Hi Rex
Not sure if I should post here or email.. My husband recently started listening to your podcast and had it on in the car and I caught an episode when you were discussing how pagan beliefs were incorporated into Christianity...this is always portrayed as some kind of negative when in reality the whole of Christianity is based on the conglomeration of previous religions, literature, and ideas. For instance the creation of man story, the snake & the apple, Noah's flood, these were all original stories in "The Epic of Gilgamesh" one of the earliest known literary works. The flood story is point by point identical. Jesus coming back from the dead is also a reoccurring theme in religions of the time. You seem very knowledgeable and open to discussion, have you read the book "The God Delusion" by Dawkins? It was eye-opening, still searching for the person who can answer the questions that book poses. So, I am wondering why you are a Christian and not a Buddhist or Agnostic? How do you justify many of the immoral teachings of the bible? I found your podcasts entertaining, especially the societal collapse one and discussing eating hamsters (LOL), good stuff. Keep up the good work!
samarium62,
The question of timelines is very interesting! I'm no biblical scholar by any means, but a quick search showed at least two different timelines for Creation. It appears different folks use different methods to calculate dates. Like much in life, it seems that what we believe is influenced by what we are taught, no? As I recall, pretty much every culture has an explanation for Creation, Life, Death, Good, and Evil. I can't speak for Rex-or anyone else, but to me, that speaks volumes! Speaking of speaking for Rex, I though I'd let you know that he doesn't seem to spend much time here, as he's pretty busy, but maybe he'll surprise us! One more thing. How far into the podcasts are you? Did you catch the one with Dr. Hovind , yet?
Thanks for letting me know that Rex doesn't stop by often! That's ok, maybe he will eventually, I was just curious :) I agree every culture has an explanation for creation, life, death, etc, some cultures do not believe that a diety is the cause tho. Most cultures do have some sort of god/s, so maybe that is a sign that a god does exist, or merely that the idea of one helped us survive. An analysis of the most common elements within the worlds religions would give us a more accurate representation of god, if one did exist. How can a mere person evaluate the various worlds' religions and then make a decision that theirs is the "right one"? That is a very subjective choice. Some say the reason that religion exists is for community, it brought tribe members closer together and helped them survive. Maybe the belief in deities started simpler and led to our expanded consciousness. One thing religion has always done is evolve tho. Deities would die and new ones would come and take their place. The bible was changed many times and then it stopped being changed. Christianity needs to catch up a bit. I am not sure which podcasts we listened to. I have to admit I'm not a gun enthusiast myself, we own guns and I can shoot well enough but that's the extent of it. What is the one with Dr. Hovind about?
I'm no gun nut, either, but I am a huge fan of Rex! He's a great guy-yes, I'm a walking commercial! 😉 If I don't get distracted, I'll ask him to pop in next week-taking my 4th class with him-and at least read your post. Like I said, he's very busy, but maybe he'll address a couple of things in one of his videos. Dr. Hovind talks about how he dates the age of the earth in terms of events in the Bible, if I recall correctly. It's episode 9.
Oh cool thanks :). This a college class? Glad I'm not in college anymore, ick. Maybe I can check out Dr. Hovind sometime..I've read a lot of books/articles on Christianity & creationism, evolution etc tho. Having grown up Christian I've had many hours of research and soul-searching. Now I just get curious when I hear intelligent, knowledgeable people with their belief still in-tact and I wonder why. Most people don't like to talk about religion, it's either something they blindly believe in or blindly don't believe in. People who actually care about the truth are far and few between. Does Rex believe in evolution than or creationism? Does he have any podcasts/videos that address the morality issues in Christianity? They're frequently overlooked. How life began and why do we exist!? More people should like to chat about the big questions :)
This site used to have a page where you could search out comments from others, but I don't see it anymore. So, I'll just say that for me, keeping to the Ten Commandments as best I can is my goal. And wondering if God evolves, our (mis)understanding of God evolves, or if life is one big joke takes up a little of my time, every so often.
