Religious beliefs on bitcoin

[KeyserSoze]

Mind which school of textual criticism you buy your ideology from. Jesus  existence is widely considered the scholarly position, identifying certain non-existence claimants as agenda driven. The historicity and veracity of the biblical texts is the benchmark by which all others are measured, being orders of magnitude more widely published and accurately preserved.

The bible is fiction. There is no extra-biblical evidence for the existence of Jesus, and even if I grant there may have been some dude running around during that time named Jesus, there is absolutely no evidence for divinity. You are no closer to proving the existence of a god; you'll need to settle for faith, just like the Raelians.

Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus
Thomas L. Brodie
"Jesus did not exist as a historical individual"

Bart Ehrman
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/15/bible.critic/index.html (debunks the bible)
In another Bart D. Ehrman book his introductory statement is similar to mine, there was likely some dude named jesus but there is no proof he was divine.

So, you list scholars who've proved some dude named jesus existed. I list scholars who say no special jesus existed. And then we both post OTHER people who call our experts crazy and uneducated.

And around we go herding translucent cats in a dark basement, landing back down on your belief versus my need for proof. So until I have that proof, jesus son of god did not exist. And since I know the bible is a book of lies concocted by men, and there exists nothing else that could even be considered "evidence", your god doesn't exist either. Since god doesn't exist it's a safe assumption any jesus mentioned was just a regular dude built up via myth. There were plenty of crazy zealots running around then as now.

But I will leave the door cracked for you that there exists the chance that one day there may be proven a creator. I think the chance is miniscule but I must conceded the chance nonetheless.

http://youtu.be/JjcWkhqScBI

Think about it.. at the time of Jesus birth, death, burial and resurrection, the most unique events of his life and their meanings had been prophesied, written, authenticated (by being bundled with prophecies which had previously been fulfilled), canonized, massively distributed, and memorized by Israelite students for generations. Many did recognize him for who he was. Many did not. Nicodemus nearly missed the boat, he had much to lose if he chose to believe, but came through in the end.

Prophecy...? Oh dear... By the way, I have some great land in Florida for sale and I want to offer it at a great price, first, to the most god-fearing because they're just good people. I'll need a small deposit to hold it for you because the other plots went really fast.

Faith in the Jesus as the long-prophesied Messiah is often a test of character in and of itself.

You mean good character like Ted Haggard's? Religious faith is no more a test of character than a coin flip.

[QuestionAuthority]

I am We are God because my our perspective, my our center of the universe, my our will and experience are total and all inclusive from inside my our own head.

FTFY  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism

ALL OF MY YUP.
The microcosm (me) is the macrocosm (us.)
Id hate to put words in their mouths, though- lot of theists disagree with me lumping them into us, and take offense.
Has anyone noticed how a perfectly reasonable, intelligent person will KA-FLIP into evangelist mode and start using a lofty, pretentious schzoid sentance structure and vocabulary?
I do it too, you know...  but its still kinda spooky.

No this is spooky: http://tinyurl.com/4z2ck

[KeyserSoze]

Not all christian religions subscribe to the teaching of hell or in Sheol as a place of eternal torment, but rather a place of rest and sleep of having no awareness what so ever.

42,000 denominations, each one certain it holds the only One True Path and all else are headed to whichever version of hell they believe in. Makes total sense.

[KeyserSoze]

By the way, if you're familiar with Jesus story but you've never read Isaiah 53, give it a read. It speaks of none but Christ, yet by the end you might forget that it was widely published and cherished, centuries before Jesus was even born.

Not that it matters since you'll apparently buy any religious claptrap accompanied by a halleluiah, but you'll probably find your prophecies here:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Failed_biblical_prophecies
http://www.godlesshaven.com/articles/christianity/bible-prophecy_pg3.html

Or more specifically:
http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/isaiah_53_part_1.htm

[KeyserSoze]

I don't usually indulge in philosophy, but try this on for size if you need a place to fit God in your head.

Great hypothesis, now begin testing it. Currently your fantasy shares an equal chance at truth as does, "I believe the universe was created by a pink polka-dotted elephant who pinched her trunk and farted us into existence because it sounds fun!"

Personally I like my guess better than yours because in my elephant hypothesis, the wonderful creator does not capriciously murder entire peoples simply because they disagree with her. She also never claimed to flood the entire planet, indiscriminately killing every living thing save the handful of crew members on an impossible boat. She's particularly proud she never kills people just because they work on Sunday, or are in love with people of the same sex, and she is gleeful she never approved of and/or promoted using other humans as chattel, unlike some other gods we know of.

[Tirapon]

I don't usually indulge in philosophy, but try this on for size if you need a place to fit God in your head.

Great hypothesis, now begin testing it. Currently your fantasy shares an equal chance at truth as does, "I believe the universe was created by a pink polka-dotted elephant who pinched her trunk and farted us into existence because it sounds fun!"

Personally I like my guess better than yours because in my elephant hypothesis, the wonderful creator does not capriciously murder entire peoples simply because they disagree with her. She also never claimed to flood the entire planet, indiscriminately killing every living thing save the handful of crew members on an impossible boat. She's particularly proud she never kills people just because they work on Sunday, or are in love with people of the same sex, and she is gleeful she never approved of and/or promoted using other humans as chattel, unlike some other gods we know of.

