Absurdities Of Religion

phlogistician said:
God allegedly made man in his own image. I'm a man. If I want someone to know something, I tell them. Ergo, it's reasonable to assume God should tell people also.
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Raven didn't make man in his own image.
I see no reason why this should be a true statement, save if you were arguing with Christians.

Logically, your argument holds up when describing a few select concepts of a god.
 
Roman said:
Logically, your argument holds up when describing a few select concepts of a god.
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There's the problem I have though, with theists being so vague, it's hard to get them to say anything of substance which can be debated. All they rely on is 'you can't prove X isn't true', as if being uncertain proves something else.

No, I can't disprove a whole bunch of stuff, but that is the whole point of the FSM thought experiment, or the Celestial Teapot. It is possible to describe a whole bunch of things we can't disprove, but it doesn't make anything more likely than the other.

I find it amazing how theists start apologising with ifs, buts, and maybes, and then get definite and start worshipping a God they fail to define adequately.

It's dishonest, but worst of all, they know it is, and are kidding themselves.
 
Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) is an anti-homosexual American pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas.[1][2][3][4][5][6] He is a disbarred lawyer, founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm and failed candidate for political office. He is known for preaching with slogans and banners denoting phrases such as "Don't Pray for the USA", "Thank God for 9/11", "Thank God for Katrina", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", "America Is Doomed", "God Hates Fags", "AIDS Cures Fags", "God Is Your Enemy", "Too Late to Pray", "God Hates You", and "Fags Die, God Laughs (or Mocks)", and claims that God will punish homosexuals as well as people such as Bill O'Reilly, Coretta Scott King, Ronald Reagan, and Howard Dean, whom his church considers "fag-enablers".[7][8] He has also thanked God for the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the 2005 flooding of James Bay in central Canada.[9]

Phelps and his followers frequently picket various events, especially military funerals, gay pride gatherings, high-profile political gatherings, and even Christian gatherings and concerts with which he has no affiliation, arguing it is their sacred duty to warn others of God's anger. When criticized, Phelps' followers say they are protected in doing so by the First Amendment.[10][11] In response to Phelps' protests at military funerals, President Bush signed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act into law in May 2006,[12] and, in April 2007, Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius signed into law a bill establishing a 150 foot no-picketing buffer zone around funerals.[13]

Phelps says that he is a preacher who believes that homosexuality and its acceptance have doomed most of the world to eternal damnation. The church at Westboro which he leads has 71 confirmed members, 60 of whom are related to Phelps through blood or marriage or both.[citation needed]

The group is built around a core of anti-homosexual theology, with many of their activities stemming from the slogan "God hates fags," which is also the name of the group's main website. Gay rights activists, as well as Christians of virtually every denomination, have denounced him as a producer of anti-gay propaganda and violence-inspiring hate speech

Phelps was cited by the Anti-Defamation League for his numerous anti-semitic comments:[39] On General Wesley Clark and John Kerry (of Jewish descent):

“ His Christ-rejecting, God-hating Jew blood bubbled to the surface. Yes, like his boss [John] Kerry, Clark is a Jew... That these two turds are Jews would not matter—except when they ask for supreme political power and spit in the Face of God, pushing for same-sex marriage, threatening to bring down God’s wrath on us as on Sodom—then some inquiries are in order. Beware! "Jews killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost. 1 Thess. 2:14." Apostate fags and Jews certain to bring God’s wrath. ”
“ Homosexuals and Jews dominated Nazi Germany... just as they now dominate this doomed U.S.A... The Jews now wander the earth despised, smitten with moral and spiritual blindness by a divine judicial stroke... And God has smitten Jews with a certain unique madness, whereby they are an astonishment of heart, a proverb, and a byword (the butt of jokes and ridicule) among all peoples whither the Lord has driven and scattered them... Jews, thus perverted, out of all proportion to their numbers energize the militant sodomite agenda... The American Jews are the real Nazis (misusers and abusers of governmental power) who hate God and the rule of law

In 2003 Phelps turned his attacks on Ireland. In a sermon preached on July 29 2007 in which he returned to the topic, he told his congregation that he had launched a website godhatesireland.com to "expose Ireland as the Emerald (now Pink) Isle of the Sodomite Damned, –saturated with fags and dykes at every level of society and government."[citation needed] His most recent tirade was triggered off when the Literary and Historical Society, a debating society in University College Dublin invited Phelps to participate in a debate on homosexual adoption. The invitation was made in error, and was withdrawn within a few days. He told his congregation that in the past he had

