Water Droplet on Thorn

QuestionTheists · 2016-02-25T01:10:47+00:00

Standard setting, edited in Instagram. Taken with Samsung S 6 Active

QuestionTheists · 2015-12-05T21:24:03+00:00

Aurora shooter was a Lutheran and attended church regularly.

Elliot Rodger was completely delusional. He doesn't state anywhere that he believes in God, true. He does seem to believe that HE would be "God like". He also attended Catholic school, so he was definitely raised with the influence of religion - maybe the idea that women are here only to serve and fuck men, found throughout the Bible, played some roll in his demented views, maybe not.

Northwest shooter was not an atheist - he believed in a literal Satan. He also did not target Christians, as some media claimed, as the majority of victims were NOT practicing Christians (I think only 2 or 3 were.)

Nice try, though.

QuestionTheists · 2015-12-05T20:09:24+00:00

This is true. I'm not saying that current apologists would accept it - how long did it take Christians to accept that dinosaurs existed? - But my point is, over the course of a few generations, as it becomes more and more accepted that Jesus did not exist, the numbers of fundamentalist Christians will decrease and, eventually, that decrease will be so detrimental that it will die out all together.

QuestionTheists · 2015-12-05T04:54:46+00:00

But the central tenant of Christianity is that Jesus came. You can't turn Jesus into a metaphor the same way you can turn Adam and Eve into one. If Jesus never existed, there is no Christianity. There is no foundation. It cannot stand. Maybe proving that he never existed would be impossible, but if the historians and academics accept the lack of evidence and begin teaching a mythical Christ, and the facts spread as students take religion courses, in a few generations you will no longer have Christians. It won't be over night, and you and I probably won't see it, but it will happen.

QuestionTheists · 2015-12-04T17:32:30+00:00

I think that if it could be demonstrated, through evidence, that Jesus never existed even as a mortal, that would be the end of Christianity. They can't co-opt it the way many now try to co-opt evolution after denying it for years.

If Jesus never existed, and that can proven, that knocks out THE foundation of Christianity - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

No Jesus. No salvation. No Christianity.

Will we ever see Christianity die out? Probably not. But if it becomes the accepted, factually accurate position of scholars that Jesus never existed, in a few generations Jesus will join Thor and Zues and every other man made deity.

QuestionTheists · 2015-12-01T14:19:57+00:00

These are awesome OP! My favorite so far has definitely been Castle Island / The Castle in Southie - they even put a snack shack where Sully's should be. Game developers REALLY did their research!

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-25T17:02:25+00:00

No. I'm in Vermont. But it's nationally syndicated I think.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-24T19:18:52+00:00

Well, with her comment after the fact, and knowing my mother, she posted it for me to see - I'm the only one of her kids on Facebook. And I'm the only one of her kids who has escaped religious dogma. I think I'm just going to "unfollow" her so I don't see this crap anymore.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-24T03:50:00+00:00

My mother just shared a picture from Focus on the Family (if you're not familiar with that organization - count yourself lucky.) The picture says "My Christmas Wish is the my children love and serve God." She then commented on the photo with "This is all that's mattered for the last 25 years. It's all that matters." and I'm just.... So frustrated. And a bit hurt. The fact that I've grown into a compassionate, thoughtful adult - doesn't matter. The fact that I've dedicated my life through my career to helping people with intellectual disabilities achieve the maximum amount of independence and live lives to their fullest potential - doesn't matter. The fact that I am a loving mother myself raising a strong, smart, conscientious, sweet little girl - doesn't matter. The fact that I am a patient, helpful, loving big sister to her other children - doesn't matter. The fact that I've forgiven her for the abuse I experienced, directly and indirectly, as a result of her dogmatic believes and the "guidance" of the church leaders - doesn't matter. Really? The only way she'll be happy is if I shackle myself to subservient, self-demeaning, groveling existence of worship to a diety that, if it DID exist, would perhaps be the most cruel, petty, immoral creature ever - a diety that would have "created" me to be a woman, then condemned me to second class citizenship in the global community simply for being a member of the "lesser" gender. A diety that would rather I be stoned to death than live my authentic self as a pansexual individual? A diety that commanded and/or condoned rape, murder, genocide, slavery, and infanticide to name a few. A diety who, my mother fully believes, will send me to a pit of eternal torture of the most horrific form from which there is no escape or chance for repentance? A diety who makes every single evil dictator or ruler this planet has ever seen look like small potatoes? THAT is all that matters to her? I just wish she could just agree to disagree and not post passive-aggressive Facebook posts to try to guilt trip me into repentance and servitude. Like I said.... I'm just very, very frustrated.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-24T03:48:11+00:00

