34 posts
I know what my answer is to this question but I am curious as to what any religious folks think about this notion.
Do you think the Bible is really the inerrant word of God or do you think something else of it?
As for myself I cannot possibly believe it is the word of God. Why you might ask? Simple there are too many things in it that suggest that a perfect being could not have possibly written it or whispered it into the ears of man. Take something like slavery. Totally cool in the Bible. Slaves were common place among other tribes but even God put the Jews into slavery many times as an acceptable form of punishment. Would an all knowing merciful being really use slavery as a form of punishment? I don't think so. I think as we have developed as a people we have understood that slavery is a deplorable act that one human can inflict on another and as such we detest slavery at face value as a deplorable thing.
Also there are all the errors that have occurred throughout the years. Many of them clerical in nature. Scribes start copying one thing and end up on the wrong line and omitting a word, sentence, or a complete thought forever altering the meaning of the text and sometimes causing great misunderstanding of a particular thought or idea. In some cases there are complete forgeries to help further along a particular idea. For example the entire last chapter of Mark was added centuries later and no manuscript shows any evidence of that chapter as being part of the original book. These things were altered by the church in some cases to further that particular denominations viewing of whom Christ was.
One can also look at what the author's themselves write about particular events and particular ideas that are fundamental to the teachings of say Christ and see great differences in meaning and thought often to the point of being completely contradictory.
So what say you?
I would have to ask, if God spoke the message to man, why would you hold these men to a standard only their God could achieve? God may claim perfection, but why would these men be "like God"?
Why would a few mistakes or perception of an even have to be taken in only one way with only one opinion?
Why would a God send a message to people that would fuck up his word? Why would he trust such important life and death information to an imperfect creation?
Hookbender — May 14, 2012I would have to ask, if God spoke the message to man, why would you hold these men to a standard only their God could achieve? God may claim perfection, but why would these men be "like God"?
I'm am not holding the men to any standard of that of God. If anything I must question the mind of God to deliver his message through the hands of man, knowing full well that they would botch it up as they are pitiful humans anyway. You would think that God would just deliver the law and the stories and all that stuff and not use the hands of man.
What's also interesting is that the time it takes God to operate makes him look like a buffoon. For example, God let the people of the Earth life for quite a long time and it's only when the Jews hit Mt. Sinai that God finally saws that we can't operate as a society raping, killing, and stealing from each other.
Why would a few mistakes or perception of an even have to be taken in only one way with only one opinion?
Well it is common place across religion, especially Christianity, to have many confused ideas about the nature of God and the achievements of such a creation. Peter and Paul are constantly at odds with each other on issues about what Christians are supposed to do. They do not agree on important issues at all. People gloss over the issues and say "Look they both believe in Jesus."
Should you be circumcised or not? What happened before JEsus was born? What happened during his life? What happened on Easter Sunday? What did JEsus want us to do? These are just a SMALL smattering of things that are wrong with what man writes in the bible.
Why would a God send a message to people that would fuck up his word? Why would he trust such important life and death information to an imperfect creation?
Why indeed?
A better question is "Why tell only a chosen few?" He/She/It obviously could just as easily tell everyone then no one would be able to doubt. I think FB's response is already in his signature. ;)
CraigBert — May 14, 2012A better question is "Why tell only a chosen few?" He/She/It obviously could just as easily tell everyone then no one would be able to doubt. I think FB's response is already in his signature. ;)
And of all the fuckers he went to, why the Jews??? Some illiterate band of people with nothing to show for their contributions to mankind. Why not the Chinese whom were already very literate and powerful at the time? It's nuts.
Why couldn't the creator of the world and everything in it create the Bible him damn self? ;) Sure would be easier if we knew exactly what the rules were. ;D I say the Bible is hearsay. ;D
Manimal conceives "perfect"... Manimal makes perfect(ly powerful) being(s)... Manimal has strange ideas and is mostly scared of horrors of nature.
