Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Have you ever wondered why a God would choose certain individuals who happened to be able to read and write to spread his message instead of just sending the message directly to every single individual without any middle men? That's actually one of the reasons that I started to doubt that religion was true when I was in my early teens. A couple of thousand years ago almost everyone was illiterate. Human language appears to be a fairly recent development and written language was only understood by a small minority of the population. Why would a God choose those few individuals who had the ability to write to spread his word? Were they somehow better or more worthy than the common people whose daily routine was physical labor or some activity that didn't require the ability to read?
The reason God had the Jewish people write the Bible was because He knew that not only could they write the ancient Word, they had the traditions that would inable it to be passed on to other generations. The fact that the Jews were tossed out of their land 2,000 years ago and now 2,000 years later we find them back in their again, should tell us something about the Jewish determination as a people. God knew they would be the only one's who could be trusted to prserve His Word. Can you tell me of any other race of people who returned back to their land after 2,000 years of exile? God picked the right people for the job, and only God could of known that the Jews were the right people. I'm glad He did not pick the Incas.
Yeah.. cause the Incas were a bunch of jerks. I mean really.. the thought of the Incas being the chosen people. Thats just crazy.
Thank goodness God sent the Spanish and smallpox over there in 1200 so they wouldn't be worthy..
Well, I don't think God did send the Spanish over there. However, I understand their arrival did cut down on all Incas attempts at heart transplants. I guess they only learnd how to remove them from a mans chest anyway.
Have you ever wondered why a God would choose certain individuals who happened to be able to read and write to spread his message instead of just sending the message directly to every single individual without any middle men? That's actually one of the reasons that I started to doubt that religion was true when I was in my early teens. A couple of thousand years ago almost everyone was illiterate. Human language appears to be a fairly recent development and written language was only understood by a small minority of the population. Why would a God choose those few individuals who had the ability to write to spread his word? Were they somehow better or more worthy than the common people whose daily routine was physical labor or some activity that didn't require the ability to read?
Wow, what a good question! I never thought of that one. No middle men, now theres a dream come true.
Well, I don't think God did send the Spanish over there. However, I understand their arrival did cut down on all Incas attempts at heart transplants. I guess they only learnd how to remove them from a mans chest anyway.
Actually the Jewish people DID practise human sacrifices early on , including on children. Human sacrifice and animal sacrifice has been a part of most religions at one time or another.
Human Sacrifice, Jepthah’s Daughter and Al-Quaeda (http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1397 - broken link)
Last edited by Mooseketeer; 03-18-2008 at 06:26 AM..
From everything I've been told the Bible is supposed to be directly inspired by God to the various authors who wrote it. The problem I have with this is that God seems to be doing all of this mysterious work when no one is there to observe it. It's just like Moses getting the Ten Commandments. He goes up on a mountain where no one else is around and later comes back with stone tablets in which God has supposedly inscribed the words (I wish we had them today, I'll bet we could easily detect the fact that they were really made with tools and not the result of a miracle). My point in posting this thread is that God is never visible or actively engaging in any activity with the masses of humanity but just picks these middle men who are the only ones who get to see him or hear him and then their job is to pass it along to the rest of us. I find that very hard to believe.
From everything I've been told the Bible is supposed to be directly inspired by God to the various authors who wrote it. The problem I have with this is that God seems to be doing all of this mysterious work when no one is there to observe it. It's just like Moses getting the Ten Commandments. He goes up on a mountain where no one else is around and later comes back with stone tablets in which God has supposedly inscribed the words (I wish we had them today, I'll bet we could easily detect the fact that they were really made with tools and not the result of a miracle). My point in posting this thread is that God is never visible or actively engaging in any activity with the masses of humanity but just picks these middle men who are the only ones who get to see him or hear him and then their job is to pass it along to the rest of us. I find that very hard to believe.
Very convenient to the priests when the original works of god somehow always disappear. Somehow those gold tablets Joseph Smith supposedly found also disappeared. It doesn't stop the priests from making unsubstantiated claims and it doesn't stop the sheep minded from believing the stories. It seems that the more impossible the story, the more likely people are to believe it - without a shred of evidence to back it up. Con artists throughout the ages have always prospered, especially when they get the power of the invisible god behind them.
The truth is that the original 5 books of the bible otherwise known as the Torah were not handed down. They were a deliberate creation of a cabal of Persian priests under the direction of Cyrus the Great with the express purpose to create a religion that would subdue the Palestine population under the rule of said priests who were then sent there to control and displace the conquered population there some 2600 years ago. They did incorporate and bastardize mythology and actual history of the Middle East from other areas and groups, but they misplaced the time so it doesn't match up with actual history. That is not the same thing as tribal lore from the people of Palestine.
Does it not make you wonder why the supposed glorious cites of Palestine left no trace when earlier cites in Sumeria and Egypt left plenty of evidence for us to verify? And actually were amazing building feats.
What I find amazing is how just someone saying something with nothing else to back it up becomes the "truth."
I think those people who could read and write wrote the bible. To the ones who were illiterate, it must have been like a miracle or magical to see scribbles on "paper" that meant some words and told a story. It's only a short walk to god from there. Those who could read and write probably knew a lot more than that, they probably had explanations for natural occurances, etc,. anything to make people stand back and take notice.
I often wondered what happend to Joseph Smith's tablets.. yet still people took his word and never questioned things like that.
It seems significantly more efficient to put words into a book to be preserved than to be constantly reminding everyone what He wants. Also, back in Biblical days, it didn't matter that people were illiterate, they went to the temple to worship--that is where they heard God's words, and that sufficed.
I'm sure whoever it was doing the preaching never never never EVER, twisted the words, interpreted it their own way, snuck in messages they wanted and made a buffet out of the subject.
If the bible is the word of this god fellow, and people couldn't read it, then they aren't really getting the word of god when a man (that the bible makes out to be corrupt) is reading it to them. they are getting his word.
Montana, god didn't chose individuals who could read and write. The bible was oral tradition that eventually became written down...
(Or so June seems to remember...)
I could be wrong, but i'm pretty sure that not all of it was this way.
Even if it was all oral tradition for several generations, that doesn't lend much credibility either. The fish was thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiis big, and it had tie dye scales an three eyes, but I had to cut the line before it took my boat under. You should have been there.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
). My point in posting this thread is that God is never visible or actively engaging in any activity with the masses of humanity but just picks these middle men who are the only ones who get to see him or hear him and then their job is to pass it along to the rest of us. I find that very hard to believe.
yet still people took his word and never questioned things like that.
