I went because I wanted to.. it’s nice to get out of the house.. while I was there I realized I shouldn’t have gone.. it sucks
Anyway, the pastor was saying that the Christians there should go out in this pandemic and offer to help the elderly out by getting their groceries or asking neighbors if they can be of service. Although these are good ideas because some elderly probably don’t know how to use the smart phones to order anything as well as they might get sick. The catch was that they preach the gospel and show their light to the world.. me sitting there thinking, can’t Christians just take away the virus with the power of God? Not even prayer.. the Bible speaks that Christians can do greater things than Jesus did(while he was on earth, not speaking about what he can do
In heaven after ascension)
Yes I believe the Bible is not real.. yes I am
An atheist-ish person on and off..
if the Bible were true I guess it would be okay to offer the gospel and prayer etc...
the issue at hand is the Bible isn’t.. and these people
Are going about offering insincere love and
Service.. I can’t speak for any other Christian other than myself, for when I was one I didn’t think it was right to love just because God said so. I believe in being a real man and doing real
Things.. like loving and doing kind things with no strings attached.
However offering to do service and show love just to get the gospel and prayer in to basically help these elderly down the steps of a religiously fear based conditioning shallow pool isn’t something I take as kindness.. one day I want to speak out against the false beliefs my friends have and help them out of that shallow body of water.
After all I am their friend(even tho lately I’ve been preferring to distance myself from them.)
It got me thinking about things with life and religion..
1. Tithing.. yeah so apparently I have to
Give 10 percent to the church because they need it to get paid for their service without actually implying that the workers of the church get a payment.. excuse me I’m ignorant of The Who philosophical tithing component of the Bible..
what I believed I knew was in Old Testament times it was 10% of crops, like vegetation. Not 10% of hard earned money.
There’s a big yet not mega church I used to attend who asked for money to build a second floor and I believe a lot of the money was used on other things..
First week they made over a million.. second or third it was up to 6..
I used to be within a debate with me and my religious ego/Christian conditioned mind
“I don’t want to give my money. They make millions.. I might need this for something” then my conscience would flare up like a bully holding me up against the wall for my lunch money. “Give 10
My Christian conscience would get me out of my sick bed and preach in busy neighborhood that weren’t so safe in the first place making me feel like people would die and go to hell if I didn’t get up and spread the “good news”
2. The reason I believe myself and the Christians I knew back then were insincere with their love is because they’re trying to fit themselves into a
Character that shouldn’t exist, it goes against my nature and my will to want to love and do good freely to apparently do it
Because God says so or because it’s biblically correct or else I’ll go to hell. Imagine an opportune moment to love and care for someone under these conditions it’s like you have a gun held up to your head and you’re being held hostage to LOVE.
I don’t need the Bible’s definition of morality to love or do good, which brings me to my next point is that even Paul himself teaches in a way where he is going past encouragement to more of an urgent thing where he expresses it we love and do good we get blessed..
it’s like me as a
Child growing up and believing the same toxic thing I was taught, if I do good I’ll be rewarded if I do bad I’ll be punished.. other than the point being that it’s insincere for me to want to do good just because there’s a blessing at the end of it.. it’s also a false sense of goodness.. if people weren’t held up to the lie that they would die because they didn’t do good then they would probably have a better, easier and more efficient way of doing good if there was no punishment..
Don’t get me wrong everyone messes up and sometimes people go to monumental extremes..
I believe the world would be a better place if everyone had empathy and saw that some of the things we do that are wrong hurt others, and to see themselves that they wouldn’t like to be treated that way..
I used to believe that the Bible was created as means to just get people to stop doing hurtful things, all they had to say was” stop and think would you want this to happen to you by another “
Etc. I hope I made my point clear that in my experience I wasn’t allowed to be me.. I was allowed to be something that was created by another mans hands on how I should live my life according to his beliefs that he wrote in the Bible. Ps. There’s two creation accounts in genesis.. chapter 1 and 2.. they contradict each other, right
In the beginning, for those who might not know Genesis is the first book in the Bible. OT
how’s that for an infallible truly inerrant book
3.
I don’t know if any others have had this experience but whenever something good happens or I seem to develop to do something that would be considered good, an accomplishment of some sort I would head “praise the lord” like Goddidit. No, I did it.
I understand that it’s good to believe in something...
but to give praise to the lord for something I did is absurd... I bet if I bought it up I would either end up in an argument or a debate or even having some Christian rebuke me simply because The Bible says so.. none the less I deserve the credit for what I do..
I can hear the voice in memory”no all glory goes to God.. the maker of heaven and earth”
Yes but also to the god who created satan and humans knowing that one day they would perish in a eternal lake of fire.. cuz that’s the character of love. That we should worship him because he wants it so much that he would send armies to kill people for worshipping their ideas of gods.
