.

In the Middle Ages, the gangrenous poisoning was known as "holy fire" or "Saint Anthony's fire", named after monks of the Order of St. Anthony who were particularly successful at treating this ailment. However it wasn't until 1676 that the cause was identified by Denis Dodart.

In the last century ergoline drugs have been derived from ergot.

Ergotamine is used medicinally for treatment of acute migraine attacks (sometimes in combination with caffeine). Medicinal usage of ergot fungus began in the 16th century to induce childbirth, yet dosage uncertainties discouraged the use. It has been used to prevent post-partum haemorrhage (bleeding after childbirth). It was first isolated from the ergot fungus by Arthur Stoll at Sandoz in 1918 and marketed as Gynergen in 1921

In addition to the naturally occurring ergonovine (used as an oxytocic) andergotamine (a vasoconstrictor used to control migraine), synthetic derivatives of importance are the oxytocic methergine, the anti-migraine drugs dihydroergotamine and methysergide, hydergine (a mixture of dihydroergotoxine mesylates, INN: ergoline mesylates), and bromocriptine, used for numerous purposes including treatment of Parkinson's disease. Newer synthetic ergolines used for Parkinson's disease include pergolide and lisuride.

Ergot: the story of a parasitic fungus (1958) on Youtube channel Wellcome library tells the story well.

The limestone the builders didn't pay attention to became a stumbling block

The geological society of America says, " Karst geology played a major role in Jerusalem's selection by David for his capital," Bramnik says. It proved to be a wise decision. One of David's successors, King Hezekiah, watched as the warlike Assyrian horde, a group of vastly superior warriors toppled city after city in the region. Fearing that they'd soon come for Jerusalem, he too took advantage of the limestone bedrock and dug a 550 meter-long (1804 feet) tunnel that rerouted the spring's water inside the city's fortified walls."

  So were there tombs with limestone stones blocking the doorway?

 Wikipedia article on limestone says," Most limestone is composed of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera."
 Hence life on Earth is much older than the 6000 years the Babble suggests. Check mate, get past that one Jesus. The limestone the builders rejected becomes a stumbling block for Christians that they can not roll out the way. 


How about this for a scenario: Maybe when the tomb diggers mined out the tomb, where Jesus ended up, they didn't realize that there was a sink hole a few inches under the floor of the tomb. On the day that Jesus died there were lots of people mining away at the limestone / chalk / gypsum forming tombs. There was an earthquake which made them panic and leave their work.With reference to Matthew 27v52; Visitors to Jerusalem for the passover saw the miners covered in white chalk dust and mistakenly assumed they were ghosts risen from the dead (As you do)   Later Jesus body was placed in the tomb and it was sealed with a round limestone stone. Another coincidental earthquake then happened which caused the now weakened floor of J.C's tomb to collapse. Jesus' body fell down the sink hole and then was flushed away by an underground stream. The earthquake also made the stone by the tomb entrance fall over. The disciple who looked into the tomb either couldn't see the hole in the dark or maybe some stone from the roof fell in afterwards and blocked the hole from view?  The disciples were so surprised by the shock of the earthquake and the absence of the body that they hallucinate, imagining that they see Jesus.
 However if there was a hole in the floor of the tomb maybe  the council indirectly found out and either sealed the tomb & covered it = so it is now hidden or perhaps they had the hold repaired.
A sort of mix of "Finding Nemo" and "Flushed away" 

[ Virutally impossible that  a sink hole would have formed there = its a miracle. But maybe millions of years ago there was a lot of water there ] 

You've had your chips Jesus, liberally sprinkled with sea salt

Matt 5v13 has Jesus say,"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?"

And Judas replied,"Who cares, just mine some more from under Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. There is enough there to supply 9 million tonnes a year for centuries. Throw it out on the roads of North America to be trampled under by cars, saving them from having an accident on ice. I'm going to stake ma claim right now, then I'll be God e rich.

