The Bible.

[2strokebloke]

One thing that bothers me is that people take the Bible as 100% accurate unquestionable truth. I know of no book that is written with some sort of bias from the author (if there were no bias it wouldn't exist) The Bible wasn't written by God who it describes, and while God may be 100% truthfull and unquestionable, people aren't always truthful and are always questionable.
It becomes more of a problem when not only do you have the biases of the original authors, but those of the translators that have reworked this book into languages we can understand.
It (the Bible) is meant as an outline, not a rulebook in my opinion.
Can you imagine what would happen if other books had gained such a following of "believers," how screwed up our world would be today?
I may believe in a higher intelligence, God if you will - but I do not take the Bible as 100% unquestionable truth, as it would be silly and foolish to do so.
Perhaps it is basically correct, with perhaps only embellishment to help drive home the points being made, maybe the personal biases and opinions of the authors snuck into it's meaning - or worst of all perhaps it's a total work of fiction.
Personally, evolution etc. doesn't do it for me, so I'd like to believe that at least the majority of this book is based on true events - but I'd hardly believe that all events have been faithfully written down, and that no personal opinions have crept into it, and it bothers me that other people seem to think that it is the "end all, be all" about our origins, our meaning of life, and our destiny.
I'm not so close minded and arrogant as to have not taken at least a peek into other religions(even if I've never done any in depth study), but I know of many who are. I was born into a christian family, it is the religion I know the most about, it is the religion I have the most questions about - I'm not one to say something is right just because I was brought up with it though. I'll stop ranting now... thoughts anybody?

[Steel]

I honestly believe that the Bible was written by powerful men to force people to realize THEIR ideals of right and wrong. We'll keep it at that.

[TexasF355F1]

Originally Posted by Steel

I honestly believe that the Bible was written by powerful men to force people to realize THEIR ideals of right and wrong. We'll keep it at that.

I agree with that. As there is the old testiment and the new testiment.

[Enzo Vieira]

You are all sheep

[taranaki]

If you follow the Anglican faith,or any of its offshoots,it would pay to always remember that this particular version of Christianity was founded by Henry VIII when the Catholic church wouldn't grant him a divorce.This great man went through 6 wives,executing two of them and divorcing a further two before sdying of syphillis.Such were the morals of church folk at the time,when literacy was limited,and the interpretation of the Bible was restricted to the few who had the priviledge of education.

[Oz]

Ignorant or apathetic? Don't know or don't care. I can't choose. I can see no relevance of some twisted 'deeper meaning' book 2000 years after it was written.

[CeeJay]

Originally Posted by Steel

I honestly believe that the Bible was written by powerful men to force people to realize THEIR ideals of right and wrong. We'll keep it at that.

That's a pretty good observation that I'd be inclined to agree with also. The bible today, as in many many years past, can be interpreted in many ways depending on the mind of the individual reading it. Unfortunately, many who believe, twist and distort the words contained within this book to suit their own agendas. At the end of the day, religion and faith is ( in my opinion ) a crutch for many people who live outside of the real world and need a book such as the bible, and figures such as god and jesus, in order to live their lives. The majority of these people are complete hypocrites, living their lives a certain way one day, and then the next, changing some way they live their lives and saying ... well, the bible says it's OK. The bible is a brilliantly written book, but then so are many others .. take the "The Lord Of The Rings" books for example. It's just a book, but sadly, a lot of people need this book in their lives. They need it simply because they are brainwashed into belieiving that by following the ideals of the contents of the book, they'll live better and more fulfilling lives than other ( non believers ). They believe that by living their lives in a certain way, according to the "teachings" of this book, that they'll go to a place called heaven when they die. And if they happen to deviate from what the book "teaches", well that's OK as long as they're sorry, and this is where their hypocritical attitude enters into the whole equation. If only they could wake up and smell the coffee, they'd realise that heaven and hell do both exist ... but that they exist here and now, in the real world we live in, and are the result of what we make of our lives now. When you're dead, you're dead .. there's no great theme park in the sky called heaven, waiting for any of us.

[TexasF355F1]

Originally Posted by CeeJay

That's a pretty good observation that I'd be inclined to agree with also. The bible today, as in many many years past, can be interpreted in many ways depending on the mind of the individual reading it. Unfortunately, many who believe, twist and distort the words contained within this book to suit their own agendas. At the end of the day, religion and faith is ( in my opinion ) a crutch for many people who live outside of the real world and need a book such as the bible, and figures such as god and jesus, in order to live their lives. The majority of these people are complete hypocrites, living their lives a certain way one day, and then the next, changing some way they live their lives and saying ... well, the bible says it's OK. The bible is a brilliantly written book, but then so are many others .. take the "The Lord Of The Rings" books for example. It's just a book, but sadly, a lot of people need this book in their lives. They need it simply because they are brainwashed into belieiving that by following the ideals of the contents of the book, they'll live better and more fulfilling lives than other ( non believers ). They believe that by living their lives in a certain way, according to the "teachings" of this book, that they'll go to a place called heaven when they die. And if they happen to deviate from what the book "teaches", well that's OK as long as they're sorry, and this is where their hypocritical attitude enters into the whole equation. If only they could wake up and smell the coffee, they'd realise that heaven and hell do both exist ... but that they exist here and now, in the real world we live in, and are the result of what we make of our lives now. When you're dead, you're dead .. there's no great theme park in the sky called heaven, waiting for any of us.

