Leviticus Is Just Good Science

Over and over again I hear that the Bible must be the inspired word of God because the rules in Leviticus are so scientific and sane, we should all be following them just for our health.

Bullshit.

For example, this is what passes as scientific in this crowd:

the Law states we are not to eat pork. God will not punsih us if we do. BUT do you know that science has backed up God? pigs are the only animal that doesn't sweat, releasing it's toxins. so when you eat pork you are eating toxins! same goes for the catfish that God warned us against eating. they are the trash eaters of the water. why would you want to eat trash?

Sweating is not how you "release toxins". Sweating is how you modulate body temperature and it's not even that efficient a means of doing so. You do have a way of dealing with harmful substances in your body, it's called your liver. Your liver does not make you sweat.

Also, if eating catfish is eating trash, then eating a cow is eating grass, eating grass is eating sunshine and you should be able to live off of nothing but sitting out in the sun for several hours a day.

Continuing on, I guess this person doesn't get any international news, because all the people that were sickened, seriously injured or killed in Germany due to food poisoning? That was e coli. E coli is not found in pigs. Most outbreaks that don't come from people come from cows. When was the last time you heard about a trichinosis outbreak? (That's an actual disease you can get from pigs.) Never, I would imagine. E coli outbreaks, on the other hand, are common.

Let's examine some other sciencey stuff found in Leviticus:

• Don't wear clothes made of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19) You know, because . . . yeah, I got nothing.
• If a man has sex with a woman on her period, they are both to be "cut off from their people" (Leviticus 20:18) Scientifically speaking . . . no idea.
• Don't let cattle graze with other kinds of Cattle (Leviticus 19:19) Because . . . well . . . I dunno.

Then there's this wtfuckery:

• "And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean." 13:40
• "And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald: yet is he clean." 13:41

Well, gee, I'm glad we cleared that up.

The End of Days: Indistinguishable From All Other Days

Okay, so at the End of Times there will be: earthquakes, floods, storms, wars and rumors of wars.

So, you know, business as usual on the planet Earth.

As far as prophecy goes, that's like predicting that there will be people, eating food and drinking beverages. Somewhere. In the vicinity of the prophecied activity.

But these signs- they are now! (Well, sure, they are always.)

This is just another strange event...I am constantly in awe by the pure reluctant acceptance of the general populace to the signs around us. I have discussed the earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, pestilences, turmoil in the Middle East and the state of Israel to just about anyone who will talk to me about it and it seems they always come back with the same answer.... It has always been like this! We just didn't have the technology to realize it. It makes me sad that people are just so blind to what is happening. I want people to get right with God to turn back to him. However, it seems that the ME society has finally taken over and they have no room for our Creator! I wish I knew the magic words to open their eyes.....Come Lord Jesus Come!

Psst! You, yeah, you. C'mere. Generally speaking, when you're the only person who can see a thing, that's because it's not actually there. I mean, I suppose it's possible that white horse in the garden is a unicorn, but more than likely, you are delusional.

Seriously, has there ever been a time when there weren't earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, pestilences, and turmoil in the Middle East (and everywhere else)? Go get a history book, read it and then get back to me.

I wish I knew the magic words too

Me, too! That's be sweet! Oh, you mean to convince me that earthquakes are highly unusual events. Never mind.

I found a correlation to these times at work the other day. My coworker Leslie spoke over the loudspeakers to warn customers that the store would be closing in 10 minutes, and people kept on shopping, some came to the front. She then warned that the store would be closing in five minutes. People started coming to the front then.

I realized that on a much wider and less petty scale, this is what the Lord has been doing since 1948. The store is closing, but people are still doing their shopping while those who are listening have gone to the checkout. Soon the store will close and people who didn't listen will be trapped overnight.

Um, wut? What does "correlation" mean again? Do you warn your customers that the store is closing by setting the displays on fire? I . . . wut?

Great Analogy! I could not agree more! It just saddens me to see the blind walking everywhere!

Damn blind people! Stick to your . . . blind . . . places.

Remember hurricane Katrina. Weren't the people being warned four or five days ahead of expected landfall. Many didn't heed the warning and the landfall and the breaking of the levee caused a lot more damage and loss of life than anyone anticipated or could have imagined.

