this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
127 points (97.0% liked)

Atheism

3992 readers
78 users here now

Community Guide


Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.


Statement of Purpose

Acceptable

Unacceptable

Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.

Inadvisable


Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.


If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.

Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.

 ~ /c/nostupidquestions

If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!


Connect with Atheists

Help and Support Links

Streaming Media

This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.

Orgs, Blogs, Zines

Mainstream

Bibliography

Start here...

...proceed here.

Proselytize Religion

From Reddit

As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
all 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

What were the bible writers tripping on. And I am being serious here. It clearly seems like they were tripping.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So the actual answer is that apocalyptic imagery is coded and not meant to be taken literally. It's the failing of modern Christians to understand this and correctly parse what's being discussed.

For instance, 666 is a reference to Nero, not some mythological figure at the end of human history.

Nearly everything evangelicals believe about "end times" is a failure to parse and understand their own texts.

[–] retrolasered 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

So what is 7 eyes and 7 horns code for

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I could look it up, but best guess from memory is:

Horns are related to power or authority. This is true of the apocalyptic imagery in Daniel as well. Seven is the number of completeness or totality. So combined they represent total and complete authority.

The eyes are almost certainly more direct and would represent complete and total knowledge.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

In portugal and brasil, you get a pair of horns when you get cheated on.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To be fair, not just a problem with modern Christians, if you read 'Daemonology' by James the 1st (of England, 6th of Scotland and the one who wrote/edited the King James bible version) he took it quite literally too.

I'm still not sure if it's a case of 'wilful ignorance' of the bits they don't like, or a 'Forest Gump' "stupid is as stupid does" - probably both, with a sprinkling of grifters thrown in.

it's available at Gutenberg.org if you're interested; it's, um, an interesting take...

He wrote it as a response to the "proliferation" of witches in England - so with no agenda at all! /s

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

You're correct that bad interpretations aren't strictly a modern problem. There are, however, problems with interpretation that are distinctly modern (as in the last 200'ish years of church history). Modern Christian eschatology, aka "end times theology", falls distinctly into those modern interpretation problems.

That isn't too say previous generations of church history had it on lock, they just had different factors screwing with the perspectives.

A lot of all these issues comes down to antisemitism, which has been a dominant factor for Christian theology for most of its post-Constantine history.

The goal with literary scholarship is always to understand the authorial worldview and intent, something many church writers explicitly rejected for millennia.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Brooo they could have discovered penicillin but instead they discovered the holy trinity

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Everybody knows that if you want to see "visions", you go to the isle of Patmos, eventually get hungry, and eat the mushrooms there.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (5 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There's 2 In front of the big curly ones, though they're hard to spit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

How much do goats usually spit?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Depends how much camel they have in them. I had a goat that was 1/7 camel and it still spit probably half a spittoon a day. Damn thing was accurate up to nearly 20 yards too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Well now I'm just glad I didn't fat finger shit

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

He has two baby horns doing the best they can

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Jesus, when the acid kicks in.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Jesus christ

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Well, hell yeah!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago