The following correspondence originally took place upon my Facebook wall, after an acquaintance shared a post from here…
“Internet Atheism: Free-Thinking in Action”
Stephen K.: Hi Rayn, I’m not trying to be offensive here. Maybe you have done a little bit too much of pattern recognition?
Science Wins God Loses: Which is more likely do you suppose? That ancient nomadic tribesmen invented their god (YHWY) in the exact same way that all other named gods throughout history were invented, or that an all-powerful inventor of the whole universe favors one earthly tribe over all other tribes?
I’m putting my money on ancient nomadic tribesmen invented their god, “YHWH” — same as all others. After all, it’s only logical that this is exactly what happened. Why can’t the other 3.5+ billion people on the planet see this very clear and distinct fact? Can 3.5+ billion people really be incapable of following such simple logic? Baffling.
-Brad
Stephen K.: Confirmation bias?
Rayn: I’m not offended, Stephen… just confused. I’m not sure why you decided to share this status post to my wall. So, just to be clear: I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, nor have I even so much as hinted “that an all-powerful inventor of the whole universe favors one earthly tribe over all other tribes.”
To begin, I passionately embrace Individual Sovereignty, so the collectivist idea of bloodline-based favoritism is absolutely repugnant to me in every way, imaginable. Besides this, I am not a member of any organized religion, whether “Christian,” “Muslim,” “Jewish,” “Buddhist,” “Hindu,” “the State,” or otherwise. Man-made laws, and stale, empty traditions have ZERO value and credence in my life.
I’d also like to point out that the position stated in the status post you shared here is not even supported by canonized Hebrew Scripture, anyway. According to the writings of the TaNaKh, it was ISRAEL that was referred to a “CHOSEN people” (not “favored”). And, yet, Israel was made up of the 12 TRIBES, not ONE! Meanwhile, the very thing that Israel was CHOSEN to do was to form a COVENANT (AKA, “voluntary contract”) with the Father of Creation, promising to KEEP HIS TORAH (“instruction”) – both in action, and in writing – as an example for the nations of the Earth.
It is also important to keep in mind that membership to any of the 12 tribes of Israel was never meant to be a purely blood-based affair. According to the TaNaKh, non-members could join one of the tribes, simply by agreeing to live by the above-mentioned covenant, while also being circumcised.
Any understanding of this arrangement that falls outside of the parameters I just described above is false, and likely comes either from uncritically reading one of the many English mistranslated versions of the Hebrew-written TaNaKh, or from uncritically listening to the teachings of someone else who has done so. If you’d like to learn about all of these things for yourself, try reading Scripture in the original Hebrew that it was written.
Ironically, the status post you have shared here originates from a page called, “Science Wins God Loses.” Well, how exactly does “science” somehow “win” in a situation where the most basic of background research was neglected in favor of a straw-man argument wrapped up in a loaded question? Sad…
