Wednesday, September 30, 2015

An Outline Of The Answer To Question (17) Of The " 100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible " By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Re-Citing Question (17):
====================================
" God made Eve from Adam's rib ?  Are you ribbing me ?  "

It seems to Stephen Miller that the experts of the Bible do not know bow to explain what has been written in the Bible about making Eve from Adam's rib. To emphasize the the point,, Miller refers to the following quotation from the Bible:

" The Lord God took out one of man.s rib and closed up the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God formed a woman from the rib he had taken from the man "  "( Genesis 2:21-22 )."

Although attempts were made in order to find an acceptable explanation to ( Genesis 2:21-22 ), none of them really provided a satisfying answer. The following theories have been proposed by some of the experts of the Bible:

Theory One: " It's a pun "
======================================
It is a pun-joke, since the word "rib" is taken from a Sumerian language story about a Sumerian god whose name was Enki. It had happened that Enki " had an injured rib. " The story goes on to say that a Sumerian "goddess created a healer called " the lady of the rib, ", or " the lady who makes alive. " What this means is this: It can mean a " rib, " or "to make alive. "  Hence, it is considered by some Bible experts as " a pun ", a joke.

Based upon the Sumerian story as outlined in the foregoing, Stephen Miller says that was why the Bible writer talked initially about the " rib " and later on said: " Eve Became the mother of every living person " " ( Genesis 3:20 ). ".
       .
Theory Two: " It's a handful of flesh and bone "
======================================
This theory says that  "God did not make Eve from just a bone from Adam, but a fistful of flesh and bone. " And this theory relies on what the Adam describes Eve, in the Bible as, " Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh "  " ( Genesis 2:23 ). ".

Theory Three: " It's poetry "
======================================
Some Bible scholars wrote the following prose which sounds like poetry, about the creation of Eve
:
" Eve did not come from Adam's feet to walk on. "
" She did not come from his head to top him. "
" She came from his side to be equal, from under his arm
    to enjoy his protection, from near his heart to experience his love. "

Theory Four: " It's history "
======================================
Some Christians, and Miller says that " perhaps most, say they read the story as history. They argue that there's no reason not to. "

Final Words:
======================================
NO COMMENT. Please reach your own conclusions.

END..

  


Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Quotations From The Answer To Question (16) of The " 100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible " By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Reciting Question (16):
===================================
" If Joshua stopped the sun and moon with his battlefield prayer, as the BibLe says he did, that would have halted the 1070 mph ( miles per hour ) rotation of the earth. So why didn't everyone get whiplash ? "

The answer given to the above question is not easy to outline. Perhaps, one way to overcome such an encounter is to present selected quotations from the answer and present them to the reader as simple as possible, concerning the rotation of the earth around itself, and the 12 months journey the earth travels around the sun to provide its inhabitants with the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Seasons, respectively. Scientists in physics and astronomy call it " The Earth Rotations " . The plural form in the word " Rotations " is due to the fact that the earth has two forms of  "Rotation ": One Rotation around the sun and Another Rotation around itself. The rotation around the sun is completed in 12 months while the rotation around itself is completed in 2 hours. . Hence, the following quotations may just convey to the reader the correct idea about the content of the answer, as provided by Stephen Miller:

Quotation One:
==================================
" If ever there was a prayer request more ambitious than those of Jesus-who instantly stopped storms and raised the dead-this it : " Sun, stand still over Gibron, and moon, stand still over the valley of Aijalon "  "( Joshua 10:12 )."

Quotation Two:
=================================
" Go ahead, tell the sun to chill.
That 's what the Bible writer says Joshua did.
The result: The sun stopped in the middle of the sky, and for nearly a day the sun was in no hurry to set "  " ( Joshua 10:13 ). "

Quotation Three:
================================
" Plenty of Christians insist that stopping the sun and moon in the sky would have been no big dealfor the Creator of the universe. So they take the story literally. Many Bible experts say that's probably the way the writer ( Bible writer) intended us to read it. "

Quotation Four:
==============================
" Other Christians raise a few questions from physics class:

* Wasn't it the earth's rotation that would have needed to stop, since that's what produces the illusion of the sun moving ?

* How would the earth sudden stop affect the gravity ?

* What about the atmosphere that rotates with the earth ?  Its momentum would keep it moving at a thousand miles an hour( 1600 km / h  ), creating a wind powerful enoughto sweep the planet clean. "

Quotation Five:
=============================
" Christians who suspect that God worked within the laws of physics that he created look for other ways of understanding what happened. "

Quotation Six:
============================
" Eclips. One theory says the story grew out of a solar eclipse. And , apparently got exaggerated. Solar eclipses do not last all day. "

II can go on and on provide the reader with more quotations from Miller's answer, but the I feel that the above six quotations are enough to serve the purpose of providing a correct idea about Miller's answer to the reader.

