The Free Flowing Knowledge of Religion

I can’t help but wonder whats more foolish?  Rejecting a religion after its holy book, Or rejecting all other religions after reading just one holy book?

The reason I ask this rhetorical question, because we are guilty of this mindset at one point or another.  Atheist, Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, Mormon and even Buddhist.  We so easily reject all other faiths, after knowing little to none about the functionality of other religions.  What I have noticed growing up in both the South and North, is that those who grow up knowing about diverse cultures and diverse religions avoid the dogmatic behavior of most radicals sects of most religions.

“Teach a child one religion, and you indoctrinate them. Teach them many, and you inoculate them.”— Unknown

“Give a man religious book he will become a follower for life.  Give him two, he will be done in an hour.” –University of Calgary Freethinkers by way of Cubik’s Rube

Even though I am atheist, and my wife is a christian, I should not indoctrinate my kids one way or another, but give them the knowledge of all religions.  And there are alot.  That knowledge of religion should not be restricted but embraced. That we should not be afraid to learn about religion, but afraid that we only learn about one.  And in gaining knowledge, truth can be discovered.  And this is why I have no fear if my children decide to be religous or not.

Related Articles

• World of Religion
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• An Atheist Mother Promise: A letter to my sons

Dear God

Dear God for whom I had indebted my life too and owe all Salvation too,

When I was a doubting a Christian, Nietzche told me that were you dead, but I refused to believe the words of a dead gay man who obviously hated god,

I just knew that I knew that I knew that you were real and alive,

I needed a reason to believe, because I believed I needed you,

And in my endeavor into quenching my doubt I sought not only answers; but also sought YOU!!!

So like the countless others before me; I too took my spiritual journey into my search for you… And in asking others and seeking you out this is what I learnt—-;

The Pastor told me you could be found on Sunday mornings in church, but all I found was a building with people.

The stout Christian stopped me and preached to me that all knowledge of God begins with the bible, but I couldn’t imagine a majestic God such as you, writing a thing like that.

The Spiritualist sang ‘Where was love, There was you.’ But does that include the Homosexual couple next door?

The Philosopher scripted that you are clearly evident and seen in nature, but all I found were trees, bugs, and mud.

The Deist replied that the inspiration of God could be found in his creation, but I found some gaps in that theory.

The Apologist screamed history…history….Surely history has an account of you and your messenger. But the more I read, the more I found the gelling of other pagan religions… And a few other discrepancies within itself: (Gilgamesh, Sirus, Mithra and the multiple contradictions.)

The Religious said God is everywhere, He is you, He is Me, and He is within us; but that sounded a little too bit schizophrenic for my taste.

“Is it really all the same God?” I asked Sister Mary. That’s awful lot of different versions of yourself. And even worst when they kill each other over the differences. Why would you God create a system like that?

‘Just look harder, the answer is that he is right there. Hidden!,’ yelled another. But then “Why do you make yourself invisible?” is it because you don’t want to be found or just don’t care.

The Televangelist preached through the television that I should just have faith. FAITH!!…. He shouted with his hands raised. That God could be found in faith, but then that makes me wonder and ask, “Why do I need faith for something that is supposed to be real?”

And finally after my long spiritual journey. My search came to an End and I found my answer…, but I still never found you.

 

Sincerly,
Atheist

The Greatest Gift of Science

I thought this was a funny post picture, but so true at the same time.

What comes to my mind...

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Dear Zubin (Part II)

The First part of this post can be found here.

I didn’t understand why Zubin did not want a relationship with God.  Who wouldn’t want a relationship with Jesus?  Who wouldn’t want a deeper understanding of God? Who wouldn’t want God’s glorious hand of salvation, love, and fellowship?  To me salvation in Christ was a hope and joy that he needed.  That everybody needed…. Or so I thought

But my Best friend Zubin felt contrary to my belief and understanding.  He felt like he didn’t need God at all.  I did not understand.  It wasn’t until after I de-converted did I gain insight and understanding as to why Zubin was so hostile to God or at-least the notion of God.

Zubin was born with a rare deficiency in his body where his body did not produce enough potassium.  So he was constantly sick when he was very young.  On top of that, this led to him being shorter than most and being short in middle school is never a good thing.  He couldn’t play sports, because he had have a tube implanted into his stomach for the first 20 something years of his life because he had to intake so much nutrients and medication, that the most efficient way to get all that stuff into his body was to it pump directly into his stomach everyday and sometimes twice a day.

It was only after Zubin took control of his life did his health start to improve.  He started Brazilian Martial Arts as hobby to improve his health.  But it did more than improve his health.  It improved the quality & essence of his life and it improved his self-confidence.  After a period of intense physical training in his new life activity.  He no longer needed the tube in his stomach.  It was removed.  He no longer needed to 20 medications everyday, he was down to just a hand full of medications.  And from the perspective of Zubin’s eye; why did he need God when he had the strength within himself to change his life for the better.  Why in the world should he hold any emotions of hope towards Go? Zubin had been on the brink of death several times throughout the course of his life and it wasn’t God that got him through those situations. It was the strength within himself that kept him going forward.  So as to my original question as to why did Zubin not want a relationship with God?  BECAUSE HE DID NOT NEED God, and knew within himself that self-determination was a much better Hope than this Jesus that I was selling him.   

It was only after de-converting, did I realize and possibility understand Zubin’s hostility to God.   He did not need God. He could do it all by himself.  And he did do it all by himself.

I have not heard nor talked to Zubin in nearly four years.  He is a personal trainer now.  I’ve tried to call him, but his old phone number is disconnected.  It appears he no longer checks his Facebook.  I tried to Google him, but still nothing.

It’s only now after learning about the de-conversion of Daniel Everett, how erroneous my thinking was.  When Everett went into the Amazonian rain forest to evangelize to them to tell them about his personal relationship and friendship with Jesus, they asked him several questions a normal person should be able to answer when they have a personal relationship with someone.   “Is this Jesus tall or Short?”  “Is this Jesus dark-skin or fair-skin like you?”  He could only reply, that he never actually met Jesus face-to-face, that in fact nobody he even knows has ever met Jesus.  It was then did he come to the realization, that he did not have personal relationship with Jesus.  He had never really known this Jesus at all.  He was really just re-telling a story about a man that someone told him. And so did I also come to this same realization.

In truth.  I want to apologize to him, I want to apologize for making the wrong choice all those years ago, and not being a friend.

Dear Zubin, (Part I)

Growing up in New Jersey, My best friend was a somewhat short American-Indian kid named Zubin with a noticeable amount of acne.  We would hang out everyday, I would spend countless weekends at his house.  

If my mom wanted to know where I was. she would just simply call Zubin’s mom.  We were nothing alike, similarities were not the bonds of our friendship.  Goofiness, Dirty Jokes, and Respect were.  (Actually it was my sister, he really liked my sister and dated my sister for a while and that is how we became friends.  The other three came later after him and my sister broke up.)  

In all my life, I have never had a friend as close as Zubin.

It was when I went away to college that I found Jesus, and dedicated my life to the Lord.  It was because I had this personal relationship with Jesus, I wanted to tell everyone about my personal relationship with Jesus.  And how if they gave their life over to Christ like I had, they too could have the same feeling of hope, joy, and salvation like I had.

I didn’t have religion, -I had a relationship and I wanted everyone to know.

That summer I came home after I had given my life over to Christ & God, I wanted to tell my best friend about Jesus, and how he could have a personal relationship with Jesus.  And we could all be best of friends.  Me, Him and Jesus.  It did not go as well as I expected.

I remember when I first gave my life over to God, the ministry I was in told me that when you are a christian you can’t be friends with everyone.  You can’t break bread with everyone.  That some friendships could be a danger to your relationship with Jesus.  And because of that you can’t be friends with everyone, and you may or will have to let certain friendships go in order to help preserve your relationship with Jesus.  I believed them.  They never told me who I couldn’t be friends with.  But almost all of them had a story of when they got saved, of how they had to cutoff certains friendships for one reason or another. [I.E.  The friend did not respect their relationship with God, the friend wanted to do things they felt was sinful like clubbing and drinking. etc…]

I knew I had certain old friends that I couldn’t be friends with, because all they did was go to the club and chase the skirt.  And as a christian I couldn’t and I didn’t want to do that anymore.  But I still wanted to keep my friendship with Zubin.  After all he was my best friend.

Halfway through the summer the tension between us blew into an argument.  We had never ever argued before, much less passionately disagree.  We both said some hurtful things…That I wish I didn’t remember.  That was about 9 years ago.  Since then we have talked on occasion, by phone.  In fact four years ago, while on vacation he came down to visit me and my wife.  We weren’t the best of host.  We tried to evangelize to him again.  I could tell we had grown apart.  The tension was still there.  That was the last time I saw him.

Nine years ago, I had a choice to make.  I had to choose my relationship of my Best Friend or my relationship with Jesus Christ my personal lord and savior.  I made the wrong choice, and I still regret that decision today.

I don’t believe in God, but I still hate him anyways

(I initially did not want to write this post, because it felt it too emotional and selfish on my behalf.  But after thinking about it several days, I thought it was still too emotional and selfish, but at the same time relevant and necessary.)

About two weeks ago, on a Sunday Morning my wife and two kids, 4 and 1 years old got into a really bad car accident on the way to church……  No they were not injured, but when I came upon the accident and looked at the scene.  I realized it could have been much worst.  My son could of seriously been injured or worst, died, because he has this habit of if you don’t buckle all three latches on his car seat properly, like if you only do one or two he sometimes get out the car seat himself.  And this he has done on several occasions.  If my wife did not swerve like she did, she would have hit the other car dead on and could have caused some serious injury to herself.  And then after colliding with the other car, she managed to maneuver the mini-van in-between two metals poles missing them both by mere inches before the car stopped on a patch of grass on the side of the road.

