Thanks J.M Green, you nailed that one.
I think if the star isn't either fictional & symbolic or Tinkerbell then the next best bet is that the star was the Starship Enterprise which had visited Nazareth 9 months earlier, beaming down Captain James T. Kirk who had a one night stand with Mary. Mary thought Kirk was God because of how the teleporter beam looked when he beamed down, plus he was clean & dressed in space age clothes & aftershave, compared to Joseph who bore a strong resemblance to a billy goat. The ( Luke 2 ) angels that the shepherds reported were other members of the Enterprise who beamed down to see the son of Kirk. The baby was named Christ Almighty because Kirk said, " Christ Almighty he is just like me " when he saw how similar Mary's boy child looked. Obviously the rest just falls into place; Kirk returns 30 years later to save his son Christ Almighty from the cross and beams him up to the Enterprise in Acts 1v9. He said he would return and he did - in 1966 [ they flipped the first 6 to be a 9 to disguise the 666 ]. There has been an elaborate deception going on to make everyone think that the Star Trek series was just a fantasy drama filmed in a studio but in fact it is real footage of exploration through the universe. The NT has now been fulfilled and the chosen ones will be taken to an exoplanet in another galaxy. Captian Kirk hadn't aged much because he spent a lot of time travelling near the speed of light.

That Kirk is the real father of Christ also explains how Jesus is shown in paintings as a white man.
Obviously Kirk had to go back in time through a worm hole
Those who thought the Bible was no less fictional that Star Trek, were correct - they are both real, it's just that people have mistaken super advanced technology for God. In reality there is no God. I expect it was the Enterprise that used its lasers to scorch Elijah's offering in 1 King 18v38. Possibly the Enterprise also used it tractor beam to slow the rotation of the Earth to allow Joshua to win the battle as recounted by Joshua 10, also blasting the Amorites with canon, mistaken for hail stones. I haven't asked Captain T. Kirk about this last part so I am just guessing. I could be mistaken.

NB the T in Kirk stands for Tiberius which could be how the Sea of Galilee is know as lake Tiberius
" Where no man has gone before " is obviously the original version of John 14v6, " I am the way, No man comes to the father except by me "
" Kirk " would also explain the switch form Synagogue to Kirk / church, Matt 16v18 { My God, I have unlocked the key to the truth ? ! Oh no, now MI6 will be out to get me. I know too much ;-) } So Peter is to be a security guard on the Enterprise. Matt 18v20 " Then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone he was Christ Kirk, the son of Captain T Kirk "

Thus saith the Lord God Almighty

And  in the third year of the reign of King Ahaz, I  the prophet Isaiah did prophecy: " While walking in the desert of Zin the earth around me did quake and the wind did howl, then amid the storm I heard the still clear voice of the Lord God Almighty. Hear o people of Israel what the Lord your God saith unto you. " Yeh the cries of the people have risen to me asking, " Where is this God you speak of, is he but a human construct, nothing but wild fantasy and delusion ? Well, I the almighty & awesome God need not lower myself to answering that question. Indeed I fear that I may not be best placed to answer it since much of what I say is only half true. However there shall come a prophet in the future by the name of John Loftus and he shall show that the evidence suggests that it is wildly improbable that I exist. Well credit where credit is due; I have to give John Loftus the prize for guessing correctly that I am no more than a mind game, Yes, it is time to come clean, I am a fraud and you have all been conned, so there, that is the awful truth and I feel much better for having admitted it too myself. i am nothing more than a collective human consciousness. Really sorry for any hopes raised & dashed, I'm afraid that I can't really offer you a heaven to go to but on the bright side no hell either. So it just shows that you can't win"

Then I the prophet Isaiah saith, " And so that might be the final word from our Lord God Almighty, and since he no longer exists it may be time to make my exist too, Byeeee "

NOW LET US PRAY

OH GOD OF GREAT THINGS, LET ME PROCLAIM YOUR ACTS.

Oh greatly incompetent God. I give thanks that there is none like you. Truly it would be an act of the most stupendous incompetence to allow a hell to come into existence and then lose most of the human race into it. To only manage to partly remedy the situation would be hard to exceed. To fail to completely undo the damage would earn you the crown of incompetence. Hail, for you would be the greatest in this respect if it was true.

Oh king of ignorance, dim wittedness  & paralysis of mind, we acknowledge that we have been made in your image by ministers who have taught us. We are witnesses to your character

Oh God of infinite brutality & cruelty, if the stories the Bible authors tell about you are true. We bow in
horror before your almighty barbarity. Forgive us that though we would offer unquestioning loyalty and allegiance & service to you [ in theory ] yet  our desire to stay out of prison and to live a decent life forbids that we act out what Bible authors indicate you would authorize.

