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Goodbye Jesus

My Brother's Facebook Status


Seeking

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Here's what my 21-year-old brother's Facebook status read this morning (for the record, he basically just parrots everything he hears my parents say):

 

Our Country was founded on Biblical Principles and we stayed strong and prospered. Now we don't teach our kids the Bible in schools and crime, volentary abortion, and young pregnancies have skyrocketed! Sure we are the leading Country in the world but not leading in good things. We have the highest rate of all those... things. WE NEED GOD BACK IN THE SCHOOLS!!!!

I sent him (privately) this link.

 

He sent me a message (privately) that said:

 

All I see in that article is someone claiming things but there is truth in our old schoolbooks of teaching the Bible in Public schools. Also you found that online. Better be careful, there is a lot of junk out there on the internet. Cant believe everything you read.

I chuckled to myself and almost replied that I absolutely don't believe everything I read, as I don't even believe the Bible! But (since he is ignorant of my deconversion), I just replied saying:

 

Oh, I certainly don't believe everything I read! Here's a more in-depth article that cites its sources, if you want more info. :)http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html

Several hours later, he posted my original link publicly under his Facebook status, with my name attached to it so everyone could see what a "terrible" article I'd sent him.

 

His girlfriend then commented:

 

All I see is talk. Not one test, survey, statistic, graph, or citation. Anyone can write an article, but you have to back it up!

So I just posted back with this:

 

http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html Here you go. This is the study that was mentioned in that article. There are at least 70 citations at the bottom, as well as graphs.

It'll be entertaining to see their replies.

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I heard the same thing long before he was born. Back at least to the early 70s. All that started with Madelyn Murry O'Hair taking prayer out of the public schools. The fundies have never recovered.

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Founded on Biblical principles??? Ok, I know fundies buy this bullshit, but REALLY, I don't know where they get this utter crap. It's all lies.

They've never heard of the Enlightenment, I suppose. Where men stopped trusting the churches and the bible, and thought for themselves. And how modern democracy was borne straight out of such thinking. And things such as PERSONAL LIBERTY are directly at odds with the bible, and promote freedom of religion.

And I wonder if they've read ANYTHING AT ALL about Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. And many more "Founding Fathers."

FFS, Christians are retards.

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I recently had a similar Facebook exchange. Ugh. I'm thinking about deleting my account because it's so annoying.

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I love how if you post a counter-argument he says you shouldn't believe everything you read on the Internet but wants you to believe everything he says on the Internet.

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I keep my Facebook account primarily because it presents a platform of discourse where I can be the voice of reason in cases like this.

 

For the record, my brother deleted me from his Facebook because of something like this. Other religious members of my family (including his wife) have kept me on though, because I don't attack them, only their religion.

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Interestingly the idea that the next generation is worse that the one you belong to is nothing new. I once read an account written about 1000ad when the guy was going on about the younger people - and how immoral they had become -

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Amusing exchange, I have similar discussion all the time with my family, constantly it seems.

 

I grow weary fo the "Our country is going to pot" type attitudes and arguments.

 

From my perspective we are better off than we ever have been, save the economic woes which will eventually pass.

 

People just seem to make random shit up, like "crime is so much worse now" etc.... etc.... If you actually do the research though that isn't the case.

 

Just plain old fashioned ignorance and parroting stupid shit other people of similar dispositions make up. :shrug:

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Doesn't the bible say Christians are supposed to do all things without complaining or something?

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Well, it all hit the fan today! Here's the progression of comments on that post:

 

My 14-year-old niece said:

You know God mentions you in the Bible. It says in Psalms "The fool says in his heart, there is no God."

(Nice respect for her elders, eh?)

 

Then her father, my older brother, said:

Where to start... I agree with most of the original quote, except that I would add that we need to get government out of education completely. Privatize all the schools and let the parents decide what's taught. The US is not homogeneous. Inner city crime rates are a world away from the crime rates in rural areas. This fact alone renders the study useless. Writing up a study to obfuscate the obvious may be comforting to the weak of mind, but in the end who's being fooled?

 

The introduction of Darwinism lead directly to Communism, Nazism, and wholesale mass murder. Philosophically, it was used as an excuse for genocide... just helping evolution along, you know. Darwinian evolution is entirely lacking of proof. You NEVER find in the fossil record what you would expect if you believe in Evolution. Where are the billions of transitional forms? They don't exist. Case closed. The only reason to believe in Evolution is in an attempt to run from God.

 

Creationists are ALWAYS finding what they expect in the fossil record. Fossils of creatures which still exist today... unchanged. Cambrian explosion. Evidence of catastrophic fossil formation. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/ has lots of resources to challenge the mind confused by the secular religion of Darwinian Evolution.

