From: joeb@arden.linet.org (Joe Beiter)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Re: The Bible As A Rorschach
Date: 30 Dec 92 23:48:15 GMT
Organization: The Courts of Chaos

In article <38kb02Uf30UF01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> czl30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Chris Lee) writes:
>>>OT (instead of thinking one knows the content), one finds a lot of disturbing
>>>stories of genocide, mass murder, killing of almost every living being,
>>>slavery, and mutilation ordered or directly done by god. Looks like the
>>>premises given above contradict, doesn't it?
>>>Interestingly, a Fundi came up with an excuse like: Genocide, when ordered by
>>>god, is ok.
>>
>>Justice, when it is Just, is OK.  You appear to assume God has your sense
>>of what is acceptable and what is not.  Did you actually know the people God
>>killed?  How do you know they didn't deserve death in the eyes of God?
>>For your assumption of contradiction to hold water you would have to know
>>both God and the people that were killed intimately.
>>
>
>I think you've missed the point. We don't believe in any gods, including
>the god of your religion. So we don't make any assumptions about them
>(apart from the obvious one that they are figments of the imagination
>until proved otherwise).

Ooohhhh so thats why the newsgroup is called atheism and why people talk about
the nonexistance of God.  Why thankyou.  You've cleared so much up!
<sorry but I couldn't resist.>

>
>All the poster wrote was that your god's attributes are self-contradictory
>and that fundamentalists who believe in biblical inerrancy go through hoops
>to try and rationalise the contradictions.

and I proceeded to explain why *I* am able to see past a face value assump-
tion.

>
>"How do you know they didn't deserve death in the eyes of God?"
>
>Substitute "a figment of the imagination" for "God" and you will get some
>idea how silly your argument is.

assuming of course God is a figment of my imagination.  Question: if my
argument and viewpoint are so silly, why are you wasting your time responding
to me?  You seem to have mistaken me for someone concerned with "Saving You".
I don't really have an interest in convincing you there is a God.  I'm 
interested in finding out why Atheists can be so convinced there is no God.

<some stuff deleted>

>People of ALL religions have died for their faith. Does that mean that
>Sunis who died at the hands of Shiites were right, or Shiites who died
>at the hands of Sunis were right?

The point (and suggestion) was that the apostles fudged the story of the
Christ and his ressurection.  We would not be talking about "Shiites dieing
for their faith" but we'd be talking about people dieing for something
they knew was a lie or comprimised truth.  BIG DIFFERENCE.

>
>Nobody is saying that it is a lie. Just that it is not the truth. It is a
>religious pseudo-truth which is somewhere between the bounds of true and false.

whats the difference?  Intention?  If its false I could care less about the
intention.

>All religions claim to be the one and only revealed truth, and use the same
>kind of circular arguments to back up their claims. What is your reaction
>to a moslem who quotes the Koran to prove his religion is the correct one?

There is only one reality.  Someone is wrong (be they atheist or Christian or
muslum).

>I think that the original idea of this thread is that different people read
>whatever they want to read from the bible.  Certainly all the different sects
>of christianity interpret it differently, selectively ignoring the bits that
>contradict the bits they like.

Ah I see what you ment.  Either God is a lousy communicator or we're just
lousey interpreters.  You're right.


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