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Noah's Ark - 39 Problems

Started by GSOgymrat, June 30, 2016, 05:25:23 PM

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GSOgymrat

https://youtu.be/tyWcka7drWk

When I think about what made me an atheist the story of Noah's Ark always comes to mind. As a child attending Sunday school and vacation Bible school at the Methodist Church I found this story both impossible and upsetting. I remember the illustration of the people and animals drowning in the flood and thinking how horrible it was for the animals. At the time I could accept that people could be wicked, but not animals. I had a lot of exposure to animals and knew they were not good or bad. This story made God a bad guy, he wasn't the "loving God" the minister talked about in sermon. Next problem was the impossibility of an ark carrying carry two of every animal, which to my child reasoning was just as impossible as Santa fitting in a chimney flue (which I had investigated with a flashlight). Then there was the problem of God creating a rainbow promising he wouldn't flood the Earth again, which to me implied he made mistake-- a HUGE mistake. What also made me doubt the story was my Sunday school teacher, who was evasive when I asked for particulars on how this ark could possible fit all the animals and why didn't God just make all the wicked people go to sleep and not wake up (I learned you could die in your sleep from reciting "Now I lay Me Down to Sleep"), leaving the animals alone. Her reaction was the same uncomfortable response I got as a child when asking about Santa or the Easter bunny. So from all this I determined as a child that the Bible was not real life, it was like Aesop's Fables. Like Santa Clause, Grimm's Fairy Tales and other stories, Christianity was a collection of stories adults told children to make them behave, and you don't ask questions about it, you pretend to believe and play along because it makes the adults happy. I honestly believed through childhood that no adults, except crazy people, believed these stories, that Jesus LITERALLY came back from the dead. I was in high school before confronting the scary reality that most everyone ACTUALLY thought these stories were real.





aitm

I think one of the first reactions to the fairy tale, after reaching an age of reason, was that, not just why, but how could a loving god watch as terrified children watched the water rise slowly drowning their family members and then recognizing they were to die as well, with no reasoning?  This is a very disgusting and sick "god" that thinks this is "just".  For the life of me, I do not understand how reasonable people can view this in any other way except because they are so filled with their own selfish concerns that they don't care what happens to other humans who have differing views and opinions.

As for the rainbow, this is only because the humans who wrote the babble never saw the aurora borealis.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

GSOgymrat

Quote from: aitm on June 30, 2016, 05:35:36 PM
I think one of the first reactions to the fairy tale, after reaching an age of reason, was that, not just why, but how could a loving god watch as terrified children watched the water rise slowly drowning their family members and then recognizing they were to die as well, with no reasoning?  This is a very disgusting and sick "god" that thinks this is "just".  For the life of me, I do not understand how reasonable people can view this in any other way except because they are so filled with their own selfish concerns that they don't care what happens to other humans who have differing views and opinions.

As for the rainbow, this is only because the humans who wrote the babble never saw the aurora borealis.

I've always wondered how Christians feel about worshiping a supernatural entity that intentionally killed all life on Earth, save for a boat full of specimens.

Gawdzilla Sama

I got asked to not come back to Sunday School, age 7, because I asked awkward questions about the Ark story. Win.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

I have never understood reality to be about morality.  Same with fiction.  Morality is a unicorn.  So my question, had I been able to articulate it (and I was mostly reading about Hercules not Noah) was ... is this a good story?  Not is it historical, or is Hercules killing the Hydra ... eco-justice?  If you were thinking like an SJW back when you were seven ... you were a weird kid!

So for me back then, the Noah story would be ... that is about as silly as Santa Claus.  I had already caught my dad bringing in presents in the dead of the night, the night before Christmas.  And he didn't even bother to wear the funny red and white suit.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Gawdzilla Sama

SJW? No, I just asked why God killed all the kittens. Made the rest of the class cry.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on June 30, 2016, 08:17:26 PM
SJW? No, I just asked why God killed all the kittens. Made the rest of the class cry.

You meanie!  I bet you had cooties, and ate all the Playdough!!
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: Baruch on June 30, 2016, 08:19:11 PM
You meanie!  I bet you had cooties, and ate all the Playdough!!
Yeah, something like that. The reverend's son was a stoner, and gave me a joint as a reward for pissing off  his father. I  had no idea what to do with it.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

GSOgymrat



Quote from: Baruch on June 30, 2016, 08:03:44 PM
  If you were thinking like an SJW back when you were seven ... you were a weird kid!

When a classroom of children all get punished because a few of them were talking I was the kid who said, "But I wasn't talking. Why should I miss recess when I was doing my work? It's not fair!" It wasn't fair the animals were punished because the people misbehaved.

This is also reinforced my aversion to being part of a group and resentment of peers who couldn't stay on task.

doorknob

Punishing the whole group of people for the actions of a few is lazy.

stromboli

Only 39? Probably about twice that if you look harder.

Gawdzilla Sama

[Is there a text list of the 39 points?
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Munch

Its like you say, that cringing moment when you look back on stories you were told as a child, many of them bible stories they read to children in schools, and you realize just not only how horrible these things are, but also know their are grown up people like yourself who still believes these stories to be true.



Christianity loves to gloss over so much about itself in the modern times, but things like this allow insane religious fanatics to push their messed up beliefs onto others to spread the same messed up indoctrination.

I remember the story books my mum read to me when I was a kid, stereotypical as it was, but all classics like the frog prince, the ugly duckling, the red shoes, jack and the beanstalk, the goose that laid the golden egg, all of these stories from childrens books designed to tell children made up stories to help them either sleep or escape to something more magical then the real world.

Its just that you don't see full grown adults claiming that things like golden eggs, giant beanstalks that reach the sky, or talking frogs actually exist, these stories are designed to grow out of them, and just impart some kind of moral. Yet with the bible, the made up stories in it, are things full grown adults believe to be real, going against all sense of logic and reasoning.

this is why the very nature of all religions are the same, they are all cults with made up stories used to lure people in, people who have been indoctrinated into it from an early age with made up bullshit stories, or to lure in hapless people who can't process logic or reason (and of course those who claim to be deeply religious but only are doing some to milk cash from said hapless morons).
'Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners' - George Carlin

Baruch

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on June 30, 2016, 08:31:50 PM
Yeah, something like that. The reverend's son was a stoner, and gave me a joint as a reward for pissing off  his father. I  had no idea what to do with it.

Gotta love those PKs (preacher kids).  My own daughter is one ;-)
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

SGOS

Quote from: aitm on June 30, 2016, 05:35:36 PM
For the life of me, I do not understand how reasonable people can view this in any other way

Why do you assume they are reasonable?