Sam Harris

Problem is, the are all dead wrong again. See below for a some bewildering comments

Traditionalists of diverse faiths described the destruction as part of god's plan, proof of his power and punishment for human sins.

"This is an expression of God's great ire with the world," Israeli chief rabbi Shlomo Amar told Reuters. "The world is being punished for wrongdoing—be it people's needless hatred of each other, lack of charity, moral turpitude."

Pandit Harikrishna Shastri, a priest of New Delhi's huge marble and sandstone Birla Hindu temple, told Reuters the disaster was caused by a "huge amount of pent-up man-made evil on earth" and driven by the positions of the planets.

Azizan Abdul Razak, a Muslim cleric and vice president of Malaysia's Islamic opposition party, Parti Islam se-Malaysia, said the disaster was a reminder from god that "he created the world and can destroy the world."

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, a leading British Muslim cleric from Leicester in England said: "We believe that God has ultimate controlling power over his entire creation. We have a responsibility to try and attract god's kindness and mercy and not do anything that would attract his anger."

END OF TIME?

Many faiths believe that disasters foretell the end of time or the coming of a Messiah. Some Christians expect chaos and destruction as foretold in the Bible's final book, Revelation.

Maria, a 32-year-old Jehovah's Witness in Cyprus who believes that the apocalypse is coming said people who once slammed the door in her face were stopping to listen.

"It is a sign of the last days," she said.

Christian dates for the end of the world I know of:

1641, 1804, 1841, 1906, 1947, 2006…

the mayan calendar i think says 2012, nostrodomus says 3697, the comet is due in 2025,

we thought it was over after the black plague too
and the pope was the anti-christ who caused the plague

Chicken Little ran around yelling the sky is falling

wonder how old that fairy tale is

[quote author=“Wotansson”]Problem is, the are all dead wrong again. See below for a some bewildering comments

Traditionalists of diverse faiths described the destruction as part of god’s plan, proof of his power and punishment for human sins.

“This is an expression of God’s great ire with the world,” Israeli chief rabbi Shlomo Amar told Reuters. “The world is being punished for wrongdoing—be it people’s needless hatred of each other, lack of charity, moral turpitude.”

Pandit Harikrishna Shastri, a priest of New Delhi’s huge marble and sandstone Birla Hindu temple, told Reuters the disaster was caused by a “huge amount of pent-up man-made evil on earth” and driven by the positions of the planets.

Azizan Abdul Razak, a Muslim cleric and vice president of Malaysia’s Islamic opposition party, Parti Islam se-Malaysia, said the disaster was a reminder from god that “he created the world and can destroy the world.”

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, a leading British Muslim cleric from Leicester in England said: “We believe that God has ultimate controlling power over his entire creation. We have a responsibility to try and attract god’s kindness and mercy and not do anything that would attract his anger.”

END OF TIME?

Many faiths believe that disasters foretell the end of time or the coming of a Messiah. Some Christians expect chaos and destruction as foretold in the Bible’s final book, Revelation.

Maria, a 32-year-old Jehovah’s Witness in Cyprus who believes that the apocalypse is coming said people who once slammed the door in her face were stopping to listen.

“It is a sign of the last days,” she said.

The question becomes why did these journalists chose these individuals comments to report? Because they are sensational. And all news media does not report events out of the altruistic goodness of their hearts. they have sponsors and product to move and must grab the audiences attention to succeed in their endeavor to raise network., etc ratings (visibilty)

Wottanson said:

We have a responsibility to try and attract god’s kindness and mercy and not do anything that would attract his anger.

Here is the essence of the problem that no amount of argument can overcome.  Once you accept this characterization of the divine, and humanity’s correlative position, then anything that follows is permissible. 

This is the mindset that frustrates me.  Why would any one consider this deity attractive if it were authentic?  I would sooner dwell in Hell than this be my companion for all of eternity.  The underlying doctrine of God is at fault here.  Who is to say that God is such a tyrant?  Fear is the only rationale.

[quote author=“child”]

I would sooner dwell in Hell than this be my companion for all of eternity.  The underlying doctrine of God is at fault here.  Who is to say that God is such a tyrant?  Fear is the only rationale.

If you go back to the original Greek texts from which the Christian Bible evolved you will find that the proper translation of the word that is written as ‘fear’ in the Bible should have been translated as awe.

