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People see the word "slave" or "slavery" in the New Testament and immediately think of slavery as it was known in nineteenth century America. In Biblical times, "slave" is better seen as "indentured servant". It was one of the economic realities by which people lived.The NT also says slavery is OK as long as you don't beat your slaves excessively. That's the problem with believing in "God", you end up tossing the bits you don't like and keep those you do like, backfilling your own (humanistic) morals to fit your concept of God.
People lack belief in many things: We don't believe we can be a famous painter or sculptor, a master gardener, a champion skater, jockey, scholar or write a best seller. As far as God, we are told if we seek, we will find, and that we can build a relationship with God.I lack the belief in a God. Because I haven't seen anything to conclude god exists I think all concepts of God in organized religion are highly unlikely to be right because it's specific enough to be tested.
Atheism and agnosticism are depressing.
I am NOT saying atheists are wrong because atheism is depressing.
I am only suggesting atheism is a bleak philosophy.
Some quotes:
“That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the débris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.” Bertrand Russell
“I know no study which is so unutterably saddening as that of the evolution of humanity, as it is set forth in the annals of history. Out of the darkness of prehistoric ages man emerges with the marks of his lowly origin strong upon him. He is a brute, only more intelligent than the other brutes, a blind prey to impulses, which as often as not lead him to destruction; a victim to endless illusions, which make his mental existence a terror and a burden, and fill his physical life with barren toil and battle.” Thomas Huxley
“Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, Wallace, and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man's craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ego of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psycho-analysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud
Jesus never said slavery is okay.
Does the New Testament Support Slavery? - TGC Africa
For many people, Christian or not, the failure of the New Testament to directly condemn slavery is deeply troubling. So what does it actually say?africa.thegospelcoalition.org
Secular philosophies are not entirely uplifting.
The Black Book of Communism — Harvard University Press
Already famous throughout Europe, this international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the actual, practical accomplishments of Communism around the world: terror, torture, famine, mass deportations, and massacres. Astonishing in the sheer detail it...www.hup.harvard.edu
So you don’t know whether God exists. If objective reality does not exist (see links above) can anything be tested?
Multiple passages in the New Testament encourage slaves to respect or obey their masters. And from the list you can see it’s hardly once off: Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-25; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10; 1 Peter 2:18-20; 1 Corinthians 7:20-24; as well as the entire book of Philemon. And more so, slave masters, even Christian ones, are never told to automatically free their slaves and be done with the institution of slavery.Jesus never said slavery is okay.
So? I'm not here to defend every single Secular philosophy that ever was. I'm simple responding to your claim that the Bible from which you draw your belief are entirely uplifting. An appeal to hypocrisy doesn't work.Secular philosophies are not entirely uplifting.
I never claimed I know anything. Neither do I know objective reality exist. "Knowing" something is incredibly hard if not impossible. However, there's lots of things I consider so unlikely, that it makes little to no practical difference from knowing it's untrue. One of these things is most human concepts of Gods, for a variety of reasons. Among them the statistical probability for any one of the literally thousands of completely different beliefs throughout history actually being correct. The clearly erroneous and easily disproven claims made in holy books. The changing nature of religions throughout time and geography. All pointing to the conclusion that religions are constructs of humans, not some "divine truth" send from upstairs.So you don’t know whether God exists. If objective reality does not exist (see links above) can anything be tested?
The ten commandments? Make life easier? My dad was a dick, my mom was depressed. I ended up having to raise me and 3 siblings almost before my balls dropped. I sure as hell don't honor my parents. Nor do I worship a God who put me in that situation. What got me through it is belief in my own strength. Not some Commandments that at best are morals I can get from any other fable. And that's at best.You are on the right track...while missing the point. Life is a gift for us to use to our enjoyment and well-being. We are given simple guidance. Love God and love one another. (If God is beyond anyone's ken, then love goodness.) The Ten Commandments are directions and guidance on how to making one's way through life easier. Atheists are as religious as everyone else--and no different from anyone else.
Saying we are indifferent gets you not an inch closer to proving God isn't. It's an appeal to hypocrisy. Humans make no claim to perfection. According to you God does. He has no excuse.God is indifferent? Let's take a look at ourselves. How many people do we pass by each day, totally indifferent to the lives they are living? Start with driving to work. On the way home, how often is a stop made at a hospital, a nursing home, or to clean up a local park? Actually, when walking along a street, how often do we pause to pick up litter? It's been said that often when we look at another person and see something we don't like, it's the same trait we don't like about ourselves. Perhaps it is our own indifference that is bugging us.
There's nothing easy about wanting proof before believing something. Believing in God doesn't risk anything. It's a belief that by definition is absolute. Anything I believe to be true has a danger of ending up being wrong.People lack belief in many things: We don't believe we can be a famous painter or sculptor, a master gardener, a champion skater, jockey, scholar or write a best seller. As far as God, we are told if we seek, we will find, and that we can build a relationship with God.
It's easier to shrug one's shoulders and be content without belief and without working towards belief...just as it is easier to shrug off anything else that takes continual effort and practice.
