Do religious people even read, or understand their own holy books, including the Bible?
If they do how can they possibly come to the conclusions that "God" is merciful and benevolent and can be trusted to pass moral judgement over the human race?
It may not be reasonable unless they simply allow their leaders to dictate the truth without even a minimal amount of fact checking, which is a typical characteristic of cults. One explanation is provided in 38 Bible verses about mercy and compassion; however a close look at it, and follow up in the full contest, clearly indicates that he's only merciful when people are blindly obedient to him, obeying orders without question.
For example, the first verse cited to show he's merciful is followed up by another one that raises major doubts about how merciful he really is,
Exodus 34:6-7 (NKJV): And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
Blaming "the third and the fourth generation" for the sins of an ancestor, perhaps even before some of them were born, is hardly "merciful and gracious," and it's hard to imagine anyone that isn't a cult follower not understanding this.
This is just one of many Bible verses that are clearly more designed to teach how to control people than they are to teach rational moral values, despite a handful of good ones like Matthew 7:12 "'So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the Prophets," that stand on their own merits. Even this moral, which is referred to as the Golden Rule goes back at least 500 years before it was attributed to Jesus Christ; but the vast majority of the Bible is clearly more concerned with control or indoctrination than teaching morals.
This may be based on the assumption that God exists, and that he inspired the Bible as religions claim he did; however, even though it's highly unlikely, if not impossible that the Bible is completely true, millions if not billions of people believe it is, and they're taught to use it as a guide to how to lead their lives. If there is a God, then either he did inspire the Bible, with all it's flaws, or, by remaining silent he allowed people to believe he did, giving tacit approval to those that use it to indoctrinate each other.
People aren't typically taught to try to figure out the truth about the Bible in a rational way; instead they're taught to worship it, assuming that it shows how good God is, although this requires an extremely bizarre interpretation of it. For hundreds of years this was even worse; most people weren't even supposed to read it all, instead having preachers read it to them on Sundays. This didn't begin to change until about five hundred years ago when the Protestant reformation began, but even then most of them still assumed that God was good, only challenging the Catholic Church.
Protestants were taught to read the Bible for themselves from the time their denominations were established, but even they had charismatic preachers telling them to interpret it in a manner that doesn't question God's motives. The Bible is a long effort to dictate the truth to the faithful without much if any rational scrutiny; in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there were several Popes preaching against "rationalism" and even Martin Luther referred to reason as "the Whore" while both of them routinely used rational thinking very selectively when it suited their own religious beliefs.
Now hundreds of years after the Protestant reformation even Catholics encourage followers to read the Bible, but one copy from the Vatican recommend rituals like saying a prayer and going through emotional appeals to show how they love God and have great respect for the book. this is designed to create a strong bias before even reading it; then they often go through bizarre leaps of logic to explain all the absurdities in the Bible.
By controlling the mythology or ideals, as Mark Twain puts it, religious leaders can control the people, virtually enslaving their minds!
If God was as benevolent as religious people believe he is, there should be little or no doubt that he would communicate honestly from the beginning, and allow people to communicate with each other, to avoid fighting one war after another for thousands of years, often based on lies of their political leaders, or if you accept Biblical claims that God chooses these political leaders, God's will. the Bible repeatedly says "With God all things are possible," which is almost certainly not true; however if he exists he certainly could have done a better job pointing out that all these religious wars that we've fought wasn't what he meant.
Even though he's almost certainly not as powerful as people claim he could find the time to say that the Crusades, Inquisitions, Holocaust, and many other conflicts aren't what he meant for us to do, yet the Biblical version of history indicates that he may actually be staging one war after another for some incomprehensible plan of his.
This pattern of behavior goes back at least to the Tower of Babel when God allegedly confused their languages to prevent them from becoming as powerful as him, assuming you accept Biblical mythology, and continues with one staged war after another, even entrapping people that blindly follow their leaders.
