Free For all - Open Discussions and DebatesI am confusedI disagree. Current theories are still grounded in mathematics and observable, measurable phenomena. The fact that they are as yet incomplete does not mean that they disregard natural laws or put faith in magic as superstition does. Einstein's Theory of Relativity does not tell us what time is but it has advanced our understanding very significantly. Even though it has yet to be resolved with Quantum Physics to define a law of Quantum Gravity, the theory of Relativity has still been proven correct through mathematics, experiment and observation to a very high degree. Newton's laws have been proven incomplete and not universally accurate (they break down completely at the sub atomic scale for instance), and yet we don't regard him as superstitious and neither should we (his religion is another matter however). Nowhere in my quoted statement do I resort to name calling. I am amazed that intelligent and educated people such as you will put superstition and religious faith at the centre of their lives. Superstition is the resort of the uneducated; therefore it should indeed have no place in the minds of educated people. That is the point I was making and I am not calling anyone names! How can you deny that you let your faith (a complex superstition) rule your life? I don't wish to be personal, but you've made the matter quite public that you allowed your faith and certain words contained in the Bible to have a very profound effect on you. They dictated your life to such an extent that it appears you forcefully put yourself through years of emotional pain and misery. This is what you believed your God required of you. I think that's very sad, indeed tragic. I'm not attacking you, and I sincerely hope you are as genuinely happy today as you seem to claim. I have never said I fear Christianity or what the Bible teaches. That is your inaccurate assumption. Far from fearing the Bible, I actually agree with much of what it has to say! I don't believe it to be a historically accurate or factual work, as I've already said. God, as depicted in the Bible, is suspiciously parochial. A God who condones the annihilation of a town in revenge for willful idolatry; a God who supports the kidnapping of virgins who are then to be married against their will to the very men who murdered their families and loved ones, notwithstanding the fact that He instructs the men not to treat their wives as chattels (although what else can they be if they've been forcibly taken and married against their will?) is simply not consistent with an omnipresent, omniscient God who speaks to all men for all time. Surely such an omniscient God would not be so parochial as to confine himself to one small area of the middle east and allow his moral guidance and teachings to be distorted and coloured by the social conventions and wisdom of the time, particularly when He knows these very events will be recorded in a book to instruct all men across all time. The Bible does not depict an omniscient God. It merely depicts the best morality and wisdom of the time in which it was written. It is therefore far from infallible, and it is extraordinary that intelligent individuals throughout the UK, the US and elsewhere, living in such a relatively advanced and enlightened age, should allow their lives to be ruled by what amounts to an ancient Middle-Eastern superstition. What I do fear is the inevitable consequence of blind faith in chosen deities, religions and scriptures, as evidenced by the appalling terrorist atrocities committed by suicide bombers or the odious sentiments expressed by some of the more militant of Fundamentalist Christians, because these things are driven and fuelled by nothing more than religious faith. The quote I use in my signature below is a very apt one here, and sums up my position very neatly. |
🌈Pride🌈 goeth before Destruction
When 🌈Pride🌈 cometh, then cometh Shame