February 28, 2009, 10:20 am by dc-agape.

It has been brought to my attention by a Muslim that my website title requires adjustments.  I am not just directing my observations to Christians.  I am using mostly Christian texts which are the major theme.  But I am referencing the Jewish (Old Testament and Dead Sea Scrolls) and the Islamic religions as well (the Holy Qur’an).

The experiment is growing.  And the title of the experiment should reflect this.  I would like to stay with the dc-agape theme so that minimizes my choices.  The best choice seems to be replacing the word Christian with canonist (freedicionary.com).  Canonist is not perfect since there are a number of problems with it.  First, it is an archaic term that most people will not suspect is directed at them.  Second, it does not directly refer to religious cannon.  So maybe that is a good thing.  Even though Atheist does not have a cannon law, many of us Atheist are specialist in Atheistic concepts.  Third, it still has a Christian connotation.  But in general it is more general and possibly not as off putting as “Dear Christian”. 

So at the moment the website will change title to:

Dear Canonist: A gay Atheist Personal Experiment (dc-agape)

h/t to a Muslim that used the name kay who posted on my post Introduction: Holy Qur’an for pointing this out.

Posted in Introduction | Print | No Comments »

February 28, 2009, 9:12 am by dc-agape.

I would be amiss if I did not start the Qur’an with the al-Fātihah.  This is the most important seven verse in the Qur’an.  It is also the seven verses that are repeated at each prayer during the day.  I wonder if this is helpful or harmful for the adherents to the faith.  Personally, the more times I repeat something to myself, such as the Lord’s Prayer (when I was a christian); many times it was just rote repetition.  I lost the meaning of what I was saying because I had repeated too many times. 

Like the Lord’s Prayer, the al-Fātihah has a very similar format, both seem to be about the same length and cover the same things.  You can read the al-Fātihah here (chapter 1: The Opening).  You can read the Lord’s Prayer here.

Looking at the two side by side, there really is no difference.  The al-Fātihah praises Allāh more than the Lord’s Prayer praises YHWH.  But then the Christians beseech YHWH to help them serve his will more than the Islamic faith.  Both ask for help being righteous.  The Christians actually ask for forgiveness and the power to forgive.  There is no direct relationship in the al-Fātihah.  And both end with begging the all-powerful to keep the individual from straying down the path of evil.

To an gay Atheist there are only subtle difference.  Which if you have the “god bias” you would say that that is normal and to be expected.  On the other hand, Christianity was not unheard of in the Prophets time…plagiarism is not out of the question.  Or at least this was taking what the Prophet like from the other religion.

This post is short and sweet.  Since it comprises the entire 1^st chapter of the Holy Qur’an, I see no reason to delve into the second chapter quite yet.  I can almost be certain that I will be comparing what is written in the Qur’an and what the christians and Jewish texts have to say.  It will get complex and probably ugly.  But this was a good start.

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 5 Comments »

February 28, 2009, 8:39 am by dc-agape.

I am going to tackle the biggest reason for why I became an Atheist.  This might come across as being a YHWH hater, but if that crosses you’re mind you are using the “god bias”.  In no way are the verses I am about to us taken out of context, they are direct quotes from YHWH about himself.  And they are a preponderance of hypocrisy.  These verses show us exactly how not to be, just like when you parents told you “do as I say, not as I do”.  Well this is YHWH.  And in doing so YHWH is the world’s worst role model.

Everyone should have heard most of these: YHWH is an angry god, YHWH is a jealous god, he is a vengeful god, he murders people, and he punishes innocents (I’ll explain that one if it’s not clear).  Since he is an unchanging being how can he be a role model for us?  Especially when he gives us commandments that contradict what he himself is?  We have given YHWH human attributes, that in the end leaves us with “well God just does that”, “how can you question God?”, and “God created you he can do whatever he pleases”.  To a gay Atheist none of these cop-outs help. 

YHWH is an angry god.  We know this because it is repeated time and time again in the Word of God.  Moses has this to say about YHWH:

Deut 9:19 I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord, for he was angry enough with you to destroy you.  But again the Lord listened to me.

Here is what David (YHWH’s favorite) had to say:

2^nd Samuel 22:8-9 The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because he was angry.  Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.

Yet we are not allowed to be angry worse we are commanded to love (the exact opposite of anger):

Mark 12:31 The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.  There are no commandments greater than these.”