On at least two examples in the Old Testament, the Bible describes obvious entrapment of the people where God allegedly makes "Pharaoh stubborn" or "hardens the hearts" of the Canaanites, so they'll disobey him and he uses this as justification to help the Israelite's conquer them, when, he could have just as easily advised them to cooperate, and avoided war.
Exodus 14:4 I shall then make Pharaoh stubborn and he will set out in pursuit of them; and I shall win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and his whole army, and then the Egyptians will know that I am Yahweh.' And the Israelites did this.
Joshua 11:20 For Yahweh had decided to harden the hearts of these men, so that they would engage Israel in battle and thus come under the curse of destruction and so receive no quarter but be exterminated, as Yahweh had ordered Moses.
The New Testament, when Jesus is supposed to be more merciful than they were in the Old Testament isn't always much better where they clearly describe divide and rule tactics telling people who to love and when to love them or when to turn against each other.
Matthew 10:34-7 'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.
For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law; a person's enemies will be the members of his own household.
'No one who prefers father or mother to me is worthy of me. No one who prefers son or daughter to me is worthy of me.
If you accept the Bible as a literal history then it clearly indicates that God intentionally staged many atrocities that could have been avoided, instead of opening up an honest line of communication as indicated in many verses including the following ones:
Genesis 15:13-5 Then Yahweh said to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your descendants will be exiles in a land not their own, and be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. But I shall bring judgement on the nation that enslaves them and after this they will leave, with many possessions. For your part, you will join your ancestors in peace; you will be buried at a happy old age.
Genesis 17:4-8 'For my part, this is my covenant with you: you will become the father of many nations. And you are no longer to be called Abram; your name is to be Abraham, for I am making you father of many nations. I shall make you exceedingly fertile. I shall make you into nations, and your issue will be kings.
And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And to you and to your descendants after you, I shall give the country where you are now immigrants, the entire land of Canaan, to own in perpetuity. And I shall be their God.'
Intentionally planning to enslave his followers for hundreds of years isn't something a Good God would remotely consider, nor would anyone that wasn't a blind cult leader believe it. Or if you count the enslavement that took place after this it was thousands of years, and there were many more atrocities that were committed for religious reasons and the so-called Good God couldn't find a way to say something like "Hey that's not what I meant," or provide much better advice than this!
The Bible is full of outrageous behavior attributed to their God that would be considered outrageous if anyone but God did it! If the devil had recommended that a Pius father offer up his daughters to be raped because of a bunch of his neighbors wanted to molest a representative of the Devil and they wanted to give him innocent girls instead would that be considered moral? If the Devil recommended that they kill someone for picking up sticks on the holy day? Or if the Devil deterred people from asking about possible corruption among religious leaders would swallow up the people challenging authorities into the Earth?
If it was the Devil that did any of these things then there's no doubt that it would be considered outrageous and evidence of how cruel the devil is, yet it's all attributed to God so they bend over backwards coming up with absurd ways to interpret this!
Genesis 19:8 Look, I have two daughters who are virgins. I am ready to send them out to you, for you to treat as you please, but do nothing to these men since they are now under the protection of my roof.'
Exodus 34:13-5 You will tear down their altars, smash their cultic stones and cut down their sacred poles, for you will worship no other god, since Yahweh's name is the Jealous One; he is a jealous God. Make no pact with the inhabitants of the country or, when they prostitute themselves to their own gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will partake of their sacrifice,
Numbers 15:32-6 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who caught him gathering wood brought him before Moses, Aaron and the whole community. He was kept in custody, because the penalty he should undergo had not yet been fixed.
Yahweh said to Moses, 'This man must be put to death. The whole community will stone him outside the camp.' The whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him till he was dead, as Yahweh had ordered Moses.
Numbers 16:3 These banded together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You take too much on yourselves! The whole community, all its members, are consecrated, and Yahweh lives among them. Why set yourselves higher than Yahweh's community?'
Numbers 16:32-5 the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their families, all Korah's people and all their property. They went down alive to Sheol with all their belongings. The earth closed over them and they disappeared in the middle of the community.
At their cries, all the Israelites round them took to their heels, saying, 'We do not want the earth to swallow us too!' Fire then shot out from Yahweh and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering incense.