Oh, you mean the poor people who had no way to get out of town and nowhere to go even if they did get out? That makes this analogy . . . interesting.

I'll end with the most disturbing thing I've ever read (and I've read the Bible):

With fish and game comissions trying to rid the US of invasive-destructive species,

starlings have always been a scourge, and remember the snake head fish infestation, should we be surprised when this kind of thing happens?

With toxic spills and weather system changes, fish will suffer very quickly.

All we need is some massive land animal die-offs.

Certianly these events need investigation, cause identification, as there may be a serious health threat to humans.

But This isn't God's handiwork. God would kill every starling on the face of the earth. God's signs leave no doubt.

satan on the other hand, loves to play games, and if these occurances get lots of christians proclaiming "signs of the times"

Well, that will be fuel for scoffers wouldn't it. "So where is your long expected Jesus?"


But then that is real Prophecy coming to fruition, isn't it?


No one knows the day, but act like the time is short - be busy until He sounds the Quitting Time Whistle.

You'll know it's god by the incredible scale of death and suffering. Um, yeah. I'm sure the Egyptians, looking at their dead first born children would agree.

The Bible Is Really Poorly Written

This. The creator of the universe couldn't handle this. Now go look at your car and think about a few things.

I got a lot of writing done this weekend and ended up surprising myself. (Twice, actually. The surprise twist surprised even me!) If nothing else, writing Avoiding the Apocalypse has allowed me to see that the Bible is really poorly written.

Here's the thing. When I told my husband the broad outlines of my book*, his immediate question was, "How is that going to work? God's omnipotent, Satan's basically omnipotent, how do have an interesting story involving people that can snap their fingers and make anything happen?"

"So, darling, have you ever read the Bible . . . "

Really. I had to seriously scale back both Yhwh and Satan in order to make them, well, writable. Is Yhwh capable of ending his own creation? Absolutely- within the confines of the system he himself set up**. Is Satan the most powerful character other than Yhwh? Sure, but he is by no means omnipotent, and while even the most powerful demon couldn't take him one on one, a number of demons working together could.

But see, I put a lot of thought into this. I've read books that contained virtually omnipotent characters. They sucked. Either there was no conflict, or the character was constantly "forgetting" his abilities or getting taken out of the action in improbable ways, or omnipotence became impotence whenever it was convenient with no explanation at all.

You know, like in the Bible. Omnipotent God makes absolute everything, but in Judges 1:19 omnipotent God is thwarted by, of all things, iron chariots.

"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron."

The worst part is, I can't even use that in my book! If Yhwh can be defeated by iron chariots, then all my protagonists would have to do is sneak into heaven with an M15, or a couple of AA12s. I couldn't possibly stretch that more than a few chapters, even if I described every building and angel individually and in great detail. (Lookin' at you, Jonathon Kellerman.)

A lot of people propose that everyone should have to read the Bible because it is such good literature. Um, no. It's an inconsistent translation of a translation of very old documents written by people who had no ethical issues with raping women and killing babies. And it's not even good writing.

Yeesh.



*It's only fair. He shows me his songs when they're nothing more than a drum beat or a chord sequence.

**Can a nuclear power plant be shut down? Sure, using the shutdown procedures. Try anything else and you've got quite the mess.

Now That's Just Mean!

I never stopped to consider this question:

The reason, according to Genesis, that humans have pain and suffering is that Yhwh cursed all humanity because the first two humans made a rather understandable mistake. Now, of course, I have considered how absurdly, breathtakingly cruel it would be to punish all humanity for the mistakes of two humans, but I never considered why we are still being punished. After all, Jesus died for our sins, right? That definitely includes Original Sin. So why do we still live under the curse of original sin?

My answer is that there is no god, no Adam and Eve, no original Sin and no curse. Bad stuff happens because it does. People grow old and die because entropy always wins.

Christians, however, have to come up with some other reason, and it is as breathtakingly cruel as the curse itself:

We know that the curse is the result of man's sin. And why then are we, who are forgiven of sin, still living the curse?

Because the curse is a constant reminder that we are in desperate need of salvation. It was designed with a purpose--put there for our good—so that we might understand our need for a saviour.

