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  • DistroMan 20:00 on September 24, 2011 Permalink
    Tags: , , , , church, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   

    To have or not to have a future, religion is the problem! 

    There has been ongoing rhetoric from all levels of the Roman Catholic priesthood from the Pope on down over the last few years about how they are no worse than secular society.  They have said that there is just as much pedophilia outside the church as there is inside.  Well, for once I’m not going to argue with that point.  I’ll allow it to slide by in the interests of taking the argument one step further.

    What I’d like ask them is whether that argument applies to other areas in which they fall miserably short.  I know there are pedophiles, misogynists, bullies, homophobes, bigots, murderers, thieves, pimps, torturers, slavers etc. out there in society.  We hear about them nearly everyday, but what is most telling is that there are all these types within the Catholic Church itself.  How can this be true you ask?  How is easy.  Read your bible.  It allows for it.  No, it not only allows for it, it demands it.  It is as if they have gathered together the worst parts of humanity and called them ‘brother’.  This is a church of criminals of the worst kind.  Most people only hear about one or two reports and shake their heads as if it is just some kind of anomaly.  It beggars belief that so many outside the church fall for their line of being the moral compass for society when they continue to commit these crimes year after year and use excuses no ordinary person would ever dream of using in a court of law.  Catholics refuse to pull their heads out of their collective arses and see the church for what it is.

    No, I am not saying it is another mafia, or a guild of thieves, or a rape gang.  I’m saying it is all of these and more.  They have murdered, tortured, raped and thieved their way throughout history.  The megalomania is rife within this institution.  Power and wealth is what it is all about.  They want to own everything and have power over us all. Every single one of us.  When you give even the most cursory of glances over their blood soaked history you can see the evidence for yourself.

    As soon as Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire by imperial edict (315), more and more pagan temples were destroyed by Christians and pagan priests were killed. Between 315 and 6th century thousands of pagan believers were slain. Christian priests such as Mark of Arethusa or Cyril of Heliopolis were famous as “temple destroyers.”  Pagan services became punishable by death in 356.  Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed, because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues.  For more read Crimes committed since the advent of the religion of peace!  It goes on and on.

    They have only been kept in check by secular society evolving out of the middle ages and taking some kind of control.  The problem is that the label ‘religion’ still carries with it some kind of inviolable immunity.  We still allow them to use the most feeble of excuses to commit some of the most horrendous of crimes.  Oh sure, we convict and jail some of them, but only after the church has recruited, trained and supported them for decades.  We cannot continue in this vein hoping that it will all go away and they will become what they purport to be.  They never were.  They aren’t and they never will be.  Why?  Because that is not what they want to be.  It never was.

    Just take a quick look at what christianity has done for Africa lately.  They are killing homosexuals.  They are accusing children of being witches and burning them to death.  Adults are being hacked to death because they don’t belong to a local church.  You think it only happened in the Middle Ages?  It’s happening now.  This very minute.

    Read a bible and see what Christianity was like two thousand years ago.  Read the link I gave you above for a short list of what has been happening up until recently.  Think back over what you know about recent history regarding the Church.  Actually think about it.  Then, just for the hell of it, ask yourself how many times during that long reign of terror, people said to themselves ‘Oh, but it is only an anomaly, it will go away!’  Has it?  No. It hasn’t and it never will if people keep thinking in this manner.

    It is about time the world at large woke up and smelled the putrefying undead corpse that is the Roman Catholic Church.  Getting at the priests one at a time will only ever allow them to continue the way they are now by ignoring us and our needs.  To stop this we need to behead the beast. And while I poke my stick at the Catholic Church, this applies to religion as a whole.  It’s time has past.  Long ago.

    Now the time has come for humanity to grow up, put away childish things and take charge of its future.  Or there might not be one.

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on September 2, 2011 Permalink
    Tags: , , , church, , , , , , , , , , , , ,   

    Nehemiah 10: So this is where the child abuse started? 

    Nehemiah Part 10 of 13

    1 Now those who sealed were: Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah,

    Oh my gawd!  Another list of names!

    2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,

    3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,

    4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,

    5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,

    6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,

    7 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,

    8 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah; these were the priests.

