By Arthur ~
Many Pastors and biblical scholars teach us that God is all-loving, good, great, just, and full of mercy and grace. But is this the God of the Bible or is it the God they would like to portray to their gullible followers? Why is that when we study the Bible we find otherwise? The Bible teaches us that love and wrath are the very essence of God. How can love which by definition wants good and wrath wanting evil for another, abide in the same person at the same time? Surely love will drive out wrath and wrath will drive out love. No one in there right mind would view a wrathful person as a loving person and vice-versa. So are the wrathful God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament one and the same God?
There is nothing loving about murdering millions of people, innocent babies and billions of animals in the Flood of Noah, or in a jealous blood thirsty God slaying thousands of men, women and children who were worshiping Baal at the time of Moses. So God’s wrath is in response to a perceived wrong doing or rebellion and is understood to be righteous punishment from a just, judgmental and legalistic God. Apostle Paul explains that it is the terror of the Lord that makes him persuade people to follow Christ. God executes wrath, vengeance and punishment as he sees fit - he can for he is God.
How can being tortured and burning in hell for eternity be a punishment that matches the so- called crime of not believing in Jesus as the son of God and accepting him as Lord and personal saviour? Christ taught more about Hell and punishment then any one else in the Bible. So there is no difference between both the Gods of the Old and New Testaments. They are one and the same. This will come as a shock to Christians that have been raised on a “feel good” diet of “God is love” cranked out by listener-friendly sermons that tickle-the-ear of their members, from the pulpits of mega Churches across the land. Who are we to argue with a God who is revealed to us through scripture as being a God of love and wrath and that these co-exist together? Is drowning innocent babies, cubs, pups etc. construed as fair and just punishment for the wrong doing of rebellious and superstitious adults?
Many can testify that they became Christians because they were scared of frying in Hell forever after listening to a ranting and emotionally-charged “hell fire and brimstone” Evangelist. However most Preachers are embarrassed by the “wrath of God” message and therefore concentrate on the “love of God” message. So from being scared into the kingdom by the wrath of God we are now loved into the kingdom by the love of God. For those who still do not enter in, as a last resort there is always the despicable Pascal,s Wager. “It’s better to believe just in case. So that should you have been proved wrong you will at least be saved from a Hell, if there is one.” How many innocent children have to wrestle with this heavy burden of perceived damnation weighing upon their minds by being force-fed these doctrines by well-meaning parents and shepherds of religion?
The perfect concept of love is supposedly found in Jesus (God) who died for us on a cruel Roman cross. This is the pinnacle of divine love and it is purported to heal, give a reason for living, and makes people worthy, lasting for eternity. In fact the Bible reveals to us that it is the love of God that draws us to him. This love is so wonderful that it cannot be measured or understood. Jesus is the most worthy being in the Universe. He is the only begotten Son of God. He expressed his love in the most tangible way possible. He chose to suffer and die so that we could go to his mansion in heaven and not spend an eternity in Hell. Our sins are forgiven and we are made worthy and accepted in the beloved. We have all heard the children sing “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” Love is the greatest fixation there is in the Universe and it is this concept of love (which, in my opinion, is nothing more than to be in love with love). This is comforting and addictive when it serves to fill an emotional need in our lives. For how can anyone be in love with a God who is truthfully depicted as a wrathful and monster God? Murderers and rapists doing jail time gravitate to the love of God and become transformed as they seek to escape their harsh loveless world as well as their guilty conscience. The Gospel of Jesus gives meaning and purpose to a failed life.
You see, the love-based benefits are the emotional bait. Preachers ignore the negative and harp on the positive. Has anyone caught a hungry, unsuspecting, gullible fish with just a cruel hook? No, for without a tasty morsel of bait covering it, no fish would be tempted? Do Nigerians, upon offering you millions from a fictitious inheritance, for which you are alleged to be the only living relative, explain in their letters that you are about to be conned out of your deposit? Absolutely not, they instead appeal to the greed and gullibility of our human nature. Do charismatic, power and money-hungry Mega Church Senior Pastors preach that you must tithe and give to them your hard-earned money or you are stealing from God, before they hook you with a sermon on the “love of God’.
For most people, it is easier to believe than to doubt. This is particularly relevant to Christianity, as so much is promised for just believing:
• Psychiatrists have proven results that explain to us that belief is the "path of least resistance", while disbelief requires much more concerted effort. It is easier to believe than to question and doubt because you then spend time and effort in searching to find logical answers, whereas blind faith which comes by believing the Bible, is easier as it does not question, but accepts and follows.
• “Children the world over have a strong natural receptivity to believing in a god because of the way their minds work, and this early developing receptivity continues to anchor our intuitive thinking throughout life," says anthropologist Justin Barrett.
• Pascal Boyer, a psychologist, points out that people expect their Gods' minds to work very much like human minds, suggesting they spring from the same brain system that enables us to think about absent or non-existent people., ie. Jesus being just an imaginary friend.
“What a friend we have in Jesus!” Where are the good old fire and brimstone preachers? Their message does not appeal to a modern young generation and is therefore irrelevant. Just as the Gospel of John and James did not appeal to the Greeks and Romans till the Apostle Paul, who did not even know Jesus, changed it to a more user-friendly faith-based one. Who would want a friend that casts you into hell and is distant and more concerned with judgement than organising your parking bay at the local Mall or blessing the food you eat three times a day, or rearranging the weather for your personal benefit? Jesus becomes a buddy and not a fearsome, “all consuming fire” and you become a “Kings Kid.” Life could not be better! You have “Pie in the sky” when you leave your earthly body and “steak on the plate” here and now.
But why do people still believe in this blatant and ridiculous nonsense in a scientific world? The following experiment recorded in Science, vol 322, p 115 might shed some insight on that pertinent question:
• “In an experiment half the participants were made to feel a lack of control of a situation. The results were striking. The subjects who sensed a loss of control fell back on superstitious ways of thinking. That would explain why religions enjoy a revival in the lives of people when they experience hard times.”
• Hard times would be any of the following: sickness, substance abuse/addiction, bereavement, tragedy, poverty, divorce, war, instability, unemployment, being orphaned, loss, accident, theft, etc.
