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 | 2 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 »

October 4, 2009, 8:19 am by dc-agape.

Image via Wikipedia

Today make a special anniversary for dc-agape.com, and for more than one reason.  The biggest reason to celebrate is that today is the anniversary of my start to this experiment.  I have actually posted 371 posts within that year.  I had hoped to get 9 posts per week, but being a grad student in the field of Chemistry has minimized the time I can allot for posting.  Adding to that is that my advisor wants me to finish in 3.5 years (most students take 4-5 years), publishing my first article, preparing a second article, finishing my matriculation into the PhD program, and just the normal day-to-day hassles.  I am happy to say that I was able to at least average a post a day! 

I have also reached the point where (even if it is robots and spammers) I have averaged over 50 hits per day on my RSS page.  I know that I only have 2-3 regular commenters, but there are a number of guest who continue to return without making a single comment.  I hope that I can change that and bring in more viewpoints and discussion.  I know that with more commenters I will have to enforce the policy of being tolerant, something that many people have difficulty with.  I certainly do not want to blacklist anyone!  But if new voices are not humble (Christians) or too arrogant (Atheist and Christian alike), I will be forced to intervene. 

This year alone, I have reached the point where 40 of my posts have reached the surprising level of 277 hits (that is averaging one hit per day – for the entire year…with many not written until very recently).  I was not sure if I would be a minor blog that had no subscriptions or if people would take not of my slightly different approach to the issue of communication between Atheist and Theist.  The dc-agape.com still is rather small, but it is obviously growing, should I ask for more?  That was, of course, one of the initial questions that the experiment was to address.  The data is still coming in for that part of the experiment.  Another aspect of the experiment was whether I could keep up the blogging (my own interest) with all the other competing demands for my time.  This seems to not be a problem.  With the addition of the Nag Hammadi Library, the Holy Qur’an, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, I will not end up getting bored, and will have an unlimited selection of source material for my posts.

One more additional interesting thing about this blog is the post that has had the top hits. That would be freewill-punishment-salvation. I knew that posting on the Biblical concept of freewill would spark interest, but it is interesting which of the many posts actually reached the highest number of hits.At this point, it is averaging over 13 hits per day, since I wrote it at the beginning of March, 2009.  What is most odd about this post is that it comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls!  To be exact it is from my reading of the Damascus Document.  And yet not a single comment has been made, neither spammer, nor hate, or nor agreement.  Does this mean that the tracking software that I am using is faulty?

As far as registrations to this website go…it is not a paltry number.  I have 315 users who have actually hit the registration button.  Now even if some of these are robots, that would indicate that some of you out there are actually interested in this project.  The question is how many?

Now comes the request to my elusive and quiet visitors.  I may be sorely embarrassed by the response to this request, but the time has come to make it anyway!  If you have subscribed to my RSS feeder, or even if this blog is something that you visit on that rare occasion, would you be so kind as to speak up?  If you would let me know even the barest details…which side you lean toward (between Theism and Atheism), what brought you to this blog, and what you would like to see changed (I am thinking of changing my host – 1&1 hosting is good for beginners, but it is limiting to what I can do on my own blog site).  If you want to add your contact information, blog site, etc go right ahead.

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• An introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls (network.nationalpost.com)
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Posted in Comment Policies, State of Mind, Introduction | Print | 3 Comments »

October 1, 2009, 8:37 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 15 – 16:4

In my last two posts I wrote about being fruitful and the meaning of love and obedience knowing Jesus’ purpose, the greatest love, and being chosen.  In this post I want to write about the about being hated, having hatred, and killing in the name of YHWH.  This chapter is packed with good examples of what a follower of Jesus is supposed to do to the world, experience in the world, and display to the world.  But this chapter does one other thing…it makes it obvious to the non-believer that Christian ≠ follower of Jesus. I will discuss each one, and let you decide.

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.

