Christies fail their own standard

[R. S. Martin]

At last I found measurable evidence that Christians do not measure up to their own standards. For the last several months I've been spending time on a question-and-answer board Quora.  It's for all topics but I read and write a lot for the religion and atheist section. Christians keep asking crazy stuff like: Atheists, have you read the entire Bible before dismissing it? Over a hundred people answered. LINK Finally an atheist asked: Christians, have you read the entire Bible before accepting it? Only eleven people answered and half of those said they don't understand the Bible. The reasons they gave for embracing it were emotional. A philosophy prof, who should have the intellectual skills to understand the Bible if anyone does, admitted to fanciful interpretations of the Nicene Creed rather than accepting the Bible. 

 

Wow! 

 

I conclude that if anyone is genuinely seeking the truth of life, the universe, and reality, it's atheists and exChristians--NOT the followers of Christianity regardless of breed or brand.

[MOHO]

8 minutes ago, R. S. Martin said:

At last I found measurable evidence that Christians do not measure up to their own standards. For the last several months I've been spending time on a question-and-answer board Quora.  It's for all topics but I read and write a lot for the religion and atheist section. Christians keep asking crazy stuff like: Atheists, have you read the entire Bible before dismissing it? Over a hundred people answered. LINK Finally an atheist asked: Christians, have you read the entire Bible before accepting it? Only eleven people answered and half of those said they don't understand the Bible. The reasons they gave for embracing it were emotional. A philosophy prof, who should have the intellectual skills to understand the Bible if anyone does, admitted to fanciful interpretations of the Nicene Creed rather than accepting the Bible. 

 

Wow! 

 

I conclude that if anyone is genuinely seeking the truth of life, the universe, and reality, it's atheists and exChristians--NOT the followers of Christianity regardless of breed or brand.

 

R.S.

 

Not only do crities not live up to their own standards but the crities in my family are hypocritical in other ways as well. For example when I announced my non-belief almost 3 years ago both Mrs. MOHO and her son admonished me to read the entire bable. I asked them if they had and they both replies " I read the parts that are relevant." or "I read the parts that pastor fuckhead tells me to."

 

Maybe I'm being hyper critical here but it seems to me that no one should tell anyone to read a book that they themselves have no read. It would be one thing to say "Read chapter 4 of some book." or "Read Mathew in the bable." It's something entirely else when they indicate that I should read the whole thing when they have not and have no intention of doing so.

 

But yes, I believe that many xtians are not seeking the truth in the way that I am. I have, however, met some, seemingly devout xtians, who probably have read the bable in it's entirety and are even more pumped now. I cannot appreciate that. 

 

[Geezer]

I'm reading a book by David Fitzgerald called Mything In Action. As part of the research for his book he surveyed every college/university in the U.S. that offer religious studies. He wanted to find out how much academic freedom they allowed their professors/scholars.

 

One third of the schools confirmed all staff members were required to sign a statement of faith & any deviation from that statement made verbally or in writing was grounds for termination. A little less than 20% of the schools refused to answer the question. The rest claimed their professors/scholars were granted full academic freedom, but were they really?

 

Fitzgerald discovered peer pressure was applied to those scholars that wandered too far off the reservation & they were subject to ridicule & loss of funding if their findings were judged to be too extreme. The schools with religious affiliation strictly enforced their statement of faith policy 

 

Fitzgerald then provided a lengthy list of professors/scholars that were terminated for violating the schools statement of faith. Such things as stating Adam & Eve were not real people, saying hundreds of people popped out of their graves and walked around Jerusalem after the crucifixion was probably not true, the earth is really more than six thousand years old got tenured professors fired. 

 

Fitzgerald took Bart Ehrman to task too for his book saying Jesus was a real person. Fitzgerald says his book was clearly written to confirm he was't a mythistist, even though his other books imply he is and his defense for a real Jesus was embarrassingly weak. 

 

Fitzgerald's point was to show why siding with a mythical Jesus is so difficult in academia even though the evidence is strong for a mythical Jesus but that position isn't PC in academia. 

[R. S. Martin]

21 hours ago, MOHO said:

 

R.S.

 

Not only do crities not live up to their own standards but the crities in my family are hypocritical in other ways as well. For example when I announced my non-belief almost 3 years ago both Mrs. MOHO and her son admonished me to read the entire bable. I asked them if they had and they both replies " I read the parts that are relevant." or "I read the parts that pastor fuckhead tells me to."

 

 

 

Whew! Thanks for sharing. Now I'll feel better whenever these pretend bible-fuckers accuse me of not asking the right questions or not fully researching my stuff before "rejecting" God/Bible. (No one asked more questions than I did though a few people probably read the OT more thoroughly but not a lot of Christies.)

[R. S. Martin]

Geezer, I love what you're saying about Bart Ehrman and the historical/mythical Jesus. Somewhere online I met a person who argued that Jesus has to be historical because even Bart Ehrman does not argue for a mythical Jesus. I didn't trust it for the very reasons you state, i.e. he might lose his teaching position. You basically confirmed it. Christies are the persecuted batch (if you accept their claims) but it's atheists who have to lie in order to live decent lives and hold onto their jobs. Or suffer the consequences. 

 

It used to be the other way around. Not so many centuries ago, when people were persecuted in the true sense of the word they lost their right to freedom or even their right to live. In some countries this continues to be the case for Christians as well as for atheists or anyone else who challenges the politico-religious status quo.