The Bible Is True...

[sandy whitelinger]

Ok, now that I trolled ur attention...Is the bible true but the names, places and events have been changed to protect the guilty/innocent.

What I mean is that once all the veneer and the strange twisted arguments and reasoning are stripped away is there a universal coherent message in the bible?

 

[Cacotopia]

So the bible is a Dick Wolf story?

 

[Sunstone]

"A universal coherent message"? With 60 some different authors, most all Jewish?

Reminds me of the famous joke: Gather 25 Jewish people together to discuss anything, you'll get 26 contradictory opinions.

 

[InChrist]

At one time I thought the Bible was incoherent and confusing, that was ... until I was born again. Immediately after that I realized it all made sense and the theme of salvation offered through Jesus Christ was woven throughout, from Genesis to Revelation.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

"A universal coherent message"? With 60 some different authors, most all Jewish?

Reminds me of the famous joke: Gather 25 Jewish people together to discuss anything, you'll get 26 contradictory opinions.

You did not address my message. Only the veneer. Please try again.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

So the bible is a Dick Wolf story?

I do not know this dickwolf.

 

[Sunstone]

You did not address my message. Only the veneer. Please try again.

I seriously doubt the bible is a shoe that fits every foot on the planet.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

At one time I thought the Bible was incoherent and confusing, that was ... until I was born again. Immediately after that I realized it all made sense and the theme of salvation offered through Jesus Christ was woven throughout, from Genesis to Revelation.

I hold the same sense of it yet in a different way. Perhaps I see it as being that you need to have faith or nothing makes sense.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

I seriously doubt the bible is a shoe that fits every foot on the planet.

Is there no essential message

 

[Sunstone]

Is there no essential message

Not one that is spiritually relevant to everyone, so far as I can see.

 

[Subduction Zone]

At one time I thought the Bible was incoherent and confusing, that was ... until I was born again. Immediately after that I realized it all made sense and the theme of salvation offered through Jesus Christ was woven throughout, from Genesis to Revelation.

That is called confirmation bias.

A recent convert to Islam, Hinduism, or almost any other religion will feel the same way and rational people ignore those claims.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

Not one that is spiritually relevant to everyone, so far as I can see.

I wasnt suggesting a universal message only an essential message.

What if (as long as I'm what iffing) that message is not about this world? Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world. Perhaps the message is from that world.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

That is called confirmation bias.

A recent convert to Islam, Hinduism, or almost any other religion will feel the same way and rational people ignore those claims.

So experiencing a change in awareness through faith is called confirmation bias?

 

[siti]

...once all the veneer and the strange twisted arguments and reasoning are stripped away is there a universal coherent message in the bible?

If you strip away enough then the Bible merely tells us that there is something bigger than ourselves and that generally speaking we really should be nice to each other, but...

(a) the devil is in the details;

(b) neither of these ideas were remotely novel when the Bible was written;

(c) we don't need a 2000 year old book to tell us this

 

[sandy whitelinger]

If you strip away enough then the Bible merely tells us that there is something bigger than ourselves and that generally speaking we really should be nice to each other, but...

(a) the devil is in the details and;

(b) neither of these ideas were remotely novel when the Bible was written and;

(c) we don't need a 2000 year old book to tell us this

Agreed. It does not seem like you do. What if I found that simple message through a 2000 year old book?

 

[InChrist]

That is called confirmation bias.

A recent convert to Islam, Hinduism, or almost any other religion will feel the same way and rational people ignore those claims.

I did not convert to a religion. I was changed by a Personal Savior. Huge difference.

 

[siti]

Agreed. It does not seem like you do. What if I found that simple message through a 2000 year old book?

OK, that's good. And I first learned about math from a "My First...." book - but I couldn't have got through University - let alone life - based on that level of understanding.

 

[sandy whitelinger]

OK, that's good. And I first learned about math from a "My First...." book - but I couldn't have got through University - let alone life - based on that level of understanding.

So it's a starter kit.

 

[exchemist]

"A universal coherent message"? With 60 some different authors, most all Jewish?

Reminds me of the famous joke: Gather 25 Jewish people together to discuss anything, you'll get 26 contradictory opinions.

I thought that was Indians - possibly the most argumentative people on earth.

 

[siti]

So it's a starter kit.

"Love God" (aka that thing that's bigger than you are - your family, community, planet) and "love thy neighbour" are great rules of thumb - but real life is much more complicated and nuanced than that...and like I said, we don't really need the Bible to learn that.

Like I also said - the devil is in the details. If you stick rigidly to Bible precepts because it got the general rule of thumb right you get into a mess - you start believing ridiculous things like "God hates ****" and "evolution is only a theory" and all that kind of nonsense.

So no, not really a starter book - if you strip away the "veneer" you're left with nothing more than a common human intuition - that we are connected to something bigger that includes other people and that it behooves us to temper our evolutionary propensity for taking "unfair" advantages in favour of a more ecological and social-minded approach. Its hardly surprising that just about the only thing the Bible gets right is a common human intuition. But it does provide a valuable record of how that balancing act has evolved from strictly tribal to more "globally" inclusive as we read from Genesis to (say) Paul's "one body, many parts" (1 Corinthians 12:12-27) and Peter's realization that "God does not play favourites" (Acts of the Apostles 10:34). But we have had - "God" has had - another 2000 years to further develop that positive trend.