Oh, and death... The big ?
Jesus said to Moses: "Come forth and you shall inherit the world!" but he came fifth and won a toaster instead... :D
Leviticus 25:44 says: Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. '"
A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians? :D
Because the Canadians are to close to being sheep. We know you things go with ewe and sheep... :D
Too close. I can't spell at 6:30 in the morning. LOL
Dearthian: — May 29, 2012Too close. I can't spell at 6:30 in the morning. LOL
And "We know you things go with ewe and sheep..." is any better? ;) :D
God knows all and sees all. He's not very happy with you guys right now! :D :D
How do you know? Would you ask him if he really means what he says about people who commit adultery? I'd really like to know when my ex wife is gonna get stoned to death and all that stuff. I want to get my tickets early, don't ya know. ;D ;D
Whatever you do, don't look up "God's Mulligans" - yikes... :o
BTW - Did you know that you have something that Adam and Eve supposedly didn't? A belly button. ;)
Yeah, and I can eat an apple with no ill effects too. ;D
Hookbender — May 30, 2012How do you know? Would you ask him if he really means what he says about people who commit adultery? I'd really like to know when my ex wife is gonna get stoned to death and all that stuff. I want to get my tickets early, don't ya know. ;D ;D
dude, that was sooo 5000 years ago
Well, then. So all the old shit in the Bible is worthless jumbo crap too, right? I thought God never changed. Is what he thought 5000 years ago different today? Maybe he doesn't send people to hell anymore. Maybe it's alright to dismiss the 10 commandments because they are old. If he changes his mind on punishments, what else does he change his mind on? It's 2012, maybe I won't go to hell if I dismiss his teachings and choose not to believe this bible stuff or that he even exist, for that matter. Shit man, it's 2012. Fuck all that old garbage, right??
Hookbender — May 31, 2012Well, then. So all the old shit in the Bible is worthless jumbo crap too, right? I thought God never changed. Is what he thought 5000 years ago different today? Maybe he doesn't send people to hell anymore. Maybe it's alright to dismiss the 10 commandments because they are old. If he changes his mind on punishments, what else does he change his mind on? It's 2012, maybe I won't go to hell if I dismiss his teachings and choose not to believe this bible stuff or that he even exist, for that matter. Shit man, it's 2012. Fuck all that old garbage, right??
Well, since the Bible is a work of fiction contemporary to its writers, it would obviously be different if it was written now. All human knowledge changes over time. Any religion that I would consider truly self-aware and relevant would have to rewrite its books every time things change... e.g. the Bible should have been rewritten for the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Industrial revolution... and by now it should be getting rewrites every couple of years because information and society changes so fast.
so, random topic... if God says homersexuality is wrong, and society starts to accept it, God should change his rules and re-write them?
DreamTheaterRules — May 31, 2012so, random topic... if God says homersexuality is wrong, and society starts to accept it, God should change his rules and re-write them?
No, no, no. Your turning the argument around. You said a portion of the Bible was 5000 years old. And your statement suggest that makes it irrelevant or void in todays world. Because it's 5000 years old. But that's Gods word and he stays true to his word, right? Gods rules and regulations are forever and never change. His words are perfect and without error.
And humans today, as far as homosexuality, not homer, goes....you can't fault humans today for being more loving and forgiving and more apt to accept people for who they are than God did or does. It simply shows that people today are far more educated and much less ignorant than those of 5000 years ago. And, people 5000 years from now will be even more intelligent.
The fact of the matter is God didn't wright anything. Humans did. If there were a God, who at the snap of his fingers created stars, for example, he would have snapped his fingers and wrote a flawless Bible that would apply forever. Truly without error. No reason to think this powerful being couldn't pull that off, considering he made a human out of a rib. Ribs.....that sounds good by the way. ;D
DreamTheaterRules — May 31, 2012so, random topic... if God says homersexuality is wrong, and society starts to accept it, God should change his rules and re-write them?
