The jape of the ape
29 October 2008
“If there is a God, atheism must strike Him as less of an insult than religion.”
~ Edmond and Jules de Goncourt
15 October 2008
“The world holds two classes of men – intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.”
~ Abu’l-Ala-Al-Ma’arri (Syrian poet, 973-1057)
11 October 2008
You see, the religious people – most of them – really think this planet is an experiment. That’s what their beliefs come down to. Some god or other is always fixing and poking, messing around with tradesmen’s wives, giving tablets on mountains, commanding you to mutilate your children, telling people what words they can say and what words they can’t say, making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, and like that. Why can’t the gods let well enough alone? All this intervention speaks of incompetence. If God didn’t want Lot’s wife to look back, why didn’t he make her obedient, so she’d do what her husband told her? Or if he hadn’t made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would have listened to him more. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn’t he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why’s he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there’s one thing the Bible makes clear: The Biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He’s not good at design, he’s not good at execution. He’d be out of business if there was any competition.“
~ Sol Hadden (In Carl Sagan’s Contact)
7 October 2008
“Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me. As an offering, I present these milk and cookies. If you wish me to eat them instead, please give me no sign whatsoever.” (Short pause.) “Thy bidding will be done.” (Munch, munch, munch.)
~ Homer Simpson (The Simpsons TV show.)
October 3, 2008
“Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don’t want to know. Important things.”
~ Ned Flanders, the Simpson neighbor
October 1, 2008
“Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.”
~ T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet (born in the United States) who won the Nobel prize for literature.
September 28, 2008
“Theology is the effort to explain the unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing.”
~ H. L. Mencken, 1880-1956, American editor, critic, biographer, lexicographer and satirist.
September 28, 2008
“What astonished him was that cats should have two holes cut in their skins at exactly the same places where their eyes were.”
~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, 1742-1799, German physicist, satirist and miscellaneous writer.
September 27, 2008
“Poetry and religion are the product of the smaller intestines.”
~ Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis, 1757-1808, French physician and philosophical writer. .
To Sol Hadden
It only grievs my heart to see so much ignorance displayed about God. Just to highlight two of the many redicoulus points mentioned about God:
1) making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves
Really? how come? Do you mean that God is wrong to want people to have refined manners. Here are some of the examples on what people enjoy to do: people enjoy killing, stealing,cheating, envying, setting traps for each other, f* (that’s different from love), hurting each other, and pursuing their lives like some kind of a base animal.
God wants man to be happy the right way (read the Bible); i.e. without hurting himself or hurting others. Similarly, God gave us freedom but warned against abusing our freedom. What’s wrong about that? Anything in life has to have conditions organizing its usage, otherwise, we, as humans, will abuse it out of ignorance or out of our selfish pursuit of happiness at the expense of others and at the expense of what is ethical.
2) If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn’t he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why’s he constantly repairing and complaining?
so what’s the problem here? Are you angry that God gave us free will and wished if He had turned us into some mechanical creatures programmed to follow His inserted instrutions? or May be you are angry because God is trying to fix the mess we leave behind; to heal our wounds?!!! If you have a child who is messing p with his life, would you leave him mess up until he destroys himself, or would you help him out. Why is it easy to understand the paternal instinct that God placed within each one of us, while refuse to understand God’s paternity, of which our human paternity is copied?!!
Why is God complaining? seriously!!! you don’t know why? If we, humans, complain that the world in going crazy, with crime rates up high, don’t you think that God has the right to complain and be troubled with our continous irresponsible and destructive mutilations we do to the world, to the meanings of our lives, to the beautiful meanings of love, etc.
Mary
November 16, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Mary
If “God” is; if “God” cares, “God” should fix the mess – irrespective of who caused it, and end suffering. Looking at our world it is abundantly clear that “God” does not exist.
Nathan Bond
November 16, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Nathan, God created us free moral agents. He sent His Son Jesus to die for everyone (including you) all yoy have to do is receive His forgiveness and become born again He has not made us robots, but he does expect us to honour Him. He made us custodians of the earth, but gave us the Holy Spirit as our Teacher and our Guide.We are messing up this world by disobedience, rebellion against Him and being wise in our own estimation. God loves you and I pray that you will come to that realisation before its too late!
Bernie
January 31, 2009 at 10:06 am
Bernie
I would like you to read what I have to say about God’s love.
Would you, Bernie, at the very least, prevent disaster you can reasonably foresee from striking your children? Even if they had been a disappointment to you; rejected you?
“God” is an asshole. Worship that? Not on your life.