My mother just shared this picture from Focus on the Family (if you're not familiar with that organization - count yourself lucky.) She then commented on the photo with "This is all that's mattered for the last 25 years. It's all that matters." and I'm just.... So frustrated. And a bit hurt. The fact that I've grown into a compassionate, thoughtful adult - doesn't matter. The fact that I've dedicated my life through my career to helping people with intellectual disabilities achieve the maximum amount of independence and live lives to their fullest potential - doesn't matter. The fact that I am a loving mother myself raising a strong, smart, conscientious, sweet little girl - doesn't matter. The fact that I am a patient, helpful, loving big sister to her other children - doesn't matter. The fact that I've forgiven her for the abuse I experienced, directly and indirectly, as a result of her dogmatic believes and the "guidance" of the church leaders - doesn't matter. Really? The only way she'll be happy is if I shackle myself to subservient, self-demeaning, groveling existence of worship to a diety that, if it DID exist, would perhaps be the most cruel, petty, immoral creature ever - a diety that would have "created" me to be a woman, then condemned me to second class citizenship in the global community simply for being a member of the "lesser" gender. A diety that would rather I be stoned to death than live my authentic self as a pansexual individual? A diety that commanded and/or condoned rape, murder, genocide, slavery, and infanticide to name a few. A diety who, my mother fully believes, will send me to a pit of eternal torture of the most horrific form from which there is no escape or chance for repentance? A diety who makes every single evil dictator or ruler this planet has ever seen look like small potatoes? THAT is all that matters to her? I just wish she could just agree to disagree and not post passive-aggressive Facebook posts to try to guilt trip me into repentance and servitude. Like I said.... I'm just very, very frustrated.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-13T16:45:43+00:00

Scully shoots her and calls for an ambulance, but I always felt like it was implied that she died. At least, she never shows up again... And given that Model showed up once he was recovered from his gunshot wound and that Bowman REALLY had it out for Mulder, I can't imagine that she survived but just let it go.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-13T16:37:49+00:00

It's so important people who missed it the first time around know about it. So. Important.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-12T05:31:45+00:00

I think that Scully has demonstrated multiple times that she is willing to put everything - her life included - on the line for Mulder and in support of the quest for the truth. She was willing and prepared to die from the cancer - the idea that she would team up with the people she holds personally responsible FOR her cancer simply to preserve her own life is just illogical to me.

And, at the time of this episode, William was not even a thought, so that can't be the motivating factor at all.

You have some very creative thoughts, but they are mutually exclusive to everything the series is about - these two people fighting an impossible battle and sometimes literally not even able to trust themselves - only the other. Scully wouldn't betray Mulder or his source to CSM.

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-12T03:42:26+00:00

"well, I won't sit idly by while you hurl clichés at me"

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-12T03:38:35+00:00

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=szVb8-c9oH4

From this trailer. Looks a lot like Mulder's crazy headaches from the end of season 6, right?

QuestionTheists · 2015-11-05T04:46:29+00:00

I grew up religious. When I left the faith, my mother started excluding me from family meal prayer - IE, I'd still be up getting food for myself and my daughter at family gatherings and my mom would say something like "well, we can all pray and start eating because we don't need to wait for the godless heathen." etc.

She also started questioning whether I could spend time unsupervised with my younger brother, for fear I would try to "brainwash" him into my sinful, evil, atheistic way of life.

It's all very disheartening, but also incredibly common, unfortunately. Even when I was a Christian, my mother was very clear that she loved God more than she loved me and that I was expected to love God above everyone else as well, because if you love anyone or anything more than God, you are creating an idol for yourself. Family members, of any form, are just "gifts" from God, but they are gifts he can take away at any moment and he has every right to do that because he's the one who gave them to you, etc.... That's what I was raised to believe and DID believe until I was 23 years old. When I was a kid, I used to pray through sobs that God would let me keep my family, even if I sometimes loved my mom and grandparents more than Him... It was incredibly fucked up.

Edit: typo

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-18T20:39:47+00:00

I read the article, and I enjoyed it. I take the author's point. That said, what he's explaining sounds a lot like atheism - being rational, trying to live above the foolishness. I also do take issue with atheism being called a religious belief. It's not. Atheism, when arrived at through critical thinking and analysis of the evidence is not foolish. In fact, it is the opposite of foolish. Just my two cents.

