{"id":7179,"date":"2004-03-09T18:18:38","date_gmt":"2004-03-09T23:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2004\/03\/09\/fundamentalist-atheists\/"},"modified":"2004-03-09T18:18:38","modified_gmt":"2004-03-09T23:18:38","slug":"fundamentalist-atheists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2004\/03\/fundamentalist-atheists\/","title":{"rendered":"Fundamentalist Atheists"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a parody web site called godhatesshrimp.com<\/a> which I remember seeing before linked on Instapundit and I have seen it linked to on other sites. It contains the photoshopped image of protesters holding a sign that says God Hates Shrimp with a couple of Bible verses from Leviticus and Deuteronomy also on it.<\/p>\n

Leviticus 11:9-12 says: 9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
\nAnd all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
\n11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you<\/p>\n

The whole point is to show how stupid Christians are to use verses from the Levitical law to defend against homosexuality. When these laws also outlaw many other things we have no problem with. Now we are supposed to see this alleged hypocrisy and immediately embrace homosexually behavior being that we were just so dumb before. Like some Fundamentalists who take out one verse in exclusion to others or lack a proper understanding of the differences between Mosaic dietary laws and the natural law. Fundamentalist atheists do likewise.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a Protestant Fundamentalist will argue against the Catholic and historic understanding of the Eucharist by using the Old Testament strictures against eating blood. If they were right this would prove too much and we would also have to start sacrificing to animals and following the other dietary and clothing laws contained in the Mosaic law.<\/p>\n

Conversely if the Atheist Fundamentalist were right then we could kill them or steal from them or commit adultery with their wives. If the Mosaic law can be dismissed than by their argument the Ten Commandments must also be dismissed. I doubt they would go along with this reasoning.<\/p>\n

These arguments show a total lack of understanding and they are akin to someone saying the world can’t be spinning or else we would fly off.<\/p>\n

God used many of the Levitical ordinances not as moral absolutes but as a means to set the Jewish people apart from those around them. These laws were specifically made to prevent them from following countries around them and falling into pagan idolatry. In many cases the animals they were ordered to sacrifice were the ones that other cultures worshiped. As Scott Hahn had mentioned this was like God ordering an alcoholic to everyday pour down the contents of a whiskey bottle down the drain. With the coming of the Church, the new wine skin, these dietary and clothing laws were removed. But the Natural Law remains. When Jesus was asked “What must I do to be perfect?” his answer was “Follow the Commandments.”<\/p>\n

I was also a Fundamentalist Atheist at one time. I remember telling my Mother when I was a teenager that a Crucifix was idolatry. I thought I had vast Bible knowledge even though I had never read the Bible. I knew this was a perfect gotcha line that should have made the Catholic Church collapse in it’s hypocrisy. I was not surprised to find after my conversion that some Fundamentalist Protestants used the same reasoning.<\/p>\n

Tom of A Thing Worth Doing<\/a> also had some thoughts along this line<\/a>, which is partly what lead me to write this post.<\/p>\n

Update: The Curmudgeonly Clerk<\/a> has some good thoughts on biblical criticism of this sort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a parody web site called godhatesshrimp.com which I remember seeing before linked on Instapundit and I have seen it linked to on other sites. It contains the photoshopped…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-punditry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}