Final Words:
===========================
It seems to me that anyone with the fundamental knowledge about the fixed position of the sun and the rotations of the earth around itself and around the sun can only  see the crux of Miller question and the answer he has given. However, Christians' belief must be respected, in spite od all the evidences that contradict what has been written in the Bible. It is their prerogative to adhere firmly to their religious belief.

END.
             

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

The Essence Of The Answer To question (15) Of The " 100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible." By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Re-Citing Question (15):
======================================
" God's Law said that if a jealous husband merely suspected his wife of having an affair, he could force her into a trial by ordeal. That's what God calls justice ? "

The Essence of Stephen Miller's Answer:
=====================================
There is a great deal of injustice in this issue because if the husband is suspected of having an affair with another woman, he does not have to endure what the wife has to endure if she is suspected of having an affair with another man. That is the essence of the whole issue. And I am not prepared to go through the entire ordeal the suspected wife has to go through in a cross examination conducted by a priest.

If anyone is interested in the details of the cross examination and the accompanied religious practices perform by the priest can read them in the following sections of the Bible, exactly as given by Miller, as points of references to the trial by ordeal the suspected wife has to go through.:

" ( Numbers 5:14 ) " of the Bible.

                And

" ( Numbers :17-24 ) " of the Bible.


Final Words:
==================================
The detailed religious methodology which the suspected wife of adultery she has to go through, is so degrading to the wife's humanity as a human being. I totally and completely reject it. And indeed, such a religious practices do not belong to the norms, mores and morality of the Twenty First Century.

Any wife who accepts to be degraded by such a religious methodology, then she deserves to be degraded. .  

Sunday, September 20, 2015

A Summary Of The Answer To Question (14) Of The " 100 Tough Questions about The God And The Bible " By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Re-citing Question (14)
================================================
" Inconsistency Alert: John 118 ( jn the Bible) says, " No one has ever seen God," but that's not what other Bible writers say. "

Summary From The Answer Given By Stephen Miller:
================================================
(1) " Jacob Saw God. Proofs ", As stated in Genesis of the Bible, the following clues as provided by Miller, are the proofs:
" Clue 1:.I have seen God face to face, but my life was saved " " ( Genesis 32:30 ). "
" Clue 2.:Jacob named the place Peniel, Hebrew for" Face of God " " ( Genesis 32:30 ). "                   " Clue 3. The mystery man (God) gave Jacob a new name: Israel, which means" He Struggles with       God " " ( Genesis 32:28 ). "

(2) " Seventy Jews saw God ", The proofs are the following quotes provided by Miller, from Exodus of the Bible:
~ " Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and 70 of Israel 's leader. They saw the God of Israel "( Exodus 24:9-10 ). "
" Under his feet ( God's feet ) was something like a pavement made out of sapphire " " Exodus 24:10 ). "
~ " Some Bible experts say that sounds a bit like the short version of a vision the prophet Ezekiel would report seeing a thousand years later. He saw..."

" ...a throne made of sapphire. On the throne was a figure that looked like human. Then I saw what he looked like from the waist up. He looked like a glowing bronze with fire all around it. From the waist down, he looked like fire.A bright light surrounded him. The brightness all around him looked like a rain bow in the clounds. It was like the Lord's glory. "
                                                                              " Ezekiel 1:26-28 "

Final Words:
==============================================
NO COMMENTS.

END.

.:

      

Friday, September 18, 2015

Quoting Part Of The Answer To Question (13) Of The "100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible " By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Reciting Question (13)
==================================
" To seal the partnership contract between God and Abraham, God told Abraham to circumcise himself. How is cutting on the dotted line anything like signing on the dotted line ? "

 [ Note: With the exclusion of the content of the Final Words, at the very end of this essay, the writer of this particular blog, ( Sodium ), wishes to restrict his job, here, to quoting only what Stephen Miller has given, as an answer to the above question, question (13) ]:

Stephen Miller says that " God made an agreement with Abraham." And Miller has stated that the agreement comprised two parts:

~ " Abraham's part of the deal: "
=================================
* Live in my presence with dignity " " ( Genesis 17:1)."
* You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility...You must cut off the flesh of your foreskinas a sign of the covenant between me and you. From generation to generation, every male child must be circumcised on the eighth day of his birth " " (Genesis 17:9, 11-12 NLT). "

~ " God's part of the deal:"
=================================
* You will become the father of many nations. "  " (Genesis 17: ). "
* I will give you many descendants. Many nations and kings will come from you " " (Genesis 17:6). "
* I am also giving this land where you are living-all the of Canaan-to you and your descendantsas your permanent possession. And I will be your God " " (Genesis 17:8). "

Then, Stephen Miller has made the following statements:" It's anyone's guess why God decided on circumcision a a way to remind the Jews that they had a contract with him. Bible writers seldom explain why God does what he does-presumably because they do not know.