Luke 6:29 If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other one also.  If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.

These second two verses are the exact opposite of what YHWH is.  If we are the imperfect one’s what does that make YHWH? He is commanding us to be better than him!

YHWH is also a jealous god.  One of my favorite verses makes this clear:

Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

As the old one liner goes, “My middle name is….” well YHWH middle name is Jealous.  Notice the capitalized word.  Yet we are told in the ten commandments:

Deut 5:21 You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.  You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

How is that for a double standard?  “I am jealous”, but you can’t even want someone else’s property.   YHWH wants your undivided attention (he will not share), yet we are not allowed to even have a simple desire for better things.  You just have got to love the role model here.

What about YHWH’s vengeance?  It’s legendary, right?

Numbers 31:3 So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them.

This is actually a double whammy on YHWH.  First, he has humans take out his vengeance on innocent nations.  The Midianites were innocent because YHWH chose Israel; the Midianites would of course not follow YHWH.  YHWH rejected them.  Second, it is an example of YHWH breaking a promise.   You see the Midianites were Ishmaelites and YHWH promised to Abraham that:

Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you; I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers.  He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

While I’m on the subject of YHWH breaking promises:

Gen 14:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

Those four generations turn out to be 480 years (dabar.org), 430 years from Exodus 12:41.  Whatever happened to the 120 year life span (Gen 6:3)?  So basically, YHWH got a little confused…life times, generations…ah it’s all the same to him.  So here YHWH is a vengeful liar.  Now doesn’t that make for a great role model of perfection?

I should warn you now, I still have two more.  YHWH is also a murder, he claims that they deserve it…but that still makes him a murderer.  In the famous act of wrath where YHWH destroys Sodom he also destroys Gomorrah.  The odd thing about this is that the sins of Gomorrah are not listed, in fact YHWH checks out Sodom personally but we have no record of him going to Gomorrah.  Abraham only asks to save Sodom, so the whole topic of an entire city being destroyed is questionable.  What did they do that was so grievous?  Can there truly be a city so sinful, when YHWH has not set down his commandments yet?  Remember he does not start making demands until after the Israelites leave Egypt.

But there is another story about YHWH killing for minor infractions.  In the Book of Acts (Acts 5:1-11) Ananias and Sapphira hold some of their money back from the apostles.  In the process they lie.  YHWH kills them instantly.  For a lie, after baptism in Jesus’ name, YHWH still struck these two down.  So without a doubt YHWH is a murder, yet we are commanded in:

Deut 5:17 You shall not murder.

Here again is the “do as I say, not as I do” attitude.  How can anyone follow such a perverse system of logic?  The perfect being that is far from perfect requiring his flawed creation to be perfect or die.  It makes no sense to the unbelieving Atheist.

Let me finish with justice.  From the following verse it is quite clear that YHWH is not just:

Num 14:18 The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.  Yet he does not let leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.

How is this just?  Punishing the great-grandchildren for something that their parents did?  The fourth generation barely knew who that sinful generation was!  But there is more in that verse, another example of YHWH lying.  There is no rebellion that YHWH will not forgive and is not abounding in love:

Matt 12:31 And I tell you, every sin will and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

So here we have an unjust YHWH that has limits to his “love and forgiveness”.  For a perfect being he is a piece of trash.  This has got to be the worst example of a loving, forgiving, just, and truthful perfect being that man has ever made up.  Even the Greek and Roman Gods were at least personification of humanity….people expected them to be capricious and arbitrary.  YHWH is the exact same, but we don’t have the option of worshipping a different deity that is more in-line with our personal needs.

Posted in Inerrancy - My Ass, Becoming an atheist | Print | 11 Comments »

February 28, 2009, 7:37 am by dc-agape.

     In Genesis chapter 14 we read about the powerful king of Elam, Kedorlaomer.  This king has subjugated the people and Kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, Bela, Amraphel, Ellasar, Goiim, the Raphaites, the Zuzites, the Emites, the Hirites, the Amalekites, and the Amorites.  To say the least this King Kedorlaomer is a very powerful man.  As history as told us very well, any conqueror has trouble keeping this many subjugated people under control.  The Kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela decide to fight back and win their freedom.  Unfortunately they lose the battle and many of their men are killed in the tar pits of the area. 

