Ask your difficult questions about religion here

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by kazenatsu, May 18, 2019.

  1. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Ask your difficult questions about religion here, and I will try to answer them.

    Only genuine questions, please. If you will actually care about the answer.
     
  2. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    "When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her." Deuteronomy 25:11-12
    "Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee."
    Leviticus 19:19
    Randomly chosen passages but I could go on listing them, especially from the Old Testament. Not to worry, we have a century of pseudo-academic discipline known as biblical apologetics which has been papering over questionable passages for a very long time.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  3. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Obviously this was a very dirty down low tactic of the woman, something she had no business doing, because it was a dispute between the two men, and was presumably meant to castrate the man (basically). An especially bad thing in that time because then the man could not perpetuate his lineage (very important in that culture), and it would take away his manhood.
    The woman probably deserved the proscribed punishment.
     
  4. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So, you suggest cutting off hands is as a ‘deserved punishment’?
     
  5. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I would never advocate it personally, but you can see how it's not all that outrageous when we look at the situation in context.

    Woman squeezes mans private parts in savage attack trying to make his genitals burst. (Not just savage but completely dishonorable too)
    Cutting off her hand is an understandable if not admirable response to that.
    Keep in mind this was a time before they had prisons.

    Also bear in mind that if the code did not sanction an appropriate punishment, people might be tempted to take justice into their own hands. The law was there to keep the peace.

    If a victim was merciful, they would not impose the 'eye for an eye' retribution on their attacker.
    In the case of women, they have no exterior private parts down there, so it's impossible to impose exactly the same punishment on her.

    Many parts of Iran actually still have these 'eye for an eye' punishments.
    It was a common cultural thing in that time and that region of the world.

    Jesus came later and said to forgive the one who wronged you.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  6. Bear666

    Bear666 Banned

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    Most people believe in the religion of their parents or country, if there is only one true god why don't more people actually find him rather than the one they are often taught to believe in? Do you think if you were born, to Hindu parents in India you would be a Hindu?
     
  7. Paul7

    Paul7 Well-Known Member

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    Is abortion for an unborn child?
     
  8. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Two reasons. False religions, and it may be possible God manifests in more than one religion, and has appeared in different times in different forms.

    Although they look completely different on the outside, certain Hindu sects are, at their core, very similar to Christianity in many primary ways.

    The difference between Judaism and Christianity doesn't need to be stated.
    And certain muslim sects (even if not "true muslims") can be very spiritual.
    (Read about Thomas Merton, a devote Christian Trappist monk who studied with Sufi mystics)

    Look no further than Jesus's treatment towards the Samaritans. They were Jews, but with a slightly different religion, and were viewed with contempt by other mainstream Jews.
    Their religion may have been wrong, but only in very small ways that hardly mattered (relative to the bigger issues at that time).
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  9. Swensson

    Swensson Devil's advocate

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    What is religion succeeding in providing to people, which we may have to be aware of if we construct a society without religion?
     
  10. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Christianity does exist in India. There have been Hindus who have converted.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  11. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Excellent question.
    If I can rephrase the question, the question is actually whether human society can succeed without outside intervention.

    I know that sounds like a strange question.
    Many atheist societies have tried to create a utopian society, but not one of them has really succeeded, they often end in disaster.
    I suppose one could say Western Europe is a petri dish for this experiment.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
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  12. Jeannette

    Jeannette Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There are also Christians in India that stem from the time of Jesus' Apostles.
     
  13. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Asking difficult question of you concerning religion would be wasted time as we already know your answers.
     
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  14. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    Why are all Gods confined to small geocentric spaces?

    They are all-powerful, yet seem unable to have Their Word appear in say Egypt and North America at the same time.
    Are they racist? Do they get sea-sick? They seem to completely rely on humans to spread the word at a snails pace.
    They claim they want to "save" humanity - but it takes 1,500 years to get the word from from Israel to Georgia.

    If a middle-aged woman in England can get her book published and sent to every country in the world, written in every language, in two months, why would it take an Omni-potent God 1,500 years to do the same if said word was the only way to salvation?
     
  15. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    God seems to think abortion isn't a problem - over 50% of all fertilized eggs never make it past the first month. An omnipotent God could easily make every uterus perfect and every egg implant properly. Reality says no.
     
  16. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    God's domain extends to everywhere. It's just some places are much closer to God than other places.

    It does sound like an oxymoron, but you can't understand it in terms of conventional geometry.

    Think of it this way perhaps. Doesn't government exist both inside a prison and in the capital building?
    Yet who has closer access to government?
    It's obviously very different.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  17. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    Which flies in the face of the concept of an Omni-Present being - such a being would be equally present in EVERY spot in the universe.
    What you are describing is a WiFi hot spot.
     
  18. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There's no requirement that an omnipresent being be equally present everywhere, as long as he's present everywhere.
     
  19. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There's a huge difference between God doing the killing and you doing the killing.

    An omnipotent God could also end sickness and death.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  20. Swensson

    Swensson Devil's advocate

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    I don't think that's quite a fair rephrasing of the question. I'm working with the assumption that religion is, or will be left by the wayside by at least some of the world, in particular the part in which I live. I see some benefit of religion, but I'm not convinced religion is the only (or the best) way to get there.
     
  21. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I fail to see the connection.
     
  22. Dissily Mordentroge

    Dissily Mordentroge Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Obviously you’re unfamiliar with the sado-masochist God of the Old Testament.
    As to this belief an omnipotent God would necessarily be moral, may I suggest such ideas are no more than wishful thinking?
     
  23. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    Which of course indicates God has no problem with sickness or death along with abortion.
     
  24. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If God got rid of everyone he had a problem with, none of us would be here.
     
  25. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I don't think those two statements you made are necessarily related to each other.

    That would sort of be the "They're all doing it, so it must be true" fallacy.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019

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