May 8, 2010, 9:51 am by dc-agape.

Mark 7:1-23

This section of Mark is has three great examples of what the Word of God is really about.  First, there is Jesus using part of Isaiah to convey a message.  Unfortunately, it is not the full meaning of the verses he used.  He has again taken verses out of context…exactly what TrueChristians™ claim other people do.  Second, he brings up “traditions taught by man”.  This includes nullifying one commandment to fulfill another.  I’ll offer a few examples of this in today’s christians.  Lastly, this is where Jesus lays out the “unclean” actions and thoughts of humankind.  These apply to everyone equally, and notice that the “big” sin of homosexuality is not represented by itself.  Do, on the other hand, notice which actions and thoughts make you unclean (sinful).

I love how Jesus uses the OT to get a point across, but reading the entire section that the quote comes from is very informative.  Try this out, Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 but look at the verse right before this:

Isaiah 29:11-12 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll.  And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”  Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”

Even though Jesus uses this Isaiah 29:13 to claim that these the Pharisee are hypocrites, it is YHWH that has ensured that they cannot read what is written.  Here again is an example of YHWH removing freewill from his creation.  Basically, no one could understand the threats that YHWH made because YHWH made sure that no one could read the treats that he made.  What a loving creator YHWH is!

But I must admit that Jesus was right.  The teachers of the law are hypocrites, then and today.  They nullify one commandment to enforce traditions of men!  What are the two greatest commandments that Jesus teaches?  Is it not:

Luke 10:27 He answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

How many christian, today, obey only one or neither of these two commandments?  If Jesus taught them as being the most important why are christians not following his teachings?  It is because they have allowed traditions of men to get in the way of following these two commandments.  You just have to look at Rev Phelps (from Nicolle Bell at crooksandliars.com) and his daughter (from Monika Bartyzel  at Cinematical.com) to see how the traditions of men nullify the Word of God.  But what about this example: Pink Angels.  But here is one about vandalizing Atheist property (thanks to Hemant at FriendlyAtheist.com).  reading some of the comments defending this act of vandalism is the icing on the cake!

One tradition of man in Jesus’ time that still is in effect today, but by a different group of people is that of food restriction.  Jesus clearly states that all food is ok:

Mark 7:15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him.  Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean’.

John Mark clarifies this here:

Mark 7:19 For it doesn’t go into his heart by into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declares all foods ‘clean’).”

So here we have traditions of man overriding the teachings of Jesus (directed at the Catholic church to be specific) with lent being an extra special case of breaking the teachings of Jesus.

My favorite part of this section is the list that Jesus makes of what makes a person unclean:

Luke 7:20-23 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.  For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.  All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean’.

Jesus makes it clear that all of these thoughts and actions make a man unclean (sinful).  Do notice that sexual immorality and adultery are separated.  This means that both are equally ‘unclean’.  So why does the TrueChristian™ attack homosexuals but brush adultery under the carpet?  Especially when it is adultery that is within their congregation!  Homosexuals usually avoid the Bible thumping churches because of that other hypocrisy that occurs at church: forgetting the second most important commandment that Jesus endorsed, “love your neighbor as yourself”. 

To say the least, from a gay Atheist interpretation of this part of the chapter, YHWH has some cleaning up to do!  His “body” the church is in a holy wreck and needs to be swept clean of the hypocrisy before any attempt to convert Atheist can be envisioned.  Looking from the outside in, it is quite clear that neither YHWH, Jesus, nor the Holy Spirit are present in most of the churches in the US. 

Posted in Traditions of Men, Gospel of Mark, Freewill, Becoming an atheist, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

April 18, 2010, 9:31 am by dc-agape.

The doom and gloom that is being preached as a weapon against the American Protection and Affordable Care Act is almost as hypocritical as the first reason I introduced last week.  Second, these same people are supposed to trust YHWH will protect them from harm.  Of course, they are doing neither.  They have lost the focus on heavenly things and are completely engrossed in the affairs of this earthly life.  But I want to introduce a few passages from the Bible that will explain the errors (and sins) of today’s Christian better than I can.

