I know they aren’t speaking about banning the bible however putting age tag on the bible would certainly make it so only adults could buy/read it. But where would this end? Almost every religion would have to be subjected to this law. Even science and history books would be fit to be called indecent. science can show grim reality’s at times. History books are pretty much just crammed with horrible events perhaps we should stop teaching about World War 2 and the halocaust because it was a real downer? Granted these are real events and such and the bible isn’t but try telling that to a christian.

Besides I think we should promote the readings of all religous material. Why? Because how many christians truely read the bible? If more people read the damn thing less people would follow it. Same goes for the koran and the torah. Teach a nice dose of science with the day as well and this process would slowly weed out religion from humanity. Education is the way to go. Ever notice how the average atheist has more knowledge about the bible than the average christian?

grabbing those nutcases by their…
Theories(?); and properly disposing of them with your…erm…
‘dominating’ insights.
I must say, I’m (feigning) restraining myself from asking to stay after class.
Of course, we’ve previously been there/done that, here on GifS…only rhetorically, of course.

Seriously…the idea that a terribly sadistic notion of heaven/hell…the white/black……up/down, completely childish and unjust; having absolutely no concept of any “gray area”…ASSUMED to exist by all the Western Religions, is in itself, an amazingly absurd fact. It happens to be a mostly ignored…particularly irrational, unjust and outrageous feature of Western Sado-Masochistic Theology; which is quite different from the Eastern versions of Cosmology.
[Another topic for Mistress Eve?]
What a terribly flawed, psychopathic, tyrannical ‘god’ notion is attached to that assumption…appalling to even CONSIDER worshipping!

As more than one GifSter has pointed out in the past; would any truly loving parent…at least, the more evolved, ‘unconditionally loving’ archetype…EVER conceive of acting out such a cruel notion of punishment on their children?

True dat, true dat (I’m so ghetto-fabulous!).

Seriously, Mike, I think your eyes would be hugely opened if you read some mythology outside of the bible – for example, ancient Sumerian/Babylonian; Noah’s flood is definitely based on a tale in the Epic of Gilgamesh. That flood, as my fellow mods indicated above, was probably based on the local people’s tales and memories of a local flood, maybe the Mediterranean volcano or the Black Sea flooding. Human religions tend to piggy-back on one another, the later developments building on previous systems and adding their own “quirks.”

As for scientific evidence of things in the bible, again as the mods pointed out, finding the ruins of Jericho hardly confirms the OT story. If this were true, then Schliemann’s discovery of fabled Troy in Turkey confirmed the myths and legends told about the Trojan War! Apollo really did rain down arrows of fire; the river really did leap its banks and rush to try to drown Achilles; and so on. To use a more recent example, characters always go to a real London train station in the Harry Potter books – but it doesn’t mean that there’s a magical barrier there you can step through onto a magical platform…

As for losing nothing by believing: I think South Park illustrates this best in its episode where everyone belonging to every religion in the world ends up in hell. Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, Protestant Fundamentalists, pagans, they all ask “but why?”

Because only Mormonism was the True Religion (TM), replies their guide to hell; therefore, only Mormons “got it right” and get to go to heaven.

This is Pascal’s Wager in a nutshell, my friend. It means you’re in just as much theoretical danger of being screwed for eternity as we atheists are. It’s also why this is one of the weakest (and, we think, lamest as well) arguments in favor of religion.

Class has ended; go in peace – and reason.

And just because some parts of the bible have been validated by non-religious records, that doesn’t make the bible “true”, it just means people knew how to embellish the truth back then as they do now. Where is the proof that the walls of Jericho were brought down by horn-blowing and marching in circles? The actual proof shows us that the fall of Jericho and Joshua were hundreds of years apart.

But this doesn’t stop moronic believers form worshiping at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher that most likely isn’t even the right one; or celebrating the birth of christ on a day that had nothing to do with christ. It’s all a big lie, dude.

Do you seriously believe for just one millisecond that an omnipotent god (or goddess) would not be able to see instantly through someone going through the motions of believing in him (or her) only in order to escape punishment?

Yeah, we know: it’s called Pascal’s Wager, a/k/a “Believe, just in case there is a hell”. *yawn*  We’ve heard this reason many, many, many, many, many times before.

Yeah, we know:  a flood is in other mythologies.  And in other mythologies, it makes no more sense than the bibular version (in fact, the bibular version begs all reason and rationality; the others are better, more colorful and more fun to read about!).  The closest that geo-archaelogists have come to finding “flooding” is when a volcano in the Mediterranean erupted, complete with earthquakes that caused a tsunami that took out the populations of coastal Greek cities.  Other than that, nary a sign.  Sorry – no cigar.

You’re treading very close to proselytizing, mike.  This is conditionally “approved”; if your next comment is as close to breaking a GifS Commandment, Thou shalt not proselytize, your message will be replaced.  If you attempt to convert us, you will be banned.  By the way, you sound quite young – shouldn’t you be in bed, resting for school tomorrow?

The Moderators

Alright, not really, censorship of every stripe is a mistake but nothing says we can’t keep the adult fiction on the top shelf- out of the reach of innocent hands. Eighteen, old enough to vote, old enough to decide whether one’s life ought to be guided by an obsolete fairy tale.