Community > Posts By > Lazarus102

 
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Sat 11/19/16 06:46 PM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Sat 11/19/16 06:49 PM


As a side-note, I'd like to comment on your statement about the 72 virgins. It seems that the Bible doesn't have a monopoly on translation issues, as the virgins in question might actually be "raisins."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/04/opinion/martyrs-virgins-and-grapes.html?_r=0

Imagine the crushing disappointment many of these martyrs will feel when they awaken, expecting 72 Ultra-hot "Untouched-ables," but getting a plate of dried grapes, instead.

This ties in perfectly with Cowboy's reply to you, so...


Ask an ye shall receive?



Reminds me of this XD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_sZ4DmUCw4

Lazarus102's photo
Sat 11/19/16 05:59 AM

I'm sorry, Sir, but you have it totally "***-backwards" there. As children, we have no concept of God whatsoever until someone plants the notion into our brains. Furthermore, while the percentage of people who self-identify as "atheist" or "agnostic" has grown in the last several years, we are still very much in the minority. Again, you have it backwards. If anything, societal pressure tries to mold our collective thinking into accepting the idea of God, despite the lack of evidence.

Just one quick example that comes to my mind...good luck in seeking a Presidential nomination here in the US if you are an atheist, regardless of your qualifications. Ain't gonna' happen.



While I agree with you on the first part, Atheist culture is growing largely in developed countries. While in countries like Africa and Asia and many others, god/religion are still very common belief, countries like Canada and the US are much more enlightened. There is still way more religious people than there should be, I'd say give it another 50-100 years and religious people in developed countries will be very much in the minority. People are tired of giving their lives to someone/something that gives them nothing in return besides an after-death promise. It's like those terrorists that offed themselves and all those other people because of the promise of 72 virgins. That is just the prime example of how gullible people can be when it comes to religion, like lambs to the slaughter.

On a side note, them virgins only gonna be virgins for not even the first year, a few thousand years down the road it'll be like a hot dog down a hallway.

Lazarus102's photo
Fri 11/18/16 06:32 AM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Fri 11/18/16 06:33 AM

That's a good one, all right. That is true in many cases. It's all that cognitive dissonance.

BTW, I've heard that Gotham is a good show, but I've never seen it. Would you say that it's a pretty good show, Lazarus?


It's got a batman flavor to it and the city imo is done better than the one in the (recent) movies. The characters are not quite what you'd expect though (especially the penguin - it's a huge stretch from the danny devito penguin for sure...). I find it entertaining though, just don't expect to see batman anytime soon.

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Thu 11/17/16 03:40 PM
"Whenever I see a man possessed with such certainty, I always think he's trying mostly to convince himself"

Had to mention that quote, just heard it while watching Gotham but I must say it certainly rings true with the religious types.

Lazarus102's photo
Tue 11/15/16 04:47 AM

Again, everyone is headed to an eternity of non-existence unless they accept Jesus' gift of eternal life. People aren't "damned" for not believing. Yes Jesus says "Deny me before man I will deny you before the father". But that is not "damning" anyone. Jesus will only let the one's that know him into Heaven.


That's a load of horse crap though. No one "know[s]" Jesus unless they believe everything they read in ancient storybooks and even then they still don't "know" him, they only know from what they've read since there's no current day proof. How's this for a theory; your god did exist but he's dead and we're all damned to an eternity in the grave regardless.


It's only God who can convince a man as he did to Saul. May he make that grace available.


I agree with you on that much I suppose.. I'm waiting....

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Mon 11/14/16 08:17 PM



For example, we humans obviously exist, yet there is no one human who sits above us all.


Sure there is, Donald Trump XD!


Not commenting on his loving nature was diliberate. But let's look at this, do you being a loving and caring father not punish your children when necessary, even though you know they'll hurt? Isn't that why it's called punishment? If you were to defend your child or relative against an attack, and you did in the process inflict pain on the intruder, does that make you not loving?


If I was a father, punishment would come in the form of taking away smartphones for a week, not eternal damnation. There's a bit of a gap in your comparison there...



That said, could you please draw my attention to a group of people (a country, organization, etc) without a leader/head/etc? The animal world inclusive.


That comparison is also invalid. For it to be valid then there would have to be a bunch of different gods that rule over spirits in different regions. Jokes aside there is no one human that rules over all humans.




If I was a father, punishment would come in the form of taking away smartphones for a week, not eternal damnation. There's a bit of a gap in your comparison there...


We aren't punished. We are rewarded. There is no eternal "damnation". There is however "eternal death". That is the end for all of us unless we receive eternal life through Jesus Christ. Eternal life is a gift.