The driver side of the car was damaged so badly, it had been pushed in about 4 inches from the front of the driver side to the back of the driver side.  The side view mirror sat on the ground a few feet away.  The tires were flat from the damage.  And my wife and kids had to exit from the other side of the car, because the doors would not open.  And when I pulled up with my car, my son ran to me crying.  The car was totaled, but my family was safe And fortunately the other girl in the car was uninjured as well.

Because of the event that morning, my wife asked me by special request to attend church with her.  She was shaken up and so were my kids, so I decided to go.  This is not why I am angry at God.  While at church towards the end of the Pastors Sermon, the Pastor said he had a word for me.  And he said this in front of the congregation.  That the events of this morning was a sign from God.  That God is calling me.  Calling me to be the spiritual head of my family.  He said some other things about spiritual protection.  I don’t remember all what he said.  My wife has told him in the past that I was an atheist, and did not believe in God.  It was a pretty aggravating moment in all especially considering that this was in the middle of church service.  But this STILL is not the reason why I am angry at God.

I have sometimes wondered what people would say to me, had I really lost my wife & kids.  Or atleast what those who know I am an atheist would say……… “This was a sign from God, for you to be closer to him.”………………..”This happened because you weren’t under the protection of God.”………………”It was a punishment from God.”………..”God is trying to call you.”

And YET STILL, this is not the reason why I am angry at God.

The reason why I am angry at God, has nothing to do with me, or my family or anything that happened to us.  It has more to do, with what did not happen to us, and what happened to another family.

About four days ago, while I work.  I called my wife on my lunch break.  As soon as I got on the phone with her, she gives me the BIG NEWS.  “Hey!!! Kristi and Nick’s son died last night!!!”  Nick and Kristi are old friends of ours.  Who are both young and devout Christians who had children about the same time as us.  Their son is 1 years old, about the same age as my daughter.  He died in a freak accident when the T.V. on the dresser fell on him.

“What?!?! I can’t believe that.”  I said in shock.  “I can’t believe this happened again to them.”

For those who didn’t catch that.  I said AGAIN…..Yes again, this is not the first time tragedy has struck their family.  About two years ago, while at church Nick and Kristi’s oldest child died in a completely separate freak accident when she fell and cracked her cranium.  She would have been four now, if she was still alive.  Kristi was about 8 months pregnant at the time, with their son the one that just passed away last week.  My heart cries out for their loss.  I can’t believe it AGAIN.  These are two God-fearing devout Christians who both loved the Lord and in less than two years, they have lost both of their children.  Where was God?  What plan or purpose could this possibly have?

And this is why I am angry at God.

When I look on their Facebook page, people are sending prayers, and condolences.  I find this somewhat ironic considering that the brand of Christianity Nick & Kristi believe in is a somewhat fundamentalist brand were they don’t believe in Free Will.  And that all things done, are done according to the Sovereign Will of God; the good and the bad.  Knowing the couple, the acceptance of God’s will is comforting to them.  That even though they lost their first child, they took comfort in the idea that it was all apart of God’s plan and according to his will.  They truly believe this in the depths of their heart.  But now just 18 months later they lose their second child, who wasn’t even 2 years old.  How does one take comfort in God’s will now?  How can one find comfort in God, when the God they believed in couldn’t even keep their two children safe?

I can’t help my emotions that if God was real, he would be totally & utterly useless, because he can’t even protect his own.  And whats worst, is that the christian is willing to offer prayers and condolences unto God, when the question should be where was God?  And how can prayer help them now?  How can references to God help now, when it didn’t help them the first time they lost their daughter?

I have to admit, it is somewhat selfish of me to be angry at God, when it’s not my children who were lost; after all I’m the atheist.  After all my children survived, but I want to be angry at God, even though he doesn’t exist.  I want to be angry at God for not protecting Nick and Kristi’s children.  For causing so much pain and hurt to Nick and Kristi.  For not being there for the people who are supposed to be your followers and believers.

R.I.P.   Obi and Amariah

An Atheist Sermon

Many people are already familiar with this message by Jerry Dewitt, but I thought I would re-post it, because it is a strong sermon and message.

A Fresh Breath of Atheist Air

I needed some type of catchy title for this post.  Now that I got your attention, let me tell you about some things happening in my great big-fat atheist life.

About three weeks ago, I took a road trip to my aunt’s house with my little brother who is in junior college.  On the way back, he started to open up to me about some personal stuff.  And then subsequently followed up with a question about if I am still into God. PAUSE…Usually when I get this random question from people they usually want some Godly advice or counsel.  And then they want to open up about their relationship with God.  I have seen this happen alot, even two or three times after I became an atheist.  For some reason people still have a tendency to still categorize me as being a christian; I think it is because I don’t have a tendency to curse or have obscene sexual conversation or remarks.  So at this point in the conversation, I have two choices….. A) Lie, give him some generic  advice that sounds almost Christian OR B)Tell the truth….  Now Hold for dramatic pause, while I bring in a totally unrelated story to tell you.  

