Reading The Bible in full as a non-believer

[Hibernia&Alba]

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I decided to finally get into the spirit of the thread, and read a book in which I'm a non-believer.


So I read The Highway Code.



What a load of utter nonsense that was. I have no idea how anybody could be naive enough to believe that stuff.

I would recommend the Old Testament for those who like action stories. God puts on quite a show:

Genocide
Blood Magic
Infanticide
Child brides and paedophilia
Rape
Land theft
Racism
Slavery
Torture
Genital mutilation
Plagues
Famines
Floods
Earthquakes

Plus other exciting phenomena

Remember, God is all loving and all merciful

[w pilton hibby]

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I would recommend the Old Testament for those who like action stories. God puts on quite a show:

Genocide
Blood Magic
Infanticide
Child brides and paedophilia
Rape
Land theft
Racism
Slavery
Torture
Genital mutilation
Plagues
Famines
Floods
Earthquakes

Plus other exciting phenomena

Remember, God is all loving and all merciful

So it's more or less Hollyoaks in sandals 😀

[Keith_M]

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So it's more or less Hollyoaks in sandals 😀

I would have said it's more of a Brookside, but I get your point

[Keith_M]

I was just watching yet another story on the news about widespread paedophilia and child abuse in the Catholic church, this time in France.

This one was about the THOUSANDS of Priests, and other associated Church members, that abused HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of children over the decades.

Thank God (pun intended) for Free Will.... and God's apparent disinterest in the welfare of those children... AND the fact that those people claim to be his representatives on earth.

Those in charge of the various Churches must be absolutely delighted that their followers still blindly believe... after centuries of hideous behaviour from those in positions of power in said churches... that these same people represent God on Earth, and even have the right to tell others what is and what is not wrong.

And God, in his infinite wisdom, sits up there and lets them carry on like that, while those down on earth still blindly believe, or even blindly still try to defend the indefensible


But to be fair, they have some lovely church buildings and never hold back from filling them with pointless paintings of 'Saints' and 'Virgins', crosses of Gold and precious stones..... so that makes it all worth while, I suppose.

[Keith_M]

"Some 216,000 children - mostly boys - have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found.


The head of the inquiry said there were at least 2,900-3,200 abusers, and accused the Church of showing a "cruel indifference towards the victims"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58801183


"The inquiry found the number of children abused in France could rise to 330,000, when taking into account abuses committed by lay members of the Church, such as teachers at Catholic schools."

[Hibernia&Alba]

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I was just watching yet another story on the news about widespread paedophilia and child abuse in the Catholic church, this time in France.

This one was about the THOUSANDS of Priests, and other associated Church members, that abused HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of children over the decades.

Thank God (pun intended) for Free Will.... and God's apparent disinterest in the welfare of those children... AND the fact that those people claim to be his representatives on earth.

Those in charge of the various Churches must be absolutely delighted that their followers still blindly believe... after centuries of hideous behaviour from those in positions of power in said churches... that these same people represent God on Earth, and even have the right to tell others what is and what is not wrong.

And God, in his infinite wisdom, sits up there and lets them carry on like that, while those down on earth still blindly believe, or even blindly still try to defend the indefensible


But to be fair, they have some lovely church buildings and never hold back from filling them with pointless paintings of 'Saints' and 'Virgins', crosses of Gold and precious stones..... so that makes it all worth while, I suppose.

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

"Some 216,000 children - mostly boys - have been sexually abused by clergy in the French Catholic Church since 1950, a damning new inquiry has found.


The head of the inquiry said there were at least 2,900-3,200 abusers, and accused the Church of showing a "cruel indifference towards the victims"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58801183


"The inquiry found the number of children abused in France could rise to 330,000, when taking into account abuses committed by lay members of the Church, such as teachers at Catholic schools."

It's both utterly outrageous and tragic. I will say from the outset that this issue is certainly not unique to the Catholic Church, but, being a huge organisation of 1.3 billion people, with thousands of priests around the world, it will have more of these appalling cases than any other organisation. All religions have been hit with this issue. The Church of England, for example, continues to uncover new scandals each year. The perverts who commit such terrible crimes join professions/vocations where they will have easy access to children and hold authority over them. What better position of trust than the clergy? Other professions, such as teaching, are also vulnerable for the same reason, and there are inquiries into almost every boys boarding school in the UK. Organisations such as the Boy Scouts have also been infiltrated by paedophiles.

