January 31, 2009, 11:15 am by dc-agape.

Atheism means different things to each person.  For those who have only heard, second hand, Atheism can be a “very scary” word.  For those of us who live the Atheist life and walk the Atheist path it is a wonderful thing.  Even though Atheism is “the lack of belief in a god” (or gods or even all supernatural beings), many forms of the word are thrown around.  As the link above mentions, many thought patterns lead to the Atheist life.  I will be starting a series of posts on the positive aspects of Atheism.  Some of these aspects are: hope, joy, freedom (from religious guilt, from narrow mindedness, from dogmatic structure), awe, and love.  To many my last sentence will make no sense, which is because of religious indoctrination!  One more thing Atheists are free from.

In this post I want to explore the aspect of Hope.  Most TrueChristians™ do not believe that an Atheist can have much hope.  They could not be further from the truth.  We have many hopes: in the future, in individual selves, in humanity, in science, and in numbers (I explain that in a little bit).  We do not all have the same hopes, but ask an Atheist what type of hope they have and you will find that it is part of their personal outlook on life.

We have hope in the future, even if is only for equality.  To a Christian this may seem silly, only because being the majority (in the US) gives them the right to believe that everyone is being treated fairly.  Trina Hoaks at Friendly Atheist gives a good example of the hope that Atheist have of having equality.  To verify this, ask a gay or lesbian if they have equality!  You can even ask an African-American, many Mexican-Americans, or even anyone with Asian descent, the concept of equality is only felt by the majority.  Here in the US that would be the Caucasian Christian (male). 

Our hope for the future has multiple facets to it.  We hope for better education for our future generations.  One post from a number of years ago ends with a fierce example of this hope.  The court room battles over education are a sign of our hopes: PA, TX, and Kansas.  Equal access to education for the masses is extremely important, but we must recognize that people have different skills.  There is a difference between education and training.  I personally hope that one day we will personalize education for each individual.  Mass education leaves something to be desired.  The weaker “book” students get “left behind” while the stronger “book” students get bored.

Another form of hope that we have is in peace here on Earth.  Since Atheist know that we only have one life (all of us), almost all of us believe that human life is worth saving.  I will not use the word sacred, because that is too weak a word for what most Atheists believe about the value of all human life.  We hope that everyone will live a fruitful, happy, contented life with many joys and few sorrows.  To achieve this goal, Atheists understand that reason must be the driving force for society.  The religious divisiveness must end and the wars that religion has started must end.  But for this to happen we must have better education (see above).

Many of us Atheist do place our hope in science, and for good reason.  Yes, atrocities have been carried out due to science (sometimes in the name of science).  But look around you, even the plants that you see have been affected by science…fertilizers (hopefully you are not surrounded by nuclear waste or fall-out).  The cars, the phones, the window in front of you…all science.  The medicine you and your family took for any number of illnesses…all science.  Using the past as a predictor of the future, science will only make our lives more enjoyable, more full-filling, and more worthwhile.  Yes, we run the risk of annihilation with science.  To eliminate this risk we must have removed the risk of religious wars and better education for the masses. 

Posted in Atheism, State of Mind, Becoming an atheist, Introduction | Print | 2 Comments »

January 31, 2009, 10:43 am by dc-agape.

I have activated a virus when I looked for the Scopes Trial in PA.  Here is what any search now displays:

Search Results

1.     Wikipedia 

This site may harm your computer.
A free encyclopedia with millions of articles contributed collaboratively using Wiki software, in dozens of languages.

www.wikipedia.org/ - Similar pages 

2.     Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This site may harm your computer.
Dec 30, 2008 … Reference desk — Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - Similar pages

3.     Wikipedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This site may harm your computer.
Wikipedia’s 12 million articles (2.7 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia - Similar pages
More results from en.wikipedia.org »

Isn’t this the funniest thing you have ever seen.  I take it someone did not like my blog site.  I wonder who the coward was!  The few people who have commented have been very cordial.  And I have both enjoyed responding and have been as cordial as well.I am not surprised that a coward would use such an attempt to stop something that is so antithetic to their own point of view.  But I certainly expected to get flaming comments before this happened!  But there is no doubt that the search for the PA scopes trial is what activated this “problem”. 

As all of you know, I source my data from web searches.  I use Google substansially while preparing a post.I find this very humourous and will look forward to see if anyone will take responsibility.  Since that is lacking in the Christian religion, I doubt that anyone will admit to it.  And I am sure that someone feels that their religion gives them the right to do this!

