Vacation

To all of my follower's, reader's, and stopper by's; I will be taking a rather extended vacation, about 10 weeks.

So I am asking you to hang in there. I will continue to write on this vacation, but will have no access to a computer so I will not be posting for a while. I promise you as soon as I come back The Bible: In the Raw will be filled with tons of fresh new content, so hang in there.

You have provided me more success than I ever imagined so I'd like to say thank you. Just trust me that I'm coming back. Ha unlike Jesus, I actually will come back :)

So I guess I'll say, see you soon. Keep a look out for the end of September, this is when I will be returning from my vacation.

I was thinking you guys could leave comments on this post about what you like/ dislike about the blog and also what you would like to see more/ less of.

Thanks again,

LDagnostic

Who will burn in Hell? (Response)

Hey everyone, I wanted to share with you a reader's response to my post "Who will burn in Hell". If you have not read the post you can do that here. For those of you who have read it, I hope you enjoy the response, and please leave a comment, let me and the person who responded know how you liked it.

"Anonymous said...

My father died of cancer when I was 13. On my 14th birthday, he was buried.

He was a wonderful man. He was a Christian man that lived what he believed in a manner that I have not seen of many people calling themselves Christians. He died in a cruel, painful manner that no one deserves. This was a real eye opener for teenager.

When I started asking questions of the religious leaders he respected and that I was raised to respect from birth, I got the standard line. God works in mysterious ways. My personal favorite was that we as humans were simply unable to understand god's grand plan for us and that we must keep faith with him as he knew best. I tried to follow this advice and found I had two paths before me and I had to decide which to take.

The first path was to accept god's mysterious plan and my ignorance of my own well being and carry on, avoiding logical thinking. The second path was to ask the hard questions and based on the answers to those, make a rational and informed choice to accept or reject the faith I was raised in.

I asked the questions and I did the thinking. It was not something that happened overnight and was a 10 year process. At the end of my journey this is what I was comfortable in believing.

There is no such thing as god or heaven or hell. If these things existed, would I really want to think highly of an entity that had the power to prevent so much pain and suffering and did not use it? My father and others I loved had died and that was it. Their lives were over and we all would not meet again in paradise no matter how good I was or how deeply devout I became. There was no hell and sometimes people do not get what they deserve. There is very little justice in our world. Good people get sick and die when the world would have been better off for having them in it a little longer. Some bad people live to be 90. People get sick and they die and that is not by the will of a higher power, it is due to the imperfections of the physical body that can not heal itself from all illness.

I wouldn't worry too much about heaven and hell and where your grandfather went. Just like my father, he died and all that is left of him are the memories he left behind in the people that loved him. I have no idea why this prospect is so scary for so many. You are born, you live, you die and instead of worrying about the next life that there is absolutely no reason to believe exists, concentrate on the life you have and making the most of it. It seems our dead loved ones did that in their lives. All that is left of them is us. We should keep them alive in thought and sharing the stories of them with others. I think your grandfather would be proud of you if he was able to see this. My father would probably not agree with me but respect me for using my own mind. May they both rest in peace within us. 


http://aftersomethought.blogspot.com"

Great quote, absolutely great.

This quote was taken from The Atheist Missionary  blog; I love Hitchens so I figured I would share with everyone.


Enjoy..

"This is a killer quote by Christopher Hitchens:

Let’s say that the consensus is that our species, being the higher primates, Homo Sapiens, has been on the planet for at least 100,000 years, maybe more. Francis Collins says maybe 100,000. Richard Dawkins thinks maybe a quarter-of-a-million. I’ll take 100,000. In order to be a Christian, you have to believe that for 98,000 years, our species suffered and died, most of its children dying in childbirth, most other people having a life expectancy of about 25 years, dying of their teeth. Famine, struggle, bitterness, war, suffering, misery, all of that for 98,000 years. Heaven watches this with complete indifference. And then 2000 years ago, thinks “That’s enough of that. It’s time to intervene,” and the best way to do this would be by condemning someone to a human sacrifice somewhere in the less literate parts of the Middle East. Don’t let us appeal to the Chinese, for example, where people can read and study evidence and have a civilization. Let’s go to the desert and have another revelation there. This is nonsense. It can’t be believed by a thinking person."

So what do you guys think?
All readers are allowed to comment now, not only registered bloggers, so please let me know what you think/feel about my articles. It really helps.

Exodus 22:20

Exodus 22:20 "Whoever sacrifices to any god, save to the Lord only, shall be utterly destroyed."

Hello everyone,

This verse caught my eye today. It comes from the book of Exodus, chapter 22, where God has spoken to Moses letting him know the laws that the Israelites must obey.

I dove into Exodus 35:2, concerning a similar fault, in a previous article which you can (and should) read here.

Now, let us begin to look at Exodus 22:20.

The verse, as well as the concept, is very simple. God orders to the Israelites to "utterly destroy" anyone who commits such a horrible crime as to worship another deity. You don't have to worry about going to hell though, because God will forgive you for this murder.

I find it amusing how the Christian God condones murder sometimes, but other times He completely objects to it. What a joke!

Would you kill Gandhi? God demands that you should.

What about Phil Jackson? (Famous NBA Head Coach)

Jennifer Lopez?

If you agree not to kill these people, who all worship another deity, utterly then you are disobeying God, you bad Christian you! Why not kill them, I mean it wouldn't hinder you chances at getting into Heaven.

Why do you [Christians] believe in such a horrible god? You are the first to say verse a is to be taken literally, but verse b was meant to be understood metaphorically. You pick and choose what is right and wrong. Why not just accept the fact that your God is evil, He is a murderer, and the only book written about Him is a lie. Accept it people God is not real; merely a great imagination written down by people long ago, before science was allowed. We are in the 21st century, religion has no place here.