Nathan Bond
January 31, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Bernie wrote (31 Jan 09 at 10:06 am):
No, Bernie. We are messing up the world because there are too many people pretending to know better based on nothing more than feel-good conjecture and evidence-free tradition. Now I know that that doesn’t quite accord with your god’s Eternal Truth™® (℗ & © 325 A.D.*) and its facile ease, but it really is too bad that so many people insist on clinging unreasonably to the unreasonable instead of heeding the lessons that humanity has painstakingly winnowed from long experience – in particular, the lesson about how people are never worse than when they forsake their taste for evidence.
_____________________
* As amended 381, 431, 449, 451, 553, 680-681, 692, 754, 787, 869-870, 879-880, 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215, 1245, 1274, 1311-1312, 1341-1351, 1409, 1414-1418, 1423-1424, 1431-1445, 1512-1514, 1545-1563, 1672, 1870-1960, 1962-1965 A.D. et seq.
Con-Tester
January 31, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Die kwessie van “free moral agents”. Dit word dikwels aangevoer as dinge nie so lekker is of verloop nie. As dinge goed gaan is dit God se wil, as dit verkeerd gaan is dit die duiwel se wil of ten minste die mens se eie vrye keuse. Ek het vroeër dikwels gewonder oor die stelling dat God lank nog voor ek gebore is weet hoe my lewe gaan verloop. Hy weet wat my gedagtes was, is en gaan wees. Hy weet wanneer en hoe ek sal doodgaan. Om die waarheid te sê, God bepaal elke haar van my hoof wat sal val. Hy bepaal elke tree wat ek gee. Indien dit nie so is nie, tree ek teen Sy wil op – maar Hy het nog voor my bestaan dit geweet! Ek kan dit net nie snap nie! AS God my, of enige ander lewende wese geskape het, het Hy wragtig ‘n slegte joppie daarvan gemaak met al sy kennis en almagtigheid!
(Hierdie probleempie van Almagtigheid, Alwetendheid, Alomteenwoordigheid en helaas, ALLES gebeur volgens SY wil, is lankal midde die kerk en tog blyk dit dat priesters dit elegant “sidestep” deur dit bloot te ignoreer asof dit nie ‘n inherente logika probleem daarstel nie)
Bernie – ek sou graag jou siening daaroor hoor?
Fredericke Adonis
January 31, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Nathan, an ape would find an ape more interesting, lovable and less of an insult, than one who prefers intellect, as God is intellect.
You have demonstrated over and over again, that you have no clue, what God and the Bible is about, so what you conclude about God or the Bible is irrelevant.
Con-tester, the same also goes for you.
Hans Matthysen
June 11, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Hans Matthysen, what exactly also goes for me?
If you mean that I, in your utterly baseless view, “have demonstrated over and over again, that [I] have no clue, what God and the Bible is about,” then the obvious response is that not only do you once again conveniently ignore my prior believer-status, but also that you have demonstrated over and over again that you have no clue what reasoning is about, and indeed that you have no evidence to support your ridiculous bible- and god contentions. I know quite well what you want your god and your bible to be about but reality (you know, that old spoilsport who separates truth from fantasy) refutes you.
See, there are furthermore other bible believers who’ll tell you that it is you yourself who has absolutely no clue “what God and the Bible is about.” How do you answer them, pray tell?
The one thing that puzzles me though is what exactly you aim to achieve by spouting almost verbatim the same unsustainable crap over and over and over because repetition isn’t somehow going to make it any less crap. Or is this what you call “jou man staan”?
Con-Tester
June 12, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Fredericke Adonis, God se wil is, dat geen siel verlore gaan en die ander dinge is maar hoe mense dink.
God is liefde, waarheid, verstaanbaarheid (lig) ens. en is dus almagtig, alwetend, alomteenwoordig ens. maar blykbaar nie soos wat jy die persepsie van het.
Hans Matthysen
June 11, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Con-Tester, you can only believe, what you understand. As you do not understand the Bible, I don’t expect you to believe. It is also clear to me, that because of your previous incorrect perception of the Christian religion, when you used to believe, has rendered you incapable of seeking the truth.
I have on occasions, on this blog and others, shown other believers, things they cannot dispute. You must have encountered some of them and your question is therefore puzzling.
Hans Matthysen
June 15, 2009 at 9:16 pm
But you haven’t actually addressed any of the points I made. You have merely repeated the same nonsense yet again, albeit using slightly different words, and added a transparent attempt at misdirection right at the end.
As always, very revealing.
Con-Tester
June 16, 2009 at 12:07 pm