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I suppose it depends on whether one’s definition of theist allows for a non meddling non-conscious Spiritual Force of Nature.

As I take it, man made deities are essentially the anthropomorphization of nature, gods are non-corporeal and are minutely concerned with and meddle in human affairs.

Distilled to their essence, I think this a fair view of Theist’s beliefs.

In contrast, a non-conscious Spiritual Force of Nature cannot and therefore does not meddle, has no concerns.

As best I grok your question, it boils down to whether or not the conceptual non-conscious Spiritual Force of Nature is corporeal or not.

If this Spiritual Force is taken to be Nature itself, Nature exists, no belief is involved nor needed.

Since that’s un-theist, it’s Atheist.

– – –

For a couple of decades and long before I’d heard of Baruch Spinoza, I held to a concept of a ‘Cosmic All’ that encompasses everything that exists, everything that has and will ever exist.

My synopsis was that God is “Is”. A much larger concept of god than any presented by man made and allegedly revealed scriptures.

I think I became Atheist before I knew what it meant. Whatever shards of faith in biblical god that remained were irrevocably shattered and pulverized once I began reading the bible with intent.

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How can anyone read:

John 20:29
“… blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed…”

2 Corinthians 4:18
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 5:7
“For we live by faith, not by sight.”

Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Romans 1:20
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Qur’an 2:3
Surah Al-Baqarah
“Who believe in the unseen, establish prayer, and spend out of what We have provided for them”

And just blindly accept such preposterous nonsense without the slightest pause to contemplate what the words actually say?

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Science or Denial?

With no such intent, accumulated scientific knowledge has rendered all religions irrelevant and superfluous.

If one chooses to follow the precepts of creationism and anti-evolution, fine, you are welcome to unsubstantiated beliefs.

Certainly, the devoutly religious see the advances of science as direct threats to the validity of whatever religion.

Well, fine then, deny science.

But don’t be hypocritical about it.

If one is to deny science then one should also avoid use and enjoyment of scientific advancements.

You must not use nor take any benefit from the following;

Anything and everything machine made, clothing, automobiles, phones, computers, aircraft, pavement, food grown industrially, genetically altered plants including corn, plastic, aluminum, steel, titanium, carbon fiber, electricity, gunpowder, wood or machine screws, nuts and bolts, medicine, professional medical services, water utilities, matches, petroleum fuels and lubricants, pesticides, herbicides and on and on. You get the idea.

You may use gold, brass, copper, bronze, iron (no steel), leather, manually grown and harvested foods, manually spun and woven fabrics, animals and animal byproducts, hand worked wood, not much else.

Your fires can be started from flint on stone or the friction of sticks rapidly rubbed together.

Hunting and self defense weaponry is limited to stones, sticks, clubs, spears, bow and arrow. Oh, and the atlatl and other slings.

Your water comes untreated from wells, rivers or lakes.

You are free to build wheeled carts, chariots and the like.

– – –

Among the sciences, biology and specifically evolution are among the most thoroughly explored, tested and verified.

Do not be misled thinking “but evolution, it’s only a theory”.

A scientific theory is not a mere hypothesis but a thoroughly examined and tested explanation of natural phenomenon, tested and explained to the best abilities of scientific methods.

Scientific theories also have a quality of possible falsification. This means that as research continues and newly learned information becomes available, the theory may need modification or it may even be discarded entirely, replaced by a new theory based on updated information.

You are free to choose to believe that Earth is flat, wonder where The Sun goes at night, have no idea of the germ theory of disease and instead believe illness is caused by demons that can be prayed away, that there’s a firmament above, that Stars can fall to Earth as the Ancients wrote.

Should you contract leprosy, expect quarantine followed by banishment as your fingers, toes, lips, nose and eyes fall from your body, this is how scriptures treat leprosy.

Medical science CURES leprosy, has come close to eliminating it.

Ever heard of antibiotic resistance? It’s nothing less than observable evolution of bacteria, a topic well worth a few minutes googling.
Here, I googled that for you.

The humans who wrote ancient scriptures were troubled by many of the same questions many ask today.

These ancients had no concept of anything beyond the pedestrian, when called upon for answers they guessed, making things up as they went. I suspect they well knew their answers were whole fabrications, no one had nor dared have other answers.

Along came the Scientific Method of Discovery. Telescopes, microscopes, chemistry, physics all allowed researchers to delve into many of Nature’s properties in excruciating detail, finding things the Ancients never imagined existed even though many of these things were immediately to hand.

Life Sciences are truly amazing because of the vast amount they have learned.

Cosmology is equally amazing because all that is known so far is a miniscule amount compared to all that can and is yet to be learned in that field.

No, science does not have every answer to every question, rather foolish to think that it should or can.

Far more foolish is to conclude magic must have been responsible for topics science cannot yet and may never answer.

Charles Darwin, the man who’s ideas creationists would most like to deny and discredit, his ideas and research findings are possibly the best ideas any human has ever had.

While his theories were far from complete due to limitations of the time, his observations and conclusions were spot on accurate.

Modern Life Sciences, especially through the discovery of DNA and the subsequent sequencing of the Human Genome have confirmed Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in exquisite and excruciating detail.

Archaeology has independently confirmed Evolution through many thousand, possibly million fossil finds.

