March 19, 2009, 12:03 pm by dc-agape.

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The “god bias” is another topic from my personal beliefs.  I am a gay Atheist and a Scientist (analytical chemistry PhD grad student). As a result, I have found the “god bias” to have a few weak points.  I have also found that this bias is detrimental to scientific progress and, hence, human progress.  In this post I will attempt to demonstrate why I have this belief and how it is based on actual facts (not blind faith).

True, being gay does turn a person off from the whole “god” thing to begin with.  Even thought the Word of God does not treat homosexuality with any more enmity than theft, lying, or adultery, “christians” have a tendency to over play the “god” card on this lifestyle.  Let me be very clear on the subject.  Homosexuality is only condemned in the Bible three times (Lev 18:22, Lev 20:13, and 1^st Cor 6:9).  But sexual immorality is much more broadly covered by the Word of God and it includes every heterosexual act imaginable (read Lev 18 and Lev 20).  So from the very beginning, anyone with the “god bias” specifically against homosexuality is mistaken.  YHWH despises all of humankind’s sexual acts, equally.

But there is so much more to the “god bias”.  This bias brings us concepts like: YHWH is Love, YHWH is mysterious, and YHWH created the world in seven days.  I can erase the YHWH is Love concept with two verses:

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

1^st Cor 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind.  If does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Now if those two verses do not completely wipe the “god bias” YHWH is Love off the table, someone is living in an imaginary world.  Is it not completely obvious that YHWH is not Love?

What about YHWH being mysterious?  He certainly was not to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph.  Do I even need to make references to when YHWH spoke directly each of these Patriarchs?  If you need help with that just read the Book of Genesis starting in chapter 15.  YHWH was not mysterious to a single prophet throughout the OT.  I certainly won’t make references to those stories, if you need help understanding that YHWH is not mysterious read about Moses, the Egyptian plagues, the book of Deuteronomy, both Samuels, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel or any of the minor prophets.  YHWH was not mysterious in the OT, why would he be mysterious today?  Unless, we are talking about two separate beings!

Now let me get to the fun one.  How did YHWH create the world (universe) in seven days?  He didn’t.  First, notice that in Gen 1:14 YHWH created the sun after the earth.  That was the 4^th “day” without a sun the earth could not revolve around anything.  Time was completely arbitrary until the sun actually moved across the sky.  And we know that:

2^nd Peter 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

Psalms 90:4 also agrees with this verse.  There are other reasons why the creation of the earth did not have to take place in 7 days: the word “yowm” has more than the 24 hour definition (accuracy in Genesis).  So simply put the “god bias” that YHWH created the world in seven days is actually fictitious.

Those are the weak points in the “god bias” but what about how detrimental this bias is to both science and human progress?  I will use historical examples to show that the “god bias” has been detrimental to science.  Let’s start with Galileo.  He was excommunicated (soulforce.org) and not allowed to publish his works (goArticles.com) because they went against the teachings of the “god bias” in his time.  This was the “god bias” attempting to stifle science.  Just think what would have happened if they had been successful?  Would we have landed on the Moon?  Would we even know to be actively looking for meteors/asteroid that could hit the earth?  The “god bias” continued to stifle scientific progress through the centuries and is still active today.  The Scopes Monkey Trial (Andy Bradbury) and the Dover School Trial (MSNBC) are modern day attempts where the “god bias” is actively to minimize or even harm scientific progress.  Bans on Stem Cell research (allaboutpopularissues.com) is the same case.  If scientist are not allowed to do the research, what harm may come to humanity.  Evolution is helping us understand not just how life evolved; it helps with understanding how pathogens (Arizona State University) and cancer (Dan at Migrations) can be controlled.

By serendipity that link on the excommunication of Galileo brings up another strong point against “god bias”.  The “god bias” allowed slavery of centuries, yet today we know that slavery is a heinous crime against humanity. 

I want to finish with what I feel is the strongest case against the “god bias”.  The concept that “God did it” ends all questions.  No more searching is required for the answer to the problem.  What if humankind had stopped at “Lighting – god did it” or “Earthquakes – god did it”.  We would be living in daily fear of lightning strikes and earthquakes.  The same goes for childhood disease like polio, measles, and diphtheria.  Childhood vaccinations (familydoctor.org) are not perfect but they are responsible for a childhood survival rates improving (worldvision.org).  What would the outcome be if we had left children dying of preventable diseases just because of “God wants it this way”?  How much suffering would occur in the world today?  Not just the children who would be in agony, but what about the cost of medical care required to ease their pains as they die?  What about the suffering that the parents would endure as they watch their child die?

So you can at least see why I have a personal belief that the “god bias” is harmful to human society.  There are more examples of the harm “god bias” does, but I will end with the ones I have already covered: inequality for minorities, false beliefs about YHWH, scientific censorship, and the complete stifling of science.  All of these examples, and more, are proof that the “god bias” is unacceptable behavior for our society.

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March 19, 2009, 7:33 am by dc-agape.

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Codex 1, Tractate 2, 11:10-13:25

As William Cody pointed out in a comment yesterday, James and Peter were not yet saved.  The logic behind this was that even though they were his apostles Jesus had yet ascended to heaven to become their advocate before YHWH.   With that in mind, the beginning of this section of the Apocryphon of James has some rational meaning.  Jesus berates both men for not having an advocate.  He does give them one good piece of advice before he slides into a description of YHWH that most of today’s Christians would find offensive.  That advice is:

11:18-23 Liken yourselves to foreigners; of what sort are they in the eyes of your city?  Why are you disturbed when you cast yourselves away of your own accord and separate yourselves from your city?

Basically, he’s asking them why they are still involved with worldly activities.  As Christians, once you are separated from the world, why do you care?  This is Jesus’ own question, not mine.

Then he goes into a description of YHWH that is very OT. 

11:29-36 Or do you perhaps think that the Father is a lover of mankind, or that he is won over without prayer, or that he grants remission to one on another’s behalf, or that he bears with one who asks? – For he knows the desires and also what it is that the flesh needs!

That is pretty OT YHWH if you ask me.  YHWH not loving mankind, not granting remission, and not tolerating those that ask!  Of course, that makes sense now as well.  If YHWH knows what you need, why bother praying at all, except to remind him that you are a pitiful sinner who wants “daddy” to love you back.  Everything else is his domain and in his plan, prayer is not going to change his decision. 

Jesus continues with the concept of the spirit (possibly Holy Spirit) saving the soul and the flesh.  And without the spirit neither the soul nor the flesh can be saved.  This, of course, distresses both James and Peter.  Jesus does little to improve their distress.  He tells them about the kingdom of heaven and how it will require work to reap an “ear (corn) of life”.  He continues to berate them about not “knowing” him while he was on earth.  Telling them this:

12:41-13:1 Blessed will they be who have not seen, yet have believed!

Well that fits nicely with what others have said (John 20:29).  And remember that the recipient of this Apocryphon was active circa 100CE (Cerinthus) and that most scholars believe that the Gospel of John was also written at the end of the first century (Catholic Encyclopedia for both Cerinthus and the date/authorship of the Gospel of John).

Jesus then reminds Peter and James about the reason that he came to earth.  He begins this with a warning to “do not make the kingdom of heaven a desert”.  He explains that by becoming proud this is exactly what will happen.  Boy are there way too many “Christians” today who need to listen to Jesus!  Flat out, Jesus is telling to avoid being cocky.  But he goes further; he tells them to be treat people like he treated people.  Man that goes against everything that “Christians” do today.  Oh sure, there is a bunch of talk, but show me the action!

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