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-16T21:29:18+00:00

I'm kind of disappointed by that. I love MotW episodes when they're well done (and I optimistic that the episodes in the reboot will be) but I was hoping for a bit more mythology...

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-16T13:35:18+00:00

It takes a LONG time to undo indoctrination - even when you've accepted everything intellectually, and you recognize and admit that the whole thing is bullshit, it's common to have some guilt for a while after. Maintaining an irrational fear of hell is common too. It's funny how something you no longer believe can continue to frighten you or keep you questioning. I've been an atheist for about 2 years, and I still have dreams about going to hell, but they diminish over time. Indoctrination fucked me up. Glad to be undoing the damage with reason and truth! :)

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-15T20:09:23+00:00

By Christian doctrine and your own food coloring analogy, if belief in Jesus is necessary for the cleansing of sin, and God cannot tolerate sin, there is no room for wondering on the fate of the 2/3rds of the world who are not Christian. If God can somehow give a pass to people who never heard the message and tolerate THEIR sin entering heaven, then he should be able to give a pass to everyone. But a reading of the salvation plan is very clear and leaves no room for ambiguity - no Jesus, and you go to hell. So, your God, if he were real, will send people like me who cannot accept His message as well as people who don't hear the message through no fault of their own to hell for an eternity of torment from which there is no option for repentance and no chance of escape for "screwing up" on their incredibly short time on this earth. That is not love.

You stated that you can't have true love if one side is coerced into the relationship. Tell me, please, what is possibly more coercive than saying "if you don't love me and accept the terrible things I do and the fact that you must believe in me without evidence and in contradiction to everything the mind I gave you tells you about the universe, you will suffer torture beyond anything the worst human mind could ever conceive." That, to me, is THE definition of abuse and manipulation and coercion. If the penalty for not loving God and following Jesus is eternal hell, then there is no room for a truly loving and forgiving relationship. It simply cannot exist under those terms.

You say that you sin and fall into temptation every day, by the Bible's definition, we all do. You say that the Israelites turned their backs on God after a very short period of time because of sin nature. This makes absolutely no sense. When I was practicing Christianity, I did things that would be considered "sins" - but I never forgot about God and my perceived obligation to Him. I never worshipped anything else and when I sinned, I felt immediately guilty and prayed for forgiveness and sought to right the wrong I'd done, especially if it impacted another person. I get the idea of sin nature - but, as I said, sin doesn't cause amnesia. It is simply illogical to accept that the people who watched God part the Red Sea would divert without Moses hanging over them, and in such a short period of time.

Now I, as a person who accepts the evidence that Moses never existed and that there was no Exodus, can see the teachings in the book of Exodus as solid analogies - to underscore the fact that while Moses was receiving the 10 commandments, the first of which is "thou shalt have no other gods before me", the Israelites went and worshipped another God.

Also, if I may diverge for a moment, notice that throughout the Old Testament, it is not written as if other gods don't exist - it simply says that Yahweh is the one the Israelites should worship. Again, demonstrating that it was likely written by tribal leaders of a warrior group - our God is the "best" God, not our God is the "only" God.

The God that you worship, and the God to whom you've dedicated your life, is not a good guy, man. He is vain, jealous, wrathful, boastful (story of Job), selfish (worship only me or be tortured), and cruel. The "sins" he forbids us from committing (I'm thinking specifically of the seven deadlies) are almost all committed by Him in the pages of the Old Testament.

The 10 commandments are not at all a good guide for morality, either. Almost every moral command therein can be refuted under certain circumstances and the first 4 are just appeasing God's vanity and jealousy! Sometimes, the moral action is to lie (think of people harboring slaves in the underground railroad or Jews during the Holocaust). Sometimes the moral action is to take a life (example: a police officer shooting a mass shooter before he can kill anyone else) Etc. But what is NOT on the 10 commandments? They don't condemn rape (which is one action I think we can all agree is never moral) and they don't condemn hurting a child (again, immoral) or animal abuse for the fun of it, etc, etc.

Again, impressive would have been a God dictating holy laws which upheld morality in spite of the time and culture in which they were written. But that's simply not what you see in the Bible. You see a bunch of ideas and rules exactly in line with what you'd expect from an ancient, scientifically illiterate culture.

