Why I Am A Christian

[Adrift]

Two questions:

1. Is the skeptics annotated bible a real thing?
2. Does it really posit that the only sources of cosmic light and heat are from stars?

fwiw,
guacamole

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/1.html

[guacamole]

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/1.html

LOL. Talk about straining out a gnat to swallow a camel.

As for question 2--Yes, yes they do:

(1:3) Let there be light
God creates light and separates light from darkness, and day from night, on the first day. Yet he didn't make the light producing objects (the sun and the stars) until the fourth day (1:14-19). And how could there be "the evening and the morning" on the first day if there was no sun to mark them?

[firstfloor]

It has the robrecht seal of approval so you know it is quality material.

I agree. But, contrary to some atheist opinion here I would say that whatever rationalisation works for you and your personal problems is fine and it is even reasonable that those wishing to communicate with spirits gather together to formalise the practice and gain other community benefits by joining a church. What is much less satisfactory is that such practices tend to close off possibilities for addressing the same issues by other means and sets up barriers because the formalism of the spirit world and its special writings engenders division along sectarian lines. In addition, beliefs concerning the spirit world are in direct conflict with knowledge and this has the potential for serious consequences. One hopes for mutual understanding, if not cooperation.

[Meh Gerbil]

I agree. But, contrary to some atheist opinion here I would say that whatever rationalisation works for you and your personal problems is fine and it is even reasonable that those wishing to communicate with spirits gather together to formalise the practice and gain other community benefits by joining a church. What is much less satisfactory is that such practices tend to close off possibilities for addressing the same issues by other means and sets up barriers because the formalism of the spirit world and its special writings engenders division along sectarian lines. In addition, beliefs concerning the spirit world are in direct conflict with knowledge and this has the potential for serious consequences. One hopes for mutual understanding, if not cooperation.

I've found that the spirit world and the physical world work well at correcting one another.

[Darth Executor]

I'm often kind of scared by how sociopathic a lot of Christians seem to admit to being in their hearts. It's kind of worrying.

Gerbil is practically a flagellant, his idea of "scary" is eating a cookie he wasn't supposed to eat.

Also this is hysterically funny coming from a child killer.

[37818]

I've done the math and discovered that the solar wind doesn't exert enough pressure to affect debris large enough to block light from the sun, and even if it was it would be much much longer before the solar wind blew the debris far enough for the stars to become visible.

You could have determined this for yourself if you had been interested in actual facts rather than being interested only in finding a calculation that gives the result '4'.

Over to you.

I'm not sure why there would be solar debris in the first place.

To hide the sun, of course. But somehow it hid the sun but didn't stop sunlight from reaching Earth.

Perhaps 37818 will explain.

The standard explanation is the first day there was light. And the fourth day the Sun, Moon and stars became visible as distinct lights in the sky. And simply that.

[firstfloor]

I've found that the spirit world and the physical world work well at correcting one another.

That does not surprise me. I could do with a bit of spiritual assistance myself at times.

[Sparko]

That does not surprise me. I could do with a bit of spiritual assistance myself at times.

He wasn't talking about booze.

[seer]

That does not surprise me. I could do with a bit of spiritual assistance myself at times.

E&J VS Brandy...

[Meh Gerbil]

He wasn't talking about booze.

Nothing like mixing spirits and spirits.

[Zymologist]

Nothing like mixing spirits and spirits.

I consider myself a spiritual person. I drink whisky at least every other day.

[Starlight]

Two questions:

1. Is the skeptics annotated bible a real thing?

Yes. It occasionally comes up when I google stuff, but I've never read more than a couple of pages. I see from quoted posts that Adrift, who I have on ignore, apparently did his usual of making up stuff about me, and falsely claimed I use/used it.

2. Does it really posit that the only sources of cosmic light and heat are from stars?

Dunno and who cares what the SAB says? But I would say it's fairly clear from Gen 1 that the author believed that the day and night were created by God completely independently of the sun, and that God later created the sun and the moon as objects to sit in those domains. If you're suggesting that the "day and night" really refers to hot plasma left over from the big bang, or whatever else modern apologists have come up with to project on to the narrative, I think you're being pretty anachronistic in your reading and trying to project a level of knowledge onto the writer that he didn't have, the obvious reading is that by "day" and "night" he meant literal day and literal night.

