Oh God I want a windsurfer, Don't Answer Me No

I expect the topic of how the authors of the Bible had no idea whatsoever of what the 21st century would be like is too obvious and has been covered too many times to include in a book but there could have been a chapter in "How to defend the Christian faith: from Jesus failure to identify any 21st century technology"

How come if Jesus was standing on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that he didn't miraculously prophecy something unknowable like, "One day people will windsurf across this lake with a sail made from a plastic called monofilm surrounded by Kevlar, a mast made of carbon fibre & a board of polystyrene & wood core with carbon fibre shell and they shall sail like a bat out of hell. Oh God why must I have been born 21 centuries too soon, if it be thy will magically create a Neil Pryde rig with Fanatic board, but not my will but thine be done.....No ? Why is it always fucking no. God damn" followed by a flash of lightning and Jesus disappearing in a cloud of smoke with the booming voice from the sky, "You wanted carbon you got toasted"

N.B the word, "fucking" mentioned in the preceding dialogue is not gratuitous swearing but rather an acronym for: 
"Frustration, Unhappiness, Crossness, Kvetching"
Also "DAMN" is an acronym for, "Don't Answer Me No"

For a vision of the future See Youtube video :

Israel - Extreme WindSurfing - Beach Tour - Sea Of Galilee - Round #4 on Gil Ziny channel

Swear words as acronyms

What if swear words were actually thought of as acronyms so that the letters of each word stood for something else, the meaning of the swear word would be largely changed then there would be less need to worry about saying it ?

For example
SUGAR = Swearing Unnecessarily Grieves Aging Relatives
     or          Swearing Usually Grieves All Religious

DAMN  ( For office related situations ) = Didn't Amend My Notes
                                                                   = Didn't Attend Meeting; Necessary
                                                                    = Don't Approach Me Now
                                                                     = Didn't Approve, Moaning Noise
                                                                   = Dismay Anger Misery Nuisance
                                                                  = Distressingly Angry Miserable Noise

SHIT = Swearing Habitually Inhibits Thought
          = Sorry Have Irate Thoughts
          = Sorry Have Intestinal Troubles
           = Smelly House, Initially Toilet
          = Severely Hateful Illegal Thesis
           = Scorching Hot Ibizan Temperatures
           = Some Heat Immediately Thanks
          = She has irritable temperament
          = Should Have Insured Treasures
          = Some Have It Tough
           = Some Have Inflationary Troubles
           = Some Help Immediately Thanks
           = Sound Horn In Trouble
           = Shot Hind In Thigh
           = Skived Home, In Trouble
           = Sent Home, In Trouble
            = Sneaked Home Illegally, Truanting
            =Some How Its True
            = Should Have Investigated Thoroughly
           = Sex Hardly Is Terrific
           = Secure Help If Threatened
           = Secure Hold If Threatened
            = Shoot Harpoon If Threatened
           = Should Have Incinerated Trash
           = Some How I Tripped
            = Severely Harassed, Internet Troubles
            = Should Have Ignored Testaments
            = Should Have Investigated Testaments
             = She Has Intolerant Theology
            = Sounds Horrible, Investigate Tuner
         

SHIT HOT = She Has Irresistible Tits, Hot

FUCK ( while windsurfing ) = Fallen Under Capsized Keeled
            ( while struggling to clear sail to waterstart ) = Frustrating Under Currents Knut
             ( while watching motor racing ) = Failed Unexpectedly Crashed Killed
                                                                     Failed Useless Conked Kinked
             ( failing to be on the ball ) =  Forgotten Unfortunately, Cursing, Kopfschmertzen
             ( On dropping something ) = Fallen  Unfortunately Cracked Knackered
                                                             Fallen Unhappily Crashed Konked
              (general displeasure) = Frustration Unhappiness Consternation Kvetching
              ( tummy upset ) = Farting Uncontrollably Crappy Knickers
              ( gastronomic ) = Foods Unacceptable; Chili, Korma
                                            Foods Unacceptable; Calabrese, Kohlrabi
                                             Fish Unacceptable; Cod, Kippers
                                              Fish, Urchins, Cod, Kippers
              ( marriage )       = Female Unacceptable; Caty, Katy
                                         =Female Unwed, Condition Knocked (up)
                                         = Focus Unbalanced Calamity Knells / Knocks
             ( science fiction ) = Far Universe Comes Knocking
                                              Futuristic Unworldly Comes Knocking
             (When Castle Door Broken Down During Seige ) = Failed Under Colossal Knocking
                                            = Fallen Under Charging Knights
                                            = Fainted Under Charming King
Lebian rejection of Male proposal= Fellatio Unwelcome, Clitoris Kissed

GOD = Grief Over Disaster
              Grief Over Distress
               Gloom Over Depression
               Gloom Over Dismay / Diappointment

FLAMES = Fuming Lamentation Anger Muttering Expletives Stress

CRAP = Criticism Rage Annoyance Petulance

PISS = Passionate Irate Swearing Severely
             Passionate Irate Scold Swear
             Please Insist Swearing Stops
              Please Inhibit Sweary Sentences
            Petulantly Insist Swearing Stops

