August 31, 2009, 8:10 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 9

This passage is one story.  It starts the healing of a blind man.  It includes the question of who was responsible for this man’s blindness.  The largest portion is about “the Jews” questioning a Jew about this healing.  It ends with Jesus meeting the man who was blind later, after the man had suffered interrogation and humiliation at the hands of “the Jews”.

Here is the verse that eliminates “Original Sin”, yet all Christians still believe in some form of this popular Tradition of Man.  Blindness, being an imperfection in Jewish traditions was a punishment bestowed on one generation for the sins of the previous generation.  Yet here Jesus is claiming that this man was not born blind because of sin.  No the reason this particular man was born blind was so that Jesus could heal him!  First, we see YHYH manipulating DNA to make himself look like a super-hero.  This is similar to a man starting a fire so he can then “save” the inhabitants of the burning house!  This is without a doubt a sign that YHWH does interfere with freewill, when it pleases him.  This then makes him no different than the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse gods.

But what is worse is that this man, with the DNA that YHWH manipulated, was tortured by “the Jews”.  I mean tortured because a simple citizen being brought before the ruling council of Israel must have been extremely nerve-wreaking.  And not only was the man himself so treated, but his parents were dragged into the fiasco as well.  We know that they were terrified:

John 9:22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.

So in the act of healing a man that YHWH purposely made blind, three people are terrorized by the leading religious leaders of the day.  The man, who was blind, was insulted and thrown out of the synagogue (most like ex-communicated).

When Jesus finds him later, of course the man who was blind has nothing to lose by following the man that made him see.  He could no longer be abstained of sin in the synagogue, yet he knew that he would not receive the blessing of YHWH during his lifetime because of Jesus’ healing!  His only option was to believe that Jesus was truly divine.  Wow, what freewill he had.

Jesus uses this experience to also teach about “spiritual blindness”.  Even though the man was thrown out of the synagogue, the Pharisees were nearby and overheard the conversation between the man who was blind man and Jesus. 

Here is an interesting verse:

John 9:41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim that you can see, your guilt remains.”

This single verse explains much about who will make it to heaven and who will go to hell.  Those who claim to understand YHWH are with sin, not those of us who are “blind”!  So actually by the spreading of the “Good News” Christians are dooming people to hell.  Yet today’s Christian wants to spread the “Word” as far as possible, but not insure that those who hear it understand it.  Wow, you do realize that this is exactly the same thing that happened in Iraq?  We invaded the country with enough fire power to dispose a tyrant, but we did not bring enough man-power to ensure democracy.  Christians do the exact same thing today.  They quickly go on missionary trips to “save souls for Christ” yet do not teach the new converts the intricate details of how to be disciples of Jesus.  They open the “spiritual eyes” of the “sinner” yet do not ensure that the new converts are going to remain saved.  Even here in the US, the true Christian continues to whine “they aren’t real Christians”.  But they do nothing to correct these people that are going to hell!  It is not the un-believer that needs to be saved…it is the false Christians who need to be saved.  The real Christians have missed the mark, “sinned”, by not recognizing this simple fact.

As an Atheist, I am glad that I am spiritually blind!  This adds an entire new dimension to Pascal’s wager.  In fact, it makes Pascal’s wager false!  For living life as if YHWH exists, yet not “seeing”, will cause the one who wagers to bear the guilt.  For the one who wagers that YHWH does not exist, we remain “blind” and carry no guilt.  This turns out that Pascal’s wager dooms many more to hell and to heaven.

Posted in Gospel of John, Pascal's Wager, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Print | 12 Comments »

August 30, 2009, 2:14 pm by dc-agape.

Since I have been accused of this:

It seems that you are more interested in spreading falsehoods about those that follow Christ than an honest dialogue. Your rhetoric is seeds of the very thing you are labeling as “Christian Hatred.” Your comments are hateful, mean spirited, unfounded, prone to speak before checking the facts, and inflammatory.

I think it is time to explain what is wrong with Modern Christianity!  Check out this video from an Atheist Group called Penn & Teller.