Posted in State of Mind, Introduction | Print | 2 Comments »

January 31, 2009, 7:17 am by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 10

     The 10^th chapter of Genesis is the first chapter in the Word that is nearly useless.  This book only names the acts of one person: Nimrod.  It tells about his great hunting skills and the cities he builds.  In the notes we discover that only Shem’s grandson Eber is important.  The study notes claim that Eber is the origin of the word Hebrew.  Yet the Word does not give us a hint as to why Eber is the chosen descendant of Noah.

     Two very interesting observations can be made in this chapter.  The most interesting thing about this chapter is what is missing.  All the nations listed are only in the biblical setting.  All of the Bronze Age nations of Europe, Asia, Australia, and America are missing.  None of the nations listed have moved farther than Greece and Eurasia.  I guess YHWH just could not keep up with all the heathens.  The other interesting tidbit is the repeated verse:

^{Gen 10:20} (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)

     This concept is repeated in Genesis 10:20 with Ham’s descendants and in Genesis 10:30 with Shem’s descendant.  In the next verse we will read about the tower of Babel.  But three times the Word mentions that before the tower was build each tribe of Noah already had individual languages.   Is this a case of editing the preceding chapter to be adjusted for the acts of a following chapter?

Lookup a word or passage in the Bible
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Posted in Genesis, Readings | Print | No Comments »

January 25, 2009, 8:04 am by dc-agape.

Hades is a mythical place for the Greek underworld.  Only 5 times is the term used in the Word of God.  Jesus uses it once and John of Patmos uses it the other 4 times in the Book of Revelation.  In all five cases the word does not refer to the Greek God Hades but to the place of the Greek dead.

Matt 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

This verse comes from the story of when Simon Peter first recognizes Jesus as the Christ.  Jesus promises Simon Peter that the church that Peter is going to created will never enter the Greek mythical place of Hades. 

John of Patmos makes it quite clear that Hades and Death are two different things (see below).  So the heathens from Greece know more about the afterlife than most “christians” believe.  Jesus knew that Hades exists, and the Greeks knew that it existed since about the 9^th century BC.  If the Greeks were right about Hades then what about the other Greek Gods, are they also real?  Both the ancient Greeks and Jesus agreed on Hades, did they also agree on the rest of Greek mythology?

In the Book of Revelation, John of Patmos tells of how “like a son of man (Rev 1:13)” holds the keys to both death and Hades.

Rev 1:18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!  And I hold the keys to death and Hades.

First notice the capitalization of words!  The “son of man” and death are not capitalized, yet Hades is.  A true follower of Jesus does not recognize him as the Son of Man, only as someone who looks “like a son of man”.  Since John uses the indefinite article “a” does this mean that there is more than one “son of man”?  The concept of death is also not as important as Hades to John in his dream.  Hades is a place, no doubt the Greek Underworld.  Second, notice that the “Living One” “holds the keys to death and Hades”.  These are two difference concepts.  Let’s see if John will flush these two different concepts out in the remaining verses.

When John sees the “Four Horseman” the first one is Death, who is followed by Hades:

Rev 6:8 I look, and there before me was a pale horse!  Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.  They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

Here John names the rider as Death, with a capitalization.  I will, in later posts, cover this apocalyptic dream because it is so mistranslated that most Christians do not know the “Truth”.  But notice in the verse that Hades is a minion of Death.  Hades follows as Death destroys ¼ of the world. 

This is not the same as how John describes Hades later:

Rev 20:13-14 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.

Notice here that the sea, death, and Hades contain all the dead!  Death is not the only place where the dead are kept.  The sea and Hades also contain the dead.  This Greek mythological place actually holds the dead.  But also notice that heaven does not contain the dead.

In the Christian religion when people die they may be kept in the sea, in death, or in the Greek mythical Underworld.  Where will I wait out the “Day of Judgment”?  Where will the TrueChristianTM stay until the “Day of Judgment”?  Hell does not contain the dead.  Heaven does not hold the dead until the “Day of Judgment”.  Only then will all the TrueChristianTM be let into heaven!  The rest of us will be thrown directly into the lake of fire for the second death. 

Posted in Hell, Biblical topics | Print | 1 Comment »

January 25, 2009, 7:38 am by dc-agape.

