God is Either Impotent or Evil

“Of course, people of faith regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? There is no other way, and it is time for sane human beings to own up to this. This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exists, either he can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities or he does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. Pious readers will now execute the following pirouette: God cannot be judged by merely human standards of morality. But, of course, human standards of morality are precisely what the faithful use to establish God’s goodness in the first place. And any God who could concern himself with something as trivial as gay marriage, or the name by which he is addressed in prayer, is not as inscrutable as all that. If he exists, the God of Abraham is not merely unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.”  Sam Harris, 2005

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Adam and Eve Are Dead…Finally

Well actually they never existed…and the proof is available for all to see.

Christian scholar Dennis R. Venema is the BioLogos senior fellow for science and the biology chairman at Trinity Western University.  He writes that the chimp genome displays “near identity” with the human genome as detailed by (Francis) Collins’s team.  The detailed analysis involves sequences of genes and the makeup of individual genes, but especially important are the locations of “pseudogenes” that are seemingly no longer active. The cumulative evidence, Venema concludes, shows that “humans are not biologically independent, de novo creations, but share common ancestry” with prior primate species.””

Atheist-turned-Christian Francis S. Collins is the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a federally funded organization. Collins’s wrote a 2006 bestseller, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, where he said there are scientific indications that anatomically modern humans emerged from primate ancestors perhaps 100,000 (currant science says 200,000) years ago, long before the apparent Genesis time frame, and that they originated within a population that numbered something like 10,000, not two individuals. Far removed from the traditional belief that God specially created man and woman in the Garden of Eden, and they were biologically different from all other creatures alive at the time.

In his recent (2011) pro-evolution book, The Language of Science and Faith, Collins and co-author Karl W. Giberson step up matters, announcing that “unfortunately” the concepts of Adam and Eve as the literal first couple and the ancestors of all humans simply “do not fit the evidence.”

The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis has long been subjected to scientific challenges, but “there was a lot of wiggle room in the past. The human genome sequencing took that wiggle room away” said Randall Isaac, executive director of the American Scientific Affiliation.  DNA science is totally changing what many believed about human beginnings.

Will the Adam and Eve question become a groundbreaking science-vs.-religion dispute, in the 21st-century? The modern day equivalent of the once disturbing argument about whether the Sun orbits the earth or vice-versa?  The possibility is there: the emerging science could be seen to challenge what Genesis records about the creation of humanity and also the species’ unique status of being created in the “image of God,” Christian doctrine on original sin and the Fall, the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, and, perhaps most significantly, Paul’s seminal teaching that links a historical Adam with redemption through Christ.

The fall-out from the non-historicity of the Biblical Adam and Eve will be huge.  Many people in the earth sciences have known for some time that the Genesis stories are just myth, the science behind the notion is just too darn strong to endlessly ignore.

South Carolina pastor Richard Phillips, chair of the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology worries, “Can the Bible’s theology be true if the historical events on which the theology is based are false?” If science trumps Scripture, what does this mean for the virgin birth of Jesus, or his miracles, or his resurrection? “The hermeneutics behind theistic evolution are a Trojan horse that, once inside our gates, must cause the entire fortress of Christian belief to fall.”

All these years Christianity has been working under the assumption that Genesis is true and that all humans who lived in the past, and are alive today, are descendents of Adam and Eve.  The whole dogma of original sin and the blood sacrifice of Jesus to redeem humanities sin goes out the door.  Combine the fact that DNA, and other evidence, says that Adam and Eve did not exist…with other revelations that science is making about the Biblical myths, and I predict that Christianity is facing a real crisis of belief.  
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Secular Schools Can Never Be Tolerated

Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith … we need believing people.
~ Adolf Hitler

Oh, and by the way, this is also the agenda of todays religious right and the Republican Party.  The attacks continue all across America…get religion into the curriculum, by hook or by crook.
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Intelligent Design and Science

Interesting find while surfing this morning. The ID people keep claiming they’re all about science, but the never reveal any.

ISSR Statement on the Concept of ‘Intelligent Design’

The authors of this statement constitute a group set up for the purpose by the Executive Committee of the International Society for Science and Religion. Through a process involving consultation with all members of the Society, the statement has now been accepted by the Executive Committee for publication as a statement made on behalf of the Society.

The International Society for Science and Religion is a scholarly society devoted to ongoing dialogue between the sciences and the community of world faiths.  It was established in 2002 for the purpose of promoting education through the support of interdisciplinary learning and research in the fields of science and religion, conducted where possible in an international and multi-faith context.