I find that you keep getting caught up in minor differences. Magic, miracle; Santa, God; Damnation, death. If you do not accept the unlikely existence of a god you are damned to an eternity of non-existence. Tell me that's not god being a dick "you don't believe I exist, now you don't exist, LULZ!". God is like the world's biggest troll.

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Mon 11/14/16 07:11 PM

For example, we humans obviously exist, yet there is no one human who sits above us all.


Sure there is, Donald Trump XD!


Not commenting on his loving nature was diliberate. But let's look at this, do you being a loving and caring father not punish your children when necessary, even though you know they'll hurt? Isn't that why it's called punishment? If you were to defend your child or relative against an attack, and you did in the process inflict pain on the intruder, does that make you not loving?


If I was a father, punishment would come in the form of taking away smartphones for a week, not eternal damnation. There's a bit of a gap in your comparison there...



That said, could you please draw my attention to a group of people (a country, organization, etc) without a leader/head/etc? The animal world inclusive.


That comparison is also invalid. For it to be valid then there would have to be a bunch of different gods that rule over spirits in different regions. Jokes aside there is no one human that rules over all humans.

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Sun 11/13/16 07:38 PM

There is no proof that the bible was made up. History taught here in Africa and in any other part of the world has it about the story of how Christianity came about. Saying there's no God would amount to denying the existence of Christ, his followers, the miracles they performed, Prophet Muhammad, etc.
For us all to believe in the existence of evil, and apparitions of all sorts, then there must be one who sits above them all. Whether he's fair, unfair, vindictive or not, that I cannot answer, but he does exist.


And again we fall back on the " you can't prove he doesn't exist" argument. Of course you can't, proving the non-existence of something that doesn't exist is a paradox in itself, especially when you're talking about something on a different plane of existence like a god in heaven.

Also like I've said before, A man named Jesus may have existed, he may have even been crucified but as for all that magical/mystical stuff in the bible, I think it's a load of hooey.

Lazarus102's photo
Fri 11/11/16 08:01 AM



Just curious how you would know Noah's story was made from these others. How is it not possible these are "changed" stories of Noah essentially changed a little through time as of course it would have been transferred verbally or with none too very little "written/documented" information on such a matter due too lack of technology or ways of keeping track of such things in that day and age?

And also curious why you specifically deem Noah's story to be "newer" then these other possible off branches? How is it possible to have precise dating too when each of these accounts occurred in relation too the ancient documents/references we have of them? Of course carbon dating for the documents in themselves, but were/are they dated on when the flood actually occurred?

Man, you cling to god like a life-raft in every scenario. Like everything must be connected to god and not the slightest possibility that the story of god isn't simply connected to everything else. Let me ask you this, do you still believe in Santa Clause? If not, why? They exist on the same parallel. Santa is around to make sure that children behave throughout the year and god is there to take over and make sure people are relatively good throughout their lives. Santa has parents,mall Santas and a crap-load of advertisements. God has the pope, the Vatican, JW's(door to door god salespeople), priests and a number of other god pushers. It takes a lot more to keep people believing in magical things past the age of 12.



Why make forms of belittling, insulting remarks? The same could be said for you in reverse rolls. Like nothing must be connected to God and not the slightest possibility he exists. So I guess you've ended our discussion here, pointing the conversation into more directly belittling one's belief(s) rather then just posting things that pertain to the op of this thread. Have a pleasant day my friend.


I find it funny how you take it so personal. I've already been through the period in my life in which I took the god thing seriously. I only stopped when I was around 27-28. So yes I have considered his existence for more of my life than I haven't. But when I grew up I started making logical connections/conclusions that dictate that there is NO proof of his existence beyond the stories written by man and the psychological bonds that people have based on those stories. You wouldn't be talking to god if you hadn't heard tales from the bible. You might be talking to yourself but that's about it.

Besides, the god vs. Santa comparison was hardly belittling, it was a perfectly valid comparison. two entities that perform magic (miracles) for pretty much the same ultimate purpose. Oh and you try to claim a difference between magic and miracles but turning water into wine, don't try to tell me that's not magic, it's hardly a miracle like those people NEEDED to get drunk so badly that it was a miracle that awful water was turned into an intoxicant.

Lazarus102's photo
Fri 11/11/16 05:32 AM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Fri 11/11/16 05:26 AM

Just curious how you would know Noah's story was made from these others. How is it not possible these are "changed" stories of Noah essentially changed a little through time as of course it would have been transferred verbally or with none too very little "written/documented" information on such a matter due too lack of technology or ways of keeping track of such things in that day and age?

