Again, you might not enjoy the story, you might not agree with it, but you only demonstrate that you've formulated opinions on a book you haven't really read
if you disagree thematically with the summary Ive given you. Giving you the cliffs notes is hardly making anything up.

I really have no motive but to share my heart about this book since prior to falling in love with it I was an addicted, destructive, hurtful, lost and empty person who now actually knows joy and peace and has not only an eternal hope but a temporal hope as well. I often wonder why intelligent people like yourself who have clearly established this book is a fraud think it's a valuable way to spend your time trying to point out to the lost folks like me who find it a necessity of life, that they are being decieved. Wouldnt all your intelligence lead you to realize that "hey this book is nonesense, but it is also the only hope some people have, so let them have it". The fact that you haven't taken the latter into account as you attempt to pronounce the Bible as worthless leads me to wonder just how little compassion you have in your heart for the lost and broken who exist no matter if the bible is real or not.

first of all I have a pretty decent understanding of the bible, I'm no scholar , but 8+ years of religious studies + 3 university courses on theology give me enough of information to came out with my own conclusions about this book. I do think you are being deceived. If this book and it's stories make you feel warm at night then good for you, but just because it makes you feel warm does not mean I should be quiet and also accept your claims as reality. I am free to point out the inconsistencies, contradictions in the bible. I am also free to criticize the immoral actions God supposedly does and asks his followers to do as described in the book. I am free to point out the lack of evidence by you theists who want to shove their story in my throat, slow down science and dictate others what to do and if not threaten them with eternal fires. I am happy I am no longer a Christian and don't have to feel afraid of angry god who supposedly is watching every second of my life and then wonder if i'll burn in hell because my parents told me that if i don't attend Sunday mass i'll be hanging out with all the evil people like Hitler and have a cactus shoved up my ass for eternity.. I got a lot compassion , and seeing others sh!i in their pants because they are afraid of religious scare tactics pisses me off.

and at the end.. why are you so afraid that someone is pointing out inconsistencies in your book? you're afraid that your beliefs can be shattered and proven to be one big delusion? if you are so sure that what you believe in is 100% true then what does it matter if people keep pointing fingers at your book and call it nonsense?

You know, I bet you will find fundamentalist Muslims who also will claim that their life without Quran would be meaningless and that is why they make a decision to strap a bomb to their body and kill few nonbelievers so that they could hang out with their GOD for eternity. Do you accept their decisions as good because that's what makes them warm at night?

I dont know how you could arrive at any sort of interpritation with your religous and theological education which you say gives you a "decent understanding" that includes an angry God who you have to fear is going to send you to hell because you didnt go to sunday mass. The bible pretty simply wipes out that fear in a quick 2 minute study. Anyone who can quote obscure verses from the OT should be able to explain at least theoretically why fears that you have about being sent to hell for the reasons your parents told you are completely outrageously wrong. You cant tell me you actually think THAT is the message of the Bible that all of us have fallen for? It seems that your thoughts and hatred toward the God in the Bible have far more to do with your feelings about your parents and the way they taught you about God than anything actually in the Bible.

Im assuming you were raised a Catholic? I dont know anyone who has remained a Christian who actually has a pants crapping fear of their religion, its typically people who have a twisted understanding based on their childhood and not one based on whats in the Bible who hate Christians and Christianity for spreading that sort of fear. I dont have that fear, i dont know anyone that propigates it, and I hate the idea of anyone distorting the truth to make people think you have to fear Him.

This is a very fair reason to point out inconsistancies that you see and to voice your opinion against it. Ill accept that.

I just dont see though, since clearly Christians arent walking around blowing people up, why you wouldnt spend more time speaking out against Muslims extremists who dont just scare people but kill them.

All Christians could possibly do is annoy you, i mean they threaten a Hell that doesnt exist where is the harm? Why not spend your time saving people from Muslims?

Sometimes they blow up abortion clinics and the people in them for Yahweh.

Agreed that happens.

Sometimes they tell people who they can marry within the confines of civic law.

I just wanted to point this out and say I am not surprised, which isn't a personal attack against you, but just to say that the most devout amongst christians tend to be those with less education and less interested in learning about how the universe works. I therefore think its unfair of you to put forth that you think those of us questioning the bible have not read it or attempted to understand it. I would put a bet out here that the majority of the atheists on this board HAVE read the bible, some multiple times, and have put more time into studying its mesages than most christians.

I know I personally have participated in theology classes and read the bible because the question of WHY people believe some of the crazy **** they believe is very interesting to me, and can be important in our future when it comes to preventing those types of people from trying to discourage scientific advancement.

After reading the old testament one can arrive at plenty of conclusions , and especially that GOD is a murderous dictator.. If God is a murderous dictator then worshiping him to me is pretty ridiculous... Why would I want to worship a being who has trouble designing the world in such way to avoid problems, and when these problems show up, instead of fixing them with his magical powers he uses violence and destruction(either doing it himself or asks Israelites to do it). It's a pretty silly excuse for you to claim that all that GOD was doing was cleaning up the earth for the future generations. I bet even you will be able to think of a better way of converting a bad man into a good man. Slashing their throats , burning their villages and killing their wives and children is definitely doing the same thing you are trying to eradicate..

Christians are not as guilt free as you think. History shows that plenty of people died from a Christian hand who claimed to be doing this in the name of GOD. In some countries(especially Africa) you will find that Christians jail(up to 10 years)other Christians for witchcraft, and the punishment is obviously ridiculous since no one has ever proved for witchcraft to be real. What about the indoctrination of children and impregnating them with fears. Fears of going to hell, fears of not belonging to the society, fears of losing family due to the differences in beliefs, etc.. Why should people suffer due to the extraordinary claims one makes yet has no proof of them?

I love all you new posters who have no idea how crazy Splendour is. It's very amusing.

What's the expiry date on the NT?