Just came across this on my referrers and wanted to see what was happening. Jem, you claim that I set up straw men and then knock them down. Actually I think the Bible sets up the men that I try to knock over. I don't need to set them up; they're already there. I'm not sure which ones you are referencing, but let's pick free will and the fall of man. I did address this but here goes a very short response.
God creates us fully as we are, remember no evolution allowed. Being Omnipotent and omniscient, he controls our complete formation. There are no outside factors here. Right? Oh yes, the devil! But God created him too, and being Omniscient, knows precisely what he will do. Correct? That is what omniscient means. So God has us just the way he wants us. Of course he does, because he's perfect, and for perfection to create a flawed creation, he would have to do it on purpose. By the definitions involved, there is no other way.
Anyway, he makes us in our totality and then demands we don't do the one thing that he KNOWS we are going to. Remember we do not yet know right from wrong, for we have not yet eaten the fruit of knowledge. And of course, we eat it. Just like he wanted us to. How can you create something that you know is going to do something and blame them for doing it. This is absurd!
Come on Jem, Anyone not blinded by years of brainwashing can see that this is a story invented by a tribe of bronze age desert wanderers trying to understand where they came from. And as a work of literature, it can be beautiful. But taken as inerrant truth, just like the Koran or the Book of Mormon, it becomes ugly and squalid. As my site tries it's hardest to prove, a literal interpretation of a bronze age work of fiction is less than useless. It's dangerous for society.
If you need to shove your own head up your butt, fine! Just don't demand that the rest of us do too. There's not much difference between you and the Moslems. It's just a slightly different butt.
Free thinker. Thanks for the support in the battle against superstition.
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http://blessedatheist.com/