“ ...warned America about Ireland’s sad, sick, sodomite culture and fag Irish Senator David Norris’ case before the European Court of Human Rights. (Incidentally, the “Openly-Gay” Irish Senator Norris was represented before that Strasbourg European Court, by the famous Irish President, Mary Robinson.) We warned that WBC has had lots of experience with Ireland’s militant sodomite citizenry, steeped for many decades in ignorant, blind, idolatrous Catholicism, belching out their vile fagspeak, slander, and blasphemy against God and His Word – cursing WBC members as guests on Dublin talk-radio shows. Remember, Martin Luther said Catholic churches, seminaries and monasteries are nothing but sodomite whorehouses filled with unnatural brute beasts and devils. We warned that the very leprechauns of Ireland are likely to be fags![42] ”
Phelps' attack on former president Mary Robinson and Senator David Norris, both widely respected figures, drew ridicule in Ireland.


In 2003, before the fall of Saddam Hussein during the Iraq War, Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, "the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets."[56] Furthermore, he stated that he would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to "preach the Gospel" for one week. Saddam granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The WBC members stood on the streets of Baghdad holding signs condemning both Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as anal sex.[57] After Saddam was executed in 2006, Phelps released a video commentary that stated that both Saddam Hussein and Gerald Ford (who had died the same week) were now in Hell.

Since the early 1990s, Phelps has targeted several individuals and groups in the public eye for criticism by the Westboro Baptist Church after their deaths. Prominent examples include President Ronald Reagan, Diana, Princess of Wales, Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, National Football League star Reggie White, Sonny Bono, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Islam and Muslims, murdered college student Matthew Shepard, the late children's television host Fred Rogers, Australian actor Heath Ledger, Jews,[66] Catholics, Swedes, the Irish and US soldiers killed in Iraq. He has also targeted the Joseph Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, center of the David Parker controversy. In 2007 he stated that he would target the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's funeral.[67]

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps, has appeared on Fox News, defending the WBC and attacking homosexuality.

In a recent video sermon, Phelps targeted comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, claiming that they are among the "scoffers and mockers" referred to in the Bible, and used them as evidence that we are in the "last of the Last Days." He was particularly critical of Colbert's Emmy Awards show performance, in which Colbert, tongue-in-cheek, called the Hollywood audience "Godless sodomites."[68] He compared Colbert's comments to the "blaspheming comics" of Sodom and Gomorrah and referred to both Colbert and Stewart as "sacrilegious buffoons."
Phelps' followers have repeatedly protested the University of Kansas School of Law's graduation ceremonies.
In August 2007, in the wake of the Minneapolis I-35W bridge collapse, Phelps and his congregation have stated that they will protest at the funerals of the victims. In a statement, the church said that Minneapolis is the "land of the Sodomite damned

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps
 
For the 333 trillionth time, someone can't/won't understand the difference between "I don't believe gods exist" & "I believe gods do not exist"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Titus 2:9-10
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;
Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
 
Why is that poisonous old fart Phelps still alive? I thought he was the one that kicked the bucket...which one died?
 
Zechariah 13:3 And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.
 
Jesus predicted that on his return to earth, "the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven." (Mark 13:24-27) He even predicted a deadline for it to happen: "Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place." (Mark 13:30) The generation he was speaking to did pass away, but the sun still shines, the stars still twinkle in the night sky, and there have been no heavenly passengers riding in on the clouds. Jesus was wrong.

Mark 13:30 is not the only passage that makes such a prediction. We see it also in Matthew 24:34, which uses the same language as Mark. Luke 21:25-27, 32 also has nearly the same wording.
Also, Matthew 16:28 - "There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."
And in Luke 9:26-27 - "There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."
And Mark 9:1 - "Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power."

The Greek word for "generation" means essentially the same as our English word. According to the New Oxford Annotated Bible (1973 ed., p. 1204, note to Matthew 24:34), "the normal meaning of this generation would be 'men of our time,' and the words would refer to a period of 20-30 years."

The theologians often appeal to Mark 13:32 to argue that Jesus was not making a specific prediction about when the end would occur. That passage tells us that Jesus himself does not know exactly when the end will come: "But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Here, however, he's just telling us that he doesn't know the exact time when the kingdom of God will arrive. He is still very clear that it will occur sometime during the lifetime of the generation he's speaking to.

Another way in which the theologians try to escape from this embarrassment is to claim that the generation referred to in Mark 13:30, Matthew 24:34, etc. is not the generation Jesus was speaking to, but the generation that will be living at the time these amazing events take place. But this is obviously absurd, because it would mean that Jesus is telling his audience, "Some of the people in the generation that will be alive when these things happen will be alive when these things happen." A statement like this conveys no meaning at all, and there would be no point in Jesus saying such a thing.

http://www.bibleblunders.com/
 
If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is "God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."
 
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