The ‘Molecular Clock‘ aspect of DNA analysis predicted a transitional species to have likely lived in a specific date range. Geologists were aware of the location of exposed Earth surface of the appropriate age, Paleontologists then went to that location and over a period of several years’ searching, found fossils of what they named “ Tiktaalik roseae”, a species of partially limbed fish, one of possibly several species in transition from aquatic to land based life.

There’s a NOVA PBS Documentary titled “Evolution – What Darwin Never Knew”, runs about two hours, might be the best two hours many will ever spend.

There is nothing at all anti-religion in the presentation, no reason for anyone to expect personal insults.

As of this writing it can be viewed on YouTube at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYBRbCLI4zU

or

https://youtu.be/AYBRbCLI4zU

– – –

One need not be a scientist to appreciate the findings of science any more than one needs to be a musician in order to enjoy music.

In this current age of information, the only possible reason to remain ignorant of scientific principles is the willful intent to do exactly that.

Consider that willful intent as willful stupidity.

Creationists, do you intend to affix the label of willfully stupid to yourselves and continue to wear it? It’s yours as long as you wish.

Denial of reality does not change the nature of reality one bit.

When one posits supernatural causation one takes themselves out of rational discussions of verifiable reality.

Are you in or out of the conversation?

jackxyz

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An extended continuation of a Twitter Direct Messaging conversation.

– – –

That’s it, you see the point about Finkelstein and his work.

Given all the education, experience and expertise necessary, every tool and resource including unfettered access to the very lands where events allegedly happened all available along with fervent motivation, findings and scriptures both had to be fudged to make the pieces fit.

Finkelstein’s resulting publication was extremely unsatisfying.

And that’s the point.

Odd you should bring up the plagues of Exodus.

That one shows god at his worst.

Ten plagues, each time, god tells Moses beginning in Exodus 7:3

“…I will harden Pharaoh’s heart…”

Again and again for each plague, god suppresses Pharaoh’s free will so as to passive aggressively manipulate the situation in a way that allows a twisted and immoral justification for the heinous sins god intends committing.

Exodus 9:8-11, the 6th plague

Exodus 9:11

“The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians.’

That’s hilarious. Just the thing an 11 year old boy would come up with, finally, Pharaoh’s magicians are unable to stand and work their magic because they’re rolling on the ground itching all over. LOLOLOLOL

Finally in the Exodus plague tales, god kills every innocent firstborn!!! WHAT? He demands worship? He can demand worship all he wants, he must earn respect.

All throughout the bible god treats humans as toys for his wicked pleasure.

he treats us as though toy soldiers out of an eternally refilling bucket.

All through history, the same, if it is accepted that god meddles in human affairs.

WWII for example, Hanover, Dresden, London, Berlin, Tokyo, all bombed mercilessly as god watches delighted. Whee!! Looky there what they do to each other.

Finally, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even god sobers at this, leaves us to ponder in fear if, when or where next.

Meanwhile, 1939 -1945, billions of prayers are said, plaintively and sincerely begging for an end to the war while 80 million die. god answered none of these prayers.

Or, god was on the side of the Axis. Gott Mit Uns was on German Army belt buckles, Japan’s Emperor was revered as god.

Thank god I found my keys. God was with us in our football game victory. Really?

Oh, right, god works in mysterious ways.

My blog

“A False Positive Refuted” at http://goo.gl/z6NNMz was apparently not making it’s point well. I tried to be brief, it remained unclear to too many, I’ve since expanded and elaborated considerably.

I must admit, I have not yet read the complete bible, at this point I’m undecided if I’ll complete the task or not.

I started with Revelations, found that nothing but writings of an hallucinating author, written much like Hunter S. Thompson on an extended bender.

Cannabis, opiates, peyote cactus and psilocybin mushrooms all grew wild in the Middle East then as now, completely unregulated back then.

Any mention of or prohibitions against these substances in the bible? If not, why would that be? Perhaps the bible’s unknown scribes didn’t want to expose or lose their real source of inspiration?

Abraham, Noah’s Flood, The Exodus, all make a lot of sense when viewed as hallucinogenic inspired.

Abe’s voices in his head.

Noah’s locally catastrophic flood conflated to worldwide proportions.

Moses the murdering fugitive and 20 buddies lost in the desert a few weeks hallucinates a huge following, oh man, we were lost what seemed forever.

Tales got drastically conflated, became myths taught to children, complacently accepted without question as truth by adults, repeated for millenia.

Sorry, I’m not unquestioningly complacent, refuse to base my life’s values on these fabrications.

There is just too much knowledge available resulting from human inquiry and it’s so readily available.

Answers to questions purportedly addressed in the bible have turned out false when closely scrutinized. bible scribes knew and wrote only of the pedestrian, had no knowledge of the cosmic or microscopic.

bible scribes thought the earth was flat, stars could fall to earth, leprosy was incurable, Pi a round number.

I did get through Numbers.

Decided that what I’d read to that point was nonsense, the god presented worthy only of contempt and disdain. Rejected.

I think it not worth my time, effort and study, beneath rational intellect. Useful only for articulate argument.

And, back to my blog post, allegedly revealed scriptures and gods described therein are all irrelevant. If a god is not Universal, it is only an imaginary god.

