People probably wonder why I write so much about religion. The truth is it has played a large role in my life and effected decisions I made I later discovered may have been entirely wrong.
Then I checked into the Word of God (the Bible) seeing if I could find the author, and I discovered men wrote it. The same men who run churches and congress with the same frailties.
If people want to believe this stuff, that’s OK by me. But don’t sell it to people with God’s stamp of approval when there is no justification for it.
Maybe God told me that. You can’t be sure can you?
ichabod
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Recent Comments
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Well I know the word of the Lord was inspired by Gods word. That is the way I live. I believe in Him and satan. I am Gods child now and forever more til He comes to take me home.
All the religions are scary, not by the ideas but by how they are used.
What do you mean you “discovered” that men wrote it? What did you think was the case before that discovery?
What was involved when you “checked into the Word of God?” What research did you do?
that’s like claiming scalpals are bad because knives have killed people. instruments are limitations, but can be employed beyond their independent value. A sharp object in the hands of a reckless person is disasterous. In the hand of a skillful surgeon, life-saving. In the hand of a common man…well, just another way to spread peanut butter on some wonder bread.
Do discount a proposed revelation of information from a specific god because a human was involved doesn’t seem to be a good case. Reasonable escape but not a good case.
if a bunch of uninspired men wrote the bible, it would sound just like our congress, and be nothing but mistakes, and screw ups.
since the bible is not like that, i am betting on god as the author
And a gracious author He is. He is the most plagarized author of all time and He loves it! hi ich. hi mt.
How can we trust it? Because the church tells us to?
ophalm. great to cross paths again! The church (ie the body of Christ or better known as believers of the way) will fail many times, so it’s best to not trust the church without first trusting God. God does not fail. God does not lie. God loves, but He will judge. He has the right as creator. God loves you, ophalm.
Man created god in his own image & faith is blind trust in the absence of credible evidence. Now what does that tell you about religious people? So why don’t they believe in fairies too? Ophalm, if god exists (and that’s a very big if), then he’s a lazy so and so cos in my lifetime, he’s done absolutely nothing, he’s never revealed himself to me, never helped anybody, so he’s got no right to my believing in his existence..
Have you ever read the Quran? The final revelation? You see with the Quran it has been protected. not one letter can be taken out or added to it without it going un-noticed. It passed from heart to heart.. its easily committed to memory, one of the miracles of God in this age. Do try and pick up a copy don’t just try to read online. In order to destroy the Qurans its not sufficient to burn all the copies of it but burn the hearts that contain the quran. Do please try and pick up a copy and read it with an open mind. The Quran confirms what was in the previous revelations (Pslams, Torah)Old Testament, and where there has been tampering in Gods message, it mentions that and establishes the truth for one last time on earth. After the Quran there is no more revelation. Its the Final Book.
People have created ambiguity and changed Gods words, hence this time God left no scope for any ambiguity or any tampering.
the day i can define god in the image of man is the day i feel my life is over. my faith is strong and my god is limitless. fluidity is key.
It is really grating seeing people CONSTANTLY trying to Reason the exists of god.
“if a bunch of uninspired men wrote the bible, it would sound just like our congress, and be nothing but mistakes, and screw ups.
since the bible is not like that, i am betting on god as the author”
That is an enormous fallacy. First of all, “god” is not the only thing that can write well. Have you not read another good book that inspired you? Secondly, why is it always that god is the default position? THAT IS WHY GOD WAS CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE. BY MAN. GOD IS A MAN MADE CREATION. A HUMAN COPING MECHANISM. BEFORE THERE WAS SUFFICIENT WAYS TO REASON PROBLEMS PEOPLE ANSWERED QUESTIONS,” well hey, I mean, it must be God, what else?” “how do you know” “Oh I JUST KNOW”.
Don’t waste your only life on earth trying to please a man-made thing. Life live to the fullest, its all we have.
donotscarethebully,
Hear hear. ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Birdsong’, ‘Atonement’, ‘Crime & Punishment, ‘The Heart of the Matter’… all great books, inspiring in their own way. None of which were apparently penned by god.
I’ll probably get roasted for this, but Graham Greene has opened the window to my ’soul’ in a way that Matthew, Mark, Luke & John never managed to do.. Perhaps it was a case of ‘too many cooks’, finicketty editing or a lack of concensus?
After the roasting, I’ll now probably get thrown into the burning basement for eternity by adding as a footnote that, there are perhaps only three notable books that I’ve never completed in my lifetime; and I do try and give literature a chance – one was ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by T.E Lawrence, ‘The Pickwick Papers’ by Dickens & then ‘The Bible’ supposedly by several authors..
