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 | 12 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 »