CHRIST = Cursing Habitually Really Isn't Socially Tolerable
                    Cursing Habitually Really Impairs Sensible Thought
                  Cursing Habitually Really Isn't Satisfactory Though
                   Cursing Horribly, Raging Interminably, Swearing Trooperishly

BLOODY =

HELL = Horrible Expletives Loud Lamentations
            = Hateful, Extreme, Livid, Lyrics
            ( On way to airport realizing you forgot a bag )= "Hold Everything, Left Luggage"
            ( In arrivals not finding bags ) = "Help Essential Lost Luggage"
             ( On witnessing fatality ) =" Has Expired, Lost Life "
            ( Medical ) Have Encephalitis, Lost Lucidity

JESUS = Just Extremely Silly Unverified Superstitions


MALFUNCTION = Making A Living From Untrue Nonsensical Cruel Theological Idiotic Objectionable Notions

THINK = That Honestly Is Not Known

WOHA = Watch Out Hot Aga

SWAT = Son Whacked And Thumped

SHAT = Summer Has Arrived Thankfully

SHOT= Steak Has Overcooked Terribly

SHUT = Skived Home Until Two

A CONVERSATION IN CODE

Mother returns home and sees Son there during school hours
Mother: SHIT = Sneaked Home Illegally, Truanting ?!
Son      : NO SHIT = Sent Home In Trouble
Father : SHIT = Surely He Is Trustworthy
Mother: NO SHIT = Some How Its True
Father: SHIT = Suspend His Internet Time
Mother: NO SHIT = Son Has Incoherent Tantrum
Father:  SHIT = Some How I'll Teach (him)
Mother : NO SHIT = Son Has Intellectual Troubles
Father: SHIT = So Have It Then

On Voicing emotions

Some people use the word fuck like its an apostrophe
but I wonder if it could be an acronym where C stands for catastrophe
or maybe C is for Cross
Like when U is Unhappy over a loss
K could be for Kopfschmertzen or Kvetching
Like when you have a Flaming sore head and you're Fuming
Or maybe F is for Frustration when your wife acts Frigid and Unloving
her Cunt is off limits and you feel like Killing
Or maybe afterall F is for Feminine Underwear Coture Kicking
Or Female, Fanny, Underparts, Urethra, Clitoris, Caress, Kissing, Knackered
Fizzing, Forgotten, Umbridge, Crying, Crackling, Crazed, knocked

Great guitarist Ethan Meixsell & great writer John W. Loftus

I've been listening to the best tracks of guitarist Ethan Meixsell on Youtube, the titles remind me of the writings of John Loftus:

"Thor's hammer"- In Old Norse it is called Mjölnir which means "That which marks and pulverizes to dust", which is what John Loftus' writings do to the scriptures

"Taking a beating" - which is what the Bible has had from WIBA

"The coming storm" - John aims to take the battle to them

"Gut check" aka "The outsider test of faith"

"Collision" between atheism and superstition

"Rise" of science

"In the shadow" of Christianity which is where many readers of Debunking Christianity started out from.

"Rabid" aka the blind Christiain apologist

"Battle ground" eg "The End of Christianity"

"Fight of Flight"; is the apologist really fighting to defend Christianity or are they on the run driven by the fear of an imagined hell

"Driven to madness" - the madness of religious delusion

"The fiery furnace" - is it real or really just mental abuse ?

"Heavyweight"- The books of John Loftus, of course

"Sea of sand" - the shifting sands of scripture, the Christian sees a sea of water but it is only a mirage'

"Angel of mercy" those who have contributed to John's anthologies

"Vindicated" which is what the skeptical view has been from higher criticism of the Bible and science etc

"Double Helix" - how come no character in the Bible has the faintest idea about the double helix, DNA etc

"Demilitarized zone" - which we might get if religious people around the world read & understood John's books

"Start your engines" by reading John's books

"Take off" - escape the swamp of religion

"March on" - don't let the witch doctors get you down

"Granite" - evidenced based thinking & decision making. I came across a link to Carl Sagan's "The varieties of scientific experience, a personal view of the search for God" in Jerry A. Coyne's book, "Faith Vs Fact, why science and religion are incompatible"

"Dead reckoning" - "Faith Vs Fact"

"Thanatopsis" comes from the Greek thanatos ("death") and opsis ("sight") - John takes a thorough look at what probably happens when people die.

Windsurfing Parody on The Happy Wanderer

I love to go windsurfing upon the ocean blue
But if you do not fancy it then that it up to you
up to you, up to you, up to you, up to you hoo you hoo you hoo
up to you but I'm going and I hope you will come too

I love to go windsurfing when it is blowing force 5
but when it is only blowing force 2 then that makes me feel blue
makes me feel blue, i feel blue, makes me feel blue, I feel blu hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo
I feel blue, I feel blue when it is only blowing force 2

I love to go windsurfing when it is blowing force 5
but when it blows force 7 I fear I'm going to die
going to die, going to die, going to die, going to die, die, die, die, die, die, die
going to die, going to die, I hope this won't be bye bye.

