Fairy Tales

[violatedsmurf80]

When we were kids we all dreamed to be like Spider man, Batman, even Iron man, but some of us grow up and decide that fairy tales are for kids and nothing in them could possibly be real. How is the bible any different? There are many tales in the bible that people believe to be real no matter how you show them it is not. The one in Ezekiel 1: 16-30, these verse talk about a creature that was not described but with wheels and flying wings, not to mention the creatures in glowing metal. It is so absurd that it isn't even able to paraphrase to send an idea.In Judges 19:22-30 there is a story about a man and his wife wondering the street, when they decide to seek shelter for the night, and find a man kind enough to let them stay. That night however, a group of men turn up at the door and demand to see the guest so that they may have sex with him. The owner is unwilling to let his male lodger be raped and so offers up his virgin daughter instead. However, this is still not good enough for the men, so the owner offers them his guest’s concubine and the men accept. The man brutally rapes her and left her on the door step. The make this even weirder the husband finds her and chops her up into 12 pieces and send them to the 12 tribes of Israel. I understand that Christian is nuts to talk to someone that does not talk back, but one story in, 1 Samuel 18:25-27 the babble talk about how David brought Saul some fore skins from back from the 200  Philistines that he killed.

 If we could not be Spiderman or Batman what makes people think that they could live with a GoD that allows so many different bibles, and so many different interpretations of the bible? When will these people grow up and understand the difference between a fairy tale and reality? My wife says that this verse was because women would of stop religion a long ago and is why they were not permitted to speak in church. 1Cor.14:34-35 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. To say what Madalyn Murray O'Hair said best, “Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea.”

[plethora]

Here's the major difference between growing out of a belief in Superman or Santa and starting to grow out of a belief in a god.

When the kid starts questioning the plausibility of the existence of Superman and Santa (along with their miraculous powers)...
the parents stop reinforcing these beliefs.

When a kid starts questioning the plausibility of the existence of god/jesus (along with their miraculous powers)...
the parents immediately take action to reinforce the belief.

It's that simple really.

[Add Homonym]

Santa doesn't send you to burn, if you don't believe in him. He may look like Satan, but the worst yule get is bad Coke burns.

[Mr. Blackwell]

When a kid starts questioning the plausibility of the existence of god/jesus (along with their miraculous powers)...
the parents immediately take action to reinforce the belief.

If you live in a fairly religious community then all the friends and other family members and school teachers and everyone the child comes into contact with become force multipliers.

 My eight year old daughter still thinks the tooth fairy is real despite the fact that I have suggested otherwise. Her argument is this "Cause why would you or mom put money under my pillow." She is selective about which fairy tale creatures she thinks are real vs. make believe. I haven't quite figured out the selective process for all of them. One day I'll help nudge her along the logical path to conclude that all unicorns, fairies, leprechauns, dragons, pokemon, easter bunnies, santan clauses are make believe. I'm just dropping hints at the moment to see if she picks it up on her own.

[violatedsmurf80]

Here's the major difference between growing out of a belief in Superman or Santa and starting to grow out of a belief in a god.

When the kid starts questioning the plausibility of the existence of Superman and Santa (along with their miraculous powers)...
the parents stop reinforcing these beliefs.

When a kid starts questioning the plausibility of the existence of god/jesus (along with their miraculous powers)...
the parents immediately take action to reinforce the belief.

It's that simple really.

it does seem a lot like operant conditioning behavior does seem very prevalent in the religious community, but it seems that when a child starts to think for themselves they would want to learn more about the bible and GoD, like my little girl, who is two, wanted to learn why when you put in a disk shaped item in the dvd player it plays her favorite movie. So she did not understand what i told her so she learn to work the dvd player her self. Maybe it just me that encourages them to think about why things work.

[velkyn]

it does seem a lot like operant conditioning behavior does seem very prevalent in the religious community, but it seems that when a child starts to think for themselves they would want to learn more about the bible and GoD,

they do.  and when asked, the authority figures give the usual answers we see here "we can't understand god", "Go knows best", etc.  And since the child trusts the parent for real verifiable reasons, this is often accepted as the "truth" and the child will quiet the questioning because its a heady thing to be told that you are the favored being of a deity that can do anything. 

 

[Babdah]

it does seem a lot like operant conditioning behavior does seem very prevalent in the religious community, but it seems that when a child starts to think for themselves they would want to learn more about the bible and GoD,

they do.  and when asked, the authority figures give the usual answers we see here "we can't understand god", "Go knows best", etc.  And since the child trusts the parent for real verifiable reasons, this is often accepted as the "truth" and the child will quiet the questioning because its a heady thing to be told that you are the favored being of a deity that can do anything.

I was always told to read the bible but when i question the bible i got told many different stories, even one that i have yet been relieved to me. I ask why haven't we found bones from David and Goliath i was told when i got older i would understand and god would revil it to me. So i am still waiting for the answer.

[Mr. Blackwell]

I was always told to read the bible but when i question the bible i got told many different stories, even one that i have yet been relieved to me. I ask why haven't we found bones from David and Goliath i was told when i got older i would understand and god would revil it to me. So i am still waiting for the answer.

I was just asking on, another thread, about where the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain are. Inquiring minds want to know.

[velkyn]

it does seem a lot like operant conditioning behavior does seem very prevalent in the religious community, but it seems that when a child starts to think for themselves they would want to learn more about the bible and GoD,

they do.  and when asked, the authority figures give the usual answers we see here "we can't understand god", "Go knows best", etc.  And since the child trusts the parent for real verifiable reasons, this is often accepted as the "truth" and the child will quiet the questioning because its a heady thing to be told that you are the favored being of a deity that can do anything.

I was always told to read the bible but when i question the bible i got told many different stories, even one that i have yet been relieved to me. I ask why haven't we found bones from David and Goliath i was told when i got older i would understand and god would revil it to me. So i am still waiting for the answer.

the answer is that there vanishing little chance that there is any god as the religions claim.  It is a story humans have conceived to tell themselves about the universe.  And that story was wrong.  Now, it's time to gird up and deal with the universe as it is, not as a child would desire it to be.