Any and all bible specific discussions are moot, have no more real value than discussions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s, J.K. Rowling’s or Anne Rice’s work.

By the way, any of those three modern fiction writers could have written a far more cohesive bible had they chosen to do so.

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From https://youtu.be/wQbkubqG_ZA

How We Stop ISIS – Waleed Aly (The Project)

Waleed begins;

Granted, out of context, he’s referring to ISIS’ being weak

“…it’s the truth, and they don’t want you to know it which is why it’s something we should talk about…”

“.. how do we know? Because ISIL told us they don’t want you to know that..”

@0:43;
“… so that they appear bigger and tougher than they actually are…”

True enough. They are not, and we’d best hope they never become tough enough for a WWII style military invasion, massive airborne bombing campaigns and the like. Or worse, like aquiring WMDs.

However, they are plenty tough enough to carry out exactly the sort of campaigns they choose, current events confirm this.

It matters not whether attacks are funded by Syria or by ISIS through other means or whether attacks are inspired by spread of ideology.

If ISIS’ projected level of toughness is all bluster is irrelevant, they are still tough enough to perpetrate horrors

@0:59;
“…ISIL didn’t control these guys, they were DIY terrorists…”

Really? Spreading hateful ideology is not ‘control’? While DIYers may well have been outside of what is considered usual command and control structures, terror operations are often freelance and improvisational in nature while still in conformance with established ideological and tactical principles.

@2:06;
“…strategy is to split the world into two camps…”

Note the use of future tense, as though this is a goal yet to be accomplished.

@2:12;
“.. again, we know this because they told us..”

@2:15 he explains with an accompanying text graphic that;
“…last year…
….there is no grayzone…
…the World has split …”.
Note the use of past tense.

The split that was merely a goal eight seconds ago was actually already reality at least as early as last year. I think it safe to say it’s been split much longer.

@2:54;
“… they want countries like ours… … vilify them…”

@3:34;
“…saying that out loud is both dumbfounding in it’s stupidity and blood curdling in its barbarity…”

– – –

Outsiders to islam need to understand that islam is very unlike every other religion.

One of their precepts is a scripturally commanded obligation to actively spread islam and shar’ia law worldwide by any and all means possible including the use of 5^th columnists and mass migration.

Another scripturally commanded obligation is to lie to the Kafirs being invaded about their true intent.

Look up shari’a, taquia (takiyya), kitman, tawriya and muruna, see what you can learn.

Now, I admit total unfamiliarity with this commentator Waleed Aly, this video is the first I’ve seen of him.

The impression I get of him from this video is one of a deeply embedded 5^th columnist attempting to downplay the power and effectiveness of ISIS’ operations all the while current events dramatically demonstrate otherwise.

@2:58, without naming it outright, he plays the islamophobia card as in mockery of an Australian MP as she explains the need to look at the teachings of the qur’an. She is 100% correct.

It is to the folly of Kafirs to ignore the teachings of the qur’an, paraphrasing Waleed Aly, “…because their book tells us so…”

Everything I see and hear in this video when critically reviewed contradicts the superficial message and points directly to 5^th column apologetics.

– – –

If Waleed Aly is the sincere and peace desiring man he presents to be, his obligation is the complete renunciation of islam and all its precepts.

As lying is a major precept, no Kafir should ever take any muslim at his or her word. Again, “ because their book tells us so”.

If Waleed Aly is the sincere and rational man he presents himself to be, realization that any god that is not universal is no god at all should not stress his intellect, Allah does not exist, muhammed is a false prophet.

Waleed Aly, in his position as an esteemed and noted broadcast personality is perfectly positioned to spread these enlightened concepts.

Does he lean at all in this direction? I haven’t seen his catalog, only this single video.

Without rejection of childish beliefs in non-universal gods and conflicts over these beliefs, humanity is doomed to continued horrors, universal brotherhood and love can never be achieved.

Waleed Aly’s message here appears to be one intended to placate populations currently being invaded.

I’m not buying placation. Are you?

While a negative cannot be proved nor disproved, a false positive claim can be refuted.

TL:DR version;
god is Universal or else not god at all.

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All religions are false as they are based on childish fantasy tales that do not stand the scrutiny of inquiry and reality.

Number one, and please, please try and grasp this concept wholeheartedly, if a real god existed and was both omnipotent and omniscient, it would be a Universal god common to and known by every human on the planet, every human now alive and all who ever lived.

No such god exists, none has ever existed.

Such a god, having the ability to monitor every human’s every action and thought would also be able to directly communicate it’s existence, thoughts and wishes throughout all of its creation.

Being able to communicate directly rules out the need for any clerics as conduits.

Such a god needs no apologists.

Such a god needs no tithes.

Such a god does not demand worship, rather, earns respect.

No such god exists, none has ever existed.

Such a god could not, would not have a ‘chosen’ people chosen over others of its creation.

Such a god could not, would not demand one group of its people to demean, devalue and/or outright kill those of other groups of it’s people, it is truly absurd and immoral to believe otherwise.

Clerics have created, commandeered and manipulated ancient myths for centuries, manipulatively exploiting the naive, gullible, innocent and wholesome for their own personal profit, power, position and prestige. Evil governmental and financial interests in turn support and exploit religious systems for their own nefarious and greedy purposes.