I hope y’all can see the sarcasm.
I think I’m just ranting. Anyway thank you for reading.
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Rant away Italianish - rant away! :)
@italianish
Have you been living under a rock?
Are you unaware that there is currently a highly contagious pandemic killing people all over the world?
So you go to bible class 'to get out the house?" Is your pastor nuts? Church services ,even weddings and funerals have been banned all over the world, as well as non essential services being shut down.----MILLIONS of people have been laid off their jobs, leaving them financially fucked. ---and it's early days.
Here in Oz., public beaches have been closed and football games (our national sport) have been cancelled .Even football training has ben cancelled. Cafes and restaurants have been closed.
Me? I'm self isolating. I live alone. That means I have no direct personal contact with ANYONE. I've arranged for my food to be delivered to my door, by the supermarket.
Perhaps concentrate on not contracting the virus yourself ,or far worse, infecting some vulnerable person, like me.
Do yourself and everyone else a favour: STAY THE FUCK AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (If that's humanly possible for you)
POST SCRIPTUM: In my opinion there are few more arrogant people on the face of the earth than those who try to proselytise me ,or anyone else. It takes special kind of hubris to believe that one has access to exclusive and absolute truth AND that anyone who does not share one's beliefs is simply wrong. AND that is why I have only contempt for such people and their absurd personal superstitions.
@Italianish
Like White said, rant away, dude! That is why we are here. Get that shit out of your system. The more puss you can drain from that cyst, the quicker you can start to heal.
My Mom died back in early 2017. Looking back now, I realize she was the only thing left keeping me tied to my religious indoctrination. (She was VERY Christian, to say the least.) And after she died, I finally felt free enough to start cutting away the final threads that were keeping me tied to religion. The problem, however, is that I had nobody (other than my wife) with whom I could discuss the matter and ask questions to receive feedback to let me know if I was on the right track. And worse, I had nowhere to vent all the frustration I was feeling. Sure, my wife was fantastic and extremely patient with me during all of this, but there were only so many questions she could help me answer. Plus, after awhile, I am pretty sure I was starting to drive her crazy, because I had SO MANY thoughts running through my head it was an almost nonstop thinking process for me. I had even started writing.... and writing.... and writing... I simply had to get all of that trash out of my system. And all of that helped to a certain point, but I was getting no feedback from any of it.
Anyway, after a few months of this, my wife finally told me one day, "Hey, why don't you try to find some sort of atheist chat group online? It could do you some good to communicate with others who are of the same mindset." Keep in mind, at that time, the word "atheist" still held very dark and forbidding meanings to me due to how I was raised. The mere THOUGHT of being considered as an atheist literally made me cringe with dread. I would think to myself, "There is NO WAY I could ever consider myself an atheist. That is just absurd. There simply MUST BE some other classification for how I now think in regards to religion." By that time, however, I was at my wit's end, and my wife was threatening to duct tape my mouth shut and chain me to a huge tree in the woods waaay on the back side of our property. So, after about a week of stalling and making excuses, I finally got online and Googled "atheist chat sites", and Atheist Republic was one of the first sites to appear. Not knowing one site from the other, I decided, "Well, I suppose this one is as good as any." And so I checked out the site a bit and did a quick scan of the registration process, where I discovered the only two choices one had were either "Atheist" or "Non-atheist" as part of the sign-up questions. Well, that caused another two or three day stall in my enrollment decision... *chuckle*... (I shit you not. I was really THAT concerned about clicking on "I am an atheist" choice.) Nevertheless, on Dec. 1st, 2017, I finally built up my nerve, gritted my teeth, took a deep breath, and with a hesitant shaky finger I clicked on the "I am an atheist" choice and officially joined the AR. And aside from marrying my wife, it was absolutely the BEST decision I have ever made. And here I am now... *snicker*...
Granted, it was not always shits-grins-and-giggles for me here in the beginning. I did not realize it at the time, but I had a considerable amount of anger and resentment built up inside me that regularly came out in some rather explosive rants toward some of the visiting theists here. Some were so bad they almost got my ass booted out of here a couple of times. To this day I am still very grateful for the patients and understanding of our fantastic mods... *tipping hat in respect for those who know who they are*... Anyway, I am telling you all of this to let you know this is the place you need to be to get thoughts, ideas, frustrations out of your system to gain much needed and valuable feedback from others who understand and care. You may not always like the answers and feedback you get, but I can assure you they are most always made with your best interests in mind. So, please, rant away, rant away, rant away. At least your rants are much nicer and more "emotionally controlled" than what some of mine once were... *chuckle*...
