One of the things I love about the Bible, is that it quickly explains the why of so many questions, for example why do people where clothes? Science tries to answer this question, but it is inadequate.
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You have that in reverse. Science's answers make sense, are fulfilling, and are useful for the advancement of society. The bible's answers are inadequate, inaccurate, and sometimes detrimental.
Yes, isn't it comforting to have easy to read answers to your questions. It doesn't make any difference if those answers are wrong, absurd, encourage cruelty and bigotry, what's important is that feeble little minds be able to latch on to them.
Why do people wear clothes? Modesty, as the Bible says. But, as is typical of the Bible, the answer is inadequate. People also wear clothes to stay warm, to keep from being sunburned, to protect themselves from work injuries, to allow them to do their jobs better, to attract attention, to keep their sweaty, naked butts off my leather sofa, etc..
Wearing clothes and having a religion are induced upon us the same way. Toddlers love to run around naked and wouldn't feel close to any sort of god unless you told them one exists. Clothes may have started as a way to keep warm, but we've been conditioned to have some form of modesty over the course of human existence.
"why do people where clothes?"
It would be incredibly ignorant to assume that every human culture in the world wears clothes. Of course, we're well into fundie territory here, so ignorance is pretty much on tap.
Hadanelith: in the book, lunar colonists find the low gravity lessens the cosmetic effects of physical decay, so people don't end up looking all saggy and gross as they get older ;-) In combination with climate control in the lunar tunnels, this lack of an incentive for the young to claw their eyes out and pray for death when seeing old people leaves no reason whatsoever to wear clothes, except to make prudish earth visitors more comfortable!
/Wants to live on the moon.
The bible offers the best explanation for why we wear clothes; because god let adam and eve be tricked by a talking snake and then they ate fruit from a magical tree which god could tell because he either counts fruits each day or has x-ray vision. So the ultimate truth was revealed to the first humans, which is; be ashamed! Be guilty! Look how embarassing you are! Look at those hideous organs dangling out! Guilt and shame for being built in 'our image' (god or gods) they said. Does any of that sound plausible?
Now how about the questions it doesn't answer?
Is rape bad?
Is slavery bad?
Where is jesus?
Where is god?
Why are there condrictions in the bible?
Where was god during the inquisitions and the holocaust?
Is Porn okay?
Is an internet chatline relationship cheating?
who bought potter's field?
Was jesus' first sermon on a mountain or a plain?
Can god tempt?
Who moved david to take the census?
Why do good things happen to bad people?
Where is nazerath?
Why are parts of the bible nearly identical to stories and myths from other civilizations?
Did dinosaurs exist?
Why does god kill babies?
do they go to hell?
How did noah fit 50,000,000 species of animal on an ark?
Why is there no evidence of a world wide flood?
Do retarded people go to heaven?
Is there a gay agenda?
How did god create day and night before making the sun?
How can moses be considered the "meekest man alive" when he killed people?
What exactly were jesus' last words?
Has anyone seen god's face or not?
How could a perfect deity have regrets?
Does god tempt or not?
If not, is he then all powerful?
Was elijah or jesus the first to rise up to heaven?
do we answer a fool according to his folly or not?
Was Jehoiachen 8 or 18 when he began his reign?
Did Saul's daughter Micah have five sons or was she childless?
Did Saul die by suicide or a soldier?
Did god bring forth birds from the water or the ground?
Did those with Saul/Paul on his conversion also hear the voice or not?
Was Jesus' robe scarlet or purple?
How come an omnipotent god had to 'go and see' how bad Sodom and Gommorra were?
Why did god used to enjoy burnt offerings but no longer?
How can god be omnipotent if he cannot lie?
Isn't sending 'lying spirits' to lie for you the same as doing it yourself?
How do we know the beauty in the world isn't the result of another god?
Why aren't their miracles anymore?
Why would god allow priests to molest kids?
how can jesus and satan both be called the morning star without them being the same person?
Is liberal a dirty word to god?
Which is the correct ten commandments?
These are just a few of the questions that the bible DOESN'T answer.
...personally, the only reason I wear clothes other than to protect my body from unpleasantnesses of my local environment are because people like Joel here will have heart attacks and either try to stone me or try to sue me if I don't... which means on hot days, I damned well stay home, and stay naked. The bible has yet to give a 'why' for the 'why will Jax scream at anyone who tries to make her wear a sweater in 100-degree heat' question.
Wearing clothes and having a religion are induced upon us the same way. Toddlers love to run around naked and wouldn't feel close to any sort of god unless you told them one exists. Clothes may have started as a way to keep warm, but we've been conditioned to have some form of modesty over the course of human existence.
There's also a Star-Bellied Sneetches aspect to clothes wearing, too.
Before industrialization, clothes were expensive . You had to spin the flax/cotton/wool fibers into thread manually, you had to weave the threads into fabric manually, and you had to sew the pieces of fabric together with a needle-and-thread manually. This incredibly labor-intensive process meant few people who had to work all day could afford a full set of clothes, much less a wardrobe.
Therefore, clothes were a symbol of affluence. And once something becomes a symbol of affluence, everybody wants it. Being naked was a sign that you were too poor to afford clothes, and were therefore a less desirable person. When industrialization came along and significantly lowered the cost of producing garments, throngs of once-naked poor folk eagerly snatched up the opportunity to deck themselves out "just like the rich people."
And now the marginalized Sneetches, too, had stars upon thars.
"is that it quickly explains the why of so many questions, for example why do people where clothes?"
And the answer is what? That our ancestors ate a magic fruit that let them tell good from evil, realized nakedness is sinful, and started making clothes out of leaves (before God got them into leather)?
If nakedness is sinful, weren't Adam and Eve naked - hence sinning - even before they ate the fruit?
Didn't God make them naked, creating them in a state of sin and not perfection as the bible claims?
How did God walk among them in Eden if they were in a state of sin? I thought God couldn't abide sin?
The problem with all fundies: Just because there's an answer to question does not mean it's correct.
Example:
Problem: My mailbox is lying on the ground, with the pole cracked in half and a huge dent in the actual box.
Possible Answer: A meteor hit it. A very small one. That cooled itself down so it didn't leave any burn marks. And slowed down so it wouldn't cause a crater.
That answer is not viable because it breaks the laws of physics, but since it exists, it works for some people.
Ah yes, we wear clothes because a talking snake convinced two people to eat a piece of fruit that an omnipotent god put into a garden without realizing what was going to happen, and because they did we are all evil from birth and doomed to hell, but we can be saved because god's son, who is also god, died for us and came back.
Yeah, nothing questionable about that
Really? The Bible has the better answer?
So, "talking snake conned rib-woman into eating magic apple that filled her with ghost-poison and made her...something", is a better answer then, "bitch, it gets cold outside"?
Do you know what "better" even means?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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