The bible’s been edited and re-edited over thousands of years. It’s closer in genre to a historical fictional novel than any real truth. The lessons it provides can give some guidance into every day life, but to accept it just because “the bible tells it so” doesn’t conform with critical, open-minded analysis. Read up on the revisionist history of the holy catholic church. Bunch of control freaks, by and large.
Tom, brilliant post.
Your statement is not true. The Bible as we know it was put together hundreds of years ago using strict criteria and analysis. Some books were excluded, some were not. There are very good reasons for excluding those that were not included in the canon of Scripture. For example, the four gospels are regarded among scholars as being extremely reliable and trustworthy accounts of the life of Jesus. The gospels were written by people who either walked with Christ or, in the case of Luke, by someone who spoke firsthand with one of Christ’s disciples (Peter). And they were written less than a generation after the ascension of Christ. Many other biographies of famous people (i.e. Alexander the Great) were written hundreds of years after their deaths by people who were not alive when their subjects were, yet we have no problems accepting these biographies as true and accurate. Many literary scholars do not believe that enough time passed from the time Jesus left the earth until the gospels were written for legends to weave their way into the story of His life.
What you are doing is looking at the history of the church and letting that determine your beliefs. The Catholic Church has a checkered past. So have other denominations and even other religions (I’d say 9/11 took quite a bit of credibility from the Islamic faith). If you have doubts about the truth of the Bible, pick up one and read it. Read it with skepticism and with a critical mind. Research the parts you have problems with or disbelieve, and make sure to look at stuff on both sides of the argument. If you do that, you’ll be amazed at what you find. The Bible is much more than a historical fictional novel, and you’ll quickly discover that if you read it on your own.
RP
I’m not much for message board back-scratchin or fanny-patting (or is it back-pattin and fanny-scratchin’?), but that was a very good post.
I’m glad you made it, as I figured it would involve me into another discussion from which there would be no escape. I also don’t think I would have said it as well as you did.
To base Christianity on “some” Christians is to base the culture of others on a “group” rather than the whole (i.e. terrorists, criminals, gangsters, thugs, unemployed, famous, etc).
Base Christianity on Christ … heck, the name’s right in the title. Simple.
“Eskimo, Christians, Italian–O lies!” (Say it aloud, fast.)
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“How many people have described themselves as Christian on this forum?”
Not guilty of that. Sort of an agnostic I guess. Unlike the political threads, I stay well off any religious ones because religion IMO is a personal thing.
I am a Christian and have described myself as such on this forum. I’m also a libertarian and would fight for anyone else’s right to believe, say, or not say anything you want, regardless of whether we agree.