From this verse it is clear that a difference exists between Christians and the world.  This difference is so great, that hatred is the only word that can describe the difference.  The world’s hatred of Christians was quite obvious up until the reign of Constantine (320 AD).  At this point in time the persecution of Christians nearly ended.  They may not have been like, but there were no longer being killed for their faith.  This would pretty much indicate that slowly Christianity and the world are becoming one.  In modern times, most of Europe and all of the Americas are Christianized.  So how is it that the world now loves Christians?  One must also remember that almost all of Africa has also been Christianized.  Only in the Middle East and some parts of Asia are Christians still hated.  Reading John 15:19 again, “if you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.” Guess what?  The world loves Christians!  And from Jesus’ own words that means that Christians belong to the world.  The spiritual implication of this concept is straightforward.  Christianity no longer teaches something contrary to the sinful world.  Does this mean the world is no longer full of sin?  Or does this mean that Christianity is now full of sin?  If Christianity truly taught something that was contrary to the world, this verse (John 15:19) would mean something.  Instead, at least in the United States, two groups of people are hated: Atheists and homosexuals.

To the non-believer it is very odd that those that were hated are now the ones who hate!  Nowhere in Jesus’ teachings did he require hatred.  There is one verse:

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple.

Two things about this verse should be taken into account.  First it is considered a hyperbole, the feelings the disciples should have forged worldly relationships compare to the relationship with Jesus should be as great as hating one and loving the other.  The other thing that should be considered is that in no way can this verse be linked to hating sin.  In fact, one other verse describes one a disciple will hate:

Matt 6:24 “No one can serve 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.”

This is as close to teaching hatred as Jesus gets.  But neither of these verses teaches the disciple to hate the non-believer (sinner).  Yet that is exactly what occurs in the modern Church.  Neither Atheists nor homosexuals are openly accepted in any but a few non-traditional Churches.  Very odd for religion based on love, don’t you think?

In fact, Jesus warns about hatred and killing done in the name of YHWH:

John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

Matt 24:9-11 “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated but all nations because of me.  At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betrayed and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Today, both of these verses can be clearly seen actually happening.  Christians have been known to put people out of their church and to kill in the name of YHWH.  At the same time, many false prophets have risen up and have deceived the masses.  At this point in time, the haters and deceivers cannot be separated from the disciple of Jesus.  The combination of these two verses and the fact that these warnings have occurred leads the non-believer to one conclusion: will the true disciple of Jesus please stand up!  The non-believer can certainly not tell the difference between the hater, the deceiver, and the disciple.

All in all, this chapter in the Gospel of John has been unique for this experiment.  It may be having worked through four different books in the Bible I am beginning to see something that is not visible to most readers of the Word of God.  On the other hand, focusing on the positive teachings of Jesus, instead of the vitriol taught in the Church, may be influencing my perspective.  Many of the positive things that Jesus taught were not new, but the way he combined the different aspects of love, hope, and spirituality was certainly different from the old religions and from the Old Testament.  It is truly a shame that modern Christians have lost the focus on Jesus.  Instead, some focus on Paul’s teachings and others attempt to justify the Old Testament with the teachings of Jesus.  I guess this should not be unexpected, out of the Christian Bible only 10% of the Word of God is directly from Jesus.  And even that in 10%, half of it is mostly repetitive.

Posted in Love, Gospel of John, State of Mind, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

September 19, 2009, 9:29 am by dc-agape.

A while back I ask some tough questions to one of my Christian commenters.  During these questions, posts, and comments one question was raised that should be addressed in a final post in this series.  If something as basic as the speed of light has changed in recent history (last 1,000,000,000 years) how does this change effect science?

First of all, let us look at the concept that the universe is very old.  Estimates are that the universe is 13,700,000,000 years old.  Even if variations have occurred in this period of time we are talking about only 10/137% (7.2%) of the age of the universe.  But of course, the concept that determines the age of the universe is based on a constant speed of light.  Getting into the nitty-gritty of the calculations for the age of the universe is quite cumbersome.  For this reason Wikipedia is most helpful.  Age of the Universe is one topic, within this topic is the Lambda-CDM concordance model, within this model are the parameters of the Hubble constant, Baryon Density, total matter density, optical depth to reionization, scalar fluctuation amplitude, and the scalar spectral index.  Only the Hubble constant itself is calculated from the speed of light.  The baryon density has been calculated to a highly accurate value.  The optical depth of reionization is also been constrained to a very small variation.  The total matter density of the universe is actually related to the baryon density by the SZ (Sunyaev-Zel’dovich) effect measurement.  The scalar fluctuation amplitude is actually measured directly from the Cosmic Background Radiation.  And finally the scalar spectral index is measured from WMAP and is becoming more accurate each year.