Let me start with this passage:

1^st John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world – the craving of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Notice the word “anything” at the beginning of this passage.  When you add the “craving of sinful man” to that word “anything” guess what John is speaking of?  BTW, this passage was written by John the same man who wrote the Gospel of John, so this is an important passage written at the very beginning of Christian history.  Money and security are “cravings of sinful man”.  The fear of the financial collapse of the US of A is the fear of losing both money and security.  The only way to fear the loss of these two items is to love the world more than to love YHWH.  This is in direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.  In other words, to possess this fear is to be hypocritical.

So why should Christians not fear the loss of money and security, other than these are concepts related to the world and not to YHWH?  How about this passage from the Gospels:

Matt 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

This is a direct teaching of Jesus.  If someone is to follow Jesus and to act like Jesus, a person must follow what Jesus taught.  Jesus directly tells his followers to stop worrying about food and clothing, is money more important to him than food and clothing?  Of course not!  In fact he clearly states this in the following passage:

Matt 6:31-4 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.

Plainly, Jesus is telling his followers to stop being fearful and trust YHWH.  If YHWH will supply the needs of his people (food, water, clothing) then money is not important.  And hence, whether the US of A has a financial crisis is of no concern to the Christian.  Yet instead, because the modern Christian does not trust YHWH and loves the world more than YHWH, the fear of a financial crisis in the US of A is more important to Christian than loving the citizens of this “Christian nation”.  And by loving the citizens I mean allowing all US citizens to have the same health care as the wealthy!

What hypocrisy the modern Christians of the US of A are showing for the whole world to see.  Not only does this hypocrisy fail to live up to the standard of true Christianity, to leaves a nasty image behind for the non-believer.  To the Atheist, we see Americans that are worried about their own well-being (not very Christian-like image).  But maybe worst of all, the international community (Muslims, Buddhist, and Hindu) see an image of Christianity that is only worried about one thing: personal gain.  No wonder the Muslims extremist see Americans as infidels!  There is no sign of spirituality in the image that American Christians broadcast to the world. 

Posted in Contradictions, Becoming an atheist | Print | 1 Comment »

April 10, 2010, 4:53 pm by dc-agape.

Recently the United States has had a monumental bill passed in our Congress and signed by President Obama.  The Bill of interest is the National Health Care bill actually called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The future implications of this Act are yet to be determined, with lots of hope from many and just as many people moaning about DOOM.  But I would like to mention the historical implications of this Act.  The first President that attempted to enact such a bill was none other than US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.  Further attempts were made by US Presidents Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Richard M Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.  For over 100 years the US of A has been attempting to improve the health care of the citizens of this nation.   During this time period we have had some successes: such as Medicare signed into law by Lyndon B Johnson.  It would seem from these past results that it was true that the US government was protecting the citizens the democracy was formed to protect.  Yet oddly, now that we have a much stronger health care plan enacted, it would seem that people believe that the US government has failed and will ultimately destroy the foundation of the US of A.  Who is it that seems to believe this line of thought?  It would be the Christian right-wing conservatives of the Republican National Party (RNC or GOP).  This combination of religious and Doom Sayers is odd for two reasons, which is the reason for this post.  It is exactly those who claim the US of A is a Christian Nation that does not want this health care Act to succeed.  Yet both their strongest reasons for denying this legislation are in direct conflict with the teaching of Jesus – the person they are supposed to mimic.  I want to take a closer look at what Jesus actually taught which conflicts with the opposition to this Act.  First, I will address the concept of saving the US of A’s economy.  Second, I will address the fear use to strengthen the opposition to this Act. The first teaching of Jesus I want to use is that of the Rich Young Man from this passage: 

Matt 19:20-22 “All these I have kept,” the young man said.  “What do I still lack?” 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.”  When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

