reply to post by OhZone
Yes
(Returned after remembering that one-liners are frowned upon by the Mods. So editing to say that your post comes closest to my own stance re: this
issue.)
,,,,,,,,,,
And now I'm warming up, I'll continue, I guess.
The Bible is a book, a joint-enterprise, written of course by man .. fallible man. Quite often, I'm surprised to learn that many believe the Bible
to be the 'work of God'. Maybe they believe God dictated it to his secretary ?
Oh, I'm becoming weary already. Where to begin ? As you've correctly mentioned, OhZone, 'God' didn't commence with Genesis. Nor is he an
avowed Christian. He's not 'contained' (as cage-like) within the Bible.
Most importantly though and as I've said many times in various threads, where does the buck stop .. where should it stop ? If you or I 'created' a
cake or cart which failed ... who would be responsible for the failure -- the cake, the cart ? Don't we say: ' It's a poor workman who blames his
tools ? ' Shouldn't this apply equally to God as to man ?
Yet what do we hear from the apologists ? We hear that it is man's fault or the debil's fault. We hear that God gave man 'free will' and that
THIS is the reason for what are deemed 'failings', 'sins', 'falls from grace'.
Come on ! If God created mankind in his own likeness .. it can only mean one of two things: (a) that God is as prone to 'sin', 'failings' and
'falls from grace' as is mankind ... OR .. (b) that God didn't do a very good job when he created mankind. So if mankind is 'faulty' ... blame
the workman, NOT the product.
If God is responsible for the creation of mankind, then he's also responsible for the creation of rapists, murderers, thieves, liars, etc. And as
such, rapists, murderers etc. are NOT responsible for their actions (or 'sins' as some would have it) at all ... God is !
But wouldn't it be more realistic to acknowledge that whilst rape and murder are not nice (for the victim) they're nevertheless the result of our
animal ancestry rather than 'sins' ?
There's very little separating mankind from apes. As Desmond Morris so aptly described us, we are Naked Apes. We're evolved apes, if you like.
Certainly we're more technologically advanced .. and of course, most of us lack the ape's body hair. But apes can 'talk', if provided the tools,
as has been shown. Crows are able to fashion tools specific to particular tasks. Dogs, cats and horses (and very possibly cows, sheep and lions,
etc) very often demonstrate compassion, loyalty, intelligence, etc. that eclipse mankind's.
So, we are animals. And there's nothing to prove that we are in any way superior to supposedly Stone Age peoples. It's tempting to suppose that at
some point mankind was modified or hybridized by creatures unknown, commonly supposed to be 'advanced aliens'. As OhZone mentioned in his/her post,
certain of the Egyptian royals had unique skull-form, and bodies too. They were red-haired. Their language is most closely associated with ancient
Welsh .. with the Welsh pre-dating the Egyptian. Monotheism originated with certain of these Egyptians .. and from this comes our 'Amen'.
We're not going to ignore that the Christian Bible's Flood, virgin birth, crucifixion, etc. were preceded by virtually identical teachings of
earlier cultures and religions, are we ?
The days of unquestioning belief are over .. or should be. It's not that long ago that people believed God created the world some 5,000 years ago,
approx. .. that the Sun rotated around the Earth, etc. People were kept in ignorance but in retrospect, it must have been a glorious era,
particularly for the ignorant ... for they were free to believe that mankind was God's perfect creation, created in God's image and the centre of
his thoughts, affections, universe, etc. Departures from civilized behaviour and ideals was deemed to be 'sin' and conveniently blamed upon the
debil. The debil was God's fall-guy. Everyone was comfortable with that. Saved them from having to lay the responsibility for those 'sins' at
the door of either mankind or God. And the safety-clause was 'free will'. And never mind those portions of the Bible which showed God as
unprepared to grant free-will as excuse for SOME 'sins', namely those perpetrated by those on God's black-list. No 'free will' defence for them,
you'll notice. Nope .. according to the Bible, God stepped in personally and instructed his allegedly 'favoured' people to rape, burn, murder and
otherwise dispose of entire cities .. the innocent along with the rest. Just ? Compassionate ? Sane ?
No. Not just, or sane. Because the Bible was written by MAN .. not by God.
Obviously mankind owes its existence to Something, Someone, whom we label 'God'. Makes no difference if we originated in cosmic dust which landed
in the primeval soup and over millenia evolved into sea creatures, then creatures which crawled, then walked, on land. Perhaps one day we'll be able
to trace the origins of that cosmic dust, back, back and far away, until eventually we'll learn that from which we sprang & to which we owe our
earthly existence. On the other hand we may eventually learn that what we consider our existence is in fact merely the daydream or nightmare of some
unimaginable creature. But at the root, everything had to commence somewhere, in something .. so God exists, but it's almost certain he/she/it bears
not the remotest resemblance to what we imagine God to be .. or to the God of the Bible.
In the meantime, we're stuck with what and where we are. And surely it's time we grew up and recognised and ackowledged that those actions etc. we
describe as 'sin' are actually ignorance ... are biological in many instances .. are the result of failure to suppress and control chemical impulses
and animalistic instincts, etc. etc.
[edit on 5-2-2008 by Dock6]