Enlightened Preachers use the message of life’s situations and circumstances that corral you into a corner whereby “you feel a lack of control” and thereby you turn willingly, thankfully and robotically like being hypnotised, to a Christ who: heals the brokenhearted, sets the captive free and makes the lame to walk and the blind to see. Jesus makes you healthy, wealthy and a gives you power to become a Son of God. Who can resist? With a pitch like that no wonder the Mega Churches are raking in the money. Running an Evangelical Church is the best recession-proof business to be in. Even farmers become Preachers and thousands of ex advantaged - currently disadvantaged whites in South Africa flock to listen to garbage at annual conferences where Angels and God mix with mere mortals and miracles are the order of the day.
Certain dignitaries in the Catholic Church centuries ago abused their authority by selling and granting indulgences for sins committed whereby sinners could get a short cut to absolution with no penance involved. Currently Mega Churches (Gods Mafia) fleece there gullible members and offer eternal life for a fee (indulgence) of ten percent of your gross income and much more in offerings (tithes and offerings). The senior Pastors (most with pompous and bogus Dr titles before there names) live in indulgent tax free luxury with mansions, expensive cars and even private planes that would make the poor, humble carpenter’s son embarrassed to be associated with them.
They tell you, while applying brain-washing hypnotic techniques, (strong emotion, music, singing, fear, voice roll) that if you do not tithe you are robbing God. The Church members, while gently swaying with their hands in the air, enter into a trance-like state (can be seen in the misting of their eyes). All this is produced by the great emotional excitement and consequently cheque books are flung open with joy and glee. Did you think it was free? Later when your physical body dies and has been buried, it has been promised that your resurrected body will enter through the pearly gates into the City where the streets are lined with gold. You have total dominion and authority because of Christ from the moment you are “saved” and every thing Abraham and Jesus had are yours by faith. You can pick up dangerous snakes, drink poison, cast out demons, and heal the sick.
It is no surprise then that the gospel is amazing and wonderfully appealing - if it were true. If it sounds too good to be true as the saying goes, it usually is too good to be true. If only Jesus was the Son of God and he loved us like the Bible say he does:
• “ In the view of the argument from polymorphic projection, everything about the God Yahweh appears suspiciously all-too-human. What Yahweh believes about the world, his self-talk, what he considers morally right and wrong and the way in which his own abode is run, are all uncannily similar to the worldview and superstitions of the Iron Age Levant. The divine variables never transcend this all-too-local and all-too-cultural matrix and even change along with it. This unmasks Yahweh as a … character of fiction who does not exist outside the minds of those who created him in their image.”
Read complete thesis why Yahweh does not exist by Dr Jaco Gericke
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03192004-135203/
Jesus was a Jew and he came as a messiah to the chosen race at the time when they were suffering under the Roman occupation. They would follow any one who could give them hope from oppression. Gentiles were regarded as dogs by Jews and by Jesus. So who says Jesus loves every one? Paul stole the religion from the Jews and gave it to the gentiles. The Jews condemned Jesus as a blasphemer, rejected him as a messiah and the Romans crucified Jesus as a dangerous rebel to constitute as a warning to others. The love of God is all a figment of some ones wishful imagination. There is no free gift. No unconditional love. If you can comprehend what scriptural hell is, your faith is sure to become ship-wrecked. (Google and read Dante’s inferno.) How can God create such a place? Jesus was and is used by Popes, Senior Pastors of Mega Churches, Politicians and others to control and manipulate the gullible masses. In fact one Pope stated that ”this Jesus myth has served us well.” Religion uses politics and politics uses religion. They are one and the same as they both control their followers with lies that they can never deliver upon.
Is it not presumptuous and ridiculous for Jesus to express his love for me before I was even born? How does he actually know me if I only come into existence eighty generations later? Am I not placed in an embarrassing predicament of guilt and shame, (from a young age) for apparently being the cause for his death on a cruel cross? Consequently, we now have to respond and love him back or go to hell. Would any sane person honestly choose to go to hell?
Making a decision based on two opposites, does not constitute “choice” because it would then not be choice, but an ultimatum, a demand and a threat. It is a proven fact that it is difficult to make the right decision under emotional stress and blackmail. Information obtained by torture at an interrogation is usually suspect. That is why most people who respond to an altar call after an emotional sermon fall away. They respond to emotional statements like: “Hell or Heaven! Choose this day! Blessing or curses! Follow your heart not your head! As for me and my house we will serve the Lord! If you do not come to Jesus now as your saviour, you will meet him as your Judge and then be sent to hell. Will the circle be unbroken when we meet in that City of gold in the sweet bye and bye. How can you reject Gods love? Come to Jesus, oh sinner come home! Let Jesus into your heart!”
A choice would be between: Heaven A (Mauritius) or Heaven B (Seychelles) not between Siberia (Hell) and Barbados (Heaven). Who would choose curses over blessing? So something is wrong. For no one would choose to go to hell. Similar to being drafted into the defence force and the superior officer asks for volunteers - You, you and you. (One has no option if your Officer commands you, now do you?) So why is there even a place like hell for humans when no one would want to go there??
A Christian’s life gets much more complicated and problematic with all the baggage that comes with this “free gift” of love? I must :
• only believe, then repent, then confess, then become like a child, be born again, build my faith, stay holy, be separate from unbelievers - including your family, totally surrender, purge all carnal vices , get baptised, pay tithes and offerings, attend fellowship, pray without ceasing, fast, pray in tongues always, reject the world system, do not read educational or science books that contradict the Bible, do not read any religious books that contradict your particular doctrine, read only the King James version of the Bible, switch off the logic centre in your brain (that god has given you) when the Bible becomes irrational, follow Jesus with blind faith and no questioning ever, don’t worry, obey those in authority always, obey the government always, conform your mind to Christ (brain washing), women must obey husbands and submit, bow down to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Jesus as a love pet/slave.