Final Words:
===============================
After reading the whole answer given by Miller to question (13), I have found mysrlf compelled to make the following two comments:

Comment One: I simply do not believe that the Almighty God could only find Abraham's private part, meaning Abraham's penis, as the instrument to establish a contract with Abraham. No way.

Comment Two: Who ever wrote in the Bible, (Old Testament's part of the Bible), that God,had given lands, including the land of Canaan to Abraham, whether intentionally or unintentionally, had actually made the Almighty God a mere real estate agent. Ridiculous.

END..     

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

The Essential Points In the Answer to Question (12) Of the " 100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible " By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Re-Citing Question (12):
=======================================
" Why do most Christians believe there was a global flood in the time of Noah when most geologists say otherwise ? "

The Essential Points In Stephen Miller's Answer:
=======================================
~ Not all Christians believe in the global flood.
~ Those Christians who do not believe in the global flood believe in a local flood that took place in the Fertile Crescent Region  which really meant the Middle East, including the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq.
~ But most Christians believe in the global flood exactly as described in the Bible. They cite the following reasons for adhering firmly to their belief:

(A) They say: " where do you see a regional flood in a passage this ? " The water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, rising more than twenty two feet above the highest peaks.....God wiped everything on the earth." Genesis 7:19, 23 NLT.

(B) They say:: " Flood stories you can find them all over the world, woven into the history                   of at least seventy centuries from one side of the planet to the other, including that of the                     American Indians, China, the South Pacific, and Ireland. "

(C) They say " Greek and Roman children grew up listening to the story of Deucalion and                   Pyrrha, a couple who saved their children and assortment of animals from a flood by herding               them all into big boat shaped like a box. "

 (D) They say: " Middle Eastern kids, in what is now Iraq heard a similar story. In the Epi of                 Gilgamesh, a man named Utnapishtim (call him (U-Guy) saved his family in much the same               way Noah did. He built a boat, waterproofed it with tar, loaded it with family and animals,                   survived the flood, and even released a dove as Noah didto make sure the water had receded               enough to disembark. "
       
~ The essential points raised by those people who do not believe in the global flood can be summed up as follows:

(E) "If God created plants on day three, how did they survive without the sun, which God did              not create until day four?"

(F) "Why should we interpret the six days of creation as six twenty-four-hours days when God           did not make the sun and moon-our tools for measuring twenty-four-hour days-until day four?"

(G) "What's wrong with interpreting the "days" of creation as long stretches of time when other           Bible writers say that " one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are           like one day ( 2 Peter 3:;8, see also Psalm 90:)?"
       
Final Words:
=======================================
Near the end of his pro and con argument about the global flood, as described in the Bible, Stephen Miller has made the following statement: " On the flip side, Christians defending the Bible's literal history of creation say that questions like these ( E, F, and G ) underestimate the power of God." With such a dogmatic view, one cannot really caries on the discussion any further, but it is good to know how each of the two groups thinks with regard to the Biblical global flood.

And lastly, I personally cannot ignore the scientific facts which  say that the earth is 2.5 billion year old and the universe's age is 14 billion year old. Incredible numbers !! And way before Noah's time.
                               

Sunday, September 13, 2015

A Brief Summary of the Answer to Question (11) of the "100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible" by Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Re-Citing Question (11)::
===========================
" Given what we know today from science, why do so many Christians say the universe was created in six days, a few thousand years ago? "

Stephen Miller's answer, to the above question, can briefly be summed up into the following points

(1) Stephen Miller says that " two out of three churchgoing folks seem to believe in just that that ", meaning that the universe was created in just " six days, a few thousand years ago. "
(2) A Gallup poll that was taken in 2012 said that 46 percent of Americans believed also as the churchgoing Christians do. "
(3) Based on the two statistical facts above as points (1) and (2), respectively, Miller has encountered both points with the following statement, and I quote it exactly as it is written, as a part of his answer: " That leaves many thinking souls wondering whatever happened to science classes. "
(4) On the other hand, some churchgoers, as well as Jews, have applied their own scientific approach-calling it " creation science " which basically says that the Genesis section of the Bible is the history of creation as revealed by God Himself. And hence, their scientific evidences are totally different from Miller's evidences which says that " the earth is 2.5 billion years old, and the universe is about 1 billion years old ", and not six days. You have read it correctly, meaning, the numbers given are in billions, not millions.
(5) Some of the scientific evidences Miller has stated have to do with what the geological evidences say. No need to burden the reader with it. here. Anyone who is interested in such details, should get a copy of Miller's book and read it from cover to cover.
(6) Miller has questioned the creation of earth in six days and he does so with basic science and he has accompanied his basic science with an additional tough scientific question concerning the validity of what was created in each day of the six days of the creation, as described in the Genesis of the Bible.
(7) Since Miller has attempted to be as objective as he possibly could,, he made the following statement, at about the end of his challenging questions concerning the Biblical creation of the universe in six days: " On the flip side, Christians defending the Bible's literal history of creation say that questions like these underestimate the power of God. " What he has implicitly  meant by offering such a statement is this  when Christians inject the power of God in such a manner, one cannot possibly continue the discussion endlessly, because such a discussion will lead no where.  