I personally see a flaw in your argument, if you base your conception of 'God' (or however you choose to envisage such an entity) on such stories. Basically, if you are arguing against the existence of a supreme being/conciousness, perhaps there is a certain bias to assuming the worst stories to be fact and then attacking via that vector - to put it another way, does belief in God necessarily imply belief in the story of passover, the great flood etc? Or would it be possible that your pink polka dot elephant is closer to the truth.... 

[Tirapon]

Unless of course that wasn't supposed to be an argument, in which case I quite like your elephant hypothesis.

[LostDutchman]

I introduced bitcoin to a friend and they started talking about how the bible predicts a currency take over and its the start of the Revelation.

Has anyone else run into this problem?

Ignore the superstitious ones and go on with your life.

My $.02.

[Luciddd]

People read the bible and each person views everything that is said differently. Too many different perceptions are created from this to really give the bible any credit for anything.

[Tekkna]

Even Wikipedia does not doubt the historicity of Jesus, divinity is of course the issue :p

[Rassah]

Posts that were taking verses out of context, and mis-characterizing God as some sort of evil Malevolent for were mainly what I was talking about, the level of hate that athiests generally show is surprising. Also the level of mis-information that passes as good arguments in the athiest camp is equally shocking.

It's not bigotry. Bigotry is when you base an opinion on something other than fact, such as all Asians and women are bad drivers, or all Africans have a lower IQ than whites. Facts don't support that opinion, and thus it's bigotry.
Christians claiming things like evolution is a myth, homosexuality is a choice, the world is 6,000 years old, and that there is an omnipotent being that watches you masturbate and blesses you with football game wins, but fails to lift a finger to help the famines in Africa, are claims that are not substantiated with facts, and go against the evidence. Saying those Christians are idiots is just stating a fact.

Also, it's not hate. At most it's sad pity. Sometimes, rarely, it's hate, but it's not the kind of hate that Christians display when they hate those of other religions, or other beliefs, or other sexualities or sins. It's a self defense hate; hating Christians back for being such spiteful, condescending cunts to other people because their faith says it's OK for them to do.

[Rassah]

How do you go from no energy in no field of nothing, containing no objects, motion, or information, to the particular arrangement of atoms that constitutes you, right here, right now?

What could possibly ever have caused anything to happen in all of eternity, ever?

Logically, the first and only thing that could ever be in all eternity, would HAVE to be a point of authority over every single parameter to follow.

I'm not following your logic. Why must there be a point of authority? Where did that point of authority come from?

By the way, our search for the Higgs Boss on answered the question of where the universe came from. While searching for the "god" particle in the particle accelerator, we discovered that spontaneous explosions of matter and antimatter are popping out of nothing all the time, everywhere. Nothing is needed for those explosions to happen, they just do it on a quantum scale. They quickly revert as matter and antimatter annihilate each other, so we never notice them without specialized powerful instruments.
But this explosion is exactly what the Big Bang was: a spontaneous quantum explosion of matter and antimatter that was bigger than "normal," and just happened to have kept going. Since these things happen on their own, and we have observed them, there is really nothing special about the Big Bang explosion, nor anything special that had to happen for it to exist. And as to the question of how did something come out of nothing, just like the tiny explosions of matter and antimatter that we observe, our Big Bang derived universe was also an explosion of matter and antimatter. So if you were to sum up everything that exists in our entire universe, the sum total of all matter and antimatter cancels each other out, and is also equal to zero/nothing. In other words, our entire universe is just all equal parts positive and equal parts negative, the sum of which is zero, and we just happen to live among the positive stuff in it.

[Rassah]

And of course, an oldie, but always a goodie:

God doesn't prevent terrible things because:

1) He can't
2) He doesn't want to
3) He causes them
4) He doesn't exist.

Which one do you think is the right answer?

[BitChick]

And of course, an oldie, but always a goodie:

God doesn't prevent terrible things because:

1) He can't
2) He doesn't want to
3) He causes them
4) He doesn't exist.

Which one do you think is the right answer?

5) He gives man free will.
6) Some people deserve punishment.

[KeyserSoze]

5) He gives man free will.

Not if you believe your god is omnipotent. If you believe your god is all-powerful then you do not have free will. If you believe he is not, then he is not a god.

[LostDutchman]

I do not care if it rains or freezes:.................................................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqm7lvdRFIs

Yeah, I already know that I am going to Hell!

My $.02!

[LostDutchman]

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat an infected fruit from a magical tree.

Think about it.............................................

[KeyserSoze]

Unless of course that wasn't supposed to be an argument, in which case I quite like your elephant hypothesis.

It isn't an argument as much as it is just meant to illustrate the absurdity. They are equal arguments since neither has any empirical evidence pointing to its validity.

If you're interested in worshiping Elephus, please understand she is the one true god, and the path to her exists only through obeying my word, her right hand man and appointed prophet. As far as you know, we celebrate her appropriately on St. Elephus Day by wearing wrinkly grey boots and an elephant mask while prancing through the streets showering with pink and brown confetti those gathered to bear witness to her godliness. And there's beer. Oh, and women jumping out of cakes.

[LostDutchman]

Be careful with that right hand...................................

[Pinwheel]

by changing content you cannot change the nature of mental events itself. Our believes it is not something what driving change or determining dynamics, it is just a frame. Same goes another way by changing frames you cant change the picture inside that frame.