Wow. That's . . . indescribable. Imagine that your great great great great great great great great grandfather murdered someone, was tried, convicted and spent the remainder of life in prison. Would you find it fair for you to be in prison for his crime? Of course not. Your grandparents weren't alive when the crime was committed, why should you be punished for it? Your grandfather already paid his debt to society, why should you have to do it again?

What if the answer to that question was "yes, the bet is paid, but we're going to imprison every member of your family forever to show everyone else that we take murder very seriously"?

Apparently, if you're Christian, you think that's love.

Live by Every Word

The Brick Testament, bringing the Bible back to its roots.

This is a rather excited defense of the King James Bible (arguably the worst translation of the Bible), which doesn't actually address why that version is better than any other version, but does contain this:

God wants us to live by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of His mouth...which is why it is SO important that we have an EVERY WORD Bible. It is soooo sad that Christians are falling for Satan's cruel and brilliant plan, to take away the ONE offensive weapon we have (THE SWORD) in our spiritual armor, and replacing it with something that looks kind of the same, sounds kind of the same, seems to have the same IDEAS, so it must be the same. Read Esp.6, "Put on the WHOLE armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil". Loins girt about with truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation (these are all defensive) and our one offensive weapon is THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD.

This is the "All caps makes it TRUE" style of argumentation, but the central argument is that God wants us to live by every word in the Bible. Every word. Even the words that contradict other words.

You know, Adam died the moment he tasted the fruit of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, Gen 2:17, and he died 930 years later, Gen 5:5. Years were shorter then? I have no idea.

John 14:6- The only way to God is through also God Jesus. Acts 10:34-35- anyone who fears God in the right way is acceptable to him. So, belief in Jesus is necessary or not?

Genesis 6:6. Exodus 32:14, Numbers 14:20, I Samuel 15:35, II Samuel 24:16 God changes his mind.

Numbers 23:19-20, Isaiah 15:29, James 1:17 God does not change his mind.

So . . . does God or does God not change his mind?

In Genesis, Abraham has two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. In Hebrews, Abraham is set to sacrifice his only son. So, what, 1=2? That might help explain how Adam lived to be 930 years old- after he died.

In the ninth chapter of Exodus, God destroys all the cattle. All of them, including the horses. Apparently, Egypt went on quite the cattle buying spree, or there was quite a long time in between plagues, because in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, God kills all the first born cattle. How were there any first born cattle after all the cattle were killed? He killed dead cattle? lolwut?

Then, in Exodus 14, Pharaoh pursues the Israelites on horseback- dead horseback. That's right, Pharaoh was pursuing the Israelites on zombie horses.

You know, I have about 14 pages of book done so far, and in my latest reread, I noticed that, for no apparent reason, the main character, Lucia, switches from calling the Devil "Lucifer" to "Satan". There's no instory reason for it. What happened was I wrote the scene between Lucia and Lucifer first, then went back and put in the beginning of the story. Because I wrote the two about a week apart, I forgot what I had already been calling the Devil. Once I read the two pieces together, I noticed it.

That's what happens when you write stories, you get inconsistencies. The Bible is a collection of stories written by many different people over many centuries. It's not surprising that there are inconsistencies. I couldn't keep one character's name straight over 14 pages written in the space of one week. What this definitely proves however, is that the Bible is not the word of some omnipotent being, whom I would expect to be better able to keep track of such things than me.

I have seen some pretty interesting defenses of these inconsistencies, though not the one involving the Twice Dead Zombie Horses of Pharaoh*. For example, Adam was dead to God when ate the fruit, he didn't physically die until 930 years later. Uh huh.Or the Bible isn't divinely inspired. Occam's Razor, people. Live it, love it.

*I call that as my next book's name right now.

I Think I May Be God's Favorite Little Light and Other News

We'll start with the other news because what can follow the discovery that I may potentially be God's favorite little light?

When it comes to adolescents genuinely committing to their faith, a study found that their social environment determines how strong their faith level will be.

...

According to the study, titled “Seven Anchors of Religious Commitment,” parents, religious leaders, a faith community, rituals and traditions, faith tradition or denomination, God and sacred texts are crucial to a young person's faith.

