Just watched a pretty good program on the Dead Sea Scrolls and it brought to mind all the things that bother me about religion.
Ot course it is pretty obvious that all the books that religions are based on, are written by men with an agenda ( woman were basically property in the Abrahamic religions and still are in some cults here in the States, they had no say ).
Not auto written by divine intervention. And the originals and the copies that we have were written way after the events occurred.
So when I get this talk of having an open mind and giving religion a place in the pantheon of spritualism, I assign to it;s proper place. Say next to the Dullahans of Ireland. When I see a headless Jesus riding a horse torward me, your damn right it is going to get kicked up a notch in my believe system.
The funny thing about the collection of Gospels in Christianity is the assertion that the books were inspired by god but no one even knows for sure who wrote them. Matthew Mark Luke and John are assigned names and we really don’t know who wrote them
One of thee best thongs about being an atheist is ... watching tv shows about religion instead of ...anything else?
What is it that the god of the universe likes to write books (taken from Sam Harris)? I guess god wrote the Koran, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Jewish Pentateuch, and others..
Along with Ovid, James Joyce and Stephen King. All inspired and/or stream of consciousness at some point
Yes , A Pagan military leader wanted to become Emperor , but in order to be declared Emperor by the Pope , he had to convert to catholitshism . He figured it was worth it , so converted . This Bizanthium ruler , later selected which books would be included in the Bible . He most definitely had an agenda . The women included in the Bible , were either very submissive ( Ruth or Edith ) or , "over stepped their bounds ," and were prostitutes , or disloyal murders .
I don't see how anyone could choose a religion without just saying "OK I pick this one." The idea that god watches what every person on Earth does all the time doesn't make sense to me. "God helped me get that new car loan I wanted." God healed me. God saved me from sin. Anyway, sin is man's creation.
His mum, Helena, was the biggest nuisance in all that with her bits of the cross an’ all! I understand he hung until his death bed before taking it on personally. That all sounds a bit dubious to me. More like tie the knots to make the agenda fit the tale!