The salt is thought to have been laid down during the silurian age, 430 million years ago, when a salty sea repeatedly dried out.
It is capped by dolostone which was formed 380 million years ago and contains fossilized coral. Yet more evidence to show the Babble is wildly mistaken about the idea that the Earth started 6000 years ago. So you've had your chips Jesus, liberally sprinkled with sea salt"


I read about it on "How the earth was made" by History channel, episode,"The great lakes"
35% of North Americas salt comes from these mines. Thin black lines in the walls of the salt mine show separate layers.

The Goderich mine can also be seen on Youtube
"The world's largest salt mine", Toronto Star channel

Leonard Nimoy - boldly gone where every man before him has gone. R.I.P.

Leonard Nimoy - boldly gone where every man before him has gone. R.I.P.

I enjoyed the Star Trek series. 

Quite a few of the Bible stories work better with a space aliens explanation, [It would be funny to do a Star Trek/Bible mash up ] eg;

Jesus praying in garden of Gethsemane could have been him actually speaking into a starfleet communicator, asking for help

Luke 23v44, Darkness over Jerusalem was like star ship Enterprise low overhead blocking out sun

Figures looking like Star Wars White Imperial guard stormtroopers beamed down in Matt 27v52-53 to try to find Jesus but are too late to prevent crucifiction. However they do locate him & use a stun ray to knock out Roman soldiers guarding the tomb (Matt 28v4) then beam Jesus up to Enterprise for Emergency Room treatment. After a couple of days recuperation Jesus beams back down to appear among the disciples in a locked room ( Luke 24v36) 

Finally Jesus gets beamed up to  star ship Enterprise in Acts 1v9

1 Kings 18v38 story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal a space ship uses lazer beams to set the altar wood on fire

Later Elijah was obviously abducted by aliens or taken up in Buck Rogers rocket ship:
2 Kings 2v11 It happened, as they still went on, and talked, that behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

Moses take 2

Moses take 2
And Moses did come down from the mountain a second time
This time with two blank tablets of stone
And the people said unto Moses,
"What's with the blank tablets Moses ? Did you forget your chisel or has God's lazer printer malfunctioned ?"
And Moses said unto the people,
"Well no matter what I would write you would twist the meaning to make it say whatever you wanted it to say, so I figured, "Sod it they can use science and reason to get by as best they can." You can know the reasons for and against on each issue but it often comes down to personal circumstances. Also there are the unknowns to factor in. Life is a game of chances. Besides what God said to me didn't make much sense and I'm wondering if I'm kidding myself about his existence anyway"
And the people replied,
"Thank God you've seen the light, it's just common sense that if you make to  damage someone else's stuff that they are going to defend it. Besides your first attempt at 10 commandments wasn't that much different from the 42 negative confessions on the Papyrus of Ani. The Egyptians knew that stuff long ago"

Acts 17v24 "God made the world and EVERYTHING IN IT"

Rev 1v8 claims the Lord God is “Almighty”
Matt 19v26 has Jesus say that “with God all things are possible”

James 4v17 says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins”

So then what excuse could an all powerful God have for not preventing the suffering on Earth ? The O.T. claims God intervened many times to do real stuff on Earth. A God who could see what was going on and who had the ability to do something about it but who stood idly by would have sinned, according to James 4v17
Often humans have the desire to alleviate or prevent suffering but lack the means to do so, we have an excuse.

Think of all the things a perfect loving God could have done to prevent suffering down through the ages but didn’t do.

Even giving the knowledge of germ theory would have helped prevent suffering yet Matthew 15 does not have Jesus show any appreciation of germ theory. Jesus could have said to the Pharisees and teachers of the law, “I agree that it is important to wash your hands in boiled water (cooled) before eating or helping with child birth or injuries, that would be quite a good tradition. What goes into your mouth can make you ill and giving food contaminated with e-coli could cause permanent damage to peoples health. We do have a duty of care to others.”

Romans 10v13 saysm,” Love does no harm.” but is contradicted by
Acts 17v24 which claims that “God made the world and EVERYTHING IN IT.” Oops that verse should have blamed Satan for making the pathogens.