The most important word in the previous passage is a simple “then”.  Notice that this word comes after the requirement from Jesus that the young man sell his possessions.  And notice as well that Jesus did not say “sell some of your possessions” or “sell just enough of your possessions”.  Jesus required that the rich young man sell his possession before following Jesus.  Is it not completely clear to the Xtian that Jesus does not teach a comforting message?  Is it not clear that living the life of Jesus is not done from your comfortable couch in your comfortable house in your comfortable neighborhood in your comfortable earthly nation?  Yet somehow Xtians have deluded themselves that they can have their cake and eat it too.   To understand this further I want to bring to your attention the Book of Acts:

Acts 2:44-46 All the believers were together and had everything in common.  Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

Even after Jesus’ death his followers did as Jesus taught.  You should pay close attention to the words “All”, “everything” and “anyone” in the passage from the Book of Acts.  This clearly states that everyone who believed shared everything that they owned with each other!  They took care of the weak, the sick, the poor, and the hungry.  They did not fear or hoard their personal money or possessions…for they did not have anything to hoard.  They had already sold everything of value to help the poor and sick in their community.  So how exactly is the US of A considered a Christian Nation?  It certainly cannot be based on providing for those in need!  Where has the desire to follow Jesus if the exact examples that he required of his followers, and his followers continued cannot be seen today in the US of A?   I will have to post on the fear side of this heath care Act next week.  I would like to finish with this quote from Jesus: 

Matt 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Let’s be completely clear here: if you are reading this post you are a rich man (or woman)!  If you drive your own car to work, you are a rich person.  If you buy your vegetables from a grocery store, you are a rich person.  Let’s face it; if you live in the US of A and do not live in a homeless shelter, you most likely are a rich person.  Yet Jesus clearly states that being rich and going to heaven are mutually exclusive! Yet here in the US of A not a single Xtian church teaches to give everything you own to the poor!  But the poor are part of this Christian Nation.  Would not Jesus give to the poor in this Christian Nation?  Let’s face it… the US of A is not a Christian Nation.

Posted in Contradictions, Becoming an atheist | Print | 1 Comment »

April 4, 2010, 2:10 pm by dc-agape.

It is another Christian Holiday here in the US of A.  I have posted previously about Xtains stealing holidays from other cultures due to cultural pressure.  Easter is no different.  Xtians claim that Easter represents the death and resurrection of their savior, yet three things make that questionable to the non-believer.  These three points are: Easter falls on the Jewish Passover, the date of Easter is calculated on the lunar year, and an interesting mathematical quandary. 

If Jesus was born on a single day in the winter – Dec 25^th – of (most likely) 4 BCE, how is it that his death is randomly chosen each year to land on the lunar date of the Jewish Passover?  As with Xmas, Easter was an attempt to convert Jewish citizen to the new religion.  People could hide their celebration behind a Jewish custom.  People could continue to look outwardly like the Jewish people, yet celebrate an Xtian holiday.  People would not miss their old customs of family and communities while being Xtians.  In other words, Xtians did not have to give anything up to fit into society!  Great Xtian traditions start early…fit into the world, don’t give it up.  Don’t make waves…it might get you killed.  To say the least, imitating other religions holidays is cowardly!  It is hypocritical; Christianity is about giving up the earthy desires and no longer belonging to the world.  Hiding the true meaning of you calibrations behind other religions holidays is contrary to the teachings of Jesus.

Using the lunar calendar is perfectly acceptable, except in the fact that both Islam and Judaism both use it as well.  Why follow the old religion (Judaism) if the birth of Jesus was not celebrated based on the lunar calendar? Since we no longer use the Jewish calendar that indicates that the Sabbath is on Saturday, why use the old religions calendar for an important holiday such as Easter?  It seems odd that a new religion, based on ignoring the desires of the world, would choice to hide the most important date in their religion behind another religion’s holiday. 

But here is the best part of Easter:  The mathematical quandary!  You see Good Friday is the day Jesus died on the cross, yet Easter Sunday is the day that he was supposedly resurrected.  Simple enough, right?  Not even close!  What is missing from this mathematical equation is that Jesus was dead for 3 days.  One must remember that the recorded time of Jesus’ death is at the end of Friday.  The recorded resurrection of Jesus is Sunday morning.  This adds up to only 36 hour!  Unless days were 12 hours 2000 years ago this does not equal 3 days.  For 1685 years Xtians have had to do some fantastic mathematical leaps to double the number of days from 1.5 to 3.  That’s right for Jesus to have been dead for 3 days; he would have to have risen from the dead on Tuesday morning (or at least Monday night)! 