Emily Layton, who conducted the analysis as part of her M.S. thesis for the study, explained to The Christian Post, “Relationships were extremely important – relationships with parents, with church leaders and relationships with people in their faith community. That was interesting to me, the relationships with other adults in their faith community as well as other younger teens.”

Shock, shocked I am! Religion is a function of society? The more religious the people around you, the more normalized ritual is in your community, the more likely you are to believe and believe strongly? It's almost like religious belief is like every other sort of belief: a function of it being so pervasive and normal that you never really think about it.

Well then.

Anyway, in the wake of the horse killing homophobes, somebody in real life* told me that the perpetrators could not have been Christian. For the record, I did not say that the perpetrators were Christian, I said that many of the people who spew homophobic hatred are. She not only strawmanned my argument, she whipped out a No True Scotsman so fast I got whiplash. I, of course, argued against the No True Scotsman and was told to read Isaiah and see if anyone who could do such a thing- kill horses, not spread hatred, I don't think she was really opposed to that- could possibly be the light of God, i.e., a Christian.

It's a damn good thing she used the phrase "light of God" because Isaiah is a big book, and what she was referencing, I think, is in chapter 58.

They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?

So . . . I'm a socialist, which makes me obviously against worker exploitation, and I'm not in favor violence . . .

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice

I am so against injustice!

and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

I am so trying to break every yoke! It's the whole point of my blog.

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

I do that (and then end up being the hungry, but whatever) and I rarely don't have someone sleeping on the couch in the basement.

when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

I've never actually seen a naked person in public, but if I did, you'd better believe I rush to cover that up.

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;

Metaphorical healing, perhaps . . . wait! Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is totally making me better mentally.

then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

If anyone can make an argument that "righteousness" and "rear guard" actually mean "Jägermonster", I will worship the Christian god with a fervor previously unseen in all 2,000 years of Christianity.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

oppression like American business and landowners being free to legally discriminate against gays? Malicious talk like telling people the gays are coming for your children? Like that?

DO THESE PEOPLE EVER READ THEIR OWN DAMN BOOK?

¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

How do they syncretize this with going galt? am I insane or are they?

then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

Which would doubtless make it hard to sleep, but seriously folks, by this measure, I'm the greatest fucking christian of all time and god's favorite little light. (Or the greatest Jew of all time, given that Isaiah is Old Testament.)

*Remember the lady who told the bus driver that god gave him his house? It was her. I wasn't talking to her, I was talking to another woman and she jumped right in to fallacy me into sputtering. She's fun like that.

Have You Read the Entire Bible?

I have. Cover to cover in several different translations. I'm an atheist, surely a group of fundamentalist Christians- who base every moment of their lives on the Bible- could say the same?

Not so much.

I'm almost 53 and have ignored his word long enough.

I started in Genesis and just turned to Ezra this morning.

I've learned a lot already.

For those who have read through the bible, what did you do when you finished? Start over??

My plan is to read through and start over at the beginning and STAY in the word. That is where I feel safe.

I've learned a lot about the faith I already had!

I have read only parts of both Chronicles, both Kings, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but other than those, I have read the rest of God's Word at least once, most books in the NT many more times than once and that was how I became born-again---reading my Bible, book by book in context, at my kitchen table.

So, you read it book by book, but not Chronicles, Kings, Jeremiah or Ezekiel? I guess 62 out of 66 ain't bad.

i wish i could say that [i've read the whole thing], the heart is willing....

Hey, I'm an atheist, and I read all the begats- more than once! Yeesh.

I'm ashamed to say I've never read the Bible all the way through. Parts of it, yes. But not the whole thing. I start with the intention of doing so, and then I always get distracted and fail.

I've read some of it. It's totally the most important thing in my life, though. I live every moment by what it says . . . in the limited portions I have read.

Statistically most people who set ouyt to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation get bogged down early on in the OT. If you attempt this some of the books and chapters are kind of redundant and you wind up asking yourself, "Didn't I just read this yestersay?"

Yestersay aside, the Bible, the literal word of god, is a bit redundant.

I have read probably all of the new testament... and parts of the old.

