(February 27, 2014 at 6:13 pm)Fromper Wrote: A few years ago, I decided to read the Bible, just because it's the most influential book in human history, so I figured I should see what all the fuss is about. I also wanted to read the Koran, Analects of Confucius, and a few other major books from history to better understand how they influenced human culture and history.
I was actually staying at a hotel, and I considered stealing the Bible from the room there, but decided to be more honest than that and go buy one from a book store instead. I remember being surprised that I didn't have to pay tax on the Bible. In retrospect, that kinda pisses me off. So I got it home and started reading. I don't know if I even got all the way through Genesis. ADHD and the Bible just don't mix.
The Bible presents two sides to every issue and the stories evolve from the most basic ideas to the most complex. The stories are a convenient way to remember the points being discussed. IMO it's a major mistake to take them as actual events, especially since a lot of them only involved one or two characters. So there was no one there taking copious notes about Jacob wrestling God and God changing Jacob's name.
The Bible starts off with Adam & Eve just having to observe two simple rules. They didn't have to worship God or do any fancy religious rituals. But they couldn't follow at least one of those rules. The Bible ends with man being saddled with hundreds of complex rules that cover all aspects of his life. So if man couldn't keep two simple rules how can he keep hundreds?
In today's America we have tens of thousands of rules about everything imaginable. We get even more every day. Every conceivable act is illegal somewhere. The thinking seems to be that if we have another million or another 100 million laws then everything will be just fine. The Bible shows that that's a false idea.