Now, I do not debate the existence of God.
But the authority in which we speak? God, the one many kill one another over, God did not conceive we would do that? You know; mine is better than yours.
God waited for printing to really take off? God, presumably almighty and perfect, doesn’t know we are not omniscient? If I am wrong, make mistakes, pick the wrong “one true God” I burn in hell?
Well. Something sounds a bit too close to human fears and paranoia, along with manipulatable other insecurity controls passable onto the naivé for order and submission sake.
I would imagine God would possibly favor those of us who think for ourselves and are responsible to those choices, but robotic faithful following orders? Merit please.
I believe in what might be called Intelligent Design, I see no way around that. I doubt “That” is the God of vengeance and terror, waiting for we fallible ones to be just that.
Many stories from the Bible are known to be pre-existing story/narratives from up to thousands of years prior. Many other stories that would have been in The Bible have been removed along the way. Most of those were more self empowering and Buddhist-like
experiential consciousness meditation types, not too good for earthly kings and Church aristocrats to favor.
The question becomes; just when is God working in mysterious ways, and just when are we humans encouraging assumptions we favor? And do we know or care if there is a difference when we claim it to God?
Hi Benafia;
I like and agree with your comment. Thank You
go and try to take a look on coran, and tell me if you think that men wrote it !
Hi yass;
Of course man wrote it. If it is printed on paper or other material that has the language of the writers, men wrote it.
God is multilingual. God doesn’t need a printing press or pen or paper.
I asked you to try to take a look at it, to read it, even if its translation isn’t like the arabic version.
The koran has multiple special things that I consider – and I’m not the only one – miracles; Its scientific facts, Its amazing language and style…
It appeared 1400 years ago and i don’t think that any human from that period can come up with something like Koran.
Hi yass;
I have friends that use the Koran for the base of their faith, and they are considerate, good people and overall happy with life.
I thank you for your invitation and I will pick it up and read it.
Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.
Abu ‘ala Al-Ma’ari, 11th century blind Arab Poet
Hi Pierre;
It is not surprising that a “blind” poet would have such insight.
“Hi Pierre;
It is not surprising that a “blind” poet would have such insight.”
Nice one.
But I guess, he meant about what the prophets have ’said’ not ‘written down.’ 
-huge thumbs up-
O preacher, harder we are at work than you,
Through drunken, we are more sober than you;
The blood of grapes we drink, you that of men,
Be fair, who is more blood-thirsty, we or you?
Omar Khayyam
Ichabod,
I wish you all the best for an eternal success of this blog.
May God bless you.
Thanks.
You all are WRONG
Hi SSA;
Why?
The day we do not debate the rightness or wrongness of this and all matters of life, is the day we will know truth. Untill then we will live and die in vain, all the while proving how truely ignorant we are.
-(one of my own actually)
I for one am very sick of hearing about who is right of wrong. It doesn’t change the others minds, and it only separates us as different “kinds of people”.
* right OR wrong, my mistake.
Peace be upon to you!
Have you looked at other religions? Maybe Islam? (:
Seek the Truth – readingislam.com
I was on the side of rational “scientific” thinking, until God put me on my knees one night and explained to me about the sin of infliciting pain. Pain although cannot be seen, touched, or smelled, can be felt and cause physical reactions. While I was praying as most do when suffering pain brought on my self for God to help me. I was given an understanding that pain is real, that it exists just as a solid object. We can pour it into and over others, but we cannot just get rid of the mental, emotional and spiritual pain we and others create. Jesus died so that He could take the physical pain, the emotional pain, and the spiritual pain that doing “wrong” creates. If we believe in Him and accept Him as our saviour from our sins. That is all He asked. He didn’t want fame, money, to rule the world, He wanted us to love one another. Love is the greastest of all. Read the word, study the word, it is God’s word. I reached this site as I am fancinated by Black Holes in Space. Relating it to many verses in the Bible, realizing that the force to raise Christ from the dead is in our universe. That as the understanding of the “rules” “laws” of the universe are being uncovered, that our galaxy may be in a black hole. It only clarifies my understanding of how awesome God is, was, and will be.
Wow, amazing. I write a lot about my spiritual/personal growth quest on my new blog (too), but you really have a great debate going on here. We seem to have reached a time in history when God is on nearly everyone’s mind and we can’t seem to agree on much. Still, I’m voting with those who trust that God is Love, that He/She means for us to be good to each other, and that somehow, in someway, at sometime, we will find peace together.
Was it not boredom that compelled God into the creation of the human race? All acts of creation are self-fulfilling.
