Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

If that is true then the Koran and Tanakh are both historically accurate as well. After all, Noah really did put two of each animal on a wooden ark.

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

And that's why one translation of the ten commandments say thou shall not kill and the other says thou shall not murder? Two different concepts BTW :vikki:
Fuck’s sake, read a couple of different version of the bible, translate some of the original texts for yourself and smell the roses for a change - it's not like it's hard to learn a couple of extra languages to aid you in your attempt to not be a dumbarse.

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

Actually it's exceptionally hard because we are no longer set up to be learning languages anymore.

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

You can learn to program a computer easily enough, despite the fact that its inherent command structure bears little similarity to your own past sharing the same labelling system and a logical structure to its arguments. You can learn new words easily enough and file them away in relationship to what you already know. Kids used to learn three or four languages as members of the upper classes of society. You might not be set up with the same unremembered understanding process as you acquired your first language but it is by no means hard if you can be bothered. The problem people get with languages is they go in assuming they know it all just because they speak one. They're not hard to learn.

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

Yes, they are exceptionally hard to learn. A computer language is not at all like a human language, which is why it's much easier to learn. It's like learning Morse code or some such thing, just plain old memorization. Language, however, is much different. It is the memorization of rules, and the figuring out of exceptions that make it quite hard to learn.

The other problem is your own language interferes with the learning of a new language. You cannot speak a language until you can think it, and the problem is people will automatically draw connections like Perro = Dog = Furry thing on four legs that barks. They need to draw the connection Perro = Furry thing on four legs that barks.(Perro is Spanish for dog right? I took the damn language some four years ago and don't remember anything)

Plus you no longer have the internal devices that filtered out unneeded sounds and such. Considering most people don't even speak their languages is the formal sense, it becomes even harder to learn.

And your example of kids that would learn languages is moot. Those are children, they are still quite capable of learning languages the same way they have their own language.

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

Not everyone can be intelligent and taking advantage of the less (?) fortunate is quite low in my opinion unless they actually are hostile, one should rather try to help them to make informed decisions or at least leave them alone.

How is that, as far as I know people can speak more languages on average these days than ever before, everyone learns at least a bare minimum of three languages in school, admittedly the most unmotivated idiots hardly even learn English properly, yet alone the other official language, but anyone who doesn't sniff glue or belong to the group that believes that the bible "is an historicaly accurate book" shouldn't have a problem with a couple of extra languages. =p

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

Seven Reasons to Believe That the Bible is Gods Word

Reason 1: The Miraculous Unity of the Bible

The Bible consists of 66 books written over a period of 15 years, in 3 languages, by forty authors with over 20 different occupations, in 10 country’s, spread over 3 continents. And yet the Bible has overall one theme-The Savior, and one overall purpose-Salvation. The Bible tells the story of how we came to need a savior, then predicts the saviors coming, then describes the arrival and work of the savior, and then teaches how to be saved through him. This message is consistent throughout the entire Bible.

Reason 2: The Textual Authenticity of the Bible

People argue that there has been many textual errors over the centuries of the Bible, being copied so many times. They state that there are no original manuscripts for the Bible, but the fact is, there are no original manuscripts for any book in antiquity. So when we judge the antiquity of ancient text it comes down to two considerations. 1. How close the earliest copy is chronologically to the original, and 2. By how many copy versions are available for comparison. Here are some examples.

Book Title Earliest Copy Number of Copies
Caesar's The Gaelic Wars 1000 Years (from the Original) 10
Aristotle’s Rhetoric 1400 Years 49
Homers Iliad 500 Years 643

These are the best of the ancient texts, and no one dispute their authenticity. But compare these to the New Testament
The New Testament 25 Years 24,947

The New Testament stands alone in its textual integrity.

