{"id":10303,"date":"2011-10-18T12:15:53","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T04:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/?p=10303"},"modified":"2011-10-20T03:35:12","modified_gmt":"2011-10-19T19:35:12","slug":"the-invincible-iron-chariot-proof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2011\/10\/the-invincible-iron-chariot-proof\/","title":{"rendered":"The Invincible Iron Chariot Proof"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/object><\/p>\n

‘The Lord [God] was with the men of Judah.
\nThey took possession of the hill country,
\nbut they were unable to drive the people from the plains,
\nbecause they had iron chariots.’
\nSo states the Bible in Judges 1:19 at
\nhttp:\/\/bible.cc\/judges\/1-19.htm<\/wbr><\/a><\/p>\n

This means that God, as described, is not omnipotent,
\nfor he could not even handle iron chariots.
\nWas Judah perhaps lacking in faith, that made it so?
\nGod is still not omnipotent,\u00a0in being unable to inspire faith then.
\nBut as he is there despite being supposedly omniscient,
\nhe must not be really omniscient either.
\n<\/span>
\nAs God was seeking to divide people via war,
\nhe is not omnibenevolent either.
\nThus, God, as ‘self-described’,
\nis not omnipotent, omniscient or omnibenevolent.
\nIn short, God is not God as popularly believed;
\nthere is no\u00a0omnipotent, omniscient or omnibenevolent God.<\/p>\n

The Lion’s Roar<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ven. Mohottiwatte Gunananda and Rev. David de Silva, the two main protagonists in the Panadura Debate [1873 in Sri Lanka, between Christianity and Buddhism], had very contrasting styles and characters. Already a seasoned debater, Gunananda was able to play to the audience, standing up and dramatically gesticulating as he spoke. He also addressed the audience in everyday Sinhalese, whereas de Silva used many Pali and Sanskrit quotes which they could not understand easily. Having received a Christian education, Gunananda also knew the Bible very well.\u00a0On his own, Gunananda was more than a match for the Christian debaters in terms of oratorical skills. It was his Lion\u2019s Roar which dispelled the fear and shame imposed on the Buddhists by the missionaries\u2019 continual disparagement of their religion, and it reawakened the country\u2019s pride in its religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

After much arguments and counter-arguments, the turning point of the debate was when Ven. Gunananda pointed to the verse at Judges 1:19<\/span> in the Bible. The verse states : \u201cAnd the LORD was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.\u201d\u00a0Gunananda said that this showed clearly that the God could not be omnipotent as claimed, if he could not even overcome iron chariots. Rev. de Silva tried to explain that the reason the God did not overcome the chariots was because Judah did not have enough faith in him. However, Gunananda countered by asking, if Judah did not have enough faith, then why was the God with him in the first place?\u00a0Sri Lankans believe that evil spirits are afraid of iron. In fact, they commonly hang a piece of iron up on their homes to keep evil spirits at bay. Gunananda\u2019s point thus made sense to the audience because of this.<\/p>\n

Although there were more arguments, the debate was effectively over by the first day. The victory for the Buddhists could not have been more resounding and emphatic, with the crowd shouting and cheering for Gunananda and the other monks. The Lion had Roared.\u00a0Word of the triumph spread rapidly throughout the island with temples, villages and towns breaking out in open and joyous celebration. Reflecting the open and tolerant nature of the people, the festivities were free from hostility and anger towards the defeated party, even though they were boisterous and happy.\u00a0P<\/span>ride had returned to Buddhism and its revival in Sri Lanka had begun.<\/p>\n

– From Page 52 of ‘Island of Light: Buddhism in Sri Lanka
\n(A Concise History and Guide to Its Sacred Sites)’<\/p>\n

http:\/\/dhammaprotector.blogspot.com\/2011\/02\/panadura-debate-buddhist-christian.html<\/a>
\n http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/47524900\/Island-Of-Light<\/a><\/p>\n

Related Article:<\/strong>
\nHow A Religion Destroyed Another
\nhttps:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/2010\/06\/how-a-religion-destroyed-another<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘The Lord [God] was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[244],"class_list":["post-10303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mix","tag-god","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moonpointer.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}