    9 The Levites: namely, Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel;

    10 and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,

    11 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,

    12 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,

    13 Hodiah, Bani, Beninu.

    14 The chiefs of the people: Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,

    15 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,

    16 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,

    17 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,

    18 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,

    19 Hariph, Anathoth, Nobai,

    20 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,

    21 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,

    22 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,

    23 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,

    24 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,

    25 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,

    26 and Ahiah, Hanan, Anan,

    27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

    28 The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinim, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, everyone who had knowledge, and understanding—

    Racism/bigotry.

    29 they joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of Yahweh our Lord, and his ordinances and his statutes;

    You’ve pretty well screwed what could have been a normal life as soon as you give up your freewill to follow an evil cartoon character.

    30 and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons;

    Racism/bigotry.

    31 and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy of them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

    Racism/bigotry.

    32 Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;

    Only caring about yourselves at the expense of others?  Not what I’d call moral.

    33 for the show bread, and for the continual meal offering, and for the continual burnt offering, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

    Inhumane treatment of animals.

    34 We cast lots, the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed, year by year, to burn on the altar of Yahweh our God, as it is written in the law;

    35 and to bring the first fruits of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of all kinds of trees, year by year, to the house of Yahweh;

    36 also the firstborn of our sons, and of our livestock, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God;

    Giving your children to the priests?  That has never, ever been a good thing for the kids.  How can a parent give away a child to those bastards?

    37 and that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, and our wave offerings, and the fruit of all kinds of trees, the new wine and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground to the Levites; for they, the Levites, take the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

    38 The priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms, into the treasure house.

    So the people go without, while the priests live it up with the best of food, wine and children to abuse?

    39 For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the wave offering of the grain, of the new wine, and of the oil, to the rooms, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests who minister, and the porters, and the singers. We will not forsake the house of our God.

    You did and you will again.  In fact, you have and still are.

    << Nehemiah 9      Index      Nehemiah 11 >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on May 2, 2011 Permalink
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    1-Kings 13: When is a prophet not a prophet? 

    1-Kings Part 13 of 22
    The Man of God From Judah

    1 By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.

    2 By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’”

    3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

    4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.

    <insert spooky noise here>  :)

    5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.

    6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

    7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”

    8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here.

    9 For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’”

    10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

    No explanations again?  No?  Anyone?

    11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king.

    Hey, he’s a prophet!  Why does he need his sons to tell him these things?  Freaking stupid book.

    12 Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.

    Not much of a prophet if he didn’t foresee these things for himself.

    13 So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it

    Poor donkey!

    14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

    “I am,” he replied.

    15 So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”

    16 The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

    17 I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”

    Are you going to tell us why this time?

    18 The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.)

    19 So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

    He’d believe some old fool over the word of God?

    20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet who had brought him back.

    21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.

    22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’”

    Mine won’t be and I don’t care.

    23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him.

    24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

    God uses lions to do his dirty work now huh?

    25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

    26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him.”

    27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.

    28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.

    29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.

    30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”

    You shouldn’t have lied to him.  But that was probably just what God wanted you to do anyway.

    31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

    32 For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

    33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places.

    Sounds a lot like the Catholic Church these days.

    34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

    Hopefully we can expect the same now.  :)

    << 1-Kings 12       Index      1-Kings 14 >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on May 1, 2011 Permalink
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    1-Kings 12: Sock Puppets, one and all! 

    1-Kings Part 12 of 22
    Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam

    1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

    2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt.

    3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him:

    4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

    5 Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.

    As you do.

    6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.

    7 They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”

    8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.

    Any reason why he rejected it?  Or are we just supposed to accept everything without evidence?  Oh, sorry.  I forgot. This is the bible.  Of course we’re supposed to accept everything blindly.

    9 He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

    10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.

    11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

    12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.”

    13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders,

    14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.”

    15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

    16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

    “What share do we have in David,
    what part in Jesse’s son?
    To your tents, Israel!
    Look after your own house, David!”

    So the Israelites went home.

    17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

    18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.

    19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

    They are?

    20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.

    21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

    22 But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

    23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

    24 ‘This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’” So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.

    Good little sock puppets every one of them.

    Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan

    25 Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

    26 Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.

    27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam.”

    28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

    29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

    30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.

    31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.

    That sounds much like all religions. Made up and fostered out of greed and avarice.