Clerics are the disciples and embodiment of evil though they work hard and successfully to convince their followers otherwise.

It’s an individual’s choice to decide if clerics tell the truth or if they are intentionally deceptive and manipulative or honestly deceived themselves.

A real god if it existed and desired to reveal itself, its desires, rules and laws through a revealed scripture, such a scripture would be written in such a way as to be clear, understandable and available to and by every human everywhere with no interpretation needed or even possible.

It would be written, presented and distributed in such a way as to be impossible to copy or translate incorrectly, this, after all, is an omnipotent and omniscient being doing the writing.

No such scripture exists.

If you’re still here reading, ask yourself the following questions regarding your god and your scripture.

Decide then if the answers you find within yourself came from concepts you were taught to believe or if you were able to determine the answers yourself through rational thought based on evidence or lack of evidence.

What is your proof to yourself and how did you determine that proof?

Is your god the omnipotent creator of everything including all living things?

Is this god known to all humans?

Does this god have a ‘chosen’ people he favors over others of its creation? Has it commanded its ‘chosen’ to commit genocide on others of its creation? Is this concept not self-contradictory and highly immoral?

Does this god demand tithes?

For what purpose?

An omnipotent non-corporeal deity has no use for material things.

If, as according to scripture, it created everything, then everything belongs to it.

Does this god communicate directly with its humans?

Or do shamen, witch doctors and charlatans claim to be its oracles?

_ _ _

Through many twitter conversations it appears the explanation above of a Universal god is not explained well enough.

Let’s apply some imagination.

Imagine it possible to leave earth and the plane of the solar system to a position that we can view the solar system effectively looking down or up upon the solar system and that we can see the solar system in it’s entirety.
From this distance, we may need a telescope to see Earth at all, at best Earth will appear as a small spec of rock or dust.
From this position we can also get a sense of the grandeur and expanse of our own Milky Way galaxy, a view of our nearby galactic neighbors, twinkling of distant galaxies.
From here we can also get an inkling of the very vast expanse of time on a cosmic scale.

Done with that imaginary space traveling exercise, back on Earth.
If an all powerful deity exists or did once exist that created the cosmos and everything in it, such a deity would be a grand being indeed.

If such a deity had consciousness and wished to reveal itself to its human creations it would reveal itself to ALL its human creations, not just a select few illiterate or barely literate desert dwelling, herders, traders and peasants.
Such a deity would not, could not rationally have a ‘chosen’ people commanded to genocidally eliminate it’s neighbors yet Abrahamic religious followers are commanded exactly that.

There is a meme circulating on Twitter showing the small area of influence where all Abrahamic allegedly revealed scriptural events occurred, It is re-posted here with author unknown and credit impossible.

How is it possible for anyone with a working intellect to believe that an all powerful deity that created the grand and majestic Cosmos and chooses to involve itself in the affairs of humankind would or even could reveal to and concern itself with only the inhabitants of such a relatively small geographical area?

How is it possible to surrender the use of one’s intellect to the degree required to believe an all powerful deity would impose thousands of different sets of rules and demands on different tribes and cultures throughout the World?

If there is or was an all powerful deity that chose to involve itself in and with humanity’s affairs and reveal itself to humanity, the only rational possibility is that this deity would reveal itself coherently to all humans when and where ever they lived.

Such a deity would be obvious, apparent and UNIVERSAL to all of humanity, would need no rabbis, priests nor mullahs to explain and interpret it’s intents.
Any truly revealed scripture would be written in such a way as to be unalterable even when translated, a writing ability to be expected from an all powerful being.

A truly revealed scripture could not contain erroneous myths easily refuted by continually accumulating and advancing human knowledge, myths such as Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah’s Flood and The Exodus.
Instead a truly revealed scripture should and would contain concise answers regarding the origins of The Cosmos, The Earth and Life, it would contain instructions how to deal with all diseases effectively.

There could be no arguments nor disagreements yet arguments and disagreements never stop.

That apologetics exist and flourish insults  and instantly refutes the veracity, the truths, of allegedly revealed scriptures.
An all powerful, true and real deity needs no one and no thing making apologies and/or excuses for it.

No belief nor faith in unapparent and unverifiable alleged truths would be needed if a real god chose to reveal itself.

“We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all that is, seen and unseen….”
Is THE base falsehood that all with a functional intellect should question and challenge.

“There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason… Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.”
Martin Luther, quoted by Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic, (Garden City, NY, Doubleday, 1963), p. 75

Do you accept Luther’s edict condemning your intellect?

Or;

1 Corinthians 13:11
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.”

Makes No Sense

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god is infinite, immortal, omnipotent, omniscient.

Jesus is god, son of god.
god impregnated Mary with himself so god could have himself killed.

Jesus sits at the right hand of the father for all of eternity.

Jesus died on the cross to redeem humans from inherited original sin yet we all still carry that sin.

Immortal Jesus died.

Original sin was disobedience to the command to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Can and does any human prefer humans that have no knowledge of good and evil?

Would, could or should god prefer humans that have no knowledge of good and evil?

Noah, the Dove and the Fresh Olive Leaf

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Of the twenty one translations posted on biblehub.com, only the Douay-Rheims translation says that the olive leaf was “a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves”, the rest refer to either a leaf or a freshly picked or plucked olive leaf.

