Latest Posts (In 2011)
Posted: Wednesday 14 December 2011 ( 12 years ago )
God hath done these things: The Apocrypha to the Rescue!
I've struggled a bit lately with the Book of Esther.
It is filled with preemptive war and genocidal ethnic cleansing, that the author clearly supported and glorified. But since the book makes no mention of God, directly or indirectly, it's difficu ...
Posted: Friday 11 November 2011 ( 12 years ago )
The Esther Killings: Do they belong on God's list?
Esther is one of the two books in the Bible in which God is not even mentioned (the other is the Song of Solomon).
Maybe that's why some Bible believers, such as Martin Luther, believed that it should be excluded from the Bible. In Luther's case, ...
Posted: Friday 28 October 2011 ( 12 years ago )
Saving the Seed of Cain from the Flood of Noah
In my last post I described how Mormon Scripture explains the origin of black people. (They are the seed of Cain.)
Which is all very interesting. But if you are foolish enough to accept that racist explanation, you still have a problem. How did the ...
Posted: Tuesday 13 September 2011 ( 13 years ago )
2 Nephi 7-9: Tomorrow is a Latter Day
Jacob takes a break from his preaching (again) by throwing in a few more chapters from Isaiah so that 2400 years later the true (LDS) church will know the covenants that God has covenanted with the Jews.
And now, my beloved brethren, I have read t ...
Posted: Tuesday 28 June 2011 ( 13 years ago )
A Mormon just believes.
Have you noticed the Mormon reaction to the Tony-winning Broadway musical The Book of Mormon? Probably not. There wasn't much of one.
Mormons haven't tried to defend themselves by claiming that it got things wrong. And that is because it didn't. ...
Posted: Wednesday 18 May 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Zimri burns to death
Remember Zimri? The guy that killed Baasha’s wall-pissingfamily and friends for God? Well, now it’s his turn. What goes around,
comes around – a lot in the Bible!
After Zimri killed Elah (Baasha’s son), he replaced him as
king of Israel ...
Posted: Friday 06 May 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Take the Sam Harris challenge: Improve the Bible, Quran, and Book of Mormon in less than five minutes
The truth is that religion, as we speak of it (Islam, Christianity, Judaism), is based on the claim that God dictates certain books. He doesn't code software; he doesn't produce films; he doesn't score symphonies. He is an author. And this claim ...
Posted: Saturday 30 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
The good people in the Bible
A while back, I said that Vashti was the best person in the Bible. And while I still think she's a good choice for that award, I'd like to consider all possible candidates. Here is my attempt to do that. Let me know if I've left out any of your favo ...
Posted: Wednesday 27 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
What really happened to Jesus
There are many beliefs in the great vat of stupidity.
...
Posted: Friday 22 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
A Muslim / Mormon Good Friday to you!
We all know what Christians believe about Jesus' death. It's impossible to live in the western world without hearing the crucifixion stories, especially around this time of year.
But what about Muslims and Mormons? Do they have any cool Good Frida ...
Posted: Saturday 16 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Vashti: The best person in the Bible
It's hard to find good people in the Bible.
There are lots of bad guys, though. Noah, Lot, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, Jephthah, Samson, Samuel, David, Elijah, Elisha, Jehu -- all are candidates for "The Worst Person in the Bible" award (or even ...
Posted: Sunday 10 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Should Christians grow the word of God by burning the Quran?
Here's what the Bible says about it:
Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word ...
Posted: Friday 08 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Applying Karen Armstrong’s new ancient principle of scriptural interpretation
Here it is in all its glory, as expressed in The Charter For Compassion:
We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scriptu ...
Posted: Wednesday 06 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
The Best Book in the Bible (revisited again)
(Updated to include the recent Genesis - Ecclesiastes SAB revision.)
In my last post I tried to find a way to measure the goodness of the books in the "Good Book", but I wasn't completely satisfied with the results. So here's one more try. Let me k ...
Posted: Tuesday 05 April 2011 ( 13 years ago )
The Best Book in the Bible
(Re-post after revising Genesis - Ecclesiastes. I'll do it again when I get through Revelation.)
What is the best book in the Bible?
Well, that, of course, depends on how you define "best".
One way to try to determine it, though, would be to id ...
Posted: Wednesday 09 March 2011 ( 13 years ago )
2 Nephi 6: Someday God will force non-Mormons to eat their own flesh and get drunk on their own blood.
Last time we learned what the LDS church really thinks about Native Americans: they are idle, mischievous, dark-skinned savages. They got that way because their ancestor Laman disobeyed Nephi, so God caused "a skin of blackness to come upon them" to ...
Posted: Tuesday 08 February 2011 ( 13 years ago )
2 Nephi 4-5: Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cursed, receive a skin of blackness
The title to this post is taken from the official LDS summary for 2 Nephi 5 -- at least it was the official summary, until it was changed by the LDS church in December 2010. In the new revised version, the Lamanites (Native Americans) are no longer ...
Posted: Tuesday 01 February 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Surah 4:136-176 -- Jesus wasn't really crucified, it just looked that way
The end of Surah 4 contains a bit of news about Jesus, something you may not have heard about before.
Here it is: Allah and Jesus worked together to make his death appear to be a bloody crucifixion, but it was all just a fancy magic trick. Jesus d ...
Posted: Saturday 15 January 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Surah 4:81-135 Ponder on the Quran
The Rev. Terry Jones announced this week that he plans to put the Quran on trial. And I think that's a great idea, as long as the Bible is put on trial, as well, using the same standards that are applied to the Quran. The burning, firing squad, drow ...
Posted: Monday 10 January 2011 ( 13 years ago )
1 Nephi 22: Someday Catholics will get drunk on their own blood
As I mentioned in my last post, Nephi threw in a couple chapters from Isaiah, ending with this verse (Isaiah 49:26):
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine. 1 Nephi ...
Posted: Friday 07 January 2011 ( 13 years ago )
Surah 4:35-80 Fresh skins for Allah's fire
This section starts off well enough, with Allah telling us to be kind to our parents, relatives, orphans, the needy, neighbors, strangers, and travelers.
(Show) kindness unto parents, and unto near kindred, and orphans, and the needy, and unto the ...
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