    32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.

    33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.

    And God has done nothing.  Yet!

    << 1-Kings 11 Index 1-Kings 13 >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on January 24, 2011 Permalink
    Tags: , , , church, cowards, , , , , , , , , , ,   

    Faith or Abrogation of Responsibility? 

    Cowards in the Mist

    As far back as I can remember I was a loner.  My sister was my closest friend and we took care of each other.  This was more a matter of us circling the wagons against our two older brothers and our mother who was a loose cannon at the best of times and a father who, well, yeah he was there but not if you know what I mean.  So we kept away from everyone else for as long as we could each day and left it at that.  To this day I don’t talk to any of them.  Even my sister fell into that group I now think of as ‘them’.  Why do I tell you this?  Well it’s because it shows why I became a thinker.  I had to be because it was the only way I learned stuff like, right, wrong, good, bad, girls v boys, sex etc.  I was self taught all the basics you’d think a family should be responsible for giving a child.  This wasn’t such a problem for me as I loved to be on my own and think things through anyway.

    This then led me to watch everything and everybody.  My friends at school, both of them.  I wasn’t very popular.  Too short and too useless at sports.  But it did show me how people treated others and I learnt that at times some people did very bad things without any thought for the consequences.  I watched kids come to school bruised and battered.  I watched kids getting beaten up at school, including myself.  I saw kids come to school brokenhearted after their parents had split.  I listened to their stories if I could and I learnt a lot.  I watched a fat kid in my class get picked on by a teacher and couldn’t take it any more.  I stood up and confronted the teacher.  I was abused and told to leave the class. I did and went home.  After telling my mother we headed back to the school where the teacher was called to the front office and asked what had happened.  Instead of also calling the fat kid (I’m sorry, I can’t remember his name and wouldn’t want to use it here anyway) and asking him or others in the class, they took the word of the teacher.  The next thing I know is I’m getting my arse beaten black and blue at home by my mother for ‘telling lies’ and ‘embarrassing her’.

    This kind of watching and learning has gone on all my life.  Watch someone next time you see something happen and think about the situation for yourself.  Step aside from it and be objective.  Is it right?  Did someone do wrong?  Were there preexisting circumstances you know nothing about?  All this questioning will lead you to then examine your own life.  In great detail if my experience is anything to go by.  You can learn a lot.

    So, how can a skinny kid around 8 to 9 years old figure all this stuff out on his own without the intervention of anyone else?  Well the answer dear reader is easy.  Just open your eyes and be honest.  Don’t factor in how it will affect you if you choose A or B.  Just be honest.  I can’t believe how easy it actually is.

    This then begs the question, how the hell can Christians say that only the bible can teach you this stuff?  If I could do it at that age without the help of the bible, without the help of a parent, teacher or preacher, then what is wrong with them?

    This isn’t rocket science.  If you did something wrong, it’s your bloody fault.  Own it.  If you did something right and good then the credit goes to  you.  Whatever it was YOU did, YOU did it.  Not God.  Not the Devil.  YOU.

    I can’t understand for a second how anyone can divest themselves of all responsibility for their actions in this manner.  So many times I’ve heard from faithers, that it was the sinners that caused the problem when something went wrong and it was by God’s good grace that something went right.  Just the other day Pat Robertson, a christian televangelist in the US said that the blizzard there was God punishing those who were driving to do something gay.  Blaming the gays for a blizzard!  But, if an earthquake like the one in Haiti in 2010 kills thousands and one baby is rescued it was a miracle wrought by God.

    There you go, those gay sinners caused a blizzard and God can save a baby but let thousands die.  Hallefreakinglujah brothers and sisters!!!

    How about confession?  You can kill somebody and go to confession, tell the robed one and be forgiven.  I wonder if this is why you find so many born agains in jail these days?

    How about we call these things for what they are?  Blizzards and earthquakes are natural events and are not caused by people loving each other .  If only one baby is saved while thousands die and it’s God you want to give the responsibility to, then it’s his damned fault for not saving them all by stopping the earthquake.  You can’t have it both ways.  Anything else is just a copout.  Blaming others when bad things happen and praising God when good things happen is a copout.  If that is you, then you are one of those lazy minded bastards that don’t even have the spine to stand up and take responsibility for your own actions, but are willing to blame others when something goes wrong.  Maybe less people would die if you got up off your holier than thou knees and pitched in with a bit of actual work.