So actually the speed of light is rather immaterial to the outcome of these calculations.  It is actually the cosmic background radiation that is critical to the calculation of the age of the universe.  I have used Wikipedia as much as possible in this post due to the fact that it is written in layman’s terms.  The whole process is still very complex and relies on numerous measurements, each with errors and some with approximations.  But in general, when numerous methods converge on the same results/predictions, we are not using the Argument from Authority (as Christians use YHWH), but instead scientist are using completely different methods that can then be used together to determine the validly of the model.  If, for example the results of these different measurements did not relate to other measurements – such as the distance of the furthest supernovas – then one of the two models would be wrong.  Instead, both models agree! 

But this is how science works.  We do not take just one measurement, we do not use just one method, and we continually look for new information that either supports or eliminates old (outdated) methods.  Religion does not do this.  Religion claims to be based on documents written by man between 2000 – 3000 years ago.  Religion also claims that the source of these documents does not change.  Yet there is no way to test this hypothesis!  Worse, the documents used have been edited, mistranslated, lost, and subject to political strife during these last few millennium – making them highly suspect.  To make matters worse, there are competing religions that instead of making one religion stronger (more valid), they each contradict each other.  In scientific terms this would indicate that the religious model was incomplete or even completely wrong. 

Teaching of Creationism in the classrooms of science would be a very terrible travesty to the USA.  The fundamentals of science are based on repetitive measurements, agreement amongst measurements, and the critical skills to recognize the errors involved.  It is true that all science stands on the shoulders of previous methodology and as a result of previous work of humans with great knowledge.  But without this, we would not have computers, we would not have electrical lights, and we would not have automobiles.  We would also not have landed on the Moon, nearly eradicated polio, or built skyscrapers that religious fanatics could destroy with the airplanes that science built.  If you do not want to trust science because of its changing nature or because of its use of assumptions and approximations or because it is based on the shoulders of giants, which parts of science do you want to trust and which do you want to throw out?  Science will continue to improve, science will continue to delve into the understandings of the universe – as small as my own PhD thesis on the Memory Effect of amylose tris(3,5-methylphenyl carbamate) or if it is the Grand Unification Theory – because humanity has curiosity and the only way to alleviate that curiosity is to search for answers. 

Relying on old books that have been tampered with by man seems to be a poor substitute for the curiosity drive.  In fact, it seems to put limits on what is appropriate which questions to seek answers to.  Relying on contradictory messages from “prophets” of all religions opens up the question of which “prophets” were right and which “prophets” have been wrong.  And the “proof is in the pudding” does not work.  All the messages from the “prophets” have been turned into personal political gain, whether it is Jewish, Islamic, Christian, Hindu or Buddhist, at some point in history.  Don’t get me wrong, science has also been used for the personal empowerment of individuals…but those actions have quickly been exposed and appropriate Earthly punishments have been applied.  Further, waiting for YHWH to punish evil in the afterlife is a lame excuse for allowing evil to flourish here on Earth.  Since no prove of the afterlife exists, this attitude only attempts to continue the status quo.  Evil continues to occur, starvation continues to happen, slow and painful deaths by disease continue to happen, and personal power is continued to be held by those with their own agendas without checks and balances.

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 2 Comments »

September 15, 2009, 8:02 am by dc-agape.

I have received a Christian response to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq:

I don’t believe that YHWH’s will is as simple as does he endorse the war or not. I am not His messenger on which wars He feels are just nor which he sees as unjust. If He reveals this to me then I will let you know.

Notice that Christians believe that a just war can exist…even though it is contrary to the teachings of Jesus.  One of my non-Christian commenters pointed me to the Catholic Catechism on this topic.  It would seem that Christians (not YHWH or Jesus) have changed the rules.