[37818]

I wish I could build a presupposition-free tower, a logical tower of Babel, that I could lay out on the table for everyone to examine. Everyone could take a run at various weak spots in the construction and I could work to shore up those areas until they were beyond reproach. Eventually I'd publish a book, it would be a best seller, the world would be converted. I would then take my seat next to God. I'd be the guy who finally spelled it all out for the masses. That would be respectable.

The truth is that I'm not sure I can construct a solid and logical reason for getting out of bed this morning.

I'm a Christian first and foremost because of my need for a safe space (1). I've got to have a place where I can be brutally honest with someone who will love me despite serious, intentional, and ongoing flaws. There is absolutely no human on earth who can handle listening to me unpack what really goes on in my heart and mind. I should be in jail for the stuff that flows through my noggin'. Prayer is a place to work through absolute garbage in absolute safety. For me prayer is walking into a room and sitting at a table where Jesus is also seated. I vomit all over the table for half and hour and he cleans it up. I cannot understand how other people get though a day without prayer. I would have taken hostages by now without it.

I think another really big issue for me is creation. To me the created order absolutely screams 'God'. It is deafening. If you wonder why your anti-God rhetoric doesn't get anywhere with me it is because I cannot hear you over the tiny bird on the window sill. The sparrow destroys mountains of arguments - they're vicious little debaters, those sparrows. I'm always surprised when I see a sparrow that the little guy doesn't have the words "Created by God" inscribed on its belly. It is that obvious to me.

The reason my faith continues to grow in intensity is because the Bible keeps freakin' knocking truth bombs right out of the park. I don't even hold to inerrancy like most Protestants and yet I have more respect, adoration, and need of Scripture than when I held to that goofy view point. How spirituality can so thoroughly unmask me is kind of freaky - and very helpful. I like it when things I come to trust earn that trust instead of the trust just being a statement of doctrine (aka: stubbornness).

Now of course you could be a total opportunist and rake through that pointing out logical flaws and so forth.
I don't care if you do - I won't be responding.

I just like it when people talk about why they believe stuff whether it is packaged for sale or not.
I feel like that has more in common with a real conversation.






NOTES
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1: Cue the jokes about millennials and such - truth is, I've been using that term to describe my experience for 20+ years.

Well, if you were to explain to someone on how to become a Christian, what would you explain?

[Jedidiah]

. . . snip . . .

I'm just observing that the way a lot of Christians describe their own minds it seems like they spend a concerningly large amount of time really really dwelling on really bad thoughts which they barely barely restrain themselves from acting upon. There's a few possible causes for that: Is Christianity just repressing the bad desires and only making them surge back more strongly? Does Christianity's constant focus on bad desires and bad thoughts make them occur more and more, in the same way that "don't think of an elephant!" makes you think of an elephant? Does Christianity's whole idea of "sanctification" simply not work in any way shape or form, and is there really nothing at all in Christian teaching or practice that actually leads to sanctification? Does Christianity naturally attract the really bad people who would all be utter criminals and serial murderers within days if they were let off the restraints of Christianity? I think some of those questions have quite a bit of merit to them.

I think you are misreading or simply making an unsupported statement. Give me one post where someone suggests that they are only held back from horrible actions by the restrictions of their faith. Most of your statement seems to me to by gibberish.

[Jedidiah]

I'm often kind of scared by how sociopathic a lot of Christians seem to admit to being in their hearts. It's kind of worrying. And then they often claim that the only thing holding them back from doing all this terrible stuff is their religious beliefs. Apparently there are some really really bad and scary people in those religious groups, and sanctification / teachings of love and kindness and moral change don't seem to be working all that well, or even at all.
. . . snip . . .

I addressed this in another thread, but how about a few examples of Christians saying they want to do horrible things and are only being held back by their beliefs.

This appears to be all straw.