NZSkep

goldilocks and the three bears.

moral: don't worry if you get caught breaking into houses, eating peoples food and stealing from them, because someone with a gun will come along and blow them away to make you a nice coat/hearth rug

Hansel and Gretal
Moral: People who live in candy houses shouldn't trust german kids.

Jack and the beanstalk
moral: if you get caught stealing peoples possessions and they try and chase you, it is always best to murder them.

diana

Little Red Riding Hood: Don't trust strangers that look like carnivores.

d

Evilicious

The Bible

Moral: People will believe just about anything.

JEST2ASK

The verse were more of a response to ....



However I think every story, is created to illustrate a point even if it is seemingly "trivial" ... maybe I am just projecting intent

Ryzo

Does gospel of thomas count?

What do you think of these?

"The Kingdom of the Father is like a man who wants to kill an important person. In his house he unsheathed the sword and stuck it in the wall to assure himself that his hand would be firm. Then he killed the person." (GoT 98)

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mariham go out from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Look, I will lead her that I may make her male, in order that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter into the kingdom of heaven. (GoT 114)

Jesus said, "No one can enter the house of the strong man and wreck it without first tying that person's hands. Thereafter, one can ransack the person's house." (GoT 35)

Jesus said: If a blind man leads a blind man, they both fall into a pit. (Got 34)

Helpmabob

My story is - I leant my car to my mother-in-law and she crashed it of a cliff.

What we find in the bible are plenty of stories from which people will pick one moral, and others glean the exact opposite.

Evilicious

Moral: Always fasten your seatbelt.

diana

You seemed to be implying that the fact that you can find a moral in any bible story suggests the moral was intended. This is what I argue is poor reasoning, based on the ability of humans to find one or more morals in any story.

Your mother-in-law crashed your car off a cliff? There are lots of morals I could draw from that, with the little information provided:

- That's God's way of telling you you married the wrong woman. Get out quick.
- Check the driving ability of anyone before you lend your car so freely (sort of a variation of "parable of the talents").
- God's trying to bring you closer to him.
- It's a mystery, which is in itself a lesson that man isn't meant to understand everything.
- Don't worry. Be happy. You're going to heaven.
- You should have gotten the brakes checked when that dummy light went on two months ago. Heed the signs that are given you, my son.

Which one was intended? None, probably. But can I find "morals"? Ohhellyes. What does this prove? That the morals are there? Intended? Or just...that I can find them if I want to, rather like people can find pictures in the stars?

Obviously, my vote is for the latter. Finding morals doesn't prove they're really there. It just proves you really want to find them.

The desire to believe is reason to doubt.

d

Helpmabob

Hi diana – I find myself coming over a pedantic again. I think the points are important, and worth pursuing, however.I don’t make such a claim. I would claim that there are many useful morals to be found in the Bible, including those less ‘palatable’ parts. You did well to find half a dozen morals, but I think you missed the one I had originally intended: ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ (I will miss my car, but not my mother-in-law).

I know this is the height of pedancy, but I could equally say: Finding six morals doesn't prove they're not there. It shows that they are there to be found if you really want to find them.So you have doubts about atheism, or do I misunderstand this?