Germs Prove Jesus Isn't God

Matthew 15:1-2,7-9 (NIV)

Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!"

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:

"'These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

His instruction to ignore this rule of the elders made his followers sick:

1 Timothy 5:23

Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Of course everyone knows you have to wash your hands before you eat or the germs on your hands will make you sick. But surely the elders didn't know about germs?

Here's some info on Shibta by John Lightfoot (1602-1675). He said:

To these most rigid canons they added also bugbears and ghosts to affright them.

It was the business of Shibta. Where the Gloss is, "Shibta was one of the demons who hurt them that wash not their hands before meat." The Aruch writes thus, "Shibta is an evil spirit which sits upon men's hands in the night: and if any touch his food with unwashen hands, that spirit sits upon that food, and there is danger from it."

Note, John Lightfoot quoted this about 200 years before germ theory was first stated, so, he could laugh but if you were explaining to a child why they had to wash their hands, what would you say?

“Well, there are these invisible creatures that are on your hands and that can make you sick if you don't wash them off before you touch food that's going to go into your mouth.”

Sounds a lot like a Shibta doesn't it?

But Jesus didn't believe in Shibta and didn't know about germs so he could not possibly be God.

To be fair, I don't think he ever said he was.
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All Bible quotes are from:
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica
taken from http://www.biblegateway.com

I've previously posted on this in two other articles:

Demons and Personal Hygiene

Elders and the Spirit of the Unwashed Hands

but they are pretty technical and not so easy to read.

How A Fanatic Thinks

How to Deal With a Non-Believer:

Do everything you can to share your religion with them. It is your privilege, it is your obligation to save them.

When someone disagrees with you, however, remember, they are disagreeing with the person who taught you. If they disagree with the person who taught you, then they are disagreeing with your Holy Books, if they disagree with your Holy Books then they're disagreeing with your prophets and if they disagree with them then they are disagreeing with God Himself and must be made to repent!

So when asked a question that suggests you might be wrong about something, don't check your facts, because by checking them that means you have doubts about what you believe, and if you have doubts about what you believe, you might start to doubt what you were taught, and if you doubt what you were taught , you might start doubting your Holy books and if you start doubting those you'll start doubting your religion and then you'll be a heretic which is exactly what the question is meant to achieve!

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Of course this is false reasoning, but there is a reason fanatics think this way. Most are newbies to the religion and start teaching others before they have finished learning the basics themselves. They probably haven't read the entire Old Testament/Tanach, for example. Furthermore, they are the type of people who don't question what they are taught- they swallow it whole, so they don't ask questions, so their teachers can't tell if they got it right. Also people aren't taught what their Holy Books actually say. There's a huge disconnect there. Furthermore, what the prophets actually said and what was recorded that they said is also different. Reporter bias comes into play. Then of course there's the case where the prophets get it wrong. For instance, Jesus got it wrong when he said that his followers shouldn't wash their hands before they eat. That's just an example from Christianity but this applies to prophets of all religions from what I have seen.

Of course if someone studied their Holy books and did the research they would no longer be a fanatic, but until they do, their faith is so fragile that every question threatens to destroy it, which is why they fight you so hard when you question a statement. If the fanatic has settled in with a like minded group of people, they will be disinclined and discouraged from studying because if they did they might start thinking different from the group and no longer belong.

Fanatics are in the religion to feel good. They're happy because they are surrounded by others who love and accept and agree with them. Fighting with others against the outside world is a bonding experience that makes them feel good too. Also, their religion gives them purpose and meaning and a mission. Something that's very valuable and was probably missing from their lives before they became an adherent to their religion. Their priority is to feel good about what they are doing and teaching, not to get to the truth.

So don't bother arguing with fanatics- they have too much to lose if they change their minds. They just won't do it.