Then if you look at the world from this standpoint it is easy to stand in awe of the power of God as seen, for example, in the tsunami.

This problem is the one that has caused me many times to turn my back on God. And then I finally realized that this is a false understanding of the concept of God perpetrated by those who would use religion to control the population. Fear and terror are very effective at making adherents pliable.

Now, when you say “power of God as seen in the tsunami,” you mean God in the sense of “natural force” or “energy,” right?  I see no need to personify this force, though if some want to, then by all means.  let’s not go making any claims on reality with this sort of mythical construction, however.

[quote author=“child”]Now, when you say “power of God as seen in the tsunami,” you mean God in the sense of “natural force” or “energy,” right?  I see no need to personify this force, though if some want to, then by all means.  let’s not go making any claims on reality with this sort of mythical construction, however.

The concept of God is one that Americans are not likely to reject any time soon. I can say positively that I believe in God. But just what is my difinition of God?

Fundamentalists would call me a heretic because I do not believe like them. 

Take the word nature and replace it with God or vice versa and you will get a better understanding of my understanding of the term God.

The Hebrew idea of a merciless God falls into this defition.

[quote author=“lawrence”]Take the word nature and replace it with God or vice versa and you will get a better understanding of my understanding of the term God.

Why use such a loaded term with so much extraneous baggage for that which there’s already an “un-loaded” term?

[quote author=“lawrence”]The Hebrew idea of a merciless God falls into this defition.

I don’t see it. Nature is completely impersonal and unfeeling—doesn’t “care” any more for humans (much less individual humans) than other animals . . . or plants or rocks, for that matter. That all seems pretty incomaptible (i.e. diametrically opposed) to the Hebrew god.

Byron

The question becomes why did these journalists chose these individuals comments to report? Because they are sensational. And all news media does not report events out of the altruistic goodness of their hearts. they have sponsors and product to move and must grab the audiences attention to succeed in their endeavor to raise network., etc ratings (visibilty)

The absurdity of the comments make them appropriately sensational

[quote author=“SkepticX”][quote author=“lawrence”]Take the word nature and replace it with God or vice versa and you will get a better understanding of my understanding of the term God.

Why use such a loaded term with so much extraneous baggage for that which there’s already an “un-loaded” term?

[quote author=“lawrence”]The Hebrew idea of a merciless God falls into this defition.

I don’t see it. Nature is completely impersonal and unfeeling—doesn’t “care” any more for humans (much less individual humans) than other animals . . . or plants or rocks, for that matter. That all seems pretty incomaptible (i.e. diametrically opposed) to the Hebrew god.
Byron

Originally all concepts of God , by necessity, came about from human experience with the natural world.

If you study God (nature) you have a much better chance of surviving in a brutally solid reality when hurtling down the highway in a vehicle at 80 miles an hour.

This idea is naturally incompatible with the belief that God sits on a throne in heaven and judges his wayward children sending afflictions upon the bad and wealth upon the good which tends to sound more like a definition of Santa Claus as opposed to God.

[quote author=“Iisbliss”]Christian dates for the end of the world I know of:

1641, 1804, 1841, 1906, 1947, 2006…

the mayan calendar i think says 2012, nostrodomus says 3697, the comet is due in 2025,

we thought it was over after the black plague too
and the pope was the anti-christ who caused the plague

Chicken Little ran around yelling the sky is falling

wonder how old that fairy tale is

Don’t forget 1914 please, that Jehova’s Witnesses are so eager to point out they predicted (they were “predicting” the end of the world of course, and then changed their story later to say they predicted a major loss of life)

[quote author=“Iisbliss”]
we thought it was over after the black plague too
and the pope was the anti-christ who caused the plague

This seems especially relevant in the fact that felines, your ordinary house cat, was wiped out by a decree of the Roman Catholic Church, due to there evil nature (extremely efficient predators of small animals, but seen as of familiar of witches) right before the plague swept Europe in the Dark Ages.

FWIW, Revelation in the New Testament is describing a meteorite impact.

The meteorite/impact story of creation tells of a never-ending CYCLICAL catastrophic view of life/creation.

The Great Pyramid of Giza is a testament (no pun intended) to the ancient Egyptians BELIEF that meteorites create (and will recreate) life.  The Great Pyramid is a simulacrum of an oriented, iron (first source of iron was meteorites prior to smelting) meteorite. 

JL