• Separate oneself from the pleasures of the world and the world system, not yearn for the onions, leaks and garlic you had in Egypt. Walk in the will of God as revealed in the King James Bible. This is wrong, that is wrong, he is wrong, they are wrong, don’t do this, don’t do that and so it goes on and on. They are of the devil. Suffer sickness, pain and upheaval as God’s will for my life, as he is purifying me with fire to make me an object of his desire. After all, who are you, but a clay pot in the hands of a potter who can do whatever he wants with you. What happened to free choice? More like a puppet on a string. His ways are not our ways. No one can understand God for he is “spiritual” and we are “carnal” according to Paul. He also tells us that we see through a glass darkly but one day we will see clearly. Everything is a mystery and it needs to be revealed to us like it was to him. If any one does not follow his gospel (Paul) and build on his foundation he is cursed to damnation. Gal1:8, 9
This usually happens within the confines of one’s own denomination, sect or faction. These then believe that their views, doctrines and opinions on Christianity, are the right one and that all other denominations and religions/doctrines/teachings are wrong. You become convinced that:
• reason and science which contradicts the Bible is a lie and is of the devil. You have to swallow obvious lies from con men like creationist Kent Hoven and others who believe the earth is only six thousand years old. He states that fossils which have been proven to be hundreds of millions of years old were planted by God or the Devil and that the Bible is to be taken literally as the inerrant word of God.
So as a “man of God”, you:
• deny earth’s history, world history, fossil evidence, evolutionary evidence and you raise your children as Christians and teach them the Bible analogies, myths, types shadows and fables that you believe really happened. You are in a state of delusion brought about by the brain washing effect of the doctrines you have been digesting in your Church. You reject all rational arguments against your faith-based conclusions with arrogance and misplaced confidence as if you know it all. You reject honest, unbiased specialised scientists / professors / theologians who have studied and experimented and lectured their whole lives and you believe that they have got it wrong. You are in denial (wilfully ignorant) of scientific discoveries that contradict the Bible and display your ignorance with pride as if it were a badge, or medal of honour for all to see.
Why does the punishment of hell not fit the crime????
“No”, you would be told, “you do not understand that heaven was made for you and hell was made for the devil. Ok so why am I going there? The answer is because you rejected Christ. You see you were born in sin and you are going to where sinners are kept for eternity. Why was I born in sin? Because Adam sinned! Then why did Adam sin? If it was because of Satan, why did he sin? Why did God make Adam (supposed to be in the image of God) with free choice knowing he would sin? There are no answers! In fact there are more questions than answers! There is another question one could ask. “If evil did not exist before Adam sinned, how could Adam know that what he was about to do was evil?” How was he to know that it was wrong to disobey God? Was he not innocent like a new born baby? He must have been set up, like in a sting operation!
• Why did God allow an evil and rebellious Satan any where near man the pinnacle of loving creation?
• Would you willingly allow a known and convicted pedophile near your much-loved creation your own children?
• The idea of being punished for a crime committed by someone else is unethical, incredulous, ridiculous and unacceptable!
• Original sin belongs to each of us because it belongs to all?
• It is Eve’s fault for tempting Adam into sin and so she must now suffer for that in painful child birth and forever be oppressed by man.
Thank goodness that science reveals established facts that the Biblical creation story is not literally true and demonstrates that Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are myths and not historical figures. In fact the Genesis creation account is nothing more than a demythologised myth. Thus the idea / doctrine / teaching of original sin is destroyed. There can be no inherited guilt or punishment for the fall of Adam as it did not literally happen outside the context of the Bible.
• There is therefore no need for a Saviour to atone for sin as no sin was committed - there was no single original Adam and Eve:
o http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/adam-and-eve-the-ultimate-standoff-between-science-and-faith-and-a-contest/
• There is no literal hell waiting for unbelievers:
o Read Dr. Alan E. Bernstein's Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds.
Read Dr. T.J. Wray and Dr. Gregory Mobley's The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots.
No one doubts the Theory of Gravity and therefore no one should doubt the Theory of Evolution. Yet fundamental religious people who worship the God of Abraham (Christians, Muslims, and Jews) do not accept evolution but believe in the Genesis’ creation myth. If they did pander to science their fundamental faith would unravel like a ball of string.
Talk origins website:
• In the case of evolution, we have huge amounts of data from diverse fields. Extensive evidence exists in all of the following different forms (Theobald 2004). Each new piece of evidence tests the rest. All life shows a fundamental unity in the mechanisms of replication, heritability, catalysis, and metabolism.
• Common descent predicts a nested hierarchy pattern, or groups within groups. We see just such an arrangement in a unique, consistent, well-defined hierarchy, the so-called tree of life. Different lines of evidence give the same arrangement of the tree of life. We get essentially the same results whether we look at morphological, biochemical, or genetic traits. Fossil animals fit in the same tree of life. We find several cases of transitional forms in the fossil record.
• The fossils appear in a chronological order, showing change consistent with common descent over hundreds of millions of years and inconsistent with sudden creation. Many organisms show rudimentary, vestigial characters, such as sightless eyes or wings useless for flight. Atavisms sometimes occur. An atavism is the reappearance of a character present in a distant ancestor but lost in the organism's immediate ancestors. We only see atavisms consistent with organisms' evolutionary histories. Ontogeny (embryology and developmental biology) gives information about the historical pathway of an organism's evolution. For example, as embryos, whales and many snakes develop hind limbs that are reabsorbed before birth.
• The distribution of species is consistent with their evolutionary history. For example, marsupials are mostly limited to Australia, and the exceptions are explained by continental drift. Remote islands often have species groups that are highly diverse in habits and general appearance but closely related genetically. Squirrel diversity coincides with tectonic and sea level changes (Mercer and Roth 2003). Such consistency still holds when the distribution of fossil species is included.
• Evolution predicts that new structures are adapted from other structures that already exist, and thus similarity in structures should reflect evolutionary history rather than function. We see this frequently. For example, human hands, bat wings, horse legs, whale flippers, and mole forelimbs all have similar bone structure despite their different functions. The same principle applies on a molecular level. Humans share a large percentage of their genes, probably more than 70 percent, with a fruit fly or a nematode worm. When two organisms evolve the same function independently, different structures are often recruited. For example, wings of birds, bats, pterosaurs, and insects all have different structures. Gliding has been implemented in many additional ways. Again, this applies on a molecular level, too. The constraints of evolutionary history sometimes lead to suboptimal structures and functions.
