Ever Been Punk’d By The Rapture? It’s Prank 3:16

maybe god wants you to ask questions,
the church on the other hand…..

You know what your right. About 40 men PENNED the words of the Bible over the course of 1600 years, and inspired by the Living Word who existed beyond all 1600 of the years. Yes, the Bible happens to be consistent all through out, if you can name a contradiction i would be happy to hear/read it. Two testiments: Old containing 39 books, and the New 27 book totalling 66. Correct, three languages Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Job 26:7 He strecheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Greeks believed the world to be carried on the back of Atlas and flat, Islam: flat earth and set on pillars, orientals believed it to ride on the back of a great spider. Would you like to hear more scientific evidences in the Bible? To your last Question, Clearly, No, it would be far from idiotic to believe that science and Christianity are complimentary. Don't get me wrong; i can by no means say this proves christianity, but i can easily say that it creates strong evidence for it.

Yeah i disagree with a majority of Pop Christianity as well. I just don't see it as free will God will be taking away, i see it as him taking the “evil” out of the world and along with that He would be taking the idea of “evil” out of the world as well. So i guess i am saying that we would be free just to make good decisions.

Yes, you can say that the Christian label comes with millions of connotations but when it comes to God there is only one right way and a lot of wrong ways, we can't all be right.

Ok now i can give the respect for TRYING. However, your feeble arguments fall way short. The faith and works doctrines of Paul and James are easily and without distortion of words consistent, but it's ok many people find contradictions when they compare single verses. On the other hand if they take the entire context they may see the similarity. Paul preached the faith in the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Christ for the penalty of man's sin as did James; however, James took it further. James preached that the man who is justified should then live by the faith to which he adhears. He preached that a justified man can not remain the same as he was before he accepted Christ; that he should learn and desire to walk in the manner of Christ. “Faith without works is dead/vain” what is said there is was the man who does not walk in the manner of Christ sincere in faith in the first place.

Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth and turn the other cheek are different contexts. the first was part of the mosaic law concerning justice; the latter was part of the new covenant concerning forgivness. As the Bible teaches God is both just and forgiving/loving. Furthermore, the point of the mosaiclaw was to show humanity that no man can live a righteouss life fully by the law, and that all men are wicked and sinful by nature and are in need of a savior. Once again to further this point when the pharesees wanted to stone the woman who was caught in adaultry Christ said let he who is without sin cast the first stone, so, therefore, all men deserve to die. An example, a man may kill someone and be remorseful and sorry, but the consequences of his actions are still carried out.

Now on the subject of evolution. Micro-evolution (adaptation) has evidence; for example humanity has addaped to a technological world. The human body has adapted to the hormones we inject into the animals and plants that we consume; hence the average human today is taller than the average human 2000 years ago. Yet, even secular scientists agree the Macro-evolution (the changing of one spesies into another) has no conclusive evidence. The fossil record has nothing, and the bacterrial flagellum renders it impossible 10,000 times over. Also according to the flagellum, if it were possible it would take over a trillion years for even the simplest organism to change into another let alone the entire body of an animal. Yeah, heredity is a matter of micro- not macro-evolution.

So, yeah research is fun and rewarding; especially when you research both sides, as you have showed that you do the same. However, when reseaching the Bible you also need to understand the time, place, and circumstances which is the context. James was preaching to people who “had the faith” but yet continued to live a lifestyle in accordance to however they wanted; whatever made them feel good because they thought hey i have the faith thats good enough. Paul was preaching to the opposite; people who thought they had to work their way to heaven and that Christ's death and resurrection was not enough.

So, thank you for your “evidences,” i truely respect you for offering your viewpoints. However, the Bible when taken in context remains consistent, and ,clearly my explinations did not skew or twist any words. If you can't see that then i cant take any of your views seriously.

Also, you are right, if a man had all the knowledge of the the universe he would not make statements like the Bible is inconsistent and that it is not the wisest book ever written because he would know that those are Absolute statements. he would likely know that makeing absolute statements wold show foolishness and would destroy his credability.

i don't don't have all the knowledge of the world, and yet i try not to make those types of statements.

still i personally believe that the Bible is absolutely true, but still that is just me, and i have come to that conclusion through the laws of deduction, logic and yes faith.

