събота, 15 юни 2019 г.

Bible Arguments

By DeYtH Banger


"The delusional belief that what we do matters for all of eternity provides a false hope. Such a false hope falls under the Marxist critique that religion acts like a drug to numb us from the pain of injustice on earth through hope of a heaven in the afterlife. Having eyes on a heaven in the sky causes believers to be no earthly good. In fact, the hope of an afterlife devalues human life. Who really cares if people die when we go to war? The righteous will go to heaven. So let’s go to war. What does it matter if we abuse the environment? This earth is not our eternal home. What does it really matter that a tsunami wiped out a quarter of a million people? God will reward believers with eternal life. “The poor you will always have with you,” Jesus reportedly said (Matt. 26:11)."

- John W. Loftus




"Neither Sinatra’s boots nor rocks nor human beings were created by a deity for any purpose. Unlike boots and rocks though, we have evolved to be our own meaning makers. We were thrust into this world and must now make the best of this life. We cannot do otherwise Let’s talk about what we need to have a happy and fulfilling life. We need people. No one is an island. Social ostracism is painful, as is poverty, illness, or a life lived in prison. It’s doubtful any reasonable person prefers these things to having friends, wealth, food, health, and freedom. So in order to gain these benefits a person must have a kind and trustworthy character, earn his or her keep, stay healthy and fit, and obey the law. People who pursue risky behaviors or sick fantasies will eventually lose their freedom; so reasonable people don’t chase after those things.

    Since we cannot turn on and off what we value like a faucet, we must sometimes act contrary to our immediate self-interests for an overall life plan that includes friendship, love, and worth. Holistic happiness is its own reward. That is all the meaning we need in life."



- John W. Loftus




"Once locked inside the house of life we must get along if we want the benefits of a life worthy to be lived, and that means mutual cooperation. Those who refuse we ostracize. Those who choose to hurt others will eventually be caught and banished from society in jail."

- John W. Loftus



"There are other conceptions of gods with their own moralities. And how does this being communicate to us what is permitted? Isn’t it evident that the Christian God has not effectively done so, given the biblical record and the history of the church?
There is no evidence that a Christian God is needed for morality since many non-Christian cultures have done very well for themselves in their own time periods with no Christian influence at all, such as Greece during the Golden Age, the Roman Empire, China, and Japan. This is nothing but a parochial, narrow-minded, and uninformed claim. I think all a believer has to do is travel the globe to see this."

- John W. Loftus



"Morality evolves. It has done so from the very beginning. Morality is not even unique to human beings. We find precursors of it in the nonhuman species.

    But maybe I’ve missed the point?

    If this is supposed to be an argument for the existence of God, not even Richard Swinburne, one of the greatest living Christian apologists, thinks it works: “I cannot see any force in an argument to the existence of God from the existence of morality.”[3] If it doesn’t convince him, why should it convince me, or anyone else for that matter."

- John W. Loftus




"Does God create morality? If so, he can create any kind of morality at all. Then any acts—even horrific ones—could be morally obligatory simply because God commands them. Or must God instead derive morality from a higher source? If so, even God must obey it. Christian philosophers have all but abandoned the divine command theory, or at least modified it. All they can say is that God is what he is and that he does what he does. That’s it!"


- John W. Loftus



"‘Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.’ Really? What do you mean? You want me to kill my children? Why them? Yes, I know they are unrighteous, lacking a care for godly things. That’s my fault as a mother. Why me? You want to test me just like you tested Abraham with Isaac? Are you sure? I just can’t do that. You want me to drown them in the bathtub? If you insist, Lord."

- John W. Loftus




"Contrary to Randal, if there is a God, everything can be permitted, for faith-based reasoning can justify any evil deed. In fact, religion is what turns otherwise good people into evil monsters because they think God told them what to do, either “audibly” or from something they read in the Bible."

- John W. Loftus






"John’s Opening Statement

    Child sacrifice was commanded of the Israelites by Yahweh, the biblical God. In Exodus 22:29–30 we read:

You shall not delay to offer from the fulness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses. The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day you shall give it to me. (RSV)

    The context of this passage concerns offerings and sacrifices, and it says God requires firstborn sons to be literally sacrificed to him. Later on we find Yahweh admitting he commanded this in Ezekiel 20:25–26, where he purportedly said:

    Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life; and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD [Yahweh]. (RSV)."

- John W. Loftus



"The case of Micah 6:6–8 is an interesting one. In it child sacrifice is considered the greatest and highest form of sacrifice, for the prophet has a progression of three parts in pondering what will please Yahweh the most. Micah first considers sacrificing one-year-old calves; then he considers sacrificing thousands of rams; then he culminates in considering the highest offering he could give Yahweh: his firstborn son. His logic depends on child sacrifice being the greatest sacrifice of all—more than that of sacrificing the calves or rams—for the shocking conclusion of his ruminations is that even this greatest sacrifice is unacceptable to Yahweh without justice. For while all of these acts were required by Yahweh, they meant nothing without also doing acts of justice.

    Child sacrifice was only later considered evil after Josiah’s reforms and even more so after the Babylonian exile. Even the later rhetoric in Deuteronomy 12:29–31 and Jeremiah 7:31, 19:5, and 32:35 which condemns the practice all assumes that people thought it was acceptable to Yahweh. Otherwise why would these later authors find a need to condemn it? In other texts the practice was condemned primarily because it was offered to other deities (2 Kings 17:17; 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:4–10; Ps. 106:38; Isa. 57:5–6; Ezek. 16:20–21; 20:26, 31; 23:37, 39)."

- John W. Loftus

Няма коментари:

Публикуване на коментар