Look more deeply into the Bible stories and you will see a different story.

Dr Holly Ordway mentions C.S.Lewis at 2:00 and on another video I have heard her saying the character Aslan helped persuade her to accept the idea of Jesus  being an incarnate Son of God. I like the bit of, "The Lion the Witch and the wardrobe" where C.S.Lewis has Aslan come back to life due to "deeper magic from before the dawn of time "  that  Jadis the White Witch had not known of. If Jadis had  looked more deeply into the writings on the stone table  she would have noticed that if an innocent was killed in place of a traitor then the spell would be broken. 
    Many scholars, historians, archaeologists etc have studied the Bible stories as deeply and honestly as anyone  else and noticed many errors and contradictions. This shows that the majority of the human race is in reality not doomed to eternal suffering as some varieties of Christianity and other religions would assert, so we do not need to live in the icy grip of fear of God's judgement and are free to try to care for & help one another & make the best of our time under the sun.

 I recommend the books of Bible Geek Robert M. Price, John 
W. Loftus, Valerie Tarico, Victor J. Stenger, C. Denis McKinsey. They point out that there are no O.T prophecies which give a detailed description of Jesus. The old and new testaments are at odds. Jesus failed to notice that the idea of hell is incompatible with the Golden Rule. Jesus would need to have saved everyone from a hell, not just picked a chosen few. To completely abolish hell would have reduced the total suffering experienced by the human race by maybe 95% but to let most go to a hell would mean that Jesus had done no more than put a sticking plaster on the suffering we have experienced .

The idea of hell is incompatible with the Golden Rule

I was brought up going to church. I have heard most of the views about the Bible. My conclusion is that the idea of hell is incompatible with the Golden Rule. The idea of a perfect, loving God is incompatible with the idea of hell. If a perfect God had practiced due diligence then hell would not have come into existence. If Jesus had won the victory over a hell then to be a hero he would have needed to save everyone or change the game plan so that it was a choice of heaven or extinction. If you have to do to others as you would have them do to you then since no one would wish to go to an eternal torture then you could not agree to send someone else to hell. A caring God would have had a duty of care to prevent anyone becoming liable for hell. With so many habitable planets in the universe it would have been easy to wipe out Earth as soon as a hell came into existence and start again on another planet. For God so loved the world that he not only allowed suffering in this world but also sent most to eternal suffering ? Doesn't really fit does it ? For God so loved the world that he erased hell so that at least when people died they could rest in peace; sounds better.

It was God's fault

In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth & humans etc and when he looked at his work said,"It is good" but then Satan said, "Well it is vast and impressive but I think you have put the stars too far apart for humans to ever be able to spread out and colonize their own galaxy, let alone any others" And God replied, "Nonsense, it is perfect" But then Satan said, "Well what is going to happen when humans multiply to the point where there is no more room on Earth" So then God said,"Rubbish, it will be fine" but after thinking about it a while he realized that Satan was right once again and so God lost his temper and yelled, "So why didn't you point that out at the planning stage ? This is all your fault. Damn you all to hell" But Satan replied,"What is hell, never heard of it" And God said, "It is a torture chamber I am going to create to make you suffer for what you have done" But Satan said,"That sounds immoral and a miscarriage of justice and how would that make anything better ?" And God thought, "Damn he is right again but I will frame him somehow. I know, I'll just tell everyone that he was trying to depose me, he is always trying to make me look stupid" 

Planetshakers, heart breakers

I just came across the Australian Planetshakers band which has plenty of handsome fellas and beautiful gals. Have you heard of them ? The 2003 Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian was also a part of the Planetshakers band for several years, taking both lead and backup vocal parts on the 2002 and 2003 albums and conferences.

Love the melody, they just need to tweak the words. Replace 'Jesus' with the name of your partner.

See

Planetshakers - Made for Worship on Youtube loveslate channel.

Wikipedia:

"Their music is a contemporary style of praise and worship tempered with mainstream rock and pop.

Fraud allegations against band member:

It was reported in 2008 that Michael Guglielmucci, former bass player in the Planetshakers band, had fraudulently claimed he was dying of cancer. During this time Guglielmucci received money from supporters who believed his illness was real. Guglielmucci also released the single Healer, a song of encouragement for believers who were suffering from cancer. Guglielmucci explained his actions as being a result of a long-term pornography addiction."

Nobody is perfect

Forgive them lord, they know not what they do ?

