sock puppet wrote:From my perspective, I'd like to know. But never will.
I think you can be pretty sure that this story has little to do with any real guy named Abraham. It is an interesting and troubling story, but the chances that it ever occurred are relatively remote.
Hey, maybe Achilles really killed Hector before the walls of Troy. I would say that this is more likely to have happened than the story of Abraham and Isaac, but I still place little confidence in it ever having happened.
These are stories people. Stories.
"Petition wasn’t meant to start a witch hunt as I’ve said 6000 times." ~ Hanna Seariac, LDS apologist
sock puppet wrote:From my perspective, I'd like to know. But never will.
I think you can be pretty sure that this story has little to do with any real guy named Abraham. It is an interesting and troubling story, but the chances that it ever occurred are relatively remote.
Hey, maybe Achilles really killed Hector before the walls of Troy. I would say that this is more likely to have happened than the story of Abraham and Isaac, but I still place little confidence in it ever having happened.
These are stories people. Stories.
That's how I come out too. Mischief is as mischief does.
There is a meme that we've all encountered in literature, the movies and even in real life on the news. There may be a name for this meme but I have not been able to discover it. I will describe it and I suspect you will immediately recognize it.
A group of menacing, gun-toting men surround two other men. These two men are obviously not members of the group. One of the two men is standing while the other is sitting in a chair with his hands and feet bound. The leader of the group gives a handgun to the man standing and motions towards the man in the chair. The implication is clear: kill the man sitting in the chair and you will gain the confidence of the group. Declining is a decidedly dangerous option.
This example has been seen in many movies, one of which that comes to mind is the Bourne Ultimatum.
In every case that we see this scenario, the man being handed the gun is the good guy. He is being asked to prove his loyalty to the group by doing something cold-blooded and inhuman. That the group is asking for this proof invariably demonstrates to the audience that the group in question is unremittingly evil.
If you are asking a person, under duress, to break an important moral or ethical law in order to prove your loyalty, you are demonstrating which side of the good/evil divide you have placed yourself.
If you are a believer and consider this example that God and Abraham set in Genesis to be one of good, I would like to hear your take on this, and how you make this work for your belief system.
eschew obfuscation
"I'll let you believers in on a little secret: not only is the LDS church not really true, it's obviously not true." -Sethbag
jon wrote:Can you articulate the structure Jesus set up and reference it against the appropriate scripture please?
Do you deny that Jesus set up a group of apostles and preached sermons?
What Jesus was doing was actually setting up a warning system. He thought the end of the world was going to happen within his own generation - very quickly. If you were desperate to win an argument you could call that a church, but it wasn't really in the spirit of a church.
Parley P. Pratt wrote:We must lie to support brother Joseph, it is our duty to do so.
jon wrote:Can you articulate the structure Jesus set up and reference it against the appropriate scripture please?
Do you deny that Jesus set up a group of apostles and preached sermons?
Simon, second time of asking you to back up your claim. Can you articulate the structure Jesus set up and reference it against the appropriate scripture please?
'Church pictures are not always accurate' (The Nehor May 4th 2011)
Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.
jon wrote:Simon, second time of asking you to back up your claim. Can you articulate the structure Jesus set up and reference it against the appropriate scripture please?
Yes. The New Testament.
Do you deny that Jesus set up a group of apostles and preached sermons?
jon wrote:Simon, second time of asking you to back up your claim. Can you articulate the structure Jesus set up and reference it against the appropriate scripture please?
Yes. The New Testament.
Do you deny that Jesus set up a group of apostles and preached sermons?
Okay, third and last time. Can you articulate the structure Jesus set up and reference it against the appropriate scripture please?
'Church pictures are not always accurate' (The Nehor May 4th 2011)
Morality is doing what is right, regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, regardless of what is right.