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- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / Atheist Shrewds
No. of Recommendations: 3
Texas Public School Students Will Be Required to Read the Bible
Texas passed what might be the first state-mandated book list for public school students. It focuses on classic literature and includes Bible excerpts. NYT
No. of Recommendations: 3
You beat me by three minutes. :-)
They are probably trying to get away with "Bible as Literature", which is what my high school did to me in the late 70s. Not much stuck with me, except that god was such a dick to Job, all to win a bet.
No. of Recommendations: 1
Not much stuck with me, except that god was such a dick to Job...
Yes, that ridiculousness targeted at one person, but for me it was the grandiose anger and vindictiveness and genocidal violence of the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues on Egypt, the punishments after the golden calf, the complete destruction of the Amalekites, and during the conquest of Canaan where He commanded the annihilation of whole cities and peoples (and on and on).
Pete
No. of Recommendations: 2
Yes, that ridiculousness targeted at one person, but for me it was the grandiose anger and vindictiveness and genocidal violence of the Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues on Egypt, the punishments after the golden calf, the complete destruction of the Amalekites, and during the conquest of Canaan where He commanded the annihilation of whole cities and peoples (and on and on).
I started having doubts in junior high. Don't remember exactly when. I was asking questions even earlier. I think my first conundrum was "how did they fit two of everything in the Ark?". Never got an answer to that one. Sometime after, "where did all the water come from, and where did it go?" (referencing the Flood). I didn't start questioning the morality stuff until high school, I think. By the time I finished college, I knew the bible didn't have any truth in it at all (at least not factual).
No. of Recommendations: 3
“I think my first conundrum was "how did they fit two of everything in the Ark?". Never got an answer to that one. ”
I like “what happened to all the innocent children in the flood” or “how many children were on the ark?”
I think I’ve written before about the daycare near here, called “Noah’s Ark Day Care”. lol.
No. of Recommendations: 2
god was such a dick to Job,
I remember hearing some AM radio preacher going on about what a wonderful tale this was and how it showed the virtue of Job and how such virtue is rewarded by god.
And I thought it just showed how the god these people imagine couldn't possibly exist.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Junior high was when my questioning began.
My very sweet Sunday school teacher had told us how one must be a saved Christian to get into heaven and I wondered about all the other people in the world who were not Christian and how unfair it was that they might spend eternity in hell or purgatory simply because they had never gotten The Word. And then came the answer to my doubts that I could not accept: 'you just have to have faith'. In other words...just don't THINK.
“I think my first conundrum was "how did they fit two of everything in the Ark?". Never got an answer to that one. ”
I like “what happened to all the innocent children in the flood” or “how many children were on the ark?”
I think I’ve written before about the daycare near here, called “Noah’s Ark Day Care”. lol.
No. of Recommendations: 6
My very sweet Sunday school teacher had told us how one must be a saved Christian to get into heaven and I wondered about all the other people in the world who were not Christian and how unfair it was that they might spend eternity in hell or purgatory simply because they had never gotten The Word. And then came the answer to my doubts that I could not accept: 'you just have to have faith'.
I would go to Sunday school and they would attempt to explain Bible passages to me, but I had become an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the Bible read like vintage SFF to me. I never believed. My siblings professed to believe, but none of them behaved as if they believed, they were mean and I wasn't. I thought a real God would let us know he exists, and not have such a permanent terrible punishment for not having faith. Therefore he wasn't a real God and smacked of being made up and shaped over time.
My father had evolved over time into an atheist, and that was help and a detriment at the same time. I was influenced by the thinking I ran across in SFF and also by my father. I went to generic Bible studies, Protestant, because I was a military brat. Moving every two years unsettled my life and I think anyone who grew up in one place has an advantage on me. :)
No. of Recommendations: 4
I was recently reading "Ever Since Darwin" by Stephen Jay Gould, and I came across these two gems, which illustrate what is happening in TX: the joining of two powerful regressive forces.
“If there is any consistent enemy of science, it is not religion, but irrationalism.”
“Louis Aggasiiz, the greatest biologist of mid-nineteenth-century America, argued that God had created blacks and whites as separate species. The defenders of slavery took much comfort from this assertion, for biblical prescriptions of charity and equality did not have to extend across a species boundary.”
Those supporting the law in TX should ask themselves which group they prefer to be in: the racists or the lunatics. If they think there's another choice, they are fooling themselves. Which should surprise no one.
abromber
No. of Recommendations: 4
I remember hearing some AM radio preacher going on about what a wonderful tale this was and how it showed the virtue of Job and how such virtue is rewarded by god.
The story also reflects attitudes of the time. IIRC, Job ended up with a new wife and kids after god killed his. As if a wife can be replaced; that she wasn't a unique individual (and ditto the kids).