A little over a month ago, a friend of mine (who is also somewhat newly married) who I know is really big into Epic Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien I asked him if he wanted to go see the Hobbit movie.  I am not a huge Hobbit fan, but I really wanted to hang out with this friend.  Because me and him had and hung out with many of the same Christian friends.  And it just so happens that many of our same old crew of friends are 5-Point Calvinist and like to debate.  And over the last two or three years this friend has been becoming more and more liberal.  And this has been erking our old Calvinist friends.

So as we are walking into the movie theater.  He turns to me and admits that in the last year that he has changed.  That he has become more liberal in his life, theology, and political stance.  Then he admits to me that he is a communist.  So I add to the conversation that in the last year and a half I have changed.  I follow up his moment of open honesty with my own and admit to him, that I am now an atheist.  I must admit it felt good to make an old time friend a much closer friend, next month we are going to go play paintball. On a Sunday.  And it made for interesting night of conversation.

Now back to the original story, in the car ride back home with little Bro… 

….LIE OR TELL the TRUTH…I decided to tell my little brother the truth.  I told him I had been an atheist for about a year and a half.  And he was okay with that.  And we continued our conversation with my tidbit of Marcus Advice.  And in one car ride home me and my little brother grew a little closer.  (However he did agree not to tell our stepmother who is VERY religious as for obvious reasons he and I both understood. ) 

God, the Meaningless Topic

God is the above and beyond everything; God is the unmovable mover; God is the first and the last, …..God is the Married Bachelor.  God is the living contradiction.

Too many times I have listened to people describe God as an irrelevant impossible contradiction.

When the laymen or the philosopher describes God as being Transcendent and Eternal; they are also describing God as being intangible, nontemporal, timeless, invisible and spiritual.  Which to me means, God is impractical and useless.  When reading this description of god I can’t help but conclude:  What’s the difference between that and non-existing?  Wouldn’t it just be easier to call God, a concept or a feeling?  When we describe God as such, we reduce the existence of a transcendent eternal God to an inconsistent and incoherent concept.  That God is really an incoherent explanation of nothing.

One of the final arguments I usually hear from theistic proponents of God is that God is unknowable.  That in order for someone to say that God does not exist, they would have to know everything, because God is Unknown and Unknowable.  For no one can know the mind of God.

I find this to be also a very obtuse description of a Transcendent-Eternal-Infinite God, because this argument only makes sense if a theist openly admits in the beginning of an argument, that they could also be absolutely wrong about all concepts of God, because God is unknowable.

It is really odd that a theist or a Christian will say that God is unknown/unknowable and claim that nobody can know the mind of God, but still make religious claims about the character and will of God.  It’s just really out of place that a religion or a church will say that god is incomprehensible to man but believe with certainty and knowledge that they know and worship the one true God, but all others not just have no knowledge of God, but also worship the wrong god.  Is it not contradictory that a person can say they know God and have a personal relationship with God, but in the same breath say God is Unknown and Unknowable? (Is God Eternal? Is God Transcendent?)

Over the centuries, the definition of God has dwindled, changed and evolved into something that is ultimately meaningless to the common man.  As one YouTube blogger put it:  Theist and Christians definitions of God have become so vague and meaningless, you could call God SNARF, and it would take nothing away from the conversation.

As one blog post implied, the idea and notion of believing in God is comparable to shopping to Walmart.  That in believing in God it has disintegrated to the point that God is whatever you choose whom to be.  You can pick your God, like you pick your groceries.

My personal favorite definitions of God are as follows:

God is nature…. Translation: God is a Tree.

God is beauty….. Translation: God is really my wife because she is smoking HOT!!!

God is love…..Translation: God is an emotional response to when my body produces Oxytocin causing me to feel a tingling feeling in my pants when I see a pretty girl, I mean my wife.

God is Literature….. Translation: God is Harry Potter

God is everywhere…. Translation: God is either Air or DarkMatter.  You pick.

God is within us……. Translation:  God is the internal working of my organs and bodily fluids that will someday fail me in my old age.

“People create gods more or less exactly as they want them to be.” -(An Infinity of Gods, By Skeptical Avenger)

Then there are responses…. that say we can never know God.  God is unknowable and unmeasurable. If this is so; then when a believer uses such a vague definition of God then they are just reassuring me of what I have already concluded about God….God is a vague concept of meaningless that changes at the whim of whoever I am talking to.

Related Articles:

• Skeptical Christian
• Evaluating God
• What is God? Bittersweet End
• Immanence
• Ignosticism
• What is God? Atheist Rev

2013 in Review for the BitterSweet End Blog

Happy New Year Everybody.  I just want to give a special thanks to those who have followed my blog.  I hope your New Year is full of love, hope, peace, and prosperity.

