Lobbyist on behalf of AZ. state bishops says a statute of limitation on sex crime is necessary so that churches can buy pedophile insurance.

From klenow:

"The writings included in the Bible were not intended as complete & definitive history books. This is evidenced by the fact that the historical portions (Chronicles, the Samuels, Kings, etc) often suggest the reader see other, more definitive works for greater detail. These referenced works have been lost. The whole "All scripture is God-breathed" line used by so many Christians is an out of context sentence fragment. It's not even half of the sentence.

The historical writings of the Old Testament are there to give context to the Prophetic writings of the Old Testament, they are not there to give a complete history of Israel. This context is intended as a record of judgement on Israel for becoming unclean or being unjust and doing nothing about it. You can't hold a text accountable for dropping the ball on something it never intended to do and does not claim to do.

Extraordinary claims only require extraordinary evidence if you're trying to convince someone. Which I guess is implied in the word "claim," but I don't know what claims was made by who or whatever. Anyway.

In the post you linked, the poster is the one making the claim; he's saying Christianity is wrong and should not be believed. It's up to him to now make that argument, it's not up to me to convince him Christianity is right. (Which is a good thing, because I can't. That's why I won't make the claim; I will only claim that I believe it is right). I do not not think his arguments are strong, for the reasons outlined above and decsribed in a bit more detail here. Again, I make no counterclaim because I can't back it up. I only say that his arguments are weak.

If you want to disprove something scientifically, you have to find evidence to contradict. To use another relevant cliche to counter your relevant cliche, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Invisible pink flying spaghetti unicorn monsters included.

And yes, I do give Christians a hard time about making claims they can't back up."
Here's a link to that thread on Reddit.

----------------

belief (faith - conviction) obtains permission from the greater community. without permission, experience is the source. For example: Belief in a caring god improves response to medical treatment for depression. (Eurekalert, Journal of Clinical Psychology) And without which, there's no social support. So to cultivate social support, one adopts the ways of a selected group, probably in response to the perceived degree of threat (like from subjective (deamons) or objective (terrorists) territorial threats).

Devils Advocate:

After ranting against religion for years, this post draws on some of religion's common themes to explain personal observations. If I'd grown up in a different culture, I'd have a different set of themes.

In a previous post I described a friend getting magical information which he couldn't possibly have known. A piece of the story which I didn't tell was that when the impression hit him (that a non-discript paper bag on a distant curb contained some tools that he needed), it was in a verbal form; words. At the time he put it down to his internal dialog, even when the "voice" said "... and remember that I told you?" (Joe said "ok").

My current thinking is that animals including people have an inherent capacity to be part of a communal synthesis or archetype, Cosmic Consciousness. An easy example is when dogs know that a friend is about to arrive, or a pet travels to an unknown location to be with their "owner". Temple Grandin, an autistic woman w/ PHD in Animal Science in Ft Collins CO, believes animals and autistic humans share the same way of thinking

• When Joe was 3, he woke up from an afternoon nap and nobody was home, so he went out looking for his mom. He found her in the basement of a nearby school attending a PTA meeting. There was no map, he followed his heart.
  
• When Joe found the sack of tools, he was homeless.
  
• A sheepdog named Gigi belonging to a previous employer was 13 years old when she jumped out of his truck unnoticed on the Usall road, about 30 miles up the coast, & across 3 rivers wide enough to swim. 2 weeks later she showed up home looking sleek and fit.
  
• Steve Sinclair sold his property on Navarro Ridge, which included a barn w/ a barn cat named Pearl. Steve moved to Greenwood Ridge near Elk, about 15 miles away. 3 weeks later, Joe was standing with him in front of the Oasis Bar & Grill in Elk when Pearl walked out from under a parked car and jumped into his arms.

A quality that seems to be present in most of these is that the person or animal is moving, they're physically unrestrained, unattached, they're goal oriented & they feel free.

Fear, or belief in some kind of strategic repression (like from the cops or mean people), can destroy ones connection to the "cosmic archetype", the "father in heaven" if you will. The solution to fear is: 1) ignore it, become immortal (or act like it for as long as possible). 2) back off and say "ok, thy will be done, for thine is the kingdom, etc…" & kiss up to the oppressor (love your enemy).

When biblical prophets described god as being selfish and vengeful, they were describing themselves, or their most outstanding social fears. I think because the archetype is given the form of the biggest dealer.

The Bible, Koran, and Torah, all represent the same psychological construction and call it a God, but manipulate it into an organizational tool, with members and "non believers", so that there's an artificial distinction which is politically exploitable. That's wrong headed, selfish, and shameful, but historically typical of that god.

sorry, no links or pics.

I'm curious about the rational of remarks about racism towards Israeli Jews & Arabs. on the one hand the there's no race issue because everyone involved is a descendant of Abraham. On the other hand, anyone can become islamic, but no one "becomes" Jewish. You can practice Judaism, but to be a Jew, you have to be a descendant of Aaron (brother of Moses). It's a really good bet that a lot of the arabs in palestine are also descendants of Aaron because the Jewish people tended to adopt the dominant religion (christian, moslems, Hindus, or in the case of the soviets: atheists.) to avoid being targets of discrimination and blend into the host society. So technically it's a family feud where everyone claims to be the rightful inheritor, carries a gun, & is not speaking. Sure looks like a genetic trait. For all the lauded brain potential claimed in that region, nobody seems to be using one. Ireland is different though, because there's no brains involved, never was, & everyone admits it. Crete & Bosnia too.

it's weird that belief wars among the same race can last for centuries. Tribal people of New Guinea have had the same thing going on for thousands of years. In fact race is less of a factor of war than religion. maybe hormones have something to do with that, because other races are viewed as sexually exotic, and there's some kind of pheromone that animals perceive that encourages interbreeding outside of ones known group.

That pheromone might also be the problem underlying religious strife. that is: religious nonsense, & sexual taboos (which usually go together) could be a result of some subliminally practiced method to maintain gene diversity within limited territory. Come to think of it, war could be a way to foster genetic diversity within limited territory, (Mormons, Amish, Heuterites & Menonites are doomed) I mean the most patriotic, &/or aggressive get sent to the front w/ a weapon. Patriotism is another word for faith.

As the internet knocks down barriers to communication, maybe it also knocks down territorial perception. fine so long as the new world is perceived as exotic. maybe not so fine if it's perceived as an extension of "our own" territory.

Funnies: god 0 god 1 god 2 god 3

Militant atheism
Aggressive roots of Altruism

Evolution, religion, schizophrenia and the schizotypal personality video (Robert Sapolsky) online discussion

A list of 639 gods that atheists don't believe in, which includes buddha, (who isn't a god), but doesn't include me (who is/am). My title is "He who affects nothing". I can really do that, unfortunately I don't have any proof.