Oh God who in the beginning created a circle and then said, " Oh fizzing fury & rage, I meant to create a square, how on Earth am I ever going to bring about a decent quality of life for the human animal in a
biological system where they are little better off than the sparrow and most of their offspring must end up as prey if their numbers are not to exceed the ability of their habitat to sustain them. Shit and damn that I spent an eternity in the planning but still managed to overlook some fairly basic design flaws "

Oh God of unlimited contradictions, who is simultaneously good and evil or otherwise mysterious if ministers are to be believed. Help us just to accept that you are beyond sense or understanding.

Oh God who is the source of all flaws, you are the potter and we the potty, we recognize the bullshit you deposit in us. We pray that it might be put to good use in fertilizing new growth.

Lord God, we are not worthy of you and so must decline your presence in our lives

For God's sake amen.

Warped imaginings verses best practice

My interpretation of Genesis 22 is that Abraham was going to follow the errant culture of his society by offering a child sacrifice because he thought it would appease the gods but that a real loving God intervened to say,  " Stop, I the cosmic loving, caring God would never ask or want a human sacrifice " See Hosea 6v6 , For I desire mercy, not sacrifice and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Now celebrate that you didn't do such a barbaric act. Make a barbecue, I fancy roast goat, well done with french fries and salad, Mmmm I'm loving the aroma.

ALTERNATIVE
And then God said to Abraham, " Go and offer your son Isaac as a sacrifice to me "
Abrham replied, " Are you out of your God damn mind ? There is no way I am doing that - it would be murder, and for what - nothing
And God replied,  " Bravo sir, a most excellent ethical decision, I can see I taught you well. i was just testing to see if you would reply on your own mind rather than being a cowering yes man "


ALTERNATIVE

And then Satan came in the guise of God and said to Abraham, " Go and sacrifice Isaac to me to prove
that you would hold nothing back from me "
But Abraham replied, " No, I would rather slay myself, surely ones own life is more valuable to oneself than anything else. But what would killing people achieve anyway ? Nothing as far as I can see. Surely a loving God would rather that people live in a caring, loving way, cooperating, helping each other to a better quality of life ?

ALTERNATIVE

And then Abraham thought he heard God say, " Go and offer your son Isaac as a sacrifice to me "

And Abraham said to Isaac, " We must go into the wilderness, God summons us "

And then God said, " Abraham you are out of your freaking mind if you think that I would ever ask for any sort of human sacrifice. Tell everyone that they must not do human or animal sacrifices any more. What I want is for you to go and invent technology to deliver material & intellectual improvements to standards of living- clean water, better clothes, more interesting past times, musical instruments, medicine, higher yields in agriculture, population control. A social security system "

LESSONS

In life we can imagine that we are thinking reasonable ideas and choosing sensible paths but others might spot that we are making decisions based on pessimistic worst case imaginings about what might happen in the future. Sometimes it takes other people to intervene with an idea to help us to see things from a more positive perspective or to realize parts of the debate which would change the balance of your thinking and help you to make a choice that you would not regret in the long term over one that you would very much regret. However every decision has trade offs. You can maximize one aspect but often only at the expense of another aspect.

With any instruction there is the question of whether the person receiving has correctly heard and correctly understood the instruction. Did they interpret it as was intended ? Was the instruction what the person meant to give or did it contain an error ? If the person receiving the instruction thinks it did not make sense then they should query it. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the Genesis 22 story is that Abraham didn't even question it, he might have asked himself if he had misheard or misunderstood or if God was ill at that point or mistaken to ask it.

ALTERNATIVE

And then God said to Abraham, " Now take Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice to me "
Then Abraham thought, " Oh my God, he is on one of his mentally ill flights of fantasy delusion again, what can I say to him this time, I must talk him out of it or call 911 "
Then Abraham said to God, " Are you feeling ok God ? What has brought you to the point of requesting that I sacrifice my son Isaac ? Doesn't that seem like barbaric, pointless murder to you , because it looks that way to me and so I must refuse both because I do not want to do it and because my society will rightly arrest me and put me in prison if I attempt to do it, and for a very long time if I carry it out "
And God said to Abraham, " Well you have a point there, now that you point it out I can see that it would be barbaric , I just wanted to see if you really would give your undivided loyalty to me but I can see that your allegiance is really to a high standard to ethics. "

Richard Dawkins on Premier Christian Radio interviewed by Justin Brierley

Richard Dawkins is going to be debating the Old Testament on Premier Christian Radio tomorrow 7th December. They might be debating Genesis ch 22 since there is also a link to Not Wright giving the tired & twisted interpretation, probably by the power of the Holy Spirit; otherwise known as being unhealthily introverted and lost in yourself, chasing your own tail etc

Why not just say that it was insane of Abraham to agree to sacrifice Isaac for nothing? The story is probably mythical but if the thought occurred to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac he should have responded, " No, I am not going to follow that barbaric superstitious practice even if it is an accepted practice of the culture of the times I live in, I think a good god would not be pleased with such an act and I find the idea abhorrent. So no I won't do it " Genesis 22 story is a case study warning of how twisted thinking can convince people they are doing something virtuous when to any sane outsider it is obviously a deranged act.