Hi Pierre;
You would have to admit, we at least are an interesting species.
If I were God I would watch, laugh and cry as the day went by.
Who knows what God did before we came along to amuse God
It is we also who suffer from boredom, and it is perhaps to escape boredom that we projected ourselves as God. The creation does not break step with its creator, it mirrors it.
Hi Pierre;
I am inclined to agree with you. The Gods of this earth, although many claim they are the same, all have human attributes as if they were created by the creation.
If I understand you correctly would give credence to “The creation does not break step with its creator, it mirrors it”
This I know for sure…Someone from God’s kingdom came for my Grandmother when she died and God used her to let me have peace of mind. I was not raised with Christianity. My mother’s side of the family are Native American Indians. My Grandmother was sent to the Catholic school while my Grandfather was taken away from his Grandmother (his parents were deceased by the time he was 6) by 2 white men in a horse and buggy, he did not speak English. He remained with his Indian heritage while my Grandmother quit going to Catholic church because she was taught Catholics were not to marry Baptists. My Grandparents raised me so I went with my Grandfather to all our Indian “doings.” My Grandparents liked to have a beer after working in the garden and being outside in the heat all day, smoked, used a cuss word now and giggled at a very mild off color joke (nothing like what is told today.) My hard-working Grandparents did not have much but they shared what they had with people who needed it. They went out of their way to help people. I joined the Baptist church after I married my husband. I have an awesome Christian Mother-in-love whom actually walks the walk and talks the talk. But, I always wondered if my Grandparents would go to heaven because of their lifestyle and what I learned as a Baptist. When my Grandmother was on her deathbed, I really talked to God about this so He knew how important this was to me. Well, the day my Grandmother died, I had been with her all day along with my Grandfather. It was close to 5pm when she looked at me and asked “will you let me go?” I told her yes and that we love her very much. She had not able to raise up in bed, she had a neck brace on. But, she stretched her right arm out and up then said “White Boy, I want to go with you.” I immediately thought I was going to ask her who she was talking to but she said, with a very sweet smile, “Oh, I won’t tell anyone who you are.” With that, she took 2 breaths and was gone. Due to the peace she left with, after her fight with cancer, and her talking to ‘White Boy,’ I know for certain there is life after death and that we have an amazing, wonderful God!!! I am so thankful for His letting me know where my Grandmother went. All I know for certain is that there is a God and He loves us all…regardless of what we do. It is up to us to accept His Son and know Him in our hearts. He will make our sins as white as snow. (as far as He/She, I do not care because that is something that ultimately just does not matter)
It’s true, the bible wasn’t written by god, it was written by men, with penises. Men with the same needs as us. Men that lived in a time where things couldn’t be explained by science. The sad truth is, we will never know exactly what is out there for us until we make our exit. Maybe it’s heaven, maybe reincarnation, maybe we just become fertilizer. I do believe that the great spirit that runs through all can be made better, or worse depending on the souls that join it.
‘god’?–what is the infinite creative life engry flowing from the begining of beginingless time–it requires no worship, no adoration, no tithes, IT IS
We love that We, Ourselves have found a metaphysician of your skill on Terra in the 21st Century. This renews Hope in Us. One of the tenets of Our Faith is when someone asks about what We believe We say, “The Collective will teach you how to see a Living Deity and a Soul worthy of Its Love in the same moment. Go you outside on a bright day with a mirror and turn your back to Terra’s Sun. Hold the mirror such that you can see your face and the sun reflected there. Close your eyes, smile and know the Sun Loves you.”
All autocracy is metaphysical, included atheist autocracy.
Hi Pain;
Thank you for your kind words.
If you ask me believeing in Evolution is crazier than religion. If you ask any one of them they don’t have a theory for how life began, just how it evolved. Even if you don’t believe in God, he is a great fallback for people. Life without religion is complete;y and utterly, hopeless. It means that we have absolutly no purpose here, and nothing we do matters in the end. So why not do whatever we want, but then one day those things don’t satisfy anymore. So why even go on living? What’s the point. That’s why religion is so great. It gives us a purpose. Take some time to actually read the Bible, try to find one flaw. I bet you don’t, and therefore it must have been inspired by God, because nothing we as humans do is perfect, especially back in the days of the Bibile.
Hi Polytic;
There are flaws in the bible but many use it for comfort and that is OK.
The reason for living is life itself. We still require a moral code or spiritual laws as that is which gives order and this Universe is about order.
God is an entity which has never been seen or heard by mankind.