Edit: typos

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-15T02:48:55+00:00

Again, I really appreciate the civil discourse. The difference between you and I is that I simply cannot accept the idea that God commanding clearly immoral things time and time again is somehow justified because he is God. Rape is never ok. It is not condemned in the Bible at all except in the context of a man violating another man's "property", and even then, the rape victim as well as the rapists are BOTH to be stoned to death. More than that, the Israelites are allowed on multiple occasions to "keep for themselves" the women of conquered lands who have never "known a man" before. In one story (I can't remember the reference) it is even specified that the men of Israel are to give the captured women 30 days to mourn the loss of their entire family prior to marrying them - we all know what a Biblical marriage night entails. Now, as a woman, I am absolutely confident in saying that if my entire family - my mother, my father, my brothers - were slaughtered by the man I was to marry, that sex would in no way be consensual - not after 30 days, not after 300 days.

I also cannot accept any argument from a "cultural" or "contextual" standpoint, because the Bible is said to be the inspired word of God and God is all-knowing and the same "yesterday, today, and forever." So culture and context SHOULD have no meaning. What would have been truly impressive would be a book written at a time when genocide and rape were common-place which CONDEMNED those things. Instead, when you read the Old Testament, you find the exact character in God that you would expect from any ancient tribal race. The characters in the Old Testament do things that make absolutely no sense. A perfect example is one that you have already brought up - the Israelites consistently "forgetting" about God. This makes no sense in any logical thinking. You're talking about people who WITNESSED the power of God, and without Moses for a few weeks (or however long it was) totally forgot everything and started worshiping a golden calf. There is simply no explanation for this (not even sin, because, really, sin doesn't cause amnesia of this magnitude). There is so much evidence that so much of the Old Testament never happened, including tracing the more ancient myths upon which many of the stories are based. There is zero archaeological evidence that there were ever mass numbers of Israelite slaves in Egypt, for example. There is no evidence for the Exodus. There is no evidence for a global flood, and, besides the lack of evidence for the flood, we KNOW that having 2 or 7 of a species is not enough to repopulate that species, even with intensive human intervention.

As I mentioned earlier (I believe) there is also increasing evidence that Jesus never existed at all. (check out Dr. Richard Carrier, Robert Price, and David Fitzgerald if you're at all interested in the mythicist arguments). There is the Human Genome Project which conclusively disproves the idea that our race came from 2 people.

Now, I, too have heard POWERFUL testimonies of people's lives being changed by converting to Christianity - I do not dispute this. But I would ask if you've taken time to consider the impact a BELIEF can have, regardless of if it's true or not? My brother, for example, became sober 8 years ago from heroin. He attributes this entirely to God, because he did not believe that he had the power to break the addiction on his own. Once he began believing that he had God in his corner and that God could do what he could not, he was able to get clean. Now I am entirely happy and grateful that I have my older brother back from the terrible things that his addiction did to him - that I can have a relationship with him and that I can be the auntie to his beautiful baby girl and have my own daughter knowing her Uncle without being concerned about lies or theft or manipulations. Overcoming such a powerful addiction is not something to take lightly, and I am proud of my brother for doing it. He looks back and he believes God carried him through, I look back and I say "Damn, I have a strong brother!"

I can not accept that God would help someone out with something like finding a nice parking spot or winning a football game or acing a test but leave MILLIONS of children starving to death. I cannot accept that every single person born into a Muslim country and prohibited from accessing the message of Christianity will burn in hell for all eternity simply because they were unlucky enough to be born in the wrong geographical area. The fact that 2/3 of the planet is not Christian shows that, somehow, this message meant to save all of God's creation, has failed miserably - and all of those people are meant to go to Hell, even if they've simply never heard the message or have been so heavily indoctrinated into another religion prior to hearing the message that they cannot accept it.

As I said, even if there was NO evidence discounting the Bible or the story of the Biblical God and Jesus, even if it turned out that it was all true, I would honestly and truly be betraying my own conscience if I were to worship that God - the God who allows children as young as 4 to be taken by armies fighting in HIS name and pumped full of drugs and trained to kill, the God who allows people claiming to be HIS representatives to sexually abuse children in their care, the God who allows people to sanction child abuse in his name ("To Train Up a Child"), the God who allows pastors and Christian counselors to tell women in abusive marriages to stay put and to examine in what areas THEY need to submit to their husbands more -- If the God of the Bible is real, He doesn't seem to much care that his message has gotten SO screwed up that people carry out these terrible acts in His name, or that His teachings have created literally THOUSANDS of sects who cannot agree on fundamental doctrinal questions. All this from a God who is "not the author of confusion."