If institutions hit by child abuse allegations dealt with it in the proper way, the crimes would be bad enough; but the cover ups are what really destroys trust. When institutions care more about their reputation than the well being of children, abuse can continue for decades. There are so many examples of the Catholic Church putting public reputation before the safeguarding of children: paedophile priests being moved from parish to parish when scandal erupts, which only spreads the abuse to new areas! It has to be said the vast majority of priests are good men who genuinely want to serve God. However, the response of the Church to paedophile priests has on numerous occasions been woeful: cover ups, hush money, victim blaming, denial - there are examples of each. In many countries church attendances have dropped, due to child abuse scandals. I'm sure any Irish posters can attest to that. The Church, indeed all institutions which work with children, must be compelled to transparency. Zero tolerance, robust safeguarding policies, and criminal investigations of all allegations must be a legal requirement. Thousands upon thousands of young lives have been destroyed already.

[marinello59]

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I was just watching yet another story on the news about widespread paedophilia and child abuse in the Catholic church, this time in France.

This one was about the THOUSANDS of Priests, and other associated Church members, that abused HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of children over the decades.

Thank God (pun intended) for Free Will.... and God's apparent disinterest in the welfare of those children... AND the fact that those people claim to be his representatives on earth.

Those in charge of the various Churches must be absolutely delighted that their followers still blindly believe... after centuries of hideous behaviour from those in positions of power in said churches... that these same people represent God on Earth, and even have the right to tell others what is and what is not wrong.

And God, in his infinite wisdom, sits up there and lets them carry on like that, while those down on earth still blindly believe, or even blindly still try to defend the indefensible


But to be fair, they have some lovely church buildings and never hold back from filling them with pointless paintings of 'Saints' and 'Virgins', crosses of Gold and precious stones..... so that makes it all worth while, I suppose.

Surely this is a totally different topic from what the thread was intended for? I get your utter contempt for Catholics and the religious in general but this is a whole new topic.

[Hibernia&Alba]

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Surely this is a totally different topic from what the thread was intended for? I get your utter contempt for Catholics and the religious in general but this is a whole new topic.

Fair point there. I'm about to start Book 28, Sirach, p. 795.

I enjoyed the previous Book, The Wisdom of Solomon, more than any so far. Here we clearly see the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, such as Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus and Euripides at work: mortality and the shortness of life; how to find meaning when we know we shall die; how to avoid fear of death. It's ancient stoicism and existentialism, which is much more my thing than the miracles of the Old Testament. I'm sure The New Testament in full will be more to my way of thinking than the wrath of the O.T. God.

I just noticed that The Wisdom of Solomon is one of the books that Protestant Bibles do not include. That's a real shame, as it's a very interesting philosophical tract. Was it Martin Luther who decided which books Protestant should dispense with, and does any Biblical scholar on here know why that book is omitted from Protestant Bibles?

[Kato]

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I'm sure The New Testament in full will be more to my way of thinking than the wrath of the O.T. God.

After you've done with the NT a good follow up is the writings of Josephus. He shows what happens to the "wicked generation" JC preaches against and the actual fate of the temple "*I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

The Vespasian/Titus campaigns in Palestine is great movie waiting to be made.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk

[Keith_M]

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Surely this is a totally different topic from what the thread was intended for? I get your utter contempt for Catholics and the religious in general but this is a whole new topic.

Wow, that's an amazing way to interpret what I wrote. I most certainly don't have contempt for all my mates who are Catholics or for the abused children, it's the self-righteous, hypocritical religions in general I have a serious problem with


Anyway, I was responding to an ongoing discussion on this subject in this thread, but I'll happily move this to another thread.

[Hibrandenburg]

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Anyway, I was responding to an ongoing discussion on this subject in this thread, but I'll happily move this to another thread.

Go for it, my popcorn stocks have been replenished.