Reason 3: Historical Accuracy of the Bible

No book has undergone more historical scrutiny then the Bible. In the process, Historians had brought a bunch of criticisms surrounding the Bible, that that vast Hittite Empire in Genesis never existed. They said that King David is a myth, not a real person, and that King David is mentioned no where in history, outside of the Bible. And they said that Jesus resurrection had to be false, because Roman Authorities would never allowed a crucified man like Jesus to be placed in a tomb, because Roman history indicated that crucified bodies were dumped in mass graves. And they claimed that the other characters in the gospel never existed, like Caiaphas, the High priest, Pilot the governor, these are fictional characters just put in to add to the drama. These questions were used to embarrass people over the years, who believed in the historical accuracy of the Bible. And then, in 1906, archeologists uncovered the sprawling remains of the ancient Hittite Empire. On July 21st, 1993, in the ancient ruins of the city of Dan, archeologists discovered a monument, clearly referring to the house of King David. In 1968 archeologists discovered the skeletal remains of a crucified man in a burial cave outside of Jerusalem, forever putting to rest that a crucified man would never be put in a tomb. In 1961, a helicopter gunship noticed a large circle in the sand on the coast of Israel, and a large amphitheater was discovered, along with a stone slab inscribed with the name of its builder, Pontius Pilot. In 1990, while building a water park two miles south of the temple mount, excavators broke through the ceiling of a hidden chamber, holding a burial box with the name etched on it Joseph Caiaphas, the high priest. There are now 25,000 archeological sites that historically support over 25,000 biblical people, places, and events. Secular Archeologist Nelson Glueck has said, “it may be stated Categorically that no Archeological discovery, has ever contradicted a single Biblical reference.” Therefore, the Bible is without a doubt, historically accurate.

Reason 4: The Divine Authority of the Bible

The Bible is unswerving in its claim to be the word of God. Over 3,000 times in the Bible, God speaks in person or through a messenger. The Apostle Paul says the Old Testament is God Breathed, and Jesus conformed that the Old Testament comes from the mouth of God in Matthew 4:4. But not only did Jesus believe that the Old Testament was God’s word, Jesus believed that God inspired every single word and even every tense of every single word in the Bible. Jesus believed in the divine authority of every word, even the tense.

Reason 5: The Fulfilled Prophecy in the Bible

500 years and more before Jesus, the Old Testament made over 300 prophecies concerning the messiah, and how all these prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus. I will go into depth on two of these prophecies. The first one comes from the Old Testament book of Daniel, which again was written 500 years before Jesus. To the prophet Daniel God says “Know and understand this, from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, the ruler comes, there will be Seven 7’s and Sixty Two 7’s. What we have here is God writing in prophetic phraseology, to foretell the exact number of years, until the messiah will come. He refers to Seven 7’s which is 49 years, and Sixty Two Sevens, which is 434 years, for a total of 483 years. But the prophecy says that these 483 years start ticking from a specific point. It’s the issuing of a decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Well, secular historians unanimously agree, that King Artaxerxes, issued this very decree in the spring of 457 B.C. 457 B.C., which is the starting point, puts the coming of the Messiah, at 26 A.D. However, historians fix Jesus’ birth at 4 B.C. which means that Jesus began his ministry at the age of thirty, at 26 A.D. This prophecy from Daniel was made 500 years before Jesus. There is no way anyone can get around the fact that this was made hundreds of years before Jesus, and predicts the exact date of the messiah coming, in Jesus Christ. A Super compelling reason to believe that the Bible is God’s word. So is this next prophecy. 1,000 years before Jesus, David foretells this about the Messiah. “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me? A band of evil men has encircled me, and they have pierced my hand, and my feet.” Now this image of pierced hands and feet, today we immediately recognize as referring to the crucifixion. But here’s the interesting part. Crucifixion, became a means of execution, no early then 200 B.C. Which means David predicted Jesus Cross, 800 years before Crucifixion was invented.

