To Banjo Peterson.

History will likely tell how much Paul did for starting up churches and spreading Christianity. But as far as I'm aware Paul did not write and of the gospels or any books of the Old Testament. There are verses in the Old Testament stating that God is against homosexuality. Specifically against the act.

On the off chance you would like to discuss it. What are your thoughts on divorce? It's a mess right? Studies show that kids that go through a divorce in their parents might have their own issues to deal with because of it. But even those are better then being in an abusive relatiinship. As for the parents? What can be said. Should more failed marriages try to push through and make it work? Or should it be harder to both get married and get divorced? Or any other thoughts on the matter would be welcome. You're not a theologian, but if you want to talk about the issue, then you'll be the only other person here who sees the marit of discussing it.

David F,

Is that a yes you searched for God? Or a no, you never needed to search for Him? Remember this is your credentials on the line of actually looking into it or not. Or if looking into it is code for looking for support of your already made views? And not finding God means not finding a religion that supported your (narrow?) view?

Some clairification on your looking for God.

...or you know, avoid the question again.

I was taught to believe in the God in the Jewish Bible. The God mentioned in the Jewish Bible and in the New Testament was not a god in which I could believe. I read about other gods like Apollo, Krishna, Thor etc. I concluded that all gods are merely human inventions. It seemed pointless to look further. I am sure that humans have invented many gods that I have never heard of. One can spend one's life looking for gods, vampires, demons, ghosts, devils, sprites, nymphs, mermaids, etc. Some entertaining literature has been produced on those subjects. It would be a waste of my life to spend it looking for something that only exists in the minds of the gullible. I would rather cast out superstition and deal with what exists. If you wish to retain and try to spread your superstition, if you wish to go back to the Dark Ages (A man I knew called it the Golden Age of Faith), if you wish to insult people who try to use their reason instead of accepting superstitious nonsense and if you wish to turn society's clock back to deny woman's choice and homosexuals the freedom to live a life suitable for them you will continue to do so. You are not alone. There are many like you. I shudder at the thought, but that's the way it is. Superstition will continue to exist.

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Dear Not Now Soon,

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You wrote :

« History will likely tell how much Paul did for starting up churches and spreading Christianity. But as far as I'm aware Paul did not write and of the gospels or any books of the Old Testament. There are verses in the Old Testament stating that God is against homosexuality. Specifically against the act »
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Hyam Maccoby, whom I mentioned in my previous post, was a British Jewish scholar, known for his theories of the historical Jesus and the historical origins of Christianity. This is what he has to say :

« As the Jerusalem group of the original disciples of Jesus gradually became aware of Paul's teachings, bitter hostility ensued between them. However, the Jewish Rebellion of 66–70 soon brought a violent end to the Jerusalem sect, and the Gentile Church founded by Paul emerged as the winner by default »

Maccoby viewed the Book of Acts as a later attempt by the Pauline Church to present the relations between Paul and the Jerusalem disciples as harmonious, thus presenting the Pauline Church as legitimised by the chain of apostolic succession reaching back to the original disciples of Jesus. Maccoby also conjectured that the Jewish-Christian sect of Ebionites may have been an authentic offshoot of the original Jerusalem community.
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It is interesting to note that Saul of Tarsus and his friend and disciple, Luke, wrote most of the New Testament – 50.96% (undisputedly) and perhaps as much as 64% if (as some experts consider) it is confirmed that the Letter to the Hebrews was written by Saul and that Luke did, indeed, assist Peter in the writing of his First Epistle (as a number of experts have conjectured) – as the style is very elevated and manifests a command of the Greek language which only Luke (among the New Testament writers) possessed.

Luke’s (undisputed) word count is 37,933 and Saul’s is 32,407 compared to a total word count for the New Testament of 138,020 :

http://www.bible-history.com/new-testament/authors.html

http://www.catholic-resources.org/Bible/NT-Statistics-Greek.htm
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My opinion on divorce is on page 3.

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//There are verses in the Old Testament stating that God is against homosexuality. Specifically against the act.//

There are verses in the Old Testament stating that God is against a whole range of bizarre and highly specific acts. To my mind, he comes across as a bit OCD. Which reminds me of another of my favourite hymns:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irlz5iCc5NM

But yeah, according to the Old Testament god is against the acts of wearing poly-cotton blends, eating shellfish, wearing glasses inside church, attending church whilst menstruating, and a whole ton of other mental stuff. Although in somebody with OCD, the price for transgressing their own weird and arbitrary rules is a sense of anxiety, whereas God tends to demand stoning as a punishment.

Christians very sensibly ignore almost all of the passages detailing these loony strictures... except the one about gays, which some (not all; I suspect not even most) arbitrarily pluck out of the list things God hates and place reverently upon a pedestal.

It's not really about being a devout Christian who is faithful to every word of the Bible; it's about picking and choosing the bits they like. Which is fine and everybody does it... but I think it speaks volumes about people when the bits they're picking and choosing just happen to be the ones about how much God hates gays, and never, say, the ones about not wearing poly-cotton blends.

To Banjo Peterson.

The Historic Jesus theories are a copout. 20 years ago people argued that Jesus didn't exist. Now apparently either people found new evidence that corroborates Jesus existing, or they got tired of Christians not listening and tried to recreate the narrative of who Jesus was instead of taking the few sources that actually talk about who Jesus is and what He did. It's a copout told by those that don't believe Jesus existed in the first place but aren't honest about their perspective.

The same is true of the Jewish scholar's retelling of Paul. Pure speculation. Loud philosophy trying to pass it self as historic facts.

To David F.

I hope there is more to your story then as you've described. As of now it reads that you were taught about God, but rejected Him. Not that you sought God or tried to find out if He exists or not. Then in a pursuit for answers you looked for a god you could agree with. This is far from the expressed statement that you've looked more then I know.

Dear NNS,

I haven't looked for gods, vampires, demons, ghosts, devils, sprites, nymphs, mermaids, etc. It would be silly to look for something that you have no reason to think is there. You haven't looked for any gods outside of the one in your own superstition. Yet you expect others to look for the god you believe in. That is totally unreasonable.

The god of the Bible is a ridiculous creature telling people they shouldn't eat of the of the tree of knowledge. Any reasonable god would want people to use their brains. The god of the Bible submits his son to torture, destroys almost all life on earth in a flood, hardens Pharaoh's heart, prohibits mixing fibres, condemns homosexuals who wouldn't exist if he hadn't created them etc. If you follow the King James Bible the old monster even creates evil.

Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

If I were going to follow any god, I certainly wouldn't follow the old reprobate in the Bible. He is worse than I am. He is certainly not good enough for me. He doesn't come close to my standards of behaviour.