    Responsibility.  Why doesn’t the bible put a bit of emphasis on responsibility instead of teaching these morons that having faith is enough to get into heaven?  What reason do they have to do right if all they have to do is have faith and confess?

    And while we’re calling things what they are, we may as well go a step further and call the people for what they are.  Nothing but a bunch of spineless cowards, simpering at the heels of the frocked ones and begging to be let into heaven but unable to do something practical to help those in need.  No, I’m not talking about the real helpers, the ones out there feeding the starving, finding beds for the homeless, but the cowards who do nothing but throw a gold coin on a plate and pray and call themselves christians.  There are good christians, but they are good because they ‘want’ to help others, because they know it’s the right thing to do, not because they are christians.  It’s the cowards, the overwhelming majority who think just being a christian is all it takes.  Letting the starving children die, letting the homeless freeze, letting those in need of medical care suffer!  As long as they kneel in prayer, they don’t give a shit.

    A child who steals an apple to feed his sister is a hero in comparison to the Sunday Morning Happy Clappers who congratulate each other for singing this weeks hymns so well.  They have no idea what it means to be good human beings and they never will while they rely on the bible as their moral compass.  Stop spending so much on your Sunday Go To Meeting Clothes and give it to the poor.  Get off your knees and volunteer to actually help someone who needs helping.  You’ll feel much better for it and so will those you help.

    “Be known for ye good deeds, not by ye good words” – Francis Bacon

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on January 23, 2011 Permalink
    Tags: , , , church, , , , , , , , , , , ,   

    Joshua: The Post Mortem 

    Joshua: What was it all about?

    So far we have seen quite a bit of ‘God said this’ and ‘God said that’, but not once have we seen why he wanted any of the things we’ve read about.  There has been no explanation whatsoever  as to why he created anything.  No explanation as to why he chose the Israelites to be ‘his people’.  Even once he had chosen them there was no explanation as to what he really wanted to do with them.  All that has happened is that he has bullied and cajoled them into endless wanderings in the desert along with turning them all into murderers and thieves.  When you remember the ‘do unto others’ rule, you have to wonder how that equals God helping one group over another.  How does it line up with what he taught the Israelites to do to others?  Stealing?  In what universe is that moral?  Rape?  Animal Cruelty?  Where do these things fit in with a ‘moral code’?

    Innocent people, millions of them by the sounds of things, have died horrible deaths at the hands of the Israelites, and at the urging of God.

    This book may have had small sections talking about taking care of each other, but that is only to do with the Israelites themselves.  Nobody else is treated with kindness except a few of their slaves and foreigners living amongst them.  Everybody else is nothing more than fodder for their military machine.  Goodness should not be selective, so the bible fails miserably here.

    A compassionate god does not teach people to go about massacring men, women and children, cities at a time.  The greed with which the bible has God wanting all precious items, e.g., gold and silver, is beyond belief.  Then to kill an offender who was even willing to admit to his so called offense is typically unjust.  Giving all this land that they stole to the Israelites as an ‘inheritance’ and making out that this is a good thing God is doing boggles the imagination.  Honestly, logic seems to be a word completely lost on the followers of this book.  How can anyone read this and seriously interpret it as a book to model their lives on?

    I realise I have only managed 6 of 66 books thus far, but even so, you would think that would be enough to have found at least one really good story to tell children about how to be a good person and why they should be so.  I’ve seen nothing that comes close.  I have though, seen plenty that should have humanity screaming for this book to be relegated to the pits of a fiery hell all of it’s own.

    << Joshua 24      Index      Judges 1 >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:25 on January 22, 2011 Permalink
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    Joshua 24: The Throw Away Gods 

    Joshua: Part 24 of 24
    The Covenant Renewed at Shechem

    1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges and officials of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.

    2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.

    Notice they aren’t saying false gods.  It is an admission that even they thought there were other gods.

    3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the Euphrates and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. I gave him Isaac,

    I’m still trying to understand what the criteria were for choosing this lot to be ‘his people’ in the first place.  Would it not make more sense to choose the people already living in this areas, show yourself to them once a year promising bumper crops?