Jesus came up with new interpretations of the Sabbath that wouldn't call for the death penalty for something as trivial as picking up sticks, but if there was a good God there's no doubt that he could have corrected this absurd interpretation of the Commandments long before that.
Christians and Jews now think of Moses as the savoir from that time; however, there's no reason why he would have to call on God to open up the Earth and swallow people that accuse him of corruption even if the claims are false. Furthermore, even though it's highly unlikely that this ever happened, religious people believe it did, and may be hesitant to speak out against their religious leaders when they're incredibly corrupt. This is clear now in the age of megachurches where they're collecting enormous amounts of money in donations from poor people that can't afford it so that Pastors can become multimillionaires flying around in private jets, without helping out with basic services for the faithful who are often destitute.
Instead of teaching people to develop better critical thinking skills so they can recognize epidemic levels of fraud the Bible is constantly teaching blind obedience! And on at least one occasion it clearly indicates that it's not for a high moral reason at all when it says:
Deuteronomy 9:4-6 Do not think to yourself, once Yahweh your God has driven them before you, "Yahweh has brought me into possession of this country because I am upright," when Yahweh is dispossessing these nations for you, because they do wrong.
You are not going into their country to take possession because of any right behaviour or uprightness on your part; rather, it is because of their wickedness that Yahweh is dispossessing these nations for you, and also to keep the pact which he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Be clear about this: Yahweh is not giving you possession of this fine country because of any right conduct on your part, for you are an obstinate people.
There's no explanation what they allegedly did wrong; nor does God explain why he's using one group of "obstinate people" to punish another group of of "wicked" people. Why doesn't he do his own punishing or explain himself better? If there is a God, as described in the Bible, he's a wacky manipulative scam artist with an incomprehensible undisclosed motive; if he didn't behave in this manner but still allowed these myths to be created in his name and used to manipulate people then he's still a brainwashing cult leader.
If he exists then he's also setting people to be taken in by other fraudulent cult leaders by teaching them to blindly obey orders when coming from God but providing no way to be sure which so-called prophets are real or not, at least not until it's too late as indicated in this verse.
Deuteronomy Chapter 18:20-2 But the prophet who presumes to say something in my name which I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."
'You may be privately wondering, "How are we to tell that a prophecy does not come from Yahweh?"
When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh and the thing does not happen and the word is not fulfilled, then it has not been said by Yahweh. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. You have nothing to fear from him.'
This enables God to maintain plausible deniability as long as his cult followers are willing to come up with what ever justification or scapegoating they can and accept it without rational thinking; however, if there was a God he could have maintained an open honest line of communication enabling everyone to be sure what messages come from him instead of communicating in mysterious ways and allowing us to fight over interpretations.
The Book of Job, is clearly one of the most blatant examples where God allegedly behaves in an atrocious manner, allowing Satan to destroy Job's family and livelihood just to prove how loyal he is to him.
Job Chapter 1:12 'Very well,' Yahweh said to Satan, 'all he has is in your power. But keep your hands off his person.' So Satan left the presence of Yahweh.
Job Chapter 9:22-4 It is all one, and hence I boldly say: he destroys innocent and guilty alike. When a sudden deadly scourge descends, he laughs at the plight of the innocent. When a country falls into the power of the wicked, he veils the faces of its judges. Or if not he, who else?
When Job is being tested he thinks things through in a rational manner raising many legitimate doubts about how a good God would behave, then in the end without answering any of the questions he raises he returns to worshiping this God even though there's no justifiable explanation for the outrageous actions attributed to God. This is considered admirable and Pius to religious people but it just shows how thoroughly their minds have been indoctrinated not to think rationally.
Of course, if the weather isn't entirely controlled by God then it wasn't him that destroyed his farm, but the myths are still be used to indoctrinate people and manipulate them.