I know haven’t been posting and commenting as often on my blog.  And that is because of the obvious reason, that the reason why I started the blog is longer as necessary as it was before.  I will still be posting every once in a while.  I still have several post that I started, but have not finished.  So there are still several unfinished post that I have in my ‘back-pocket.”  Thanks again for following and have a wonderful NEW YEAR!!!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 48,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 18 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Christmas Poetry for the non-believer and believer

An Atheist’s Christmas

-by Kim Cole

Can you hear the bells?
Can you hear the bells?
Can you hear them calling?

Listen to the bells
Listen to the bells
Look, the boundary’s falling

I can smell the trees
All so bright and green
I can see the lights
Twinkle in the night.

I can feel the joy
In the girls and boys
I can see the hope
In the smiling folk

Can you hear the bells?
Can you hear the bells?
Can you hear them calling?

Listen to the bells
Listen to the bells
Look, the boundary’s falling

It’s the time of year
To feel winter cheer
All mankind is one
All daughters and sons

We should remember
Not just December
Believer or non
All of us are one.

 

 

Untitled 

-by Unknown

As we battle our way through the line at the store
And think to ourselves “there has got to be more”
And wonder where “Christmas of long ago” went,
When the meaning of Christmas was what it first meant…

It was “borrowed” by Christians from heathens, of course—
From Greeks and from Romans, from Celtics and Norse—
Why, Christmas is pagan, from yule-log to tree
To mistletoe waiting for you and for me

The meaning of Christmas—the good stuff, at least—
The ornaments, stockings, and “rare roast beast”
Has nothing to do with a Son of God’s birth
But rather the changing of seasons on Earth

The nights now grow shorter, the days will grow longer,
The rays of the sun (and our spirits) grow stronger!
So celebrate Solstice, rejoice in the season,
And love one another whatever the reason!

Turning 30 and a Half

Okay I confess that this is a cheesy Blog title, but I needed something.

I actually turned 30 about five months ago, back in July.  I actually wanted to do an update post about my life back in July, but I was very busy with work.  During this past summer, I was a candidate for a Supervisor Position at my job.  And because of that, I was involved in several projects at my job, that caused me to stay late after work several days.  And the days I got home on time, I was mentally and emotionally exhausted.  So this blog was an afterthought.  (And after all that, I still did not get the position.  They gave it to some person who came from outside the company.  A few people were pissed about that.)  And because I work in Medicare in Insurance.  We are extremely busy from September to the First week of December.  In fact just the other week I worked an 80 hour work week.

BitterSweet Updates and Muses

It has been nearly a year and a half since I told my wife, the Pastor, and stepped down from my position in the Youth Ministry.  And as for me and Mrs. BittersweetEnd (A.K.A. formerly Mrs Biblereader), we are doing well.  Alot better.  Time does heal.  We really don’t talk much about religion or God that much.  And when we do, it is usually very  superficial……“How was Church?”……………”Good”…….”The Pastor talked about 1st Corinthians and love”……..”And how was that?”………………”It was Good, he likes to use football analogies alot to describe things.  And half the women at the church have no clue what he means when he does that.”…………..”Well that sounds good.”

We really try to avoid more spiritually deep topics that could turn into arguments where we end up stepping onto each others ego.  We no longer still attend the same church anymore.  In fact, I no longer attend church at all.  However I still will attend if it is at special request of my wife.  For example they had something called ADAM Sunday, where everybody invites a Man to church.  The wife asked me and her uncle to attend.  So I went.  We don’t argue about church or religion anymore.  And my son who is 4 years old.  Really enjoys church.  He is constantly asking to go back to church.  (Probably because all he really does at church is play.)  I don’t mind; it doesn’t bother me.  As long as he is a happy 4 year old, that is all I care about.

What I have discovered about myself since I no longer go to church and free from the nonsense of church.  Is that I still really like listening to christian and gospel music.  And will still listen to it on occasion, because I find it extremely relaxing and soothing.  I think that is something my wife still really enjoys about me, knowing that if each decides to put on some christian music during the day; that she can play it loud and I won’t mind and will probably enjoy the music myself and sing along.

I also enjoy reading non-fiction alot, which is something I have never done.  I have read the hunger games trilogy, ender’s game, divergent and several other sci-fi and young adult books.  Next on my list is the hobbit.

I have several other religious/atheist topic books on my bookshelf, that I still have not read such as the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and Forgery by Bart Ehrman, but the truth is that at times, I feel like it is a waste of energy putting so much effort into God that does not exist.  I’m sure one day I will get around to these books and eventually do a post book review.  But until then I rather read something that entertains me, not educate me.

Through this last year, I have learned to smile more, enjoy life more, and laugh more.  And I hope everyone can have that same feeling of joy and peace in their mind.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

I shall finish this post with one final parting thought that is not my own, but I in my opinion I consider it to be an invaluable piece of advice.

Contradictions Part 6: Jesus’s Genealogy

So I came across this Yahoo! Answers post where the person is asking sincerely how to explain the apparent contradiction of Jesus’ Genealogy in the bible, because it is research project for school.  And sadly about half the Christians gave a cop-out answer without actually giving a real explanation to the apparent discrepancy……… “No contradiction in The Living Word at all!” ……………… “there is no contradiction. Read it carefully” ………….. “There isn’t a contradiction but two points of view.”