• For example, the human throat and respiratory system make it impossible to breathe and swallow at the same time and make us susceptible to choking. Sub optimality appears also on the molecular level. For example, much DNA is non-functional. Some non-functional DNA, such as certain transposons, pseudogenes, and endogenous viruses, show a pattern of inheritance indicating common ancestry. Speciation has been observed. The day-to-day aspects of evolution -- heritable genetic change, morphological variation and change, functional change, and natural selection -- are seen to occur at rates consistent with common descent.
Furthermore, the different lines of evidence are consistent; they all point to the same big picture. For example, evidence from gene duplications in the yeast genome shows that its ability to ferment glucose evolved about eighty million years ago. Fossil evidence shows that fermentable fruits became prominent about the same time. Genetic evidence for major change around that time also is found in fruiting plants and fruit flies (Benner et al. 2002).
The evidence is extensive and consistent, and it points unambiguously to evolution, including common descent, change over time, and adaptation influenced by natural selection. It would be preposterous to refer to these as anything other than facts.
Wikipedia the following:
• Evidence of common descent, Introduction to evolution, evolution, Timeline of evolution, Timeline of human evolution, Human evolution, Age of the earth, Age of the universe, E. coli long-term evolution experiment, ring species, Italian wall lizard, geology, palaeontology, stratigraphy, Archaeological stratigraphy, biogeography, biodiversity, cladistics, endogenous retroviruses, Common descent, HIV, (look at section 7, "Genetic Variability"). Pseudogenes, vitamin C (evolution), Human evolutionary genetics, Fossil record, Radiometric dating , Mendelian genetics, Chromosomes, Continental drift, plate tectonics, Population biology, Genetic recombination, Modern evolutionary synthesis, Specialization, DNA, Quantum evolution, DNA structure, Social biology, Genes , Human genome, Species, List of transitional fossils (missing links), Transitional fossil, evolutionary creation, embryology, developmental biology Homosexual behaviour in animals, Biology and sexual orientation, Jesus myth theory, resurrection deity, Christian mythology.
Therefore faith can no longer be valued in today’s enlightened society, nor should one be willing to believe things that cannot be seen as natural evolution is an established, demonstrable fact which has been confirmed with tangible evidence and has not been disproved by any scientific paper in over one hundred and fifty years. Holding fast to beliefs that were once cherished is a mark of childishness, foolishness, weakness and backwardness. The fact that the indisputable scientific evidence proves we evolved naturally and were not created supernaturally has removed God from the equation that Paul used in Romans 1:25:
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. “
This is the scripture from Paul that is used to point out the “sin of homosexuality”. Later on “God haters” are also classed with them. I suppose atheists will fit that description too, although I doubt it, as how can you hate someone who does not exist? I am neither gay nor am I a God-hater. I wish and hope that there is a benevolent personal God unfortunately i know based on the indisputable scientific evidence and evidence of the lack of Biblical evidence that there is not a personal God. I would rather have no god than a false god, no hope than a false hope and no faith than a false faith.
Paul had no choice in his pre-science world but to believe in a creator God. In his day creation testified to the fact that there must be a creator God and that if you see creation you see God and therefore you have no defence case at judgement day. However, today that is not our reality, as we have thankfully moved on from those mystical times two thousand years ago. Our knowledge has increased to the extent that a God is not needed anymore to explain the vast universe. In fact only evolution can explain why there are billions of galaxies and cluster galaxies each with billions of stars, solar systems and planets. It also explains why there are seven million identified and one hundred million unidentified species on earth and the numerous extinct and dead end species. It is obvious to all, who are not emotionally involved in an imaginary relationship and there by blinded that the vast universe does not exist with human kind in mind and in need of a saviour. We are just a dust spec in the Universe and if, earth was destroyed tomorrow, it would carry on regardless.
The only time a devout fundamental believer is objective is when science explains something that does not affect their faith. Like when you board a Jumbo Jet you know it will fly whether you understand gravity or not. Cell phones are like magic, they have no wires, yet believers
have no problems with the science and technology that designed them. Yet when science proves evolution believers depart from science.
When science doesn't have an answer:
• Then Christianity, the Bible, Pastors, Grandpa and Jesus don't have a real answer either.
• They have the kind of made-up answers we tell children to stop them from asking difficult questions. They forget that the answers they give lead to more questions as they are not honest or truthful or genuine, but rather simple-minded faith-based answers. For they themselves do not really know. They should leave things they do not know to the experts that do know. They should learn to GOOGLE things, and not ask their spouse, Pastor, Elder, neighbour or “witch Doctor” who also do not know.
If the Paul could come back in a time machine to our current time and:
• go to school from grade 1 to 10, graduate from University, look and comprehend what he is observing through an electron microscope and the Hubble Space Telescope, he would revise his (understandably for that mystical age) ignorant doctrines in Romans and rather state the following:
• “Who changed the truth of science into a lie, and worshipped and served a God, who they had created in their own minds, because they did not want to know the truth.”
Evolution even explains religion:
• “Religious ideas are common to all cultures: like language and music, they seem to be part of what it is to be human says Paul Bloom, a psychologist. Religion is an evolutionary adaptation that makes people more likely to survive and pass their genes onto the next generation. Shared religious belief helped our ancestors form tightly knit groups that co-operated in hunting, foraging and childcare, enabling these groups to out compete others. In this way religion was selected for by evolution, and eventually permeated every human society. There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired. 'All humans possess the brain circuitry and it never goes away.' New Scientist, 28 January 2006, p 30
• Richard Dawkins tell us “Evolution predisposes children to swallow whatever their parents and elders tell them, as trust and obedience are important for survival. Asked about the idea of pre-programming (religion is hard wired by evolution), the Oxford University professor said: 'I am thoroughly happy with believing that children are predisposed to believe in invisible gods - I always was”.
Religion may offer comfort in a harsh world:
• It may foster community; it may incite conflict. In short, it may have its uses - for good and evil. But it was created by human beings, and this will be a better world if we cease to confuse it with fact." ["Why We Believe in God[s]; A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith"; J Anderson Thompson MD; 2011, p.116.]