An imagined Almighty God who played a part in the evolution of life on Earth could have influenced the genetic make up of insects to make it impossible for them to be vectors of the pathogens which harm humans or to cause the extinction of insects such as mosquitoes or parasitic worm Onchocerca volvulus

The theory of evolution by natural selection suggests that each surviving species of mammal has kept just ahead of the parasites and harmful bacteria, predators etc which would cause the extinction of the species. There is a constant struggle for survival. Maybe it is surprising that life can be as good as it is.

Humans now have the knowledge to give ourselves an increased edge. With the benefit of modern technology we can dramatically lengthen our life and have far less pain & illness. However if we enter a post antibiotic age or if agri-chemicals become less effective due to resistant weeds & diseases then we could lose some advances.

At any rate an imagined real cosmic God should be able to do infinite miracles to ensure 100% health from 0-70 years old then instantaneous death without suffering but we do not see this. Why not if Jesus had won a victory over sin and death ? Why not even for ‘the chosen ones’ ? Because the scripture writers were misreading their experiences & just making stuff up.

RAPTURE RUPTURED

Matthew 24 and Luke 17 have been used as a starting point for many further exaggerated fearsome stories of end times rapture but when read in detail and compared to modern knowledge of our solar system & galaxy beyond the gospel tales look like primitive guesswork & fantasy.

"The paper back apocalypse, how the Christian church was left behind" by Robert M. Price is worth reading. It examines the whole genre of both Christian and secular rapture fiction. 

Matt 24v29 says the sun will be darkened but how could that happen ? It is estimated to be good for billions of years yet

Matt 24v29 says the moon will not give its light but the moon only reflects sunlight and has no light  of its own

Matthew 24v28-29 says at the coming of the Son of Man stars will fall from the sky.
Well since it is impossible for stars to fall to Earth I guess we won't get to v30 with the Son of Man coming on the clouds.

What does Matt 24v31 mean," the angels will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" does it mean there are other civilizations spread through the galaxies of the universe or that Jesus thought heaven was just above our sky ? A trumpet call isn't going to travel very far, certainly not outwith our atmosphere and wouldn't they have been better with mobile phones to text the elect ?

Matthew 24v34 has Jesus say his generation would certainly not pass away until all these things have happened but his generation did pass away and those things never happened.

Matthew 24v35 says heaven and earth will pass away; well this is not so good for those hoping for a happy ever after in heaven. Does heaven mean sky ? Did the authors think the sky & heaven were the self same thing ?

Matthew 24v37 has Jesus talk about Noah as if it was a literal event but science has shown it was very probably a myth - both the Ark and a global flood

On p126 of Robert Price's 'The paperback apocalypse' ,"It is common to see Matthew 24v40-41,("Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left.Two women will be grinding at the mill;one is taken and one is left" Cf Luke 17v34) pressed into service as a mention of the Rapture. But Robinson is right: given the context, in which the eschatological catastrophe is compared to Noah's flood and the whelming of Sodom, the one "taken" must be the one destroyed, the one "left" the lucky survivor. See also Genesis 7v23,"He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark." Luke had the disciples ask for clarification:"Where Lord?" Luke has Jesus answer,"Where the body is, there the vultures will circle" Luke 17v37

It could be embarrassing if it was the other way round and the man in bed, Luke 17v34, was raptured at an inconvenient moment & appeared in the next second before God in heaven. I wonder if there would be a 10 minute warning.
TalkOrigins website shows that the Noah's flood story is probably a myth.

Luke 17v29 says fire and sulphur rained down on Sodom from heaven but why didn't they say it was a pyroclastic flow from a volcano? What is the closest volcano to Israel ? Is it the Nabro stratovolcano in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea whose only known eruption was in 2011 or is it Santorini near Crete? Does 'sulphur raining down' even mean anything, what would that look like ? = they were making stuff up.

Website "Amazing Bible discoveries" article,' Sulfur and ash from Gomorrah' makes claims about finding sulfur balls near the Dead sea. How did they come to be there ?

Yet another fantasy: In Ezekiel 47:8-9 there is a specific prophecy that the Dead sea will ".. be healed and made fresh", becoming a normal lake capable of supporting swarms of living creatures and large numbers of fish as a result of a river flowing from a Temple in Jerusalem. v10 Fishermen will stand on the banks between EnGedi to En Eglaim and spread their nets. Is there even a dry valley which slopes from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea ?