While such discrepancies are immaterial, just sayin’.

I’ve blog posted a summary of the timeline of Noah’s Flood at
https://blog.answersinnumbers.org/2015/09/timeline-of-noahs-flood/
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From;

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/crops-and-gardening/grow-olives-for-olive-oil.aspx

As with climate, however, the ability of olives to tolerate lean soil conditions does not mean they are entirely invincible. The fastest way to kill an olive tree (short, perhaps, of setting it on fire) is to plant it in poorly drained soil. Olives hate wet feet–period. If you have drainage problems, plant something else. A common sight in olive orchards is a swath of dead trees corresponding precisely to a drainage swale.

– – –

Noah was born 1,046 years after Adam. For simplicity I’m calling the date of Adam’s birth, year zero, referencing dates forward from there (AA, After Adam). Don’t want to confuse simpletons like myself with a diminishing year count even though years are progressing forward.

Gen 7:11, flood begins on 17 February, 1646AA.

Gen 8:4
and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. That’d be 17 July, 1646AA.

Gen 8:5
The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 01 October, 1646AA.

Gen 8:6
After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark, 09 November, 1646AA.

Noah sends out a dove which returns, having found no land.

Gen 8:10
He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark, 16 November, 1646AA.

Gen 8:11
When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.

Gen 8:13
By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. 01 January, 1647AA.

So, some undefined (doesn’t matter) mountain tops become visible on 01 OCT, waters are well receded by 16 NOV, Earth is dry, assumingly dry enough for cultivation.

Forty Seven days elapse between the sighting of mountain tops from the already grounded Ark to the time Earth is ready for cultivation again.

– – –

From;
Gen 7:22
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died
During the flood, all olive trees and all olive pits/seeds became waterlogged and useless as was the fate of all non-Ark life.

The ONLY way olive trees could or would grow and leaf again following The Flood is if Noah or one of his crew planted them. That was not possible nor viable until after the flood waters dried.
A viable pit could not have been planted and expected to sprout prior to 01 January, 1647AA, a few weeks more were then needed for the seed to germinate and then to sprout.

There is no possible way that a dove brought a fresh olive leaf to Noah in the Ark on 16 November, 1646AA.

– – –

Sorry Bible believers, the tale of The Dove Bringing a Fresh Olive Leaf to Noah is proven false by the tale itself.

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Copy/pasted from http://biblehub.com/genesis/7-11.htm starting at Gen 7:11. Used text from the New International Version, differences between various translations appear inconsequential.

Genesis 7:11
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month–on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Genesis 7:12
And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 7:15
Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.

Genesis 7:17
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.

Genesis 7:19
They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

Genesis 7:20
The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.

Genesis 7:21
Every living thing that moved on land perished–birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.

Genesis 7:22
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died

Genesis 7:23
Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Genesis 7:24
The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 8:1
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Genesis 8:3
The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,

Genesis 8:4
and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

Genesis 8:5
The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

Genesis 8:6
After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark

Genesis 8:7
and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.

Genesis 8:8
Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.

Genesis 8:9
But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.

Genesis 8:10
He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.

Genesis 8:11
When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.

Genesis 8:12
He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

Genesis 8:13
By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.

Genesis 8:14
By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

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Many Atheists on twitter and elsewhere have extensive backgrounds as Christians since birth.

Speaking only for myself, I had doubts about the veracity of Christianity starting around age 5 ½.
There was, even then, a cognitive disconnect between dogma I was being taught and reality that I could see and experience. Still, at 5 ½ one does what is expected of one by parents and other authoritative adults. I learned the dogma, memorized the prayers, went along to get along.
“I believe in one God… and all things visible and invisible..” is the part of the Creed I was forced to memorize that began my youthful skepticism.

Age 18, out from under my parents immediate influence, church things ceased to be part of my life. I simply had no firm belief, no compelling desire to maintain the facade of childhood.

Many years of just cruising through life passed, I grew in my profession as one does with experience, became a rather voracious reader, hated the imbecility of TV. My reading was primarily what I considered then and now as trash fiction, lots of detective novels, some SciFi. I’m reading instead of TV or movies, escapist stuff, suspended belief.

Then I discovered action adventure travel true stories, Travels With Charlie, Blue Highways, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (awful book, took four tries over ten years to complete it, Pirsig was an idiot), Cannibal Queen (where Coonts achieved what Pirsig set out to do, Coonts having no such goal). I’m reading real life now, digging it.

Moved along to Michener’s historical fiction where he follows the general sweep of history and major events, flushes things out creating personalities and dialog at a level that history rarely if ever records.

Now I’m liking history.

American History, the Revolution, oops, Tale of Two Cities slips in, The Civil War, First Immigrant (Native American) culture, Indian Wars/Genocide, WWII.

To this point I’m still more or less religiously indifferent.

Then came Biographies, Autobiographies. Read several, most now forgotten, Ansel Adams, Mark Twain and Tecumseh stand out.

I read several, back in the Library one day with no idea who to read about next, I stumbled across Darwin. Hmm though I, he’s that Evolution guy, huh. I’ll give him a go.

Mind, this was a biography, not an autobiography, not Evolution of Species, not Descent of Man, a biography.

