Rational BAC

mark-------

Of course, there are the alternatives.------

---- There are those who read the Bible and do find it full of contradictions, immorality and falsehoods---------and do not find their faith in Christianity shaken one tiny little bit. Of what importance is it really whether the Bible is divinely inspired and directly written down by God through the use of men? Or whether some of it is and some not ?------Or not at all? To me that is irrelevent.

Only fundies and atheists worry about such things. Strange bedfellows what?

There are a few who believe the Bible is inerrant and God's divine word in all its parts.

There are many, many more who believe there is some divine truth in the Bible,------

----- there are some like myself who believe there is no divine inspiration or Godly aid in the writing of the Bible at all. ----------believe that the Bible was man made---to try and explain supernatural events with no divine help at all. And are still devout and legitimate Christians.

Only literalist fundamentalist Christians, (along with atheists) have this very odd problem with the Bible the original post was talking about. -------------------That is to say-- that the Bible is an all or nothing thing. It is either completely without error or it is worthless. Happily most Christians do not limit their minds and their choices in the same way that atheists and fundies seem to do.

And there are not really that many literalist Christians. It just seems so sometimes.

lpetrich

Magus55 may not know this, but non-reading of the Bible used to be enforced -- for many centuries, the Christian Church had a policy of keeping the Bible away from rank-and-file followers. And considering some of the Bible's contents, that seems like a very appropriate policy.

And I don't see how Magus55's favorite "scholars" can be counted on to be objective if their careers would be ruined by concluding that the Bible has errors in it.

Furthermore, there are numerous scholars who disagree with Magus55's strict fundamentalism.

Magus55 ought to read Finkelstein and Silberman's The Bible Unearthed or Doherty's The Jesus Puzzle.

Mageth

Its the most complex, in depth, thought provoking and meaningful book on the face of the Earth.

Mageth's Cliff Note version of the Bible:

God created world. God created naked man and woman and told them not to eat fruit.
God let snake in garden. Snake talked woman into eating fruit. Woman talked man into eating fruit. They felt ashamed and got dressed. God got pissed, cursed nature, man and woman, and snake.
Man and woman had lots of kids. Kids bad. God drowned most of them.
Survivors again had lots of kids. God picked a tribe to give Law to. Told them to sacrifice livestock so he wouldn't be so pissed.
Tribe screwed up, too.
God still pissed, so god sacrificed himself to himself to save people from his pissed-off self. Used up all the water the first time around; had to come up with a different plan.
God says he come back some day and finish off what he started with flood, do it right this time. Better cover yourself with blood so he know not to kill you and toss you in hell.

That's the gist of it. Sounds simple enough to me.

Complex? You should try reading James Joyce's Ulysses sometimes.

In depth? Try reading Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Thought provoking? Read some Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, or numerous other thought-provoking books by scientists and others, or read Joseph Campbell, or even some good, complex, thought-provoking poetry (Wallace Stevens, W.B. Yeats, etc.; pick your favorite).

Meaningful? That's debatable, but I've found as much or more meaning in Lao Tzu's little book the Tao Te Ching than in the entire bible. And if the "meaningfulness" of the bible is that all nature and humans are corrupt and sinful and will be destroyed, with the humans tossed into hell for an eternity of suffering unless they cover themselves with the blood of the sacrificial lamb, that's a "meaning" the world would be better off without.

You could take the knowledge about the Bible of every Christian thats ever walked on the face of the Earth and combine them, and still not understand the entire meaning and complexity of the Bible.

An odd thing, that, as it's supposed to be the revealed words of a divine god that's to lead us to a proper, personal understanding of and relationship with him. It would seem he'd want to put things a bit simpler so we mere humans could grasp it.

The Naked Mage

Mageth, have I ever told you how much you kick ass? :notworthy

HelenM

Hey Mark,

Ok, so maybe most Christians you've run into (because I doubt you really know about most Christians, in general) are hypocrites, don't think for themselves, don't read the Bible.

Why does that bother you so much? And what will it change that you posted what you did, here?

I could go post a "Most atheists..." rant on a Christian board. I expect I'd get a chorus of "Amens". That might make me feel good. But it wouldn't really change anything, would it?

Helen

AJ113

Magus, if the ever-decreasing circles that you are running around in get any smaller you will disappear up your own arsehole.

How can the bible be a valuable learning tool if, by your own words, it can never be completely understood? :banghead:

The Lone Ranger

If the Bible is the word of God, all I can say is that God really could have used the services of a good editor.

Cheers,

Michael

Goliath

Magus55,

ROFL! Thanks for the laughs!

Seriously, though, I find prettymuch any Mathematics book in my library--Kaplansky's Commutative Rings, for example--to be far more complex, in depth, thought provoking, and meaningful than the xian bible.

Sincerely,

Goliath

Goliath

Rational BAC,

Second verse, same as the first:

I don't believe you, and you have yet to produce the slightest shred of evidence to back up this ridiculous claim!

Sincerely,

Goliath

Goliath

lpetrich

Really? Interesting. Does anyone have any further information about this? You've piqued my curiosity.

Sincerely,

Goliath