Matthew 24v51 has Jesus tell a tale about the master killing the servant who beat his fellow servants and threatens the servant will still weep and gnash his teeth after death. However this would mean that the master had behaved worse than the servant. There servant only beat people but the master murdered people and tortured them, for what ?

Dr Who Review of episode,"Last Christmas" shown 25th December 2014

BBC,"Dr Who" sci-fi fantasy episode for 25th Dec. 2014,"Last Christmas" 

was written by Steven Moffat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

The story is a bit abstract but the plot is based on the idea that "Dream crabs" are a sort of parasite which are like a big hand which attaches to the face of its victim causing them to slip into dreams while it sucks their brains out. The only way to escape the dream crabs is to wake up and return to reality. So the person has to work out what is real and what it not real.

One idea in the story is that four of the crew are each given a instruction manual and are asked to read from page 12. What they read out is different from each other which reveals that they are not really awake but in a dream state. The parallel is in comparing what scripture says to what we know from science.

I liked the bit where Dr Who tells the crew to focus on other things (their favourite things?) so that the dream crabs will lose their power

The story could be interpreted as a wake up call to people to shake off religious delusion. In religion there is a difference between knowing what the stories say and knowing the various interpretations, i.e the apologist's attempt to persuade that the stories are real and the skeptics interpretation which notes reasons to consider the stories to be not real events.

The show starts with a Santa having crashed his sleigh on the rooftop of Clara's house. Santa asks the elves to pick up the spilled tangerines. One of his elves says,"Nobody likes tangerines". Santa replies,"How dare you, that is my signature gift". A couple of minutes later Dr Who is made to repeat the line,"Nobody likes tangerines"

I would guess that over 70% of people like the taste of tangerines/ satsuma/ clementines/ oranges.
Maybe the line,"Nobody likes tangerines" is placed in the film to be so contrary to what we experience from real life as to make people kick back against it rather than just mindlessly agreeing with everything. If people are encouraged to see the error in things that heroes like Dr Who say then might they also question statements by the "heroes" in scriptures ?

Santa's reply,"How dare you" was an attempt to assert by authority but he could have been made to refer to market research showing 90% of those who tried satsumas enjoyed them.

It can be a bit of hassle when the peel is like glued on to the fruit or when there are seeds but I think the taste is worth it.

Right at the start when Santa's  sleigh crashes into the roof top, he shouts ad hominem / name calling,"Moron" but I would like to imagine Santa would speak about his emotions,"Oh grief, this is so infuriating / upsetting / worrying." Describe the situation," I have so much to do, I can't afford to lose time like this." Inquire about the reasons for what happened and offer instruction on how to avoid & improve in future," What on Earth happened dear Elf ? Were you not watching where you were going? Do you need glasses? Were you not concentrating, were you blinded by the snow ? Do we need to get you GPS steering or radar ? Going too fast due to unrealistic work load?"

See article in the Independant newspaper from 17th December 2009
Are tangerines, satsumas and 'clementinies' any better than the traditional orange?
http://www.independent.co.uk/l...

Celebrate Christmas because you know the reasons to think the gospel is not real

 Celebrate Christmas because you know the reasons to think the gospel is not real or 
Celebrate Christmas because you think it gives you a happily ever after
Celebrate Christmas because of the things about it that you enjoy, what ever.
Avoid the things about Christmas that you loathe, manage it which ever way you like.



 I celebrate that I have discovered the books & websites which share the reasons to think that the supernatural tales are not real.  Seth Andrews, "The Thinking Atheist" made a great video, "Drawing back the curtain". I think the information Seth shares enriches Christmas. Well it makes a deliciously bitter sweet dialectic.
 I love to scoff at Christmas. When Christmas carols come on the radio I enjoy to think of opposite lyrics. Some people get to play the fool and I get to play the wise man, but then they probably think I play the fool and they play the wise man. As Richard Dawkins said in TGD the common man thinks its true, the educated man thinks its false and the ruler thinks its handy. [You can't have a parody if you don't know the original ]

