The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
The Atheist Thread, Cont'd.
RebelWithASmile:
is this for people who are atheists? Because i kind of am ::)
Impish:
--- Quote from: RebelWithSadness on October 26, 2006, 09:04:16 pm ---is this for people who are atheists? Because i kind of am ::)
--- End quote ---
Yes, and anyone's who's interested in the topic, atheist or not.
Welcome! ;D
Impish:
Here's the excerpt from "The God Delusion" about the Sodom and Gomorrah story, as promised. If you're not in the mood to read the whole thing, read my comment at the end.
Here goes:
"In the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah [...], chosen to be spared with this family because he was uniquely righteous, was Abraham's nephew Lot. Two male angels were sent to Sodom to warn Lot to leave the city before the brimstone arrived. Lot hospitably welcomed the angels into his house, whereupon all the men of Sodom gathered around and demanded that Lot should hand the angels over so that they could (what else?) sodomize them: 'Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them' (Genesis 19:5). Yes, 'know' has the Authorized Version's usual euphemistic meaning, which is very funny in the context. Lot's gallantry in refusing the demand suggests that God might have been onto something when he singled him out as the only good man in Sodom. But Lot's halo is tarnished by the terms of his refusal: 'I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof' (Genesis 19: 7-8).
Whatever else this strange story might mean, it surely tells us something about the respect accorded to women in this intensely religious culture. As it happened, Lot's bargaining away of his daughters' virginity proved unnecessary, for the angels succeeded in repelling the marauders by miraculously striking them blind. They then warned Lot to decamp immediately with his family and his animals, because the city was about to be destroyed. The whole household escaped, with the exception of Lot's unfortunate wife, whom the Lord turned in to a pillar of salt because she committed the offence -- comparatively mild, one might have thought -- of looking over her shoulder at the fireworks display.
Lot's two daughters make a brief reappearance in the story. After their mother was turned into a pillar of salt, they lived with their father in a cave up a mountain. Starved of male company, they decided to make their father drunk and copulate with him. Lot was beyond noticing when his elder daughter arrived in his bed or when she left, but he was not too drunk to impregnate her. The next night the two daughters agreed it was the younger one's turn. Again Lot was too drunk to notice, and he impregnated her too (Genesis 19:31-6). If the dysfunctional family was the best Sodom had to offer by way of morals, some might begin to fee a certain sympathy with God and judicial brimstone."
_________
Amazing, and appalling, isn't it? Lot thinks having his daughters gang-raped would be OK, and so does God. After all, God doesn't punish him. Apparently, God doesn't mind incest between Lot and his daughters, either. Only homosexual sex offends this icon of morality.
So much for 'family values' ! >:(
RebelWithASmile:
I don't know if this is relevent, but i got this weeks adition of Times magazine and it was showing statistics of America. Well, on the religions page, i was shocked to see so many christains! And 30% of them believed we have a 'god that is very active in every day life and hates sin' ::)
i found it humorous. I just couldn't believe that we have that many religious people in America. And to be gay, sometimes it feels like your trapped by a four sided room with thorn walls.
Kelpersmek:
I was talking to my Christian colleague at work.
The problem is, although she will tick "Christian" on any survey you gave her, and is happy to distribute bible-verse cards to people, she doesn't actually know that much about Christianity.
She's rather shakey on genesis, hasn't heard of Lot, or Job (another favourite), or Ezekial asking God to slaughter children for calling him "baldy" (God then complies by sending a couple of bears to rip up those insolent kids).
More than that, she didn't know which religion(s) Christianity was replacing, was unfamiliar with any of the end-times stuff (do you go to heaven right away or stay alseep in Christ until the end of the world?), and where dinosaurs fit into it all.
It wasn't that we were being critical, but every other answer was very much "I dont know, never thought about it". That large percentage of Christians probably has a huge percentage that are very much Christian in that they want to be good to people, pray a bit, and live a "nice" life. Unfortunately they lend strength of numbers to the far right.
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