I have not been to a bible study in years and I'm wondering what penetrating questions can I ask the pastor about God and Jesus that would be difficult for him to answer. Help totse! I will check back tomorrow before 7pm

Problem is that the Pastor knows his bible a hella lot better than you and also has spent a large chunk of his life answering questions about it.

So you need to go for something a little obscure.

Try this: the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision -Exodus 4:24b-26

The question is, if God is omnipotent why did he have to try to kill moses. Surely if God wants you dead then you're dead?

Problem is that the Pastor knows his bible a hella lot better than you and also has spent a large chunk of his life answering questions about it.

So you need to go for something a little obscure.

Try this:

The question is, if God is omnipotent why did he have to try to kill moses. Surely if God wants you dead then you're dead?

The same reason that the psycho killer is always just behind you; suspense!

I mean, how'd the Bible get to be so popular? Obviously all the plot twists and love affairs.

Mark Twain put it well when he wrote that the Bible contains "some noble poetry, a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies."

Getting back to topic, Exodus is, I think, the looniest of all the books (okay, except maybe for Revelations), what with the conditions under which you can kill one of your slaves, or sell one of your daughters into slavery. A reasonably liberal Protestant could write all this off without batting an eye--a fundy would probably say you were putting your soul in jeopardy by even bringing up the question.

You could always ask about the council of Nicea and the real reason all the references to reincarnation were edited out of the original texts.

On this very site to your left you will see something that says Society. Click on that. Click on religion and click on Chrisitanity.

I will add some links to some of my favorites.

A test...
http://www.totse.com/en/religion/christianity/godtest.html

Contradictions...
http://www.totse.com/en/religion/christianity/contradk.html

Things they wont tell you in church...
http://www.totse.com/en/religion/christianity/thingsyouwonth179100.html

With a little bit of studying it should not be hard to stump your pastor or any pastor for that matter. When this happens you will notice a mental wall force it's way between your logic and his insanity.

When he quotes scripture from the bible after you quote scientific FACT ask him which of the hundreds of versions of the Holy Bible is he quoting from.

Research Horus and read the epic of Gilgamesh. Watch the first part of this video... www.zeitgeistmovie.com to get in the spirit of research. I think the strongest argument against the bible is the myriad of astrological references found therein.

[QUOTE=BrokeProphet;9093074]

When he quotes scripture from the bible after you quote scientific FACT ask him which of the hundreds of versions of the Holy Bible is he quoting from.

QUOTE]

Good point. Fundies seem to prefer the KJV, which is arguably one of the least accurate.

But I would not get too attached to "scientific FACT." For a number of years--prior to the 1916 attacks in New Jersey-- it was a "scientific FACT" that sharks are harmless to humans.

[QUOTE=BrokeProphet;9093074]

When he quotes scripture from the bible after you quote scientific FACT ask him which of the hundreds of versions of the Holy Bible is he quoting from.

QUOTE]

Good point. Fundies seem to prefer the KJV, which is arguably one of the least accurate.

But I would not get too attached to "scientific FACT." For a number of years--prior to the 1916 attacks in New Jersey-- it was a "scientific FACT" that sharks are harmless to humans.

I would like to know more of the science behind that 1916 fact involving sharks

what I always find fun is to use the Bible to support Communism/utilatarian government on fundamentalists. They believe everything, except what Jesus actually taught.

Exodus 11:10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and he LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Have him explain that one. That's the bit before God kills off the first born sons of Egypt.


www.skepticsannotatedbible.com has a lot of good stuff.
www.godlessbastard.com has a few good things there too.
www.evilbible.com

Godless bastard is quite funny with some of what it comes up with too. I especially like the Banana example.


http://www.godlessbastard.com/GotLogic.html

That was the funniest shit I've read in a while.