And also curious why you specifically deem Noah's story to be "newer" then these other possible off branches? How is it possible to have precise dating too when each of these accounts occurred in relation too the ancient documents/references we have of them? Of course carbon dating for the documents in themselves, but were/are they dated on when the flood actually occurred?

Man, you cling to god like a life-raft in every scenario. Like everything must be connected to god and not the slightest possibility that the story of god isn't simply connected to everything else. Let me ask you this, do you still believe in Santa Clause? If not, why? They exist on the same parallel. Santa is around to make sure that children behave throughout the year and god is there to take over and make sure people are relatively good throughout their lives. Santa has parents,mall Santas and a crap-load of advertisements. God has the pope, the Vatican, JW's(door to door god salespeople), priests and a number of other god pushers. It takes a lot more to keep people believing in magical things past the age of 12.

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Thu 11/10/16 12:37 PM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Thu 11/10/16 12:40 PM

How psychological do you think they were in the BC era? And do you really think "fairy tales" were in existence at that time in mankind's history? Or back to my previous question, how "intelligent" on this kind of level do you feel people in the BC era were? And most these people that are included in the scriptures, or well the ones that wrote the things included in the scriptures didn't personally know one another.


As I stated in the edit disclaimer, psychology didn't exist in it's official form back then but of course it still existed. As long as there's been people alive and breathing with sentient thought, there's been psychology. Even animal psychology.

The government of your area may not personally know the members of the UN but that doesn't mean he cannot be influenced by them. Within the past century there was still mafia present in New york as well as other places and they had police in their pocket as well as judges and lawyers. One individual smart enough back then could have ruled the world without anyone knowing whom they were. I'm not claiming that it was a single individual though but a plethora of governing bodies. These people would have been the most rich and powerful of the time not to mention much like Hitler, they would have had control of some of the greatest minds of the time. Each of the countries/districts involved would have been told to have their greatest minds create a story that could grab the minds of the people.

Oh and don't fool yourself, people have been creating fairy tales for as long as they could write drawings on cave walls. It's hardly a new concept.
Just because we have technology these days and we didn't back then doesn't mean that they were a bunch of mouth breathing knuckle-draggers back then. People spent much more time just trying to survive and most didn't have the ability to read but those constraints were not on the rich and powerful. That's why everything has advanced for us so exponentially in the past century. Ya we have a lot more people but we also have a lot more people that are literate and don't have to spend 12-14 hours a day just staying alive.

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Thu 11/10/16 12:18 PM

He answers back every day :)

Does he use Twitter or have a Facebook account? Oh, you mean figuratively, kinda like his existence?

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Thu 11/10/16 05:12 AM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Thu 11/10/16 05:16 AM





You frightened of God or something? God has never tried to scare/frighten me, sorry for your unfortunates :(.




You're like a beaten housewife that just denies or makes excuses for anything and everything bad that her husband does. You even ignore how your own words contradict you. God doesn't send us to hell for not believing, he just kills us but you somehow see nothing wrong with that. It's worship him and live forever but if you don't then you're dead; you get to embrace that eternal nothingness that you fear so much if you don't believe in and worship him. Bit of irony there really; I mean the way that even within the religion itself it blends reality and fantasy and it does it so great.
Step into the rabbit hole Alice, all will be well..


That's a good illustration, Lazarus.
In a similar vein, I have frequently referred to God as a cosmic-level deadbeat dad. If you think about it, all the parallels are there, including the part where some of his abandoned children defend anything he does, including bending over backwards to make excuses for him and his absence.


His absence? I see and talk too God every day, sorry you miss out my friend.


Oh, that's okay. No need to be sorry. If he's anywhere near as loquacious, boorish, and repetitive in person as he is in the OT, I'd rather not talk to him anyway.

Wait a minute...

On second thought, please tell him that I have some questions I'd really like to ask him, if he wouldn't mind stopping by my place for a bit. Thanks.

Also, allow me to quote something I said a couple of pages back that's apropos here:


Yeah, though I haven't read the entire thread, I did read a lot of the earliest posts. That's the way it generally goes. When you apply logic to these stories, they fall apart. So, anyone trying to defend them generally ends up either:
1.As you said, tossing any type of definable, objective evidence out the window, and falling back totally on faith.
2. Claiming that God actually IS literally talking to them. (A safe haven for them, since you cannot disprove the notion across the internet, no matter how much you point out how unlikely that notion is.)
3.Spinning like a tornado, in an attempt to make it look like certain words or phrases might kinda', sorta', perhaps if you squint real hard from fifty feet away, mean what they claim they mean, rather than the most obvious and generally accepted meanings. (Like your example about when someone farts, that is somehow God "talking" to us. Or, torturing the term "generation" used in Matthew 24:34, so as to rescue Jesus' "prophecy" there.)
4. Again, as you said, getting angry at you.