I'll agree there are a lot of christians who are hypocrites. I know b/c I've had to deal with them in high school. My friends and I drank and whatnot, and they talked shit about how bad we were. Then to find out later, they did drugs and drank as well. It still ticks me off. I'm gathering you may have run into one too many extremely religious people who tried to push their beliefs on you and were hypocrites as well. I don't know though, thats just what i pick up for some of your comments. But you really have to quit saying that people who believe in God are mental, b/c we're not. Were as normal as the next guy, we just have certain beliefs. But are values are probably quite similar.

[2strokebloke]

It also gets me when I hear christians complaining about the book of morman, when what do you know? the New Testament was just tacked onto the old testament - and somehow it's better in this respect?

[DGB454]

Well, I am one who does believe that the Bible is accurate.
After reading through some of the comments above I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about Christianity.

It's true that the Bible was written by man but it war inspired by God. I don't think God would let someone embellish his inspired word to make a better story. As far as interpretations of the Bible being wrong then I guess that's possible but after the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls and other ancient documents over the years the Bible has been proven as a very accurate historical reference book even by non religious historians. There were many witnesses alive during the time Christ was alive. All of them tell the same story about what Christ did and what he taught even though their books were written years apart and in many cases miles and miles apart. In those days you couldn't just go to a printshop to make copies and hand them out to your friends so I don't think they just copied each others stories.

As far as some Christians being hyprocrites goes this is my opinion on that.The New Testament it is not a rule book like the Old Testament was. There are some Christians that unfortunatly take advantage of that and think that as long as they ask for forgiveness they'll be OK. (Saved by grace). I do wonder if their salvation is genuine. That's not up to me to be the judge about their salvation so I will just have to leave that to God.

As far as Christians living outside the real world goes then I would have to say that the "real world" is something different to everyone. It depends on everyones different experiences and how they view things.Christians simply look at different experiences from a different perspective than does someone who is not a Christian.

Lastly.(finally huh?) I hear a lot that Christians try and push their beliefs on non Christians. True we do tend to do that. We are suppose to. It's called the "Great Commission" . One thing I do find odd though is that it seems like athiest are trying to push their beliefs a lot harder that we are. Why is that?

[2strokebloke]

Yes, but even some vidence that tends to support happenings in the Bible tends to discredit it somewhat. Take for instance the great flood and Noahs ark. They're pretty sure they've found the ark, and they know there was a great flood - but it did not cover the whole earth, as the book claims. Perhaps a little embellished to drive home the point? Also, exagerations are sometimes plain obvious - don't try to remove the splinter from your nieghbors eye when you have a plank in your own? If it had been written "splinter" in your own eye, the point it's trying to make wouldn't be as powerful - secondly if you did somehow manage to get a plank in your eye - you'd probably be dead.
If you see the point I'm trying to make, it's still generally the same idea, take a great flood in the black sea, and then write that it flooded the whole world, makes a more interesting story. Take a splinter and make it a plank. Gets the point across better!

[YogsVR4]

Just a though. I wonder if some of the stories in the bible were the authors attempt to describe things outside their experience. Perhaps they missed out on what God was actually trying to explain and the geological phenominon of their time. If a 18th century Tutsi were to try and describe the Golden gate bridge, how would he do it? Probably with metaphors of his life experiences. Maybe the writings in the bible follow suit.

[2strokebloke]

I'd believe it. Things that are wonderful and exciting are typically exagerated. For instance when the Japanese first saw Perry's fleet, a few schollars described the ships as being over 400ft long, when in reality all were less than 300ft long. Unintentional embellishment.

[DGB454]

Originally Posted by 2strokebloke

Yes, but even some vidence that tends to support happenings in the Bible tends to discredit it somewhat. Take for instance the great flood and Noahs ark. They're pretty sure they've found the ark, and they know there was a great flood - but it did not cover the whole earth, as the book claims. Perhaps a little embellished to drive home the point? Also, exagerations are sometimes plain obvious - don't try to remove the splinter from your nieghbors eye when you have a plank in your own? If it had been written "splinter" in your own eye, the point it's trying to make wouldn't be as powerful - secondly if you did somehow manage to get a plank in your eye - you'd probably be dead.
If you see the point I'm trying to make, it's still generally the same idea, take a great flood in the black sea, and then write that it flooded the whole world, makes a more interesting story. Take a splinter and make it a plank. Gets the point across better!

The flood may not have covered the whole world as we know it today but it may have covered their whole world. At that time the world as they knew it was much smaller and a lot less populated. It wouldn't take a lot to flood their whole world and do the job it was intended to do. As far as the splinter and the plank thing goes I don't think they meant for anyone to really believe that someone actually had a plank in their eye. It was just to point out how we can see others shortfalls and we ignore our own even though they may be worse.

[loismustdie]

2strokebloke, i don't believe that the authors of the bible exagerrated one bit. there is no evidence at all saying that they did, it would be ignorant to say that, "this point could have been made easier if he said this,.....he must be exagerrating" it makes no sense, to say the author was exaggerating when there is no evidence of that what so ever. i mean i could go get a history book and turn to a random battle and say that the author was exaggerating, and make as much sense as you are now.