Thread: The Bible: Fact or Fiction? Video

I love it!

The best way to ruin the entertainment value of stories is to believe in them. Oh well, if I can't count on the bible to entertain me, at least I can count on all of the other, mostly much older, stories that are basically the same.

Send it. Just do it. Come out to your family, Burns. Let them know the real you. We're with you.

Originally Posted by Moonbeam

Send it. Just do it. Come out to your family, Burns. Let them know the real you. We're with you.

haha they'd probably think I've been taken over by the devil and have an intervention to try and "save" me. I'm too much of a chicken to tell them what I really think. That's why I thought sending a video like this would say it much better

I'm glad I've got you to back me up

That is such a good video. I would love to see a rebuttal to it. I read the comments on the web site, and the only disagreement was stuff like, "That is stupid," and, "I am a Christian, so I don't agree with Penn." I would like to see somebody really try to argue with it.

Originally Posted by Burns

I'm glad I've got you to back me up

You know it, babe.

Seriously, I know it's hard to talk about it with family. That's the worst. The argument never ends. I just left my Dad's, I know, believe me.

The easiest way to realize at least the old testament is a book of stories is to read the story of Joseph the son of Jacob and then read the book of Daniel and then realize that they are exactly the same story told with different characters.

There are other weird repeats in the bible; for example, Lot offering his daughters to be gang-raped instead of the visiting angels, and in the book of Judges, where an unnamed "Levite" is accosted for sex at someone's house, and the host offers his daughter and the priest's GF instead of the old man.

(Why the men of the town want to have sex with male angels and old men, I don't know--the bible is a very strange book.)

I noticed a lot of comments about the video that said something along the lines of, "This is stupid. Of course not everything in the Bible should be taken literally!"

That is absolutely the stupidest argument for the many contradictions of the Bible I've ever heard. Why have a "holy" book if you get to pick and choose which parts are holy? It bugs me when people tell me I can't be moral because I'm an atheist. I ask religious people where their morals come from and they usually say their morals come from God, i.e. the Bible. How does that make any sense if people are always cherry-picking the parts in the Bible to follow? How do we know it's no longer "good" to stone a man if he works on Sunday, etc.?

Obviously, our morals come from somewhere else. Not a god and not the Bible.

I love Penn and Teller.

Originally Posted by johnnyquest

I love Penn and Teller.

Penn and Teller are awesome. As they say "We are biased as fuck, but we come out and say it". So they don't try to deceive people or lie to them; they're straight out and honest.

Other good episodes on religion are Holier than thou and Signs from heaven. Hitchens is on Holier than thou talking about his book "The Missionary Position".

Originally Posted by Universal Mind

That is such a good video. I would love to see a rebuttal to it. I read the comments on the web site, and the only disagreement was stuff like, "That is stupid," and, "I am a Christian, so I don't agree with Penn." I would like to see somebody really try to argue with it.

I would also like to see a dog get sucked through an aircraft turbine and live-- but that's just not going to happen.

Originally Posted by kaeraz

I noticed a lot of comments about the video that said something along the lines of, "This is stupid. Of course not everything in the Bible should be taken literally!"

That is absolutely the stupidest argument for the many contradictions of the Bible I've ever heard. Why have a "holy" book if you get to pick and choose which parts are holy? It bugs me when people tell me I can't be moral because I'm an atheist. I ask religious people where their morals come from and they usually say their morals come from God, i.e. the Bible. How does that make any sense if people are always cherry-picking the parts in the Bible to follow? How do we know it's no longer "good" to stone a man if he works on Sunday, etc.?

Obviously, our morals come from somewhere else. Not a god and not the Bible.

They come from the mighty Flying Spaghetti Monster of course!

Just read his eight "I'd really rather you didn't"'s!

Originally Posted by Seismosaur

They come from the mighty Flying Spaghetti Monster of course!

Just read his eight "I'd really rather you didn't"'s!

I must admit, I have been touched by his noodly appendage...

Originally Posted by kaeraz

It bugs me when people tell me I can't be moral because I'm an atheist. I ask religious people where their morals come from and they usually say their morals come from God

A person who is moral only because the Bible tells him to be does not have a conscience. If orders and threats are all that keep a person in line, that person is scum. I do not need to believe in God to be good, and I would rather not be in the same room with anybody who does. Also, non-human animals have moral codes. For example, male zebras test males who want to mate with their daughters. Male apes beat up and dethrone pack leaders who are abusive to the young apes in the pack, and the mothers of those young apes put them up to the beating and dethroning. What passage of the Bible tells them to do that?

I believe morality is so much more valuable when it comes from an appreciation of life as opposed to a fear of retribution.

Morality, in my opinion of course, is just a usually unspoken code of laws that dictate every day life.

The laws of the united states are not morals-- they are extensions to them.

Originally Posted by kaeraz

I must admit, I have been touched by his noodly appendage...

Did you enjoy it?

Originally Posted by wasup

I believe morality is so much more valuable when it comes from an appreciation of life as opposed to a fear of retribution.

Good point. I feel like some Christians only do things they think are good so they can "buy" their way into heaven and avoid hell, not because they think it's a good way to treat fellow human beings. Kind of a selfish when you think about it.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Did you enjoy it?

I don't sleep with spaghetti gods and tell. Nyah!

Oh, and that's about the creepiest emoticon I've ever seen.

Originally Posted by Burns

Good point. I feel like some Christians only do things they think are good so they can "buy" their way into heaven and avoid hell, not because they think it's a good way to treat fellow human beings. Kind of a selfish when you think about it.

Absolutely! And it's even scarier because some of them think they're pleasing their god when in fact they're really hurting the people around them.

"Without religion, we would have good people doing good things, bad people doing bad things. It takes religion to make a good person do bad things."

Have you ever heard the threats of violence and death that Dawkins has received from Christians? Hmm, who has the problem with morality?

Originally Posted by Moonbeam

Have you ever heard the threats of violence and death that Dawkins has received from Christians? Hmm, who has the problem with morality?

Yup yup yup. I'm sure the other "horsemen" have, too. Hitchens said he received letters saying things like, "I know where your children go to school" and stuff. So scary. Those sort of things are so pathetic, they're sub-human.

I think the fact that atheists usually have a more highly developed moral system than most religious people is all the proof we need that morals don't come from religion.

But Moonbeamers... Hitler and Stalin were atheists!! I swear, if I hear that argument one more time (from someone who's serious about it), I will lose my mind. And hilarity will ensue.