To be fair he isn't actually claiming that god is talking back to him. Kinda like the concept of me talking to my vacuum cleaner XD. As for his claims of seeing god, I think he might want to get his head checked. From my memory of the bible(what little I have) you could not possibly 'see' god or your eyes would melt from their sockets (or something to that extent). Or perhaps he has seen god and this has happened. That would explain why he didn't say anything when we commented on his looks D-: . Sheesh, talk about a 'blind date" XD.

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Thu 11/10/16 05:09 AM



That's a good illustration, Lazarus.
In a similar vein, I have frequently referred to God as a cosmic-level deadbeat dad. If you think about it, all the parallels are there, including the part where some of his abandoned children defend anything he does, including bending over backwards to make excuses for him and his absence.


Much psychology went into creation of the bible. I don't doubt that the people that made up the original bible stories were smart beyond their time to come up with such compelling tales as to keep people believing through the centuries. Things like psychology, facts and politics went into those pages mixed in with all the fairy tales. Very well done indeed.

Believing that stuff in modern day is just plain silly but the people that made it up in the first place were true geniuses and given the time frame and how much more susceptible it was to corruption and conspiracy; I have a theory that the world leaders of the time likely banded together to create religion as a way of controlling the people.

With the governing bodies and religion you've got the carrot and the stick and when the carrot is backing up the stick by enforcing all the same rules wanted by the stick then you've got a firm stranglehold on the masses and few will fight against it. I know that religion has been around for longer than civilized society but the governing bodies found a way to mold and control it to their benefit and to this day people are still slaves to it's influence. Right down to the stupidest laws/practices like circumcision and monogamy. Ya, baby dick mutilation, thx Jews!

Edit: Ya I know psychology in it's current form didn't even exist until the current century but when I speak of it's influence on the bible, I don't mean it in it's official form but only in what people learned in those times of how to control the people. The phrase Neuro-linguistic programming comes to mind but I can't think of an example at current as to how it applies.


Well, as I implied in my earlier post, most of the stories in the OT were built upon the framework of older myths. And, many of the stories in the NT were built upon stories from the OT. Newer myths built upon previous myths. That said, I agree with you as far as the genius of some of the creators of these stories. A good example of this would be the Yahwists coming up with the idea that it was the PEOPLES' fault if Yahweh didn't save them from another nation. (You know:"Yahweh CHOSE not to save you, because you are all a bunch of shitheads.") Previously, it was pretty much accepted that if your nation got thumped on by another nation, then their gods were stronger than yours.

The Yahwists' stroke of genius not only played upon peoples' inner sense of guilt, but also guaranteed that, no matter what happened, it wasn't Yahweh's fault. Therefore, he would continue to be worshiped. And, they would cash in. Speaking of cashing in:

In addition to control, another reason for the storytellers to come up with these stories is that they figured out that, while getting a real job is hard, if they could spin some good stories about god(s), the rest of their fellow citizens would pay them for it! This is readily apparent when you read the OT. There are many places where the writers depict Yahweh as instructing the common people to give the priests lots of goodies.

Also..."baby dick mutilation." Haha!
(Ironically enough, even THAT likely came, not from God, but from the Egyptians.)


That doesn't surprise me. The Egyptians were still on the barbaric side when it came to the treatment of the people. It still sickens me that people still practice it in this day and age though. We got rid of electro shock therapy because it was barbaric but we keep around a barbaric tradition like that, that's been around for 100's years longer.

But ya, much of the OT had very human traits in it. I think that's why they made the NT, to weed out some of the errors that would make people go "hey... wait a minute...". On top of the parts that involve giving the priests 'goodies' there was the stoning of homosexuals. Likely a laundry-list of other things that were clearly human agendas as well.

Lazarus102's photo
Wed 11/09/16 01:33 PM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Wed 11/09/16 01:42 PM

That's a good illustration, Lazarus.
In a similar vein, I have frequently referred to God as a cosmic-level deadbeat dad. If you think about it, all the parallels are there, including the part where some of his abandoned children defend anything he does, including bending over backwards to make excuses for him and his absence.


Much psychology went into creation of the bible. I don't doubt that the people that made up the original bible stories were smart beyond their time to come up with such compelling tales as to keep people believing through the centuries. Things like psychology, facts and politics went into those pages mixed in with all the fairy tales. Very well done indeed.