Probably all? Parts? It's only, you know, central to your faith.

You know what bothers me the most about this? It makes "the Bible is the literal word of God- and that's why I'm trying to install a theocracy and why I hate gays" so disingenuous. Think about this for a second. If I thought any book was the direct word of an omnipotent, omniscient being who had the ability and apparent desire to torture me for all eternity, I would do nothing but read the Bible. I might not even bother with working and doing dishes and mopping floors. Even if I did do those things, I certainly wouldn't waste any time watching tv or reading other books or playing video games or chatting online.

These people can't get through the New Testament (the superrelevant part for Christians), let alone the Old Testament, yet they still claim to believe the book is the literal word of such a god? Stop lying to me.

Insert Clever Title Here (Snarking on Stupidity- I've Run Out of Titles)

Miss Raissa is awesome! She's like Ray Comfort without the smarm. (Really, I think she's serious, which makes it all the more hilarious. Ray I have my doubts about.)

This is from a long post about Adam and Eve and the apple* and why women should not be equal to men:

have spoken with extreme feminists, who fight daily to create equality between men and women. One day I asked them this question: Why is it that you want to be equal to men but you don’t believe a man should hit a woman? They were incapable of answering my question accordingly.

Really? They were incapable of coming up with an answer to that question? Are you sure "incapable" is the word you are looking for? Because the answer to that question is easy: violence is unacceptable behavior in general, and is especially unacceptable in relationships of any kind. No one should be hitting anyone, male or female. Ever. For any reason. Violence's only purpose is to promote fear and pain, there is no place for that in relationships. Fin.

I cannot wait for this:

There is so much left to talk about. We shall cover the rest in part two the report. I mentioned the other day that a woman’s fuel is love and a man’s fuel is respect. Women want to be loved and men want to be respected. A few people disagreed with my statement and asked that I do a scientific poll. I will do that and will report it in part two.

Can you imagine what Miss Raissa's concept of "scientific" is in this context? I am squealing with joy!

I will leave you with a classic from Hell:

See, Yhwh put a tree in the center of the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Actually, it was two trees. He also put the Tree of Life in the center of Garden of Eden. Now, being omnipotent, if he didn't want anyone to eat of the fruit of either of those Trees, he could have put them outside of the Garden of Eden, or put them on top of a mountain, or put a fence around them, but no, he just leaves the Trees right there where anyone can get at them.

Then, Yhwh puts two people, two completely innocent people, who have been alive all of one day, who have no concept of right or wrong, who have never seen or heard of death, in the Garden with the Trees. The Trees he didn't want these two people to touch. Then he told them they would die if they ate the fruit.

Did I mention Yhwh is supposed to be omniscient?

Yhwh: You can eat anything you want, but don't eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

Eve: Why not?

Yhwh: Because I'll fjwuieruthf you if you do.

Adam: What?

Yhwh: I will fjwuieruthf you if you eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

*Adam and Eve look at one another*

Eve: Ummm . . . what's fjwuieruthf?

Yhwh: You know, I'll fjwuieruthf you if you do it.

Eve (to Adam): You've been around twice as long as me, what's fjwuieruthf?

Adam (shrugs): I dunno. Maybe it's one of those furry things I haven't named yet?

Yhwh: Look, you eat that fruit and I'll fjwuieruthf you! End of discussion.

Eve: That fruit looks pretty tasty. What do you call it again?

Adam: Snorg.

Eve: Snorg? Really? Are you sure you don't like apple better?

Adam: What's wrong with snorg?

Eve: I let you have platypus.

Adam: I guess apple's okay.

Eve: Well, that apple looks pretty tasty, and we don't know that fjwuieruthf is bad. Maybe it's not bad at all.

Yhwh: I can assure you that fjwuieruthf is very bad. Very, very bad.

Adam: Yeah, but what is it?

Eve: Maybe you could fjwuieruthf something else in the Garden and then we could decide if fjwuieruthf is bad enough to make us not try the apple.

Yhwh: I can't fjwuieruthf anything! This is the Garden of Eden, nothing ever fjwuieruthfs!

Adam: So, wait, will you or won't you fjwuieruthf us? We're in the Garden. Why can we be fjwuieruthfed?