    4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I assigned the hill country of Seir to Esau, but Jacob and his family went down to Egypt.

    Aaaaaand, I’d like to know what the purpose is behind God’s plan.  Why even create all this, why create man, why pit one group against another, why so much violence and bloodshed?

    5 “‘Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and I brought you out.

    Whereas you could have just made them either happy that the Israelites were leaving or had them totally forget about them.  But no, you have to be all theatrical on their arse and make a big production out of it.  Who do you think you are?  Cecil B Jehovah?

    6 When I brought your people out of Egypt, you came to the sea, and the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.

    7 But they cried to the LORD for help, and he put darkness between you and the Egyptians; he brought the sea over them and covered them. You saw with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.

    He could have just closed it behind you so they couldn’t enter and there would have been less loss of life.  To easy?  Not enough suffering maybe?

    8 “‘I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived east of the Jordan. They fought against you, but I gave them into your hands. I destroyed them from before you, and you took possession of their land.

    9 When Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, prepared to fight against Israel, he sent for Balaam son of Beor to put a curse on you.

    10 But I would not listen to Balaam, so he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you out of his hand.

    11 “‘Then you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The citizens of Jericho fought against you, as did also the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, but I gave them into your hands.

    Brag, brag, brag, blah, blah, blah…

    12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, which drove them out before you—also the two Amorite kings. You did not do it with your own sword and bow.

    13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’

    No, you didn’t toil there or build.  You killed and stole.  Bastards!

    14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

    If you can throw away gods, what bloody good are they?

    15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

    16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!

    Yeah man, what kind of idiots do you take them for huh?  Diss The Lord and get fried?  Nuh Uh!  :)

    17 It was the LORD our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.

    18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because he is our God.”

    But only because you’re so damn shit scared of him.

    19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.

    20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”

    Yeah, threaten the little bastards with gloom and doom.  Sounds just like going to church these days.

    21 But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the LORD.”

    Sock Puppets!!

    22 Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.

    “You are dickheads!”  “Yes, we are dickheads!”

    23 “Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”

    Before he rips them out, has them smoked and thrown away with all the other meat wasted on him!

    24 And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey him.”

    25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he reaffirmed for them decrees and laws.

    26 And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD.

    27 “See!” he said to all the people. “This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the LORD has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.”

    28 Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to their own inheritance.

    A rock!  Yeah!  It’s going to speak to God and tell on you if you are naughty.

    Buried in the Promised Land

    29 After these things, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of a hundred and ten.

    30 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

    Underground, near a rock, by a stream surrounded by trees with birds flying hither and yon.

    31 Israel served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the LORD had done for Israel.

    32 And Joseph’s bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph’s descendants.

    33 And Eleazar son of Aaron died and was buried at Gibeah, which had been allotted to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.

    Here endeth the lesson!  Thank God for that!!!

    << Joshua 23      Index      Joshua: The Post Mortem >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on December 28, 2010 Permalink
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    Deuteronomy: The Post Mortem 

    Deuteronomy: What was it all about?

    Mostly, this book is nothing but hot air.  Lots of descriptions of going here and going there.  More I’ll do that if you do this from God.  The bloodshed has risen as against previous books and how much of that is to come remains to be seen.

    The most noticeable thing though is the lack of substance.  This is touted as a book to base your life upon.  It is a ‘moral compass’ can be heard from every corner of christendom, but they fail to back it up with any proof.  That is to be expected though, because turds floating in toilets don’t make good compasses.  I use that phrase because this book is a load of crap.  Nowhere is there to be found, so far at least, anything that could be rightfully called good advice.  I don’t count the section where you get told not to muzzle your ox while it’s working.  That is not about morals, but is a good example of how close the bible gets to being what it says it is.

    The amount of people killed on their journey is hard for me to calculate because numbers aren’t given.  All we do hear though is that they wipe out every living thing everywhere they go.  That is of course unless they need a few extra virgins in which case they spare them and divide them up like the spoils of war.  Even the priests get a few for their pleasure.

    There are now more instances of God and Moses admitting there are other gods.  Not just idols, but gods.

