The Bible is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.
— Mark Twain, Letters to the Earth
Quote of the Day: The Bible is a Book of a Thousand Lies
Comments
9 responses to “Quote of the Day: The Bible is a Book of a Thousand Lies”
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Due to my personal skepticism of certain biblical facts, one of my favorite “untruths” (since I am unable to claim as a lie) is found in Joshua 10, when God made the sun stand still. Translation: God stopped planet Earth from rotating on its axis. There are so many scientific consequences / ramifications, had this actually taken place.
Even worse, and sort of on the same topic, when, in Isaiah 38, God made a shadow cast by the sun go back ten steps. Translation: God made the planet Earth stop rotating on its axis (as done in Joshua 10), then reversed the rotation of Earth, then later halted the reversed rotation of Earth and finally returned the rotation back to its original nature.
Don’t even get me started on the Exodus’s plagues of Egypt.
Also, my favorite skeptical “untruth” is the Jewish zombie apocalypse as described at the end of Matthew.
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Yeah, that’s my favorite crazy bible story, “The zombie/saints Apocalypse”. I mean, I’m a preachers kid and grew up thoroughly indoctrinated in christian culture yet, I never heard that story until well into my twenties. Like, everyone was too embarrassed to bring that up. Damn, that would have made for some interesting Sunday school Children Easter Programs! Having dead people walking around Jerusalem! As a kid I would have loved to play a dead guy stumbling around. My best friend always got stuck playing Judas Iscariot. He still says that it scarred him for life.
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Oh man, I would’ve loved to meet Mark Twain. What a mind! And hilarious too 🙂
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Mark Twain has phrased this the best way possible.
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I would say Mark Twain nailed it.
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One of my five dinner party choices of all time.
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I know why you left the faith.
Not having any money.
I’m there myself now. After a while one gets fucking fed up with being unsuccessful.
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Money wasn’t a motivator for my loss of faith. I considered self-denial and, if necessary, poverty to be normative for true followers of Jesus. That said, believing this led to all sorts of bad decisions that materially not only harmed me, but also harmed my partner and our children. Sure, we survived. Sure, we learned lots of life lessons. Sure, we know how to go without and eat for a week on $25 for groceries, but I know I should have made sure these life lessons were learned without the big bad wolf perpetually at the door threatening to destroy us.
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It had to be particularly difficult for an intelligent guy like Twain to live amongst so many religious people. At least now, we can connect with like-minded people on the internet.
Wow Roy came here to give his opinion of why Bruce left religion. Roy, you should read the posts where Bruce explains WHY he left, in his own words. Money, or lack thereof, wasn’t listed as a driving reason.
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