How do religious leaders to get their followers to believe such absurdities? they start at a young age, before they develop critical thinking skills through child abuse teaching them to either believe what they're told and blindly obey orders or be punished severely, creating emotional problems from an early age; and the practice has been dictated to parents in the Bible and taught with help of local religious leaders as indicated in the following Proverbs:
Proverbs 13:24 Whoever fails to use the stick hates his child; whoever is free with correction loves him.
Proverbs 19:18 While there is hope for him, chastise your child, but do not get so angry as to kill him.
Proverbs 23:13-4 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal. Give him a stroke of the cane, you will save his soul from Sheol.
I went into this more in Dobson’s Indoctrination Machine where it explains how early child abuse is used to indoctrinate children and also leads to more violence later in life. The states that are the most religious are also the ones that support use of corporal punishment the most, even in schools where they still allow it in nineteen states despite an enormous amount of research showing how much harm it does to childhood development, and how it's often used more for disabled children and minorities. I also followed this up in Research On Preventing Violence Absent From National Media which shows that this contributes to higher rates of violence and murder in the states still allowing it. The FBI has been reporting that the South has constantly had the highest violent crime rates, including murder for decades. The nineteen states still allowing corporal punishment in schools had murder rates between twenty-two and thirty-one percent higher than those not allowing it for the past ten years which includes a couple years where there were twenty or twenty-one states still allowing it.
The vast majority of discussion about why people believe in religion or evidence for the existence of God often focuses on the the supernatural; however there's an enormous amount of psychology research in the academics world, mostly ignored by mainstream media, that shows how early childhood development can lead to emotional problems and indoctrinate children to blindly believe their leaders.
This doesn't necessarily rule in or out the existence of supernatural activities impacting alleged mystics, but the skeptics claim that extraordinary claims requires extraordinary evidence, justifies major doubts, especially since this can explain most of why many religious believers trust their leaders. This should raise questions about why most skeptics don't typically cite the strongest research in this subject since it might make a very compelling case for their beliefs, although there are some alleged mystics that might not be explained away but this.
It also shows that primitive civilizations had a surprisingly advanced knowledge of how to indoctrinate kids from an early age three thousand years ago approximately when these proverbs were allegedly written, although I would consider it difficult to establish this as extraordinary evidence to show that this knowledge was taught to them by God, although if additional evidence were presented, including mystics, and perhaps more I would consider it carefully, and in many cases skeptically.
But regardless of whether God exists or not the list of indoctrination tactics in the Bible continues to go on including the following verse which is often designed to force people to join one group or another going along with the herd mentality, without thinking critically.
Matthew Chapter 12:30 'Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.
Controlling mythology is also a major way of controlling the followers as part of an indoctrination process and speaking in parables, instead of rational and constant principles that can be fact checked may be part of that. Jesus made some statements in the following verses, that should raise some questions, and might leave out even more.
Matthew Chapter 13:10-3 Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?' In answer, he said, 'Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted.
Anyone who has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has. The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.
One major question is why would a benevolent leaders only want some people to understand the word of God? He certainly wouldn't, unless perhaps he was more concerned about controlling them than teaching them constant rational morals. It might also raise doubts about whether people "look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding" because they're incapable of thinking rationally or because he's speaking in parables instead of making clear points.
Even if he is trying to do a good job making his points; if people don't understand them then he could try different tactics to enable them to understand better so that they wouldn't have such a hard time learning; however, if cult leaders are more concerned about controlling their followers than teaching them they might want to keep them ignorant of some of their manipulation tactics.
Another major advantage for a cult leaders to using parables, instead of clear and consistent principles, is that they can be interpreted in many different ways at various different times, which is often routine for religious mythology. This is one of many verses that sounds good but would require an open line of communication for fulfill this promise:
John Chapter 8:32 you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
There are numerous verses that say that God will intentionally confuse people when it suits his purposes, or harden their hearts, as if anything he does is justified, although it would never be justified if anyone but God did it, or if we didn't blindly worship God.
Romans Chapter 9:17 Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason, to display my power in you and to have my name talked of throughout the world. In other words, if God wants to show mercy on someone, he does so, and if he wants to harden someone's heart, he does so.
