An Atheist Reads the Bible - 1 - Lot's Daughters

Text taken from video info

An atheist opens the Bible, and in the very first book he finds a horrific story that the religious wish wasn't in there ... if they even know about it.


**** EDIT **** I see some Christians, with a full thrust of irony, have flagged this video as inappropriate for children. Why? It's straight out of the Bible, complete with a verbatim reading!!!

The whole point of this video is to point out the stories in the Bible that get swept under the rug, to bring to light the tales the religious tend to forget when they heap praise on "The Good Book."

The Bible is full of horrible stories where innocents are slaughtered, women are treated inhumanely and men are praised as righteous for their monstrous actions. The worse part? God sits back with folded arms and watches (and that's only when he's not raining down the wrath himself from on high).

If the religious want to praise their Book, they need to know what's in it.



CREDITS:

WRITTEN, EDITED & POORLY ANIMATED by 43alley

AUDIO: The classical audio recording of the Holy Bible by Alexander Scourby - all utilized under the Fair Use Doctrine, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, 510 U.S. 569 (1994), etc. This narration is available for free at http://www.audio-bible.com/bible/bible.html



MUSIC: Taken from various royalty-free websites across the web.

TEXT: Genesis, Chapter 19
The following verses were omitted because either they were boring, added nothing to the story, or both:
9 - The angles telling Lot to stand back so they could blind the posse.
12- The angles asking if anyone else was in the house.
14 - Lot going to tell his sons-in-law to leave (I thought his daughters were virgins!)
18-23- Lot went to a different town first.
27-29- Abraham saw the destruction from a distance.
Please feel to disagree about the decision to leave these out. As long as you read the original, I'm happy. Don't take my word for it.

MISC: The children voices were likewise taken from a free sound-effect website.

Why do so many believe in Jesus? Because they don’t actually know what the Bible says.

It's very sad that people who believe in myths don't understand their own myths. But you got to admit its really funny that people who don't believe in the myths, have read their books, and know more about their myths than they do. We gave up the belief in the myths do to education. If only they would actually read their books.

Why do so many believe in Jesus? Because they don’t actually know what the Bible says. « the BEattitude

Why do so many believe in Jesus? Because they don’t actually know what the Bible says.
By theBEattitude

The majority of Christians in America are biblically illiterate. This is kind of a big deal considering the Bible is the foundation and basis for their belief system and reason for living. Does anyone else find it odd that so many Christians are willfully illiterate to something so pivotal in their lives?
Here are a few statistics:

* 93% of Americans have a Bible.1
* Only half of Americans can even name one of the Gospels.1
* The majority of Americans don’t know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible.1
* 60% of evangelicals think Jesus was born in Jerusalem rather than Bethlehem.1
* 22% of high school students think Moses was one of Jesus’ disciples.1
* Half of High School seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple.1
* 1 in 10 Americans believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.1
* 60% of Americans can’t name 5 of the ten commandments.1
* Given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.2
* One-third of college attending Christians could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost.3
* One-third could also not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names.3

Many Americans continue to believe that a Jewish man from 2,000 years ago was God’s son … simply because someone told them so when they were a child. This is the equivalent to believing in Santa Claus as an adult. If you choose to worship Jesus every Sunday, at least take the time to read the book about him. Otherwise you’re nothing more than a lemming.
[1] Various sources listed in this Politics Daily article, “Why a Real ‘Year of the Bible’ Would Horrify Its Sponsors“
[2] Barna Research Online, “Discipleship Insights Revealed in New Book by George Barna.”
[3] Gary M. Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read: Recovering biblical literacy in the church.”

Was the crucifixion of Jesus a sacrifice?

Was the crucifixion of Jesus a sacrifice?

Original Post @ http://www.examiner.com/

If Jesus was god, then the crucifixion was not a sacrifice.

If Jesus was not god, then it was a sacrifice, but it has no ultimate significance beyond being one of thousands of possibly inspiring stories of others who have died for various reasons, both noble and otherwise.

If Jesus never existed, then it's just a story.  If you can be inspired by that, then I can be inspired by Superman (and you can stop making fun of me for dressing like him!)

Now, the position of many Christians is that Jesus was wholly God, wholly human.  This is nonsensical, and you know it.  I am aware that this is one of the central tenants of the vast majority of Christian theologies, but it is absurd.  Trying to justify this in your mind, reveling in the mystery of it, is indicative of something awry.  It is to rationalize something absurd, mysterious, and impossible and call it a miracle.

But even if it were to be somehow true, then there are still some questions I have.  Did Jesus know he was God (as well as human)?

If he did know he was god, then did he have all of the knowledge of god? If he did, then he knew that he would die on the cross--incarnated knowing so, in fact--and did nothing to stop it.  He knew he couldn't actually die, and that the crucifixion would be only symbolic, so how was it a sacrifice?  This seems no different than me playing some online game and sacrificing my character in order to allow the rest of the team win the mission (not that I know anything about such thing...).

And if he didn't have all the knowledge of god (or his divine powers for that matter!), then how could he be wholly god?  Sure, he might have been human in body but having the spirit of god mixed in there, but without all the knowledge then there is something of god missing, right? Perhaps God is holographic, and even a part contains the whole? I'm confused....

Now, if Jesus was just a guy, granted one that was possibly sanctioned and chosen by the real god as a messenger, then it was a sacrifice.  But how is it a sacrifice for us? How does a person dying two thousand years ago effect me in any other way than symbolically?  And even as a symbol, how does it provide salvation?  Further, salvation from what? (i'll deal with that tomorrow).

And if Jesus was just god, and not human at all (as some early Gnostic sects thought), then his death was not a death at all.  Then it was not a sacrifice at all.  There is no passion to the narrative, just symbolism.  Symbolism that god chose.  But why choose that symbol?  It seems to be a result of people who were used to the concept of sacrifice as a means to atone, like in the Old Testament laws about animal sacrifice and the smell of burnt offerings that are so pleasing to the lord.  Man, Yahweh must love barbecues.  But this neolithic idea should sound absurd to you.

I honestly do not see the significance of this supposedly historical event.  I do not understand how God sacrificing either an innocent person or himself (to himself, to make up for a rule he made due to a Fall that he orchestrated, mind you) is significant to me at all, even if it were true.  If I can see past this BS, I'm sure any real god could too.  This sounds like iron age mythology to me, no different than the other myths and fairy tales of human history.