Is this what you're talking about there Howie??? ;) ;D ;D ;D
Yep, that looks like the cuneiform symbol for buttfucker. How could that get mistranslated? That's right, somebody's wife was stoned with that section of the bible. That's how it was missing. ;D
DreamTheaterRules — May 31, 2012so, random topic... if God says homersexuality is wrong, and society starts to accept it, God should change his rules and re-write them?
God didn't say that. A person said that, who lived in a time when shit was ass-backwards. The Bible is fiction--it's ludicrous to claim that one voice posits all the opinions presented in the Bible, and it's also insane to promote the idea that 5000 years ago god gave Jews and Christians all the knowledge he would ever give, then just went silent, and demanded no revisions to his work, even though in the intervening time the world of humans has gone through immense changes.
You don't think anything in the Bible deserves to be rewritten? The Bible advocates, among other things, death for taking the lord's name in vain, death for adultery, death to a woman who is discovered not to be a virgin, that the brother of a man who dies and leaves his widow childless must then impregnate her (and if he doesn't he should be killed), that ejaculation outside of a vagina should be punished by death, that premarital sex should be punished by death. Just sayin'.
I've tried my best to justify the Bible. To promote it's correctness and believe in God and all that stuff. But with things like, well, the things Charger posted to name a few..... how the fuck can a sane person be expected to live by that book when it's really never been followed by anyone to the letter for thousands of years? How can a loving God order his child, we are his children I guess, to eat shit off a wall? I can give you many things in the Bible that are sick, insane, and garbage that I wouldn't allow my kids to read today.
This Bible was written by men. God himself says we can't be perfect and flawless as he is. So, this Bible has flaws by gods own words because men are not perfect. Would you say these men are as perfect and flawless as God was? Even if they were eye witnesses to a event, we now know that eye witnesses testimony sometimes can be far from the truth, especially when time is put between the event and the testimony. There is no way this book can be accurate. Some of the events described in the bible were written about years, under statement, after the event happened. It's hogwash. Hogwash I say. ;D
I don't think the Bible should be re-written. I think it should be tossed in the can.
DreamTheaterRules — May 31, 2012so, random topic... if God says homersexuality is wrong, and society starts to accept it, God should change his rules and re-write them?
God didn't say homosexuality is wrong. Man said it was wrong.
you must realize that a lot of what the Jews do is to seperate themselves from what the other folks are doing at the time of the writing. Those other folks fucked everything and Jews didn't do that. The JEWS said that homosexuality is an abomination. God didn't SAY anything about it. If you look at the writing style of the Jews that wrote the OT you find that everything OTHER people do for shit.
Now to add a bit of flare to your talking point.....God is pro slavery. In your 2012 frame of mind.....are YOU pro-slavery? Or do you think that part needs to be rewritten of thrown out? There are many things in the bible that at some point you have to make a judgement call for yourself.
Is it OK for God to commit murder? If so.....why? God murders a lot in the bible.
God defny thinks Marge is wrong.
Fenderbender — Jun 07, 2012
God murders a lot in the bible.
Including everyone on Earth at one point except for Noah and a few relatives. Talk about trashing your project and starting over! (Didn't help either.) :)
Fender brings up a good point. God kills many in the Bible. He also says thou shall not kill, even put this as a commandment. For those that don't know the difference, that means it's a command, not request.
Yet he kills many and says we humans shall fall short of the glory of God. I'm confused. ;D Does that mean we should strive to kill as many as he did or obey his command to not kill anyone. Contradiction?
I think worshiping the sun would yield better results than this God. At least the sun will keep you warm in the summer. It does serve a purpose and is visible. It doesn't talk back though. But you can make it seem to do that with the proper amount narcotics I guess. ;D
Just remember that the Sun will kill everything on Earth too...
What makes you think that? Did it threaten you?
I'll be gone 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before then.