- It’s no secret that Gary_M begged to be banned. I saw it and I think the evidence is still publicly available. So what does he do?
- To see, ask to be invited into a private thread that I will create specifically to share his post-ban post. Or don’t take my word for it; go to Why Does The Judeo-Christian God Care More About What You Eat Than The Age Of Consent For Little Girls?
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So he uses less-than-juvenile tactics here, refusing to actually address the scriptures, so he can go be self-righteous about it elsewhere.
No surprise.
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It’s actually an issue worth discussing for Christians… especially with those with very conservative views of scripture. Does God seem to care more about what we eat or if men shaved their beards as opposed to slavery, which is not repudiated, but regulated in His law?
Gary wasn’t here to discuss though. He was here hoping to convince some of us to hate God as much as he does. Maybe we can turn it into something good. So how would everyone answer the question above and how does your understanding of scripture relate to your answer?
Vinnie
Dear Father, Thank you for our interaction with everyone we meet; including Gary. Thank you for the hard questions, and the ability to think them through. Please bless Gary, and bless our thoughts and learning towards truth and support of each other, including Gary. Thank you for the reminder that you love us each.
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Yeah, he appears to be one of those atheists who has more in common with the Ken Ham types’ approach to the Bible than the people here, or nearly every other Christian I know. His biggest error is equating “what the Bible says” with “what the Christian religion teaches.” Christian doctrine (to the extent that it is a single unified thing, whch we all know it isn’t) is based on interpreting what the Bible means and how it applies to new contexts. Excluding fundie cults and fringe groups, the modern Christian church absolutely does teach that sexual abuse of minors is wrong and terrible. They even use it as a pretext for their Islamophobia on occasion because Mohammed had child brides.
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I genuinely hope Gary reconciles with the Lord and I don’t doubt your sincerity, but for me to write something like that would be nothing more than virtue signaling. Sometimes you have to shake the dust from your sandals and go elsewhere.
Vinnie
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I understand. I genuinely meant it sincerely. However, I can see your point, too.
addendum: My dad used to counsel us regularly–”If someone is unkind to you for no reason, pray for them, as they are hurting so much that they feel they need to hurt you, to take their mind off their pain.”
I also was trying to work like Paul, with giving thanks, too; I always struggle on whether to give thanks in, or for, things.
Thanks.
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PS I really appreciated your thoughts on how to make this into something good. I’d be interested in what your thoughts are. I think that’s a great part of the spiritual disciplines.
Thanks.
The case of child marriage, or of natural evil, or of suffering, or of cloning, or of abortion - -
these are all FABULOUS argument-starters.
And people who don’t like talking about Christian support of Evolutionary Science
love to get a good argument going on just about any one of these “other” topics.
In his online article, he asks why our group was unwilling to take a stand on
child marriage.
If the entry process for new participants is CONCISE … and CLEAR about
the topic we specifically sustain BioLogos to treat, we shouldn’t have to
worry or fuss over those few who feel cheated they didn’t get the argument
they wanted.
G.Brooks
I tried to indicate that with my question of how the Bible is inimical to slavery and the suggestion he look for principles, but he wasn’t interested in actually thinking.
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Which is lying via question. He set things up so there couldn’t be any answer but his, which again shows he wasn’t interested in actually thinking.
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He did seem to frame the issue in a way that allowed only one acceptable conclusion — that the Bible’s lack of a modern age-of-consent statute entails divine moral failure. Once the premise is defined that narrowly, anyone who remains unconvinced is cast as morally compromised.
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Or to be more blunt, “Shut down your brain and agree with me!”
Well, the rules are clear about sustained, militant atheism. This forum ebbs and flows between sticking to mainly science and allowing other theological discussions. Sometimes the mods get strict on that rule and sometimes they lay off. Right now we are in a more lax period. I don’t start a lot of topics because of that rule though. I don’t want to fill the forum with things that are technically off topic. But most topics end up going down 30 different rabbit holes anyways.
Vinnie
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IMO, as long as his site continues to maintain his mischaracterized position without apology and correction, he’s sustaining militant atheism, and if it’s still there on 02/01/2027, he’s earned, IMO, the right to be banned forever.
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I think it’s a valid question for more conservative forms of Bible interpretation that push Biblical literalism and Biblical moral literalism on us all. The idea of a pristine book from a heavenly perspective is just false to me. I don’t want to kill you with links but I just put out a looooooong article titled: The Bible: Imperfect Text, Perfect Purpose and also a longer piece on If the Bible has Errors, how do we know what is true? Honestly, I’m a little worn out of those subjects at the moment but my thoughts are there (all 38-39 pages of them lol). I am also working on my morality stuff. The last section is the perverted faculty argument and it has been wild. I am learning a ton but it’s mentally exhausting. Fortunately, I am just about done and can move off morality.
Vinnie
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The militant atheism doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the refusal to think.
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Great! So, as long as his site continues to maintain his mischaracterized position without apology and correction, he’s refusing to think, and if it’s still there on 02/01/2027, he’s earned, IMO, the right to be banned forever.
I noticed this in the banner on his site:
ESCAPING CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM
Ironic that he shows himself to be an anti-Christian fundamentalist. He hasn’t escaped anything. He is roasting on a spit over a fire that he himself constantly fans.
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Militant atheism and the refusal to think are like twins.