Bible a waste of space?

[Anti-World]

I have read a few books in my life time that could all be the foundation of faith and morals. I know that I could also write my own and it would have equal relevancy and wouldn't be nearly as cryptic.

The only persuasion in beleiving what the bible says is that God will hurt me after I die. You know what? After all the pain that goes on today do you think I really care?
I have read about rapes, murders, beating, molestations, and hate-crimes. We've been in wars that have wiped out hundreds of thousands of people.
And possibly worse than that, there are millions of people that have died of stupid accidents.

I am sick and I'm tired of waiting for someone else to fix the problems and I'm wondering why we do?

Then again. If God doesn't exist than the bible doesn't mean anything, neither do morals.

I don't understand why anyone would follow a cryptic, misunderstood, mis-translated, and distorted book. We literally have thousands of denominations of christians struggling to understand what the heck the bible means and no one can EVER be right! So now what? We run around in circles trying to figure out this book while the poor starve and the murderers continue to murder.

Does it really matter what was written thousands of years ago when we are talking about problems at the present?

 

[Halcyon]

Then again. If God doesn't exist than the bible doesn't mean anything, neither do morals.

I'd disagree with that, i don't think God needs to exist for morals to be important.

As an aside, what do you mean by your signature "If you believe in anything you're a liar"?

 

[Anti-World]

You're lying to yourself

 

[Seraphiel]

The bible is a book with texts that are often misunderstood in our modern time. The bible made by a roman emperor with only a few texts that that emperor thought was relevant at the time. The bible was used as a tool of power by the church. To make a long story short... it needs updating.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Jesus said to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and to love God. If God does not exist, we cannot love God, but we can still love our neighbor.

No big deal.

 

[Anti-World]

Exactly, evangellus, exactly, therefore why do we need god or the bible?

 

[michel]

Exactly, evangellus, exactly, therefore why do we need god or the bible?

Well, I would answer to that "I don't need God, nor the Bible, I choose to believe in God because I believe I have 'talked' to him.

You make God and the Bible (and therefore Religion) sound as if they are things that 'one ought' to believe in, to keep God happy....

 

[doppelganger]

Jesus said to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and to love God. If God does not exist, we cannot love God, but we can still love our neighbor.

No big deal.

But if God is incarnate in you, then loving God is loving that which is in you. If you don't love yourself, you're going to have a major problem loving your neighbor.

So even if "God" doesn't exist, the two commandments to love God and love your neighbor still mean something.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Exactly, evangellus, exactly, therefore why do we need god or the bible?

By faith, God provides the energy to love as Christ loved, the self-sacrificing that is needed to love our enemies and nieghbors. Christ is the model, of course, because death is inevitable when loving enemies.

The same self-sacrificing principle helps us to fulfill the other teachings of Christ (eg., blessed are the poor... in Matt 5).

 

[angellous_evangellous]

But if God is incarnate in you, then loving God is loving that which is in you. If you don't love yourself, you're going to have a major problem loving your neighbor.

So even if "God" doesn't exist, the two commandments to love God and love your neighbor still mean something.

Yes, I am presuming, along with Aristotle and Cicero, love for self precludes love for others. I'm not sure that Aristotle, Cicero, or Jesus meant that our self-love is self-affection, but it definately is self-provision. That is, love for self is the forgiving of errors and provision of food to oneself, and love for others is the same. Affection I think in Aristotle and other moral philosophers is directed at others and not to the self. Just FYI.

note: Love your nieghbor as yourself

 

[doppelganger]

Yes, I am presuming, along with Aristotle and Cicero, love for self precludes love for others. I'm not sure that Aristotle, Cicero, or Jesus meant that our self-love is self-affection, but it definately is self-provision. That is, love for self is the forgiving of errors and provision of food to oneself, and love for others is the same.

Very nicely put. In a similar vein, here's some commentary on the subject from Carl Jung and then Herman Hesse.

"I cannot love anyone if I hate myself. That is the reason why we feel so extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who are noted for their special virtuousness, for they radiate an atmosphere of the torture they inflict on themselves. That is not a virtue but a vice."

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us”

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Very nicely put. In a similar vein, here's some commentary on the subject from Carl Jung and then Herman Hesse.

Thanks... I don't read moderns very much, LOL.

 

[porkchop]

Very nicely put. In a similar vein, here's some commentary on the subject from Carl Jung and then Herman Hesse.

Oh please, not these plebs!! They talked utter nonsense and i cant believe people today still lap it up. Actually, i can, as everything is self self today, you gotta expect it. hating yourself/self hatred is a myth, plain and simple, no one ever truly hated themselves, but thats for another thread.

Anti-world, you clearly do not understand the Word of God, i would suggest if you are truly interested( though i doubt you are and just like to be controversial) read the Bible, id suggest King James, and ask God to show you the truth.
I understand this world is horrid and sickening and its hard to believe theres a God, but there are reasons for all that is going on, you just need to take the time to find out why.

 

[doppelganger]

Of course, depending on what one does with it, the Bible can be a waste of space.

 

[doppelganger]

hating yourself/self hatred is a myth, plain and simple, no one ever truly hated themselves, but thats for another thread.

"With his principles a man seeks either to dominate, or justify, or honour, or reproach, or conceal his habits: two men with the same principles probably seek fundamentally different ends therewith. He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a despiser."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Of course, depending on what one does with it, the Bible can be a waste of space.

An appropriate response.

 

[Sunstone]

If God doesn't exist than the bible doesn't mean anything, neither do morals.

Why do you believe that without God, morals mean nothing?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

hating yourself/self hatred is a myth, plain and simple, no one ever truly hated themselves, but thats for another thread.

I could not disagree more. From the time of Aristotle (at least), Westerners consider the self-loathing person to be insane (or at least mentally unstable).

 

[Reety]

Of course, depending on what one does with it, the Bible can be a waste of space.

I think the bible is a wonderful tool. I believe the old testament is the best history book. How can we know where we're going until we understand where we came from?

 

[FerventGodSeeker]

You're lying to yourself

Then if you believe that quote, you are a liar also...seems rather self-defeating.