Eve: Screw this, I'm eating the apple.

*Not really an apple, actually, "apple" at the time of the King James translation was a generic term for fruit.

Whacktastic!

I read this and yelled, "That's whacktistic!" at my desk at work. And then mumbled sheepishly, "Some lady on youtube . . . fell into a fountain . . ."

But seriously, this is so whacktastic I can only assume the Blogging Fairy had it written just for me.

The One Indispensable Constituent of a Good Education

Grammar? Spelling? Logic? A questioning nature?

"The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God."

Ooookay . . .

If the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is the fear of God, then one should never teach anything without this very basic foundational truth either clearly expressed or assumed.

Anything at all? How would one manage this? I can think of any number of subjects entirely neutral to the question of god.

This guy can't.

What then would constitute a good science class, for example? Picture the instructor describing the order, the beauty, the complexity, the expanse, and the glory of the universe, the human body, and the animal kingdom. Then, he lifts his arms and says in a whisper to the class, Silence for a moment! All of you, stand in awe of him! Stand in awe of him! Let us worship the mighty Creator of heaven and earth. Anything short of this is not good science.

Whacktastic! Can you imagine? That's just . . . just . . .O.o

Words, they fail me.

The history professor will discuss the bubonic plague that destroyed 1/3 of Europe in the latter half of the 15th century. But unless he turns around and tells his students to fear the God behind it all, the One who does his will in the whirlwind and in the storm (Nah. 1:3),he has failed to teach good history.

e.e

If the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is the fear of God, then the first lesson in every sex education class should be a discussion on fearing God, because he is the one who first wrote the words, "Thou shalt not commit adultery. . ." And, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. . ." And, "The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good."

This is a penis . . . What is it, Timmy? Oh, yes, Be not deceived, now, upon arousal, the penis . . .

This, by the way, is what happens when you study Psalms instead of physics:

Last year our family was traveling through Wyoming on vacation, heading west on I-80 in the dead of winter. It was about 8:00 pm and my wife was driving on dry pavement at full speed. I drifted off for what seemed like a moment, when I woke to my wifes screaming, Help me Jesus! Apparently, she had hit a patch of ice formed by blowing snow on a high point in the road, and instantly I realized we were sliding sideways down the freeway. There was only one thing I could do. I joined in with my wife, yelling, Help us Lord. Help us now! Now! Please? It was a very charismatic moment, prayers going up to God in rather disorderly fashion.

In mere seconds, God took the vehicle and moved it onto the center divider where the vehicle plowed through 18 inches of snow for about one hundred feet. As we came to rest, we could not tell that we had stopped, for the snow had covered the entire vehicle like an igloo. Peering outside, I announced to everybody that we had come to a stop. We woke up the children. We trembled, and wept, and cried out to God, Thank you oh God for saving our lives today! And together we sang To God be the Glory. There was somebody else in the car with us. We knew that he was there. He was there!

Yes, god picked up your car, carefully placed it onto the center divider and used snow to slow you down. After allowing you to hit a patch of black ice and go sliding sideways in the first place. That god, such a kidder!

But what happens to a civilization that neglects to root an education in the fear of God over successive generations? It will eventually destroy knowledge itself. Scientists would be unable to distinguish between the science that drops a ball 100 times, and notes that mass seems to attract other mass to itself by a gravitational pull (at a probability of 99%), and the science that takes a look at a rock and calls it 4,325,000,000 years old. With equal levels of dogmatism, they conclude that force equals mass times acceleration, and then look at 600 factors that might cause global warming, and insist that the world will come to an end as we know it in 100 years unless we replace our SUV's with mopeds. A science without the fear of God will produce a hubris that can only end in irrationality

Damn, I used O.o too soon. Apparently, this dude is, with no scientific training whatsoever, qualified to decide what science is true and what science is just silliness. That Stephen Hawking, such a fool!