The Bible genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3:23-38 is probably one of the most blatantly obvious contradictions in the Bible. There are several different theories and possibilities for the contradictory genealogy, but which one is the most scripturally sound? And to throw something else into the discrepancy, there is another genealogy of the descendants of David before and after; 1 Chronicles 1-3. Matthew’s comes closest, but it’s still different in several areas. He actually omits several names from his list: Ahaziah, Jehoash, Amaziah, and Jehoiakim.

So I actually wanted to do my own post on the contradiction of Jesus’ Genealogy, but realized this is one of the most studied contradictions in the bible, there is no need for me to go and duplicate another post on this topic.  When so many others have done research on this topic.  That is why I re-blogged this From Nate of The Finding Truth Blog, cause I think his is probably the most well-rounded and straight to the point.

Overall there are three underlying theories as the bible contradiction of Jesus Genealogies….

• Theory #1: One is a legal biology as in regard to marriage, the other is a biological ancestral line.  This is supported by the Website Complete Bible Genealogy

• Theory #2: One is a Maternal(Mother) and the other is Paternal(Father).  This is supported by the Apologetic Website Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry.

• Theory #3: Which is probably the least accepted, that one of them is right and the other is wrong.  As the Christian Website Divine Evidence suggest that Matthew may be the gospel with the errancy,  “Why does Luke record more generations from Abraham to Jesus than Matthew? One possible solution, referred to as an open genealogy, is that Matthew paraphrased Jesus’ ancestors in order to make the Gospel easily remembered for oral evangelism.”

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Finding Truth

The first post in this series can be found here.

Personally, I think this is one of the clearest contradictions in the Bible. Why does the Bible give us Jesus’ genealogy? I can think of no other reason than for it to serve as proof of his descent from David. But it fails this purpose since we’re given two differing genealogies that both claim to come through Joseph.

Some have tried to answer this by saying that Matthew 1:1-16 records Joseph’s true genealogy and Luke 3:23-38 records Mary’s. They surmise that Mary must have been the only daughter of Heli (Luke 3:23); therefore, Joseph counts as his only heir, or “son.” They make the case that since Mary was a woman, she would not have been included in this genealogy. But if that’s the case, why does Matthew’s genealogy mention Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (listed as the “wife of…

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Which one is God’s will?

Godly Mathematics

Is God Eternal? Is God Transcendent?

A while back I did a post on God being Infinite and the many contradictory problems with calling God infinite.  And when doing that post, in the comments section the post turned to issue of God being Eternal.  So I decided to revisit that topic.  But let’s first start with defining it:

Eternal

1. existing through all time: lasting for all time without beginning or end
2. unchanging: unaffected by the passage of time
3. seemingly everlasting: seeming to go on forever or recur incessantly

Transcendent

1. beyond limits of experience: in Kant’s philosophical system, exceeding the limits of experience and therefore unknowable except hypothetically
2. beyond categories: above or outside all known categories

I decided to do this both on God being both Eternal (being Timeless, Non-Temporal, Everlasting) and Transcendent (Outside Space and Time and Unknowable).  Because they overlap so much when comes to describing an eternal timeless infinite God.  I like the way Christian philosopher Richard Swinburne so elegantly put it.

God is eternal. But this has been understood in two different senses: either as the claim that God is timeless (he does not exist in time, or at any rate in our time) or as the claim that God is everlasting (he existed at every moment of past time, exists now, and will exist at every moment of future time). In my opinion the timeless view is incompatible with everything else that religious believers have wanted to say about God. For example, it does seem strongly that God being omniscient entails that he hears the prayers of humans at the same time as they utter them; yet on the timeless view God does not exist at the same time as (simultaneously with) any moment in our timescale. For this and other reasons I shall in future understand God being eternal as God being everlasting…. (Richard Swinburne and God’s Timelessness, p. 12)

Is an Eternal Transcendent God the Cause of Everything?
The traditional argument for an eternal transcendent god is the argument for Causation as follows:

1.       Everything that begins to exist has a cause

2.       The universe began to exist

3.       Therefore, the universe has a cause

i.      And that cause must be eternal existing before the universe and transcendent existing outside the universe.

And of course the theist says this cause is God.

And the second part of that argument is the transcendental argument for the existence of God.

1.  If there is no god (most often the entity God, defined as the god of the Christian Bible, Yahweh), knowledge is not possible.
2. Knowledge is possible (or some other statement pertaining to logic or morality).
3. Therefore a god exists.

The traditional counter apologetic response to this, “If God cause and created everything, What caused God?”  But I want to add one more tidbit to that argument.

What came first: The God or the Egg?
If God is the creator or the cause of everything, then it is safe to say that nothing existed before God.  But then that causes another problem –knowledge, intuition, and reasoning.  If nothing existed before God, then this presents the theist with a huge logical fallacy for the existence of knowledge, intuition and reasoning.

