governments control christians.. ruling bodies set by god himself!

[Goon]

http://biblehub.com/romans/13-1.htm

i wonder how christians keep going.. the bullshittery of their book never ends.

[drunkenshoe]

This is not something new. It's the original bullshit. They live in a 'monarchy' and being honest with it. Queen of England thinks the same thing. That god placed her there.

[Solitary]

Doesn't it sound just like what any tyrant would say, like Hitler? I can't believe we in the United States make a big deal out of royalty in England when they were a enemy at one time because they were imperialist with a Church of England agenda. Just think if they still had power what it would be like. Why should anyone be looked up to just for being born into royalty?  Stupid!

[stromboli]

Wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't dictated by Constantine himself. Probably a concept understood and used all the way back before the Egyptian dynasties.

[Mike Cl]

Wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't dictated by Constantine himself. Probably a concept understood and used all the way back before the Egyptian dynasties.

I do think this is one of the most ancient of ideas used by rulers even prior to writing.  Neat and convenient.  I'm in control because God set it up that way or I would not be in charge.

[stromboli]

I do think this is one of the most ancient of ideas used by rulers even prior to writing.  Neat and convenient.  I'm in control because God set it up that way or I would not be in charge.

no question the Pharaonic rulers of Egypt set themselves up as gods, and they got the idea from somewhere. I think if you did a really thorough study of religion- there are probably books on this I haven't seen- an early religion came up with a set of ideas that worked as a way to control their populace and put themselves in power, and other later cultures borrowed and expanded on the same ideas. Certainly we know the borrowed mythologies that became attached to Jesus, no reason other ideas didn't come with that as well.

[Mike Cl]

no question the Pharaonic rulers of Egypt set themselves up as gods, and they got the idea from somewhere. I think if you did a really thorough study of religion- there are probably books on this I haven't seen- an early religion came up with a set of ideas that worked as a way to control their populace and put themselves in power, and other later cultures borrowed and expanded on the same ideas. Certainly we know the borrowed mythologies that became attached to Jesus, no reason other ideas didn't come with that as well.

Yeah, that makes a great deal of sense.  I have a little pet idea about how it could have started.  I imagine in any very early group, the biggest, strongest male pretty much got what he wanted.  And I can just see the local, caveman geek brooding over in a corner thinking things over.  He knew he could not control the big guy.  But what caused the sun to rise or set?  Rain? Fire? Thunder? Clouds?--Well, just about any of those odd things that happen--or didn't happen.  Could it be something in the sky, something unseen and maybe he could figure out what.  And so he became the first shaman or priest and took some of the big guy's power for himself.  And so there came to be two centers of power--might and religion.  And the two have been the best of friends ever since.

[1liesalot]

Doesn't it sound just like what any tyrant would say, like Hitler? I can't believe we in the United States make a big deal out of royalty in England when they were a enemy at one time because they were imperialist with a Church of England agenda. Just think if they still had power what it would be like. Why should anyone be looked up to just for being born into royalty?  Stupid!

Speaking as a very anti royal British citizen. I am incline to agree with all of that. There are more of us anti-monarchists over here than the media likes to admit. They are a decidedly sub average but ruthless dynasty and centuries of interbreeding has not helped.

[1liesalot]

And speaking of the Bad Book, someone referred me to the following examples of yet more bat shittery.

When the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. [Numbers 11:1, King James]

And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. [Numbers 21:5-6, New American Standard] 

[God says:] I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives. [Jeremiah 19:9, New International]

And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel. [Numbers 25:4, King James]

Following more complaints about starvation. God also forced his chosen people to eat quail until it came out of their noses ... again, this was literally. On another occasion, He told them He had a mind (as a punishment for some minor offence) to FORCE "daughters to sleep with their fathers; brothers with their sisters and mothers with their sons".

In yet another instance, God made someone eat shit every day for a week or something. Literally eat shit.

This biblical sky God is one sick puppy. There isn't a fetish or perversion he doesn't indulge himself in. We have Cannibalism; incest, scatology and endless murder sprees. There's even a snake fetish thrown in for good measure. And I wonder sometimes if  a spot of necrophilia is being contemplated once the Second Coming and the Rapture are out of the way and the corpses are taken from their earthly tombs and hoovered up to heaven with the rest of the righteous.

How can you get down on your knees and pray to a monstrous shit head like that? I would love for any believer  to address these things and say why it's okay to worship this heavenly idiot of the scriptures and why, in fact, would they want anything to do with a peddler of horrible, pornographic, hate-spewing bullshit. Satan is redundant, ffs. God can run the whole evil crap shoot by Himself.

