Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Ok I have read it now and my head hurts. The comments don't all agree with each other and some seem to focus on entirely different things.
I think that thousands of years ago ancient Palestine was a tiny place almost like an island, and multiple invasions nurtured a special kind of fraternity there. There was a realization that life had balance to it and rules and there were extremes to avoid. In that place there was a realization that all things and all people were connected, not separate; and there was good will for everyone. Much later this culture met with Persia's monotheism and interacted well. It was not long before the two ideas were thought of as the same idea, that God was indeed above all and in all and through all. Its actually not much different from the realization people have today: that there is one Earth, one universe, one sky for all of us to breathe and nothing we do is truly independent from others. Everything we do affects someone else and ourselves. Like then as now, people realize that there need to be rules that everyone follows for the good of all; and some people now just like then see a power in it all and through it all, like a huge intelligence. They wonder (or we wonder) if for example the entire universe isn't smarter than us. While this is conjecture its not terribly far fetched to suppose that people only 5000 years ago were somewhat like us.
That is respectable. I don't have goals here myself and am simply an unemployed busybody, but I do care about fundamentalists. I come from a fundamentalist background, and I don't look forward to the wholesale destruction fundamentalists will face when they finally careen into a reality that they are unprepared for just as I have done.
Not to everyone. It's a revealed religion. No amount of study can help if you aren't chosen (or want) to understand.
I wouldn't think that love and forgiveness were that 'foreign'? Here's the thing. If you want to be a literalist about scriptures then you have a hard road trying to justify reality (like science) with what you read. Some accomplish that, but it's not that pretty. For me, I see the Scriptures as a blog of man looking for God. They even use it to justify their biases, phobias and even hate. Check out how they blamed God for their own blood thirstiness in the OT. Unfortunately, some see God as either a scapegoat or a spiritual bell boy. I'll stick with the God is Love scenario.
Some of the most beautiful imagery ever written. Traditionally, everyone wanted to turn God into some sort of rule maker. Look at all the rules in the OT. You see, the "Word of God" concept is a pretty big thing to the legalists. Here the writer is pointing out that the Word of God isn't written down anywhere: it's the Jesus. Unfortunately, (#2) many Christians have turned the New Testament into yet another rule book. The book of Galatians is all about people doing this and it contains my favorite passage: 'The only thing that counts is Faith expressing itself through Love.' If you want to really understand the Bible, learn to use it to love others. That's the only rule you need.
Is it necessary to be so damn rude?
No, I haven't lived a sheltered life and I hardly care if you respect me or not.
One thing that does annoy me about Christianity is the tendency of its adherents to 1. use the Gospels, written by unknown authors thousands of years ago, as factual evidence against skeptics. Obviously this is circular reasoning. And/or 2. resorting to vague, metaphorical, poetic speech in order to avoid admitting that their claims are unfalsifiable. I am a Christian, but I would never use any scripture, circular reasoning, judgment, or arguments from ignorance to try to justify my faith. IMHO, it's disrespectful and pointless. But, don't let scripture prevent you from at least appreciating the spirit of Jesus' teachings.
There's little sense to the Bible.
Getting personal doesn't help the progress of the conversation. We all learn a lot more when we stick to being critical of ideas and not each other. I am guilty of it too sometimes, but I think there is good reason for all of us to just make our arguments without lowering ourselves to being unnecessarily cruel. It really is pretty telling of our ability to reason, as it is lowering ourselves to pettiness.
How long have you been studying the Bible?