Opened my eyes to a whole range of thought and science I had been oblivious to previously.

I started to THINK about what is really real, wonder about all the dogma I had learned as a youth.

But I still clung to a simple and basic belief in god, it was ingrained.

More years passed, the internet came along.

I watched the original Cosmos with/by Carl Sagan on YouTube. Not long after, the new Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson came along, I eagerly looked forward to each new episode as soon as FOX released them on-line.

Watched a lot of Nova ScienceNow on YouTube.

Found and watched too many debates between Atheists and/or Scientists against varieties of theists.

SCREAMED at my monitor watching Bill Nye Debate Ken Ham, screamed more every time I watched William Lane Craig lie like a used car salesman/MLM huckster debating anyone, he’s the same every time. Need a raincoat and hip waders to get ready to watch him, a long shower afterward.

Found Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Ayan Hirsi Ali, AronRa, Matt Dillahunty, Seth Andrews, many more doing debates, lectures, call ins.

I cried a good long time the second time I listened to Julia Sweeney’s journey, “Letting Go of God”.

I have a lot of doubt by now, still clinging to a little faith.

THEN, I started reading the bible.

All remaining shards of my faith were now irrevocably shattered.

I cheated a bit, started with Revelations which I can only describe as hallucinogeniclly inspired. Whether the writers were using cannabis, opiates, psilocybin or peyote I cannot say but all were known and readily available in the Middle East in ancient times. The Authors of Revelations were stoned like Hunter S. Thompson on an extended bender.

Well, Revelations was great fun to read and dismiss, time to get serious, start at the beginning.

I took notes at the start, listing all the immorality I came across, didn’t bother noting all the contradictions, there were just too many.

I took notes only through Genesis 30.

Only up to chapter 30, we’ve seen, passive aggressive manipulation, godly threats, intimidation, coercion, homicide, attempted homicide and infanticide, adultery, slavery, repeated lying, incest, genital mutilation including infants, voluntary servitude extended by double through lies and misrepresentation, mass murder, pimping and pandering, prostitution, multiple exceedingly cruel, unjust and unusual punishments for extremely petty offenses, polygamy, misogyny.

Throughout I find the god of the bible to have great power over one small corner of Earth, no awareness that any other part of the world exists, awareness only of the pedestrian, completely ignorant of anything on microscopic and cosmic scales, has an attitude comparable to an 8 to 11 year old boy having trouble with playground bullies and writes out his revenge fantasies.

I cannot, will not, absolutely refuse to worship the capricious cretin that is presented as god in the bible.

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Oh where was I back at the beginning, oh yeah.

Matt, Errol, if you are here trying to convert anyone back to christianity I suspect you’ll have little success.

If you are here wondering what makes atheists tick, a lot should already be apparent.

It’s a hard thing for us to avoid mockery on religion as we find it so very mock-able. I think this unfortunate because it’s a poor way to change hearts and minds.

Maybe you are here because you have some doubt gnawing at the veracity of your own faith. I hope you can see through the mockery, find yourself an enlightening path to rational thought.

I’m tiring here. Every thing I’ve written here brings another thought I’d like to put down but I’ve expounded rather long already.

I’ll leave with a partial Daniel Dennet quote of a powerful question that’s hard to pose, he does it poorly, I can do no better so;

“…there is no polite way of asking somebody: have you considered the possibility that your entire life has been devoted to a delusion? But that’s a good question to ask. Of course we should ask that question and of course it’s going to offend people…”

Matt, Errol, can you ponder that question? Admitting the possibility takes tremendous self reflection, it’s not easy. The reality based answers I’ve found are some of the most rewarding and liberating things ever in my life.

Life becomes amazing when you live life not for some alleged afterlife but life for the sake of the one life we know for certain we have.

The reward for having lived life well is having lived life well.

It seems to me to be a pitiable thing to live in fear of alleged damnation or greed for an alleged eternal reward.

The heart cannot embrace what the mind regards as nonsense.

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Numbers 22:4

The usual, Old Testament battles, slaughter and genocide continue unabated, we pick up the story with;

Balaam has the power to curse, Balac, son of Sepphor, King of Moab wants him to use this power against Israel. Balac sends some Princes to ask this task of Balaam, Balaam defers for the moment, intending to seek God’s counsel on the matter. God and Balaam seem to be on speaking terms, God nixes the plan, Balaam sends the Princes away in refusal of their request.

Princes return, offer Balaam generous bribes. Balaam again seeks God’s counsel.

God talks with Balaam, God allows Balaam to go with the Princes only if Balaam agrees to do exactly as God tells Ballam.

Morning comes, Balaam goes with the Princes but the ever capricious and fickle GOD has changed his mind, is now angry with Ballam for going with the Princes of Moab.

God can no longer be bothered talking directly with Balaam, instead sends an angel to block Ballam’s way with no explanation.

Ass sees angel, freaks and dodges into a field, Balaam beats the ass.

Angel now blocks a narrow walled lane, ass freaks again, dodges, squeezes Balaam’s leg against a wall, ass gets beat again.

3rd time repeat, this time in a very narrow passage with no room to move, ass balks, gets beaten.

Balaam still has no clue what’s up, thinks he’s following God’s instructions of the night before, has no clue at this point that the angel is even there, reasonably assumes the ass is misbehaving for no apparent reason.