See Panetshakers' "This is our time" album,
something of Song of Solomon about it ?
Tracks:
This is our time
My heart is alive
Look to you
Your presence
He touched me
Leave me astounded
Stronger than a thousand
The water is rising
Its your love
joy
Covered
Sing it again

Would a 24 hour warning of earthquakes help any

• Have you read the Wikipedia article about the causes of earthquakes and the article about the geography of Nepal which describes how the Indian tectonic plate is pushing under the Eurasian plate, which has been going on for millions of years and will continue for millions more- so the earthquakes are going to keep reoccurring. Injuries can be reduced by better building design, disaster drill & disaster relief. As Rev Eric Delv said in the show it is partly about finance to rebuild / replace existing buildings.
  See "Earthquake country alliance" which recommends the best way to reduce injuries is to follow the "Drop, cover, hold on" routine. It says most injuries from Earthquakes are from flying debris rather than from collapsing buildings so dropping to the floor and crawling under a table for protection is the best you can do. Trying to run out into the open leaves you more vulnerable.
  http://www.earthquakecountry.i...
  What if science & technology could give a 24 hour warning of an earthquake, what sort of response strategy could be drawn up ? Kathmandu has over 1 million people, could you really evacuate a whole city in 24 hours, where would they go ? Would it just cause panic and looting if there was an attempt to evacuate ? Could people in the most dodgy buildings be moved away from them ? Is it even possible to communicate a warning to 1 million people in a few hours?
  Is it about having durable structures - heavy duty furniture frames that people can dive under for protection.

Shaunti Feldhahn

• I like the idea about, "focus on the best in your spouse", also her idea about not getting too focussed on what you see as the problem. Try to refocus on a future holiday, book , film, outing, music. The internet can provide endless distraction.
  Hope that the clouds will clear, persevere
  1 Peter 4v8, "Love covers over a multitude of sins"
  Shaunti Feldhahn made a good point about, "Maybe there is a more charitable interpretation or explanation for their behaviour" ?
  I think it is helpful to ask, "What is your sticking point ?" or to think, "What is their sticking point ?" Have I really got an accurate idea about why they did that or am I fearing the worst? Well there are probably many factors in their decision.
  Tolerate each others tantrums. Think of Jesus words in John 8 - let he who is without sin throw the first stone, then neither do I. [ easy to excuse your own tantrums but other's remarks jar ] People say stuff in the heat of the moment that was exaggerated, OTT and they didn't mean it, they regret it but then find it difficult to apologize. They were trying to persuade you to do something but what they did was counterproductive.
  Think of the more moderate, euphemistic thing they probably meant to say but were too angry to. eg
  "You are impossible"="I can't think what to say to you, help me out here"
  "I hate you"="I love you (mostly ) but I'm really annoyed you did that, please don't do it again"
  Just accept that stuff happens, nothing is perfect, shrug forget it, 1 Cor 13v4," love keeps no record of wrongs." move on, tell yourself- that was yesterday, try and find something they will like to hear today.
  Sometimes it is loving to say, " zip it, skip it"
  "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." (Prov. 15:1)
  Practice gratitude, choose to make it a habit.
  Look both ways -Things could be better but they could be worse
  I see Shuanti Feldhahn has a Youtube channel, see video, "Surprising Secrets of Highly Happy Marriages - Shaunti Feldhahn's Latest Research"

john 8v7

 I agree with one of the points Gervais made," if I could change one thing for a better world, it would be for all mankind to adhere to this little gem: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” I assure you, no more stones would ever be thrown." ( John 8v7 and v11 "Then neither do I ") Maybe a real God would do his own terminating ? Acts 12v23 has Herod being struck down by an angel of the Lord, Romans 12v19 "Do not take revenge,"It is mine to avenge, I will repay" quoting Deuteronomy 32v35 However a few more strategic terminations in history might have saved millions of innocent lives.

I smell a rat on Mt Ararat & Aragats

The old 'scriptural' texts are so vague that they can be bent to mean anything you want but there is no detailed description in the Bible [or any other religious text prior to 1492 ] of the world as we see it today. There is no mention in scripture of the agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, space age or information age, no mention of other continents eg North America, Australia or Antartica, no mention of how to make lenses to improve eyesight or to make microscopes & telescopes to start finding out about stuff to improve human welfare through technology.

The water flow in the Euphrates & Tigris are now controlled by the many dams built across it in the last 3 decades, you don't read about hydroelectric in the Bible.

Try reading about.Wikipedia about the Southeastern Anatolia Project (Turkish: Güneydoğu Anadolu Projesi, GAP) is a multi-sector integrated regional development project based on the concept of sustainable development for the 9 million people (2005) living in the Southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey. GAP's basic aim is to eliminate regional development disparities by raising people's income level and living standards; and to contribute to such national development targets as social stability and economic growth by enhancing the productive and employment generating capacity of the rural sector.

Before constructing the dams for this scheme archaeological surveys of the sites were carried out and found many ancient relics such as at Nevali Cori where they found  Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) dating back to 7000 BCE.

Look at the Wikipedia article on Mt Aragats (which is not too far from Mt Ararat) on the Armenian highlands. The Western and Southern slopes of Mt. Aragats are home to many petroglyphs dating from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age.

