Comments on: The God Delusion

By: Ricky

Ricky — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:33:21 +0000

Haha. Well Brian, I am actually a guy, but thank you for your comments. I realized about a year ago, that being confrontational, argumentative, or irrational about sharing/defending my faith doesn’t exactly help me become a better witness for God—it usually impedes it. So your comments let me know I’m heading in the right direction.

Thanks.

By: expatbrian

expatbrian — Wed, 28 May 2008 09:16:00 +0000

Jonolan, A final thought. Good post and great thread. While I respectfully disagree with Ricky and some things she(?) believes, she gives about the most level headed, logical and non confrontational arguments that I’ve seen on this issue.

Your lucky to have someone like that following your blog. She’s a keeper.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:54:53 +0000

Brian,

I’ll take your advice, and I agree with you, that we’ve been proven wrong about a lot of things. I by no means doubt the power of human progress, I think it’s one of the things that makes us more human.

But I do believe that certain things are impossible to either attain, prove, understand, etc.

God bless you, as well as everyone else on here.

By: expatbrian

expatbrian — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:25:03 +0000

Jonolan gave all the right responses for me to the earlier comments. Thanks for saving me the time and effort. As far as the golden rule, its a wonderful little thought that most religions wrote down as you pointed out. But as far as that setting the path for a moral code, I think not. Read the news. The Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and even the Buddhists are slaughtering each other almost faster than we can reproduce.

I gave up believing in god when I finally realized that people were not basically good at all but just the opposite. We are only civilized as long as it is convenient and our needs are met. Give us some real stress, challenge us with life or death choices or even less severe choices and we’ll give up our civilized nature in a heartbeat. Again, look around.

Ricky, thanks for your comments as well. But I caution you, never say never and don’t assume anything is impossible forever. We’ve been proven wrong too many times.

By: jonolan

jonolan — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:39:09 +0000

Nabiha, Actually the educated world generally stopped believing a flat Earth in the 3rd century BCE. To be fair to Brian's point however, the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch in modern nomenclature) does describe a flat Earth:

"This is the first commandment of the luminaries: The sun is a luminary whose egress is an opening of heaven, which is located in the direction of the east, and whose ingress is another opening of heaven, located in the west. I saw six openings through which the sun rises and six openings through which it sets. The moon also rises and sets through the same openings, and they are guided by the stars; together with those whom they lead, they are six in the east and six in the west heaven. All of them are arranged one after another in a constant order. There are many windows both to the right and the left of these openings. First there goes out the great light whose name is the sun; its roundness is like the roundness of the sky; and it is totally filled with light and heat. The chariot in which it ascends is driven by the blowing wind. The sun sets in the sky in the west and returns by the northeast in order to go to the east; it is guided so that it shall reach the eastern gate and shine in the face of the sky"
-- 1 Enoch 72:2-5

Since the currently known texts of this work are usually dated during the Second Temple period, between the 4th century BCE and the 1st century CE it is quite possible that the flat Earth theory had in some quarters been maintained into the early Common Era.

By: Nabiha Meher

Nabiha Meher — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:33:57 +0000

I don’t think Muslim scholars believed the earth was flat… I’m not sure about this- I’ll clarify.

Someone just pointed out to me that the Quraan states that god created man from “clay and water.” So, apparently, if you want to interpret it thus, Islam supports evolution. The person who said this isn’t a very devout Muslim, but believes god “created” the universe in such a way that intelligent life would be formed. This isn’t my opinion…

By: Brett Clements

Brett Clements — Mon, 19 May 2008 22:35:01 +0000

You are correct about so called Muslims. Many call themselves Christians and live outside the direction set by scripture and falsely interpret scripture to justify their deeds. The golden rule is certainly a great one. I don’t want to appear to harbor hatred for any religion or it’s followers. The deviding line for me in accepting other religions as good if the followers abide by the golden rule is drawn at the directive works. What I mean is the book or documents used by said religion to be the devine word of their God. Most religions have an established book from which they teach and preach. Of course mine is the Holy Bible. I accept the Bible as the moral authority for my life. I also know I have not always followed the teachings as well as I should, and for that I thank God for His Grace!To be specific I accept the Old Testament to be the prophecy of the coming Messiah and the New Testament to be the fulfillment of said prophecy. I accept the New Testament as the directive for Christian life today. If I look into the book of another religion I should be able to know what the followers of that religion believe and accept as truth and direction. If they do not believe that they are not actually followers of that religion. They are merely observers. Every religion has it’s observers, and their true disciples. I happen to believe in absolutes. A person is either absolutely a believer or not, whatever the religion might be. Too many people go aimlessly through life looking into every option and never accepting one. Most people are so self obsorbed they cannot see life is about more than them. Before their birth life was. After their death life will continue to be. All of us are part of more than our short life. I hope this debate on this site will encourage many to search passionately for truth. Of course I would like for them to accpet Jesus Christ, but I also know many will not. Whatever direction you go may you be found by the absolute moral authority; God. I promise you He is not a delusion. We may not understand all things, but we certainly cannot deny things. We see life begin. We see life end. We see death cheated. We see health stripped away. Call it what you will, but it is all out of human authority.
Don’t let life pass with no sense of connection with the one who put you here.

By: Aafke

Aafke — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:45:38 +0000

Killing christians is allright in the mind of deluded people who mistakingly call themselves muslims. The same goes for christains, and anybody else.
The golden rule is that we should respect and take care of one another.
I like this take on the three abrahamic religions:

By: Brett Clements

Brett Clements — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:21:52 +0000

I disagree with the statement; “all religions are man made”. I also believe morality must have a source. My source is the God of the Bible. If you believe different I respect that. The idea man can make his own rules is ridiculous to me. All men can frame explanations to make their wrong ok. Even the ones who rape, kill and torture human beings. When morality is left to the judgement of man we all get hurt in the end. The golden rule is not enough. If you have no moral authority to dictate such a rule doing good is relevant to the doer. Killing Christians is good in the mind of extremist muslims. They do so in the guise of religion and good. Their golden rule is not golden at all

By: Aafke

Aafke — Sun, 18 May 2008 14:51:03 +0000

Perhaps even that is only our own minds making it up.
When I got into dinosaurs, (8 years old) I was amazed at how presicely earth evolved according to Genesis. And when I had to give a speech at my christain school, Ranging from the pre-cambrium to the Archeapterix (lasted 2 hours) I didn’t get the comment of my teacher: ”i told a nice story but off course it wasn’t true because God created the world in 6 days”
I truly never understood what she was talking about until about 25 years later and I heard about evolutionists!

All religions are man-made I think. And I don’t think God is some old dude with a beard. That is just too childish a take on an all-encompassing entity for me.