There is a wealth of skeptic freethought surrounding the nativity stories that can be a spur to studying the history of astronomy etc.
 Aaron Adair makes good points in his book,"The star of Bethlehem: A skeptical view"
Jonathon M.S. Pearce does a similar thing in,"The Nativity:A critical examination"

I would like to send  wide angle Christmas cards that expand peoples vision. The nativity story has Jesus go to Egypt, so I would have a picture of a pyramid with the name Osiris & the 42 negative confessions (1250 BCE), the magi would be Galileo offering the baby a telescope, Leeuwenhoek offering a microscope, Amerigo Vespucci offering a Globe, the star would be comet 67p with Rosetta probe orbiting and Philae Lander on it - reminding of the Philae obelisk with its decree written in both Egyptian hieroglyph & ancient greek , the Rosetta stone with its hieroglyph, demotic & ancient Greek. The angels might be Darwin & Ingersoll. This is the fantastic tale of how science & reason & careful study have gone through every detail in the Bible stories and shown where they are wildly improbable.

I can see that there are bits of religion that people would want to be true - the happy ever after. i find that I have no less security about that, maybe more. I think a loving deity would take everyone to a happily ever after, if there was one but since it looks like there is no supernatural then I look forward to resting in peace. R.I.P looks positively rosy once you have looked into the pit of worst fears. It is possible to see religion as amusing fiction fantasy. ( except for its real life impact ) 

Eve partakes the apple iphone3G which hangs from the tree of knowledge

The Genesis tales might be the authors' best guesses 2500+ years ago but in evolution we have a much more likely explanation for how the world is.

ReWrit Genesis 3v6
And Eve looked into the apple iphone3G that hung from the tree of knowledge and saw that it was pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom and a better quality of life. As she looked more deeply into it she discovered Wikipedia and Youtube. As she clicked through the links she saw many material things which could enhance her rather uncomfortable existence. She saw medicines which could cure the illnesses that her relations had suffered. She saw foods that could help maintain health. She saw another universe of entertaining ideas and stories which made more sense about how the Earth operated.

Then Eve thought to herself. Why has that man who has been wandering around here, calling himself God almighty, been trying to keep me from discovering all this knowledge? God has failed to cure my families illnesses or to raise our quality of life. Each time his spells fail he says it is our fault for not having enough faith or for having done something to displease him. You know what, it is starting to dawn on me that this knowledge can be good for me and that the ideas of God have been evil for me. I think God was maybe just trying to keep us running around after him, waiting on him hand and foot while he sits in his ivory tower. I think that apple salesman who God called a snake oil salesman actually made some good points.

And Eve called to Adam, "Look mate, we don't have to live like dumb monkeys, huddled in paranoid fear of things that aren't even real. Do you want to sit here using twigs to fish termites out of the mound living a nasty, short, brutish life or do you want a taste of the action and reach for the stars?"
Then Adam said," I'm not sure, i'm afraid it will end in disaster
And Eve said unto Adam,"You are starting to really get on my wick and you know what you won't be getting when I'm in a foul mood"
And Adam said,"Give me that Apple, I'll be your dog"

The very first Apple Computer logo, drawn by Ronald Wayne, depicts Isaac Newton under an apple tree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H...

Specific Versus Generalized, exaggerated

I admire the high resolution article on 6th Nov 2014 by Jerry Coyne critiquing the article by, Andrew Brown: "If you hate the belief, you hate the believer" 

Jerry Coyne shows his eye for detail and demonstrates how to make comments that are specific, to the point, accurate.

I wonder if there is a comparison with image resolution? There is a good illustration on Wikipedia:

wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution#mediaviewer/File:Resolution_illustration.png

I wonder if early human language was like ZX-81 resolution?

         It is so easy to make generalized, exaggerated, conflated comments like, “I hate you” which most often means, “I hate the thing you did just there” or “I am furious at being told to do that”

Mostly "I don't like you" is a vague, amorphous, rude way of saying,"There is something that you have done or an idea that you hold that I don't like" or "I don't trust you not to harm me, I suspect he is looking for an opportunity to steal from me or do something harmful such as scheming against me" Maybe it is mostly the case that people have mixed feelings about others. Love and hate, amusement and boredom, admiration and revulsion, like and dislike.