Note that Reverend James Ussher used Bible genealogy to work out that the Bible puts the Noah's flood at 2300 BCE.  There are many reasons to think that the Bible is a collection of myth, fiction, fantasy, wild imaginings. It is more interesting to see it that way, more plausible. The Noah's flood is probably a revised version of the Gilgamesh flood epic. It would be only natural for people writing in Babylonia to talk about the Armenian Highland  where the Euphrates starts out. However I read the oldest Hebrew texts only have the word "rrt" which was later rendered Ararat but no one is sure.

I smell a rat on Mt Ararat

• There is a good Wikipedia article about Mt Ararat. It is a supervolcano which is thought to have erupted around 2400 BCE. Rev James Ussher used Babble genealogy to place Noah's flood at 2300 BCE so how come Noah hadn't seen or heard of the eruption. In any case Mt Ararat is the highest peak in the Armenian Highlands/plateau at 5137m, the next two are over 1000metres lower with Aragats at 4095m and Suphan at 4058m.
  
  Genesis 8v4 "on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the Ark came to rest on the Mts of Ararat v5but only by the 10th month did the mountain peaks become visible" So I recon that says the Ark was right at the top of the highest Mountain. Lesser Ararat is a peak close by but is 3896m and greater Ararat would have been clearly visible before an ark came to rest on the lesser one ( except if it was really foggy )
  
  Youtube video Mount Ararat 2014 on DArtolomeo channel has hikers on filming from the peak and looks like most directions other peaks are too far away to see, except for a ridge which is maybe to lesser Ararat.
  
  How far could the dove have flown in search of dry land ?
  Genesis 8v6 has Noah wait a further 40 days after the 1st day of 10th Month = until the 10th day of 11th Month.. There are a further two weeks elapse messing around with the dove in v10 & v 12 which would take the date to 24th of 11th Month, minimum.
  Genesis 8v13 says that on the first day of the first month of Noah's year 601 the land was dry. At any rate back in v9 this would only leave the dove 7 days to travel in search of dry land = 3.5 days each way. I read that the maximum a pigeon can travel in a day is 90 miles, so it could only have time to survey out 315 miles which can hardly justify the claim that it showed water was over all the surface of the Earth. [ Always remembering that the Ark was supposed to be on the highest peak in the region which would be over 1000 metres uncovered even before any other peaks were visible in extreme distance. ( the dove wasn't too bright, talk about bird brained )]
  Anyway Mt Shkhara in Georgia near the S.E of Black Sea is 5193m and lie about 210 miles away as the crow flies  so might have been reachable by a dove with holyspirit GPS guidance. [Probably the dove just flew a few hundred yards down the mountain and hung out for a few days then flew back with a leaf ]
  For the avoidance of doubt; I smell a rat,  I think it is quite possible none of the Noah story is real except for Mt Ararat.

God a projection of our own failings.

Do Gods reflect the human tendency to vastly over rate their own performance and to vastly under value other people's worth ?
The gods criticise humans for not observing an irrelevant pointless code of conduct and then excuse themselves of genocide. The gods act hypocritically, they condemn humans for failing to look after their fellow man yet with hold the information & technology which would have dramatically improved human quality of life ( information they must have had if omnipotent as claimed )
The characters in the Bible are only interested in looking after kith & kin & close friends but everyone else can be damned as far as they are concerned.
The Bible stories were written by men and give men priority over women.

 

I watched the BBC drama,"The Ark" which was their telling of Noah's ark story.
They did have some of the characters ask half intelligent questions but I would have liked to see them ask more rational questions.
 They could have had Noah's family ask questions like:
 "Where is all the water going to come from and where will it drain away to ? "
"If God is love then how could he do an unloving thing like killing everyone especially when most probably hadn't committed a significant crime"
"Wouldn't the honourable thing be to refuse to be part of a plan to wipe out humanity, it isn't their fault that there is competition for scare resources and that demand tends to outstrip supply"
"Wouldn't it be genocide to wipe out all humanity except for one family ? Wouldn't this act be worse than what any human had done ? "
"Would you agree that a better way forward would be to give humanity the information and technology to reduce human suffering , increase quality of life & life span, give them the means to produce, store and distribute ample food, help them generate systems to ensure fairness but also encourage responsible effort"
"Why not just terminate the few delinquent folk by heart attack or lightning bolt or better still only select embryos who will live in a civilized way"

However there is ample reason to think the Noah's flood story was based on the Babyonlian Epic of Gilgamesh myth.
Reverend James Ussher used Bible genealogy  to work out that the Bible stories put Noah's flood at 2300 BCE. There are pyramids built before 2300  BCE and the remains of the Beaker culture in the Rhone valley is before 2300 BCE.There is no evidence for a global flood, only multiple localized flood events. Plate tectonics cause the formation of many shallow seas which were later raised to be dry land or mountains.

Would you Adam and Eve it ?

It would have been interesting if the Bible had photo like quality drawings of the food crops that Adam & Eve ate or somehow an accurate description of them.

BBC show "Kew on a plate" with Kate Humble shows that some of our favourite food crops used to look a lot more like weeds.