Maybe it is time for you to think for yourself and make up your own mind based on evidence and also depart from the love and wrath of an imaginary god.
There is nothing loving about murdering millions of people, innocent babies and billions of animals in the Flood of Noah, or in a jealous blood thirsty God slaying thousands of men, women and children who were worshiping Baal at the time of Moses. So God’s wrath is in response to a perceived wrong doing or rebellion and is understood to be righteous punishment from a just, judgmental and legalistic God. Apostle Paul explains that it is the terror of the Lord that makes him persuade people to follow Christ. God executes wrath, vengeance and punishment as he sees fit - he can for he is God.
How can being tortured and burning in hell for eternity be a punishment that matches the so- called crime of not believing in Jesus as the son of God and accepting him as Lord and personal saviour? Christ taught more about Hell and punishment then any one else in the Bible. So there is no difference between both the Gods of the Old and New Testaments. They are one and the same. This will come as a shock to Christians that have been raised on a “feel good” diet of “God is love” cranked out by listener-friendly sermons that tickle-the-ear of their members, from the pulpits of mega Churches across the land. Who are we to argue with a God who is revealed to us through scripture as being a God of love and wrath and that these co-exist together? Is drowning innocent babies, cubs, pups etc. construed as fair and just punishment for the wrong doing of rebellious and superstitious adults?
Many can testify that they became Christians because they were scared of frying in Hell forever after listening to a ranting and emotionally-charged “hell fire and brimstone” Evangelist. However most Preachers are embarrassed by the “wrath of God” message and therefore concentrate on the “love of God” message. So from being scared into the kingdom by the wrath of God we are now loved into the kingdom by the love of God. For those who still do not enter in, as a last resort there is always the despicable Pascal,s Wager. “It’s better to believe just in case. So that should you have been proved wrong you will at least be saved from a Hell, if there is one.” How many innocent children have to wrestle with this heavy burden of perceived damnation weighing upon their minds by being force-fed these doctrines by well-meaning parents and shepherds of religion?
The perfect concept of love is supposedly found in Jesus (God) who died for us on a cruel Roman cross. This is the pinnacle of divine love and it is purported to heal, give a reason for living, and makes people worthy, lasting for eternity. In fact the Bible reveals to us that it is the love of God that draws us to him. This love is so wonderful that it cannot be measured or understood. Jesus is the most worthy being in the Universe. He is the only begotten Son of God. He expressed his love in the most tangible way possible. He chose to suffer and die so that we could go to his mansion in heaven and not spend an eternity in Hell. Our sins are forgiven and we are made worthy and accepted in the beloved. We have all heard the children sing “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” Love is the greatest fixation there is in the Universe and it is this concept of love (which, in my opinion, is nothing more than to be in love with love). This is comforting and addictive when it serves to fill an emotional need in our lives. For how can anyone be in love with a God who is truthfully depicted as a wrathful and monster God? Murderers and rapists doing jail time gravitate to the love of God and become transformed as they seek to escape their harsh loveless world as well as their guilty conscience. The Gospel of Jesus gives meaning and purpose to a failed life.
You see, the love-based benefits are the emotional bait. Preachers ignore the negative and harp on the positive. Has anyone caught a hungry, unsuspecting, gullible fish with just a cruel hook? No, for without a tasty morsel of bait covering it, no fish would be tempted? Do Nigerians, upon offering you millions from a fictitious inheritance, for which you are alleged to be the only living relative, explain in their letters that you are about to be conned out of your deposit? Absolutely not, they instead appeal to the greed and gullibility of our human nature. Do charismatic, power and money-hungry Mega Church Senior Pastors preach that you must tithe and give to them your hard-earned money or you are stealing from God, before they hook you with a sermon on the “love of God’.
For most people, it is easier to believe than to doubt. This is particularly relevant to Christianity, as so much is promised for just believing:
• Psychiatrists have proven results that explain to us that belief is the "path of least resistance", while disbelief requires much more concerted effort. It is easier to believe than to question and doubt because you then spend time and effort in searching to find logical answers, whereas blind faith which comes by believing the Bible, is easier as it does not question, but accepts and follows.
• “Children the world over have a strong natural receptivity to believing in a god because of the way their minds work, and this early developing receptivity continues to anchor our intuitive thinking throughout life," says anthropologist Justin Barrett.
• Pascal Boyer, a psychologist, points out that people expect their Gods' minds to work very much like human minds, suggesting they spring from the same brain system that enables us to think about absent or non-existent people., ie. Jesus being just an imaginary friend.
“What a friend we have in Jesus!” Where are the good old fire and brimstone preachers? Their message does not appeal to a modern young generation and is therefore irrelevant. Just as the Gospel of John and James did not appeal to the Greeks and Romans till the Apostle Paul, who did not even know Jesus, changed it to a more user-friendly faith-based one. Who would want a friend that casts you into hell and is distant and more concerned with judgement than organising your parking bay at the local Mall or blessing the food you eat three times a day, or rearranging the weather for your personal benefit? Jesus becomes a buddy and not a fearsome, “all consuming fire” and you become a “Kings Kid.” Life could not be better! You have “Pie in the sky” when you leave your earthly body and “steak on the plate” here and now.
But why do people still believe in this blatant and ridiculous nonsense in a scientific world? The following experiment recorded in Science, vol 322, p 115 might shed some insight on that pertinent question:
• “In an experiment half the participants were made to feel a lack of control of a situation. The results were striking. The subjects who sensed a loss of control fell back on superstitious ways of thinking. That would explain why religions enjoy a revival in the lives of people when they experience hard times.”
• Hard times would be any of the following: sickness, substance abuse/addiction, bereavement, tragedy, poverty, divorce, war, instability, unemployment, being orphaned, loss, accident, theft, etc.