Since my techniques are not appreciated by Christians maybe this technique is a better one!

Penn & Teller, Bullshit! The Vatican from Brewster on Vimeo.

Posted in Readings | Print | 11 Comments »

August 30, 2009, 9:44 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 8:48 – 8:59

As I have said before, this is the most difficult chapter in John to break into different posts.  This final section of the chapter is a passage that closes Jesus longest sermon in the Gospel of John.  As in the beginning of the sermon, where Jesus claims to provide light for those who believe, at the end Jesus claims that those who believe will not die.  In both cases, Jesus was obviously not talking literally.  Just as the disciples had to produce light at night to see, they all did die a physical death just like every other human that has existed. 

One must remember that Jesus is still talking directly to those Jews that believed him (John 8:31).

Without must difficulty one reading this can see that even though the chapter is written as one long sermon, actually it is at least three that have been combined by the author.  The author starts the sermon with:

John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness again, but will have the light of life.”

Then he is only speaking to the Jews that believed him:

John 8:31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples.

So for these people, who believed, to say:

John 8:48 The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”

This would indicate that these are not the same people who he was just talking to about being the sons of YHWH verse the sons of the devil.  To believe someone is not the same as to believe they are demon-possessed.  The author of the Gospel of John had difficulty segueing from one incident to another during this chapter.  Even though it seems that this is one sermon with one topic, it is actually a poorly written smashing of three different incidents into one long attempt to describe how Jesus is both the “Light” and the “Life”.  The author then smatters in a little of tragic persecution (the demon-possession and the stoning) to add flavor, and also to remove focus from the fact that this is not a continuous story.

To the Atheist, both the allegory and the poor writing skills (which are not apparent in the rest of the Gospel of John) bring up a massive red flag!  Jesus’ followers neither had physical light nor lived forever, as a result this entire passage has a questionable “truth” to it.  Seeing that this passage was supposed to prove the disciples were different from other humans, it is the tenant of Christendom.  Yet it is the most poorly written chapter in the Gospel and both “promises” Jesus makes have no way to be proven.

In both the case of the “Light” of life and the “never” see death we should see the results of this promise in Jesus’ followers.  Yet here on puny earth, the Christians do not have a supernatural “Light” that guides them.  We non-believes do not see them making the right choices in life, anymore than the non-believer makes the right choice.  We all make mistakes, we all make bad judgment calls, and we all suffer the consequence.  If the followers of Jesus had the “Light of life” would it not act as a lighthouse and guide them?  Worse is that it is the Christians more than any other philosophy or religious group that fears death!  The extreme Muslims have been berated for “suicide bombings”, the Buddhist and Atheist recognize death as part of life, and even the Jewish religion only wants their elderly to die with dignity.  Yet it is the Christians that attempt to hold onto this life for as long as possible, unless they are the crazy ones that believe that prayer will heal their diabetic children.   They pray constantly for the recovery of loved one.  And they even attempted to make the US congress extend the life of a brain dead woman!  Of all the religions and philosophies in the world, why are Christians the most afraid of death?  Jesus even promises them that they will “never see death”! 

Posted in Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

August 29, 2009, 4:28 pm by dc-agape.

In this post on why I became an Atheist I want to focus on “Lukewarm” Christians.  In a sense this can be considered all moderate Christians, you know the ones that go to church every once in a while, say “God bless you”, and in general claim to be “Christian”.  This includes most Protestants and Catholics, and a good dose of “Fundamentalist” and “Charismatic” Christians.  But there is a second group of “Lukewarm” Christians that I actually want to address.  This is the group that allows the little things in life to come before their responsibilities to following Jesus.

I want to start with this passage from Paul (1^st Cor 7:28-40).  Paul clearly states that marriage divides the attention of Christians between pleasing YHWH and worry about earthy issues.  He, of course, does not promote celibacy (as Catholics would like to claim), but he does have this to say:

1^st Cor 7:28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries she has not sinned.  But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

But this teaching of Paul’s is in direct contradiction to Jesus’ about two masters:

Matt 6:24 “No one can have two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Being concerned about this life, satisfying your partner (not just sexually) is exactly the same thing as Jesus’ choice between YHWH and Money!  One cannot serve their family and serve YHWH at the same time.  In fact Jesus has two saying that directly relate to this:

Matt 6:31-34 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Yet as of today, I have not met a single “Christian” who follows this advice.  No, instead, what I have seen is the rationalization that those who seek the kingdom will make lots of money (for cloths) and have plenty of food and water.  But this is not Jesus’ point!  To attempt to make this clear look at these passages:

Matt 19:21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”

Matt 8:20-22 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head”.  Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

It is perfectly clear that Jesus expects his followers to trust that YHWH will provide all their necessities.  This is not just during Jesus’ lifetime.  The first church also did not worry about money, food, or clothes (Acts 2:42-47).  But today’s Christian is so caught up in the “rat race” that the Socialism that Jesus espouses is considered to be un-American!  Yet it is perfectly clear that Jesus’ teachings are not just a form of socialism they are the purist Socialism possible (and not Marxist Socialism!).  Unfortunately, modern Christians believe that Capitalism is acceptable!  But Capitalism is the antithesis of Socialism. 

Another difference between Jesus (and his disciples) and modern Christianity is this verse:

Matt 5:38-42 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’  But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person.  If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

In direct opposition to this passage the US military, and our former “Christian” President Bush, chose to carry out a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.  I mention our US military because 60% of our military is evangelical Christians.  Also, there exists the fact that in 2002, 69% of conservative Christians support military action in Bagdad.  Both our military and our government are acting in very non-Christian manners and the staunchest Christians in the US support these actions. 

Finally, I want to bring this verse into the equation:

Colossians 3:2-5 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

Even though Paul focuses on sexual activities, thoughts, and greed he includes impurity.  With that broad term Paul includes anything that is not acceptable to Jesus and YHWH.  Yet modern Christians are anything but focused on earthly things.  They have created the War on Christmas, they are determined to put religious icons in secular government (public) locations, and they want to have their doctrine taught as science in public schools!  These three examples are but a few of the examples that modern Christians have not focused on things above but things here on earth!

Together, when you include the “stuck in the rat race” mentality, the pre-emptive strike attitude, and the focus on earthly matters it becomes clear that modern Christians are not disciples of Jesus.  No, they are Christians!  And the difference between being a disciple of Jesus and being a Christians is nearly as large a gap as that between Islam and Judaism.  Just like the difference between Muslim and Jew is based on which son of Abraham that religion follows, the difference between Disciple and Christian is as simple as following Jesus or following the Traditions of Men.  When will this “Christian” nation wake up and realize that they are not Disciples of Jesus! 

But to make things worse, even the “Christians” who begin to understand this do nothing.  Where is the fury that Jesus had in the Temple?  Where is the forcefulness of Paul’s defense of the True doctrine?  Why has even the “best” Christians allowed these false teachers to continue to preach without a single form of opposition!  Should we not see Christians that are not lukewarm act like this….Americans for the Truth about Homosexuals.  In general should we (the un-believers) not see Disciples of Jesus standing up and telling the false teachers of Christianity stop the hypocrisy?  Or is it that even the TrueChristians™ are afraid that Modern Christians are right? Or maybe they rationalize that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”?  Or how about this one:

1^st Cor 3:5 “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe – as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

Which is the verse used to claim (rationalized) that all Christians are equal!  But that is clearly not Paul’s intent:

1^st Cor 1:12-13 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

Yet today we have the exact same thing in Christendom.  One says I am a Baptist, another says I am a Catholic, and another says that they follow Jesus.  It is the same problem that Corinth had and it is still not resolved, yet today we have no Paul to demand correction!  Yet today we have divisions in the Church, based on the Traditions of Men, which no one will address.   What a truly sad state Christianity is in!  And how true Jesus was in saying this:

Luke 18:8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.  However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

This is getting to long, but I want to ask one more question.  Why is it that homosexuals, Atheists, and Muslim are the most despised in the US (pdf)?  Aren’t Christians supposed to be hated by the world:

John 15:19 If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.

Posted in Love, Personal Responsibility, Traditions of Men, Biblical topics, Becoming an atheist | Print | 14 Comments »

August 29, 2009, 9:58 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 8:31 – 8:59

I had completely forgotten that I have Isaac Asimov’s Guide to the Bible as a resource.  Even though it is dated (1978), somewhat speculative, and written by the “Father” of modern Science Fiction, it does have some interesting tidbits.  Previously I had mentioned that the Gospel of John was similar to Gnostic Christianity.  Reading Asimov’s observations I was again reminded that the word “Logos”- (Word) in both Gnostic and mainstream Christianity means the same thing.  It also has the same spiritual meaning.  The Logos is the Light of the World and through Logos salvation will be delivered.  Jesus, in both forms of the same religion, is the Logos.

I will have to do a review of Asimov’s concepts (on the Gospels) in the future, it is a fascinating read.  I’m not sure where to put it at the moment…it is not a Holy Text.  And I am not ready to start delving into every possible commentary on each of the individual Holy Texts.  Since it agrees more with the non-believers point-of-view it is biased.  But at the same time it is Isaac Asimov’s work!  I know that I should not hold one particular man in such regard, but it is Asimov!  Such a dilemma, I will be adding observations from Asimov where it seems appropriate. 

I know that I glossed over a large amount of material in my last post on Chapter 8 of the Gospel of John.  And to be honest, this is most likely the most significant chapter on Jesus’ teachings that the Gospel of John introduces (other than the first chapter).  I feel that I am not doing this chapter justice.  But I am at a loss to the appropriate way to proceed.  That is one of the reasons I did not make a post yesterday, I was attempting to determine if I was missing something important enough to add more posts. 

I also got on an Atheist high horse in my last post!  This of course, led me to not address Jesus’ actual sermon.  As I had said in both the preliminary posts on this chapter…this sermon does not lend well to multiple posts!  I think that I should hold this post to just the section on Sons of God verses Sons of the devil.  This will mean that I will have one more post on this chapter that covers the last eleven verses of the chapter.

Here Jesus brings up the concept of slavery…not to another human but to actions.  At this point it is slavery to sin (and ultimately to the devil).  But elsewhere in the Word of God the only other choice is being a slave to YHWH:

1^st Cor 7:22-23 For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freeman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.

Many other verses go along with this vain of thought.  If these are our only two choices: freewill is again questionable.  Slaves, by definition, do not have freewill – they must do as their master orders.  They also do not have the right (or power) to choose their master or even “win” their freedom from one master.  One master must buy the slave to change the slave’s ownership.  Technically, Jesus “paid” this fee, but then all of us would be slaves to YHWH, if this were the legal case.  More is obviously required.  And Jesus provides that “more” within this sermon.

These Jews, that believed him, do not understand him because they are slaves to their father, the devil (John 8:43-44 and 47).  We also know that a “house cannot be divided against itself (Mark 3:23-27)” and a person can only have “one master” (Luke 16:13).  So by Jesus’ standards we are all slaves, either to the devil or to YHWH.  As a result, we do not have freewill; we will do as our master orders us.

This is further proven by Jesus himself:

John 8:47 He who belongs to god hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.

By not belonging to YHWH, we cannot hear, and therefore understand, Jesus’ teachings.  It is a catch-22.  To understand Jesus we must already belong to YHWH, but to belong to YHWH we must understand Jesus!  With this circular logic and the catch-22 we are stuck in a perpetual dichotomy of either being saved or not with no power to change the “ownership” on our own. 

Oddly enough, science is getting to the point of solving the answer to the ultimate question: the Grand Unification (Unified Field Theory) and/or the Theory of Everything.  Many scientists are under the opinion that once this is understood, everything can be predicted.  If this is true, humanity does not have freewill…we are guided by the events prior to the choice being made and the outcome can be predicted.  On the other hand, due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, many more scientists are under the impression that nothing can ever be predicted with 100% confidence.  Isn’t it odd that both religion and science are struggling over the same concept?  Yet neither religion nor science can determine which is correct! 

Well, I did it again.  This chapter is extremely complex!  The implication of this sermon by Jesus are, without doubt, have the greatest influence on the Christian religion.  Yet, because on one hand it seems so simple, and on the other hand it is so complex, neither Christian nor non-believer attempt to delve into this passage.   

Posted in Gospel of John, Freewill, Readings | Print | 8 Comments »

August 27, 2009, 7:18 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 8:11 – 8:41

This chapter is a difficult one to break into smaller sections.  The entire passage is one sermon from Jesus.  There are breaks but they do not lend to separate posts very well.  To begin with Jesus is speaking to a larger crowd; he then spoke directly to Jews that believed him.  It is this section that is the most telling.  Jesus addresses the concept of being a son to YHWH and a son to the devil.  Jesus closes this sermon with more about himself.

In the opening of this passage, Jesus seems to be have been speaking to a large group of people.  He promises that he is the “light of the world”.  We know that he did not mean the literal light from the sun.  This was purely figurative, or if you wish spiritual.  We know this because all of his followers still had to deal with the darkness of night; he also used words like “light of life”.  But he made a bold claim:

John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Notice that he did not say “Those who believe in me”, no, he said those who follow him!  This is a significant point that many modern Christians do not recognize.  Following Jesus is much more difficult than just believing in him. 

Jesus continued this opening claiming that sense he had YHWH on his side he actually had two witnesses (himself and YHWH).  I would truly love to see someone call YHWH to the witness stand!  So no, in a purely legalistic stance this does not hold water. 

Without doubt, Jesus’ life was predestined.  Even he knew what was going to happen to him.  Yet for some reason Christians then believe that the people surrounding Jesus still had freewill.  How can this be?  If someone had to betray Jesus for the crucifixion to take place, if a group of people had to order this crucifixion, if Pilot had to approve this crucifixion, and if Jesus had to raise on the third day, how do any of these people have freewill?  So, at least, when it counts YHWH does take freewill for humanity.

Jesus continues with a lot of spiritual mumbo jumbo.  Most of it was judging the Jews that were listening to him.  Kinda an odd way to win souls, speak harshly to them, when they were interested in what he had to say.  Yes, they questioned him, but he made it clear that they did not understand him because they were not from YHWH.  He even goes so far as to clarify this dilemma:

John 8:28 So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, the one I claim to be, and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

So not only can they not understand him due to their lowly births (on earth), but because they cannot understand him until his crucifixion!

Later he spoke directly to:

John 8:31-32 to the Jews that believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teachings, you are my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

At this very verse Jesus tells people that believe him that belief is not enough.  To be disciples of Jesus one must hold to his teachings.  Paul uses similar language in his ministry:

1^st Cor 15:1-2 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.  By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Both men indicate that belief can be useless.  A specific action must follow belief – holding to the teachings of Jesus.  This is an important distinction!  One that is so easily mislead by the masses of Christendom.  But this exact passage (both Jesus’ and Paul’s) show why we have 45,000 denominations of Christians instead of just one!  Only one can be holding to the teachings of Jesus.  But which one is holding to the teachings of Jesus?  In that regard, Jesus may be the light of the world and his followers may have the light, but the rest of us (non-believers) are stuck with 45,000 possible (yes I do mean possible) correct doctrine. 

To the Atheist (and I am sure the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu as well) it is truly by your actions that we will know that anyone is a follower of Jesus.  The problem is…we see nothing different from those claiming to be Christians and those claiming to be Jews, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or Atheist.  Christians…you do not stand out!  Nothing proves that you are “the light of the world”.  Nothing proves that the world hates you!  In fact, the world may despise you, but that is because of the hypocrisy that we see, not because the message you bring is difficult or painful to us.

Posted in Gospel of John, Personal Responsibility, Disciples, Freewill, Readings | Print | 22 Comments »

August 26, 2009, 7:21 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 7:53 – 8:11

This chapter is a difficult one to break into smaller sections.  The opening verses (1 – 11) are obvious additions from someone who was not the original author.  But it is such a powerful story that many (if not all) Christian would like to be “True”.  It certainly portrays Jesus as a loving “Savior”. 

The gist of this passage is that some leaders of the Jewish community attempt to trap Jesus with a special case.  The case deals with a woman who has been caught (red-handed) in the act of adultery (doesn’t that take two?).  When these leaders confront Jesus, he seems to ignore them, by writing in the something (unspecified) in the ground.  He responds to their continued questioning in this fashion:

John 8:7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Death by stoning was the official punishment for adultery of a betrothed virgin.  The response to this “offer” was that slowly, as each person realized that they too had some form of sin, the accusers left.  When Jesus again looked up only the woman was standing in front of him.

The passage ends with Jesus not condemning the woman but leaving her with this command:

John 8:11 “No one, sir,” she said.  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

This is a very lovely story of the power of forgiveness.  I only wish that more Christians would follow Jesus’ teachings here.  Instead, we have, throughout Christian history, had laws that continued to punish “sinners” immediately.  Only recently did the US Supreme Court over throw a specific “sexual act” law that was put in place by Christians!

To put it plainly, if Jesus did not condemn in his life, why do Christians?  It is true that Jesus ends with the “leave your life of sin” statement.  But that is not the meaning of this passage.  The meaning of this passage is about forgiveness.  It shows that humans must be forgiving because none of us are perfect.  We each have our faults and as a result we cannot hold others accountable for their specific faults. 

Unfortunately, some human faults are damaging to society.  Which exactly are the damaging ones?  Well that depends on the society and the specific activity.  In a purely religious society, as some Islamic nations, human actions are much more damaging to the “fabric” of that society.  But in secular societies, such as the US, laws that prevent activities are more damaging than protecting.  The best example of this was Prohibition.  In fact, laws like the Prohibition Act made things worse!  When the legal system is overwhelmed with minor violations (imposed by specific groups) the entire legal system begins to fall apart.  As our population increases, either our legal system must increase (increasing the costs of policing society) or minor acts that do not harm citizens must be accepted as part of society.  This may seem to be a situation of compromise that will lead to chaos and anarchy, but that is purely fictional.  If our police and our judicial system focus on what is truly harmful to society, then only the crimes that are harmful to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will be punished.  As Jesus allowed the act of adultery, in this passage, to be sorted out later, so should society allow minor disagreeable acts to settle “out-of-court”.

One of the biggest examples of this is the 1960’s.  This period of US history was the most decadent period of hedonism in our countries history.  Yet the people who have aged from that period are now either the most amiable people I know (such as a friend in Philadelphia) or the staunchest supporters of the Moral Majority.

If only this passage were truly a teaching of Jesus (and it might well be).  If only Christians would follow Jesus’ lead in this area!  But instead we have people like Dr Jerry Falwell (Falwell Ministries and Liberty University) or the Westboro Baptist Church (godhatesfags.com).  Both are such wonderful examples of the loving nature of YHWH and Jesus!  Many other examples exist of this type of Christianity, I am just using two of the most outspoken groups that create more damage to society than prevent damage.  Yet both groups claim to be protecting society – their version of society!

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Readings | Print | 4 Comments »

August 25, 2009, 8:09 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 7

I had forgotten the controversy over the Gospel of John and anti-Semitic teachings in the European society until reading this chapter. Even though it is clear that John uses the term “the Jews” in positive, neutral, and negative connotations, it is also true that something sparked anti-Semitism throughout Europe for nearly a millennia.  There is no disputing that the Jews were treated horribly during the Inquisition (1288) and all the way up to the Holocaust (1938).  One book that I want to get my hands on is “The World and the Jews in the Fourth Gospel” by Lars Kierspel.  It seems to be an apology for the misinterpretation from the Gospel of John that allowed for this anti-Semitism to grow.  Even though many modern apologist will vehemently attempt to separate the Gospel of John from anti-Semitism, historical documents do indicate that due to the poor translations of this Gospel anti-Semitism grew from mistranslations of this Gospel.  Which begs the question: it was the Kings James Version that was in use during this growth of anti-Semitism, why should this translation be kept?

But of course, this is not the topic of this chapter.  This is story of Jesus choosing to go to the Feast of the Tabernacles at his own time.  Early in this chapter his “disbelieving” brothers (including James?) teased him about going to the Feast.  Jesus uses this as a chance to tell them that it is not “his time”, even though shortly after that, well, actually it was “his time”.  It would seem that Jesus just did not want it to look like he was accepting their “dare you”.  So he goes to the Festival (even though it is not “his time”) secretly and begins to teach the masses. 

This is one of the first circular reasoning used in the Word of God.  The concept that you must already be doing the work of YHWH to discover if Jesus was from YHWH is circular reasoning at its best.  Basically, Jesus is claiming that if you are following me then you will know that he is from YHWH, if you don’t follow him you cannot know that he is from YHWH.  Here is where Atheists have the biggest problem with any supernatural teaching.  Buddhism, Wiccan, Scientology, and Alchemy also teach this same philosophy.  Basically, it works like this: before you can believe you must be “roped in”.  Once you are “roped in” it is more difficult to un-entangle yourself before you find out that at least one of these “faiths” is wrong.  In the particular case of Christianity, getting tangled up in the “wrong” faith is even more devious.  Since many of them are mutually exclusive, once you are in the “wrong” denomination your sense of spiritual balance is forever skewed.  Then you are in a quagmire of logical discontinuities that make no sense.  And since you “chose” the wrong denomination to start with, YHWH is unwilling (or unable) to clarify the muddy water that you now find yourself in.  As a result, many (if not most) people stay in the denomination that their families belong to.  Yet these denominations teach Traditions of Men that will no doubted lead to sin and to the punishment of four generations of innocent people.  All because:

John 7:17 If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teachings comes from god or whether I speak on my own.

It is a wonderfully insidious trap of join my religion to find out if my religion is correct, but you cannot find out (if this is correct) unless you join!   Since there are now 45,000 denominations to choice from, one lifetime is too short to “try them all”. 

Jesus does seem to be persuasive.  Many people (Jews) begin to question if he is their Messiah.  But somehow all these people in Jerusalem know that he is from Galilee.  This is sort of like heading to New York City, without a name badge, and everyone knowing that I am from Tennessee.  Maybe he had a thick Galilean accent!  In the end the same people who wanted to kill Jesus from the start of the chapter (the Jewish authorities) still want to kill him, yet many people believe that he is at least a Prophet. 

One of the other odd verses in this chapter is this one:

John 7:33-34 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me.  You will look for me, but you will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come.”

Does this mean that many who will look for Jesus cannot come to Heaven?  Or is he pointing out a simple fact that a living person cannot follow a dead person?  Other places in the Word of God do make it clear that those seeking him will not always find him (Matt 7:14, Acts 17:27, Mark 25:1-13).  This line of reasoning leads to this verse:

Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.

If we are all lost, Jesus is not seeking.   All he would have to do is point there, and there, and there.  Yet it is obvious that only some will be allowed to understand and “be saved”.  The implications are that we cannot choose to follow Jesus “there is no on/off switch to believe”. (h/t to Mark at the Proud Atheists blog).

Posted in Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Print | 6 Comments »

August 24, 2009, 7:20 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 6:25 - 71

This is a long section to post on, but the end of the chapter is directly related to this section and should not be broken into two posts.  If I did this I would be continually referring to the previous post, making it difficult for both you and myself.  This section talks about living forever and the difference between eating earthy food and spiritual food.  Jesus starts of simply enough, but then moves rapidly into a difficult teaching that drives some of his disciples away.  It seems that the end only the “Twelve” remain.  (Notice that John did not use the word Apostle in the NIV translator’s research). 

The beginning of this lesson is about the “Bread of Life” which Jesus claims will allow the one who eats to live forever.  So far we have no proof that this has occurred.  They certainly do not live forever here on earth, we can all agree on that.  Yet no one has proven that those that believe in Jesus are “spiritually living eternally” either.  Since the beginning of recorded history every human being has died, and only a handful have become “demi-gods” living forever (spiritually).  So this claim, of Jesus’, has yet to be proven.

But Jesus goes further and this is where freewill is involved.  Twice Jesus makes it clear that faith is not enough.  Additional he describes faith as work.

John 6:29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Believe is not enough.  One must work at belief.  Jesus would not have used the word “work” if there was not a difficulty in “just believing”.  The act of believing takes a great amount of work, especially when YHWH gives so little to work with.  But Jesus goes on to describe twice, that YHWH is responsible for the ability to believe.

John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 6:65 He went on to say, “this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

Twice Jesus tells his disciples that it is YHWH that initiates the ability to have faith and believe.  The act of faith is not, even by Biblical standards, something that humans have control over.  Only those people that YHWH has give the ability to believe will believe!  That means that the rest of us are SOL.  I certainly hope that if this YHWH exists that he treats us as he treated the Israelites in Moses’ time.  Jesus admits that these people are dead, physically and spiritually…since they did not eat of the “Bread of Life”.

Interestingly the Gospel of John brings up the “betrayal” that Judas commits.  Yet interestingly, one of the Twelve had to do this or the entire purpose of Jesus’ life would not have taken place.  So exactly is doing what must be done a betrayal?  And if one of them had to “betray” Jesus to initiate the salvation of humanity, why is this act considered a bad thing?  Is it not just a Tradition of Man that makes this the case?

I will end with the cannibalism that Jesus describes.  He and YHWH require that Christians feast on the body and blood of Jesus to be saved.  Most Christians take this as a spiritual act, but recently the Catholic Church as made “head-lines” in the blogosphere about how this is, to them, the act of physically eating Jesus’ body and drinking Jesus’ blood.  Many Atheist blogs have noted that this is indeed cannibalism in the earthly sense.  So this then brings up the question: why do different denominations of Christianity differ so greatly.  If there is only one “Word of God” should there not be only one interpretation?  Since this is obviously a sign that the Tradition of Men has corrupted the Word of God, which Traditions are human and which are not?  And how do we poor mortals differentiate? 

Posted in Gospel of John, Traditions of Men, Freewill, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

August 23, 2009, 9:59 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 6:1 - 24

Here we have the most harmonious story of Jesus prior to the Triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  In fact, this and one other passage (Jesus’ departure from Judea – Matt 4:12, Mark 1:14, Luke 3:19-20 and John 4:1-4) are the only things that all four Gospel mention prior to the end of Jesus’ ministry.  Now there is some harmony!  If we had anymore harmony I can’t imagine what it would look like!

The story is about Jesus feeding the 5,000 people Do not confuse this with the later story about feeding 4,000 people found in Matt 15:32-38 and Mark 8:1-9, which the Gospel of John does not bother to report.  Since I have already posted on this topic, I see no reason to repeat myself.  I will correct myself about “throwing the Gospel of John out”, at least John starts this story with “Sometime after this…” but the story is still problematic.  John claims that Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, where as the Gospel of Mark says that he only moved down the shore a few miles.  Humans running around the Sea of Galilee would not be able to follow Jesus if he crossed the Sea, unless he traveled near the shore (which by definition is not crossing the Sea).  The depth and the width of the Sea would make it easy for the disciples to lose anyone following them.  8.1 miles is considered the distance to the horizon.  Seeing a small boat (12-18ft long) is limited by our limit of visibility, as described here.  By doing the math…the best vision would pick up the boat that the disciples were in at 3.8 miles distant, if visibility was unlimited that day, and the sun was not setting behind the viewer!  But we know that it was late in the day, meaning that the sun was in the western portion of the sky…behind the viewers.  This means that the people following Jesus had limited light to see the tiny boat crossing the Sea of Galilee.  In the end, either the Gospel of John was wrong (about crossing the Sea) or the Synoptic Gospels were wrong about traveling along the coast.

I have also posted on the story about Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee.  When the story is repeated, even by different “points of view”, I attempt to cover the story in one post – to get the big picture.

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 4 Comments »