A discussion around family table.

[Scented Nectar]

It does say that the Bible is a metaphor...in a metaphorical way.

Oh stop, you're killing me!!!! I have no response to this.

You don't, do you?

No. It's an endless made up semantic circle game. You can keep saying that the metaphor is a metaphor forever.

The 'nonfiction' element is the metaphor. The lessons that the Bible is preaching are real life lessons which can be applied to anyone's lifestyle; the stories themselves are simply metaphors for how God works, and don't necessarily have to be true, real life events.

No, the metaphor would be the fictional representation of the nonfictional element. If the lessons of nonharmful behaviour being deserving of death at the hands of followers, and other equally horrible lessons are real, then the bible should be considered hate literature. God is being presented as a nonfictional element rather than a metaphor if it explains how he works. So these horrible lessons can't be metaphors for yet something else.

The book is not trying to factually state that lizards are trying to take over the world; it is, however, factually stating that communists are a threat and a problem, through the use of a metaphor that readers can relate to.

If readers can relate to it, then there would be no argument, no debate, no questioning even, as to exactly what the bible is saying humans should do, and what is real vs metaphor and if the latter what's it mean, and the many contradictions, etc. If mere mortal sinful humans have fucked up the holy word of god so bad that the bible is now unclear, why on earth are you following it at all? Find your own answers, not ones from a messed up, inaccurate, often-made-up, uneducated source with a hidden political/financial theocratically-founded agenda like the Abrahamic religions.

The Bible is the same way. A story promoting a factual lifestyle and it's application to life, through use of metaphorical stories that the reader can relate to.

The world has unfortunately seen, and continues to see the result of humans applying the 'facts' of the bible to real life. Not a good track record, I'm afraid.

And from what I have experienced, the book and the religion based on it are the truth. Not the stories themselves, of course, but the lessons the Bible imparts have proven to be quite helpful, truthful, and beneficial to me. This is not incidental or accidental, and you cannot simply write it off as such.

What lessons? Really, what? Specifically. And exclusive to the bible please, eg, almost every religion and nonreligious philosophy has some variation of the don't do to others empathy rule. I'm very interested to know the lessons only the bible can provide. Also, I hope you don't just say something like, well it's different for everyone. Uh uh, we are not talking about a self help book here, we are talking about a set of laws and commands, to be enforced on everyone, believers/nonbelievers alike to affect us our whole lives. And for you believers, you think it will also affect you after you die and forever.

Again, the story within the book itself about lizards is not being presented as nonfiction; the metaphor for communists, since commies do in fact exist, is.

Ok, then when referring to the bible, who are the lizards and who are the commies? Are sin and hellfire the lizards or the commies? Are evil and satan the real threat or just metafuckingphors for something else? If the bible had an important message, it wouldn't play around with metaphors. And in fact it didn't. The writers meant for it to be taken quite seriously and factually. You only want it to be metaphorical because you are trying to make it fit into your own personal life and morals and stuff.

I have observed God in real life and the nature in which He works.

No you haven't. You have observed real life and chalked it up to one version (xtian) of one specific supernatural cause (invisible creator deities) out of the zillions of supernatural causes that the human brain can make up and wonder about.

When I read the Bible, I find it to be pretty accurate in it's metaphorical depiction of God and His lessons.

If it's a metaphor, how do you know it's accurate? And what particular metaphorical depiction(s) of God are you referring to? An example here would be nice.

I came to the conclusion that He Himself is not metaphorical on my own; and I came to the conclusion that the Bible is a series of metaphors for Him because, well, obviously it was not written by God. It was written by men, about God.

So, how did they know anything about God? It's even worse if the metaphors were made up by mere humans, since the very message is whatever the fuck they were thinking at the time. Can't be taken as a holy guide for all.

I do not find the book to be cruel and immoral at all; there are certain parts within that do, indeed, reflect the time period in which it was written, but those parts are innaccurate according to my understanding of God.

Your understanding doesn't count. You can say that to excuse anything immoral or magical in that book. Let's go by what it actually says. If you agree with biblegod's morals and laws to follow on earth, then you are a threat to my life and well being and basic freedom. It's a hideous book. The accidental time period one is born into, is no justification for that group to deserve suffering. Anyways, even your Jesus said something about not abolishing these old laws, but to do the opposite and 'fulfill' them, make them happen, enforce them. Even gave shit to someone for not killing their disobedient children somewhere in there.