A good God wouldn't object to following rational principles applying them constantly; this is just one of many verses that states or implies that what ever he does is right simply because he's God; and we're not supposed to question it. Nor are we supposed to question the authorities he allegedly arranges to rule us, despite the fact that even in Biblical times many of the leaders he arranged to take power, like the pharaohs betrayed the people and he even hardened their hearts to ensure they would disobey him so he would have an excuse to show how powerful, and since then there have been many more tyrannical leaders.
Deuteronomy 17:14-5 'If, having reached the country given by Yahweh your God and having taken possession of it and, while living there, you think, "I should like to appoint a king to rule me -- like all the surrounding nations," the king whom you appoint to rule you must be chosen by Yahweh your God; the appointment of a king must be made from your own brothers; on no account must you appoint as king some foreigner who is not a brother of yours.
Romans Chapter 13:1-4 Everyone is to obey the governing authorities, because there is no authority except from God and so whatever authorities exist have been appointed by God. So anyone who disobeys an authority is rebelling against God's ordinance; and rebels must expect to receive the condemnation they deserve.
Magistrates bring fear not to those who do good, but to those who do evil. So if you want to live with no fear of authority, live honestly and you will have its approval; it is there to serve God for you and for your good. But if you do wrong, then you may well be afraid; because it is not for nothing that the symbol of authority is the sword: it is there to serve God, too, as his avenger, to bring retribution to wrongdoers.
This kind of blind obedience is a major reason for the largest wars and other atrocities including Crusades, Inquisitions, the Holocaust and many more tyrannical regimes committing massive atrocities with followers that blindly obey orders. Howard Zinn pointed out that many of the worst atrocities were committed, not because people disobeyed authority, but because they obeyed it when he said:
Yet his teachings are almost completely incompatible with Biblical teachings, although many rational moderate religious people interpret it very differently from what church leaders have taught for thousands of years, which is why some of the most religious parts of the country are also the most violent parts. Religious leaders have been teaching blind obedience to authorities for thousands of years and the governments supporting them have routinely enforced this with violence or the threat of violence if anyone questioned them suppressing all complaints.
(United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) Philippians Chapter 2:14 Do everything without grumbling or questioning.
(For one reason or another Catholic.org omits the phrase "do everything" implying following orders, whether it's at work or fighting wars or anything else, from their online version, yet it's in most print editions that I've seen.)
Another ironic point is that the Bible instructs people to follow economic policies that are far more like the communist principles of Karl Marx than the capitalist principles that most religious people support.
Acts of Apostles Chapter 2:44-5 And all who shared the faith owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.
Acts of Apostles Chapter 4:32-5 The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned was held in common. The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all accorded great respect. None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from the sale of them, to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any who might be in need.
This is almost certainly because religious people are taught above all else to obey their leaders, and are often not even familiar with their own Holy Book.
And of course there are dozens of Biblical versus claiming that slavery, abuse of women or children and much more is justified according to God's law. Modern apologists often try to argue that this was misinterpreted; in some cases they may be right but in many others they're the ones misinterpreting the Bible, instead coming out and saying that it never should have been used as a guide for morality in the first place.
Does the Bible Condone Slavery? 01/04/2019
Wikipedia: The Bible and slavery
'Submit to your husbands': Women told to endure domestic violence in the name of God 10/21/2018
Wikipedia: Christianity and domestic violence
Violence Against Women and the Role of Religion Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune and Rabbi Cindy G. Enger
If religious people were familiar with their own book they would realize that there are numerous versus including this one that say that God is deluding them, therefore he clearly shouldn't be trusted.
2 Thessalonians Chapter 2:11-2 And therefore God sends on them a power that deludes people so that they believe what is false, and so that those who do not believe the truth and take their pleasure in wickedness may all be condemned.
Additional quotes about how God deceives people are also in the Book of Apocalypse, when he arranges for the Whore of Babylon and the Beast to tempt people, and he, or Jesus comes like a "thief in the night" when the alleged second coming will arrive sending out all kinds of mixed messages to deceive the faithful. As long as they believe God is being honest there's little or no chance that they'll figure out what his true motive is at all, assuming he exists.