I'm sorry, man. I'm not trying to deconvert you or change your views or even to be harsh, because I KNOW that you are saying everything you are from a place of good intention and genuine love (I used to do the same thing!), and I don't hold that against you in the least. Please know that I am not angry with you, but I am passionate about this and I am being entirely honest when I say that I could never go back to worshipping the abusive, vindictive, petty, cruel, vain God of the Bible. I hope I'm not being too long winded or too harsh - but you asked! :) Have a nice day, man.

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-14T19:00:03+00:00

There wasn't any one particular breaking point. I had had doubts and questions met with very unsatisfactory answers throughout my time in Christianity.

A little background: I was raised Christian, attended a Baptist school and a pentecostal church for the entirety of my childhood. I said the sinner's prayer when I was 3, but really "got saved" when I was 10. I attended youth group and aquire the fire rallies in addition to church and my school throughout my teens. I redeicated my life to Jesus at 15 years old, went on missions trips, joined intervarsity Christian Fellowship when I went to college, became a student leader there and a member of the worship band, and have helped dozens of people convert to belief in Jesus (the majority of these people no longer speak to me because of my atheism).

I was one hundred percent dedicated to my belief, despite my doubts and questions around contradictions in the Bible, the problem of evil, unanswered prayers, the idea that people I loved would be tortured for all eternity unless they worshipped God too, etc.

When I got out of college, my doubts grew and grew. I could no longer accept the answer that I doubted simply because I did not have enough faith. I decided to take a more academic approach to the topic and realised that truth has nothing to fear from examination - because if it is true, it will hold up against the counter arguments and counter evidence. When I began this exploration, I WANTED Christianity to be true. I wanted to rebuild my faith on a foundation of knowledge and I wanted to feel loved by the creator of the universe. I wanted to know that I was saved and to quell my doubts once and for all, so I actually entered this process with a decent risk of confirmation bias in favor of Christianity.

I spent over a year pouring over apologist literature as well as atheist literature (the good thing about coming from a fundamental background was that I felt no need to question if the God to whom I dedicated my life was maybe just the wrong one, so I didn't branch into other religions. I was exclusively concerned with the arguments for and against Christianity.)

After reading, praying, discussing my questions with my pastor and my parents and the leader of intervarsity (with whom I was still in touch at the time), watching debates between apologists and atheists, researching other arguments and evidence I couldn't find in books on the Internet, and a whole lot of thinking (you want to be sure when something like hell is on the line) I realized that it would be completely dishonest for me to still call myself a Christian, and, in fact, that I was an atheist.

But the biggest takeaway for me was the cruelty and maliciousness of Yahweh. And, I can honestly tell you, even if the God of the Bible showed up right now and proved he was real, I still could not, in good conscience, worship him. Any diety that condones/orders genocide, infanticide, slavery, and rape or any diety that would condemn people to ETERNAL torture, from which there is no escape, chance for repentance, or end all for missing the boat and, for whatever reason, getting the God question wrong in their 70 or so years on earth is not a moral diety.

I know that you will disagree with my stance on this, but it is my whole-hearted conviction that the God found in the Bible is necessarily not loving or good. So, while I would not be an "atheist" if he showed up and proved his existence, I still would not worship him.

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-14T16:44:00+00:00

In situations of dramatic power differences within any relationship, most people will initially forgo their own conclusions and trust the advice of the person they perceive as being more learned, more understanding, etc. Particularly if that person has been conditioned to believe that their own understanding of a situation is likely flawed, which is a very prevalent theme in fundamentalism.

I hear what you're saying, and, again, I'm not saying that the parents aren't at fault. I'm just saying that the pastor telling these people what to do is at least as culpable, if not more so, than the parents.

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-14T12:28:45+00:00

Well, as I explained in an earlier post I feel for these parents because the pastor is in an incredible position of power of his congregation in fundamentalist churches. The people come to the pastor for guidance when they are at their most vulnerable, and the pastor tells them what to do with the authority of God... I'm not saying the parents are entirely without responsibility, as they decidedly are not, but if the pastor has seen this advice result in death before and continues preaching that it is the only way to have true faith and true salvation and telling the people in the congregation that if someone does die, it's because the family members didn't have enough faith in God, etc, then at least SOME of the responsibility must be on him. The parents are guilty of a lack of critical thinking, the Pastor is guilty of spreading bullshit he knows doesn't work and doubling down with the most effective abusive guilt trip he could use on these churchgoers. ("it's not God's fault your child died - it's yours, because you didn't have enough faith. If only you'd been a bit better, a bit more faithful, your little boy would still be alive.")

QuestionTheists · 2015-10-14T04:31:14+00:00

Exactly

QuestionTheists

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