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I have to chuckle because if you think about it, early man had no clue in regards to science and didn't really care. Over the course of time, man has developed science to try and answer the mysteries of life and he still has a lot of work to do IMO. For those who believe in God though, one day, all of man's efforts, theories, discoveries, etc. will be like chaff in the wind and all that will be left is God's Word. For those who do not believe in God, you will be left with nothing. Just MHO.
The primary reason that I don't believe that God exists and why I would need evidence is that religion in general has all of the qualities of something that was invented by man.
I look at religion the same way that I look at art. A painting is more than just the physical object. The physical product is just the end-result, but there was a whole process before it ended up like this.
When I look at a painting I ask myself who painted it, in what era, what technique did he use, is there evidence of symbolism etc? A piece of art is an idea given a physical form.
Religion is the exact opposite of art; it is an abstract idea which is derived from the physical form (or the psychological profile) of humanity.
Religion, like art, has to be looked at in the right context; otherwise you'll get the message totally scrambled up.
When I look at a painting I do not ask myself if art exist, I only ask myself if I would consider that particular painting a piece of art. But there is no doubt in my mind that art exists. I mean there are art pieces which I consider trash, but that is just my opinion. Who am I to tell others that they can't consider it art just because that is my opinion?
The same is with religion. I only ask myself if I would believe that particular religion, but that doesn't mean that it loses all validity simply because I do not believe in it.
Actually, this is not my opinion. It is in the Bible and I have to stand by what it says so I recant my opinion and stick with God's Word. Sorry for the mixup.
Actually, this is not my opinion. It is in the Bible and I have to stand by what it says so I recant my opinion and stick with God's Word. Sorry for the mixup.
So you are saying that you personally do not have an opinion?
Well, I do but I prefer to let God's Word speak sometimes rather than put my foot in my mouth. (Which sometimes is often so I tend to hold back as a result )
Ah Okay!
Because if you did not have an own opinion reading the bible is of no use, since every word is an interpretation. Some words have several meanings and it is you (as a reader) and not the bible who has to decide which meaning a word has. Or what the meaning of a string of words (a sentence) is and what the meaning of several sentences (a story) is.
What I am trying to say is that every time you read the same story, it doesn't mean that you interpret it the same way. If you read a story about the death of the father of a character the impact and message of the story could have changed when you have experienced the real passing away of your father. What you read in a story and the real life experiences that you have lived through always influence the interpretation of that what you are reading.
Look at it this way, every time you read a book/story, you get more out of that which you read than you did the first time. Everytime one reads the Bible, we learn more about what is written in there because phrases, lessons, parable, histories etc. come alive a little more than the previous time. As we meditate on these things, then His Word begins to come alive within us more and help us to learn about God and what His Word says.
Look at it this way, every time you read a book/story, you get more out of that which you read than you did the first time.
True, but that is only possible when you interpret things. If you were unable to interpret things the story would be exactly the same as when you’ve read it the 1st time, even when you've read the story a 1000 times.
It is the same with computers, they also do not think and nothing ever changes until they become upgraded.
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As we meditate on these things, then His Word begins to come alive within us more and help us to learn about God and what His Word says.
Meditating upon something is nothing more than reflecting the story against the backdrop of your own life (=your personal experience). Only through interpretation does a story come to life and interpretation has to do with your personal point of view. And everyone's POV is different because we each have experienced different things.
I mean look at actors who have studied the same play; although they may act out the same scene of the same play, each gives a different performance of the scene, even when they've had the same director.
Even though actors may read the scenes a little different each time, the underlying story remains the same. It is the same with the Bible, each person may interpret some of the Bible just a little differently, but the underlying message(s) remain the same, even over the span of 2,000+ years.
It is the same with the Bible, each person may interpret some of the Bible just a little differently, but the underlying message(s) remain the same, even over the span of 2,000+ years.
This is not a given. I mean in medieval times the aspired figure of the women is not the hour shaped glass we idealise now and especially not the anorexic look. In those times being thin was more a sign of being unhealthy or of being poor. And now the rich and the privileged aspire to be as thin as many of the poorest of the poor in our world.
Anywayz, the plagues for example have a different meaning for the Jews than for Christians.
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To the Torah's first hearers [the Jews], the myths of the Bible had already been understood as mythology by the pre-Biblical cultures from which many of them came. They also understood that the Bible comments on its own stories, as stories, directly! On numerous occasions, the narration asks its hearers whether they get the joke. They understood that Jacob's sons weren't really the fathers of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, but parodies - racist parodies, at that - of the qualities that had come to be associated with each of these existing groups. They understood that the "plagues" against Egypt were literary desecrations of the Egyptian gods. (Blood desecrates the Nile, which was a god. Locusts desecrate the corn, a god, and so on.) Douglas Rushkoff
So there is a difference if you've read the bible in the time it was written and many centuries later.
I mean 9/11 is a global event to which the context is clear to us, but 20 centuries in the future the meaning of 9/11 could be totally different than the one we share now, because they are not as emotionally involved or shellshocked to the affects of 9/11 as we are now.
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A piece of art is an idea given a physical form.
Who am I to tell others that they can't consider it art just because that is my opinion?
So you are saying that you personally do not have an opinion?
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