Reason 6: The Timeless Credibility of the Bible

There are those who in light of scientific evidence say that the Bible is no longer relevant. Far from being contrary to science, the Bible proves its Timeless Credibility, by anticipating scientific truths before they were scientifically discovered. For example, 4,000 years before science, the Bible affirmed that time had a beginning and the universe had a beginning in the finite past. Next, the Bible affirms the roundness of the earth in Isaiah Chapter 40. Next, the Bible affirms the vastness of the universe in Isaiah Chapter 55, the law of entropy in Psalm 102, were the Bible accurately depicts creation as a closed system with its energy running down. The Bible affirms earth’s gravitational orbit in Job chapter 26, where the Bible accurately depicts the earth as floating through space. The Bible affirms Germ Theory, and the spread of infectious disease, in Leviticus Chapter 17, where in the law, God instructs his people to quarantine sick individuals, before it is scientifically understood why this was a good idea. And finally, the Bible affirms a 6-1 ratio for large ship construction, in Genesis Chapter 6, where God instructs Noah to construct the ark, according to a Mathematical formula that is used for large ship building today. The Bible is not a scientific text, but the Bible affirms scientific truth before science, in away that confirms the Bible’s Timeless Credibility.

Reason 7: God’s Word is the Spiritual Potency of the Bible

We commented before that the Bible has a universal message that we needed to be saved, about the savior, and about how to be saved through him. In this last reason, we come full circle, to recognize that the Bible does infinitely more then just reveal the savior in written words, the Bible reveals the savior in life changing spiritual power. For centuries God has been using the Bible to transform millions who hear it, or hear it read. The Bible is spiritually potent, God will use it to fill your life with peace and meaning, and transform your life, If You Read It.

Any Questions?

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

I'd just like to say a few things.

First off, common sense is uncommon. Not many people tend to think through things. They don't look over all the information they have and then try to make reach a justified conclusion and rather just simply pick one or the other eeny-meeny-miny-moe style. I just hope nobody here is assuming that not being stupid means you have high grades/high class occupation and know quantum physics. A person who is like that could still be very stupid. How do you think quite a few of the times business men lose their entire industry? It's because they blindly do something like signing a paper without thinking about what is going to happen due to that paper.

Sorry if I just reiterated everybody's thoughts but I thought I'd just state it incase somebody didn't know that there is that analogy (give me a better word if there is one cuz I think it's unfitting).

Second, all people make foolish errors. It is only human, as are we all. So it is not necessarily wise to think one cannot make mistakes even if their life is going just about perfect. How do you know you haven't overlooked something? Or what if some catastrophe happens that requires you to work in a way and in a manner that you cannot work in? You could learn perhaps but what if you don't want to because you think you are above it. In my opinion that would be arrogant and stupid. That is one thing that separates the smart from the stupid. The other thing that separates smart people from foolish is that they make mistakes more often than the smart ones and quite a few of the times very grave mistakes. So I just wanted to point that out that even smart people can be foolish at times.

Yeah so I pretty much restated half of what others had said but I just did so because I felt I could try giving people another analogy incase they don't understand.

EDIT:

Actually, you know, Huffardo brought up a good point:

If one is too foolish then it is the job of those who are wiser to teach them. It should be knowledge that frees them from their shackles not force which merely serves to bind them even further (and yes this sentence is nearly identical to a statement made elsewhere which I'll leave you guys to figure out). Then again, there are those who do not wish to learn and are plain and complete ignorant of everything around them. The general attitude with these people I think should be the 'do what you want but stay out of my/our way' attitude. However, I would manipulate someone if it served a greater good/justified purpose. Of course, there is the problem as what is defined as good or evil. I guess we all have our own definitions and should do what we most believe in because nobody else can actually define anything for use. Everything is as we see it. Nothing is defined and anything can be possible. Yes that too is a quote from the same source and as odd as the source would seem, these statements may be quite valid.

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

But we need stupid people for cannon fodder and basic labor
Edit: Razgriz, if the bible is supposed to bring peace to man, then why are countless people killed in it?

Re: How can people be so stupid?
 

Yes, there must be people working at fast food restaurants, shoe factories where people get their fingers cut off, there must be lab rats, and they must be expandable.