Science & Critical Thinking Published in Sunday Times 17th April 2011

Understanding the Rationalizations of the ‘Believers’

Adapted from http://godisimaginary.com

Quotation: Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
Isaac Asimov

There are passages in the Bible indicating that God condoned slavery. To critical thinkers this presents a quandary. If the words of God are immutable why do Christians and Jews no longer follow all? Many argue that God had to "fit in" with the dominant culture. No! In Christian mythology, God is the one who created humans and human culture. We should all agree that a God that condones the beating of slaves and the enslavement of children is an abomination.

Believer say, "Those verses are from the Old Testament and no longer apply because of Jesus."  But that is not so. Jesus states that the laws of the Old Testament still stand. Matthew 5:18:

For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

According to Jesus, the Old Testament is alive and well. According to Isaiah 40:8, "the word of our God stands forever." The notion that these Old Testament verses no longer apply is completely untrue according to the Bible. Christians imagine that they "no longer apply" as a way of rationalizing their religion.

Others rationalize that God did not write these slavery passages in the Bible. The Bible was corrupted by slave-loving men. Then the obvious question to ask is: If the Bible has been corrupted, how can we know which parts of the Bible came from God and which parts were inserted by men? You have no way to know.

Thinking about the Bible in this way you will understand something very important about the Bible. Either the entire Bible really is God's Word, or the entire Bible was written by men with no input from God:

If part of the Bible came from God and part from men, which part is which? You do not know if Jesus resurrected, or if that's just a make-believe story inserted by men. How do you know whether God wrote the Ten Commandments or not? If any part of the Bible has been polluted by men, you have to reject the whole thing.

There is no middle ground. The Bible has to be an all-or-nothing book. Either the entire Bible came from God, or none of it did.

You must now see that there are only two possible explanations for slavery passages in the Bible:

• The Bible is right. God condones slavery. The Bible is God's word. Slavery passages must be God's word too. The laws of the modern nations that make slavery illegal defy God's word.
• The Bible condones slavery because the Bible was written by slave-owning men, not by God. God is imaginary.

Maybe you have a problem with the first explanation. Surely God would not champion the abomination that is slavery!

Therefore, what you are left with is the second explanation.

A GOOD WEEK FOR ASH IN THE LOCAL PRESS

WITCHCRAFT APPEAL FOR COMPENSATION/CHALLENGE TO WITCHDOCTORS

Publicity seeker George Thindwa does it again by making sure that the press are fully informed of ASH's developments and activities. The Malawi News of 2nd April reported that ASH was assisting the 'witch' recently freed on appeal to sue the government for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. They also reported  that ASH would be seeking to obtain compensation for all such cases.
Additionally, the newspaper reported that ASH's open challenge to witchdoctors (asing'anga) to demonstrate their powers on him is yet to produce a challenger even thouigh the cash prize has been raised to K 500, 000 ($3,500) - a large sum in Malawi where the annual GDP per person is less than US150!


BIBLE DISCREPANCIES AND THE QUESTION OF FAITH

On 3rd April 2011, the Sunday Times in its regular and light-hearted 'Paparazzi' column highlighted the discrepancies in both the Old and New Testaments. Tongue-in-cheek, the columnist proclaimed himself to be a believer whilst highlighting the problems gaced by believers.
This is the first ocasion on which we have noted any public challenge to biblical authority in the local press. We surmise that the close relationship with the reporting and editorial staff of this newspaper group is helping to widen the debate.

ASH's HAROLD WILLIAMS CHALLENGES FACEBOOK 'FRIENDS'

 As an indication of what ASH in Malawi has to contend with here are samples of the material being posted on Facebook by some of Harold's new-found friends:

Benson Nkhoma Somba Your unbelief exposes your emerse lack of knowledge on christian faith. its easy to mock God when u still have life. by the way who provides the air u breath? that little unbelieving heart of yours who sustains it? know that there is no repetance after death! 'The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness: but is longsufferng to us-ward, not willing that all should perish, but that all should come to repentance' 2 Peter 3:9Saturday at 18:33 ·

Felix Millowa Drama Conservatory A person needs divine revelation to know God. But one must be extra careful: Lucifer does provide revelation too, a contrast and adversary of God's commandment of love. It is a revelation based on greed and personal aggrandizement. With Lucifer's revelation, anything about God is inconclusive and arguable.

Enough said!

SCIENCE & CRITICAL THINKING,

USEFUl KNOWLEDGE 
by Harold Williams
Published in Sunday Times (Malawi) March 6th, 2011

Quote:

As people become more intelligent they care less for preachers and more for teachers.

Robert G. Ingersoll

Most of us will have learnt at school that scientific knowledge is the result of investigation, scrutiny and testing. We had the opportunity at school to test some of this knowledge by way of experimentation. We learnt that each successful experiment can be replicated time and again without any difference in outcome.

We cannot expect to put to the test all of the knowledge which we receive. We learnt that our ‘authorities’ – well-qualified teachers – and our reference books are so trustworthy that we could unquestioningly put the knowledge to practical use.

I learnt that water boils at different temperatures depending upon atmospheric pressure which varies with altitude. At sea level water boils at 100 Degrees Celsius. On Sapitwa, the summit of Mulanje Mountain at 3000 metres above sea level, water boils at 89.947C. Food cooked in boiling water will cook faster at higher temperatures. When I bought a pressure cooker I knew that the build up of pressure in the sealed pot would result in a higher cooking temperature. The pressure in these cookers is 1.03 bar (1 bar being the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level) and cooking temperature is 120C. Repeatability and reliability is my daily proof of useful knowledge that takes the mystery out of my kitchen.  

At the time of our regular schooling we are exposed to another sort of ‘education’ at the hands of different ‘authorities’ – religious leaders and instructors. These ‘specialists’ ride on the back of the trust that we built up in other ‘authorities’ such as our parents and secular teachers. The so-called ‘knowledge’ that religion imparts comes from revelation and ‘sacred’, unchallengeable texts such as the Bible or the Quran. Whereas our secular teachers demonstrated tests for the accuracy and reliability of the knowledge which they were imparting, our religious teachers discouraged any questioning or testing. You cannot remove mystery, the inexplicable, from the mystery that is religion. Without ‘mystery’ there can be no religion. Religious ‘knowledge’ is myth and superstition with no useful application - the enemy of scientific enquiry.

In my childhood I was exposed to many religious superstitions. Children who died before being baptised went to a place called Limbo, denied the everlasting bliss of Heaven. Limbo has now been outlawed by the same clerical ‘authority’. Was it there previously or was it never there? Have all those poor children now gone to Heaven? What of Purgatory? What of Hell? And what of that little personal Guardian Angel who sat by my shoulder telling me what was right and wrong, helping me to fend off Satan’s temptations? What tests do we have for such beliefs? How reliable are our ‘sacred’ texts? How much of this ‘knowledge’ can we trust? What test of the ‘power of prayer’?

And of what use are such beliefs except to give churchmen power over us?

Honestly, now!