Posted in Resurrection, Contradictions, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy - My Ass, Becoming an atheist | Print | 2 Comments »

March 6, 2010, 9:37 pm by dc-agape.

Mark 2:1-22

Three stories occur in this section of the Gospel of John Mark.  One is about healing a paralytic.  The second is about Jesus calling Levi.  This also includes Jesus eating with the “sinners”.  The third story in this section is about Jesus and his disciples doing things differently.  One thing that should be noted is the relationship between Capernaum, Simon, and the Sea of Galilee.  Capernaum was a fishing village on the coast of the fresh water Sea of Galilee where Simon lived. Entering and exiting the village to go to the Sea of Galilee was like walking to the pier at the US city of Evanston, IL.  Notice that the village is tiny and that entering, leaving, and going to be “Sea” is like walking across a couple of city blocks. 

The first story is about Jesus healing a paralytic.  The actual disease this man had is unknown.  The more important thing to notice is the determination of the 4 men carrying the paralytic.  They destroy Simon’s house to get the man to Jesus.  To say the least, Jesus is impressed.  But in healing the paralytic man, Jesus starts a debate with the righteous and religious people of his time (kinda like our own TrueChristianTM).  Oddly this debates ends up being over if forgiving sin is easier than healing a man.  Well we now know which is easier…forgiving a man.  Only under very special cases can a paralytic person be healed, and it costs a lot of money.  Notice in that link the price tag…$300,000 US.  So, it is definitely easier to forgive a “sinner”.  I know a lot of people in the world today that wish Jesus could heal a paralytic (or even an amputee). 

Another part of the story about how Jesus heals the paralytic man is the announcement that he makes during the debate:

Mark 2:10-11 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

In the process of healing this man, Jesus tells everyone in Capernaum that he is the Son of Man.  But when we look at the Jewish (Hebrew) meaning of this phrase, it means that Jesus has just told us that all mankind has the power to forgive and hence to heal.  Jesus was actually NOT proclaiming his deityship!

The second story is about Levi the tax collector and how Jesus deals with “the most despised people of the Israelites”.  In Jesus’ time these people were worse than the Romans, the adulterer, the prostitute, or the homosexual.  But since they were protected by the Romans the Israelites could not hurt them.  Guess what Jesus does within the first days of his ministry?  First, he calls one of these traitors to be his disciple (later an Apostle).  Second, he (and all his disciples) go and have lunch with Levi’s “sinful” friends.  What has happened to Jesus’ disciples today?  Why do they do the exact opposite from Jesus?  Why do they act like the Pharisees?  From a de-converted gay Atheist, this is one of the biggest set of questions I want answers to!  The best interpretation of this change in the “Christian” attitude towards sinners is that there are no christians on the planet.  Or at least their god does not exist, and they are just “playing” the righteous card.

The third story is about why Jesus’ disciples are different than the other religious sects of the day.  This is actually one of the most disappointing answers that Jesus gives to his audience.  He tells them that it is because they are in celebration with Jesus still being alive.  Jesus certainly does not have freewill, he knows that he must die…to save mankind.  But he is so egotistical, that he claims that his disciples are being blessed by his divine presence.  Even though he has just declared that he is not divine in the verse I quoted earlier.  It would have been much more appropriate for the “Son of God” to tell the Pharisees that his disciples did not follow the old traditions!  I would have loved for Jesus to tell the Pharisees that a distinctly new and radical perspective on religion was being showcased.  But no, Jesus just continues with the arrogance stance of YHWH.

Posted in Gospel of Mark, Becoming an atheist, Readings | Print | 11 Comments »

December 27, 2009, 11:39 am by dc-agape.