Believing that stuff in modern day is just plain silly but the people that made it up in the first place were true geniuses and given the time frame and how much more susceptible it was to corruption and conspiracy; I have a theory that the world leaders of the time likely banded together to create religion as a way of controlling the people.

With the governing bodies and religion you've got the carrot and the stick and when the carrot is backing up the stick by enforcing all the same rules wanted by the stick then you've got a firm stranglehold on the masses and few will fight against it. I know that religion has been around for longer than civilized society but the governing bodies found a way to mold and control it to their benefit and to this day people are still slaves to it's influence. Right down to the stupidest laws/practices like circumcision and monogamy. Ya, baby dick mutilation, thx Jews!

Edit: Ya I know psychology in it's current form didn't even exist until the current century but when I speak of it's influence on the bible, I don't mean it in it's official form but only in what people learned in those times of how to control the people. The phrase Neuro-linguistic programming comes to mind but I can't think of an example at current as to how it applies.

Lazarus102's photo
Wed 11/09/16 01:12 PM

Why always the personal attacks as above? Who ever said anything about fearing anything? Why fear death?


As I've stated to you before, none of this is personal. IF you choose to take it as personal then that is your choice. I direct my debate at you only because you're currently the only one left arguing on the side of his existence/love (in this thread).

Lazarus102's photo
Wed 11/09/16 11:06 AM
Edited by Lazarus102 on Wed 11/09/16 11:08 AM

You frightened of God or something? God has never tried to scare/frighten me, sorry for your unfortunates :(.




You're like a beaten housewife that just denies or makes excuses for anything and everything bad that her husband does. You even ignore how your own words contradict you. God doesn't send us to hell for not believing, he just kills us but you somehow see nothing wrong with that. It's worship him and live forever but if you don't then you're dead; you get to embrace that eternal nothingness that you fear so much if you don't believe in and worship him. Bit of irony there really; I mean the way that even within the religion itself it blends reality and fantasy and it does it so great.
Step into the rabbit hole Alice, all will be well..

Lazarus102's photo
Wed 11/09/16 06:39 AM


The bible was translated from an ancient version of another language into an ancient version of English and then vaguely interpreted by modern day English speakers, who knows what the hell half of it initially meant when it was written.


You're absolutely right, of course, Lazarus. There are many examples of words (Particularly Hebrew words in the OT.) that scholars cannot translate, and many more words in which the translation is debated.

For instance, the phrase "God Almighty" is so common that everyone has heard it at one time or another. Yet, that phrase, while coming from the Bible, may be incorrect. The phrase "el shaddai" appears several times in the OT, and though the word "el" is accepted as meaning "god," there is much debate surrounding the actual meaning of the Hebrew word "shaddai."

Again, there are many other examples, if anyone wants to research it.

In keeping with the theme of your thread, Lazarus, I have to say that it wasn't very loving of God to not make sure that his Instruction Manual was clear to everyone.



In Spanish 'el' just means 'the'. Seems like a bit of a stretch to go from a very common word without much meaning in itself to 'god' but then I'm no language expert.

Lazarus102's photo
Tue 11/08/16 08:24 PM

No, you can't scare someone or threaten someone into loving you. Nor would I "fear" him. At that level, eternal death would be a blessing in comparison to eternal life.


Oh good, you're up to speed then, lol.

Lazarus102's photo
Tue 11/08/16 08:24 PM



Ya and if you have a father that promises to beat you and burn you for all of eternity if you don't love him then I'm sure you love him purely because he created you? >,>


There is no burning for eternity. You either receive eternal life through Jesus Christ, or eternal death because of sin.


Revelation 20
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And there is no indication that it will be "torment" for those that were not found in the book of life. Just specifically references "second death"

And this is also fairly clear as the previous verse in that chapter states the following

10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

But again does not say man/woman will be tormented day and night, nor "insinuates" it.


While I personally agree with you as regards what Hell was supposed to be (One of the few things that the Witnesses got right, IMO.), I'm sure that you know that there are many other passages that can easily be interpreted as saying that Hell is a place of fiery torment. (So, I won't bother quoting them.) And, this is another example that makes my earlier point about the vast differences in beliefs even among different sects of the same religion; a situation that shouldn't be observed, if ONE god were behind said religion.

But, that still doesn't overturn Lazarus' point. If your human father told you that he would reward you for obeying him, but would literally kill you if you don't, would you feel impelled to love him? Or, would you just fear him?

The bible was translated from an ancient version of another language into an ancient version of English and then vaguely interpreted by modern day English speakers, who knows what the hell half of it initially meant when it was written.