Comments on: Oh Lord give me strength

By: Graham Young

Graham Young — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:43:41 +0000

Gianna, I don’t think this is the place to have a debate on basic Christianity, but human sacrifice is something which is outside the Judaeo-Christian tradition. It is specifically rejected in Genesis in the story in which Abraham offers to sacrifice his only son Isaac. God refuses the sacrifice and provides a ram.
At other places in the bible human sacrifice by the Canaanites, for example, is specifically condemned.
Christ’s death on the cross is in some ways an inversion of the whole idea of human sacrifice. Christians accept that there are higher things than clinging on to one’s own life and that voluntarily giving it for another can be not just a good thing, but the best thing. It’s not unique to Christianity in any way.
So, I’ve got no idea where you are coming from.

By: Gianna

Gianna — Mon, 07 May 2007 11:20:53 +0000

oh, i forgot to state the obvious: “according to the mythology of Christianity,…”
re: new to you – really? surely it’s what is endlessly preached; that Jesus died for our sins, that he was a martyr for us, that this was part of God’s divine plan, etc etc.

By: Graham Young

Graham Young — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:37:51 +0000

“the Christian God…came up with the whole idea of human sacrifice”? That’s a new one on me, but interesting to see that you think the “Christian God” exists. You need to tell me more about your atheism!

By: Gianna

Gianna — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 20:00:08 +0000

Believers always want to make their beliefs seem more sophisticated than those of simple atheists. (Maybe atheists like to think their beliefs are more realistic.)
It is the Christian God, isn’t it, who came up with the whole idea of human sacrifice, arranging as part of his grand plan for His own son to be killed–the killers “know not what they have done”, since they were just fulfilling their role in God’s plan–in order to save a planetful of alleged sinners. Great plan, God!That’s “sophisticated”?
Science never “proves” a theory, so of course it can never “prove” there is no God. This doesn’t mean there is one.

By: Graham Young

Graham Young — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:06:06 +0000

There’s a “No Junk Mail” sticker on our letter boxes, and that sure generates a lot of junk Gianna.
I think that you’re right that the church for the most part hasn’t managed to work out how to deal with the Enlightenment. Science seems at first blush too successful in explaining the world. But then you realise that it has limits, and that there is more than enough room for God – a more sophisticated version than the one you lampoon, but one that’s certainly there in the Christian tradition, even though it was conceived by pre-scientific people.

By: Gianna

Gianna — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:17:18 +0000

And how do you sign-on to “stop receiving wasteful junk mail”?
one of those mailbox stickers? ticking the ‘don’t add me to mail lists’ box on all forms you fill out? listing yourself on marketing registers you can sign up to for phone, print and net marketers? where there’s a will there’s a way.
maybe it’s time to consider whether the real reason the church is in trouble is because the idea of a deity is increasingly implausible and definitely unhelpful in these uncertain times where greedy, selfish and aberrant human behavior is the simple root of most misery. God is conspicuous by His absence, busy elsewhere in the universe perhaps.

By: Leigh

Leigh — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:55:04 +0000

Human beings did not cause global warming, climate-change, or what ever the wackos are calling it this week.
And human beings have absolutely no control over natural, cyclic changes in weather. Nothing they do will make a jot of difference.