But is any of this adequate to provide the extraordinary evidence of God's existence in the first place that many rational skeptics demand? It's unlikely that the myths about miraculous events in Biblical times would meet historical standards to prove they're true, since the Bible is so full of contradictions, and is often incomparable with more reliable historical accounts that can be subject to scrutiny. In many cases the Holy books were preserved through intimidation not rational fact checking which makes them highly unreliable.
However, even though a large portion of it clearly looks like superstition, a closer look indicates that it has been used as a very effective indoctrination instruction manual for leaders to carry out and it has worked in practice for thousands of years to control the masses.
This is unlikely to satisfy most skeptics, with some degree of justification, at least without additional evidence. However we do have enough information to show that either God doesn't exist or some of the assumptions about him being all powerful and benevolent can't possibly be true as indicated in the following quote by Epicurus about twenty-three hundred years ago:
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
Some modern day mystics might provide some evidence of an unknown advanced intelligence, which are much more convincing than historical mystics since they can't be subject to peer review adequately; however this requires a close look with an open mind which most skeptics or believers don't seem to have. Many believers are to quick to accept any alleged evidence no matter how flawed; and skeptics often refuse to look to closely if it looks like they might not be able to explain some of the mysteries surrounding mystics.
The evidence for Jesus is incredibly week from the point of view of a good historian, since there are no non-biblical records at a time when they kept good records in that area and the Biblical records were all written at least thirty years after he died. The epistles of Paul are often considered the most credible, since they were the earliest ones and were written while he was still alive.
Records of Mohammed are much more credible according to many traditional historians since they were written while he was alive and compiled in to the Quran shortly after he lived. Records of Joan of Ark may be as credible if not more, since it's highly unlikely that a nineteen year old girl could convince an army of people to follow her into battle and win; and the trial record of two trials, one after her death survived.
There are many other Prophets and Mystics that might provide more compelling evidence but they would require a much closer look, some of which I went into in previous articles including A Brief History of the Mormon Church; Padre Pio; Helena Blavatsky; Scientology; Christian Science and Andrew Jackson Davis. these all provide what I consider, at a minimum compelling evidence of major social phenomena that enables cult leaders to tract many more cult followers than they should have been able to; however, in most cases it's difficult to find conclusive evidence of anything that can't be at least partly explained, and most of the legitimate unsolved mysteries are complicated enough for both believers and skeptics to spin to fit their own beliefs.
the most compelling evidence of a major unsolved mystery that might be explained by an advanced intelligence that might be mistaken for God that I know of is almost certainly ancient megaliths that were moved with primitive technology despite the fact that experiments to replicate it cheated when they got to megaliths between ten and forty tons, still only moved them very short distances at most and didn't even try to move megaliths bigger than that, certainly not over seven hundred toms which ancient civilizations were able to do some how, as I went into in 107 Wonders of the Ancient World
This should be enough to raise some major doubts about the official explanation about our early social development, yet there's little or no honest discussion about it on traditional media or in the academics world. Some of the obvious evidence so-called skeptics ridicule or censor is so clear that lay-people can easily see they're not being sincere, so some of them might be driven to believers that are to quick to jump to conclusions, including the theorists on Ancient aliens on the History Channel.
One thing we should try to avoid is coercion so people are intimidated or shamed into believing what the crowd tells them to believe, which requires slow fact checking at the grassroots level, especially since many of the so-called experts aren't even trying to do a good job. At least with the Ancient alien theory they're open to consider different motives that don't involve an advanced intelligence that is looking out for our best interests when that clearly isn't the case.
Voltaire also said "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities;" which is often quite true. However, there are often many absurd things that are true, including the claim that was considered absurd in 2012 that a pathetic clown like Donald Trump would ever have a chance at getting elected president, yet, unless the mainstream media is carrying out a massive charade, he supposedly is the president now!
A close look at Voltaire indicates that he's far more rational than most Christians; and he raised major questions about the Bible; but he still believed in a benevolent God without explaining why he might have have allowed religions to commit so many atrocities in his name, with even worse to come after he died, including the Holocaust, which proved more than other incidents that believing absurdities can lead to atrocities.
Many are saying the same thing about Donald Trump; however, he never should have been put in office in the first place and wouldn't have if the media hadn't done such an incompetent job enabling establishment to rig nomination that also believes many absurdities.
Something insane is going on and switching from one absurdity to another without understanding how they're playing off each other may ensure that more atrocities might occur, although it's hard to know which version. There may be much more evidence to show that even though the History Channel is doing an incredibly bad job covering Ancient Aliens that there might still be something to it, with some of these blunders done to intentionally confuse the issue.
I'm not completely ruling out the possibility that this might all be related and began to put my own theory together in UFO Hypothesis with rational use of Occam's Razor; this is followed up with Is Stanton Friedman working for the CIA to refute reverse engineering claims? which explains what I call the "Recruit a Group of Crackpots" theory which may involve releasing an enormous amount of true information through unreliable sources and false information through sources that seem reliable. Since I wrote these the evidence to support this theory, instead of debunking it has grown significantly.
My most recent article on the subject was Is Falun Gong Partly Right About Aliens? which points out that there have been many scientific advances at a rapid pace and this even included organ transplants, which are often done without full consent as even the mainstream media has reported, although they do it in a manner that is so low profile that few people pay attention to it.
This isn't going to be simple to figure out but the establishment isn't even trying to cover this subject or many if any other subjects very well, so without major media and political reform the best discussion or peer review will be at the local level and at first it may get little or no attention, but in order to avoid replacing one cult with another coercion or intimidation to convince people to believe one explanation or another needs to be avoided.
The following are additional Bible verses or related articles that might be of interest:
Numbers 31:14 Moses was enraged with the officers of the army, the commanders of the thousands and commanders of the hundreds, who had come back from this military expedition. He said, 'Why have you spared the life of all the women?
They were the very ones who, on Balaam's advice, caused the Israelites to be unfaithful to Yahweh in the affair at Peor: hence the plague which struck Yahweh's community. So kill all the male children and kill all the women who have ever slept with a man; but spare the lives of the young girls who have never slept with a man, and keep them for yourselves.
Deuteronomy 15:1-6 'At the end of every seven years, you must grant remission. The nature of the remission is as follows: any creditor holding a personal pledge obtained from his fellow must release him from it; he must not exploit his fellow or his brother once the latter has appealed to Yahweh for remission.
A foreigner you may exploit, but you must remit whatever claim you have on your brother. There must, then, be no poor among you. For Yahweh will grant you his blessing in the country which Yahweh your God is giving you to possess as your heritage, only if you pay careful attention to the voice of Yahweh your God, by keeping and practising all these commandments which I am enjoining on you today.
If Yahweh your God blesses you as he has promised, you will be creditors to many nations but debtors to none; you will rule over many nations, and be ruled by none.
Matthew Chapter 5:17 'Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.
Matthew Chapter 6:3-4 But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
Matthew Chapter 7:15-20 'Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit. A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.
Matthew Chapter 10:21-2 'Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will come forward against their parents and have them put to death. You will be universally hated on account of my name; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Matthew Chapter 19:23-4 Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'In truth I tell you, it is hard for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.'
Luke Chapter 11:23 'Anyone who is not with me is against me; and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.
Luke Chapter 12:51-3 'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three; father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.'
Luke Chapter 14:26 'Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple.
Romans Chapter 3:29 Do you think God is the God only of the Jews, and not of gentiles too? Most certainly of gentiles too,
1 Kings Chapter 7:9-12 All these buildings were of special stones cut to measure, trimmed on the inner and outer sides with the saw, from the foundations to the coping- the foundations were of special stones, huge stones, of ten and eight cubits, 11 and, above these, special stones, cut to measure, and cedar wood- and, on the outside, the great court had three courses of dressed stone round it and one course of cedar beams; so also had the inner court of the Temple of Yahweh and the vestibule of the Temple.
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