    The habit of naming everything and telling us where they are going is boring as hell.  If you were to sit down to study a subject and picked up a text book you would expect to get pertinent information.  This book gives you nothing.  Nobody could be expected to learn anything from it that could be termed useful.  Drain it, strain it, wring it out and the only good stuff left might fill a page or two.  If you are thinking that reading it will be time well spent, think again.  Half an hour at a library sifting through children’s books will give you a better grounding in what could be called right and wrong actions.  The lynchpin of the whole deal is the Ten Commandments and they are next to useless.  There isn’t a whole lot of good stuff in them and the ones that are were known before God made his appearance on the world stage.  Scraping up parts of what is already the moral code of the population and spreading it thinly through a book mainly to do with vile and barbaric behaviour is not how you should go about making a book of lessons about moral and ethical behaviour.  There is very little morals in this book and even less ethics.  So many times it contradicts itself.  How do you justify telling people not to kill when you are having them wipe out whole civilisations?  How do you get people to care for their families when you ask them to kill all the children and babies?  How do you get them to treat their animals humanely when you ask them to kill all the animals owned by those humans they slaughter?  How do you promote cleanliness when you promote the spraying of blood all over the place?  How do you promote freedom when you tell them to take slaves?  How do you expect people to live in harmony and peace when you place them at odds with each other?  How do you expect fairness when you play favourites?

    Onto Moses, he is lauded as the best thing that has happened to the Israelites.  God admits that everything will fall apart once Moses is gone, but then goes on to blame Moses for the wrongdoings of the Israelites and then kills him.  There’s gratitude for you.

    The bible is a sickening piece of trash.  It’s not good enough to be called bad literature.

    <<  Deuteronomy 34      Index      Joshua 1  >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on December 23, 2010 Permalink
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    Deuteronomy 30: Yaaaaawwwwwwnnnnn 

    Deuteronomy: Part 30 of 34
    Prosperity After Turning to the LORD

    1 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations,

    2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,

    3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.

    4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back.

    5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.

    6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

    Again with circumcising the heart.  What is that supposed to mean?

    7 The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you.

    You seem very intent upon punishing everyone all the time.  It would seem logical that a ‘good book’ would focus on good, but the bible is so full of retribution and hatred that it’s hard to find any good in here whatsoever.

    8 You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today.

    9 Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors,

    10 if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

    The Offer of Life or Death

    11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

    12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”

    13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”

    14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

    15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

    See, you could have left out the death and destruction.  That would have increased the good to evil ratio, but nooooo, you have to go with the nasty shit all the time.

    16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

    17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

    18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

    Scare tactics never work.

    19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

    This could have been phrased in a more positive way, but you have to go with witnesses against you, death and curses.

    20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

    Tripe.  Utter tripe.

    << Deuteronomy 29      Index      Deuteronomy 31 >>

     
  • DistroMan 20:00 on December 10, 2010 Permalink
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    Deuteronomy 17: Laws and Kings 

    Deuteronomy: Part 17 of 34

    1 Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.

    Not good enough for you is it.  Your people can eat it, but of course you are above them.

    2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant,

    3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky,

    4 and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel,

    5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.

    Oh, just lovely.  Stoning.  What a barbaric practice.

    6 On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

    Way too easy to condemn a person under these laws.

    7 The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.

    Killed for having different beliefs to yours?  Thankfully most of humanity has stopped this inhumane practice.  This is also one very good reason why religion should never regain that kind of power.

    Law Courts

    8 If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge—whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults—take them to the place the LORD your God will choose.

    9 Go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.

    10 You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they instruct you to do.

    11 Act according to whatever they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.

    12 Anyone who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God is to be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

    But that would mean turning against the priests anyway.  They are the evil.

    13 All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.

    Fear does not stop anyone from being contemptuous, it just makes them keep their mouths shut about it.

    The King

    14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”

    15 be sure to appoint over you a king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.

    Discrimination.  But this book is good at that.

    16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”

    Horses?  Why not?

    17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

    You get everything you want and the priests get much more than they could ever use, but you tell the king he can’t have things?  Keep it in the hands of the priests huh?

    18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.

    19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees

    20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

    Shouldn’t you have gotten the priests to do the same thing?  That at least would make this a little fairer.

    << Deuteronomy 16      Index      Deuteronomy 18 >>

     
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