All readers are allowed to comment now, not only registered bloggers, so please let me know what you think/feel about my articles. It really helps.

Deuteronomy 2:34

Deuteronomy 2:34 "And we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed every city, men, women, and children; we left none remaining;"

What a great verse, the Lord God, advocating the mass murder and slaughter of scores of innocent men, women, and children. Now before anybody tries to say that I am not paying attention to the context, or I somehow played with the words to make it sound bad, (trust me I have heard it all) I will briefly explain what is going on and then continue to explain the verse.

Directly from Deuteronomy 2, if you would like to read the story yourself.

Moses is leading the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years, during this time, he leads them through many cities and kingdoms one of them being Heshbon (controlled by King Sihon). God gave Moses orders to pass through the kingdom of Heshbon, but King Sihon would not let them pass.

This led to the battle at Jahaz which, by the power of God, the Israelites won. After defeating King Sihon's army, at the battle of Jahaz, the Lord God gave Moses and his people the land so they could pass through it freely on their journey.

The preceding verse to Deuteronomy 2:34 states "And the Lord God gave him over to us; and we defeated him and his sons and all his people."(Deut 2:33)

God gave Moses and his people this kingdom so they could "...utterly destroy[ed] every city, men, women, and children..." How is this justifiable?

How can anyone standby this terrible deity? As I described in my last post, God puts good hearted, innocent men through eternal damnation. As I explained in this post; He allows, with the power of His hand, the slaughter, rape, pillage, and torture of His own creations. Stop being blind to the truth that is in the Bible; read it, you will find everything I describe and more I promise you.

My question today to all readers: What are some reasons why YOU follow this divine creator?

Thank you, as always, to anyone who has taken the time to read any of my post. Leave a comment anonymously, start a discussion, and don't be so shy. Subscribe and follow me on twitter for instant updates; you don't want to miss the rest of the "Debating a Christian" series.

Who will burn in Hell?

As I was reading through the Bible today (of which I do quite often) I felt inspired to write about who will burn in hell according to God.

Anyone who has ever learned about Christianity (when I say Christianity I am speaking for Judeo-Christian beliefs as a whole) knows that one MUST believe in God and only God to get into heaven, after all it is the first of the sacred 10 commandments. So this automatically restricts anyone who is not of the Christian faith. Doesn't matter how good willed you are, nor your character, nor how many people you have helped; none of that matters to the Big Man up stairs.

I will use my late Grandfather as a good example of the type of people you won't see in heaven.

My 'pa (as I will call him) was born in the late 1930's, a recovering time for America as we were just seeing the end of the Depression. He was raised a strict Catholic, but being the intelligent man that he was, later on came to understand that the Bible was very faulted and that God was an evil, human creation.

During his lifetime that spanned over six and a half decades he spent a lot of it working hard, just like most people born of the depression era. He was one of the kindest men alive, a very caring and loving 'pa. He spent countless years helping people rebuild houses, cars, furniture, all without asking for a single penny.

August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina makes landfall, as a Category 3 storm, on the southeast Louisiana coast and causes massive destruction.

Thousands of people were dead, left homeless, and had no money to go anywhere. A few months after this horrific event, my 'pa headed over to Louisiana to help rebuild houses for the Americans that had suffered the full effects of mother nature. He and a couple of old buddies worked hard in the southern heat and never once asked for repayment.

August 23, 2006: My grandfather suffered a massive stroke while working on a house in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was rushed to the local hospital where he was treated for his stroke. After two long nights, my 'pa was announced brain dead.

A wonderful man will forever be remembered in the hearts of many for all the things he did. I will never forget the legacy of my grandfather, and I hope you, as a reader, will remember this story and hold it close to your heart.

That man I just described to you is burning in hell for eternity, according to God. How will heaven be for you knowing that a human being; that helped restore the lives of many Americans whom he had never met, is burning in hell? While you, sit back and coast through life, maybe helping a few people out here and there not doing a damn thing to restore the hopeless life of a fellow human being; get access to heaven. You get eternal peace, and this loving man gets to rot in Hell. How do you feel about this?

Think about this man, according to God, just because he questioned his existence my grandpa is cursed with eternal damnation. All the good he had done all his life meant NOTHING to your horrid God. How evil must one be to deny peace at rest to someone like him?

My question to you, Do you honestly believe this is fair?

To everyone who reads this, don't be shy to post a comment and answer my question. It will most likely lead to a good, educated discussion. Also don't forget to subscribe via email and RSS.

Death?

Is death a main factor in why people are religious? When you are mentally mature enough to question why you believe in God, does death have a big part of why you would answer yes?

I have a lot of people that try to "convert" me everyday, and almost always they mention how great life will be after "death". What will be so great about it? I mean when you die you die. What are the chances that this evil God is actually out there? What makes you so sure that it is the Lord up there and not Buddha? If you were raised as a strict Buddhist, do you think you would somehow know that the only true God is the Christian God? Absolutely not; you would stand by the fairy tales that you heard as a kid, just like you do now.

It really makes sense how religion is/ was used to control the masses. If you make up some bogus answer to a very important question, [in this case what happens when we die?] that will sound appealing to people, than of course a lot of people will follow whatever else you have to say. Humans now a days have lost the ability to think for themselves.

So my question to you [the reader] is.. Does the afterlife play a roll into why you believe?

To everyone who reads this, don't be shy to post a comment and answer my question. It will most likely lead to a good educated discussion. Also don't forget to subscribe via email and RSS.