Our modern strawberry is a cross between the large white strawberry of Chile and the tiny sweet strawberry of Virginia.

Carrot roots looked very like weed roots, even in the last 1000 years, and used to be more prized for their seeds.

Selective breeding has dramatically improved size and flavour of many of our foods but still we face challenges to protect the crops from pests, disease & to supply enough nutrients ( which requires complex processes such as Haber process powered by gas to provide nitrates and also deep mining to find phosphate. [ Phosphorite deposits are thought to have formed over eons through the process of sediment being washed down from eroding mountain ranges. Phosphorite deposits often occur in extensive layers, which cumulatively cover tens of thousands of square kilometres of the Earth's crust. Does it make sense to say that a God magically put these deposits where they could only be accessed by modern technology? ]

Why didn't a creator God put nitrogen & phosphate fixing nodules on cereal plants so that they would enrich the soil as they grow instead of depleting it or why didn't a creator give them genes to resist the major leaf diseases & to repel insect pests ?
Is there any evidence of such things ever having existed ?
How much conflict has been caused by competition over limited resources, demand outstripping supply ? Why weren't mountains placed more evenly so that each area of land would have a reliable river to provide irrigation water & so that hydroelectric dams could easily be built in modern times ?

Creation might have appeared good at first glance but on getting it home from the shops the limitations have soon become apparent.

It is for freedom that John Loftus has set us free, no longer to be burdened by a yoke of slavery babble nonsense.

For lies to succeed they need to be close enough to reality to be plausible to others but far enough away from reality to make a worthwhile amount of money. However if your lies tell others things they desire to be true then you don't need to be so careful.

I think many christians have made up excuses for most of the stuff the Bible and just hold fast to a few grains of sense & feel good vibes that they can stitch into their personal creed. eg " And when I die i go to a happily ever after with granny and dog"

If you feel trapped by the Christian stories then just get the Bible on Kindle and look up each different word on Wikipedia, however this will just be the same as getting the dictionary on Kindle and looking up each word on Wikipedia.
For a short cut read the books by John Loftus. 
ReWrit Galations 5v1
It is for freedom that John Loftus has set us free, no longer to be burdened by a yoke of slavery babble nonsense. ( added bonus- you don't have to agree with everything he wrote to get to heaven )

The stone the builders rejected became a stumbling block

The geological society of America says, " Karst geology played a major role in Jerusalem's selection by David for his capital," Bramnik says. It proved to be a wise decision. One of David's successors, King Hezekiah, watched as the warlike Assyrian horde, a group of vastly superior warriors toppled city after city in the region. Fearing that they'd soon come for Jerusalem, he too took advantage of the limestone bedrock and dug a 550 meter-long (1804 feet) tunnel that rerouted the spring's water inside the city's fortified walls."
  So were there tombs with limestone stones blocking the doorway?
 Wikipedia article on limestone says," Most limestone is composed of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera." Hence life on Earth is much older than the 6000 years the Babble suggests. Check mate, get past that one Jesus. The limestone the builders rejected becomes a stumbling block for Christians that they can not roll out the way. Maybe there was a sink hole in the tomb that Jesus fell down and then was flushed away by an underground stream. People couldn't see the hole in the dark? 
The folk in Matthew 27v52 who looked like white ghosts were merely miners covered in white chalk and gypsum ?

Solar Eclipse myths

Interesting article. Was it by Justin Brierley or Jonathan McLatchie ?

I think it is a reasonable question to ask if there are signs of supernatural design in the observable universe.

Dara O Briain on BBC Stargazing live series 5:5,' Eclipse live' mentioned some of the many myths about why the sun appears darkened (at 25 minutes-29 minutes) 

The Hindu myth is that Vishnu beheaded demon Rahu (who is drawn as a serpent) but Rahu's head still eats the Sun occasionally. However the sun always falls out of Rahu's throat.

The vikings thought a chariot dragged the sun across the sky and Odin sent a pair of wolfs to try to eat the sun.

In Vietnam it was a giant toad who tried to gobble the sun.

Matthew 24v29 tries to link,"The sun will be darkened" to 'end times'. Why was it not written,"The sun will not darken for billions of years but it will at times appear hidden behind the moon as viewed from Earth ?"

We know today that eclipses are not omens or portents of doom.

Matthew 24v29, "the moon will not give its light" but the moon just reflects sun light - a fact that was unknown when NT was written

Matthew 24v29,"Stars will fall from the sky" but the fact is that stars are too far away and too massive to fall to Earth. If the text meant meteorite then why didn't it just say,"piece of rock"

Matthew 24v27, "lightning that comes from the east is visible in the west" but how far can a flash of lightning be seen, 100 miles? maybe 2000 miles if you are in the ISS ?

2000 years ago there were many things which were too small to be seen by the naked eye due to either being actually microscopic or just too far away. There were many bits of information about such things which could have been revealed by supernatural revelation to indicate the existence of a god but none were. Science advanced by very gradual advances in careful observation and small steps in reasoning.

