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Well, they sure as hell aren't history, though I'm sure you would beg to differ.
Luckily the world has grown up so much that even the bible can't be shoehorned into an accurate world view, so it will soon be relegated to the status cultural kitsh where it belongs.
Eventually the Muslims will get their enlightenment too.
Why isn't the Bible history? There is a lot of archaelogical evidence that affirms a lot of the Bible.
I'm not trying to convert you to anything, but would like to point out how badly misrepresented those who do practice what they preach in their lives have been represented. If you could have met my grandmother you'd know the difference between what's real and what's for sale.
Speaking of which it reminds me of a bake sale where adults were engaged in petty bickering over cookies (meant for charity). Out of the mouths of babes I asked her why adults were mad about cookies. She smirked, tried her level best not to laugh, and said... "I'm glad you noticed". And I got a cookie.
Now, what do you think you know about WV? What do you know about Christians? Are you very sure your own value system wasn't predicated upon the example she (and many others) set living out their lives honorably?
Why isn't the Bible history? There is a lot of archaelogical evidence that affirms a lot of the Bible.
Because snakes don't talk, the entire world has never been flooded, languages aren't created by angry gods smashing towers, plagues don't afflict only first-born children, the dead don't rise after 3 days and the world is actually 4.5 billion years old, not 6000. Just to name a few reasons...
How do you know the snake couldn't talk at that time? God had just formed Adam and Eve from clay. Or perhaps Satan just appeared as a snake.
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the entire world has never been flooded,
You sure about that? There is evidence of a global flood, along with numerous flood legends in many different cultures from around the world that would seem to indicate that perhaps they are based off of some element of truth.
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languages aren't created by angry gods smashing towers
You sure about that? If they all spoke the same language at first, why would they change to new languages?
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, plagues don't afflict only first-born children,
One plague did.
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the dead don't rise after 3 days
Jesus did. He also raised Lazarus.
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and the world is actually 4.5 billion years old, not 6000.
Based on your faulty evidence, you believe it is. I get that.
The koran is a collection of mindless babblings by a madman. The Bible is 66 books written by different authors at different times, all in agreement.
The koran has some definite problems to it. For instance, it teaches that a man's "seed" comes from his chest.
You could equally interpret that as a crude expression of his seed coming from his soul. I view the Koran as one mans view of the world in the framework of human growth and development stages. Middle aged men do wrestle with their demons at the point where their prophet departs from teachings of peace to teachings of retribution and violence. Saying this aloud might get me killed in a Muslim country but then again so will an atheist imagining there is no country be killed by a Christian country. I'm thinking people not walking their talk should be held accountable for their deviation and not be permitted to hide behind a flag of loyalty. Misrepresentation is a climate of malevolence, ignorance, and dishonor.
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Originally Posted by Calvinist
The Bible records things that happened---it doesn't tell Christians to carry out the violence.
You need to assert that statement to AGO at their next banquet in DC. They are hijacking Christendom convinced they're 'freedom fighters'.
You equate complexity to truthfullness, or are you just stating your opinion of these books as a comparison?
Just asking because i wouldn't think that complexity should mean anything.
Consider the reasoning behind the teachings of Jesus being told in parable form. It's a higher level of discernment intended for individuals to embrace directly for themselves, not as an organized herd. The departure from Judaic tradition, the thing trying to be averted, was to resist the heavy handed thou shalt nots that boxed people into irrational thinking. By religious law attempting to manage secular life a doctor would be stoned to death for healing the sick on the Sabbath. Irrational. The problem is that Christian teachings do not translate into secular law form very well at all. There is a reason for that and people should not be animating themselves to create a theocracy or risk becoming a nation serving itself believing itself to be God.
Our laws are predicated on Judaic tradition and in every way we see shortcomings in those laws, we see the mistake in approach that Jesus attempted to correct. I believe the animosity in America towards Jews is in many ways fueled by this dynamic within our own justice system. Some Christians feel they are being instructed how to be Jewish by writ, and examining their assertions objectively, their argument does have weight even if I disagree that Jews as a population conspire against me or anyone. Equal time the argument some Christians have against Jews is the same argument Atheists have with religion itself. Seems we need to have a new framework of criteria for lawmaking.
I think the Biblical writer realized that. The fact that scientists today don't consider them the same type of animal is irrelevant.
The Bible as history book...
The Biblical writer was a mortal male limited in his ability to communicate, and also to comprehend fully what it was he was witnessing. This is not actually at odds with science, I agree, but to presume so much infallibility to witnesses in Biblical times comes the danger of worshiping an apostle, or worshiping Jesus alone, where the over arching Godhead is displaced by myopia. Our ability as humans is limited in ability to perceive, comprehend, and communicate and as such should humble us all equally if we are earnest in practice.
Jesus did not come as a mason to etch tablets of thou shalt. He was a carpenter. His other career was 'a fisher of men'. Why?
In my opinion (and I hasten to add that I am not a practicing Christian or Muslim), the real beauty of Biblical Christianity is not only that it can be manifested as a metaphor for expressing existence as loving kindness, but that so many of its adherents do so.
The probems with Koranic Islam, as I see it, are, first, that so few of its adherents are willing to forego its literal interpretation and accept the possiblity that metaphorical representations are a better way to go than to cling to a seventh-century iteration of martial sectarianism, which includes among its tenets a basic intolerance for the existence of any other essential spiritual truth; and second, that so many of its most fervid believers define themselves by an enthusiastic eagerness to commit murder in its name...
Well, they sure as hell aren't history, though I'm sure you would beg to differ.
Luckily the world has grown up so much that even the bible can't be shoehorned into an accurate world view, so it will soon be relegated to the status cultural kitsh where it belongs.
Eventually the Muslims will get their enlightenment too.
And WHERE praytell did such a megalomaniacal notion come from???
OPPS! Don't look too closely... IT'S ANOTHER RELIGION!!!
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