Now, finally in 22:28, “Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?””

Alternate translations here; http://biblehub.com/numbers/22-28.htm

Balaam and his ass chat for a bit, blah blah to the effect of “I’m so angry I could kill you if I had a sword”, “have I ever treated you this way before?”(ass speaking) and so on. Neither Balaam nor his ass comment on how extraordinarily unusual it is for them to be conversing.

Then in 22:31 http://biblehub.com/numbers/22-31.htm “Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.”

ABOUT EFFING time God reveals his passive aggressive mind game on Balaam, poor ass had to suffer so. God was perfectly capable in communicating directly with Balaam the night before, what’s up with all the Drama Queen King action now?

Drama drama drama continues, seven altars with animal sacrifices, wheedling by Balac, Balaam steadfastly stands by God, this guy’s name should be synonymous with steadfast.

On and on we go, skipping ahead to 31:8 http://biblehub.com/numbers/31-8.htm battles are done for the moment, death and carnage abound, victors survey the carnage and find “Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba–the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.”

Not totally clear or concise here but there is an implication that Balaam was still alive at the point, fell to an Israeli sword when found among the other notable victims.

This is how God immorally treated Balaam who had so steadfastly obeyed everything asked and commanded by God.

No way I can leave out the so very choice very next verse, 31:9 http://biblehub.com/numbers/31-9.htm “The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder.”

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A common subject of current debates between theists and atheists and scientists is the question; “Why is there Something rather than Nothing’.

The answer suddenly obvious to me is that “Something” is eternal.

Since the choices of the debate topic are limited to something and nothing there cannot be something if there is nothing and conversely there cannot be nothing if there is something.

That there is anything at all disallows the existence of nothing.
For nothingness to exist implies existence, yet nothingness by definition rules out existence.  Nothingness can neither exist nor not exist. Chew on that oh learned meta-physicists.

If there was nothing there could be no something, we could not be here, you would not be reading this, ergo, something, not nothing, exists, call this ‘something’, multiverses.

This doesn’t satisfy many philosophers and theologians, they insist that something cannot come from nothing ergo God. That only puts the question back one level, why should a god exist rather than not?

Never minding the childish belief in omnipotent creator deities, the answer to the elemental question “Why is there Something rather than Nothing’ is simply “Because”.
1 Corinthians 13:11
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.”

If you prefer some specific translation, clickety here…
http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/13-11.htm

William Lane Craig has made a successful and lucrative career out of arguing the Kalam Cosmological Argument wherein he posits and presupposes a prior state of nothingness so that he can then invoke a magical creator to solve the problem.

As there is absolutely no valid reason one needs to accept the presupposition of a prior state of nothingness, his entire argument fails at its first utterance.

Kalam makes no allowance for the possibility that existence is eternal and has no beginning and therefore has no need of an instigator.

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My first blog post, this topic just cannot wait while I get the rest of this site together.
I do want to state that “Answers in Numbers”  is not intended to be what one might expect from the name.
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Sandra Bland, the arresting cop, cops in general:
What follows is my fairly lengthy, time coded analysis of how it appears to me that Ms. Bland was totally set up by the cop. I hope you have the time to read through it, and if you do get through it, I hope you feel your time was well spent.
Some comments on cop methods and culture along the way.

Found a 52:12 dash cam video of the stop that led to the death of Ms. Sandra Bland.

At 01:14 cop has completed his previous stop, Ms. Bland’s car first appears on the left coming to the intersection, about to make a right, she’ll be passing the cop who has just started moving.
Cop must see her car, he accelerates to make his u-turn for pursuit.
He’s already in pursuit, once stopped he will tell her it’s for failing to signal a lane change, um, has anyone noticed she hasn’t yet made the lane change and couldn’t yet have failed to signal yet he’s already hot after her. WTF??
For sure there is no way to know for certain, but given that cops train specifically to notice details it seems reasonable to assume he noticed out of state plates and a black female driver. Further, he knows the area, he can and probably does assume she is unfamiliar with the area, he’s got a cop brain advantage knowing the roadway expands from one lane to two at the next intersection, he’s likely expecting a no-brainer stop if she fails to signal no matter which lane she chooses.

Ms. Bland sees the cop coming up behind her in a hurry, probably wondering if the cop is on a call or if she is his target, she soon has that answer.
At 01:47, notice the pickup truck approaching the intersection on the right just as Ms. Bland crosses the intersection. It appears through courtesy or cautious safe driving habit or both that she leaves room for that pickup to complete it’s right turn without interference before moving to the curb lane, um, she had already been in the curb lane before the intersection, was a signal necessary or was the cop just begging an excuse?
Cop crosses the intersection at 01:53, Ms. Bland’s brake lights come on at 02:06. Did she delay in responding or was the cop just messing with her before lighting up, making her wonder?
Full stop at 02:18, 02:38 cop is at Ms. Bland’s right front door, sounds pleasant and respectful enough, usual cop at a stop talk, there is a “what’s wrong” in there, can’t tell what that is about.
At 03:12 cop asks Ms. Bland how long she’s been in Texas, how is that any of his business? Might be friendly chatter but with fore knowledge of what is to come it seems a step of the set up of his whole passive aggressive method of escalating the encounter in a manner that will allow him to irrationally shift blame to his victim.
At 03:47 he asks “Where you headed to now?”, again, not his business.
At 03:57 he’s got her papers, heads back to his car to do cop stuff, at 08:40 he’s back to Ms. Bland’s driver’s door window.
The execution of his passive aggressive manipulation is about to begin.
At 08:53 cop states “You seem very irritated” as though he has no clue how irritating his actions have been to this point, another passive aggressive cue point.
At 09:18 comes the first passive aggressive hammer blow, “Do you mind putting out your cigarette please?”. Note that he does ask in polite terms but in an escalating passive aggressive tone, he asks, does not tell or issue an order.
At 09:23 she explains “I’m in my car, why do I have to put out my cigarette?” and all hell breaks loose from here; 09:26 “well you can step on out now”.

