Book Club

oh, you don't think the bible is real? let me throw some bible verses at you, that'll change your mind

This was one of my issues when I was a Christian. There is no external authority that the Bible was the inherent word of God and no way to ensure that the words within it were transcribed or even translated within the Authority of God.
There is a whole study of Bible hermeneutics that is about finding authority within the Bible.
You know how in the show Community Abed was always trying to meta the show? Imagine that, but really not funny and it's taken seriously.
- Another problem with Bible (and other similar books) is that it doesn't make sense that omnipotent god would communicate to humans trough vague book that would have many different interpretations and possibly have it's meaning changed a bit with translations to different languages. At least there are Christians who accept that events from Bible never happened.
- transcribed or even translated within the Authority of God.
  on that topic, in case you haven't seen it, i recommend biblical scholar bart ehrman's presentation on problems with the bible.
the Bible is real. like you can go buy it at Walmart.
- Am I allowed to throw all of the Bible verses at someone? Like at the same time.
- In every hotel room too, fkn creepy. Burned every one I got a hold of

Cults are small. Christianity is big. And it was Christians who, during the satanic panic, created a false association in pop culture between cults and abuse. See, back in the 60s, the hippie movement was turning young people away from Christianity and towards new age spiritualities like wicca and thelema. The christians had to put a stop to these cults, so they created a myth that cult=abuse.
- Eh, I'm gonna go ahead and keep calling any group with charismatic authoritarian leaders/councils a cult. The word "cult" is inherently tied to worship which involves giving up some of your own agency or, at least, taking things on blind faith or admiration.
  Any time you have adherents giving up their free will/agency, that's abuse and manipulation, to me.

The bible is real. And very useful, to roll blunts with in a pinch.

They knew what they were doing with those super thin pages. 😉
Stay away from the gilded edges, though.
...or so I've heard.
Yes, folks who don't read Bible don't realize how much bible says about money, trade and economy. Proverbs book is my favorite, the deuteronomy book I leave for older brothers in fath ( kidding :-) )

It's more:
a man sees something here doesn't understand. He makes up a story to explain it.
The story is shared among a tribe for generations, occasionally a skilled storyteller improves it
Eventually writing is invented, the story at some point is written down, maybe improved one more time as it's put to paper
It's copied over generations, occasionally improved by good writer, it is adjusted and added to a collection of stories about God and his prophets and miracles
Even had the writers wanted to fact check the stories, they couldn't, they had spent too long in oral transmission.
Even the new testament wasn't written by the people who were there at the time, it was more like telling the stories that your grandfather heard from his grandfather
People are pretty prone to improving stories they tell, they make them flow better, they make people's motives clear when really they were hidden
- Add to this tons of translations to different languages, not to mention different versions of the book in the same language. So it's a massive buffet where anybody can pick whatever suits their taste.
To put a finer point on it, your understanding of the author's understanding of the thing in this instance is a third Venn circle without much overlap to those first two. 🤌🏾
- Also, many retellings of the thing in different languages with different understandings and intentions over many centuries.
- "the thing" itself is (and should be) missing from the diagram.
I've also read The book of the damned by Charles Fort.

One of the most frustrating things of dealing with bible people is when the request for proof comes up. They just point at the Bible. Like it’s some text that has deep references to verifiable and cross referenced historical fact. Like Pontious Pilate’s administration leaving records of some guy doing magic on the regular, him getting in fights with rich people, or even just a criminal docket of hanging a magical guy.

Nope. They just point at their book as proof of itself.

what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence
And when they still point to that bible of theirs, start quoting your favorite incest story.
- Which you can find in their book, BTW

I only care insomuch as stupid people use it as a guide for repression.

Hail, Satan.

Can't tell if Atheist or American Christian

Schizophrenic, Bronze Age, fan fiction has a lot to answer for.

So is new atheism back?

That's not very Satanic, friendo.

Swoon lol

And her opinion on the sign only adds to it.
- Haha that's the part that made me swoon. She's beautiful, but her ideas are what took me off my feet lol.
Glad I'm not the only one... She is extremely attractive

Amen!

She forgot to address them as "you bitches".

Racist or satire?
- Based on al his other comments I'd say 12 years old racist troll.

You can't have a serious discussion with a person who follows a millennia old book
Oh, and that's what the other side is pursuing - a serious discussion?
Spare us. The other side is out for blood. No discussion is detailed in Project 2025.
Then why did you do it?
Ironic. 🤣🖕🏽
If we swap the word "bible" for "lawbook" does your opinion change?
- If we had it all active laws in one book, that would be a huge step in the right direction.