Yes, certain stories and certain parts of the Bible predate all of the religions which are an off-shoot of Judaism and the Old testament, etc., etc. I see this as further proof of my point. It illustrates that, even before the Bible was written in it's original form, people were passing down stories and allegoies about how God and His nature worked and existed in our world.

No, it goes further back than the monotheistic Abrahamic god. There is a theory that the Adam and Eve story represented the judeochristian takeover of the previous gnostic and other religions, Eve representing goddess worship common in many of them, and the forbidden tree of life representing the political control over possible earlier shamanic use of cannabis (the jews restricted the oil-anointing and smoke-inhaling of 'cannabosm' to priests and kings they approved of, and the xtians later stopping it altogether), etc. It's plausible as a theory for how the religious misogyny of the last few thousand years or so came about. But even that all goes back further. Xtianity doesn't have it's own starting point. Holidays and many concepts were taken and adapted from various other pre-existing religions. And who knows what speculative deity concepts they came from in earlier times.

And to me, there are many, many indications that God exists. God gives you exactly what you want to make of life; you perceive a world without God, you get a world that appears to have no God. You perceive a world that does have a God, and you get a world which reveals itself to have proof of God everywhere.

There is no need to add a god-filter to the world. No need at all. And what are some of the many, many indications to you that God exists? Seriously, what? And don't be vague.

Worship, yes, because I know of God's power and His nature. Obviously not in a creepy, stalker kind of way.

Even mere mortal rock stars lose respect for fans who worship and adore ad nauseum. Why would your god even like you doing that to him. It is creepy in a stalker sort of way.

Again, as I stated before; the morals alluded to in the Bible are not sociopathic or evil, if you read deeper into the stories and find the true meaning below the surface of the story. To do this, I must apply my real-life experiences to the Bible, and my observations of the world around me.

What are the good morals in the bible? And where in the bible does it say there is a hidden true meaning and that you will find it by applying your personal experiences/observations to it?

I am a Christian. I believe in the teachings of Christianity.

Then you can't not believe that the christian bible is true. You are cherry picking the bible, and adding hidden meanings that you like, and all kinds of excuses to deny that fact that you are not really a christian. You are obviously a deist, but you don't believe the bible to be true or accurate, even though you like its morals. You claim the supernatural/illogical parts are metaphors, etc so you are not a believer in it, are you? Is Jesus's resurrection a metaphor?

If the movie inspired by true events is trying to relate a real life character who is very nearly incomprehensible in uncertain terms, then it is easier to convey the story through allegory and metaphor than it is through telling the real tale. No one will understand the real tale except those who were involved and those who have had similar experiences.

Who cares about who understands it or not. Real life suffering results (and for believers, eternity as well). That book should at least come with a disclaimer, do not do this in real life. We don't really mean it for real when we say to kill or rule over these or those people.

Not really. It clearly displays the nonsense of it all. Leave the cult, christians. The hell threat is not real, and I think that fear of it is what keeps you from accepting reality, 'just in case it's real' or something.

That 'or something' at the end damns your argument. You can't figure out why anyone would be Christian, so you just apply some preconceived notion of what you presume to be human nature to the situation, and leave it at that.

No it doesn't. That was to include other additional possible reasons that people might believe in hell, such as those with self-worthiness issues who feel they deserve punishment for some reason and figure there must be one waiting for them, etc.

I have found Hell to be very real, by the way. I have lived it, and it is quite terrible. But again, you still have no understanding of what Hell or Heaven truly are, so it is quite impossible to discuss them with you until you do.

You have not lived the christian hell. You are not even dead yet. You don't get to call real life bad times, which everyone gets no matter what one's belief in deities, the christian hell. Hell in the xtian bible happens after death, and whether you are sent there is determined by what God thinks of what you did and thought while you were alive on Earth. No making shit up, or you are not really a christian.

Well, the definition of being a Christian is to be Christ-like. That is why it is calld Christianity. So, yes, anyone not acting Christ-like is not a real Christian in the simplest sense of the word.

The only rulebook on how to be christ-like is the christian bible. So, lather rinse repeat.