There's great consolation in realizing that for every thought I feel I have discovered, there's a history of people who'd worked on it earlier...

The heritage of thought and ideas alas, isn't something to trifle with, though I'm guilty perhaps, of being the biggest trifler.

For example, when we quote the scriptures in a way that simply seeks to glorify our ideological positions now and perhaps ridicule the works of others past, we should pose and find out what exactly is at stake. In this case simply trashing the old or showing that 'God blah blah' may in fact be repudiating a key atheistic element that humans can solve most if not all of their issues through means accessible to them.

So for an atheist the Scriptures should be more of how humans have resolved their problems through appeal to God; even through creating or postulating him as an arbiter of reality.

But being an atheist isn't necessarily being a thinker... it may just be of mindless factions, and a thread such as this merely an empty boast.

@ham, go on. Do not be discouraged. Bit by bit is good. It will be here for reference.

Just read the verses and stop attacking the messenger. Am not the one who wrote the Bible.

Midweek Deuteronomy. Enjoy.

DEUTERONOMY 2:33-34 Under God’s leadership, the Israelites utterly destroyed the men, women and children of Sihon. "…we left no survivors."

DEUTERONOMY 3:6 Under God’s leadership, the Israelites destroyed the men, women and children of Og. They plundered the livestock and possessions.

DEUTERONOMY 7:2 God told the Israelites, regarding their enemies, to "destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."

DEUTERONOMY 20:13-14 God laid down the rules for battle, instructing the slaughter of all of the men. Women, children, livestock and possessions could be taken as "plunder for yourselves."

DEUTERONOMY 20:16 "…in the cities of the nations the LORD your god is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes."

DEUTERONOMY 21:10-13 According to God’s law, if an Israelite soldier was at war with an enemy, and he saw a beautiful woman that he found attractive, he could capture her to be his wife. She must then shave her head, trim her nails and discard the clothing she was wearing when captured. She could mourn her father and mother for a month. If the soldier wasn’t pleased with her for any reason, he could "let her go wherever she wishes."

DEUTERONOMY 28:53 God’s punishment for disobedience included eating "the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you."

The Scriptures are schizophrenic.

If there's no choice, why is it necessary to tell me 'to make my peace'? If death was necessary why speak about after all?

Maybe death is a fiction specific to certain world views.

God On Trial... here are the jews questioning God.

Weird and irritating when some religious folks spend their precious time "lecturing " you how their father's paradise wherever is paved with diamond and decorated in gold kama gari ya Sonko.

So death could be fake?

Let's look at Samuel as well. Today we are going to be abundantly blessed as I want you to share with me the books of Samuel 1 and 2. These books show us just how much "love" god has for his children.

Samuel
1 SAMUEL 4:10 The Philistines killed 30,000 Israelite soldiers.

1 SAMUEL 5:6-9 As punishment for stealing the Ark of the Covenant, God afflicted the Philistines with tumors in their "secret parts."

1 SAMUEL 6:19 Some of the men of Beth Shemesh looked into the Ark. God punished them by killing all 70 of them.

1 SAMUEL 7:7-11 God helped Samuel’s men kill the Philistines, "slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car."

1 SAMUEL 11:11 Under God’s blessing, Saul and his army slaughtered the Ammonites "until the heat of the day."

1 SAMUEL 14:31 Jonathan and his men slaughtered the Philistines and "pounced on the plunder," eating meat with blood in it. God supported the slaughter of men but was displeased at the eating of unclean meat. So Saul built an altar to the Lord.

1 SAMUEL 15:7-8 God commanded Saul to attack the Amalekites and "totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

1 SAMUEL 15:33 "Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal."

1 SAMUEL 18:27 David and his men killed 200 Philistines, presenting their foreskins to the king to win Michal in marriage.

1 SAMUEL 30:17 David killed all but 400 Amalekites, who escaped.


2 Samuel
2 SAMUEL 2:23 Abner thrust the butt of his spear through Asahel’s stomach.

2 SAMUEL 3:30 As revenge for Asahel’s death, Joab and Abishai killed Abner.

2 SAMUEL 4:7-8 Ish-bosheth was lying on the bed in his bedroom. Recab and Baanah went into the room, stabbed and killed him. They decapitated him and took the head to David at Hebron. David was not pleased that an innocent man has been murdered.

2 SAMUEL 4:12 David punished Rechan and Baanah by killing them, chopping off their hands and feet and hanging their bodies by the pool at Hebron.

2 SAMUEL 6:6-7 The oxen carrying the Ark of God stumbled, and Uzzah reached out to steady it. God punished his "irreverent act" by killing him where he stood.

2 SAMUEL 6:22-23 Michal mocked David for exposing himself to slave girls. Michal was punished by God, who made her barren of children for the rest of her life. (Also note the contradiction in 2 Samuel 21:8, where Michal is said to NOT be barren, but instead has five children.)

2 SAMUEL 8:1-18 David’s acts included killing 2 out of 3 Moabite soliders, hamstringing 6,900 chariot horses, killing 22,000 Syrians, and striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Verse 6 says "…The Lord gave David victory wherever he went."

2 SAMUEL 10:18 David killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 Aramean foot soldiers.

2 SAMUEL 11:14-27 David coveted Uriah’s wife. So he had him killed in battle so David could have Bathsheba for himself.

2 SAMUEL 12:1 For David’s murder of Uriah, God killed David’s child.

2 SAMUEL 13:1-15 David’s son, Amnon, fell in love with his own sister, Tamar, a virgin. She protested his advances, (verse 14) "but he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her." Afterward, Amnon hated her and cast her out of the room.

2 SAMUEL 13:28-29 Tamar’s brother Absalom ordered his men to get Amnon drunk, then kill him for raping his sister.

2 SAMUEL 18:6-7 David’s army slaughtered 20,000 men in the forest of Ephraim.

2 SAMUEL 18:15 Joab took 3 javelins and plunged them into Absalom’s heart. Ten other men struck and killed him.

2 SAMUEL 20:10-12 Joab plunged a dagger into Amasa’s belly, spilling his intestines onto the ground. Amasa died, wallowing in his blood inthe middle of the road.

2 SAMUEL 24:15 God sent a plague on Israel to punish David for sin. 70,000 people died.

Death is a symbol we're using deliberately for social and moral control. How we use it is not cast on stone. It can be cavalier or serious. But who and why do we choose the symbolism and meaning we choose?

It's on that count that death indeed can be fake.