As one scientist told me recently, There is no essential difference between the science of Darwin and the science of Boyle, Newton, Pasteur and Pascal. What a breathtaking lapse in clear thinking! What exactly did Darwin give the modern world, but one lousy hypothesis concerning origins. Such blurring of science and pseudo-scientific guesswork began with Darwins hypothesis of species-evolution by a survival-of-the-fittest mechanism. While millions of scientists worldwide pursued this new pseudo-science with appropriate levels of hubris, thankfully there were men who feared God like Boyle, Newton, Pasteur, and Pascal who produced multiple advancements in the engineering and medical sciences as they took real dominion over Gods green earth with real observable, measurable, and reproducible science.

Is there something stronger than O.o, because I really need it now.

What happens to the minds of men who wander for 150 years without acknowledging their need for the Creator and His truth? Their scientists will busy themselves with worthless projects like extracting gold from lead, or acquiring clones from unfertilized parthenogenocized zygotes, or building towers that keep falling down. Science without the fear of God will in the end prove to be futile, and fatal in the brave new world without God.

lol wut? First of all, anyone whose mind is wandering for 150 years is living about twice as long as average for today, so good for them. Secondly, last time I checked, cloning worked and "towers that fall down"? What is he referring to? I have no idea, unless he's referring to the Twin Towers, in which case, in poor taste, and nobody builds anything with a contingency for "asshole flying a plane into it".

What happens to a nation that doesn't teach the fear of God as the beginning of wisdom for five generations? What happens to a nation that will not build its house upon Jesus and his words? When the rains come and floods rise, that house will come down, and great will be the fall of it (Matt. 7:27)! That nation will find 37% of children born without fathers, up from 6% in 1960, and half of marriages ending in divorce. That nation will become the greatest debtor nation on earth and inherit the weakest families in the entire western world. Sound familiar?

Really, it says that in Bible? Matt 7:28- and 37% of children will be born without fathers and national debt shall exceed net GDP. I must have skipped that day in Sunday School.

It's Not Genocide, It's Justice!

Sorry, Cthulhu, I've read the Bible. You're really no scarier than the Christian's "loving" god.

(Today is still Girl Genius Day. Find out what you're missing!)

In response to the argument that God is a moral monster (I don't have to prove this, the Bible does that for me), Paul Copan argues that sometimes genocide is justice. And also not genocide. Also. Too.

The evangelical scholar argues in his book that the killing of the Canaanites was not a racially motivated act. Rather, he writes, it was theologically and morally motivated via divine mandate to bring corporate capital punishment to a people whose religious practices encouraged incest, bestiality, adultery, and other deviant acts. He also references several texts that show the Canaanite population was far from being annihilated.

Let's look at the Bible. I find it very odd that Copan references other texts to prove that the Canaanite population was not annihilated, in that the Bible, you know, the approved word of God, does say exactly that.

The Canaanite Genocide starts in Deuteronomy 7, after God sends the Israelites out of Egypt, to the land of "milk and honey"- land already occupied by a number of different peoples.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— ² and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.^" Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

I'm sorry, how else does one interpret "destroy them totally"? Seems pretty clear to me. God, rather than giving the Israelites unoccupied land, demands instead that they completely destroy seven entire nations' worth of people- men, women, children, everything.

How is that moral? How is that not genocide?

As to the "deviant acts" excuse, other than worshipping other gods, the Bible doesn't really get into exactly what the Canaanites were doing. Not that even widespread bestiality would justify slaughtering everyone, including newborns not engaging in bestiality. That's not justice. That's genocide.

How is that moral?

What about The Flood? Remember, God told Noah that if he found 10 righteous men, there would be no flood. But Noah only looked in one city. All of the earth, and all of the peoples on it (remember, The Flood was supposedly world wide), Noah looks in one city for righteous men. That's like me going to the grocery store, looking at one tiny section of one shelf, finding no honey and then declaring that no store anywhere has honey. And then burning down every grocery store in the world.

[Edit: I'm thinking of the wrong Bible story. Meh. It's all genocide, all the time and babies died, so you know, not moral. I do appreciate it being pointed out, though.]

How is that moral?

How is dashing the heads of infants against rocks moral? How is raping female captives moral? How is killing everyone for the sins of the few moral?

How could you call God anything but a monster?

Here I Am, Ray's Impossible Person

Ray claims that the only person who doesn't pray is the person who isn't experiencing trouble.

Show me someone who says he"s never prayed, and I will show you someone who has never been in severe turbulence.