So if you ignore all the bad stuff, it’s full of good stuff? Brilliant!
Do you realize that there has been a great wealth of ethical discussion in the 1700 years since the Bible was compiled?
And you're seriously going to tell me that the BIBLE, which condones genocide, slavery, the murder of homosexuals, etc, is more moral or ethical than ANYTHING that has been compiled in that time? Half of the Bible was written by litteral genocidal warmongers.
You could put two random children's books together, and it would be a far superior compilation of morals than the Bible.
This feels like satire, and that's saying a lot
In my opinion, people who don't need the threat of eternal damnation to be "good" people have better morals because they aren't motivated by anything other than just not being a piece of shit. They're naturally good people
You're telling me if someone has the urge to murder, but this fairy tale sky daddy is telling them they'll be in eternal pain for doing so, that they're morally better than someone who doesn't have the urge to murder? "I would love to kill someone but I'm a selfish evil asshole and I myself don't want to be in pain so I won't kill this person, not out of empathy, but out of selfishness"
You gotta be trolling
My problem with what you said comes entirely from my personal experience. Most of the worst people I've come across in life have been theological Christians. Atheists tend to be bound by their own ethics, which I've found to be far more powerful than someone telling you how to behave.
I think it's less the community and more the complete lack of logic based on what the text is their holy book says. If you use the Bible as a moral code, you are a horrible person
- Whaaaaat? You saying I should have charged an extra goat for my 12 year old daughter?!?
- Exactly, I murder and rape as much as I want. Which is zero. Because I'm not fucked up.
  If the only thing stopping me from doing stuff like that is the words in an old book.... There may be another problem there.
This user, instead of thinking critically about his views after so many users present evidence against his claims, moans that he "didn't realize what community [they] commented on". Not attempting to interact with or even counter the information and arguments presented, he simply ignores it because his beliefs cannot hold against consideration and reason.
So then explain to me why it was ok for God to order his followers to destroy the Tower of Babel and slaughter those building it? I believe God's logic was, "If they complete this tower, it'll show the world they don't need me, and we can't have that."
How exactly was that ethical? Or should we discuss being allowed to beat your slave, so long as they don't die within three days, you haven't commited murder because they are your property? Is that the ethics and morality you're speaking of?
Or maybe it's the "an eye for an eye" part, where revenge is completely justified? I believe it took a Hindu nationalist to add "makes the world blind" to actually make that statement ethical.
Or maybe you're trying to discuss one of the many, many instances of rape that occurs in the bible, but it's completely justified and ethical because God said so?
Personally, if you base your morals and ethics off of the Bible, you're a piece of shit who justifies their immoral behavior using an outdated text as some kind of shield because you think, so long as you repent riiiiiiiiight before you eat the big one, you're good. 🙄
- So do you have a copy of the comment...?

If you take the time to make this poster and walk around the streets for everybody to see,

Then you do care a lot about what's in the Bible.

You simply don't agree with it.

Now, we may ask: why?

The answer is: because she doesn't benefit from it. She probably wants to be a promiscuous without being ashamed for it.

the fuck's wrong with you?
she doesn't care about the Bible but people forcing religion and their religious rules on everyone else is why she's out there with that sign; she's fighting for her freedom from religion and her personal rights.
- Yes, right. So courageous.
  As side effect, she's also promoting the decline of the nuclear family, because sexual freedom also means relationship instability.
  A woman that is sexually free also means that fatherhood with such a woman isn't asured because a man can't tell if the kids are his or not.
  This also means that kids are more prone to be fatherless, lack proper guidance and get into crimes and delinquency.
  I could get into more details, but I don't feel I'm in the right community to do so.
  Yes, the Bible and religions are restrictive, but they are somewhat useful and served purposes.
Why are you being so weird?
I really love having the tag feature. It'll help me remember in the future when I've met someone that slut shames people to defend Christianity
- Right?
  Like maybe she wants to be able to dress comfortably without the rules of some goat herder's book of fairytale and moral values.
  Or the right to speak without a man to speak for her.
  Or to open a bank account without her husband or father being on the account too.
  Or one of the other thousands of things women have had to deal with, outside of fucking sexual freedom, or still deal with thanks to this holy book.
  Also, she should be able to have sex freely with other consenting adults without shame too.
God is made up and the bible was written by dillusional human. Who are you to shame promiscuity when priests around the world fuck little boys.
You can fuck off with you high and mighty beliefs
When you die you rot in the ground that's it
- Everybody is prone to sins and misconducts, me, you and priests too.
  Sinners die and rot too.
Just for the sake of an open response to this, in the case you're not actually trolling. Do you really believe this woman does care about the contents of the bible? Or can you see the imo more logical point that she cares about certain political movements not agreeing to the seperation of church and state, leading to actual policy based on a religious book you don't believe in or agree with?
In that case, where is the need to actually believe in the bible or it's teachings just to put in the effort of making a sign and protesting? At that point you're protesting the consequences of a select group of people pushing their religious dogmas on everyone under the veil of politics. Which unfortunately still seems to happen in current times imo.
The answer is: because she doesn’t benefit from it.
What does this imply about those who agree with it?
Maybe it is because there is no hard proof for it, and its adherents are using their unproven bible to tell her what to do?
Nice mansplain.