     The tar pits of the Dead Sea is the second “oh, oh, the Word must be true because those put blank here exist” argument.  The first account of this type of argument is the story of the Flood.  So at least we know that the Word is historically correct.  Well, Duh.  It was written by men who lived in the area and the time!  That does not mean that everything in the Word is true, it just means that we should be able to find some historical evidence that collaborates with the Word.

     It would seem that Lot was part of the loot that Kedorlaomer takes from Bera of Sodom.  318 men under Abram were able to subdue all of Kedorlaomer’s men.  Either the battle was bloody or the 4 kingdoms under Kedorlaomer were tiny.  But then how could a tiny army subdue 14 nations.  So basically, Abram attacks a weakened army at night and is victorious.  He loots the weakened army and recovers Lot and takes all the women that were stolen from Sodom.  Well, of course, the King of Sodom is overjoyed that Abram was able to recover the people and properties of Sodom.  The King Bera of Sodom offers Abram all the goods taken from Kedorlaomer but requests that the people of Sodom be returned.  In other words, the King is begging Abram not to keep the people of Sodom as slaves.  Sounds like a damn good leader to me, how about you?  Let’s recap, King Bera of Sodom attempts to free his people of an overlord (but loses) and then offers all his possessions to Abram as payment for returning the people of Sodom.  Abram is a better person, he gives all the property of Sodom and all the people of Sodom back to King Bera.  Abram reasoning is that he does not want to be seen as being made rich from King Bera.  Odd, didn’t Abram enjoy the fruits of taking ill gotten goods from the Pharaoh in chapter 12:14-20? 

     Melchizedek, a high priest, also comes to the meeting of King Bera and Abram.  Abram and Melchizedek worship the same YHWH as far as the study notes are concerned.  The logic behind this assumption is that Abram gives Melchizedek a tenth of everything he got from his victory over Kedorlaomer.  He gives the rest of the loot to his men (Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre) and to King Bera of Sodom.  At this point we must assume that Lot went back to his home near/in Sodom.

Posted in Genesis, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

February 27, 2009, 9:37 am by dc-agape.

Many Atheist bloggers have been accused of only “picking” on the Christian religion.  I want to ensure that no one can claim that of my blog.  I have mentioned in the past that I will be reading from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  And I have completed the first book of each: Genesis and Gospel of Mark (yes, the Gospel of John Mark was written first).  I am planning to include the Jewish Apocrypha (that only the Catholic Church now uses), the Dead Sea Scroll (and no they are not a collection of the Essenes), the Nag Hammadi Library (Christian Gnostics – no that is not an oxymoron), but that is not all the Abrahamic monotheist religions.  I will be starting to review the Holy Qur’an as well.  Forgive me if I have not figured out a good way to organize all these Holy Documents.  I’m working on it.

The translation of the Holy Qur’an that I will be using is by Maulana Muhammad Ali.  The entire translation is available here: English Translation.  Read along if you like.  Starting with the seven part introduction will help. 

1)      The divisions of the Holy Qur’an

The Book was written over 23 years by the Prophet himself.  This included the 13 years in Makkah and 10 years in Madinah.  Even though the 114 chapters were not written in a specific order, as it was written an organization was specified.  So in the end, this book has divisions such as the preface (Sūratu al-Fātihah), the main text of four chapters, then the Alif Lām Rā, the Tā Sin, the Hā Mim, 48 small chapters, and then the closing 2 chapters.

2)      The Spiritual Force of the Holy Qur’an

The purpose of the Holy Qur’an is to bring mankind to perfection.  To fulfill that purpose all of humanity and the entire world will be conquered.   Lovely thought, especially when the Christian religion believes the exact same thing.  I’m sure we all see the problem in this thought process. 

The history of the Islamic peoples is quite compelling.  The effect of the Holy Qur’an on the tribesmen of the area was a resounding transformation from superstition and idolatry into a unified monotheist society almost overnight.

3)      Completion of the Abrahamic Religions

The Islamic faith believes that both the Old Testament and the New Testament were written by earlier prophets.  Yet at the same time they do not believe in the godhood of Jesus.  So basically, they give lip service to other religions but do not follow the teachings of those Abrahamic religions.  I am not aware of a way to make Jesus truly human yet still obey what he and the apostles taught.  The way the Holy Qur’an and Islam as a whole twists around this problem is by claiming “errors” were incorporated into those Holy Texts.  As an Atheist I can wholly agree with that…I want to see if the Holy Qur’an is any better.