Sorry to point this out to those have been taught a Tradition of Man…but nowhere in Jesus’ teachings does he say that under these conditions is it OK to kill.  In fact, he his quite clear on his (and we hope YHWH’s) opinion on the subject.

Mark 7:20-23 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’.  For form within, out of men’s hearts, comes 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.’”

You see to Jesus murder makes one unclean.  Even the thought of murder is enough.  Yet that is the basis of war…you cannot have a war without murder.  Usually wars also include greed, deceit, arrogance, and folly.  The War in Iraq has certainly included all of these things that make a human ‘unclean’.  So how can there ever be a “just war”?  By Christian standards even the American Revolution and the Civil War could not have been “just wars”. 

How can an Atheist say this?  Simple the act of war includes (and requires) anger!    War also includes greed, theft, deceit, and envy.  The Revolution was about taxes and freedom.  Is not the concern over taxation not a form of greed?  Did not Jesus actually say this?

Mark 12:17-18 Then Jesus said unto them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”  And the people were amazed at him.

And what was the freedom that the Revolutionist wanted?  They wanted freedom from oppressive religion.  Anytime religion gets into politics an oppressive religion is created.  Look at England during the Revolutionary War, look at Sharia Law, and remember how Iraq was controlled by the Baath party.  Under these conditions hatred and deceit are common which both make humans ‘unclean’.

And was not the same passage about taxation to an oppressive government?  Jesus also said that murder and anger were on equal footing:

Mark 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Has there ever been a war that was not initiated by anger or at least perpetuated by anger?  The North (Yankees) claimed that the Civil War was about slavery…but where in the Bible does YHWH or Jesus say that slavery was wrong?  No, in fact, the Civil War was about something completely different. Anger and greed prompted this particular war.  Economics were the final blow that forced South Carolina to secede from the Union.  I will not get into the details but one must read “The Impending Crisis: 1848 – 1861” by David M Potter to understand the motivations of both the Southern Rebels and the Northern Yankees.  To say the least slavery and even states rights were a minor part of the beginning of that war.   The anger and hatred created by this war exists to this day!

Finally, I want to end with this verse:

Matt 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.

Is not Jesus directly telling his followers that worrying about this human body and what the “enemy” attempts to do to it is immaterial?  So the defense of life and property is complete unjustified for war by Christian standards, at least those who follow Jesus and not the Traditions of Men.

Personal opinion:  The world today would be a much different place without the Revolutionary War or the Civil War.  From a humanistic perspective the Revolutionary War was justified by the fact that democracy was formed from the final actions.  But do the means always justify the ends?  Oddly enough most of the English colonies now have the same freedoms that the Revolutionary War provided the USA with.  Was the War required?

As concerning the Civil War:  how much damage was created, and still not corrected due to the evasion of the South by the aggressors from the North?  Would three nations in North America be much different than just two?  Would not slavery ended anyway?  Neither cotton nor tobacco are now the major crops of the South.  Would the South have been able to survive economically by itself? 

There was nothing Christian about either war.  Each of these two major wars were not initiated by a just YHWH.  The reasons for both wars were purely “unclean” in Jesus’ and YHWH’s definition.  So even though the outcomes were positive, supernatural instigation was not involved in the creation of these wars.  To claim divine intervention for these wars would be to say that YHWH created evil to create good.  Is that not contradictory in and of itself?

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 4 Comments »

September 12, 2009, 7:09 am by dc-agape.

A while back I ask some tough questions to one of my Christian commenters.  I had a reason for each of the questions.  You see, Christians worship a supreme being that is known for compassion, justice, and love.  In this post I wanted to hopefully finish the answer to teaching Creationism in the Classroom.  The purpose of the questions was to determine if our commenter was True to the Christ-like qualities expected from Christians.

I then asked if he believed that Creationism should be taught in the science classroom.  I requested his response to the recent trial in Dover, PA, USA.  It is true that as an Ethical Humanist (materialist) and a scientist I do have two biases.  One I have described many times…I do not see any proof of an existence of supernatural beings.  But being a scientist reinforces this bias by requiring data that supports any hypothesis, requires critical analysis of all data, and also requires that overlapping schools of thought (methods of gathering data) support each other.  As a scientist I believe that the skills of critical analysis are crucial to the solving of problems; either in the home, work, politics, environmental or international.