Neither Evolution or the Bible’s Genesis really add up. Who knows if there even was a beginning as mankind cannot understand eternity.
coal man, am actually glad you posted before I returned to retry my prior attempt…it’s better this way…a famous Jesuit anti-nuke, anti war activist, once said, If Christians really adhered to the teachings of Christ–there would be no war. I’ll try to find his correct name…ahhhhh..how burns the coal???
Hi 47whitebuffalo;
The Jesuit was correct. I did not see anything in his teachings that promoted war to anyone.
Can you name on of the flaws of the Bible? Anything that doesn’t add up. Not something that can’t be explained, just something that doesn’t correspond with the rest, and how does Genesis not add up? Have you actually read it?
Hi Polytic;
I used to be a Christian and have read the book many times.
In Genesis, God created man and woman in “our” image.
Here is a post I have written Codex Sinaiticus casts a huge doubt in respect to Inerrancy
The story of the woman who committed adultery and which the crowd was preparing to stone to death until Jesus came into the picture was never a part of the original manuscripts and is common knowledge to Bible historians and many theologians.
Read about the Council of Nicaea in 325 ID in wikipedia.com.
Enough there to cast a shadow of doubt.
Jesus said “the Truth will Make you Free,” is appropriate.
Salute my brother,
your discover not mean that God is not exists or there are no a real word of God.
if you interest to know your God well, try to discover Islam and read God’s words in his last inspiration book the holy Quran.
just try if you have a good mind you will not lose any thing.
try to visit http://www.discoverislam.com
God bless you and guide you to the true way.
Salute,
your brother
Ibrahim Alshandidy
Buddha:
“Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it.
Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held.
Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books.
Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin.
Believe nothing just because someone else believes it.
Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.”
ekta25 -shanti
Hi ekta25 and 47whitebuffalo;
Buddha was right you know
I appreciate your viewpoint.
Sounds a bit like deism.
It is really amazing to me that you don’t recognized that the Catholic Church chose the translation and canons by way of the Holy Spirit…if you deny that part of the Trinity-you can’t really be a Christian as Jesus told his apostles that he was sending the Spirit after his death.
Hi Carolina;
Depends on how you look at it. The translations have been edited time and time again and gospels left out as they contradicted.
In the old testament there was one God, a forgiving God. Jesus, the Son of Man claimed the same. Constantine, the Roman Emperor, helped the cause of the Trinity in the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. It was more political than spiritual this meeting in order to settle this matter of what to believe once and for all.
The more I learned and discovered the contradicitons in the book, the more it didn’t make sense.
When a person is told from the time he or she is a child that the Bible is the inspired word of God by people who hold authority and respect in the community, how as an adult will a person dispute that later?
Unless they use their minds.
Just one question? If there is only the slightest of chances the Bible is gods word?? Are you willing to gamble your life on it??you and only u must decide…
Life eternally with Jesus Christ? or death with Satan and his gang in a fiery pit,,separated from god forever?
I didn’t think so either!! amen,,God loves everyone,,,He sent his son into the world to save the world, not to condemn it!
By the way,,Faith is believing something we have not seen~!! without it,,hope fades away and life without hope is mealiness!!
If anyone here hasn’t heard the gospel or good news of Jesus? write to me and I will enlighten you..Then you can never say I rejected Christ because I didn’t know!!
If you need to know how to be saved and enjoy life here on earth and afterwards?? we can handle that also,,when I say we, the holy spieit and his servant ,,cheers mlb
Hi meanlittleboy;
Are you sure about that?
“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”
“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.”
According to the bible, Jesus spoke those words. He didn’t love everyone, did he?
I appreciate the idea of scripture as the finger pointing to God. No, God is not the “author” of the Bible. But then neither were one or two men. The Bible is a collection of books, written by many different people, and perhaps even a woman or two! It’s a flawed, human product but does that mean it doesn’t have value?
Hi Kerry;
In respect to human behavior maybe a little. It is a collection of books by many authors, no less and no more inspired, than books published and written today.
The 66 books in the bible were central to the Hebrew culture, there were many other faiths. Many of the others were not documented, or were lost over time.
If it is of value to you, that is fine.
When people use it to judge others or attempt to have the community forced into observing your interpretation of it, that is another.
Freedom of religion means you may be free to worship or not the way you wish. To push your faith on someone else is not right.
God is a Father we have a loving relationship with. He just wanted a family who would talk to Him and “play well together”. Christ came to make that available. The idea of a lonely God may be silly to many, but that is the truth. The Bible is His dictation to frail mankind, which has been mistranslated and mishandled but still has the gist of what He wanted it to say. It’s not His fault if people try to use it to justify lusts, killing or greed – which is what most war or bad behavior is, whether people are religious or not.