The society greatly values modern science, while deploring efforts to drive a wedge between science and religion. Science operates with a common set of methodological approaches that gives freedom to scientists from a range of religious backgrounds to unite in a common endeavor. This approach does not deny the existence of a metaphysical realm but rather opens up the natural world to a range of explorations that have been incredibly productive, especially over the last 400 years or so.

The intelligent-design (ID) movement began in the late 1980s as a challenge to the perceived secularization of the scientific community, which leaders of the movement maintained had been coloured with the philosophy of atheistic naturalism. ID theorists have focused their critique primarily on biological evolution and the neo-Darwinian paradigm. They claim that because certain biological features appear to be “irreducibly complex” and thus incapable of evolving incrementally by natural selection, they must have been created by the intervention of an intelligent designer. Despite this focus on evolution, intelligent design should not be confused with biblical or “scientific” creationism, which relies on a particular interpretation of the Genesis account of creation.

We believe that intelligent design is neither sound science nor good theology. Although the boundaries of science are open to change, allowing supernatural explanations to count as science undercuts the very purpose of science, which is to explain the workings of nature without recourse to religious language.  Attributing complexity to the interruption of natural law by a divine designer is, as some critics have claimed, a science stopper. Besides, ID has not yet opened up a new research program. In the opinion of the overwhelming majority of research biologists, it has not provided examples of “irreducible complexity” in biological evolution that could not be explained as well by normal scientifically understood processes. Students of nature once considered the vertebrate eye to be too complex to explain naturally, but subsequent research has led to the conclusion that this remarkable structure can be readily understood as a product of natural selection. This shows that what may appear to be “irreducibly complex” today may be explained naturalistically tomorrow.

Scientific explanations are always incomplete. We grant that a comprehensive account of evolutionary natural history remains open to complementary philosophical, metaphysical, and religious dimensions. Darwinian natural history does preempt certain accounts of creation, leading, for example, to the contemporary creationist and ID controversies. However, in most instances, biology and religion operate at different and non-competing levels.  In many religious traditions, such as some found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, the notion of intelligent design is irrelevant. We recognize that natural theology may be a legitimate enterprise in its own right, but we resist the insistence of intelligent-design advocates that their enterprise be taken as genuine science – just as we oppose efforts of others to elevate science into a comprehensive world view (so-called scientism). See the website: Here

Intelligent design is nearly universally condemned as science and as a concept. Most people recognize it for what it really is; a wedge devise to sneak WASP religion into our school systems. The only support for it is from evangelical fundamentalists, Young Earth Creationist (YEC), and some Old Earth Creationist (OEC).

Now proponents of Intelligent Design (ID) are using ‘Stealth Candidates’ who are running for positions on local and state school boards without declaring or admitting that they will advocate teaching ID in schools when elected. They just don’t get it…and they will try anything, including dishonesty, to achieve their goals. That they would use dishonesty in the furtherance of their religious sect speaks volumes about the true value of their faith.

Most people don’t analyze this battle enough, and don’t seem to realize that the ultimate goal of the religious right is to take over our country and remake it into a religious society; kind of like the Dark Ages in Europe when the Catholics ruled, and the strength and direction of your belief…decided whether you lived or died.  A lot of people don’t realize that the religious right has taken control of the Republican Party.

Cognite tute-think about it/use your head.

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Adam and Eve and the Beginning

“If the Bible is true, certainly Adam was the first man; consequently, we know, if the sacred volume be true, just how long man has lived and labored and suffered on this earth.

The church cannot and dare not give up the account of the creation of Adam from the dust of the earth, and of Eve from the rib of the man. The church cannot give up the story of the Garden of Eden — the serpent — the fall and the expulsion; these must be defended because they are vital.

Without these absurdities, the system known as Christianity cannot exist. Without the fall, the atonement is a non sequitur. Facts bearing upon these questions were discovered and discussed by the greatest and most thoughtful of men. Lamarek, Humboldt, Haeckel, and above all, Darwin, not only asserted, but demonstrated, that man is not a special creation.

If anything can be established by observation, by reason, then the fact has been established that man is related to all life below him — that he has been slowly produced through countless years — that the story of Eden is a childish myth — that the fall of man is an infinite absurdity.”
The Divided Household of Faith, Robert G. Ingersoll, 1888

Now we know that Adam of the Bible was NOT the first man, or Eve of the Bible was NOT the first woman. We humans know this as well as we know that night follows day. The fact that humans have inhabited this earth for hundreds of thousands of years is established and undeniable by those people who live in the real world.

We know that Proto-humans, or Neanderthals, were walking the earth-long-before we Homo sapiens did. This fact alone disproves Biblical beginnings of man.

We know that the Chinese were predicting eclipses before Moses supposedly wrote Genesis and described creation wrong.

We know that Noah’s flood never happened. NO evidence at all for this story. This fact alone disproves Biblical beginnings.

