Why can't we see the garden is beautiful without having to assume there are faries at the bottom of it too?
Imagine somebody who is jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a mysoginystic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Would he or she be popular?
Or think of a book, full of verses describing and/or advocating suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs and alcohol, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness, and human rights violations and atrocities? Would you want to read it? would you read it to kids? is it better or worse than, say, harry potter?
Naturally, you would be inclined to say the first person is evil, and the book should not be read, it should be destroyed! But believe it or not, the person is highly respected, like a god, to many people. The book is the second most widely published book ever.
I'm talking about God and the bible.
I am currently reading 'THE GOD DELUSION" by Richard Dawkins, and so far, i think he's making a pretty valid point. from the satrt he says he knew this book would piss quite a few off, but why should religion be respected to the point we are not allowed to question it? To borrow from the book again (Actually, from Bertrand Russell), There is a teapot orbiting in space somewhere between earth and mars. its too small to be seen by any of our technology, but it is there, it is, it is!!! And YOU have to believe it is there too!
Now, would you want to debate this "Fact"? i'd assume so. So why can't we all debate religion, and find out some facts? Sadly, because people close their minds to possibilites, don't they? If i showed the book to a priest, would they read it?
I really liked a part about, "What is god?". say... God is energy. God is warmth, god is power. Agree? Good, god is a lump of coal. LOL.
or how about this: It can be argued that in muslim scripture, the point about muslim martyrs getting 72 virgins is a mistranslation of "White raisins of crystal clarity" (Ibn warrack, 2006)
oops.
seriously, everyone should read this, and all religious sects should read, really read their holy books. Cos we're not thinking about this enough.
Or think of a book, full of verses describing and/or advocating suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs and alcohol, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness, and human rights violations and atrocities? Would you want to read it? would you read it to kids? is it better or worse than, say, harry potter?
Naturally, you would be inclined to say the first person is evil, and the book should not be read, it should be destroyed! But believe it or not, the person is highly respected, like a god, to many people. The book is the second most widely published book ever.
I'm talking about God and the bible.
I am currently reading 'THE GOD DELUSION" by Richard Dawkins, and so far, i think he's making a pretty valid point. from the satrt he says he knew this book would piss quite a few off, but why should religion be respected to the point we are not allowed to question it? To borrow from the book again (Actually, from Bertrand Russell), There is a teapot orbiting in space somewhere between earth and mars. its too small to be seen by any of our technology, but it is there, it is, it is!!! And YOU have to believe it is there too!
Now, would you want to debate this "Fact"? i'd assume so. So why can't we all debate religion, and find out some facts? Sadly, because people close their minds to possibilites, don't they? If i showed the book to a priest, would they read it?
I really liked a part about, "What is god?". say... God is energy. God is warmth, god is power. Agree? Good, god is a lump of coal. LOL.
or how about this: It can be argued that in muslim scripture, the point about muslim martyrs getting 72 virgins is a mistranslation of "White raisins of crystal clarity" (Ibn warrack, 2006)
oops.
seriously, everyone should read this, and all religious sects should read, really read their holy books. Cos we're not thinking about this enough.