A Good Verse

With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness“. James 3:9

This could be a scripture about jealousy, but it’s not favored that way among believers. If you want to know the best part about being a god, look to those who the writers curse. The nature of those most like god—it is those that make their own ideas and choose for themselves how they will live, then live well beyond the framing limits of religious obedience.

We are despised for charting our own path. We are despised for plucking off the fruit of knowledge. Dogmas are meant to service those that rely on others for guidance and inspiration. This is quite offensive to James who believed everyone should have to have their brain sucked out through intangible thought convictions—through faith and submission.

Author: jimoeba

Alternatives to big box religions and dogmas

39 thoughts on “A Good Verse”

  1. Dogmas truly restrict our intellectual growth. We grow so accustomed to doing something a certain way or having “faith” that we stop asking questions. We accept without question and live by it. How scary. And that verse though.. that can only be talking about jealousy. Which the Bible also condemns…huh…🤔🤔🤔

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    1. It’s a dandy verse. And it’s in context as well. Funny ni one ever picks up on that.
      Most of Catholicism is tradition. More of doing something because that’s how we do it. Going nowhere, but the sails are down. Put em up! But we’re afraid too.

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      2. ‘If you want to know the best part about being a god, look to those who the writers curse.’ – Excellent. If you want to know the best part about being a writer, look to the Gods they create with their curses. *nods*

        There’s no space for me to leave a comment at the bottom for some reason so I’ve popped in here to pull up a chair as you’re being too sexy for yourself.

        – Esme Cloud falling about and creating her Small Gods with care

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        1. Nice of you to pop off…I mean pop by. But now I suspect some defining of what they mean by image of god. Since we can’t comprehend himher, how do we know hisher image?

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  3. Funny, I read nothing about jealousy, After a quick re-read, my mind sees something about men who think or believe themselves to be as good and better than gods. But that doesn’t feel right either.
    Maybe it is that we are supposed to be as good as gods since we are made in their image, but find it impossible to do so.
    The question is: Are gods really good? They tell us they are, but by whose standard? The god of Abraham favours one people over others, then suddenly condemns those people for not worshiping it enough. That god kills its chosen people’s enemies, even knowing all the time they are going to divorce it, at least in its eyes. And then it chooses a new people, by race this time rather than by nation, hoping this will work better than its first choice, knowing they are going to become totally arrogant about that choice, even though they were the second choice..
    At what point do they give up? At what point does this god give up? At what point do we give up? Why did we ever start in the first place?

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    1. They despise men made in the image of god. Sounds like envy. Wishing inside they had the courage to embrace knowledge instead of regulated by another. I love your comment though. Why did it start? With only a question u answered and impatience.

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    2. I read the quote as questioning how we can praise a creator, but then turn around and be cruel to the creation. I think it’s a fair point. Although I person can be a great cook but every once in awhile make a shit meal. lol But I do think, from the perspective of Christian dogma that if God is supposed to be perfect than everything God creates is as it should be and thus to praise the creator and criticize creation is hypocritical. Of course this was always one of my problems with Christianity. How can a perfect creator, create imperfection. And if we actually are all perfect with our flaws and everything, then there should be no punishment for us being as we were made.

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      1. I know. I love the fact that the verse exposes the nature of things unintentionally, while actually exposing the reality of the ‘men of words’. Granted most people are pretty decent and care for their own, the scripture reveals something to me about the nature of religion and James is actually exposing something here unintended.

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      2. There is always that. But now we are proving the christian theory about how “interpretable” the bible is. As a child I was taught god’s word is law, so I figuredthat meant there would be only one way to read it. As I grew up and learned that everyone reads the bible to find what they wanted him to be saying, I came to believe there was no real meaning in any of it.
        Nowadays believers try yo tell me it is a book full of wisdom, but I ask myself, Whose wisdom? Certainly not a god’s!
        When even atheists can see so many different things in one tiny verse, it is in no way the word of a god. It is words written clumsily by humans, and not written very well at that!

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        1. Haha…good analysis. I agree with you. I currently having a conversation with someone on one of Jim’s other posts who is trying to claim that there is only one correct context and thus meaning for bible verses. And surprisingly they all demonstrate how morally consistent God is in the bible!

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          1. Morally consistent? I would hate to to meet this person in a dark alley. Has anyone ever calculated how many lives god is responsible for killing in the bible? His great flood alone should put him in with the big boys, then throw in Egypt, Sodom, Gomorrah, Jericho, and all those other placenames I cannot remember. God was a raving lunatic. Morally consistent? Yeah, he killed everyone he didn’t like.
            I bet Trump envies him…

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      3. How can a perfect creator, create imperfection. And if we actually are all perfect with our flaws and everything, then there should be no punishment for us being as we were made.

        YESSSSSSSS! In a nutshell the core flaw in Christian doctrine. Especially since EVERYTHING is God’s will. Including rebellion and “sin”

        So who is to blame?

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          1. While I have also made the same argument before, there are those who argue we can only make the argument because we were born and depriving others of the opportunity to enjoy this life is not our call to make

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            1. This is true. It’s so easy to forget that the sperm and the egg have a signed contract guaranteeing communion, together with a heads of agreement on the shape (and name) of things to come.

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          2. While I am horrified by the American Customs and Borders Perverts and Trump’s Xenophobia, there is also a strong thread in “liberal” circles that Oh No! The United States is running out of people! Open Borders! As if having MORE American consumers and polluters is a good thing.

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  6. Cool meme, Jim. I thought James was the works guy who Martin Luther wanted expunged from the canonical scripture. Not a very evangelical book, or so I thought.

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    1. Well, with the whole grace thing what you do isn’t as important as what you profess or say. I can see why that’s important to be able to hide behind words and highlight your inadequacy as a success.

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  7. Martin Luther called James an epistle of straw, because the author exhorts followers to tame their tongues and walk the walk, rather than just talk the talk — something I consider good advice regardless of your religious beliefs.

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    1. Certainly. But works is a conflict with modern grace. Now what you say carries much more weight than what you do. Mother Teresa is a prime example of that.

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  8. I’ve heard this one far more times than too many: “It’s not *my* will, it’s *His* will.”
    That “will” might include such measures as reviving the “Glory of the Crusades” — an actual book for YHWs sake, joining the Church Militant, identifying a rosary as an assault weapon with a 50 round clip, calling yourself a weapons supplier because you sell rosaries…

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    1. Submitting your will is a brainwashing guarantee that another will replace your own thoughts with theirs. It’s telling that most spew the same rhetoric over beliefs and moralities, and it all changes the moment they no longer believe.

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