You see Creationism focuses mistakenly on evolution and biology as its target.  But at the same time Young Earth Creationists (most creationists) must also deny much if not all of Chemistry, Physics, Geology, and Astronomy.  These people believe that Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution is the cornerstone of all modern sciences.  They also believe that if they can topple this one theory then all the other sciences will fall as well.  But this is a very large mistake on their part.

Geology

Two people of geological significance need to be introduced.  Mary Anning has been called “the greatest fossilist the world has ever known.  She began to get this name in 1809-1811 at the age of about 10!  She is the girl that discovered many fossils of ichthyosaurus and one plesiosaurus.  It was well known long before Charles Darwin, that dead animals were trapped in stone formations.  But since those discoveries are too close to “evolution” one more person needs to be introduced: William Smith.  William “Strata” Smith proved that the earth had not always looked like it does today or in his own time (1799).  He is known as the “father of English geology” because of his documentation of the stratification of rock formation beginning in the area of Bath, England and ending with an entire geological map of England.

What must be understood is that Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is not the origin of modern scientific thinking.  Well before Darwin’s work was even started, the scientific community was well aware that something was wrong with the creation story taught to all scientists as the “Truth”.  Both the discovery of fossils (rock formations that look identical to animal bones) and uplifted breaks in the strata of the earth were known prior to the beginning of Evolution. 

If Creationists want to discredit Darwin’s work they must start at an earlier period of time than 1859.  Geology was well established as indicating that the Earth was not 5,800 years old (now days – 150 years later – 5,950 years old). 

Astronomy

We all know about Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543), Galilei Galileo (1564 – 1642), and Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630).  These three men changed the world!  Prior to Copernicus’s time the Church taught that the Earth was the center of the universe.  But by the time Kepler died things were rapidly changing; the Earth was no longer the center of the universe.  One of man’s greatest ego trips – homocentricity – was nearly completely smashed by these three men.  Astronomy has been, ever since, slowly chipping away at the human ego.  We now know that suns exist that cannot be seen by the naked eye.  But even the Andromeda Galaxy is visible to the naked eye – an astonishing 2,300,000 light-years away.  That means that the light from this galaxy has been traveling for 2.3 million years to reach earth!  There goes the hypothesis of a 6,000 year old universe.

If Creationist want to make any headway into modern science they will have to make hypothesizes, test, and prove that the equipment used by astronomy are completely wrong about the size of the universe.  All I can say is go for it!  While you are at it, try and disprove the existence of well over 370 exo-planets discovered.  But the techniques used to prove distant stars and exo-planets are all linked to physics.  I will have to leave that to one additional post.

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 10 Comments »

September 11, 2009, 11:25 pm by dc-agape.

Even though I have not finished the posts on Creationism in the Classroom, today is an important anniversary.  I in memory of the event that took place 8 years ago, I want to ask two very important questions.  Christians worship a supreme being that is known for compassion, justice, and love.  The purpose of the questions was to determine if our commenter was True to the Christ-like qualities expected from Christians, but should be equally valid for any TrueChristian™.

Here was the first question I missed.  How does a True Christians respond to the War in Iraq?  What about the illegal incarceration of the “terrorists” at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp?

We now know that our former President Bush lead us into a war with Iraq that has not ended.  We know that it was poorly planned with no plan for the recovery of civilization in the country.  We also now know that there were no weapons of mass destruction, they did not have ties to Al-Qaeda, nor did the Iraq nation have the capacity to create biological weapons.  We were not even over-throwing a dictator: we have not done anything about any other dictator in the world: Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Cameroon, Tunisia, Sudan, Chad, Rwanda, the Gambia, Central African Republic, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, the Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, and even Fiji.  Why did the government of a “Christian” US choose Iraq?  Why, in fact, were the excuses make (lies) and why did we preemptively strike at an enemy?  We know that the Christians of the 1^st Century would not and certainly did not do this.  When the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem the Christians ran for the hills (pdf format).