It is time to look at the results collected from this experiment.  This does not mean that the experiment is over, but the observations taken over the past year have lead to some interesting conclusions.  As with any experiment, the results will always be flexible and may change drastically with more observations.  At this point some conclusions can be estimated to have reached “steady states”.  I will discuss these observations in full with individual posts.  First, the results of operating a blog and my personal experiences with this project can be seen.  Making posts, writing daily, controlling spam commenters and trolls are all part of operating a blog.  Second, reading the “Holy Texts” has lead to some changes in my personal outlook.  Not the changes that Theist would expect, but overall some interesting ideas.  Third, unlike other Atheist blogs I have not had to deal with trolls or anti-Atheist bigotry.  This is a good thing, but it leads to an interesting conclusion.  I have obviously not stabbed a caged angry beast where it hurt!  Finally one missing result cannot not be denied, it just has not appeared.  YHWH has not intervened on my blogging.  This has neither been by direct interaction, making me more religious…or less tangible methods, such as attacks at home or cyber-issues.  YHWH has not made an appearance, nor has his followers been directed to intervene in any supernatural way!

From the Atheist perspective the experiment has been successful.  I will continue to read different spiritual texts focused on the Abrahamic faiths.  But I will not expect that YHWH and his minions will interfere with my experiment in any meaningful way.  I am particularly drawn to the Islamic Qur’an and to the Gnostics Nag Hammadi Library.  I will continue to look at the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Old Testament, and also the New Testament.  But it is will great interest that the DSC, OT, and the NT have become less than “Truthful” than I had assumed they would be when I started this experiment.  The NT has been the most disappointing.  Recognizing that over 66% of it was written by a man who was determined to destroy the original teaching of Jesus (which is now called Pauline Christianity) has been an eye-opening result of this experiment.  The fact that Paul wrote 13 of the Book in the NT is overwhelming.  Especially considering that there is only 27 Book in total.  Of the remaining book only with certainty can we be assured that followers of Paul did not write seven of the Books: The Gospel of John, James, and 1^st Peter, the Letters from John, and Jude.  These seven Books, in total from the NT, that are not Pauline in nature.  Worse is that these seven are not the central doctrine of modern Christianity!  The Books of James and Jude were written by the half-brothers of Jesus himself, yet neither of these Books are the focus of Christianity.  Peter was to be “Rock” of the Church, yet only one very short Book was written by him!  Does this not look strange to the believer?  It is certainly disappointing to an Atheist that we do not have the “True” teaching of Jesus recorded in historical documents!  Instead we have the teaching of a man determined to eradicate those same teachings (and his disciples) the focus of the modern Church.  What a truly sad state the Theist believes are left in…

Posted in State of Mind, Introduction | Print | 3 Comments »

October 24, 2009, 4:58 pm by dc-agape.

Well you might be wondering what has happened in the last week.  I am attempting to adjust the domain host and improve spam filtering.  In that process I have hit a few snags. 

The first snag is that writing blogs in the new Word Document 2008 format does not allow for exporting the posts to a new site.  Even though I am attempting to keep blog.dc-agape.com as the main posting site, 1 & 1 hosting is not very user friendly.  I am not allowed access to by blog to introduce widgets or gadgets to improve comments or other neat options.

The second snag is that I am attempting to write two journal articles for my PhD program and an NSF grant proposal.  The articles aren’t that bad, I am still collecting data (lots of it), but the NSF grant is a huge load.  It is due by Dec 8, 2009 and I am attempting to get funding to visit a polymer facility in Pohang, Korea (POSTECH)!  If I get approval I will be in Korea for 2 months this coming summer.  It will allow me to proceed with my research in a completely different perspective and possible lead to a better understanding of chromatographic molecular recognition.  So my writing time has been cut short, and my research time even shorter.

I hope to have both snags worked out shortly.  Then I can get back to posting closer to a daily system.  The back-up site for my posts and the posts I will be writing until this blows over is:

http://dearcannonist.wordpress.com 

Sorry for the trouble!

Posted in State of Mind | Print | 6 Comments »

October 6, 2009, 5:25 pm by dc-agape.

Thanks to the Chaplain at The Apostate’s Chapel I have found a poll that I can try here at dc-agape.  Tell me what you think!

Posted in State of Mind | Print | 1 Comment »