I hear you, most Christians think the bible is moral and the rest of us, aren't. I even had a new neighbor send me a sermon calling me a devil-worshiper, incapable of love, and a drunkard. Welcome to the neighborhood eh? Let me put it this way, you don't see what you don't look for. If people actually read the bible as if they were analyzing a pagan religion they'd have a lot more criticisms. Society (and our parents) convinced us that a degree was the best thing to have. By the time my generation got around to college, it wasn't, but we still got them anyways because it was beat into our heads that we'd be penniless losers if we didn't. Then the cost of college went up and the worth of our degrees went down, now we're all in debt to a degree that doesn't make us near what was promised when we should have been trained as entrepreneurs and at tech schools with actually valuable skills. College was, and is, a waste of time. A liberal brainwashing institution now. Going out into the pasture to shoot requires some prodding from my husband, taking a class sounds awful lol, I could use some work but its hard for me to put in the time. Maybe he'd take one tho! According to the bible God is unchanging, so if he does exist and the bible is really the word of God than he does not evolve. I wrote a paper once debating the morality of God vs the devil in the bible and ended it with the devil actually being the author of the bible and tricking everyone because he put in verses stating "this is the unalterable, true word of God" and everyone just believed him and Christians have really been worshipping the devil. I'd definitely say that he evolves in the minds of those who follow him. God used to be fire and brimstone! He was an ethnic cleanser who killed anyone who didn't believe in him (estimated 22 million "heathens" were killed in the bible), slavery, misogyny, etc. The crusades, the inquisition, witch-burning...it wasn't too many years ago that he was the God of Hate and everybody was going to hell. Now all of sudden he's the God of Love and yet no verses have been changed. It really is quite fascinating to see how God has changed in the minds and hearts of people, but on paper he's the same ole same ole. I think the bible should be altered (with previous versions intact) to reflect Christians modern day morals (which don't seem to include genocide and slavery), and it would be nice if the devil-worshipper verses could be removed for those of us that aren't followers. I am not a devil-worshipper tyvm. Good chat!
Hi :) Yeah sure we'd be interested in seeing some clips from the training, where would I find that at? I did listen to the podcast you suggested. My husband was slightly peeved as i kept pausing the show to interject my own opinions haha. Concerning slavery. It's generally accepted, at this point in our evolution, that it is immoral to *own* another human being. In a free society each individual has a right to live their life as they choose without interference as long as they are not harming anyone else. Slavery is wrong. So my questions would be. What constitutes a "perfect" God? Should a "perfect" God have perfect morals? If slavery is wrong but supported by God, how can he be perfect? How can he be moral?
Yes, slavery existed in those times and was completely natural to the region. Does that make it right? What makes more sense? A group of people who have been raised with slavery thinking its perfectly natural and then the god they create also supports slavery. Or that a genuinely loving, perfect God would support slavery (and genocide and rape...) ? In my mind a truly loving, perfect God would have said slavery is wrong, not condoned and supported it. I'd also like to point out the tone of the entire conversation (and bible). Humans are "sinners", "unworthy", we're just all around horrible, scummy people that are made "clean" through Jesus. I am a very literal person, when I finally let go of Christianity it was like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I no longer had to feel guilt for being normal, I was no longer some lost piece of trash for Jesus to save. The negative personal mindset of the religion itself is damaging, especially to women and children. The best response I've every gotten from a Christian as to why: "God is God, he made this planet and he can do whatever he wants, even if it is immoral, it is still right" ... Rex made a comment on the show that you can't trust all scientific studies, which is absolutely true, but you can't just disregard all science because some scientists are fraudulent either. Most studies that have been found to have grievous errors are in the pharmaceutical/healthcare industry because they buy results to make a profit. I don't know what profit is being made off of evolutionary studies. That came up when the lady on the show brought up that the original Adam & Eve were black. I have heard this assessment as well. Africans have the most diverse DNA that also contains most of the components of the other races (minus mutations & genetic drift), however the reverse is not true. Black people have DNA that could not have come from white/brown ancestors. Interesting stuff. Love the banter, I don't know who the other guy and gal are but they make it entertaining. Still enjoyed the show even tho I'm not a Christian, impressive! ;)
In the topic of slavery, morality and God. I've said before that humans are fallible and we tend to bring our biases to all topics. I'm not going to defend slavery because it is wrong, but might I suggest that at least some of the folks who wrote some of what's in the Bible were not always getting the message perfectly clear, due to their bias? The other guy and gal are Lew-the one who would eat hamsters- and Kacie. I think she does her "Patty" voice near the beginning of the episode. If you do YouTube, you can find her in his "Zero to Deadly" video-the gal with the glasses. If I do this correctly, the video
is from the Yankee class, which was small unit tactics, and was a blast. The berms are make of lots of crushed rocks-which I found out the hard way last year-and sand. Fortunately for us, the ants that inhabited them last year were dormant this year, as the little buggers bite!
By the way, I'm on the "support team", which is on the right side of the screen, on the berm. So glad the ants were not biting!
Yeah that's understandable, but then it's hard to know what is legitimately the word of God and what is just the input of humans. Cool video. I've never done that kind of training. My husband was in the military and he's tried to show me some stuff, but not to that degree. I could use some more tactical type training, probably in and around the house would be best for me. I'm good to let the big boys play on the broken rocks and biting ants!
samarium62
Don't know if you will get back here to read this or not, but I would love to suggest to you Ravi Zacharias. Listen to what what he has to say. He has debated Dawkins and many others, and he speaks of finding the truth. He has helped me with many of my questions, and he shares how Christianity is very different from all other religions. He has several books as well as podcasts, so give him a listen. I hope it will be a blessing to you.
Greg
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I found a video of Ravi Zacharias and all he did was insult and criticize Richard Dawkins as a person. He did not answer any of the questions I have posed in this post concerning the morality of religion.. Since you have researched him could you share his what his/your answer to my questions would be? I don't have the time to search through personal attack videos.