4)      Islamic Liberal Views

I must quote one verse in the Holy Qur’an (the Maulana uses it to claim how accepting the Islamic religion is:

The Cow: Chapter 2:256 There is no compulsion in religion – the right way is indeed clearly distinct from error.  So whoever disbelieves in the devil (evil) and believes is Allāh, he indeed lays hold on the firmest handle which shall never break.  Allāh is Hearing, Knowing.

Quite the verse is it not.  We have been arguing over right and wrong for thousands of years, but to the Islamic faith a clear distinction exists.  And there is no requirement to do right.  Best of all, the only thing that must be done to do right is to disbelieve in evil. 

That is extremely liberal…I wonder why the Sharia Law is so extreme?  I certainly hope that the Holy Qur’an will help me understand how the most liberal religion can have the most compulsive requirements.

5)      The After-life

As with the other Abrahamic religions there will be a Day of Judgment.  Also, all of our actions have been recorded in writing.  Paradise is so mind blowing that no words can describe it.  Sorry guys, it’s not 72 virgins!  But at least hell is not permanent…the torture that sinners feel is just cleansing away the evil. 

6)      Woman in the Islamic Religion

I particularly like this section.  Just as in Genesis, Allāh made both man and woman equal, spiritually that is.  Women have the right to inherit.  Polygamy is harmful to woman.  And in the days of the Prophet, women were even teachers of the Holy Qur’an.  Three women are recorded as being qurra (reciters of the Holy Text, one of the highest positions in the early days of Islam). 

7)      Purity of the Holy Qur’an

I do have to admit that the way the Holy Qur’an was written and transcribed was incredible.  Hundreds of people had it identically memorized, that way with the written portion there was no way duplicates could be made with errors.  That was much better than the “inerrant” Bible, which has so many different versions it is impossible to get a reliable translation. 

The rest of the introduction is about how the copies were made to ensure no copy errors occurred.  One caveat was allowed, if a tribe could not pronounce a word correctly that tribe was allowed to “do their best”.  I am assuming that this is how Maulana Muhammad Ali determined that an English translation was acceptable.  I certainly cannot understand nor speak the original Quraish. 

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings, Introduction | Print | 12 Comments »

February 27, 2009, 7:02 am by dc-agape.

I am making structural changes to my home website (dc-agape.com).  The purpose of is to help find specific posts and to give more information about this experiment than the typical blog structure allows.  For example, I have a chart of links to all of my posts on the Book of Genesis on one page organized by the chapter source.  I have done the same thing with the Gospel of Mark.

Due my addition of the Holy Qur’an, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Library, and the Jewish Apocrypha I will have many different “religions” represented in this experiment.  Since all are of Abrahamic decent I see no reason to have separate blogs on each Holy Book.  Important blogs that start a new section, or give the reader more understanding about me and this experiment are duplicated on the main website.

So check out the new format:

The Old Testament 

The New Testament 

The Holy Qur’an

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Word of God, Biblical topics | Print | 3 Comments »

February 22, 2009, 1:04 pm by dc-agape.

The Word of God has many things to say about itself.  The concept of believing what Word of God says about itself is difficult to grasp for those without the god bias.  Think about it, do you trust a human that tells you “I do not lie”?  Of course, not…you know that just saying the “I don’t lie” line is a lie.  It works the same way when someone tells you “I’m flawless”.  When someone uses that line, immediately any flaw is revealed.  But the Word of God does exactly that.

Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those you take refuge in him.

Rev 19:9 Then the angel said to me, “Write; ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’”  And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

If a human were to tell you this, would you believe it?  Yet that is exactly what the Bible is!  It is men, thousands of years ago, telling you exactly this.  The faith that these words were inspired by YWHW helps, but it is still word of men.  You must be extremely gullible to trust someone who uses these phrases.

Another verse along the same vein of reasoning is:

John 10:35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came – and the scripture cannot be broken – what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?  Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, “I am ‘God’s son’?

This verse has a lot of different topics in, but just focus on the “scripture cannot be broken”.  Here the Apostle John tells you that the Word of God cannot be broken.  He is saying that it is reliable.  This is similar to the first two verses, when someone says that they are reliable…that statement is tested to insure that reliability is a true virtue of the speaker.  How reliable is the Word of God?  How many times does it not fulfill a promise?  What about this verse:

Luke 11:9-10 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Christians need to ask some tough questions.   Does this verse prove that the Word of God is reliable?  That the Word of God is flawless?  And no “sometimes the answer is no” does not justify this verse as being reliable.  Instead, it proves that this verse is not reliable.  This verse clearly says that if you ask, you will receive!  And the phrase “God works in mysterious ways” does not cover this verse either.  So the Word of God is neither flawless, nor reliable, nor true.  Only with the god bias can someone be so gullible to ignore these contradictions.

