(August 18, 2013 at 5:32 pm)Consilius Wrote:(August 18, 2013 at 3:32 pm)whateverist Wrote: I'm not sure I follow what you have in mind by the part I've bolded. What do you think is the proper place of the bible for a Christian? Do you think of it as the result of divine dictation or as the work of inspired men (as can be found in many other books as well)? I'd very much like to know your views on the bible.A religious text will tell you that some things are good and some things are bad. When we do bad things, bad things happen…NATURALLY. It's not just karma, it's the way society is. Societal evils detoriate our way of life as people and as a society, which is why we don't allow them to be practiced. The way religion brings God into this is that He is the ultimate standard of perfection. Imperfection is contradictory to Him, and cannot exist with Him. To refuse good things like morals is to refuse God and lack His prescence.
To say that God possessed people to write holy words into a dark and sinful world is to give Him less credit than He should have. Punishment for wrong is more than divine hurricanes. It is what human society is engineered to provide. This world isn't a place for evil, which is why it cannot coexist with society. As a Christian, I'd say God is more present than it seems.
To specify, I don't think the Bible writers were divinely possessed in any miraculous way. They simply had the right idea about their religion, about our world, and were authorized to write about it.
Well thanks for trying. I'm afraid most of what you say went over my head. I'm not sure if you're saying:
Interpretation #1: "We, by way of religion, have given the ultimate standard of perfection for human behavior a name. We call it God. When in our own behavior we get near the ultimate standard, what we are overlaps with His presence."
Interpretation #2: "Metaphysically there is a being, God, which embodies all that is good and proper for human beings. When we align ourselves with God, we necessarily become good.
Ack! I know I am not doing justice to the second interpretation. I just can't cobble together a coherent phrasing for god understood as a being in itself. This is probably why I am having a hard time understanding what you've written.