@Italianish
Oh, yeah, almost forgot. Cranky reminded me, though, and he makes a damn good point. WHY would you go out to a group meeting of any type right now? And I have to admit I actually CRINGED when I read that the pastor was encouraging church members to get out and go door-to-door to "spread the good word" from his fictional bible. He might as well have said, "Hey, everybody, please get out and go door-to-door in the neighborhoods and try to contract the virus so that you can spread it to everybody else who is smart enough to stay home during this international crisis." ESPECIALLY if the target homes are of the elderly who are considerably MORE SUSCEPTIBLE to getting sick. Just so you know, that preacher is a complete fucking moron. Don't be like the preacher. Stay home as much as possible. Because I can tell you right now, if anybody I don't know comes to my house knocking on my door right now, they are likely to be greeted at the door staring down the barrel of whatever pistol or rifle I pick up on my way to the door. Just sayin'...
@Tin Man
Really sorry about your Mum. Mine died April 13 last year. She was 92, as sharp as a tack and died too soon. My mum was a devout catholic ,and very tolerant of her 4 atheist kids.(dad, not so much, but he died in 2006)
"-----that preacher is a complete fucking moron."
I'd say 'tone deaf" with both feet firmly planted in the ether. Met a LOT of Catholic religious like that over the years.
Regardless, said preacher is in urgent need of a smack around the left ear with a maggoty possum. If no possum handy a brick will be dandy.
Fucking cheek! Putting the lives of others at risk like that!
I went and it was stupid of me to go.. the good thing about going is that I got to learn that there’s something wrong with this pastor on top of what I already believe is wrong with him..
He’s a year younger than me and I used to trust him because he gave me a reason to.
Then I became skeptical.
My old pastor I used to feel icky vibes coming from him.
So now other than the pandemic I am going to slowly cut off the Christian friends I have.. I need positive and uplifting people in my life.
@Italianish: Absolutely nothing wrong with having positive and uplifting people in your life. I have no idea how old you are, probably just not paying attention, but that is a fantastic lesson to learn. Your friends should support you in the things you do and, at the same time, be willing to be honest with you. If you agree with one another 100% of the time, one of you is unnecessary. Respect goes both ways and in the end, you are responsible for any decision you make.
Haha look what I found
Attachments
Attach Image/Video?:
@Italianish: Now that's funny!
Unfortunately 11.00 each on Amazon for the cheapest ones (Yea I went and looked it up.) not counting clothing, stolen from a goodwill drop box obviously, makes the prank just too expensive to pull. Great idea though.
@Italianish.
Now THAT'S funny. Practical? Probably not; how would the dummies be weighted to float head first?
Do you know how much those things cost? -------hang on, I'll have a look on Ebay ----- OK; -----FROM $29.95 to around $150 for anything remotely life liked --then there's the cost of the helium . I think I'll pass
@Italianish...
Re-Read your thread title and this popped into my head...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MH619vxtNdo
“...this one time at...”
@Whitefire
Ah, yes ,I well remember Michelle.
Certainly a coffee spurting moment . The comedic value of the incongruous. (In this case, the male character and male audience making unfounded assumptions about Michelle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZifmiFkgZlc
Here’s some more ranting.
When I try to look up the Bible being false all I
Get are Christian websites that defend the “truth” and the gospel. Maybe I have to search deeper or change my questions.
Ever since I started believing that the Bible is false, I’ve noticed strange behavior from
Pastors... not that I’m paranoid they know. I don’t believe there’s a connection, but it’s like taking the red pill in the matrix and now my perception of the world is different.. even when I was a
Christian I had an eerie feeling about some people. But now I feel like if I speak out against the Christian church they will find a
Way to hurt me if they found out, also the part of me that still believes in the Bible time from time either gives me a conviction when I tell my atheist mother about how I feel that the Bible isn’t real
And god doesn’t exist and the conviction is that she’s definitely not going to believe and if Jesus comes back and takes me to heaven for being a Christian previously she won’t be taken.
And the other thing about it is I feel like I’m sorta condemning people unintentionally just by expressing my new found beliefs..
It’s not like I’m saying “you’re all going to hell” it’s more like I’m saying “ the Bible doesn’t exist, I’m not a believer anymore, fuck religion” and they follow it cuz they see that I was once a big believer and now not so it
Enables them not to fear anymore and they go to hell one day by default cuz they don’t believe.
I watched zeitgeist and I was happy. I didn’t do my research about it.. Maybe it’s like trying to find gold or diamonds in the ground, gotta keep searching when you come up with nothing.
@iTALIANISH: "Who wrote the Bible?" OPEN YOUR EYES!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63QvWMBxsW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhM5lbVBgkk