I didn't write that a man with all knowledge of the universe would not say the Bible was inconsistent, and you should know that. Twisting my words to mean the opposite of what I actually wrote is an indication of either a lack of intelligence or a lack of intellectual honesty. I cannot respect it and will not argue with someone who does it. Write whatever you want from here, but one less person is reading it.

yes

I just think it's sick to reduce someone to tears for the sake of a “Joke”, it's just not funny. What makes it worse is that it's Christians doing it, you'd think them of all people should know better. It's not surprising though we are after all only human and imperfect. Reading some of the comments left it seems people are quite happy to bash Christians without actually getting to know them as people, yeah we've got some strange ideas but so has everyone else. Science hasn't got a great track record, “inspiring” atrocities such as the Holocaust. I don't think Humanism or Atheism are any better than Christianity, that's not to say they are worse, all movements have incredible people who can move people to do incredible things all people have faith in one thing or another. Idiots like the people who played this trick on someone also exsist in all walks of life, people that like to play on peoples gullibility, I find it repugnant, the fact that the women believed it so readily though makes me wonder whether the entire thing was just a set up, can anybody actually be that stupid? Surely if something like the rapture happened you at least hear a faint popping sound or something, what happened to her friend who had called her and needed to talk to her in private? Where was this cafe? In the middle of a cave where nobody could possibly walk past or into.
I can't imagine what type of Christian would find it funny no doubt they exsist though.

yea like taking a religion they massacred and perverting it celebrating “catholic” holidays that are really about having gay orgies in the streets

yea lets leave the world in the hands of the egos who are not willing to sometimes allow things to be in another's hands. they can all battle each other on who's right.

I cant wait for the rapture. Thats the day where god takes all the religious fanatics out of my life so that the world will finally have peace.

sure she's an idiot for believing this stuff – but this was unbelievably cruel! i was crying for her – imagine what she was feeling! so this is how “christian” people treat their friends?

I don't know, “here's free will, now do exactly as I say and never use that shit or I'll make you suffer for all eternity in unknowable agony” seems sort of like stacking the deck, if your god really loved or wanted a personal relationship with “his creation” you'd think hell would be something of a moot point if he gave a damn. It seems more like a revenge fantasy dreamed up by a xenophobic culture some few thousand years ago more than anything to me.

My, that's somewhat heavy handed…to regard other branches of the same faith as false is somewhat myopic. If it practices your major ideals and worships your god you are for better or worse “related” to them. While a statement that there is no divine is somewhat repugnant- it is in some sense correct. The bible itself states that after a time the power you worship will cease to take action on the mortal realm, looking at it from that perspective the outlook that there is no god can be explained as a simple lack of evidence, not necessarily a lack of being. Though personally I equate the divine more with life than an anthropomorphized concept of human will. I say human will because the idea of a jealous god, creator of all, strikes me as odd. If he is present in all things- then why on earth is he jealous? why the punishments? isn't he above our petty squabbles? It's sort of like seeing a kid get mad at their ant farm, no?

nothing is uncaused, the universe expands then collapses in upon itself to form a new singularity, once everything is in place in the singularity it reaches critical mass and sprays outward again. Assuming that this singularity is the origin of everything and all energy, this particle is the sum and propagator of all creation, existence exists because it is. existence can therefore be considered to be god, not even your god can exist without “is” if it is separate and distinct from the concept, but to do that, “is” has to exist first, and if that is the case… the state of being is the closest thing to god one can ever hope to witness, the act of rational thought its culminating achievement, which is not to say there can't possibly be a more powerful version of us. i.e. an extraplanar being capable of rational thought that said “I think today, I'll write a book”, regardless- if it is am opponent of free will, it is not the genesis for existence, because the concept of is has no will, but must be in place for anything else to form. So following that line of logic it is easy to say; god is not god, god is a liar and a kid with an ant farm. Only life is truly divine.

It would be pointless for me to try to defend myself against you seeing that you have already thrown a wall up between us by saying “your god” this and “your god” that. you do not want to learn anything, you just want me to answer you so you can try (and i emphasize try because that's all you can do is try) to disprove whatever i say.
Go ahead and say that what i said is just a cop-out and i don't want to answer you but it isn't i just don't want to waste my time with you.