           If a super intelligent brain surgeon who has an IQ of 160 is driving a car and breaks the highway code at some point, due to being distracted by solving some three dimensional trigonometric equation then does it make sense for the person who is at risk of injury to shout,”You idiot” ? It would be more accurate to say,”That was idiotic behaviour” but maybe more specific & helpful to say,”Don’t get distracted from driving, concentrate, watch out, keep your mind on the task in hand”

         I think it is interesting to look at the changes that the Coran has made to the Babble stories, however I hate the idea of hell that is proposed in the Coran. I think it is hateful to propose that hell is real. It makes me angry when I hear people make such proposals but then I focus on what I have read that says it is wildly unlikely that there is any afterlife let alone one of suffering. Also having thought of the worst case scenario of hell and then seen that it probably doesn't exist, annihilation seems preferable, a relief rather than a gloomy disappointment. So then I can laugh at the stories of religion and pity those who are blinded by it. Their religion is only one aspect of them. I like some of the Islamic melodies & architecture etc.

             If I love one aspect or point of a film it doesn’t mean I love it all equally, just as if I loathe one scene it doesn’t mean I have to reject the whole thing. However it is maybe just part of life that our first comments about something give a vague impression to what we witnessed; “loved it, great, abysmal” and only later do we fill in details once we are more focused on it.
(It can sometimes be funny to deliberately exaggerate but can also be done destructively)
It is just too easy to make distorted, over the top comments in the heat of the moment. Later we hope the other person will ignore it as nonsense. The,”I’m annoyed that you forgot to put the bin out” becomes,”You always do that. You’re hopeless” but could have been,”Please try harder” Does it matter?

    When some one says,"You fool" it is possible to reply, "In what way exactly ? What is it about what I have done that you are displeased about ? What did you want me to do, how exactly did you want it done"

    By making generalized, exaggerated comments maybe it can be compared to  using a sledge hammer to drive in a pin or an axe to do brain surgery instead  a scalpel

Parallels between the 2014 sci-fi film "Interstellar" and the gospels

I watched the 2014 science-fiction adventure film,"Interstellar" directed by Christopher Nolan. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine, the film features a team of space travelers who travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet. It has plenty of warped science but I suppose that gives the viewer a chance to show off their superior knowledge by criticizing it.

Are there parallels between the plot of, "Interstellar" and the gospels ? Cooper ( played by Matthew McConaughey) is sent on a mission to save the human race. He is sent to prepare a place for the chosen few. He says he will return,within the lifetime of his daughter, to take the chosen ones there. He discovers that the promising new worlds are actually fairly bleak. He fails to return due to being stuck in another dimension after falling into a black hole. By a strange quirk of Hollywood logic this somehow results in him being stuck behind the bookcase in his family home. He shoves books out of the book case to try to catch his daughters attention.

I think Christopher Nolan may have solved the Bible riddle ;-) What actually happened was that the events of the life of Jesus took place on Earth's nearly twin planet in close proximity to Gargantua, a nearby rotating black hole which is in another galaxy. This new planet has water that you can walk on, either due to much stronger gravity or due to having much higher salt content than even the dead sea. ( The film didn't really explain why)

Has Jesus got stuck in a black hole and the Bible stories are about what happened on the planet he found? He shoved the Bible through from the back of someones book case in the second century and people mistook it thinking that the events took place on Earth ?

Professor Brand is like the priests who make up a story about having a complex mathematical formula to save the world but it is all a lie to get people to do what they want.

Galileo and the miracle of seeing the phases of Venus

How do we get the media to look further back in history ?
The history behind the star and crescent emblem is quite funny. The star has been imagined as Venus and the crescent as a phase of the moon. However they have drawn a distorted/fictional crescent which extends past the poles.(The crescent on the flag of Singapore is closest to real life) It would have been a miracle if the Coran had said the star was Venus and the crescent was showing a moment of its phases. Neither the Coran nor the Babble manage this miracle even though Mohammad is claimed to have flown to the seven heavens on his trusty Buraq and Jesus also is said to have flown up past the clouds.  They both failed to advise on how to make lenses. Perhaps they were both short sighted and needed glasses but didn't know how to make them ?