And there's nothing to be done for it despite all the apologists because you simply can't polish a turd.

Somebody praise Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus

[Baruch]

Comparative Bronze Age ... though actually the OT is an Iron Age fictional account of the Bronze Age.  You have to read the Babylonian/Sumerian originals to really get this.  Originally the gods of Mesopotamia were a bunch of entitled layabouts ... who created mankind to till the fields and mind the orchards and flock for the gods.  The authority of the gods first came down from Heaven to Earth ... in the early Sumerian period ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu ... look at the recreation of the port facility.  These people are the Marsh Arabs of today in S Iraq ... that Saddam almost exterminated.  Before the Iraq/Iran war ... they still built read houses and reed boats the same as in the old days.  Anyway, the humans created too much noise and the gods couldn't get any sleep ... this is why the gods tried to destroy humanity ;-)

This is the founding of a city aka organized crime unit.  Though they had a lot of synergy, because it combined fishing, farming and animal husbandry.  The king of the place, like Gilgamesh in slightly later nearby Uruk ... would claim that his mother (representing sovereignty) was a goddess.  Most momma boys feel this way ;-))  In ancient Ireland, and under many British queens ... this same principle operated ... the queen represented the land and the people.  What we call the legislature today.  The king's job has been split between executive and judiciary.  The city is still parasitic on the countryside and seas ... and now that the US is 95% urban, we have reached peak urban gangs.  In the US we have a "civic religion" that substitutes for a uniform "established" church.

In some respects, though there are some older throwbacks ... the OT is pretty good Iron Age legislation ... complete with kosher hygiene.  The Canaanites and their predecessors were even more primitive ... infant sacrifice anyone?  Oh ... we still do that, don't we ;-(

[KingJ]

http://biblehub.com/romans/13-1.htm

i wonder how christians keep going.. the bullshittery of their book never ends.

Well why look at them. Lets just look at the devil. We can see it one of two ways.

1. God really did trust him and promoted him.
2. God did not trust him and promoted him expecting him to fall.

Now the first seems the most obvious when we consider God is omnisicient. But we simply fail in looking beyond our noses. God is incapable of evil. There is no darkness in God at all 1 John 1:5. Our human minds do battle with this. But our inability to fully grasp God does not make God guilty when the evidence points to God having honest and best expectations. God appointed the devil to a higher position because he earned it and was at the time trustworthy.

[Green Bottle]

Speaking as a very anti royal British citizen. I am incline to agree with all of that. There are more of us anti-monarchists over here than the media likes to admit. They are a decidedly sub average but ruthless dynasty and centuries of interbreeding has not helped.

The media in the uk always portray the royals as being popular and loved by the whole country, but more and more people are waking up to the truth that this is just not the case, especially in scotland where in my experience, the majority of the population dont give a damn about them.
What really annoys me is the fact that this is one of the richest families on the fkn planet yet they are still subsidised by uk taxpayers, basically, we pay their fucking expenses, and that is disgusting....

[Mike Cl]

Well why look at them. Lets just look at the devil. We can see it one of two ways.

1. God really did trust him and promoted him.
2. God did not trust him and promoted him expecting him to fall.

Now the first seems the most obvious when we consider God is omnisicient. But we simply fail in looking beyond our noses. God is incapable of evil. There is no darkness in God at all 1 John 1:5. Our human minds do battle with this. But our inability to fully grasp God does not make God guilty when the evidence points to God having honest and best expectations. God appointed the devil to a higher position because he earned it and was at the time trustworthy.

[Baruch]

Green Bottle ... I really sympathize ... my Scottish ancestors sympathize too.  Being Scottish is like being Mexican, except "too far from G-d and too close to England".  But don't Scots have an agenda?  Y'all know that the present Queen isn't a Stewart, right? (rhetorical question).  I feel sorry for the Highlanders that the last Stewart led to their deaths ... the Bonnie Prince should have stuck to the kitchen and his dresses, make a nice wife for someone ;-)

[TomFoolery]

"Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."

Does this only count with the old-school patriarchal monarchies? Like if we vote on someone, we take God's ability to control the government out of it? If that's the case, then it sounds like God isn't all that omnipotent.

If however God can control elections by moving the holy spirit through the hearts of voters, that would mean that anything those government officials did was an extension of God's work. Like the Affordable Care Act.