Today's Old Testament Reading: Genesis 15

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Genesis 15

1After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

2And Abram said, LORD God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?

3And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

4And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

5And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

6And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.

7And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

8And he said, LORD God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?

9And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.

10And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.

11And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.

12And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him.

13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.

16But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.

18In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

19The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

21And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?searc...amp;version=KJV

[scandal 951]

19The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,

20And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,

21And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Personally,I've always thought that it's the fault of the Girgashites. If the damned Girgashites has just minded their own business, we'd have world peace, a solution to Global Warming, and a stable Democratic supermajority in the Senate by now. Bloody Girgashites.

Now the Jebusites, mind you, are very cool. They perfected a half-pipe routine that could put Shaun White to shame.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I thought the second reading was even more profound...

Their end is destruction.

Their God is their stomach;

their glory is in their “shame.”

Their minds are occupied with earthly things.

But our citizenship is in heaven,

Phil 3:19-21

[mawilson 2,133]

Personally,I've always thought that it's the fault of the Girgashites. If the damned Girgashites has just minded their own business, we'd have world peace, a solution to Global Warming, and a stable Democratic supermajority in the Senate by now. Bloody Girgashites.

Fuckin 'shites.

[웃 910]

Here are some religious questions I've pondered in recent days:

1) Why is it that humans are the special creatures of the earth that "God" has chosen to either reward or punish with an afterlife of eternal Heaven or Hell based on their years on earth? Why can't it be that "God" has chosen ants as His special creatures of the earth. No other form of life matters besides ants. It is the ants that go to Heaven or Hell based on what they do with themselves during their lives on earth.

2) How come humans are held to such high moral standards but the animal kingdom it is survival of the fittest, anything goes? Animals kill other animals and eat their bodies. They steal food from each other. They rape other animals. They savagely 'murder' their enemies every day and eat them.

3) Do you really think if God was real He would be silent all these centuries? Why was He able to orally communicate with the folks that wrote the Bible but not now? Isn't it sick in a way if God was real (which He's not, no offense), that He would remain silent, knowing there is absolutely 0 scientific proof of His existence. What I'm saying is there are all these non-believers out there, and according to Christianity, they all burn in hell for being non-believers. How could God just stand and allow all these hundreds of millions of people to go to Hell? He certainly wouldn't allow this to happen, if He was real then He would prove it in 2 seconds and "save" millions of people from burning in Hell for eternity.

Such horrible violence in the world and religion has been the root cause of it in many cases. It's really disgusting. Anyone who is a devout religious person is so badly brainwashed they will never think outside of the box. No offense.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Lord Infamous

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Here are some religious questions I've pondered in recent days:

1) Why is it that humans are the special creatures of the earth that "God" has chosen to either reward or punish with an afterlife of eternal Heaven or Hell based on their years on earth? Why can't it be that "God" has chosen ants as His special creatures of the earth. No other form of life matters besides ants. It is the ants that go to Heaven or Hell based on what they do with themselves during their lives on earth.

Humans are unique among the animal kingdom in that we have the cognitive ability to reason, but some theologians believe that all forms of life have a soul that is eternal. I'm not sure where you got the idea that no other life forms matter in the context of organized religion. They are all God's creation.

2) How come humans are held to such high moral standards but the animal kingdom it is survival of the fittest, anything goes? Animals kill other animals and eat their bodies. They steal food from each other. They rape other animals. They savagely 'murder' their enemies every day and eat them.

Because humans have cognitive reasoning, we have an understanding of right from wrong, good from bad. It is through human reason, that we understand that killing is wrong, for example.

3) Do you really think if God was real He would be silent all these centuries? Why was He able to orally communicate with the folks that wrote the Bible but not now? Isn't it sick in a way if God was real (which He's not, no offense), that He would remain silent, knowing there is absolutely 0 scientific proof of His existence. What I'm saying is there are all these non-believers out there, and according to Christianity, they all burn in hell for being non-believers. How could God just stand and allow all these hundreds of millions of people to go to Hell? He certainly wouldn't allow this to happen, if He was real then He would prove it in 2 seconds and "save" millions of people from burning in Hell for eternity.

It depends on which religion you are asking, but Christianity would say that God does in fact speak to us, although not in the conventional sense you are thinking. God didn't communicate orally to the authors of the Bible - but rather they were inspired by God. While some Christians may believe that God will punish to hell anyone who doesn't believe in God, not all of them do. The most basic definition of heaven is - in union with God. If we are to believe that the greatest commandment is love, then why would God turn away anyone? Hell then, isn't a place where one is sent to for punishment, but rather a total rejection of God, which is self inflicted.

Such horrible violence in the world and religion has been the root cause of it in many cases. It's really disgusting. Anyone who is a devout religious person is so badly brainwashed they will never think outside of the box. No offense.

You're kidding yourself if you think that if you remove religion from the equation of historical violence, then we'd have peace on earth. In spite of religion, we are human and bound to make humanly errors...capable of doing terrible things to others. While some humans may use religion as an excuse for doing evil things, that doesn't mean the religion itself is advocating evil. What I think you despise (and rightly so) is when people follow a religion or set of beliefs without question...without ever using their own intellect to discern whether those beliefs or interpretation of beliefs truly fall in line with inner sense of right from wrong (cognitive reasoning). I would agree, that if anyone blindly follows a religion without tempering that with their intellect, then it will lead to bad things. What's the point of us having free will, if we don't use it with intellectual discernment?