Talking Snakes and Donkeys? Really?

[Steve Petersen]

Absurd in the extreme. But, hey the Bible says so...........

 

[TuxAme]

You're a deist, so you believe that there is some kind of intelligent (and I can only assume all-powerful) being. With that in mind, is it beyond the realm of possibility that this all knowing, all powerful being (who made these creatures, mind you) could convey a message through a donkey?

 

[Neogaia777]

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[royal priest]

Is that really that much more unbelievable than the notion of an invisible being that created everything in six days?

 

[Tom 1]

Absurd in the extreme. But, hey the Bible says so...........

You never heard of telling a story to make a point?

 

[Occams Barber]

With that in mind, is it beyond the realm of possibility that this all knowing, all powerful being (who made these creatures, mind you) could convey a message through a donkey?

Didn't someone make a few movies about this in the 1950s?
OB

 

[mmksparbud]

Talking Snakes and Donkeys? Really?

Absurd in the extreme. But, hey the Bible says so...........

And why not? They are alive and well and still speaking today--they just go by another name---politicians. And sometimes, we elect them President.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

You never heard of telling a story to make a point?

The point of the story being what, exactly? Kill all Midianites?

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Absurd in the extreme. But, hey the Bible says so...........

Hi. If I recall correctly you used to be a Christian. If so, was there ever a time when you defended the idea of a talking donkey to atheists while privately agreeing it is absurd?

 

[Tom 1]

The point of the story being what, exactly? Kill all Midianites?

Nope, more like pay attention to what you are doing so that someone doesn’t have to shove what you already know in your face.

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Nope, more like pay attention to what you are doing so that someone doesn’t have to shove what you already know in your face.

I think Numbers could've gotten that message across without introducing talking donkeys, genocide, and human sacrifice.

 

[Neogaia777]

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[Neogaia777]

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[Nihilist Virus]

You ever consider just how bad or to what point in extreme rebellion against God (or in going against what they knew within), those other nations were...? You don't think God tried very hard to get them to pay attention to that and turn back? They were way to far gone, and the fact that God gave them Grace to go so far in their rebellion should say something about him, that he didn't do a thing and watched as they burned their babies alive to their false gods, and I'm sure and I think their was much incest going on, and much sexual perversion, and many other perversions of almost every moral, that was even accepted by that society towards their own children, which made them very bad and very corrupt... They (all, including children) grew up thinking that "all of it" was normal and perfectly OK and alright... And when a person, or society or people group or whatever, gets to that point, then their morals are permanently corrupted and cannot be changed even by a God that (or because he) allows freedom of choice and free will like he himself has...

Source? Is it the scout team that Moses sent? Recall that the text itself says they gave a false report. How trustworthy were they?

Further, if scouts of another nation saw Jephthah sacrifice his daughter, would they be in the right to just assume that this was normal Jewish practice and not a perversion of the religion?

God does give us the option and made us so we could choose to go against him and go against what we (start out) knowing (and can lose at some point) (the point these people got to) anyway, to against the knowing from within... They didn't care about that at all anymore, and only cared about fulfilling their carnal, very evil wicked and very perverse carnal or fleshly desires and that was all they cared about anymore by the time God chose to act and do something about it, they were selfish, didn't care about anyone or anything else other than satisfying the flesh...

Source...?

Also, God has rather a quite a unique perspective on (this) death also... They all go to him for judgement, and are you thinking he won't spare the innocent or righteous in that nation (if there were any left) (cause he might have let it go to the point that there were absolutely none good left) (none righteous at all left at all)...

I thought we were all born into sin and no one was innocent...?

In God killing them, or ordering them to be killed, he was sparing them from them from their miserable, empty existences that they had degraded to, and sparing any innocents, (again, if their were any) (maybe young babies only maybe) (for even the children were corrupt and very bad or became very bad and very corrupt at an early age) Anyway, he was sparing any innocents from a hellish existence in their nations, and letting them into heaven with him, after they died here...

So Hitler was doing a good thing as well...?

God let it get very, very, very, VERY, VERY, VERY, very much bad, in those nations, before acting like that or doing that (killing them)...

And if it ever happens again, he will do the same, and he would be very right and very just to do it also...

Who are you to judge God...?

Do you really sit in judgement of him...?

And since your an atheist, why do you have any feelings at all about this God you claim doesn't exist and never existed...?

Sorry but this is a stupid question. The Bible plainly states that Jehovah hated Moloch. That wouldn't make Moloch real.

I hope their is something (a very good reason) that is not your fault, and that you may be unaware of, that is a/the/your "reason" for your "supposedly" not believing in a God, or God, or any gods... Otherwise, your screwed...

Be praying for you and your kind...

God Bless!

Frankly, this post was a hard read. But not because I was challenged.

 

[Neogaia777]

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[Nihilist Virus]

? Your posts, #8 &#11?

Well if you bother to read how Balaam meets his demise you'll see that he is killed in a war and that the Midianites are taken captive and slaughtered, although the virgins are kept alive as rape hostages. A portion of them were sacrificed to Jehovah. This is chapter 31. If Balaam's story is a message, what's the message?

 

[Tom 1]

Well if you bother to read how Balaam meets his demise you'll see that he is killed in a war and that the Midianites are taken captive and slaughtered, although the virgins are kept alive as rape hostages. A portion of them were sacrificed to Jehovah. This is chapter 31. If Balaam's story is a message, what's the message?

Ah, yes, well getting back to the OP the talking donkey story has one or more meanings. For the wider question of what you call Balaam’s story, what I think you were referring to in posts 8&11, and here, you can find out more about the historical and cultural context etc, if you want to understand it that is. If you don’t, then why comment?

 

[Nihilist Virus]

Ah, yes, well getting back to the OP the talking donkey story has one or more meanings. For the wider question of what you call Balaam’s story, what I think you were referring to in posts 8&11, and here, you can find out more about the historical and cultural context etc, if you want to understand it that is. If you don’t, then why comment?

So there's a cultural context in which rape, genocide, and human sacrifice is ok?

 

[Neogaia777]

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[Erik Nelson]

Revelation describes a "pure" Vision, from God in heaven, to John the apostle on Patmos island, earth. John was "carried away in the spirit" to breathtaking heavenly realms, based on no concrete terrestrial "prompts".

If God can communicate Visions to people, so powerful that their minds are completely overwhelmed...

then God could communicate to people "more gently", such that they were still aware of their physical earthly surroundings, onto which the Vision would be "overlain" vaguely like a fighter pilot's HUD

so...

the combination of (say) a donkey on earth, and a Vision from the Divine realm, could cause one to confusedly perceive that the Voice of God was coming from the donkey