Nah, just replied to different bits I found interesting or confusing.

Belief in the rapture and pretty much anything else associated with religion is evidence you have been trained to believe rather than think critically for yourself. Your ability to think this is a good thing, that blind faith has value, is what atheists will never understand because it makes no sense.
If god, or your idea of a perfect god, wrote the bible it would be perfect. It would make sense to humans if we were designed by and it was written by a perfect being.
Man wrote ALL religious texts. Man is flawed. Therefore all religious texts are flawed. Therefore unquestioning acceptance of their contents, particularly in light of the multiple blatant contradictions within them, is insane.

You are obviously a Real Christian©, oh, hang on, what was it Christ said? Oh that's right. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)

Anyone who can seriously deny the hatred and crimes done in the name of various gods and their associated religions is truly ignorant and has made a conscious decision to be so. It is not so much religion or specific faiths that is the main problem. It's the fact that anyone who believes in a higher power that is in control assumes no responsibility for their own actions. Anything done must be the will of god.

Isn't this unethical? They are causing distress to someone who is clearly mentally unstable. Oh wait, it's christianity, so it's completely normal to think that an omnipotent being exists that just took all your friends and left you behind sobbing – knowing all hell is going to break loose around you – just because you are a bad servant.

I give you credit for striving to be Christ-like but surely you must see the error of trying to behave like a person, who if you accept the absurdity of the trinity, Jesus, if you like to use the ancient Greek translation of his name, is also Yahweh. You can't be Christ-like without also being like his father. Yahweh, by hi own admission, invented racism and sexism, was the first to commit genocide and pretty much defined the hate-crime.

How can you possibly claim that something so incredibly, demonstrably flawed as the bible is perfect? Damn it man, Twilight makes more sense. Every time someone points out the blatantly obvious errors in your holy book the only replies one ever gets is “You're taking it out of context” or “it's a metaphor”. They are the pathetic responses your preachers give and the faithful accept them as true without ever applying any critical thought to it because critical thought is the destructive enemy of religion. You have no biblical reason to think it's a metaphor. It's just a convenient get-out-of-jail-free-card.

You have no idea whether the bible ever was perfect as you have never read the original texts it was assembled from prior to the multiple translations and transliterations some from Aramaic, some from Hebrew, some to Latin, some to Ancient Greek, then to English. The mistakes are well known amongst biblical scholars but rarely mentioned because of the backlash it creates.

There is literally tons of evidence that huge sections of the bible were lifted straight from previous religions.

Who do you trust more God or Moses? So which set of commandments do you follow?
Wouldn't you think Jesus' last words would be important to your religion? Apparently not important enough to get them right. There are three versions and at least two of them are terribly mistranslated.
Do you ever wear mixed fibers? Eat shellfish?
Christians always claim their religion is the basis for good morals yet your god commits all seven deadly sins in Genesis alone. How can anyone ever say “God is love” with a straight face. If God inspired the bible and it is true he has admitted to over two million murders and behaves like a petulant child.

Too many of the faithful think this argument comes down to those who believe in god Vs. those who don't. It isn't that simple. If god was to show itself in an undeniable way I would then know that it existed. That would in no way imply that it is in any way praiseworthy.

In regards to using “it” rather than him: God is supposedly perfect. If god is perfect he is an asexual “it”. If god is male he is either not intelligently designed or there is a female god he can mate with. Don't you just hate logic. It tears religion apart, or it would if the religious were capable of it.

regarding your comment on those who aren't “real christians” If god is so damn perfect why would he allow billions of people to get everything wrong. What possible purpose could it serve to have dozens of religions and hundreds of branches and sects within them all stating with 100% certainty that theirs is the only true religion. If he exists he has either abandoned us, in which case he is unworthy of your devotion or he likes things the way they are in which case he's a prick and unworthy of your affection.

To make an old quote more specific. When you understand why you don't believe in any of the other 2900 gods you'll understand why I don't believe in yours.

