“Be very sure of this,-people never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They understand it only too well; they understand that it condemns their own behavior; they understand that it witnesses against their own sins, and summons them to judgment.” ― J.C. Ryle
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Well, that's not been the case for the folk I know who have done so. I'd like to see a study on this. From where did this person get that info?
This is just an older version of the modern notion that: atheists know god is real, but claim they don't because they want to sin. Or rephrase: every atheist is a liar. Or rephrased again: there are no "Real" atheists. Listen to any apologists for any length of time and there is a good chance you will hear something along one of these lines.
/e Here is more of the quote:
"But whatever men may say, the things needed for salvation are as clear as daylight. Be very sure of this--people never reject the Bible because they cannot understand it. They understand it too well; they understand that it condemns their own behavior; they understand that it witnesses against their own sins, and summons them to judgment. They try to believe it is false and useless, because they don't like to believe it is true. An evil lifestyle must always raise an objection to this book. Men question the truth of Christianity because they hate the practice of it." -Ryle (I found it in a text called Thoughts for Young Men, published in 2006, I think it might be a collection of excerpts of Ryle's sermons or tracts).
When I was a young man I was reading W.S. Burroughs, Karl Marx , and Abbie Hoffman. Imagine young men sitting around reading that shite.
The Atheist Delusion:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:QK6OwVvfpZ8J:www.atheistmovie.com/a...
(I'm linking via cached google content to avoid giving these people extra traffic.)
A quote about it:
"Having to prove the existence of God to an atheist is like having to prove the existence of the sun, at noon on a clear day. Yet millions are embracing the foolishness of atheism."
The quote is so dumb that it needs no rebuttal, it speaks for it self.
I think I'm about ready to discount all of the theistic population as delusional.
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Wait....
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I already did.
I'm waiting for the movie to come out for free on YouTube. I am going to have so much fun ripping it to shreds.
"Executive produced by TV co-host and best-selling author Ray Comfort (Hell’s Best Kept Secret, Scientific Facts in the Bible)."
"Scientific Facts in the Bible" -- That's got to be one of the thinnest books ever.
Well at least that book and God have something in common, since they don't exist.
I reject the bible not because it witnesses against my own sins, but because it condones sins that are totally repugnant to my own godless sense of morality, such as slavery, murder, mysogyny, fraud, rape, torture, incest...
Very well stated, Algebe!
I concluded Yahweh/Jehovah/God/Allah was an invention of man and thus rejected him. After that moment, Satan, Heaven, Hell and the Bible all became inconsequential and irrelevant. No more thought or hand-wringing required.
Truth is simple, elegant and bold! Nice job, Alembe!
I rejected the bible as it promotes bad behavior for some.
I do not want to be a zombie.
Maybe atheists understand it so well that they see it is man made.
My family tends to quote parts of the quran and send msgs of what are quranic quotes only to later realise its all nonsense and not written in the book but just good quotes cloaked in the guise of holy tradition.
the more religious a person the less likely they are to have understood the book..... In islam people say it is only right to read the original in the original arabic as it preserves purity. translations are not welcomed. The problem is translations are not welcomed because no one speaks that language today not even the arabs and if translated we realise its all nonsense anyway.
"In islam people say it is only right to read the original in the original arabic as it preserves purity. translations are not welcomed."
It doesn't stop them spouting from it in English, French, [insert language here] unfortunately. Perhaps if the bible could only be read in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek there wouldn't be so many "holier than thou"s about.
Actually, I think it's the other way around.
The bible was not allowed to be read by ordinary people in the olden days and far from everyone could read. Instead the clergy controlled the information completely, and this didn't stop the spread of Christianity. And today many who "know that god exists", haven't even read the bible. They get spoon fed their faith from the pulpit and they seem to be happy with that.
There are many who have lost their faith after reading the bible, even though they have tried to "soften the blow" by slowly changing some words for more benign variants.
I think that we need more translations to different languages but less distortions. That way people can see how horrible and erroneous these books are and start questioning it.
With the information available today quite handily stripping all truth from the bible, I think I can safely conclude that denial and greed are it's only champions.
@The Pragmatic
"I think that we need more translations to different languages but less distortions. That way people can see how horrible and erroneous these books are and start questioning it."
I hadn't looked at it like that. Although I don't think it would happen readily in a vast majority of cases - to borrow a quote: "There Are None So Blind As Those Who Will Not See".
To finish the whole quote: "The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know". Spot on.
"The most deluded people are those who choose to ignore what they already know".
Literally the ONLY WAY that quote could be better is if it was read aloud by Morgan Freeman.
LoL
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Ok, Prag, that's the funniest thing I've seen on AR in the years I've been on it. Thx!
Thank you.
But I can't take credit, that belongs to Mr Freeman. :D
“Be very sure of this" - J.C. Ryle
Certainty is a devastating mental illness that suffocates your perceptions and stunts your cognitive processes. Minds trapped in certainty must blind their perceptions lest they see evidence that contradicts their true story. They must freeze their cognitive process lest it produce answers that challenge their right answer.
Ryle believes that a supernatural being created the Earth and all life forms in six days, and then needed to borrow some people's hands in order to write a book so we would know who to thank. The Good News is that God promises us a heavenly reward in exchange for life-long obedience to his designated God-mouths. The bad news is that we will suffer eternal hellfire if we are so foolish as to disobey.
Doubt is the only exit from a "truth trap," and that exit is not left unguarded. Any evidence or reason that challenges your truth must be shut-out or shut-off. Doubt is defined as the Road to Hell, and those who take even one step down that road surrender themselves to evil. It is sad that children are intentionally crippled with this mental illness by their parents, and then spend their entire lives propagating this mental illness to earn their place in heaven. Their stated goal is that glorious day when every human life is enslaved to the God-mouths, and nobody gets out alive. Atheists well-understand the consequences of offering the faithful a path to freedom. When a God-mouth proclaims atheist as willfully evil for rejecting God, he is pointing God's finger at us, telling the righteous who to strike if they want to earn their heavenly reward.
Christopher Sly: I admire your expression "exit from a Truth-trap"! Clever metaphor!
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As Nyarlathotep pointed out, this is religious B.S. that is exuded from the mouths of idiots in a wide variety of forms. Anyone who does a lick of research in the U.S. (where I can speak with some authority) would quickly find that most of the leading atheists were once deeply religious and only freed themselves from that superstition after several years of intense study and struggle. Moreover, as numerous priests, ministers, and others have amply demonstrated, there is no need to reject the Bible to enjoy sin at its fullest!
This implication that serious atheists (those who arrived at atheism after study and reflection) carry a big basket loaded with sins is another of those Christian lies. Morally speaking, the serious atheist compares favorably with conservative Bible believers! Prison records and other statistics back that up. Hence, the very motivation for rejecting the Bible (as envisioned by J.C. Ryle) is missing.
Bible believers simply can't accept the fact that atheists have excellent reasons for rejecting their Bible. To acknowledge that fact would be to throw their whole world-view into doubt! So, they come up with their own silly reasons why atheists reject the Bible, reasons that support their world-view. Needless to say, this response is strictly arm-chair speculation lacking even the pretense of research. It's nothing but a balm to sooth their doubts.
Excellent post, Greensnake! Extremely well stated as usual by you. You have a clean, neat psyche! Here is the first Latin treatise by an Oxonian detailing Zoroastrianism. Dr. Thomas Hyde, C.E. 1700 published date.
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