 

And then a bunch more people chimed in with out-of-context quotes from the Bible implying I'm evil and a fool. :woohoo:

 

I haven't replied.

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The saga continues:

 

This morning, I got a 4-page e-mail from this same older brother saying, among other things:

I would like to focus here on Genesis, first because it covers so much TIME, and second because it explains SO MUCH. If you can have confidence in Genesis, the rest of the bible is easy. If you look at the structure of Genesis, it's clearly a collection of writings by different people. Moses didn't write it... he compiled it.

 

What we see in Genesis is a series of tablets written by eyewitnesses, starting with Adam writing as dictated by God for Gen1:1-2:4, then Adam's own account, then Noah's account, then Noah's sons' account, then Shem's account, etc. Shem (Melchizedek) would have passed these to Abraham when they met in Jerusalem. Eventually they came into Moses' possession so he could compile them into a history for Israel.

 

I have researched this at length, and any and every criticism of Genesis can be shown to be a product of a cultural misunderstanding or a presupposition bias. Try me. Or challenge your notions at www.answersingenesis.org.

 

Try as they might, the critics have never been able to disprove any of the ancient writings of the bible at any point. They say they can from time to time, then they have to eat their words later as more information comes to light showing how they either misunderstood something or fabricated something else or based some of their theory on erroneous presuppositions. This happens over and over again. On the other hand, archeology is continually uncovering things which confirm the specific facts mentioned in the bible. The reason Genesis is so important is because it explains why the Messiah was needed, and how God preserved a line of people for himself to bring him into the world.

 

Do you remember in the book of Exodus where Moses takes the stick before Pharaoh, throws it on the floor and it turns into a snake? Pharaoh and his advisers weren't impressed, because they could do the same thing. Spiritual beings were active at that time. Where do you suppose we get all our stories of magic and sorcery, demons, etc? It's because at one time all these things were common place.

 

Then he got sidetracked on evolution and said:

Your understanding of genetic mutation is flawed. Mutations never increase genetic information, they always decrease information. Often, natural selection of pre-existing genetic information causes two lines of descendants to diverge in radical ways, but the the genetic information is being LOST, not gained. This was Darwin's great blunder... he assumed that he was seeing an increase in genetic information through mutation and natural selection, when in fact what he was seeing was natural selection of pre-existing genetic information.

 

In other words, when the proto-dogs hopped off the ark, they had all the genetic information for wolves, chihuahuas, bulldogs, and dingos. As their descendants spread out into different habitats, they lost the genetic information (natural selection) that was fatal or causing of serious disadvantage in their habitat. Replace the evolutionary tree with a creation forest. Created kinds, diverging into even more species as the genetic information was lost in different ways. This is also how we got different races of people. Goo-to-you evolution is a fairy-tale. It's simply a logical and mathematical impossibility – to have a mutation gain information, you'd have to have something already in place to read that information.

 

And then he went off on family:

My wife and I have six children, and we are a covenant family. This means there are certain expectations from family members if they want to enjoy the blessings of family. One of those expectations is a humble acknowledgment of God as our Creator and Jesus as our Lord and Savior. To stray from that is to stray from the family. Our children are watching.

 

I sincerely hope you will reconsider, research, and come to understand that a modern theory of evolution is no replacement for the TRUTH which is recorded for us in the scriptures.

 

Our family serves the LORD. When you reject God, you reject all that we are.

 

So you can see what nut-jobbery I'm dealing with here. :)

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Your family should read talkorigins.org instead. And if the Genesis creation account is so important, why wasn't it written until much later in the history of Judaism? Why do the majority of Jews accept evolution as scientific fact?

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The fundies seem to want to let it all hang out on Facebook. It is easy to write something online rather than confront someone in real life.

Today I saw the following on an old classmate's profile page, who I hasten to add is not on my friend list:

 

"Born once die twice, born twice die once; If you're wrong about the Fall [of Adam and Eve], you'll be wrong about it all; Good works does not produce salvation but salvation does produce good works; The atonement of Christ was a sufficient, substitutionary, satisfactory, specific, sacrifice."

 

Wooo boy, does it get any better? Look, you can't reason with these types. It is not possible. Since I have joined Facebook I have seen far too many statements of this type. I prominently posted "Buddhist" on my profile. So far I have not been preached to. I have had some folks say they are praying for me. I am just letting those comments go, since to me its like they are thinking of me, which is OK.

 

I would refuse to respond to a pages long diatribe such as you are describing, Seeking. It is just futile. Their mind is made up, their view is set in stone. If, in the future you see some signs of cracks appearing in the facade, then and only then, would I try to communicate religious views or lack thereof. Until then, state the subject is off limits. That is my suggestion, and if necessary, remove from friends list.