The biggest problem with the War in Iraq (which has not been “Won”) is that it was split the US army into a two front battle: one in Iraq (with no logical reason to start that war- religious or security) and Afghanistan – where the terrorist are actually located that destroyed the Twin Towers in New York City, NY.  During our wasted time in Iraq we have lost support from almost every nation in the world…including Pakistan, the one country that we need the most support from. 

About Gitmo…most of the “prisoners” there are not “terrorists” yet the government has held them without due process of justice and to top it off have held them against the UN resolution on prisons of war (Resolution #739 (VIII))!  How Christian is this action?

Another one I missed.  How does a True Christian respond to the War on Terror?  Is it appropriate to strike preemptively?

Whatever happened to “turn your other cheek” and “give your enemy the shirt off your back”?  We are certainly not a Christian nation if we cannot obey those simple Beatitudes from Jesus.  Yet for some reason, our military is not only a majority “Christian” many “Christian” attitudes pervade the entire system.  Homosexuality is not only frowned upon it is grounds for dishonorable discharge, Atheists have been harassed, and a strong fundamental conservative Christians movement is invasive to the US military.  The big question is: why are there any TrueChristians™ in the US military at all?  Does not killing other human beings violate just about everything YHWH and Jesus taught their followers?

Posted in Important Questions, State of Mind | Print | 15 Comments »

September 10, 2009, 7:01 am by dc-agape.

Last week I ask some tough questions to one of my Christian commenters.  I had a reason for each of the questions.  You see, Christians worship a supreme being that is known for compassion, justice, and love.  The questions I ask should have included two more, but I thought I had covered all the important topics.  I will explain the reason for each of the questions in the next nine posts.  The purpose of the questions was to determine if our commenter was True to the Christ-like qualities expected from Christians.

I included the controversy of abortion.  I did not ask if all abortions should be allowed, I specifically asked about three types: rape, incest, and the physical harm to the mother.  Believe it or not, even to most Atheist abortion should be a rare thing!  Of course, many of us suggest that proper sexual education is the key.  This would be a combination of the abstinence programs and more liberal education.   It should also include the risks involved in sex: STDs, pregnancy, and the resulting responsibilities of both living with an STD and/or a child.  In the US we are having a recurrence certain of STD’s specifically Chlamydia and Syphilis.  Almost 50% of these cases are in the 15-24 year olds.  HIV is also spreading, now hitting the African-American population the hardest.  By ignoring that young people are having sex, it is the adults that are contributing to this trend!  We are the ones that need to be teaching our children the risks involved in these actions, without lying – abstinence only does not work!

Is it compassionate to lie to children and risk them getting Chlamydia, Syphilis, HIV, or pregnant?  It is perfectly fine for responsible parents to reinforce abstinence!  But, honestly, how many responsible parents are there in the US?  Does it make up even 50% of the population?  Most rely on public/private education to do the dirty work…sex education, math, science, history, etc.  Many cannot even help their children in modern schools, since what they were taught 20+ years ago is no longer the focus on our children’s education.  That is why in almost every city programs like Indiana’s AskRose.org, Tennessee’s Homework Hotline, and Philadelphia’s On-line Teacher from the Free Library.  Unfortunately, it would seem that sex education is also outdated.  The statistics on teen sex indicate that by 2006 46% of all teens in the US had sexual experiences at least once.

Atheist, for one, believe that comprehensive sex education is the only way to be truly safe and compassionate to half that are having sex.  And since this includes the abstinence only groups as well as the rest of teenagers…we must (to be compassionate) teach the hard facts that polygamous sex leads to higher risks of STDs and pregnancies.

The lie (good Christian moral system) that abstinence works needs to stop!  Will it increase the number of teens having sex?  At 46% of the teen population is that really a top priority?  Or is it compassionate to let the kids learn the hard way?  It certainly is not compassionate to the parents that must deal with the medical bills!  It certainly is not compassionate to the teenagers that will live out the rest of their lives with an incurable STD or have to forgo college to take care of a baby!  Where is the compassion and truth in teaching abstinence only?  Or is it just a cultural phenomenon, due to Christian morality, that people don’t want to talk about sex to their children?

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