Enlightened Preachers use the message of life’s situations and circumstances that corral you into a corner whereby “you feel a lack of control” and thereby you turn willingly, thankfully and robotically like being hypnotised, to a Christ who: heals the brokenhearted, sets the captive free and makes the lame to walk and the blind to see. Jesus makes you healthy, wealthy and a gives you power to become a Son of God. Who can resist? With a pitch like that no wonder the Mega Churches are raking in the money. Running an Evangelical Church is the best recession-proof business to be in. Even farmers become Preachers and thousands of ex advantaged - currently disadvantaged whites in South Africa flock to listen to garbage at annual conferences where Angels and God mix with mere mortals and miracles are the order of the day.
Certain dignitaries in the Catholic Church centuries ago abused their authority by selling and granting indulgences for sins committed whereby sinners could get a short cut to absolution with no penance involved. Currently Mega Churches (Gods Mafia) fleece there gullible members and offer eternal life for a fee (indulgence) of ten percent of your gross income and much more in offerings (tithes and offerings). The senior Pastors (most with pompous and bogus Dr titles before there names) live in indulgent tax free luxury with mansions, expensive cars and even private planes that would make the poor, humble carpenter’s son embarrassed to be associated with them.
They tell you, while applying brain-washing hypnotic techniques, (strong emotion, music, singing, fear, voice roll) that if you do not tithe you are robbing God. The Church members, while gently swaying with their hands in the air, enter into a trance-like state (can be seen in the misting of their eyes). All this is produced by the great emotional excitement and consequently cheque books are flung open with joy and glee. Did you think it was free? Later when your physical body dies and has been buried, it has been promised that your resurrected body will enter through the pearly gates into the City where the streets are lined with gold. You have total dominion and authority because of Christ from the moment you are “saved” and every thing Abraham and Jesus had are yours by faith. You can pick up dangerous snakes, drink poison, cast out demons, and heal the sick.
It is no surprise then that the gospel is amazing and wonderfully appealing - if it were true. If it sounds too good to be true as the saying goes, it usually is too good to be true. If only Jesus was the Son of God and he loved us like the Bible say he does:
• “ In the view of the argument from polymorphic projection, everything about the God Yahweh appears suspiciously all-too-human. What Yahweh believes about the world, his self-talk, what he considers morally right and wrong and the way in which his own abode is run, are all uncannily similar to the worldview and superstitions of the Iron Age Levant. The divine variables never transcend this all-too-local and all-too-cultural matrix and even change along with it. This unmasks Yahweh as a … character of fiction who does not exist outside the minds of those who created him in their image.”
Read complete thesis why Yahweh does not exist by Dr Jaco Gericke
http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03192004-135203/
Jesus was a Jew and he came as a messiah to the chosen race at the time when they were suffering under the Roman occupation. They would follow any one who could give them hope from oppression. Gentiles were regarded as dogs by Jews and by Jesus. So who says Jesus loves every one? Paul stole the religion from the Jews and gave it to the gentiles. The Jews condemned Jesus as a blasphemer, rejected him as a messiah and the Romans crucified Jesus as a dangerous rebel to constitute as a warning to others. The love of God is all a figment of some ones wishful imagination. There is no free gift. No unconditional love. If you can comprehend what scriptural hell is, your faith is sure to become ship-wrecked. (Google and read Dante’s inferno.) How can God create such a place? Jesus was and is used by Popes, Senior Pastors of Mega Churches, Politicians and others to control and manipulate the gullible masses. In fact one Pope stated that ”this Jesus myth has served us well.” Religion uses politics and politics uses religion. They are one and the same as they both control their followers with lies that they can never deliver upon.
Is it not presumptuous and ridiculous for Jesus to express his love for me before I was even born? How does he actually know me if I only come into existence eighty generations later? Am I not placed in an embarrassing predicament of guilt and shame, (from a young age) for apparently being the cause for his death on a cruel cross? Consequently, we now have to respond and love him back or go to hell. Would any sane person honestly choose to go to hell?
Making a decision based on two opposites, does not constitute “choice” because it would then not be choice, but an ultimatum, a demand and a threat. It is a proven fact that it is difficult to make the right decision under emotional stress and blackmail. Information obtained by torture at an interrogation is usually suspect. That is why most people who respond to an altar call after an emotional sermon fall away. They respond to emotional statements like: “Hell or Heaven! Choose this day! Blessing or curses! Follow your heart not your head! As for me and my house we will serve the Lord! If you do not come to Jesus now as your saviour, you will meet him as your Judge and then be sent to hell. Will the circle be unbroken when we meet in that City of gold in the sweet bye and bye. How can you reject Gods love? Come to Jesus, oh sinner come home! Let Jesus into your heart!”
A choice would be between: Heaven A (Mauritius) or Heaven B (Seychelles) not between Siberia (Hell) and Barbados (Heaven). Who would choose curses over blessing? So something is wrong. For no one would choose to go to hell. Similar to being drafted into the defence force and the superior officer asks for volunteers - You, you and you. (One has no option if your Officer commands you, now do you?) So why is there even a place like hell for humans when no one would want to go there??
A Christian’s life gets much more complicated and problematic with all the baggage that comes with this “free gift” of love? I must :
• only believe, then repent, then confess, then become like a child, be born again, build my faith, stay holy, be separate from unbelievers - including your family, totally surrender, purge all carnal vices , get baptised, pay tithes and offerings, attend fellowship, pray without ceasing, fast, pray in tongues always, reject the world system, do not read educational or science books that contradict the Bible, do not read any religious books that contradict your particular doctrine, read only the King James version of the Bible, switch off the logic centre in your brain (that god has given you) when the Bible becomes irrational, follow Jesus with blind faith and no questioning ever, don’t worry, obey those in authority always, obey the government always, conform your mind to Christ (brain washing), women must obey husbands and submit, bow down to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Jesus as a love pet/slave.