We know for a fact, that all people living on earth today are NOT descended from the supposed eight survivors of Noah’s flood about 4300 years ago. DNA science has disproved this religious notion.

We know that the ‘Tower of Babel’, as described in the Bible, never happened. Languages were all over the world at the time of the OT Bible story, any many, many years before that.

We know that the Bible and Scripture have been manipulated throughout its history.

We know that prayer is never answered. It’s all statistical anomaly.

We know there are no hard proofs for the existence of any ‘God’ or ‘gods’…none.

There are no hard proofs for Jesus…as described in the Bible.

Religious organizations try their damnest to disprove these facts, but all their arguments inevitably fall back on the rejection of real evidence, and the use of magic.

Despite the total failure of the Hebrew religion to explain our natural world, which it should be able to do if it were the ‘Word of God’, millions of people leave their brains at the door and believe superstitious nonsense and somehow justify it to themselves.

Think of the whole sweep of the history of our earth and ALL of its people. Think of the millions and millions of people that were living everywhere on earth when the Old Testament history was supposedly written. That a real God would pick these non-descript desert dwellers, and embroil Himself in their day-to-day matters and tell them who to kill and steal land from…is ridiculous.

And that anyone would believe these Hebrews wrote down the word-for-word ranting of a God out to kill off Hebrew opponents, and make a religion out of it…is insane.

God is made in the image of man, not vice-versa.

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Sunday Sermon III

Fake Biblical artifacts is an old story now, as The History Channel has already done a film on the events. This excerpt below gives us an idea of how hard-up people of faith are to try and prove the basics behind their faith.

…”Hundreds of biblical artifacts in museums all over the world could be fakes, it has emerged after Israeli investigators uncovered what they claim is a sophisticated forgery ring…Four men have been charged with the faking of some of the most important biblical discoveries in recent years…

…”Shuka Dorfman, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the forgery ring had been operating for more than 20 years and had been “trying to change history”. Scholars said the forgers were exploiting the deep emotional need of Jews and Christians to find physical evidence to reinforce their faith.”… My emphasis-twom.

Story excerpted from: guardian.co.uk. Here

There are many details in the Bible that are undoubtedly true, but there are many more that are figments of some old men’s imagination. Biblical inerrancy is one of the things that is a figment. Some of the stories are purely imagination and are disproven in today’s world. These old stories only worked when people were ignorant. The only reason some of today’s people believe them, is they choose to be ignorant.

Since at least the sixteenth century, men and women of reason have been exploring and finding out the real truths about our world, and these truths have not always been beneficial to established religion and Biblical thought. It’s not like Reason and Science have been out to get Christianity; all other religions and gods around the world, that rely on magic to explain itself, are equally disproven.

Religion and its followers cling to the old ways with a fierceness that is sometimes scary. They will ridicule and hate and go to extremes to verbally and emotionally abuse anyone they suspect of causing disbelief in their faith. If you don’t believe as they do…then you are Satan in disguise…you are going to hell…you don’t deserve to be friends with…’WE (insert sect here) KNOW’ the truth.

Religion is inherently divisive. This is not just idle thought. Witness world history since religions have taken over cultures and races. Religion has been used over and over as excuses for genocide against neighbors and races. Not only do the religions themselves initiate death and destruction, but also secular leaders down through time have used religions for the same purpose. I just can’t imagine a real God doing the things that are attributed to Him. This God-is man in disguise…WE give him the attributes we want him to have…WE have made this God in OUR image…Not the other way around.

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Did Jesus Exist?

“Question everything you think you know”. Me, 2008

Looking at the genealogies of Jesus there seems to be lots of discrepancy there. Is there any explanation out there that all Christians can or do agree upon? Why would a God directed and inerrant writing have such a big discrepancy?

Do you think that there was an actual, God produced, historical Jesus? A half man, half God (or was It really God; this is confusing) that walked around the countryside proselytizing and raising the dead, curing leprosy, and other deadly diseases of the time? No one writes about him then. Mainline history is quiet about him until the fourth century AD. Christian followers didn’t write him of him until 30 to 80 years after his death. That is very perplexing. A self-proclaimed and acknowledged Son of God; born of a Virgin no less, who raises the dead, is ignored.

