The Bible as Fiction (atheism, Muslim, faith, Christianity)
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I figured I would start a thread about this concept.
What are your thoughts?
there are people who say man landing on the moon is fiction, but we usually call those people "ignorant" and lacking in understanding of something beyond their limited capacity to grasp, rather than saying that indeed it is fiction, and man never went to the moon
it would be more accurate for a person to say "i don't get it it" about any holy book, than to say it is "fiction"
a person's ignorance or inability to grasp an elegant complex set of concepts (whether it is calculus, a holy book, or subatomic particles of matter), just means they are lacking in the tools and skills to understand and grasp the body of material
Last edited by Reads2MUCH; 07-15-2009 at 04:29 PM..
there are people who say man landing on the moon is fiction, but we usually call those people "ignorant" and lacking in understanding of something beyond their limited capacity to grasp, rather than saying that indeed it is fiction, and man never went to the moon
it would be more accurate for a person to say "i don't get it it" about any holy book, than to say it is "fiction"
a person's ignorance or inability to grasp an elegant complex set of concepts (whether it is calculus, a holy book, or subatomic particles of matter), just means they are lacking in the tools and skills to understand and grasp the body of material
So it is impossible for anyone to understand the concepts, but view them as fantasy and not representative of reality?
As fiction it's an incredibly dull book, except for the occasional "holy sh*t" shockers that are worse than any Saw movie. It's written very poorly, and yes I know it's been translated, but the stories skip around so much, and it really lacks continuity.
It is an incredibly dull book and should be listed in the metaphysical section of the bookstore, I find that there is very little of anything of moral value in it and it is so contradictory. That's just my opinion.
Fiction? I think that's the wrong word to describe it. I think of it more as mythology. While the word myth is often used to describe a falsehood, technically speaking, myths do not infer truth or falsity. Rather, myths are "sacred" stories that explain how the world began, the human condition and events. Myths often contain a grain of truth, but then that truth is lost somewhere in the telling of the story. The Illiad, for example, is not a history, but rather a myth built upon an actual event - the Trojan War. The bible falls into this same realm. Most Jews, including Rabbis from different Jewish sects I've talked to, will say that many of the stories in the Old Testament (Tanach) are not to be thought of as histories (in the technical sense). They are stories based on historical events to teach life lessons. I just think "fiction" is the wrong word to use.
As I recall, historically it's been significantly edited for content and continuity several dozen times now, with a lot of the original stuff (Which probably did in fact conflict) removed or smoothed over.
You recall wrong.
Quote:
Any good editor can make a book look convincingly good, but unfortunately for them, their knowledge of science (simply as a tool for reliably analyzing highly improbable claims) was non-existant. Back then in the intellectual dark ages, they thought that if they just saidit, people would just believeit.
They also had some excellent means of persuasion back then which are not generally available to the avid Christian proselytizer now (stonings, torture, ex-communication, etc etc.) [The Muslims, though, they still stone or shoot the opposition. For now... Ain't tyrannical ignorance grand?].
Too bad, huh? Life would be so much easier for the Church if it could just "eliminate" the opposition!
Good thing the Bible wasn't an "edited" piece of work to make things look good.
If the church wanted to "edit" it, there are plenty of things that people like you point to as contradictions that could have been removed.
It is an incredibly dull book and should be listed in the metaphysical section of the bookstore, I find that there is very little of anything of moral value in it and it is so contradictory. That's just my opinion.
a person's ignorance or inability to grasp an elegant complex set of concepts (whether it is calculus, a holy book, or subatomic particles of matter), just means they are lacking in the tools and skills to understand and grasp the body of material
That apart, I see tons of atheists deliberately posting their diatribe in the R & P forum, because they beg to be read and humoured, for hardly any of the theists visit their boring little sub-forum.
Is attention all you guys seek? I thought there were perimeters. You'll never find me in the A&A interrupting your dialogues apart from the rare one or two-liners, like in ShepMom's religion at work thread. And I would expect that reciprocity
That apart, I see tons of atheists deliberately posting their diatribe in the R & P forum, because they beg to be read and humoured, for hardly any of the theists visit their little sub-forum.
Is attention all you guys seek? I thought there were perimeters. You'll never find me in the A&A interrupting your dialogues apart from the rare one or two-liners, like in ShepMom's religion at work thread. And I would expect that reciprocity
The R&P forum is not just for Christianity posts. Now, if there were "tons" of atheists posting "diatribes" in the Christianity forum, you might have a leg to stand on.
That apart, I see tons of atheists deliberately posting their diatribe in the R & P forum, because they beg to be read and humoured, for hardly any of the theists visit their boring little sub-forum.
Is attention all you guys seek? I thought there were perimeters. You'll never find me in the A&A interrupting your dialogues apart from the rare one or two-liners, like in ShepMom's religion at work thread. And I would expect that reciprocity
There are plenty of 'christians' who post constantly in the A&A forums. Personally, I don't go into the Christian sub-forum because of how depressing it is in there.
It's not attention we seek at all, it's discussion. We're allowed to post in here ya know
Regarding the 'bible as fiction', a friend of mine who worked at a book store used to file the bible in the fiction section for funsies
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