the bible..............*sighs*

I once heard a minister say, "I believe that the Bible is the word of God. I do not believe that the Bible is the words of God." By that he meant that the underlying messages are what God wants us to learn, but it should not be taken literally and there are parts of it that just aren't true or don't make sense. It is the moral lessons that we should take from it, but not necessarily follow every last minute detail of the book. That is how I tend to regard the Bible as well.

While the underlying moral concepts and moral values of the bible are wonderful delving too far into your explanation is dangerous. You get people who say they believe in the bible, and that parts of it are literal, and other parts metaphorical or symbolic. This allows you to make the bible whatever you want it to be creates a new interpretation of the bible for each person that reads it. The Bible simply becomes a joke after that. I could say that any given passage means whatever I want it to mean and through metaphor and symbolism I could prove any point fairly easily. To those that believe in the Bible, that's awesome for them. They have something to follow and something to believe in that they can work towards, namely making it into heaven. But to those out there that are choosing to believe in the Bible's God, but they try to fit the Bible into their own beliefs, I would urge those people to really question their faith. If they find that they really do believe in the Bible then that would be wonderful, but if they find that they don't believe in the bible and they have been forcing it on themselves they could easily improve their quality of life by trying to find their own religion that suits them. I dislike the christian excuse that the bible is symbolic and that you can take whatever you want from it. To me, you have to believe in the bible and its teachings, all of them not just the ones that benefit you, to truly be a christian. Otherwise I would say you aren't quite christian and more exploration is needed to find your religion.

I'm sorry if I ranted a bit there and please keep in mind that this post is in no way anti-christian. I respect true Christians a great deal and simply am urging some to realize that they don't need to squeeze into someone else's religion to fit in and they definitely shouldn't take a religion and twist it until it benefits them so they can still "relate" to a religion. If anyone disagree's with what I have to say I would love to hear from you and if you have made it this far I congratulate you as I can be hard to follow sometimes. Thanx for reading.

May the Force be with you,
Rai

Rai,

I would say that I agree with you to a point. I think that if you are going to believe the Bible is symbolic, then you must believe it is all symbolic. None of it is literal. Maybe the people really existed, but the stories they told served as lessons. However, if you believe the Bible is literal, then you must follow all of its teachings. I would not say that you should pick and choose which parts are convenient for you. I think that is the point we agree most on.

Just a little note on this topic.

Many years ago I learned a very valuable lesson when it comes to discussing the Bible and/or Christianity.

first, interpretation is never the same by the same person, it's more like a History lesson of how this particular religious belief is and grew. It's not verbatim. But it's beginning to head towards the future...

Neaj Pa Bol wrote: But it's beginning to head towards the future...

Could you elaborate on this? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

I feel that the Bible can be quite useful if it is taken for what it honestly is: a collection of myths, histories, and pseudo-histories. If you can dredge through the hagiography, embellishments, and poetic license there are some good ideas. Usually these are found in the New Testament.

As with any other religious text, if you don't enjoy it or agree with it, why continue to read or discuss it?

Who's to say what's truth and what isn't? The thing that matters is what you take away from it. If it makes you more closed-minded, then it is not a good take away. You are hurting others this way.

steamboat28 wrote: As with any other religious text, if you don't enjoy it or agree with it, why continue to read or discuss it?

Because people are motivated by what they believe. Making yourself familiar with what a lot of people believe gives you a reasonable expectation to their actions or opinions to agree with or to combat, or at least understand. If nothing else, study of religious text is a discipline of knowledge gathering like any other study, so its worth it either way.

Connor Lidell wrote: Who's to say what's truth and what isn't? The thing that matters is what you take away from it. If it makes you more closed-minded, then it is not a good take away.

There is a method to telling truth from falsehood and nobody is entitled to just decide what is true and go with it. Because people act on what they believe and the fewer false and the more true things one believes, the better one is off, and what's more important - the better the people around that one are off as well.
The only loophole to believe the capital-T Truth of one's choosing is when one's beliefs really at no point influence one's action. And that virtually never is the case unless one is inconsistent in the respective belief.

Gisteron wrote: Making yourself familiar with what a lot of people believe gives you a reasonable expectation to their actions or opinions to agree with or to combat, or at least understand.

But there are at least 375 ways to interpret any scripture, and honestly, within Christendom, the Bible is the #1 source of disagreement between members. So, it's not really helping a lot in that regard, is it?