I could go on forever but it is pointless. As long as you believe there is any value in faith you will disregard facts that contradict your beliefs. If this wasn't the case there would be no believers

Well, plainly you don't seem to have a strong grasp of biblical priciples. The bible is not that hard to understand. And yes i have a grasp of basic scientific priciples. Those were actually the most interesting papers i have written. However i didn't realize i was writing a disertation so i was unaware i had to cite.

Also, because you feel it is appropriate to call me illogical because i believe in what is logical via research, you are clearly too ignorant for me to waste my time on. Me on the other hand have taken what you imagine to be true, analyzed it, and have thru the laws of deduction and a logical thought process found it to be not plausible, but at least i was smart enough to consider it.

I will attempt to answer everything you have said.
I do go about life as if god doesn't exist. It takes no effort to do so as no matter how many gods man imagines none have ever existed.
If unicorns existed I would have no problem with that unless people committed heinous acts because they believed the Unicorn wished it.
I would happily “let everyone believe want they want” if they lived a peaceful life, but one would have to be blind and ignorant to not see the damage done in the name of gods.
The term “nutjob” is a common one for believers. Lifelong Atheists and ex-religious people that have seen the error of their ways and developed some sense of logic and what is rational always see that an adult human without diagnosed mental deficiencies believing in a god is no different to someone believing in Leprechauns or Santa and surely that is the realm of the “nutjob”. (not my description, I prefer 'Voluntarily disabled')
You agree with unbelievers that religion is bad yet somehow think you can separate religion from god. Without religion there is no god for no one teaches the concept of a god.
You say “God doesn't allow poverty in the world” If you believe god is all powerful everything that has ever happened or will ever happen only does so because he has allowed it.
Adam and Eve did not choose to sin. It is not possible to choose to do wrong when you have never even heard of the concept. Them disobeying god would have had no more importance to them than you would place on disobeying the command of a drunk, insane homeless guy on the street. god gave them free will then told them not to do something before they even new of the concepts of right and wrong. Would you punish a baby that did something you didn't like when you knew full well that the child had no grasp of right and wrong. Courts of law use the inability to separate right from wrong as part of an insanity defense.
You said “that is why he had to send Jesus”. Okay, why did he wait thousands of years and kill millions of people in the meantime instead of simply correcting the mistake of failing to teach them of right and wrong and consequences? The answer is simple. A god would be smarter than that. A man writing a book about a god would not necessarily be. How can someone believe in a god that isn't intelligent enough to make sure his works, words and ideas are accurately chronicled. That is moronic.
“(that is scriptural, not just something i am making up)” You are quite correct, if it is scriptural. It is something someone else made up.
Starting any sentence with “The Bible says…” holds no more weight than “It says in Green Eggs & Ham…” Your religion is wholly based on the writings of people not gods.
Satan? Really? Even most branches of Christianity no longer believe in a literal satan. Even assuming his existence, why would an all powerful god tolerate an enemy or allow him to do anything of which he didn't approve. Satan is possibly the dumbest subject in the bible as the only possible reason for the existence of satan is god wishes it. Therefore god is totally responsible for anything satan does.
“while God was preparing to send Jesus into the world.” Seriously? How long does it take a supreme being to prepare to send his son/self somewhere?
“i'm a christian, not a Jew so i don't follow the laws of the OT.” So I gather you didn't like the bit where Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18) Like all Christians you pick what you like and leave what you don't.
Perhaps you prefer where the apostle Paul wrote that God, “having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us…took it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14) In another epistle, he wrote, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:4) Note that these things were said by Paul. I would have thought you would pay more credence to what was said by Jesus.
You “don't see religion as the issue”. Nothing in human history has inspired as much evil and hatred as religion. If god doesn't want this he can change it. If he doesn't change it it's because he is either powerless to do so, in which case he hardly deserves to be called god, or he approves of it, in which case he is evil. There are no other options.
It is possible to kill in the name of god. It is not possible to kill in the name of nothing. Surely you aren't so ignorant as to think Hitler was an atheist. He was a good Catholic, killing Jews in the name of Christianity. The Holy Roman Catholic Church has issued at least six specific instructions to kill all Jews over the last 1600 years. Yes Pol Pot and Stalin were Atheists but what they did had no bearing on their lack of religious beliefs it had to do with the fact they were bloody sociopaths. In the last 2000 years the only religious leaders killed in wars were killed for opposing invaders or those in power and religious leaders inspire the masses and no military campaigner wants a strong or inspired resistance. Their being killed wasn't to wipe out religion except perhaps in Tibet), not that that isn't a good enough motivation.
You have either been misled regarding “The point of atheism” Atheism is nothing more than NOT believing in a god/creator/supreme being, nothing more. Modern atheism, what you see mostly on the 'net, what I engage in is more correctly termed anti-theism. That is we are against the very concept of belief or faith in the supernatural as we can see the horrendous harm it does and how backward it makes our species. Where is your quote from “a new man, a new utopia, liberated from tradition”? A new man, one liberated from old superstitions, would most certainly bring humanity closer to some form of utopia.
“If the Bible isn't true” Have you ever heard the old line “I never lie. I sometimes lie”? It is quite obvious that this statement can not be correct as it is a blatant contradiction. The bible is full of contradictions and errors. Anything that is even partially doubtful is wholly doubtful. If those in charge of christianity wanted honesty the bible and every text it came from would be analysed and re-analysed to make sure there was no man made mistakes in gods holy book but that will never happen because those who believe what it says now would be forced to accept they had faith in something that was wrong and were misled whether intentionally or not. If the bible made any sort of sense their would be one church. The fact that the KKK, Pat Robertson, Glenn Beck and the Catholic Church all use the same guiding book shows quite clearly it is seriously flawed. If it is flawed at all, and it is, then all of it is in doubt.

