The more I read exerpts from the bible, the more I feel sick! Why do people believe in any of this??

[Carakeel]

Example:

I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. - Mark 16:16

Excuse me, but may I just mention the many third world countries, where by sending in missionaries over the past centuries we have managed to convince millions of poor people that their salvation is to believe in this God and in the bible? These people are among the most religious in the world. So, where is this ... "shall never hunger, shall never thirst " that was promissed?

Why on earth do people believe in a book that is so harmful, so full of lies? Why do we have so many people who follow religions based on the bible and yet have never read the dreadful threats whithin, i.e. if your children disobay you, they should be stoned to death etc etc etc.

It all makes me sick!!

[jomifl]

jno.. you can't just choose to believe the bits of the bible that the find acceptable.. It is the word of the lord ferchrisake. You have to accept all of it or none of it. That is what faith is all about. That is why I am an atheist

[Carakeel]

Believe me Ankou, I have no intention of rattling off various verses of the bible one by one to bemoan them on answerbank. In fact I think this is the first time I have put anything into this section in the many years I have been a member of AB. Ratter is better at this than I am. It just annoyed me this morning that I received yet another email quoting the above from the bible. My junk mail seems to be full of these recently. It annoyed me because of the suffering on the one hand and the lies on the other. I am not someone who spends their life trying to convince others that their beliefs are wrong; it is each individual's choice what they believe. I just wonder why they believe, when so much of it is so disturbing and so obviously untrue. I have asked myself the same question. why did I believed for so long. But, as catholic children we believed because we were taught that if we questioned our faith, the bible or what the nuns and priests were teaching us, we would burn in hell! Threats like that worked in those days! Today I believe that if we do not question, we never learn to understand. I also agree with lonnie and starbuckone. A lot of our friends are believers and follow various religions and we do discuss these issues with them occasionally. I just wish it hadn't taken me personally so long to realise that it was OK for me to stop believing.

[jomifl]

Carakeel.. You don't have to read all of the bible to decide whether or not it is credible. You can stop at the first contradiction or bit of arrant nonsense because after that it has no credibility.

[jomifl]

Page 1 ... almost certainly ..well as certain as it is possible to be about anything

[razza]

Ive never read it,I do not read fiction of any kind.

[jomifl]

impossible ..unless you can't read

[Carakeel]

I have never read the whole bible front to back, or even back to front and certainly have no interest in doing so. As a child we had to study it to quite an extent and it baffled me from the start. Luckily for me, I have forgotten most of it and nowadays I find I cherrish life and my time too much to waste it on any further bible studies. I am like you jomifl, if I can't believe in something this important wholeheartedly, then I can't believe in it full stop. Hence, I too am a happy atheist. Love your comment razza, lol. Night night folks! :o)

[craft1948]

I wonder if the same comments would be made about the Koran...........

[RATTER15]

Craft, why is the Koran any different? I dont know the Koran well enough to say too much apart from the fact thats its filled with very similar fairy stories as the bible.

Should I now be worried that allah will strike me down? im terrified!!! :-)

[starone]

I have never tried to take anyone's belief away from them. If that is what they need to sustain them through life and they have made an informed decision then it is up to them. When I was at work a colleague there who was a devout Catholic insisted I was a good Christian and would not believe me when I insisted back that I was not a Christian. Some people are so determined that it is useless arguing with them, even if it about yourself!

[RATTER15]

"My faith pulled me through" this is as old as the hills, heard it so many times. Its nonsense!! you would have come through without faith, the same as atheists do every day.

I see it on these 999 reality programmes every night, someone just lost a leg and been half paralised after being mowed down by a drunken driver. As they lie in their hospital bed they look at the camera and say I nearly died, someone up there was looking after me!! WHAT! are these people stupid, you just been driven over by a drunk driving a truck!!!! who the hell was looking after you? The drunk driving the truck walked away with an ass kicking by the judge!

[society]

People who think the Bible is false doctrine why do they even bother to read it or talk about it? Wouldn't be in their own best interest if they ignored it?

[Ankou]

well ultimately, carakeel asks "why on earth do people believe in a book that is so harmful, so full of lies?"

now forgive me if i'm wrong but most, if not all, the respondents on this thread can't answer - whether they have read the book back to front or not at all, atheist or otherwise. so it does all seem rather pointless to know your enemy when they are seemingly absent but mostly silent.

[jno]

"you can't just choose to believe the bits of the bible that the find acceptable"

You can, and people do. Why deny the evidence of your own eyes on this?

[Snafu03]

'I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. - Mark 16:16 '

Maybe you should stick to Mr Men books? The apostle Mark isnt talking about physical food. The bible is full of allegorical meanings, often mis-interpreted - as in your case. This has now caused you to believe the bible is harmful. Take it for what it is, read the passage and have a good hard think about what the real reasons for world poverty is.

[Davethedog]

Society I would love to ignore the bible unfortunatley the bible won't ignore me. It dominates my life as it does every Briton, rules rely on it and as we see in the case of the adoptive couple it dominates the news. Also as a taxpayer last year I subsidieds some bloke from Rome, who to me, has the same credibility as Santa Claus.

Jno - You miss the point - If your going to believe in a book you have to have the whole thing not just the bits you want

"You can, and people do. Why deny the evidence of your own eyes on this" These people are therefore hypocrites aren't they and you underline the point entirely.

[RATTER15]

Im sorry snafu03 I cant even take your comment seriously!! you are obviously joking!!

[jomifl]

jno.. those that just believe the bits of the bible that they want to and don't believe in the bits that they don't like aren't true believers so will burn in hell. Otherwise it means that we are all true believers to some degree, so will all go to heaven.