I still go to church sometimes for the music, to socialize, because it is part of the whole story of our history, as a look back to how people used to imagine the world, to see if the minister is willing to offer pros and cons or just one side of the debate.
It is interesting to read what the Bible and other scriptures had to say about the natural world, to understand the claims they were making but in the light of 21st century knowledge their ideas about natural history have to be seen as babble whose value to modern civilization is as museum pieces.

Lamentations on PI

Lamentations

1 King 7v23 has PI=3
This pretty much sums up the limited standard of thought of the scriptures.
“He made a Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure round it”

Repeated again in 2 Chronicles 4v2

This is not the authorship of a creator of a finely tuned universe.
This is the authorship of a primate with a slightly bigger brain than the other great apes

Lamentations 1v4 says the priests of Zion groan but as far as I know no author in the Bible moans about the error of making PI=3. No criticism from Jesus, no correction.

Isaiah 40v22,”He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth”, he pulls the chain and his people receive the turd of god.

Isaiah 40v14,”Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him and who taught him the right way?” Well they should be sacked, whoever it was cause PI=3 ain’t close enough.

Re Isaiah 40v12,”with the breadth of his hands marked off the heavens”

If god’s hands were big enough to be useful for measuring the heavens, and yet god was close enough for the Earth to appear to him as a circle rather than a point of light then we should be able to see these super massive hands. The hands of god should block out the stars beyond, so from this I deduce that the hand’s of god are not only invisible but also see through / transparent.

Isaiah 40v27, “Why do you complain O Israel,”My way is hidden from the Lord”
It would have been a decent excuse that God was so far away that the Earth could not be seen due to the glare of the sun: like how astronomers have trouble finding exoplanets around other stars. Thus God didn’t know what was happening on Earth otherwise he would have prevented suffering.

If god was close enough then the Earth should have appeared as a three dimensional sphere.

Maybe it is just that god is merely an idol that can be nailed down (Isaiah 41v7)

The author’s idea of the size of the Earth was limited to the Middle East. Isaiah 41v8-9,”But you, O Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners i called you” A circle with corners whose circumference divided by diameter = 3 ?
Obviously babble.

The extremely mixed news

I find many ideas in the Bible quite interesting and it makes some worthy points e.g 2 Peter 1v5-9 encourages the reader to behave in a way which displays qualities of goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, brotherly kindness, love

However I think then that 1 Peter 2v18 should have said, "Masters, no longer keep slaves but consider them employees, giving them a fair days pay for a fair days work, treat them well so that they will want to stay and work for you but let them leave if they wish"

With reference to point 4, wouldn't it be fairer to say the news was decidedly mixed ?

2 Peter 2v7, "Now to you who believe, this stone is precious, But to those who do not believe. "The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone"(quoting Psalm 118v22), and, "but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall" (quoting Isaiah 8v14) They stumble because they disobey the message- which is also what they were destined for."

I would have thought that the idea that Jesus was going to save a small percentage of the human race for heaven (but leave the majority to weep forever in suffering) was at best extremely mixed news. In a way it could be quite a relief if you found yourself to be one of the lucky few but would you be troubled at the thought of the fate of the majority ?

If Jesus had won the victory over Hades then wouldn't he have completely abolished it? The rejects could just have become tortoises & hares on the new Earth or ceased to exist ?

2 Peter 2v4 "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to Tartarus, putting them into gloomy dungeons ( chains of darkness)"

Google definition of Tartarus: a sunless abyss, below Hades, in which Zeus imprisoned the Titans.

Charles Dickens', "A tale of two cities" 1859

It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way— in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.

Hillary Duff, Stranger... similar to Ogden Nash poem

Ogden Nash wrote some similar ideas to the lyrics of this song in his poem from 1935
"What almost every woman knows sooner or later" (about husbands)
It ends:
When you are alone with them they ignore all the minor courtesies and as for airs and graces, they utterly lack them
But when there are a lot of people around they hand you so many chairs and ashtrays and sandwiches and butter you with such bowings and scrapings that you want to smack them.
Husbands are indeed an irritating form of life
And yet through some quirk of providence most of them are really very deeply ensconced  in the affection of their wife.

The poem starts:
Husbands are things that women have to get used to putting up with
And with whom the breakfast and sup with...
...And when it is a question of walking five miles to play golf they are very energetic
But when it is a question of doing anything useful around the house they are very lethargic 
And then they tell you that women are unreasonable and don't know anything about logic
And they never want to get up or go to bed at the same time as you do
And they are brave and calm and collected about the ailments
 of the woman they have promised to honour and cherish
But the moment they get a sniffle or stomachache of their own why you'd think they were about to perish...

Rihanna, diamonds in the sky

"Diamonds in the sky", mysterious lyrics ?
How about corals in the hilltops of Barbados ?