The writings don’t get pulled together as one, until 300 years after his death. Christianity, almost as we know it today, with the knowledge of the ‘One True God’ and Jesus, doesn’t get any real publicity until Constantine the Great, through the Edict of Milan, decides that Rome will be a Christian Empire in the year 313 AD. He commissions Eusubius to produce 50 bibles; it will be the first time both New and Old Testaments are combined. Eusebius was to do the picking of what writings to include in ‘New Testament’

“To the fourth century belong the earliest extant Biblical manuscripts of anything but fragmentary size”. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09627a.htm

About Eusebius of Caesarea, Edward Gibbon writes:

“The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related what might rebound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion.
Such an acknowledgment will naturally excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly violated one of the fundamental laws of history has not paid a very strict regard to the observance of the other; and the suspicion will derive additional credit from the character of Eusebius, which was less tinctured with credulity, and more practiced in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his contemporaries”

Eusebius himself writes:

“How far it may be proper to use falsehood as a medium for the benefit of those who require to be deceived” Eusebius Pamphilus of Caesarea, PE: Praeparatio Evangelica, Preparation for the Gospel,

“[Eusebius] Now you may find in the Hebrew Scriptures also thousands of such passages concerning God as though He were jealous, or sleeping, or angry, or subject to any other human passions, which passages are adopted for the benefit of those who need this mode of instruction.” Eusebius Pamphilus of Caesarea, PE: Praeparatio Evangelica, Preparation for the Gospel

Another critic of Eusebius:

“[Eusebius was] the first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity.” Jakob Burckhardt, Swiss historian (1818-1897)

Paul, one of the most prolific writers of the New Testament, though he lived at the time of Jesus, never quoted the teachings of Jesus. He vaguely mentions an occasional ‘command of the Lord.’ Why would he not mention the raising of the dead and curing of the sick? This would have settled so much controversy.

“If in actual fact Caesar Augustus did not really order a census while Quirinius was governor of Syria – if it turns out there really was only one Gadarene demonaic rather than two – then the entire Bible becomes worthless and every tenet of Christian faith falls flat. If one single discrepancy emerges, it’s all over. This makes Christian faith an easy target for skeptics, and drives believers to unimaginable lengths to ‘defend’ the Bible.” Mark Mattison, “Is the Bible inerrant?,” at: Link

CNN book review of “The Jesus Mysteries” 11.21.2000     Link

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Thoughts on Creationist Theology

If you dig deep enough in Creationist or Young Earth Creation (YEC) theology, there are very large discrepancies and large leaps of “faith” :-} are required for acceptance. I have recently been looking into their world-view, and I find it both fascinating and mind-boggling. They are quietly wedging their way into secular institutes and using razzle-dazzle and quasi-scientific language to fool lots of people. They keep trying to intrude into science classes in public schools and generally making nuisances of themselves.

Below are just some random things. I haven’t tied them together much; just some notes I am keeping and trying to absorb and eventually string together in a sensible manner.

Early Bronze Age (c. 3500-2000 BC)
Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000-1600 BC)
Late Bronze Age (c. 1600-1100 BC)

Early Iron Age (c. 1200-900 BC)

The Noachian Flood that happened somewhere around 2400 to 2300 BCE, demonstrated no affect on the line of metal workers descended from Cain. Lamech, sixth in line from Cain, fathered Jubal and Jabal by his first wife Adah. Jubal was the originator of string and wind music. Jabal was described as the father of “Bronze and Iron” metalworking–although there was No Iron working in his day. They must have been living in Anatolia at the time; as that is where the first evidence of metalworking comes from. Lamech fathered Tubal-Cain by his second wife Zillah. Tubal-Cain is the man held responsible for making/living in tents, and animal husbandry. Lamech, by the way, was the Bible’s first Polygamist.

Side bar: Were Adam and Eve living in caves after their eviction from Eden? I’ve heard rumors of the “Cave of Treasures.”

The complete line of the progeny of Cain was wiped-out in the flood, no survivors.

Now after the flood, Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wife’s dispersed to the four corners of the world and begat humankind all over again. So what we have at, let’s say 2300 BCE, are 8 people traveling to China, Europe, Asia, Africa, Egypt-(yeah, I know :-}), Australia, South America, Central America, and North America.

None of these people that were doing the dispersing and begating were schooled in the metal working skills (Which is a VERY highly skilled activity), however Noah knew how to make wine, so maybe he went to France.

If you happen to be a Young Earth Creationist (This would include most evangelical sects, Institute for Creation Research (ICR), the “answersingenesis” people, Discovery Institute, etc., you have to work in an ice age sometime after the Flood and before Abram (Abraham) c. 2020 BCE. Personally I don’t think it can be done, and neither does anyone else in the real world, and there is NO physical evidence for such a thing. Beware though; these groups just mentioned above are telling The “BIG LIE.” They are taking a page from Hitler that goes like this: If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

I’m wondering how the YEC’s are taking the research that is showing ALL of humanity comes out of Africa; will they just ignore it?

I know there are some who pick and choose what they will believe. Some are thinking that the first six days of creation were “ages” or “eons” and after Adam was created, 24-hour days.

Huummm…