A Q &A I Had on Facebook With A Friend From Ministry Days
Why not share my little tidbits with everyone and not have to write stuff twice, right?
This person asked me:
I don't know how the universe began and neither do you. Have you really taken seriously the faith statement that a Trinitarian God just happened to be in existence forever...always. How is that any better option?
First I became a liberal, then an agnostic, then an atheist, so it happened over the course of about ten years. it didn't happen overnight.
I care about people because I care about them and myself. That's who I am. It a makes me happy, which is it own justification, holistic happiness. Just ask yourself if you would stop caring once you came to think God doesn't exist and you'll see what I mean. Would you stop caring for your friends and family? No. We're all human beings and we need each other.
Much of the Bible is made from the superstitious myths of an ancient world. The creation accounts in Genesis 1-2 were borrowed from Mesopotamian myths. We know this. That's right. We know this. There can be no doubt about it and evangelicals like John Walton, Peter Enns, and Kenton Sparks in their recent books admit it. And Yahweh had a wife whose name was Ashterah. Check out archeologist and former Christian turned agnostic William Dever's book, Did God Have a Wife? The nativity stories in Matthew and Luke are myths plain and simple. They are inconsistent with each other, not corroborated in earlier traditions found in Mark's gospel and Q, and do not correspond to anything we know about Herod's death or any known census at the time. Census takers always come to the place where people live, otherwise the whole known world would be uprooted. And that star? It moved over Bethlehem, right? That's what it says. It moved. Such heavenly movement was perfectly understandable given that ancients thought the stars were hung in the dome in the sky, and like the Flood which was unleashed from that same dome the stars could move across it.
I believe there was a historical person who started the Jesus cult, yes. At best he was nothing more or less than a failed apocalyptic doomsday prophet who predicted the end of the world and the coming of Daniel's "Son of man" in his day and age.
This person asked me:
I have questions merely out of curiosity. If you don't have time to respond I understand as they are just curiosities. As an atheist, where are you with the beginning of the universe? What triggered a sell out to God for a sell out to no God? You said something to the effect that you still care about people first and foremost. Where does that come from if not from God? Is the Bible historical to you or just made up? Did Jesus really live on Earth? Those are just a few I am curious about your stance on.Hey, thanks for your questions. I wrote a book about it which is getting some great reviews.
I don't know how the universe began and neither do you. Have you really taken seriously the faith statement that a Trinitarian God just happened to be in existence forever...always. How is that any better option?
First I became a liberal, then an agnostic, then an atheist, so it happened over the course of about ten years. it didn't happen overnight.
I care about people because I care about them and myself. That's who I am. It a makes me happy, which is it own justification, holistic happiness. Just ask yourself if you would stop caring once you came to think God doesn't exist and you'll see what I mean. Would you stop caring for your friends and family? No. We're all human beings and we need each other.
Much of the Bible is made from the superstitious myths of an ancient world. The creation accounts in Genesis 1-2 were borrowed from Mesopotamian myths. We know this. That's right. We know this. There can be no doubt about it and evangelicals like John Walton, Peter Enns, and Kenton Sparks in their recent books admit it. And Yahweh had a wife whose name was Ashterah. Check out archeologist and former Christian turned agnostic William Dever's book, Did God Have a Wife? The nativity stories in Matthew and Luke are myths plain and simple. They are inconsistent with each other, not corroborated in earlier traditions found in Mark's gospel and Q, and do not correspond to anything we know about Herod's death or any known census at the time. Census takers always come to the place where people live, otherwise the whole known world would be uprooted. And that star? It moved over Bethlehem, right? That's what it says. It moved. Such heavenly movement was perfectly understandable given that ancients thought the stars were hung in the dome in the sky, and like the Flood which was unleashed from that same dome the stars could move across it.
I believe there was a historical person who started the Jesus cult, yes. At best he was nothing more or less than a failed apocalyptic doomsday prophet who predicted the end of the world and the coming of Daniel's "Son of man" in his day and age.