UK Channel 4 with astronomer Allan Chapman re. Greek mythology about the stars. One myth was about the god Uranus. It sounds like a very similar type of story to Abraham/Isaac. Uranus imprisoned Gaia's youngest children in Tartarus, deep within Earth, where they caused pain to Gaia. She shaped a great flint-bladed sickle and asked her sons to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus, youngest and most ambitious of the Titans, was willing: he ambushed his father and castrated him, casting the severed testicles into the sea.

For this fearful deed, Uranus called his sons Titanes Theoi, or "Straining Gods. From the blood that spilled from Uranus onto the Earth came forth the Giants, the Erinyes (the avenging Furies), the Meliae (the ash-tree nymphs), and, according to some, the Telchines. He was also responsible for spilling his blood into the Mediterranean Sea. The next day, bubbles came out from the spill of Uranus's blood, Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty was born.

PARODY ON " OH FOR THE WINGS OF A DOVE "

Parody on " Oh for the wings of a dove "
See " George sings o for the wings of a dove " acp1937 channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGm78V-Xi8

Oh for the books, for the books of John Loftus
To free me from the net of religion
Oh for the writings, for the writings of John Loftus
Far away, far away, far away from Christianity would I roam
I would know reasons to think there were no gods
And no supernatural realm either
consider all the possibilities & focus on probabilities
turn my back on bible nonsense & study science.
In the wilderness built John a blog
To remove from folks eye religion's log
In the wilderness he built a website
To show that christian faith is not too bright

November 2015 review of "How to defend the Christian faith" by John W. Loftus
posted here anachronistically:

Church services tend to be a bit of a one way street with the minister giving out his point of view with very little feed back. Contrast this situation with a parliament debating chamber where lots of different points of view are heard. So if you ever wondered about a 2nd opinion now there is an easy way to anonymously find out- ask honest John. He won't force 'answers' on you but rather help equip you with the skills to find out and give a few handy pointers. Is John the one who has come to lead us into all truth ?

How many people sat in the congregation agree with each point the minister has made ? Even the Bible presents a picture of conflicting theological opinions. The New Testament tells of synagogues where Pharisees were at odds with Sadducees over various ideas e.g. Acts 23v8 "The Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all"
The fact that ministers try to persuade people in the congregation to change their opinion shows that he thinks they currently hold other views.

The gospels speak of Jesus being in the synagogue but having some radically different views from those around him. John Loftus points out that there has been a wide range of opinions & interpretations among Bible scholars such as those of Karl Barth,mentioned in chapter 4.
( By the way, I have read that synagogues didn't become a common feature until the fall of the Temple of Jerusalem and following diaspora so their presence in the gospels might be an anachronism ? Not sure if that is correct )

Luke 14v31-32 offers the example of going into battle where you should work out if you can win before engaging and if not then ask for terms of peace. John offers that it is wise to find the most weighty challenges to Christian doctrines to see if those doctrines really are true or not. If the idea is true then it should be able to overcome all contenders. In any case it makes life more interesting if you are aware of the many aspects to each issue.

I liked part 3 the best,"How to defend God in a world of pain" especially chapter 16,"Ignore this empirical refutation of Christianity"

Chapter 6 "How to know which religion to defend" mentions the 'Outsider test of faith' which I think is a valuable tool but I would quibble that it is more helpful to look at the pros and cons of each idea no matter where it is found. What is the best reaction to each of the notions in the Bible ? It is possible to cherry pick ideas and this is what many people do. Many modern day Christians hold personal creeds which wisely have only the faintest relationship to ideas in the Bible. If you had a personal relationship with Jesus would you find out that he had radically altered his views from how the New Testament portrays them ? Perhaps Jesus would now view the Bible mainly as an interesting contrast to his current theology ? Would a 21st century Jesus go through each matter in the Bible and ask if there was a less violent, more civilized way of dealing with each issue or negotiating to resolve the conflict of interests ? Perhaps the 21st century Jesus has been born again and if not then maybe he needs to be ? Maybe he hasn't returned due to being too embarrassed by some of the things people quoted him as saying ?

Join the voyage of discovery

This book is about exploring the many aspects of Christianity and their place in modern civilization