In medieval Islamic cosmology due to the scientific dominance of the Ptolemaic the Muslim astronomers accepted unanimously the geocentric model. The ideas in the Almagest allowed for predictions of the motion of planets so maybe reinforced their mistaken view that the geocentric model was correct.

Using a telescope in 1610, Galileo was able to observe Venus going through a full set of phases, something prohibited by the Ptolemaic system (which would never allow Venus to be fully lit from the perspective of the Earth, as this would require it to be on the far side of the sun, which is impossible if its orbit is, as the Ptolemaic system requires, between the Earth and the sun ). This observation essentially ruled out the Ptolemaic system, and was compatible only with the Copernican system

See Wikipedia: Geocentrism and Islamic astronomy

Also from Wikipedia:

During the 1950s to 1960s, the symbol was re-interpreted as a symbol of Islam or the Muslim community.

 It has been associated with the Moabites (14th or early 13th – 6th century BC), as the symbol or symbols appear on what are thought to be Moabite name seals. Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god Sin (Nanna to the Sumerians) and the star (often identified as Venus) with Ishtar (Inanna to the Sumerians). However, in this context, there is a third element often seen, that being the sun disk of Shamash.

The star and crescent was also the emblem of Mithradates VI Eupator. "His royal emblem, an eight rayed star and the crescent moon, represented the dynasty's patron gods, Zeus, Stratios, or Ahuramazda, and Men Pharmacou, a Persian form of the native moon goddess." Other scholars have suggested that the star and crescent are more directly related to the cult of the god Mithra. Ustinova associates the star and crescent motif attested in a number of finds in the Bosporan Kingdom (which date from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD) with the cult of Mithras, and indicates the star and the crescent together constituted the emblem of Pontus and its kings, asserting that it was introduced to the Bosporus by Mithradates and his successors, where it is attested on coins, locally produced jewelry and other objects. She suggests that this emblem indicates "the possibility of an earlier association of the Pontic dynasty with the cult of mounted Mithra. Mithra in fact must have been one of the most venerated gods of the Pontic Kingdom, since its rulers bore the theomorphic name of Mithradates […] although direct evidence for this cult is rather meager."

Parody on Genesis 2v7. Eve was created first, on the eve of Adam

My parody ReWrit on Genesis 2v7

In the beginning the first Homo sapiens God created was Eve. God saw that she was very beautiful and fell in love with her, one thing led to another but to cut a long story short they had a fling. Nine months later Adam was born. God excused himself by saying, "Well at least it saved me from having to do surgery and from now on Adam will have to pander to woman's every whim in order to make up for my sin of emission"
This explains why all men are bastards who have delusions of grandeur thinking they are God's gift to the world when in fact they are the result of a moment of madness.
Also it means that women are damn right when they say, "For God's sake will you do some house work around here"
Unless men do what women tell them to do then God will be very angry with them.
This myth also explains why Eve was called eve - because she was created on the eve of Adam
And Adam called Eve, "Womban" because she had a womb from which the lowly animal Adam was born

The term "all men are bastards" is a colloquialism / slang for, " Men have a tendency to do things which women find annoying, like not behaving as their better half would like; expecting love without financial commitment etc"



Parody on Iron Maiden track, "Sign of the cross" from their X factor album

Eleven religiously deluded men, silhouettes looming against the sky One in front with a cross held high, come to speak his lies anyway
Standing alone in the wind and rain feeling calm, my fears have subsided Sensing the change in the tide again brought by the storm that is brewing Feeling no anxiety as I remember the reasons to doubt the things I once believed Now that science & reason has passed the test nothing to do but await what is coming Why then fear 'God' ? No harm befalls me when I don't believe in the supernatural. By Richard Dawkins I am blessed with an inner strength, some they would call it atheism I face this like Carl Sagan saying extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence Praying to a God who isn't there won't help me. I feel the freedom start to rise They'll be saying their prayers when troubles come But I won't fret my way through life, there's no judgement day May the guilty weep when that law man comes, may the law prevent & prevail, take them away to jail The sign of the cross; the name of the fraud, clouded over the sky, the sigh of the cross There will be no cosmic apocalypse, it was out of date 1900 years ago, there will be no immortality Life evolved by natural selection, not magical creator, no God, so at death I will rest The sign of the double helix, the fact of evolution on an 4.5 billion year old sphere, a universe with billions of galaxies, a heliocentric solar system Eleven saintly deluded men come to speak their lies anyway

