The sheer amount of nontheists here and on the internet as a whole.

Myrmidon

There's iron on the earth. How did he send the flood?

Vorpy

Iron is a figurative word for any extremely hard adamant metal, since they didn't care what name was attributed to metals that time when writing the passage.

Learn to understand similes and metaphors. There are billions of them in the book.

Gelzo

(I wasn't being entirely serious.)

Khwarizmi

To be fair, it'd be a pretty boring book if God did everything for the Hebrews.

¹And God did smite everybody who threatened His people, and He brought His people into Heaven. ²And they did prosper there for many centuries, because the Lord was totally, 100% with them.  ³And while they were there, Judah begat Thomas, and Thomas begat Owen, ⁴and Owen begat Howard, and Howard begat David, ⁵and David begat Glyn, and Glyn begat Andrew, ⁶and Andrew begat Griffith, and Griffith begat Norman, and Norman begat Steven, ⁷and Steven begat Edward, and Edward begat Dylan, and Dylan begat Jake, and Jake begat George...

Chagen

I have a feeling that something happened and God went all "Man, you guys suck, go get killed".

Stormtroper

Iron is a figurative word for any extremely hard adamant metal, since they didn't care what name was attributed to metals that time when writing the passage.

Learn to understand similes and metaphors. There are billions of them in the book.

I'd figure people would think that double meaning didn't exist in its original language and the translators wouldn't go around adding it.

Anyhow, God is still a weaksauce.

Ponicalica

«I thought Falconfly was an atheist, which made me think "why was he afraid of God".»

I think he was actually neopagan.

Khwarizmi

I don't know if he actually worshipped the other gods in the old Canaanite pantheon, but he certainly liked talking about them, and complaining about how Jews and Christians had demonised them.

Beholderess

Misotheists: Why are they so obnoxious?

This one cannot speak for anything but herself, but will try to answer. It might seem that there is little sense in disliking something one does not even believe exists, but there is more to that. What makes this one argue that (Abrahamic God) is evil even though I do not believe in him is that the disconnect those who do believe seem to have between his actions and professed benevolence.

Of course it is irrational to have problem with fictional character's (as God is for those who do not believe in him) actions. But there is nothing strange with having problem with those who look at such atrocious actions and decide that this character is still good, benevolent, worthy of worship and his commands are to be followed. Does it make any sense?

Chagen

Are you saying that God does these actions, or that his follower's do them?

Because God is all-loving. It's his followers that do these horrible things, and they shall receive judgement for it.

Nyktos

"What Antitheists say: 'I don't hate religion, just the people who practice it'."

That is...literally the polar opposite of what most antitheists would actually say.

Chagen

Odd. There have been several statements to that tune on this very forum itself.

^Allegory.

Chagen

Whatever it was, the Bible was made by humans and is mostly a bunch of shit made up to teach Family Unfriendly Aesops. Some of it is true--the NT more so than the OT--and some of it isn't. Nontheists always seem to miss this part.

Oh, and the Bible is supposed to be vauge.

Beholderess

Umm, flooding, commands for genocide, approval of slavery, creation of hell...

Again, this one is fine with regarding these things as allegory, or with considering only some parts of the Bible relevant.  But there are people who consider this literal - that yes, god did/commanded all of there things, no, this is not an allegory and/or humans justifying their behaviour by presenting it as will of god - and still see god as good, which makes this one wonder what exactly is going through their mind. And that is scary.

Chagen

Then they themselves are crazy. Not God.

Also, I'm pretty sure Jesus overturned most of that.

And I don't see why most nontheists find the idea of hell so insane. Maybe it's because I was raised to believe in it my whole life, but the idea of hell being a bad/horrible idea is just plain incomprehensible to me. Sometimes, you gotta lock up the bad guys, nothing more.

randomtropeloser

Well, I'm personally just bothered by the idea of an eternal hell of limitless suffering, which seems like a serious case of Disproportionate Retribution.

Beholderess

I'd be glad to discuss the idea of hell, but unfortunately, I have to run now. Would you still be interested in it in 12 hours or so?

Chagen

I never viewed it like that. Ever. I just found it to be perfectly normal. 

^I can wait.

randomtropeloser

Actually, I think Funny's idea is pretty reasonable.

Chagen

That's not something that nomadic tribes 2000 years would accept. They would want sinners to get immidiate hellish retribution. So maybe he bullshitted that reason to keep them complacent.

Also, nontheists seem to think that you will get sent to hell for doing any type of sin. I'd hate to Godwin again, but you pretty much have to be Hitler for God to send you to hell. Most people are going into Purgatory and then into heaven.

I really don't think God is petty enough to send me to hell because I wanked to a picture of a guy.

Nyktos

@Chagen: I think I misinterpreted what you meant. Did you mean things like the Ghandi quote about Christ vs Christians?

Chagen

Uh, no. You will not sent to hell for one sin. Given that original sin exists, that would damn every single one of us to hell.

Your sins are cleaned by Jesus, but by then, you're assured a place in Heaven. 

Not believing is not a sin either. Being a dick is. I believe nontheists can go to heaven too (I actually wanted to write a short story, "An Atheist goes to Heaven", where an avowed Atheists dies, goes up to Heaven, and has a philosophical discussion/debate with God).

Chagen

Argumentum Ad Populum.

Homosexuality and Transgenderism were once considered mental psychoses by a lot of people, but that doesn't make it true.

Chagen

Funny, you should not trust the mainstream, and especially not the American mainstream, on serious matters like this.

If the mainstream is wrong, they're wrong. Then again, I'm wrong, You're wrong. We're all wrong. We don't know what God really wants, or if he even exists. 

Khwarizmi

Gotta say, funny, your interpretation of Christianity doesn't really resemble the religion I was raised in.

I think Hell is an appalling concept that only the most vile of beings would create, but I can accept that that's not how the universe works according to most Christians.  It's complicated.

Chagen

Hell isn't that bad of a concept. The idea that it is makes no sense to me at all.

Khwarizmi

Eternal torment isn't that bad?  You'd like it, would you?

But like I said, I recognise that the Christian God is not generally believed to send undeserving people there.

Chagen

As I said, I was raised to accept it. I'm used to the idea. Maybe it's brainwashing, I don't know.

Khwarizmi

I was taught that Hell existed, but discarded the belief in time because it didn't sit well with my belief that God was all-loving and good.

I later found out that many other members of my congregation had done the same.

Chagen

Odd. I continued to accept it even though I was in the same situation as you.