Final Words:
===========================
As it can be seen from point (1) through point (7), the disagreement between the advocates of the six days of creation of the universe and the non-advocates of such Biblical creation is so huge, I refrain from telling you what I really believe in, and thus leaving it to each reader to reach his or her own conclusion, concerning the entire human differences in the belief of creation of Mother Earth and the Universe.

END.   

Sunday, September 6, 2015

An Outline of the Answer to Question (10) of the " 100 Tough Questions about God And The Bible " By Stephen M. Miller.


By Sodium

Reciting Question (10):
===========================
" If Jesus was so great, you w'd think Roman or Jewish history writers of his own time would have written about him. Did they ? "

Some of the Answer Provided By Stephen Miller:
=================================================
At the outset, as one reads the question raised by Miller, one may get the impression that Stephen Miller will provide an answer that may prove that none of the Roman or Jewish historians of Jesus' own time, outside the realm of the narrative in the Bible, have ever written anything about him. That was exactly what the writer of this essay had gotten the impression from the way the question had implied. On the contrary, Miller has presented historical evidences written by Jewish and Roman historians, proving that Jesus was not a myth, as one may read in the very ancient Greek mythology, such as the " Greek god Zeus or heroes such as Hercules and Achilles." The following two quotations taken from Miller's answer may make the answer provided by Miller clearer:

Quotation One:
=========================:
" Disciples say he rose again

       There was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good....
       Pilate condemned him to be crucified.... His disciples did not give up their loyalty to him. They          reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. "
                                       By " Josephus (about Ad 37-101), Antiquities of the Jews. "
Miller says " that's the most famous reference to Jesus outside the Bible. The writer, Josephus, was born just a few years after Jesus died. "

Quotation Two:
=========================
" Pilate executed Christ

       Christ suffered the ultimate penalty at the hands of procurator Pontius Pilate when Tiberius was          emperor of Rome. "
                                     By " Tacitus (about AD 56-120), Annals of Imperial Rome"

Miller states that " Tacitus was a Roman official, a respected public speaker, and one of Rome's greatest historians. Annals is a multivolume history of Rome covering more than half a century from AD 14-68, spanning the reign of emperors Tiberius to Nero."

Final Words:
========================
Those who have thought that Stephen Miller is anti-Christ and anti-Christianity may have to think again and reconsider.

END.
 .  


Friday, September 4, 2015

Big, Hearty Salute and Admiration to Sudan and its Great People.


By Sodium

I have just finished watching, on the Internet, an Al-Jazeera program called " Al-Waqi Al-Arabi, " anchored by Jalal Shahda who had interviewed  Muhammad Sabra, President of Al-Hisb Al-Jumhori  Al-Suri and the Sudanese official in charge of welcoming some of the Syrians civilians who fled the daily slaughters that had been going in Syria for the last four plus years. What I have understood from the interview are the following most admired action taking by the government and people of Sudan:

(1) Sudan has welcomed the Syrian civilians, fleeing from the war agony in Syria, not as refugees, but as guests and as citizens.
(2) Syrians who seek entry to Sudan needs no visa to enter  They are most welcome without restriction of entry visa.
(3) In spite of all the economic difficulties which Sudan faces these days, all the right of the Sudanese citizens entitled to the Syrians guests are entitled to also. That means;
          (A) Free medical care.
          (B) Free education from kinder garden, through elementary and high schools, and finally                           through university as well.
         (C) Syrians can seek employment in the Sudanese government as well as in the private sectors.
         (D) Some Syrians have already and successfully started their mid-size and small business in                        Sudan.
         (E) Because of the shortage of enough housing to all Syrians, many Sudanese families have                       welcomed some of the Syrians into their homes, until some housings found for them to                         settle in permanently.
(4) The number of Syrians who have already settled in Sudan is approximately one hundred thousand, (100,000 ).

Based upon the forgoing information, as outlined above, the title of this essay is certainly in order, meaning: " Big Hearty Salute and Admiration  to Sudan and its Great People."

Final Words:
===================
A question: Could not have the vast majority of the Arab counties done what Sudan and the people of Sudan have already done for the fleeing Syrians from the agony of destruction and war in Syria, instead of fleeing to Europe, by the boats of death ?   Just a question.