1. ·         If logic did not exist, what logical steps did God use to create the universe?
2. ·         If knowledge did not exist, then what knowledge did God use to make it exist and  create it?
3. ·         If reasoning did not exist, what reason did God have to create anything?
4. ·         If critical thinking did not exist, what critical thinking skills did god use determine that he needed to create a universe?
5. ·         If perfection did not exist before, what made him perfect?

There is a huge logical fallacy that exist when we say nothing existed before God; if all the things God needed to use to create the world (knowledge, logic, and reasoning) did not exist either?  What did God use?

Can Freewill exist if God already knows what you are doing?
With God being Eternal Omniscient and Immutable how could the ideology of freewill survive if God already knows what your decision is, and have influenced everything for you to make that decision the way he so wills and desires….

God is commonly portrayed as being eternal; —-however, there is more than one way to understand the concept of “eternal.” On the one hand, God may be thought of as “everlasting,” which means that God has existed through all of time. On the other hand, God may be thought of as “timeless,” which means that God exists outside of time, unconstrained by the process of cause and effect.

The idea that God should be eternal in the sense of timeless is partially derived from the characteristic of God being omniscient even though we retain free will. If God exists outside of time, then God can observe all events throughout the course of our history as if they were simultaneous. Thus, God knows what our future holds without also affecting our present — or our free will.

An analogy of how this might be so was offered by Thomas Aquinas, who wrote that “He who goes along the road does not see those who come after him; whereas he who sees the whole road from a height sees at once all those traveling it.” A timeless god is, then, thought to observe the entire course of history at once, just as a person might observe the events along the entire course of a road at once.

A more important basis for defining “eternal” as “timeless” is the ancient Greek idea that a perfect god must also be an immutable god. Perfection does not allow for change, but change is a necessary consequence of any person who experiences the changing circumstances of the historical process. (Timeless Vs. Everlasting, By Austin Cline)

The secondary problem of this is if God is Omniscient knowing everything outside space and time, then there is no such thing as free-will.  Because the state of freewill requires a state of uncertainty were the being has a choice to choose not knowing the outcome of the choice.  That neither the person nor God could know.  This God could exist, but it would not be a God of freewill.

Transcendent God vs. Immanent God
One of the other characteristics of God that gets thrown around is God being described as Immanent, (meaning: Within or dwelling within the limits of time, space and knowledge), which means the exact opposite of transcendent.  These two attributes are really odd ways to describe God, not just cause they are so contradictory to each.  But because they describe God so vaguely and unnaturally.

A God that is Everlasting and transcendent has no cause to do anything.  Because God is a non-tangible non-temporal being, all actions by God are completely irrelevant.  God would have no need nor purpose.  But once the characteristic of immanent is attached to God, God becomes no longer majestic.

A transcendent omniscience eternal God would not need to answer prayers or even listen to them cause he already knows the prayer, knows what led up to prayer.  And knows if he will or will not answer the prayer.  This type of God makes no common sense because the Supreme Being would have no cause nor reason for care, to get involved, change his mind, or to do anything.

Unknown and Unknowable God
One of the final arguments I usually hear from theistic proponents of God is that God is unknowable.  That in order for someone to say that God does not exist, they would have to know everything, because God is Unknown and Unknowable.  For no one can’t know the mind of God.

I find this to be a very obtuse description of a Transcendent-Eternal God, because this argument only makes sense if a theist openly admits in the beginning of an argument, that they themselves could absolutely be wrong about all concepts of God, because God is unknowable.

This is really the most inconsistent argument I have ever heard.  It is really odd that a theist or a Christian will say that God is unknown/unknowable and claim that nobody can know the mind of God; But still make religious claims about the character and will of God.  It’s just really out-of-place that a religion or a church will say that god is incomprehensible to man but believe with certainty and knowledge that they know and worship the one true God, but all others not have no knowledge of God and worship the wrong god.  Is it not contradictory that a person can say they know God and have a personal relationship with God, but in the same breath say God is Unknown and Unknowable?

God Vs. Reality: A Conceptual Existence
When describing God as being Transcendence and Eternal, we are also describe God as being intangible, nontemporal, timeless, invisible and spiritual.  When reading this description of god I can’t help but conclude:  What’s the difference between that and non-existing?  Wouldn’t it just be easier to call God, a concept or a feeling?

As on blogger on Ex-Christian.net put it:  If God’s attributes are such that we understand them to be non-spatial and non-temporal, then how do we distinguish that from merely not existing?

I will present another argument in this format: 1) Anything that exists occupies space and time. 2) God does not occupy space and time. 3) Therefore God does not exist.

When we describe God as such, we reduce the existence of a transcendent eternal God to an inconsistent and incoherent concept.  That God is really an incoherent explanation of nothing.

Related Articles:

• Re-Thinking God: Is God immanent or Transcendent
• The Attributes of God Chart
• Transcendental Argument as Presented by C.A.R.M.
• What does it mean that God is Transcendent?
• Cosmological Kalamity By Dan Barker
• Attributes of God
• Even if the Universe is Eternal it still needs a cause
• God is Eternal, and Infinity is a Paradox
• Essential Properties of God: Omnipotent, Omniscience, and Eternal
• Omniscience Paradox and Controversies
• Is God Immutable?
• Kalam Cosmological Argument

Politics and Religion

These words of Barry Goldwater ring so true.  Because in my own dealings with the heart of Christianity any compromise in their own eyes is a compromise of their faith.  And that just can’t happen.  For many of them feel that not only do they represent God as his ambassador, but some feel as they speak for God.

“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” -Susan B. Anthony

Related Articles

• Religion, Government, and People
• Our Politics does not have to define us
• African Postman:The Dangerous Mix of Politics and Religion

The Screams of 100 Unanswered Prayers

In the early parts of the 1600’s there was a noblewoman by the name of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.  She was a widow and came from the Bathory nobility family line in Hungary.  

What the Countess would do, is that she would deceivingly kidnap and trick young adolescent teenage girls into her chambers were she would brutally and barbarically

English: The original portrait of the Countess Elizabeth Bathori from 1585 is lost (spirited away in the 1990s). However, this is a fairly contemporary copy of that original, probably painted in the late 16th century. She was 25 when the original portrait — the only known image of her — was painted. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

torture the girls until they died.  Many of these girls were barely of puberty age.   She tortured the girls for so long and so horribly that some of the people down the hill in the village often claimed to have heard screams emanating from within the walls of the castle.  And in this agonizing death of torture, many of these girls would cry out for mercy.  And scream for God to help them.  But God would not show up, not until after the Countess started running out of peasant girls to torture and kill.  It was then she altered tactics and started to torture girls of noblemen and noble families.

It was not the many unanswered prayers of the tortured peasant girls that put the “Blood Countess” to a stop.  It was when she started to torture some of her own.  Then did the neighboring ruling noble lords could no longer ignore the complaints of the people and launched an investigation.

In the end, her punishment was house arrest, and the punishment of her servants who assisted her in her mass killing spree got the death penalty.  Castle personnel estimated that somewhere between 100 and 200 bodies were removed from the premise.  And one witness at the trial referred to a journal in which a total of more than 650 victims were listed by Báthory herself.  Countess Bathory was only convicted of 80 deaths.  The question everyone must ask, why did God not care enough to answer the prayers of the many girls being horrifically and brutally tortured to death?  Did God not care for them?  Or was he too pre-occupied to hear their screams and prayers?

As horrific as this story is, it pales in comparison to the everyday prayers of starvation that God refuses to answer everyday.  That God would allow people to die everyday from hunger and starvation, while they wait for God to answer their prayers of food.

These are everyday prayers that God ignores everyday.  If God is specifically reaching down from heaven to answer someones prayer for a good parking spot, or to get out of traffic ticket, or to help one find their lost keys, while at the same time God is allowing 25,000 children to die of starvation each day by specifically ignoring their prayers (that is one child every five seconds), then God deeply has his priorities all messed up.  Or he just doesn’t exist.

The Greatest Evil About Religion

“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.” ~ Steven Weinberg,

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions.” – Blaise Pascal

In all honesty I am not anti-religion in the sense I that I hate religion.  I actually enjoy the music, the fellowship, the comrardy, and the tradition.  There is a feeling of hope, community, and love that I miss about the religious community and going to church.  Which is something the atheist community flat out does not have.  And can’t compete with.

And for the most part moderate main stream religion is not that bad.  One atheist writer Chris Steadman, described it as a place of comfort during his time in High School when he was working through his sexuality  .In fact as I have mentioned in a previous post a co-worker described it as saving his son’s life.   Religion is not always bad, but when it is; –it’s atrocious.

But above all things, religion has been the biggest proponent in people committing evil acts and moral atrocities.  It is unparelled in religion that a person could justify killing a person and not feel an ounce of remores.  One Mistiaen Priest didn’t even know enslaving women was wrong, because his religion told him it was okay.  Without religion we would have never had the Salem Witch Trials, the Crusades, Jihad, or Religious Wars.  In the middle east, religion is the number one obstacle to ending child marriages.  It is without comparison that a person feels the most justified in committing evil and acts of de-humanism as when they do for their religion.  

Top Atheist Podcast

This is my personal list of the Top 3 Atheist/Skeptics podcast.  All of these Podcast are somewhat Christian Friendly in the sense that they don’t try to mock the Christian and that obscene language is kept to an absolute minimum. 

1. A Matter of Doubt – A great atheist podcast that is probably the most christian friendly I’ve come across.  They talk about a variety of topics.  They have actually done two podcast on me.

2. The Thinking Atheist– Not just a great Podcast but also a great sight in general.  The podcast does many interviews with many prominent movers and shakers in the atheist community.  I.E.: Jerry DeWitt, Greta Christina, Richard Carrier.

3. An American Atheist– A fantastic podcast/blog that do a variety of topics that deal with political, psychological, and sociological issues.