Simply put. There is a total lack of evidence of support all religious and other superstitious claims. There is overwhelming evidence that your beliefs are harmful to humanity, and just as an environmentalist doesn't want you to pollute I don't want you to pollute the minds of the masses with what is essentially rubbish, even if it is recycled rubbish.

That's enough for one day.

You say logic tears Religion apart and appear to be using logic as an argument against the exsistence of God, are you aware that logic is a human construct and also by your reasoning the entire universe cannot possibly exsist as according to Quantum mechanics 1 thing can be in 2 places at once, this is not logical ergo the universe cannot possibly exsist, do you see how illogical that argument is?
Also where is the evidence that Hitler was a good Catholic even now Historians cannot agree on Hitlers religious views, what I do know is that he used genetics evolution and philosophies of Niezsche to justify the Holocaust, as far as I am aware he didn't use Moses, Jesus and Paul although I could be wrong.

The concept of “1 thing can be in 2 places at once” (Wow! What an incredible over simplification of an amazingly complicated concept) is a working theory that only some people in the field agree is even plausible. There are many things that aren't logical but still exist, mostly human behaviors. Religion being probably the most obvious one. People who have children but don't care at all for the planet on which they will live. People who have more children than they can afford to feed. People who would vote for Palin. People who listen to Pat Robertson and yet consider themselves good christians. Very few people use logic in their daily thoughts, most run on base instincts and emotion. Very few people think critically about anything, mostly because their preachers, teachers and parents discourage thinking, preferring instead blind obedience.

Hitler went to church, met with many high-ranking Catholics, conducted book-burnings at their request using their list of books, once said, and I'm paraphrasing as I couldn't be bothered to look it up again, “After the Jews, the atheists will be next”.
He did understand Darwin's work, obviously something you don't, but evolution via natural selection has nothing to do with his eugenics program. Farmers have been using selective breeding for centuries to get cows that make more milk and/or beef, sheep with more high-quality wool. etcetera. Have you ever owned a dog? If it wasn't a Wolf, Coyote or Dingo it was the result of selective breeding by humans. He just went one morally corrupt step further and had his people try to breed Blue-eyed, Blonde Aryan people. This was where his misuse of his knowledge of genetics was used, it had nothing to do with the holocaust. He wasn't trying to get rid of Jews because he saw them as genetically inferior (which he also did), he was getting rid of them because they had been a problem to Christianity since its inception just as the Muslims want to rid Earth of all opponents, so did the Catholic Church and Judaism was their main opponent for a millennia.
Nietzsche was a nut. Every age has prominent nuts. Look at Ann Coulter [shudders].

Your opinions come from the lack of a decent education in those who taught you and consequently yourself. Something I don't blame you for. Your education system is beyond hope.