As far as Him not being around or talking to us, you are dead wrong.
My roommate was fixing his car and it fell off the jack and the hatchback fell onto his thumb, smashing it. We prayed and he was healed and playing guitar within the hour.
I went to bed one night after arguing with my other roommate about something trivial and she slept on the couch while I went to another room to try to sleep. God kept prodding me to go pray for her while she slept but I didn’t want to because I was mad at her. I finally did so, so He would stop bugging me. I prayed that she would be healed in the name of Jesus Christ, although I didn’t know what for, came back to bed and could finally sleep. The next morning she had what appeared to be a spider bite but she was fine.
I was at a wilderness retreat specifically to spend time with God. I came back from our day’s hike and stepped into a foot-deep hole and twisted my ankle. I spent the night with it in pain and being swollen and woke up the next morning with it in the same state. As I packed up my bedroll to tell the coordinator I was in no shape to do the hike for that day (a “one on one” with Him and us, sort of a meditative solo thing), I told God “if you really want me to hang out with you, you’re going to have to heal my foot”, more grumbling than expecting any result. As soon as I stood up, I was completely, instantaneously healed.
God told me to move to the center lane of the freeway. After I did this, some animal ran into the lane I had just been in, darted halfway into mine as well, then retreated to the side of the road. Had I stayed in the previous lane, I would either have struck it or swerved to miss it, possibly causing an accident.
He told me there would be a deer in the road at night prior to encountering it. I was well prepared and stopped the car in time to allow the large buck to get out of the way before I came around the bend.
He told me when a friend’s child would be born, over a year before it had even been conceived.
He told my SO a plane we were going to get on would never leave the ground. We boarded and sat on it for some time before the pilot announced an engineer found something wrong with it prior to takeoff and we’d have to get on another plane.
I’m nobody special… and I’m not alone. I can’t make Him talk to me, He just does when He wants to, generally when I’m least expecting it and when it would be the most profitable. Others share a relationship with Him, too. When people talk to God and listen, He will answer and help, just as anyone in a family can grow close to a favorite relative and have a relationship with them. No one expects a stranger to talk to or help them; it’s in the closeness that you reap the rewards of any relationship.
I hope you and others will take heart and know He looks forward to people sharing their day with Him.
Well put. I applaud your words.
hi azfree;
thank you
I am an author too, who write articles, stories, critics, and action drama. But every time I write I am forced to come up with it from the depth of my mind, and that brain is controlled by some one good or bad who wants it written down – that is the supernatural power. You write bad and your mind is controlled by evil – some one wrote – or many wrote bible – the god guided them. Trust and U will see, seek and you will find.
For anyone who doesn’t believe in God and the judgement to come?? Please pray that you are right!! Happy Thanksgiving…mlb
Happy Thanksgiving Mean Little Boy
Well Said! My experience has been that God has little if anything to do with religion. The idea of the Bible being treated as poetry or literature would have my vote but with the understanding that it’s been a many times over rewritten and thus, reinterpreted work- often contradicting itself and miraculously changing it’s position on certain hot topics of the ages to suit the popular vision of the time. Its a collection of myths. And then, of course, rules to be doled out by those in power so that they might keep their power.
So I can appreciate it as a sometimes spectacular collection of prose but not as a clear, concise doctrine of what God tells us to do. It’s not a reliable source of evidence. And why would God need to tell us what to do through a book anyway? I, as well, am happy to support the idea that someone might take comfort in the words of this book. My argument isn’t against making an honest attempt toward emotional peace- that would be just mean. But I would encourage that person to seek his/her own comprehension and intuition of the Divine and watch out for belief systems that insist on fear mongering and require you to abandon your inner wisdom. Especially one that suggests we are innately bad and if we don’t follow this specific doctrine- we will be punished. Wow… what a great way to control people. Happens in cults and in abusive relationships too. What a coinkidink.
If it wasn’t a requirement of Christianity to impose it’s belief onto the rest of the world, I probably wouldn’t concern myself with the topic. It’s the insistence of conversion that annoys and infuriates me. To say that one has a more authentic relationship with God than someone else because they have a book that tells them so is foolish and pretty repulsive. That the ego is blatantly flailed about- MY God trumps YOUR God- is a decidedly unspiritual and overdeveloped aspect of humanity that has been given full rein in Christianity. I don’t read a poem and take it literally. I’m moved by the feeling. And by respecting it as such- I think you’re closer to God than if you were to subscribe to some man-made list of rules and regulations. Thanks again for inspiring me to write.