We know that the Book of Mark was written by John Mark.  This is the same Mark that that worked with Paul.  This is also the same John Mark that spent time with Simon Peter in Rome.  Because we know this, we know that the book had to be written after 55AD but most likely before 64AD (but possibly 67AD).  We are more certain about the later date because of the well know fact that Simon Peter was martyred in one of those two years.  Placing the date of when Simon Peter reached Rome is difficult, but required for the understanding of when the Book of Mark was written.  We know that Simon Peter was in Galatia prior to the writing of the letters of Galatians (49 – 55AD).  We also know that Simon Peter was in Corinth near the year 55AD (or as late as 58AD), when Paul wrote the letters of 1^st Corinthians.  At best we can say that Peter did not reach Rome until after 55AD and was martyred there in 67AD.  As a result, John Mark must have written the Book of Mark between the dates of 55AD – 67AD.  It is a good guess that since John Mark was not with Simon Peter until at least 55AD and that it took a number of years for him to piece the story of Jesus together from Simon Peter’s sermons that the date of the writing of the Book of Mark was closer to the mid-60’s AD or later.  All this historical dating does have a point:  to determine date the first Gospel was written about Jesus.  So the Book of Mark, from the Synoptic Problem, is known to be the first of the Gospels and it was written 30+ years after the death of Jesus.

Another issue that must be addressed is the date of the most ancient copy of the Book of Mark.  The Codex Vaticanus contains the most ancient copy of this book in modern time.  Unfortunately, this Codex Vaticanus is dated to ~175-200AD. 

Here we come to the crux of the problem.  John Mark is writing from second hand information, the preaching of Simon Peter.  These lessons occurred 30 years after Jesus’ death. The most ancient copies preserved are over an additional ~150 after the death of Jesus.  Remember there were no printing presses in that era, nor were there thermo stated rooms to save the papyrus that the books were written on.  Even the Codex Vaticanus is copies of copies of second hand stories!  Would the evidence presented in this book hold up in any country’s court of law?  Of course not!  Yet not only do the TrueChristianTM demand that we hold it as the “God’s Truth” but they want to use it to control not just their life, but the lives of everyone on the planet. 

From a de-converted gay Atheist interpretation this is the silliest thing I have ever heard.  If the Holy Spirit of YHWH expects all of mankind to bow down to Jesus with this flimsy evidence, YHWH has more faith in his creation that at any time in the past.  And YHWH certainly has no reason to have faith in his creation: see Adam, the Tower of Babel, Noah, and any of the OT stories about the Israelites falling away from YHWH.  So today we are supposed to be better at following YHWH’s will than the people who actually saw the “miracles of YHWH”?  I would call that just plain crazy talk.  In fact, I would not be surprised if YHWH had not gone insane from just the OT alone.  Adding the experience of the NT to it must have pushed the all-perfect, all-loving, all-knowing creator over the edge!

Posted in State of Mind, Becoming an atheist, Introduction | Print | No Comments »

January 24, 2009, 10:09 am by dc-agape.

Growing up in the Southern Baptist and then joining the Oahu Church of Christ, I was exposed to the concept of Pascal’s Wager.  In this link, of Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert), Scott describes much about the concept.  He even points out mathematically that Islam would be the best bet!  In Piers Anthony’s Tarot Series, Piers Anthony comes to the conclusion that only Satan can be the true religion!  But even this is his satire…how can anarchy (Satan worship) be organized!  More will be posted on Piers Anthony’s influence on my becoming an Atheist in later posts.

As I have said before, I was baptized as a Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, and into the Oahu Church of Christ.  I was even a founding “missionary” for the Hilo Church of Christ.  I see that my work as a missionary failed!  The Hilo Church of Christ is now part of the International Christian Church.  Referring to Pascal’s Wager, I wonder which one will make it to heaven!  Remember:

Eph 4:2-6 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Even the church that taught me this has fallen into disunity!  With Pascal’s Wager, alone, any Christian faith would be enough, or as Scott Adam’s points out in his post, Islam.  But when you add Ephesians 4:2-6 you realized that there is only one Body (One Church), one Spirit (One Translation of the Word), and One Baptism.  The so-called “christians” have minimized this verse to the One Hope and ignored the other Ones! 

Pascal’s Wager takes on a new meaning when you apply the Word of God to the wager.  Even if the “god” of the Bible is the “One True God”, how do we know which christian faith to follow?  Catholism is the oldest, maybe it is right.  Maybe Mohammad is the last prophet and Islam is right.  Maybe the NT is a fake and only Judaism is right.  What about those faith healers, are they right?  But maybe it is the fungementalist who want to make the US a theocracy, maybe they are the good ones?  How can a person know that their religion, that most of us were born into, is the right one?  Jumping from Christian sect to sect is no better…we stop either when we find the one that “feels” right or when we settle for the best of the worst! 

