Reasons you believe God/don't believe God?

~~John Wilkes Booth~~ · 01-25-2015, 06:10 PM

yea, there is plenty of historical insight in the bible. obviously if you're going to maintain the assumption of naturalism you can't take the miracle stories as historical fact, but that doesn't invalidate any historical content in the entire book

but it takes scholars that dedicate their lives to this **** to really decipher it for us. like the theories about the different authors... some of that is not just a matter of them coming from different eras but also different sects of judaism

~~John Wilkes Booth~~ · 01-25-2015, 06:20 PM

also i think the whole all-or-nothing approach to the bible in terms of religious practice is unnecessary. the bible doesn't actually claim to be the perfect word of god, that's a hang up some people came up with afterwards. when the bible was being written it was being written as different texts which would later be compiled. so taking on that sort of all or nothing approach with the bible is really kind of silly when you think about it.

the quran, however, does make that sort of claim for itself.

Chula Vista · 01-25-2015, 06:22 PM

JWB, great insight. Seriously.

~~John Wilkes Booth~~ · 01-25-2015, 06:33 PM

it's funny though cause the only place i can voice any sort of honest opinion about the bible without having people get all riled up is online. and then when i go online and talk about the kind of **** i could easily talk about with everyday people here without them raising a brow, try the same **** online and then people online get all riled up.

Chula Vista · 01-25-2015, 06:34 PM

It's all good man.

~~John Wilkes Booth~~ · 01-25-2015, 06:36 PM

nah i'm not starting a beef don't worry i'm just dwelling on the contrast a bit between you people and the people that i see in the real world.

you have to keep in mind i currently live in the south, and i'm not from here.

Neapolitan · 01-25-2015, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Wilkes Booth

nah i'm not starting a beef don't worry i'm just dwelling on the contrast a bit between you people and the people that i see in the real world.

you have to keep in mind i currently live in the south, and i'm not from here.

...when you say "here" you mean the internet?

~~John Wilkes Booth~~ · 01-25-2015, 09:27 PM

no, i mean i'm not from the south. i mean i spent most of my life in south florida, but that place is so full of immigrants and new yorkers that it hardly even qualifies as the south. now i live in the stereotypical south and i'm more or less surrounded by crazy religious people.

The Batlord · 01-25-2015, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Wilkes Booth

no, i mean i'm not from the south. i mean i spent most of my life in south florida, but that place is so full of immigrants and new yorkers that it hardly even qualifies as the south. now i live in the stereotypical south and i'm more or less surrounded by crazy religious people.

I never knew the whole "Florida = crazy" thing until I came to this site. I guess it's mostly in the Panhandle, cause before now I always just associated Florida with old people, Disney World, and Miami.

~~John Wilkes Booth~~ · 01-25-2015, 10:25 PM

i mean that's the pop culture image that most people get, it has a lot of truth to it but its also missing quite a bit.

basically there's massive old people developments that don't interact much with the rest of the population. gated communities and such. they pay for the privilege of retiring in peace.

then there's orlando which is basically disney + all the other competitors he drew out into the middle of the swamplands. it's a party town somehow too despite existing in a muggy beach-less ****hole part of the state. honestly white people wouldn't even live in florida all that much prior to air conditioning. there's a good reason those 13 colonies stopped at georgia.

then there's basically only 3 metro areas to speak of. 1) south florida (wpb-miami) which is full of immigrants and retired new yorkers. lots of crime because of the crack epidemic + cramming 25 different south american cultures into one place. 2) tampa is a slightly milder version of this, in my experience. and then 3) jacksonville which is just yet another southern city. it's so close to the border it might as well be georgia.

but the whole florida = crazy thing is mostly a meme that gets repeated. it probably does create a lot of crazy stories cause it's one of the biggest states in the country population wise and damned near everybody who lives there isn't from there. you know that can't be a good combination.

01-25-2015, 06:22 PM	#83 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	JWB, great insight. Seriously. __________________ “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

01-25-2015, 06:34 PM	#85 (permalink)
Chula Vista Toasted Poster Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: SoCal by way of Boston Posts: 11,332	It's all good man. __________________ “The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

01-25-2015, 06:10 PM	#81 (permalink)
~~John Wilkes Booth~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 2,235	yea, there is plenty of historical insight in the bible. obviously if you're going to maintain the assumption of naturalism you can't take the miracle stories as historical fact, but that doesn't invalidate any historical content in the entire book but it takes scholars that dedicate their lives to this **** to really decipher it for us. like the theories about the different authors... some of that is not just a matter of them coming from different eras but also different sects of judaism

01-25-2015, 06:20 PM	#82 (permalink)
~~John Wilkes Booth~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 2,235	also i think the whole all-or-nothing approach to the bible in terms of religious practice is unnecessary. the bible doesn't actually claim to be the perfect word of god, that's a hang up some people came up with afterwards. when the bible was being written it was being written as different texts which would later be compiled. so taking on that sort of all or nothing approach with the bible is really kind of silly when you think about it. the quran, however, does make that sort of claim for itself.

01-25-2015, 06:33 PM	#84 (permalink)
~~John Wilkes Booth~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 2,235	it's funny though cause the only place i can voice any sort of honest opinion about the bible without having people get all riled up is online. and then when i go online and talk about the kind of ** i could easily talk about with everyday people here without them raising a brow, try the same ** online and then people online get all riled up.

01-25-2015, 06:36 PM	#86 (permalink)
~~John Wilkes Booth~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 2,235	nah i'm not starting a beef don't worry i'm just dwelling on the contrast a bit between you people and the people that i see in the real world. you have to keep in mind i currently live in the south, and i'm not from here.

01-25-2015, 09:27 PM	#88 (permalink)
~~John Wilkes Booth~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 2,235	no, i mean i'm not from the south. i mean i spent most of my life in south florida, but that place is so full of immigrants and new yorkers that it hardly even qualifies as the south. now i live in the stereotypical south and i'm more or less surrounded by crazy religious people.

01-25-2015, 10:25 PM	#90 (permalink)
~~John Wilkes Booth~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jul 2013 Posts: 2,235	i mean that's the pop culture image that most people get, it has a lot of truth to it but its also missing quite a bit. basically there's massive old people developments that don't interact much with the rest of the population. gated communities and such. they pay for the privilege of retiring in peace. then there's orlando which is basically disney + all the other competitors he drew out into the middle of the swamplands. it's a party town somehow too despite existing in a muggy beach-less ****hole part of the state. honestly white people wouldn't even live in florida all that much prior to air conditioning. there's a good reason those 13 colonies stopped at georgia. then there's basically only 3 metro areas to speak of. 1) south florida (wpb-miami) which is full of immigrants and retired new yorkers. lots of crime because of the crack epidemic + cramming 25 different south american cultures into one place. 2) tampa is a slightly milder version of this, in my experience. and then 3) jacksonville which is just yet another southern city. it's so close to the border it might as well be georgia. but the whole florida = crazy thing is mostly a meme that gets repeated. it probably does create a lot of crazy stories cause it's one of the biggest states in the country population wise and damned near everybody who lives there isn't from there. you know that can't be a good combination.