Worse, after recognizing that the Word of God is not flawless, reliable, or true, there is this verse:

1^st Thess 2:13 And we also thank God continuously because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the word of God, which is at work in you because you believe.

Here Paul is thankful that the Thessalonicans accepted the words of men (Paul) as words of God.  So in the end humans must trust the Word of God as the Word of God from the word of men. 

The best contradition about the Word of God is here:

Ephesians 6:14-15 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

This set of verses claims that the Word of God is peaceful.  Yet the Salvation Army believes that Spiritual Warriors exist.  Is that peaceful?  What about the Crusades (middle-ages.org)?  Was that peaceful?  Is the Phelps family peaceful (Daily Kos)?  What about the ex-VP candidate Palin saying that the war in Iraq was “God’s will – Religion Dispatches”, how peaceful was that concept?  It is quite obvious if the Word of God is inerrant and peaceful then these “Christians” are misguided.  Yet “True Christians” do nothing to make their religion peaceful!

Posted in Word of God, Biblical topics | Print | 1 Comment »

February 21, 2009, 11:01 am by dc-agape.

As I am about to finish the Gospel of Mark I must decide which Books to read next.  I have added a new tab to top of my blog page titled “Holy Texts”.  On that page is a list of the books I will be reading from.  These books include the NIV Study Bible.  This book is the Protestant version of the Old and New Testaments.  I have also included the Holy Qur’an.  This particular translation is translated by Maulana Muhammad Ali; it includes much commentary which is extremely helpful.  The Holy Qur’an is an addition to the Word of God (at least to the Muslim faith).  Another book that I have included is the Jewish Apocrypha.  This is an extension of the Old Testament still used by the Catholic Church.  Obviously up to the split between Protestants and Catholics these books were still used by the entire Christian religion.  They are no doubt part of the Word of God.  With that in mind, which parts of the Word of God have been removed by the Traditions of Man from the Word of God?  The authors/collectors of both the Nag Hammadi Library and the Dead Sea Scrolls were also followers of YHWH.  How can we discredit these Holy Books?  Can we be certain that YHWH removed them, with the help of orthodox Jews and Christians?  Or were they removed from the Word of God by the Traditions of Men?

Paul gives us one answer to these questions:

1^st Thessalonians 5:21 Test everything.  Hold onto the good.

Paul wrote this letter to the new converts in Thessalonica.  We can hope that any missing books from the Word of God were tested and only the good were placed in the Bible.  But this verse can be applied to our own selves as well.  This means that we must test everything.  That everything includes the “Gnostic” Christian and Jewish writings.  As a result, I will be adding both the Nag Hammadi Library and the Dead Sea Scrolls to this experiment.

To the future: the Gospel of Mark will only take me about a week to finish.  What will I read next?  I believe that the opening 7 verses of the Holy Qur’an will be well worth being the next reading.  Even though it is only 7 verses, called the Sūratu al-Fātihah, it will take at least two posts.  It turns out that the Maulana has provided an 86 page introduction.  I want to cover that as well as the Sūratu al-Fātihah. 

Following these approximate two post I want to cover the Damascus Document from the Dead Sea Scrolls.  From my research on this document this will take a number of posts.  It would seem that the Damascus Document is rather convoluted and difficult to follow the twists and turns of the different authors and different topics.  It is an important document for it explains with great detail the religious life (and possibly the secular life) in the time of ~1 century BC.

I will then move onto the Prayer of the Apostle Paul and then the Apocryphon of James.  I am going to read the Prayer of the Apostle Paul because it is short and was placed at the beginning of the Nag Hammadi Library by the scribes who compiled the library.  The Apocryphon of James will be the first “Book” of the Library and is very similar to the four Gospels in the Word of God.  It is also know that the Apocryphon of James (TheologyWebsite.com) was written at about the same time as the other Gospels and attributed to James the half-brother of Jesus.

Posted in Traditions of Men, Holy Qur'an, Word of God, Inerrancy - My Ass, Readings, Introduction | Print | No Comments »