I expect everyone who has seen this video or the pertinent portions is all too familiar with the rest by now.

He’s followed his passive aggressive method well, politely asks her to extinguish her smoke fully expecting protest, as soon as Ms. Bland does protest he can now accuse and charge her with being uncooperative.

If you’re a smoker and you’re cop stopped, yeah you want a smoke as things play out.
A couple of times I’ve had cops pull the same smoke trick with me, as I didn’t get jailed I guess I complied, or maybe I didn’t get jailed because I was a middle aged white male first time, a senior white male the second.
The outcome for Ms. Bland, a young, out of state black woman came out far differently.

Ms. Bland should never been jailed, sure should never been held for three days (probably more had she lived) under a $5,000 bond.
It’s not JUST this cop in Waller County TX, it’s the system he was trained to feed that’s as much to blame.

Now Waller County officials have gone into full spin control mode offering continual excuses about the edited video originally released, how the bag got in the cell, even going as far as trying to shift blame for her irrational incarceration and death to Ms. Bland herself.

So what if she had previous thoughts or attempts at suicide, she didn’t succeed, did she? She was quite alive as she arrived in Waller County.
Speculatively, what about the crackers in the jail, staff and residents both, staff at least apparently having knowledge of previous suicidal incidents?
Three days of disrupted life accompanied by continual taunts to the effect of “hey bitch, your life is fucked over for good now, why don’t you kill yourself?”.  Did she succumb when the means was provided? Or was this an outright lynching?
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I am personally experiencing grief about the demise of Ms Bland approaching levels I’ve only experienced previously at the loss of immediate family members.
And I am totally outraged at the behavior of this cop and the governmental bureaucracy  that support each other.
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Law enforcement actions MUST be above reproach at all times.
Certainly there are good honest cops, many of them. But even all of the best are still compromised to some complicit extent.
There is in cop culture a mentality of covering for Brothers in Blue, of going along to get along.
If you are one of the ‘Good Cops’, you already know who the bad eggs are by things said and/or done during routine cop activities and/or during social activities.
If you go along to get along and allow these bad ones to remain on the job, you are complicit.

Honest Cops, get after it NOW, clean your own houses.
Clear your otherwise honest and true consciences of the taint of cover ups.

If you’re an Honest Cop with nothing to hide you should be welcoming universal adoption of 360° body, vehicle and weapons cameras, they will confirm your correct behavior at all times.

If you are a cop squirming and whining about cameras, quit and work retail. Be aware there are camera system there too plenty capable of separating out human trash from honorable staff.
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Corrective suggestions:

1) Redundant 360° cop cams, bodies and cars. Full functional test by specialist staff of all systems at the beginning and end of each shift. NO excuses allowed or acceptable for missing or damaged footage aside from damage caused by and during an encounter, such damage will be readily apparent by captured footage up to the point of damage.

2) No cop EVER works alone, cops ALWAYS to work in pairs. Individuals in these pairs rotate daily, no more getting comfortable with a partner. In this way, unacceptable quirks in behavior will be observed by many, rotten eggs can get sniffed out and eliminated. Departments with very small staffs will have to partner out with local County and State departments for exchange staff. Individual cops as well as departments will benefit from exposure to varied operational environments, no getting stuck in ruts, reduced cop boredom.
You honest cops, if you find the majority of your co-workers corrupt, get away, save your conscience and your mortal soul. You should not have to compromise your integrity, your moral compass nor your innate altruism  for the sake of The Job.

3) This cop pursued and swooped on Ms. Bland obviously seeking the first petty excuse for a stop.
This mentality of stalking predators pursuing prey MUST STOP.
Means of assessing cop productivity other than quotas must be developed.
The Job should be to prevent and solve crime, not cause it.
Local governments that use cop generated fines and penalties as means of finance MUST find other means.
It’s ok for Cop departments to be an operational expense of local governments, Departments should not be expected nor required to pay their own ways.
Departments must be answerable to elected officials and ultimately to the public.
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Incidents such as Ms. Bland’s, Floyd Dent’s and so many others have become so commonplace that the public trust in Law Enforcement has been betrayed to the point that every citizen must now fear for their very lives at each and every encounter.
We can have no clue whether the cop facing us is a Good Cop or not.
Will we be victims of passive aggressive manipulation and escalation during an encounter or not?

Cops, clean your own houses. NOW.
Communities, oversee your cops independently. NOW.
At this point, cops cannot be trusted to oversee themselves.

#BadCops
#sandrabland
#BlackLivesMatter