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[Serious] A Literal Bible. Answering questions
#51
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 4:53 pm)Angrboda Wrote: Shame this is a serious thread.  There's a lot of behavior begging for commentary.

My bad - thread went sideways and the serious tag slipped my mind...I'll behave. 

Hopefully everyone else will too.

I just find anything that includes the words 'literal Bible' difficult to take seriously.

Play nicely everyone.
  
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” — Confucius
                                      
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#52
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
Reading is difficult, most people reply to the clickbait title instead of what was said. Filters out those who aren't interested though.
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#53
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 5:06 pm)Green Diogenes Wrote: Reading is difficult, most people reply to the clickbait title instead of what was said. People are predictable, but it still seems like a shame

Graceful acceptance of apology noted.
  
“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.” — Confucius
                                      
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#54
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 5:06 pm)Green Diogenes Wrote: Reading is difficult, most people reply to the clickbait title instead of what was said. Filters out those who aren't interested though.

No, it's that this topic doesn't seem to have a point because your posts that are supposed to be about the "topic" are just a word salad, and then you whine about how you are being bullied because people are not talking about the topic because it doesn't exist.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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#55
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
You don't understand my posts, so you're annoyed, and are accusing me of whining about being bullied, despite that not having occurred. You're a liar making an emotional plea.
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#56
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
Flame War
"The world is my country; all of humanity are my brethren; and to do good deeds is my religion." (Thomas Paine)
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#57
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 5:12 pm)Green Diogenes Wrote: You don't understand my posts,

Because there is nothing to understand.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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#58
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 4:39 pm)Green Diogenes Wrote: Aye, figuring out how to break past the dichotomy and hit the core of the issue. It's difficult to break through multiple entrenched dogmas all at once, and I don't have any practice with Atheists so far lol
I'm not particularly interested in talking to Atheists per se, not because I'm not, but because I had 20 years experience being an atheist, and I already know where the 'veil' of the issue is, and can argue there myself. It generally comes down to an issue where two people look at the same piece of data and one man says he can see God, and another says he cannot.

Back to the issue in this thread though; the interpretation style I am using is Biblical, and can be defended extremely robustly in that context, as well as smashing apart the culturally accepted reading. Of course that doesn't mean anything to an atheist, unless possibly as method of engaging people who engage in the "If it's not in the Bible it's not real" line of thinking. It is a tool through that blockade. 

Individual examples and the arguments around the events they describe are something that comes in someone's own time, but the general spirit of empathy applies from the start. Where did this person come from, and when? What did he understand, and how would he describe the world around him, especially when it comes to things he does not really understand? 


(BTW is it just me or is the post new reply page really laggy?)
I guess I'll ask one more time before I drop it..but, who are we talking about here?  Are we trying to employ some kind of empathy for the man who was close enough to watch a person be vaporized by an airburst in 1500bce, and lived to tell the tale?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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#59
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 3:40 pm)Green Diogenes Wrote: There seems to be a determination to miss the point, so that not even agreement can be had, as people repeat back each other's meaning in different phrasing, determined to disagree.

Oh I got the point all right, you're not arguing in good faith. What is the point for you joining the forum given that this fact has been established?
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#60
RE: A Literal Bible. Answering questions
(May 8, 2022 at 5:31 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote:
(May 8, 2022 at 4:39 pm)Green Diogenes Wrote: Aye, figuring out how to break past the dichotomy and hit the core of the issue. It's difficult to break through multiple entrenched dogmas all at once, and I don't have any practice with Atheists so far lol
I'm not particularly interested in talking to Atheists per se, not because I'm not, but because I had 20 years experience being an atheist, and I already know where the 'veil' of the issue is, and can argue there myself. It generally comes down to an issue where two people look at the same piece of data and one man says he can see God, and another says he cannot.

Back to the issue in this thread though; the interpretation style I am using is Biblical, and can be defended extremely robustly in that context, as well as smashing apart the culturally accepted reading. Of course that doesn't mean anything to an atheist, unless possibly as method of engaging people who engage in the "If it's not in the Bible it's not real" line of thinking. It is a tool through that blockade. 

Individual examples and the arguments around the events they describe are something that comes in someone's own time, but the general spirit of empathy applies from the start. Where did this person come from, and when? What did he understand, and how would he describe the world around him, especially when it comes to things he does not really understand? 


(BTW is it just me or is the post new reply page really laggy?)
I guess I'll ask one more time before I drop it..but, who are we talking about here?  Are we trying to employ some kind of empathy for the man who was close enough to watch a person be vaporized by an airburst in 1500bce, and lived to tell the tale?

The empathy point is a general point. 
In that specific example; a comet airburst involves an intense flash of light and heat, similar to a nuclear bomb. It lasts a moment, and doesn't penetrate the terrain. Getting up into the mountains for cover was the objective of the party, so it would stand to reason they were in mountainous terrain that shielded them from this effect, since they survived. One person being out in the open, observed by others in cover, is not a ridiculous idea. 
Having empathy for the author, who was having empathy for the figure in the story (which was derived from an Acacia bush, so the author says), is how you realise that 'pillar of salt' is the best terms a man who had no idea that space existed or what exactly was going on, could use to describe the appearance of what he saw.
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