In the NT the apostles and some of the disciples could do miracles.  People died for their beliefs.  Today, in the US, christianity is so pervasive that everyone knows the story, but no one knows the score!  Pascal’s Wager cannot be used to “save our soul” because “just believing” is not enough.  The god of the OT is inerrant and unchanging…well guess what, if that is true, then he will only accept one thing.  And that One Thing is not a divided church with 38,000 variations! 

As a gay man, I have been the outsider of each church I have joined.  Each gay person that attempts to be a Christian has more to overcome than any other “sinner”.  There is a stigma that homosexuality is a “worse” sin than any of the others.  But this is not true, and remember these verses are directed at the Christians in the area of Galatia:

Gal 5:19-21 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This verse clearly states that “sin is sin”, none is more “sinful” than any other.  As a result, the litmus test for the True Christian Church is this:  I, or any gay person, am accepted and have all the same rights and privileges of any other member, when everyone knows that I am gay!  In the news today, we can see which denomination are not the True Church.  The Catholics, the Holy Rollers, and the Southern Baptist, all feel that homosexuality is an unforgivable sin.  Even the Episcopal Church struggles with this issue.

So these Pascal’s Wager, Ephesians 4:2-6, Galatians 5:19-21, and the organized “churches” combine to leave the option that the god of the Bible maybe real.  But if this is true, all humanity is doomed to hell.  Not a single human has done as the Bible commands, and we know that breaking the commandments of YHWH will send you to hell!

As a gay Atheist I can easily interpret this situation into one that uses Pascal’s Wager to insure that Atheism is the correct assumption.  A loving god would not leave all of humanity to hell; he would leave markers to follow and a Holy Ghost to guide us.  These markers and this Holy Ghost do not have visible signs in the world today.  If they did, we would have one unified Church that followed the teachings of Jesus and obeyed the Word of God.  All we have is a fractured religion that cherry picks verses from the Bible that do not scare or intimidate their followers.

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UPDATE wp_posts SET comment_status = ‘closed’, ping_status = ‘closed’ WHERE comment_status = ‘open’;
- 6 19 13 9 - 2 + 17 + 6 10 + 3 11 16
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Posted in Pascal's Wager, State of Mind, Becoming an atheist, Introduction | Print | 165 Comments »

January 24, 2009, 7:28 am by dc-agape.

Genesis Chapter 9:18-29

In the last part of Genesis Chapter 9 we read about how the sons of Noah respond to drunkenness.  Noah tastes some of the wine that he produced and enjoys it so much that he gets drunk.  To say the least, he deserves a little something for spending a full year trapped in an ark with all those animals.  Well, Ham the youngest son, walks in on Noah sleeping off the excesses of alcohol.  For some reason, sleeping nude is a big deal, but you should think about it…these 8 people have spent the last year on a 2.3 acre ark with 1000s of animals.  Seriously, they know each other intimately.  Well, Ham tells his older brothers.  Shem and Japheth decided to do something about Noah’s sleeping naked. 

When Noah wakes up he obviously has a massive hangover because the first thing he does is curse his youngest son.  Reading the study notes, this curse on Ham is visited to all his descendants for eternity!  Isn’t it great that when only 3 family lines will re-populate the entire planet one simple act will curse over 1/3 of the human population?  So not only will Ham’s children be slaves to Shem and Japheth, but we are told in the study notes that the sons of Ham (the Canaanites) will be long term enemies of the Israelites.  This means that YHWH has cursed all of Ham’s children to be separated from him forever, because YHWH chooses a different descendant of Noah to be the chosen nation of Israel.  Ham’s single act of seeing his father naked has caused an entire nation of mankind to feel the wrath of the all-loving, all-knowing creator.  Sign me up; I want to worship this Most Vile Being!

Posted in Family Values?, Genesis, Readings | Print | No Comments »

January 23, 2009, 7:06 am by dc-agape.

The Book of Matthew ends a ~400 year period of “silence”.  The last writings of the OT were Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi somewhere around 440BC.  Even though these 4 centuries were considered silent three additional texts were written.  The Septuagint, the Apocrypha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were all written during the “silent years”. 

The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the OT.  It was written around 250BC and became the “new” Torah.  In this project I will assume that the Biblical translators used this as source material for the English translation. 

Posted in Gospel of Matthew, Introduction | Print | 1 Comment »