Ray, I'm right here. If I haven't experienced severe turbulence, I don't know who has. My own illness, my husband's MS, my MIL's heart failure, my own mother's health problems, job loss, money woes, mental illnesses among family members and friends . . . other than natural disasters, name a turbulence, I've ridden it out.

And I have not prayed.

Not once. Not for a moment. You know why? I don't believe in the sky daddy, Ray. Praying to a god, any god, would be like praying to my shoes. A pointless waste of time that won't change a thing. You know what I've done instead? Things that improved the situation or improved my mood. Praying won't do either, so I haven't done it.

What I think is truly odd is who did pray. Jesus.

Jesus went to a mountain to pray . . . Jesus continued all night in prayer.

Wut?

Why would Jesus, who is God, pray to God? He prayed to himself. Stop and think about that for a second. That makes no sense at all, at least not in the supplicatory sense of prayer, the begging of favors and mercy. Who begs themselves for anything?

Then Jesus failed to answer his own prayers to himself.

Really, the more I read the Bible and actually pay attention to what's in it, the less sense it makes.

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Fun with Tracts (not tracks, that's a whole 'nother blog)

Let's have some fun with tracts, shall we?

The earth, the earth, the earth is on fire.

Basically, this tract is the really small print version of, "Did you see that movie? It had planes and floods and stuff and that guy who held a boombox over his head? See, I'm all hip and stuff and I believe in Jesus! Doesn't that make you want to believe in Jesus?

No. And that movie was hilariously bad, though I am very fond of John Cusack, and his sister, Joan. (She was not in that movie.)

"Hi. I'm death and I think I'm lost. I'm supposed to be on an album cover from 1986. Hey, is that guacamole?"



Death! It's scary, but very polite. And scary. Really scary. Believe in Jesus!

You wouldn't believe the options Adobe Photoshop contains! Look at this perspective thingy!

Sentence fragment. Unrelated thought. Something unrelated to evolution. Something explained by evolution. Look, I found a dictionary! The Bible! Believe in Jesus!

Other than providing people like me with amusement, what do you suppose the purpose of tracts are? I can't believe anyone is swayed by small print tripe like this.

We Need More Iron Chariots

God can create the universe, but this little bit of technology is too much for him.

I've figured out how to make God stop punishing us with tornadoes and hurricanes and flooding. (Apparently, God can't just send a swarm of locusts to one person's apartment, he needs to take out an entire city.) It's right there in the Bible: iron chariots.

Judges 1:19

And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

So, if you want to make your house safe from acts of God, just park an iron chariot in the front lawn. God is powerless before them.

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The Bible Proves God Is Not Omniscient

The first game of hide 'n' seek didn't go so well.

Do you ask where people you can see are? Look at the person next to you. You can see them, right? You know exactly where they are. Do you feel any need to ask them where they are?

Why does God do it then? More than once, God, who is supposedly all knowing, asks a question he ought to know the answer to.

For example, in Job 1:7, he asks Satan,

And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?”

and Satan replies,

So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

That's a weird little exchange when you think about it. If God is omnipotent, he doesn't need to ask where Satan came from. I can't imagine why God would feel compelled to make small talk, especially with Satan.

Satan's reply is odd, too, assuming God was omnipotent and Satan knew God was omnipotent. (It's the sort of basic information you could expect Satan to be in possession of.) Think about my example. If the person sitting next to you asks you where you are, do you say," Right here where you can see me," or do you say, "What the hell are you asking me that for?" Satan just answers the question, exactly the way I would if my husband called my cell phone and asked me where I was.

Consider Adam and Eve, and the fact that God lost track of them in the Garden of Eden. That's right, omnipotent God couldn't find the only two humans on the planet. Humans lacking any technology or skills that would allow them to travel any farther or faster than, well, a human on foot can travel.

Genesis 3:8-9

⁸ And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

⁹ Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

That's right, if God is looking for you, just hide behind a tree, and don't answer when he calls for you. Hey, if Adam had taken my advice, we wouldn't even be here. He and Eve could still be hiding behind trees while God attempts to trick them into playing Marco Polo.

Picture: The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise by Alexandre Cabanel