+1

My favorite questions are:
1) Dinosaurs; explain them. Sometimes Christians reply with "God is testing our faith", or "Just because it isn't in the Bible doesn't mean it didn't happen". Ask them why God would deceive people like that.
2) How did plants survive before the sun was made? They'll reply that the light came from God himself. Ask them why in other passages, the light of God is unbearable.
3) Do you believe in a literal 6-day creation? If so, how do you explain the scientific evidence against it (you'll need research on this one since a lot of pastors tend to pull things out of their asses; bring up how A day is a day throughout the Bible (http://www.evilbible.com/a_day_is_a_day.htm))? If not, how do you rationalize it? (if they don't believe in a 6-day creation or that it was an allegory for stages of life or something completely unrelated to creation, then your work is done and your pastor is pretty intelligent and would hardly benefit from losing his faith).
4) How do you explain the inconsistencies in Matt/Mark/Luke/John? If they reply "what inconsistencies"? Cite the last chapters of each, Mark=Jesus in pain. John=Jesus is anxious & peaceful:confused:.
5) What's your take on the validity (and influence upon doctrine) of the Old Testament? If they say it's inaccurate, then your work is done. If they say it's not made for Christians but rather for Jews, or that the NT fulfills the OT (which are both VERY common responses), give them Matthew 5:18 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205:18;&version=47;). If they think it's literal and very important, ask them to rationalize the murders, rapes, condoning of slavery, etc.
6) The last one is by far my favorite because it put me on the path to atheism:

Has the Bible been changed over time? If your pastor knows his Biblical history, the answer will be yes. There were no printing presses in the Middle Ages.
Has Biblical doctrine been changed over time? This one is slightly debatable, but if his response is no, tell him how there are anti-Arianist passages inserted in illogical places in the Bible (among other very distinct examples that I can't be arsed to remember). Again, if he knows his Biblical history, the answer will be yes. And finally...

If God couldn't preserve the original words of the Bible, how likely is it that he made them in the first place?

[QUOTE=ArmsMerchant;9093103]

I would like to know more of the science behind that 1916 fact involving sharks

Okay--I don't have the book with me, don't even recall the title. But the first recorded death in America by shark attack occurred that year. At first, people--even fisherman--were sceptical and attributed the attacks to mackerals or swordfish. One shark even made its way up a freshwater inlet and killed a young boy swimming with friends--who totally freaked out.

At the time, no one was clear on the differences between sharks. Three species--whites, tigers, and (I think) bull sharks--account for almost all attacks on humans, while sand sharks, puppy sharks, leopard sharks and most others are in fact harmless to humans.

When the facts came out, a panic ensued, and for a short time, virtually all beaches on a thousand miles of East Coast shoreline were nearly deserted. The series of incidents inspired the book Jaws.

Before 1916, American scholars doubted that sharks would attack a living person in the temperate waters of the United States without provocation. One skeptical scientist wrote, "There is a great difference between being attacked by a shark and being bitten by one." He believed that sharks tangled in fishing nets or feeding on offal might accidentally bite a nearby human. In 1891, millionaire banker and adventurer Hermann Oelrichs offered a $500 reward in the New York Sun "for an authenticated case of a man having been attacked by a shark in [the] temperate waters" north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.[57] He wanted proof that "in temperate waters even one man, woman, or child, while alive, was ever attacked by a shark." The reward went unclaimed and scientists remained convinced that America's East Coast was inhabited by harmless sharks.

Scientists lacked evidence before the 1916 shark attacks that sharks would attack without provocation. B/C they lacked evidence that is what they went with.

The difference between religion and science cannot be demostrated more greatly than it is after 1916. AFTER 1916 science changed (a word that is anthema to religion....change) as more evidence poured in. Now scientists had evidence to the contrary and scientific knowledge changed b/c of it. This is how it works.

I see what you are saying about scientific fact, however, it is the BEST system we have to go on given time facts become more solid and irrefutable (but amazingly are still able to change if need be).

Religion is no differnet today than it was when they created it thousands of years ago. The MAIN difference today is how religion is tolerated and how much control we allow it to have over us. In short, people are not as willing as they were in the past to allow theist to spoon feed them utter bullshit.

So how was the Bible study?

the banana was bred from wild bananas by humans. wild bananas are almost impossible to eat.

I have not been to a bible study in years and I'm wondering what penetrating questions can I ask the pastor about God and Jesus that would be difficult for him to answer. Help totse! I will check back tomorrow before 7pm

oh my...
you do sound like quite the lord-killer...

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