In the excellent series,"Earth Story" episode ,"The Big Freeze" Aubrey Manning interviews earth scientist Maureen Raymo who explains how the multiple coral terraces up the hillsides of Barbados got to be there as a result of a combination of repeated ice ages & tectonic uplift. The oldest stagshorn coral on the hill top were dated to 125,000 years old. See Wikipedia article about Barbados. It says there are water eroded caves such as Harrison's cave where stalactites and stalagmites  can be seen

Has Rihanna ever sung or talked about this ?
I'd like to hear Rihanna singing about the sea shells on her sea shore.
 Maybe she could sing a coral fishers song while wearing three appropriately placed scallop shells ?
Throughout antiquity, scallops and other hinged shells have symbolized the feminine principle.
Many paintings of Venus, the Roman goddess of love and fertility, included a scallop shell in the painting to identify her. This is evident in Botticelli's classically inspired,' The Birth of Venus' (jocularly nicknamed 'Venus on the half-shell')

Planet Venus looks like a diamond in the sky on 21st Feb 2015 with Mars half a degree above.
 See on Youtube from 9:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIuoNtRBG4w&list=PL0v0-PLUoiqflFqBMDm9qW2wZFz7fX541&index=6

Motorhead, God was never on your side [ alternate lyrics ]

Great lyrics by Motorhead.

My parody:

The stars will never fall down on us     
Because they are flaming too far away.
Our Sun is not due to dim,
Before the human race is not even a memory
The Babble never knew that stars are huge Suns,
Billions of years old and light years away.
It wasn't correct about the observable universe,
So how could it know of unseen realms ?

Let the voice of reason shine,
Let mumbo jumbo be mocked and jeered.
God's face is human, unseen priests,
They hadn't a clue about reality,
They were never on your side,
They never told us of contraception or germ theory.
Let science and reason, alone decide
The God deluded were never on your side

[note Matt 24v29 predicts,"The stars will fall from the sky"]

I'll carve the text in the granite for you, no you do it.

Good points by Steve Shives thanks
Archaeologist Israel Finkelstein in his book,"The Bible unearthed" doubts that a large exodus of Israelites ever crossed the Sinai Peninsula as the evidence that should be there has never been found.
I think the stories may be mythical; made up.
In any case I think if something like it had happened then the Israelites would have told Moses that  the 10 commandments were nothing new as they already knew similar ideas from the 42 negative confessions on the Ancient Egyptian Papyrus of Ani.

Also how come Moses didn't complain, "God damn you, how the f'ing sheol is it that you had me walk past the limestone hills of Northern Sinai peninsula, and then walk past the Sandstone hills of middle Sinai and its only now that I am on the hardest granite mountain  you remember about carving tablets of stone ?"

So then God replies in Exodus 34v1,"I will write on the tablets of stone" but like the  boss from hell, Exodus 34v27"The Lord said to Moses,"Write down these words..."

Also interesting that the tablets of stone have gone missing, disappeared without a trace and the Bible nowhere mentions it - totally forgotten about, as if they never existed.

Note on the Geology of Sinai by F.W.Holland says
The peninsula of Sinai may be divided into three geological districts, named from the granitic, limestone, and sandstone rocks of which they are composed.
The whole of the northern portion of the peninsula is occupied by an extensive plateau of limestone,
A broad belt of sand, called the Debbet-er-Ramleh, separates this limestone from the southern Granite portion of the peninsula
http://jgslegacy.lyellcollection.org/content/22/1-2/491

Wikipedia says:
Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex  that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics.

If it wasn't for disease then God would have to play God

Interesting article by Justin, sympathetic.

Acts 17v24 "God who made the world and EVERYTHING IN IT" So did all the insects which are now parasitic adapt after the fall from some benign life cycle ? Was God originally going to miraculously hold everything in some perfectly ordered state ? Did mosquitoes start off vegetarian ?

What was God's original plan A if there was no illness or death ?  Were we going to be told the technology for making space ships and colonizing the universe to avoid congestion on Earth or just whisked away miraculously to other exoplanets ?

What would be the outcome if humans suffered  no illness or disease ? Well the total human population would spiral, then God would need to play God and choose who to terminate to make way for more children. No one would relish making those decisions so it is understandable that this could be quite a headache for God. Hence it is fairly plain that God allows illness and disease to randomly terminate humans allowing God to claim plausible deniability. 

Actually if there were no disease and the human population spiralled then probably there would not be enough food for all so there would be death by starvation. This might also be accompanied by war over scarce resources but idealistically it could be resolved by drawing lots for who dies.

For much of human history the total human population was under only 1000 million and at that amount the habitats and biodiversity of the world would probably have been healthy for millions of years. However with spiralling human population to over 100 billion as a result of people living thousands of years and no one dying then it could be imagined that many other species would be wiped out with the end result that the humans race would not last more than a few thousand years. Again not really a problem if God can just miraculously start again on another planet.

Why doesn't the Bible have the first humans live pain free, illness free lives from 0-70 years old then be carried up to heaven on a chariot of fire. Having humans typically live like Adam's 930 years was soon going to cause overcrowding so it is no wonder that life expectancy was allowed to fall dramatically.