question about the bible

[Godscreated]

I believe this is very well put fr0d0, I would say you have a good grasp of realtiy on this point. I haven't believed that there is a God just because someone told me there is. It took me a long time, a lot of investigating and soul searching until I arrived at my own conclusions about a creator. It was entirely MY choice.

So if no one told you about a god, why would you do so much "investigating and soul searching?"

And if, having decided you need to do that, did you study all religions (Islam, Judaism, the variations of Christianity, Wicca, animism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Shinto, &c), or just one version of Christianity? And if the latter, why did you decide to accept that and reject all the others without even looking at them? What makes you an atheist on all religions except yours?

The atheists here would say that there is only one difference between you and them: you believe in one more god than they. They would say I have two more than they. So do I win with a pair?

If you decided to give Christianity "a fair shake" and study it intensely, I wonder why you did not do that with all religions. Organised ones like yours, unorganised ones like mine, and many others. And to be fair to yourself (the only fairness that matters in such things), atheism should also get much "investigating and soul searching" as well.

Then when you have done that, most folk here would be more likely to accept your premise that "you arrived at your own conclusions." As you describe it now, you limited yourself to intense study of one aspect of the question of religion, did not study any other, nor atheism, and made a "free will choice." In fact there was no other choice or conclusion to make (you only studied one), there was no will (you chose not to study anything else), and I'll bet the study wasn't free either (atheism, Wicca, and many other religions do not have collection plates).

In conclusion TC I would suggest that if you read the scriptures again that you not read straight through, instead you should study scripture and to do this you can not read straight through you must search for answers and why not look for some truths instead of trying to find what you believe to be contradictions.

You certainly don't want to read the Bible straight through. While it is touted as the Word of God, some words are just too squicky for the modern-day Christian, like burning villages and raping virgins, taking virgins for the army as "war spoils," how to treat your slaves, how slaves should be content with their lot, and adult nursing as a God-given blessing (that's actually one of the good things in there too) and all those other seeming contradictions to history and geology and science, that when you don't read them, aren't contradictions.

Protestants long argued against the Catholic Church about interpreting and standing between the Bible and their parishoners, yet they do the same. "Study it" (but only the parts they tell you to study, not the whole thing). If you are going to base your religious belief on a book, you ought to know what's in the whole book. If you don't your are taking your faith on faith.

And if its "The Word of God," why wouldn't you want to read the whole thing, if you believe that? Don't you want to know all his Word?

Ofttimes the words "study the Bible" are a euphamism for "memorise passages from the Bible." If you actually -read- the Bible, you might learn what's really in there, touted as the "Word of God." I find, sadly, that many more non-Christians have actually read the -whole- Bible than Christians have. Many Christians only take the word of some fellow (almost always a fellow) in a pulpit -telling- them what's in there.

My aunt Carolyn is the former Chief Presbyter of Chicago. (I guess that means she is a Presbyterian.) She is now "semi-retired" preaching from a small church's pulpit in Allegan, Michigan. But the New Testament is clear: women should keep silent in church. They presumably should never lead a major church denomination or instruct in religion. Oh yes, I forgot all the rampant sexism in the New Testament in that list above.

There is an awful lot of the Bible that is not taught from the pulpit, nor in Sunday School, for good reason. They don't want you reading what's really in there. If the Bible were published under any other title today, it would most certainly be banned to minors, and considered pornography by many others.

(KJV) Proverbs 5:18 & 19: "Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasent roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravisthed always with her love."

Isaiah 66:11 - "That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory."

So much they don't teach in Sunday School or church . . .

James

I never said not to read the entire Bible, everyone should, however reading srtaight through is not a study of scriptures it is just completeing a read. I'm not sure where you get your info on what goes on in churches, I've never experianced what your touting. No those verses are not taught in Sunday School and the reasons should be obvious, however with the way some on this site reason it would not suprise me if they thought it to be true.
Please answer this question, why do you think that pastors of churches do not want the people of the church studying scriptures, what would that profit them?

---

you first have to disprove God before

No, asshole. YOU have to demonstrate that your god is something other than a figment of your very fried imagination. I don't know how many times I have to keep telling you this because it never seems to sink in but your fucking GOD is not a default position.

You believe in it because you are an idiot. The rest of us require evidence.

Don't thank me. I'll keep reminding you every time you fuck up....which means more or less on a daily basis!

I understand that you have nothing better to do in your life than to make yourself look like a grouchy old cogger, what a waste of a human mind.