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I wonder how Christians would feel if instead saying we're praying for them if atheists posted on their Facebook pages that they were reasoning for them and hope they would see the error of their ways one day?

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:lmao:

Indeed Seeking, nut-jobbery. That cat seems to have missed basic biology. And, you know, thinking.

The arrogance still astounds me, though it really shouldn't.

Also that bit about rejecting the family by rejecting Jeebus - what a fucking dick. Personally, I'd say fine, kiss my ass, I'm not part of such an insane fucking family.

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Oh, the "scientific" fundies - they do a great job of picking and choosing what they want to believe, but will ignore the thousands of other facts out there (bring up astronomy and physics and most of them have NO clue about what is actually going on in those fields...it tends to silence them quickly since their only responses are ridiculous). Most of their information is so old its not even funny, and I have yet to meet one who keeps up with the current scientific discoveries on their own. They probably can't accept what is being discovered each day - much of it would rock them to their core, and they can't deal. So they shove their fingers in their ears and keep spouting the same crap they have forever.

 

There is no winning with these kinds of people. Although on the rare occasion I will challenge things, I seldom make it about religion - of if they're making it about religion, I try to bring the conversation back around or end it altogether.

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Guest ephymeris

Wow Seeking, his reply for the whole family is pretty fucking obnoxious. Who the hell is he to set standards for other members of the family!?! Fuck him! I don't know how you feel about it but if I got a message like that from my brother, I'd be shaking with anger.

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I sent him a 3-page reply yesterday afternoon, just for fun. I haven't heard back yet. Yet. I do not expect he'll give in easily.

 

Regarding his last bit about "When you reject God, you reject all that we are": I replied saying, "I’m not sure if your use of “family” here is meant to include me or just your offspring. If I’m supposed to read it as including me, then it seems to me that you’re implying that I’ll be disowned or cut off from the family if I hold a different opinion from you. Am I correct in this unfortunate understanding?" So we'll see.

 

My sister's husband said, "So, he speaks for the whole family now? Who died and made HIM pope?!" :D

 

My brother's arrogance annoys me, but it doesn't really surprise me. After all, he has a direct line of communication with the creator of the universe, so he must therefore have all of the answers! :rolleyes:

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After all, he has a direct line of communication with the creator of the universe, so he must therefore have all of the answers!

 

Of course he does, Seeking. If you weren't such an eeevvvviiilll baby-eater, you would have realized that a long time ago. :jesus::yelrotflmao:

 

Did ya ever hear back from him?

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I closed my Facebook account the day I found my twin brother was promoting all of Glenn Beck’s books. I never even knew he read books. I found out from his 18 year daughter that indeed he had not read a book in twenty years until Glenn came on the scene. I don’t want to know that much about my brother. I would rather stay in my fantasy world and believe he has a brain. That is when I closed my Facebook account. I just don’t want to know.

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I closed my Facebook account the day I found my twin brother was promoting all of Glenn Beck’s books. I never even knew he read books. I found out from his 18 year daughter that indeed he had not read a book in twenty years until Glenn came on the scene. I don’t want to know that much about my brother. I would rather stay in my fantasy world and believe he has a brain. That is when I closed my Facebook account. I just don’t want to know.

 

How disappointing for you. I am so sorry. Yes, on Facebook people let it all hang out. For better or worse.

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I closed my Facebook account the day I found my twin brother was promoting all of Glenn Beck’s books. I never even knew he read books. I found out from his 18 year daughter that indeed he had not read a book in twenty years until Glenn came on the scene. I don’t want to know that much about my brother. I would rather stay in my fantasy world and believe he has a brain. That is when I closed my Facebook account. I just don’t want to know.

 

Ew, I didn't know Beck could write. I should say, "write." So maybe what your brother is doing shouldn't be strictly called "reading."

 

If my sister was found with a Beck book, I'd smack her with it.

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Of course he does, Seeking. If you weren't such an eeevvvviiilll baby-eater, you would have realized that a long time ago. :jesus::yelrotflmao:

 

Did ya ever hear back from him?

It's been a full week, and I haven't heard a peep.

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I closed my Facebook account the day I found my twin brother was promoting all of Glenn Beck’s books. I never even knew he read books. I found out from his 18 year daughter that indeed he had not read a book in twenty years until Glenn came on the scene. I don’t want to know that much about my brother. I would rather stay in my fantasy world and believe he has a brain. That is when I closed my Facebook account. I just don’t want to know.

 

Ew, I didn't know Beck could write. I should say, "write." So maybe what your brother is doing shouldn't be strictly called "reading."

 

If my sister was found with a Beck book, I'd smack her with it.

 

Because I'm too lazy today to look up that person...who is is? Why is it simply "writing"? lol.

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