• Separate oneself from the pleasures of the world and the world system, not yearn for the onions, leaks and garlic you had in Egypt. Walk in the will of God as revealed in the King James Bible. This is wrong, that is wrong, he is wrong, they are wrong, don’t do this, don’t do that and so it goes on and on. They are of the devil. Suffer sickness, pain and upheaval as God’s will for my life, as he is purifying me with fire to make me an object of his desire. After all, who are you, but a clay pot in the hands of a potter who can do whatever he wants with you. What happened to free choice? More like a puppet on a string. His ways are not our ways. No one can understand God for he is “spiritual” and we are “carnal” according to Paul. He also tells us that we see through a glass darkly but one day we will see clearly. Everything is a mystery and it needs to be revealed to us like it was to him. If any one does not follow his gospel (Paul) and build on his foundation he is cursed to damnation. Gal1:8, 9
This usually happens within the confines of one’s own denomination, sect or faction. These then believe that their views, doctrines and opinions on Christianity, are the right one and that all other denominations and religions/doctrines/teachings are wrong. You become convinced that:
• reason and science which contradicts the Bible is a lie and is of the devil. You have to swallow obvious lies from con men like creationist Kent Hoven and others who believe the earth is only six thousand years old. He states that fossils which have been proven to be hundreds of millions of years old were planted by God or the Devil and that the Bible is to be taken literally as the inerrant word of God.
So as a “man of God”, you:
• deny earth’s history, world history, fossil evidence, evolutionary evidence and you raise your children as Christians and teach them the Bible analogies, myths, types shadows and fables that you believe really happened. You are in a state of delusion brought about by the brain washing effect of the doctrines you have been digesting in your Church. You reject all rational arguments against your faith-based conclusions with arrogance and misplaced confidence as if you know it all. You reject honest, unbiased specialised scientists / professors / theologians who have studied and experimented and lectured their whole lives and you believe that they have got it wrong. You are in denial (wilfully ignorant) of scientific discoveries that contradict the Bible and display your ignorance with pride as if it were a badge, or medal of honour for all to see.
Why does the punishment of hell not fit the crime????
“No”, you would be told, “you do not understand that heaven was made for you and hell was made for the devil. Ok so why am I going there? The answer is because you rejected Christ. You see you were born in sin and you are going to where sinners are kept for eternity. Why was I born in sin? Because Adam sinned! Then why did Adam sin? If it was because of Satan, why did he sin? Why did God make Adam (supposed to be in the image of God) with free choice knowing he would sin? There are no answers! In fact there are more questions than answers! There is another question one could ask. “If evil did not exist before Adam sinned, how could Adam know that what he was about to do was evil?” How was he to know that it was wrong to disobey God? Was he not innocent like a new born baby? He must have been set up, like in a sting operation!
• Why did God allow an evil and rebellious Satan any where near man the pinnacle of loving creation?
• Would you willingly allow a known and convicted pedophile near your much-loved creation your own children?
• The idea of being punished for a crime committed by someone else is unethical, incredulous, ridiculous and unacceptable!
• Original sin belongs to each of us because it belongs to all?
• It is Eve’s fault for tempting Adam into sin and so she must now suffer for that in painful child birth and forever be oppressed by man.
Thank goodness that science reveals established facts that the Biblical creation story is not literally true and demonstrates that Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden are myths and not historical figures. In fact the Genesis creation account is nothing more than a demythologised myth. Thus the idea / doctrine / teaching of original sin is destroyed. There can be no inherited guilt or punishment for the fall of Adam as it did not literally happen outside the context of the Bible.
• There is therefore no need for a Saviour to atone for sin as no sin was committed - there was no single original Adam and Eve:
o http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/adam-and-eve-the-ultimate-standoff-between-science-and-faith-and-a-contest/
• There is no literal hell waiting for unbelievers:
o Read Dr. Alan E. Bernstein's Formation of Hell: Death and Retribution in the Ancient and Early Christian Worlds.
Read Dr. T.J. Wray and Dr. Gregory Mobley's The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots.
No one doubts the Theory of Gravity and therefore no one should doubt the Theory of Evolution. Yet fundamental religious people who worship the God of Abraham (Christians, Muslims, and Jews) do not accept evolution but believe in the Genesis’ creation myth. If they did pander to science their fundamental faith would unravel like a ball of string.
Talk origins website:
• In the case of evolution, we have huge amounts of data from diverse fields. Extensive evidence exists in all of the following different forms (Theobald 2004). Each new piece of evidence tests the rest. All life shows a fundamental unity in the mechanisms of replication, heritability, catalysis, and metabolism.
• Common descent predicts a nested hierarchy pattern, or groups within groups. We see just such an arrangement in a unique, consistent, well-defined hierarchy, the so-called tree of life. Different lines of evidence give the same arrangement of the tree of life. We get essentially the same results whether we look at morphological, biochemical, or genetic traits. Fossil animals fit in the same tree of life. We find several cases of transitional forms in the fossil record.
• The fossils appear in a chronological order, showing change consistent with common descent over hundreds of millions of years and inconsistent with sudden creation. Many organisms show rudimentary, vestigial characters, such as sightless eyes or wings useless for flight. Atavisms sometimes occur. An atavism is the reappearance of a character present in a distant ancestor but lost in the organism's immediate ancestors. We only see atavisms consistent with organisms' evolutionary histories. Ontogeny (embryology and developmental biology) gives information about the historical pathway of an organism's evolution. For example, as embryos, whales and many snakes develop hind limbs that are reabsorbed before birth.
• The distribution of species is consistent with their evolutionary history. For example, marsupials are mostly limited to Australia, and the exceptions are explained by continental drift. Remote islands often have species groups that are highly diverse in habits and general appearance but closely related genetically. Squirrel diversity coincides with tectonic and sea level changes (Mercer and Roth 2003). Such consistency still holds when the distribution of fossil species is included.
• Evolution predicts that new structures are adapted from other structures that already exist, and thus similarity in structures should reflect evolutionary history rather than function. We see this frequently. For example, human hands, bat wings, horse legs, whale flippers, and mole forelimbs all have similar bone structure despite their different functions. The same principle applies on a molecular level. Humans share a large percentage of their genes, probably more than 70 percent, with a fruit fly or a nematode worm. When two organisms evolve the same function independently, different structures are often recruited. For example, wings of birds, bats, pterosaurs, and insects all have different structures. Gliding has been implemented in many additional ways. Again, this applies on a molecular level, too. The constraints of evolutionary history sometimes lead to suboptimal structures and functions.