Original:
Eleven saintly shrouded men silhouettes stand against the sky One in front with a cross held high come to wash my sins awayStanding alone in the wind and rain feeling the fear that is growing Sensing the change in the tide again brought by the storm that is brewing Feel the anxiety hold off the fear some of the doubts in the things you believe Now that your faith will be put to the test nothing to do but await what is comingWhy then is God still protecting me even when I don't deserve it Thought I am blessed with an inner strength some they would call it a penance Why am I meant to face this alone asking the question time and again Praying to God won't keep me alive inside my head feel the fear start to riseThey'll be saying their prayers when the moment comes there'll be penance to pay when it's judgement day And the guilty will bleed when that moment comes they'll be coming to claim, take your soul away The sign of the cross the name of the rose, a fire in the sky the sign of the crossThey'll be coming to bring the eternal flame they'll be bringing us all immortality Holding communion so the world be blessed my creator, my God will lay my soul to rest The sign of the cross the name of the rose, a fire in the sky the sign of the crossLost the love of heaven above chose the lust of the earth below Eleven saintly shrouded men came to wash my sins away

REAL OR NO REAL ?

How is it that so many people can watch ghost stories with ghosts passing easily through solid walls and yet they don't immediately question why would the stone  need to roll away from in front of the tomb of Jesus to let him out ? Physicists like Lawrence Krauss tell us that physical materials are actually mostly empty space at atomic level.  Even Luke 24v36 has Jesus appear as if by magic in front of the disciples. V37 they thought they saw a ghost. v38 somehow it doesn't dawn on Jesus why it should be a bit scary to appear out of thin air. Strangely none of the disciples asked, " How did you manage to appear out of thin air, where did you teleport from ? " What about v32 which might have been 7 miles away in Emmaus, which has Jesus magically disappear from two of his followers and yet they don't say, " Wow how could he disappear into thin air " also back at v40 these two followers don't say, "Jesus disappeared into thin air from before our very eyes at Emmaus, neat trick Jesus".

John20v19 has Jesus appear and stand among the disciples even though the door was locked.

Matt 27v51 Has the tombs break open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life, but again why would any tomb need to break? Couldn't these ghosts have drifted though solid stone ? Isn't it just a way whereby the author makes the story more dramatic and tangible ? 

See the Youtube video on "Madtv" of the parody of Terminator going back to the supposed life of Jesus to prevent his death by assassinating Judas. Jesus brings Judas back to life again so that Judas will be able to betray him. 
Anyway the video makes a glowing light at Jesus hands  as Jesus restores Judas but I doubt if light would be necessary for the healing [ Saw this link in " Killing history" by Robert M. Price.]

Was the original tale about Jesus just a prank ghost story or play that some people later mistook to be an account of factual events ?

Parody of Nunnery scene from Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”

To believe or not to believe,
that is the question ?
Fact or fiction ?
Whether these stories really happened
Or were they just made up,
figments of ghost writers’ imaginations ?
Accurate accounts of historical reality or distortions, exaggerations ?
Mere retelling of ancient lore ?
Alas poor Jesus. Did anyone know him well ?
If we held his skull it would show that someone by that name lived, but was he only a puppet or ventriloquist’s dummy?
Entombed like a Pharaoh mummy ?
Luke 18v19, why do you call me good ?
when so much of what I say is dumb & rude
Would it be as foolish as the Egyptian belief to think that he sailed a barque across the heavens?
A popish pilot steering St. Peter’s Barque, Jings crivvens ?
Help ma boab
O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us
To see oursels from an evolutionary perspective!