DiscussMormonism.com

GoodK wrote:

richardMdBorn wrote:Hi GoodK. Your post lured me out of semi-retirement from the MB. Please expand on these points (though you might want to do it in a new thread).

Richard

Well Richard, if I am back I'm dragging you with me:)

Where should I begin? I guess I'll start with number 1 on my list.

God.
There is no evidence for such a God. Nor is there evidence for the thousands of other dead gods that whom now nobody worships.

Christianity and Mormonism
For someone to say that they know Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, crucified, and resurrected is intellectually dishonest. There is not a shred of evidence or any other reliable way for anyone to know anything about Jesus' life, and what we know about him is likely all a fairy tale. What is more likely to have happened is the engineering of a religion - borrowing from Judaism, Paganism, Sun worship, and past Messiah myths - in order to control the masses.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon are just books, written by human beings.

The Book of Mormon is filled with contradictions, plagairism, and absurdities.

The changes made to the Book of Mormon are not simply minor changes as the Church professes. First Nephi chapter 11 is full of changes that are doctrinal. Chapter 12 mistakenly drops the name Jesus Christ contradicting 2 Nephi 10:3 before it was changed to read Messiah. There are many more.

The Bible is worse. The way we are instructed to view and treat women, homosexuals, or anyone else who God is mad at would be laughable if people really didn't believe, profess, and indoctrinate their children to believe the creator of the cosmos helped author this ancient text.

The Bible's contradictions and absuditites are too numerous to list or overlook.

These books hardly represent our best understanding of the universe. There is so much knowledge that is absent in them. Every specific science today has enlightened humanity more than these books have on what is true about our world.

What type of evidence would you consider to be significant if it existed in your opinion. Thus, evidence of design would be one possible example.

Richard What type of evidence would you consider to be significant if it existed in your opinion. Thus, evidence of design would be one possible example.

TruthDancer Hi Richard,

I hope you don't mind if I join the conversation here. :-)

Must the idea of patterns, powers, or design in the universe equate to a human male type creator?

I don't see it.

I know you do not embrace the LDS version of God but I'm not quite sure how you envision God... could you elaborate on this a bit?

Thanks Richard,

richardMdBorn wrote:Richard What type of evidence would you consider to be significant if it existed in your opinion. Thus, evidence of design would be one possible example.

Richard This list is pretty long. Could you pick two or three examples for me to discuss.

richardMdBorn wrote:
Richard Let's begin by assuming the Bible is inerrant. Pick a couple of passages to discuss.

GoodK wrote:I simply cannot believe the Bible is inerrant.

I find it really hard to understand why people think that this book has any hint of divine wisdom in it.

Starting from Genesis, let's look at some absurd things in the Bible that are indicative of the intelligence level of the author.

God likes to wrestle?If he's losing, he'll break your leg.

People don't live to be 180 years old.

God hates foreskin. Enough to kill.

God says "I swear to God"

God sneezes and parts the sea.

Moses adds some flavor to some seemingly gross tasting water by throwing a tree God gave him
in the water. Ancient tea-bag.

This is all I have time for right now. But if I was a Christian reading the Bible cover to cover, I would have put it down by now convinced it was nothing more than a work of ancient fiction.