thoughts out !oud

a Christian’s news, views, opinions and occasional poetry …

Quote: Denying God Imprisons Man

Whoever strikes against God strikes down himself. The atheist denying God degrades himself. The atheist exalting himself above God sinks below the level of animate and inanimate beings. Liberation from God is enslavement in creatures. Absolute humanism is the sure road to absolute despotism. Denial of God as truth begets the imprisonment of man in the self-imposed darkness of his own myths.

Vincent Miceli (priest, theologian and philosopher), The Gods of Atheism, 1971… Continue reading Quote: Denying God Imprisons Man

Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

As Christians, it seems we are forbidden to ever broach the topic of who the Western world’s fathers of science were. Heaven forbid, especially, that we mention that many of them were faithful, Bible-believing Christians and then follow this up with the bold (but factual) claim that the methods employed by modern science today, and that science as an established and sustainable institution, happened within only one period – and in one part of the world – in history: that of Europe, in the period then known as Christendom.

I made the fatal mistake of dropping this claim into a little discussion on a related topic and it wasn’t long before someone piped in with their contrary piece of wisdom: “Just ask Galileo what he thought about Christendom [sic] great… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christianity oppresses scientific truth and is closed-minded, aka the Galileo case

Lazy Myth: Christians believe because they are told to

This Myth has at its core one main assumption: Christians blindly accept what they are told - they are brainwashed. The follow-on for this myth is that children who grow up in Christian households simply adopt - without question - the beliefs of their parents. Seriously, are there any people out there today who still hold to this myth? I know the ardent Reverend (sorry, evolutionist) Richard Dawkins has gone on record as saying that your religion is dependant on where you are born in the world. For instance, if you’re born into a Muslim household, you’ll grow up as a Muslim; if a Christian household, you’ll grow up as a Christian.

With sentiments like that, I do wonder why Mr Dawkins never had aspirations to become… Continue reading Lazy Myth: Christians believe because they are told to

Lazy Myth: There is no reasonable evidence for Christianity

This somewhat blasé objection goes something along the lines of: I don’t believe in the Christian God for exactly the same reasons you don’t believe in Odin (a Norse god) or the Tooth Fairy.

(This argument is actually a softer variant of Stephen Roberts’s argument: I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.)

Firstly, the issuer of this argument (which is actually nothing more than fluffed-up rhetoric) is attempting to pursuade his opponent and/or audience not by reason nor by contradictory evidence, but purely - and unjustly - by association. He is stating, by inference, that only the misinformed, immature and childish… Continue reading Lazy Myth: There is no reasonable evidence for Christianity

Religion only indoctrinates and brainwashes

Here’s my bold statement this morning: religion is the antithesis to all that is good. Religion seeks to indoctrinate and effectively brainwash all those who are put through it’s regimented system of controls, boundaries and misguided logic.

Indoctrination seeks to form a particular pattern of thought in the minds of its target audience at the expense of all other opposing thoughts.

Brainwashing seeks to render any alternate thought out of existence before it can take a foothold and challenge the agenda that is being pushed.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: religion sucks. Religion creates narrow-mindedness, bigotry and incites hatred and creates elitism and ‘holier than thou’ mentalities. Who can’t agree with prominent thinkers like Richard Dawkin’s that religion is, through and through, completely and utterly destructive… Continue reading Religion only indoctrinates and brainwashes

Re-writing the Bible

“How can you believe a book based on events that happened over 2000 years ago?” “It’s a case of Chinese Whispers … there was original truth then, down through the centuries, retelling after retelling, the real truth was whittled away, the story was embellished and we now have myth.” “What about the books not included in the Bible?”

These are just some of the objections that get bandied around every Continue reading Re-writing the Bible