• For example, the human throat and respiratory system make it impossible to breathe and swallow at the same time and make us susceptible to choking. Sub optimality appears also on the molecular level. For example, much DNA is non-functional. Some non-functional DNA, such as certain transposons, pseudogenes, and endogenous viruses, show a pattern of inheritance indicating common ancestry. Speciation has been observed. The day-to-day aspects of evolution -- heritable genetic change, morphological variation and change, functional change, and natural selection -- are seen to occur at rates consistent with common descent.
Furthermore, the different lines of evidence are consistent; they all point to the same big picture. For example, evidence from gene duplications in the yeast genome shows that its ability to ferment glucose evolved about eighty million years ago. Fossil evidence shows that fermentable fruits became prominent about the same time. Genetic evidence for major change around that time also is found in fruiting plants and fruit flies (Benner et al. 2002).
The evidence is extensive and consistent, and it points unambiguously to evolution, including common descent, change over time, and adaptation influenced by natural selection. It would be preposterous to refer to these as anything other than facts.
Wikipedia the following:
• Evidence of common descent, Introduction to evolution, evolution, Timeline of evolution, Timeline of human evolution, Human evolution, Age of the earth, Age of the universe, E. coli long-term evolution experiment, ring species, Italian wall lizard, geology, palaeontology, stratigraphy, Archaeological stratigraphy, biogeography, biodiversity, cladistics, endogenous retroviruses, Common descent, HIV, (look at section 7, "Genetic Variability"). Pseudogenes, vitamin C (evolution), Human evolutionary genetics, Fossil record, Radiometric dating , Mendelian genetics, Chromosomes, Continental drift, plate tectonics, Population biology, Genetic recombination, Modern evolutionary synthesis, Specialization, DNA, Quantum evolution, DNA structure, Social biology, Genes , Human genome, Species, List of transitional fossils (missing links), Transitional fossil, evolutionary creation, embryology, developmental biology Homosexual behaviour in animals, Biology and sexual orientation, Jesus myth theory, resurrection deity, Christian mythology.
Therefore faith can no longer be valued in today’s enlightened society, nor should one be willing to believe things that cannot be seen as natural evolution is an established, demonstrable fact which has been confirmed with tangible evidence and has not been disproved by any scientific paper in over one hundred and fifty years. Holding fast to beliefs that were once cherished is a mark of childishness, foolishness, weakness and backwardness. The fact that the indisputable scientific evidence proves we evolved naturally and were not created supernaturally has removed God from the equation that Paul used in Romans 1:25:
“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. “
This is the scripture from Paul that is used to point out the “sin of homosexuality”. Later on “God haters” are also classed with them. I suppose atheists will fit that description too, although I doubt it, as how can you hate someone who does not exist? I am neither gay nor am I a God-hater. I wish and hope that there is a benevolent personal God unfortunately i know based on the indisputable scientific evidence and evidence of the lack of Biblical evidence that there is not a personal God. I would rather have no god than a false god, no hope than a false hope and no faith than a false faith.
Paul had no choice in his pre-science world but to believe in a creator God. In his day creation testified to the fact that there must be a creator God and that if you see creation you see God and therefore you have no defence case at judgement day. However, today that is not our reality, as we have thankfully moved on from those mystical times two thousand years ago. Our knowledge has increased to the extent that a God is not needed anymore to explain the vast universe. In fact only evolution can explain why there are billions of galaxies and cluster galaxies each with billions of stars, solar systems and planets. It also explains why there are seven million identified and one hundred million unidentified species on earth and the numerous extinct and dead end species. It is obvious to all, who are not emotionally involved in an imaginary relationship and there by blinded that the vast universe does not exist with human kind in mind and in need of a saviour. We are just a dust spec in the Universe and if, earth was destroyed tomorrow, it would carry on regardless.
The only time a devout fundamental believer is objective is when science explains something that does not affect their faith. Like when you board a Jumbo Jet you know it will fly whether you understand gravity or not. Cell phones are like magic, they have no wires, yet believers
have no problems with the science and technology that designed them. Yet when science proves evolution believers depart from science.
When science doesn't have an answer:
• Then Christianity, the Bible, Pastors, Grandpa and Jesus don't have a real answer either.
• They have the kind of made-up answers we tell children to stop them from asking difficult questions. They forget that the answers they give lead to more questions as they are not honest or truthful or genuine, but rather simple-minded faith-based answers. For they themselves do not really know. They should leave things they do not know to the experts that do know. They should learn to GOOGLE things, and not ask their spouse, Pastor, Elder, neighbour or “witch Doctor” who also do not know.
If the Paul could come back in a time machine to our current time and:
• go to school from grade 1 to 10, graduate from University, look and comprehend what he is observing through an electron microscope and the Hubble Space Telescope, he would revise his (understandably for that mystical age) ignorant doctrines in Romans and rather state the following:
• “Who changed the truth of science into a lie, and worshipped and served a God, who they had created in their own minds, because they did not want to know the truth.”
Evolution even explains religion:
• “Religious ideas are common to all cultures: like language and music, they seem to be part of what it is to be human says Paul Bloom, a psychologist. Religion is an evolutionary adaptation that makes people more likely to survive and pass their genes onto the next generation. Shared religious belief helped our ancestors form tightly knit groups that co-operated in hunting, foraging and childcare, enabling these groups to out compete others. In this way religion was selected for by evolution, and eventually permeated every human society. There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired. 'All humans possess the brain circuitry and it never goes away.' New Scientist, 28 January 2006, p 30
• Richard Dawkins tell us “Evolution predisposes children to swallow whatever their parents and elders tell them, as trust and obedience are important for survival. Asked about the idea of pre-programming (religion is hard wired by evolution), the Oxford University professor said: 'I am thoroughly happy with believing that children are predisposed to believe in invisible gods - I always was”.
Religion may offer comfort in a harsh world:
• It may foster community; it may incite conflict. In short, it may have its uses - for good and evil. But it was created by human beings, and this will be a better world if we cease to confuse it with fact." ["Why We Believe in God[s]; A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith"; J Anderson Thompson MD; 2011, p.116.]
Maybe it is time for you to think for yourself and make up your own mind based on evidence and also depart from the love and wrath of an imaginary god.
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