Background on me: Raised a Christian, became a deacon in the Southern Baptist Church, gradually became agnostic. But, my wife still has strong faith and is active in the church and I attend on a pretty regular basis. Probably nothing that hasn't happened before. Anyway, this morning in Sunday School, the story of Samson came up. Samson had been captured by the Philistines after his betrayal by Delilah. His hair had been cut off, but had grown back. They brought him into a large temple to "entertain them" (whatever that means) and Samson asked God to give him strength one more time and he toppled the pillars that supported the roof. It says 3000 Philistines died. It also says that this number was even more than Samson had killed in his lifetime. So, we can assume that Samson killed a lot of people. At this, I spoke up and said, "Are we really happy that this guy killed all these people? If someone walked in the door and told us that he had killed upwards of 5000 people for God, would we applaud him? Is that really how we feel? I'm sorry, but I just can't get behind that. Isn't that pretty much what radical Muslims are doing? Yet we condemn them for it. Why is that ok?" There were only 4 people, including myself, in the class today. Two of them, gave the usual "God commanded it" and "They were enemies of Israel" arguments, but the other lady (the wife of one of the first two) just sat there staring at her book. Then she sort of looked up and slowly said, "I never thought of it that way." You could almost see the light bulb illuminate above her head. After class, she told me that she had always just read stuff like that in the bible and had accepted it as "just the way it was". She had never really thought about if things like this went against her personal feelings. But, today, if only for a minute, she saw the light and experienced independent thought. It was an awesome sight to behold. She may never try thinking outside the box again. But, now that she's done it once, I prefer to think that she'll try it again. The more she does it, the easier, and more natural, it will become. Anyway, I just wanted to share the story. It's such a great experience to witness the moment that someone wakes up.
this is a perfect example of why it takes only one little insight to loosen the threads of religiosity. It makes people feel stupid. Defensive. Pisses them off. I love it. Just because they never took more than 5 minutes to really look at religion as opposed blindly following for a lifetime, anyone can have insight. Usually it ends it a lame argument about 'faith,' but really they're just covering for hypocrisy. I'm agnostic as well, because I have a brain and am conscious of my own spirituality. I am not anti-religion, I am anti-ignorance.
Awesome! If you REALLY want to blow/expand the minds of those that are in your Sunday School class ask them this... Why are there NO books written by contemporary historians about the life and times of Jesus Christ? Over forty historians lived in the area and during that time. NONE of them wrote about the enigmatic mythological character that we now refer to as Jesus of Nazareth...
Actually, I once posed that question. One guy, predictably, mentioned Jocephus. Then, the conversation quickly moved to another (safer) subject. I do enjoy throwing these questions at them occasionally. The reactions are mostly nebulous answers about having faith and not understanding everything this side of heaven.
Yeah, none of the hard core believers that I've posed this question to can come up with a viable explanation. If you're interested, check out The Christ, by John E. Remsberg. It really points out all of the "factual" inconsistencies that are rampant in the new "testament". The story of Jesus is nothing more than a plagiarized and rehashed version of older mythologies. It didn't happen. Keep making them THINK...
It also says in the bible that 7 men marched around a city and it came crumbling down. They made a song about that. Bro code #18 is "never trust a hoe" and that is also a song. Tuckerjonesisreal
I remember being 8 at church and thinking, boy this sounds like absolute craziness. I knew as a child that the stories they were tellin me were hella more made up than the jungle book in my eyes. From that point I was no go with te Christ game. Tuckerjonesisreal
I did it again yesterday. Another guy in Sunday School said, "Did you guys hear that the Dalai Lama was Birmingham? He was having a big preachin' or somethin'. I just don't think we want that in Alabama!" So I asked him, "Exactly what is it that the Dalai Lama teaches that you disagree with?" His response was a flustered "Well, I don't know but he ain't Southern Baptist!" No shit, Sherlock. This is what I have to deal with...
Great job! One for speaking up and two for affecting a change. My girl wants me go to church but I know very very few pastors and flock know what the Bible really is and what its really about. Ive had to unlearn and relearn almost everything i thought i knew (religion, science, politics, government etc) and it is a very burdensome on my mind. I do not want to subject myself to more false teachings that i have to sort through. Maybe some people can, but i cannot truthfully justify an all loving God telling me to murder (which violates His commandments). I dont recall Jesus every telling anybody to murder anyone, perhaps every time your Bible says something that contradicts the true nature of God you should strongly question it or assume its referencing a lesser god, definitely not a benevolant one that speaks for THE Creator.
lol there are so many holes in Christianity alone that you would think by now people would have outgrown it. The fact that it is still so prevalent in society truly shows the danger of religious institutionalisation. As an ex-Roman Catholic raised in a strict Christian household, I can truly say that it is very difficult to overcome the denial and easy to cling to the deeply embedded false sense of security and faith which was forced into me by my parents and the church. I hope more people start thinking like in your story. The world would be a better place without all this bullshit.