Bible Club

[vhawk01]

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I am definitely up for it. I think that it is the best way to convince oneself about the sordid truth of christianity and their beliefs. A thorough, open minded, reading of the bible will make you a non christian at least and may even push you on the verge of atheism. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I note already the difficulty of choosing which version is the word of god. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

If there is one thing you can count of Midge for, its unintentionally hilarious posts.

[IronUnkind]

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A thorough, open minded, reading of the bible will make you a non christian at least and may even push you on the verge of atheism

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Midge:

I should warn you that when people speak of "open" minds they mean "receptive" not "filled with empty space."

[Prodigy54321]

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[ QUOTE ]
A thorough, open minded, reading of the bible will make you a non christian at least and may even push you on the verge of atheism

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Midge:

I should warn you that when people speak of "open" minds they mean "receptive" not "filled with empty space."

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do you ever offer anything of worth in this forum?

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A thorough, open minded, reading of the bible will make you a non christian at least and may even push you on the verge of atheism

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Midge:

I should warn you that when people speak of "open" minds they mean "receptive" not "filled with empty space."

[/ QUOTE ]

do you ever offer anything of worth in this forum?

[/ QUOTE ]

Be honest: Thats a pretty legitimate response to Midge's post.

[IronUnkind]

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do you ever offer anything of worth in this forum?

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It depends how highly you value wit and intelligence. I DO know a lot of good fart jokes.

[surftheiop]

fwiw i smiled when i read it

[MidGe]

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Midge:

I should warn you that when people speak of "open" minds they mean "receptive" not "filled with empty space."

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey IronUnkind,

Thanks for the warning(?). I only hope that you understand there is a difference between "receptive" and "prejudiced". [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[madnak]

Getting things started already, huh?

Okay, I'll be using the NAS because all the Christians like it. I really hope that doesn't just mean it's biased - at least KJ is ambiguous enough it's always open to interpretation. But it's not the ancient Israelites I'll be arguing with, it's just the modern Christians, so it makes sense to use what they consider to be the best representation.

I'm sure if you read the KJ or the NIV or whatever you won't feel too lost. The Gateway will give various translations of different passages, I prefer bible.cc which is very simple and slick, either way.

We may "skip ahead" in theory - I'm sure those of us who really want to read the "X begat Y" stuff will be dedicated enough to get through a couple of books in a week, and let's face it - this isn't going to last if everyone tries to slog through the boring stuff. Personally my goal is cover to cover - I've read sizable portions of the Bible, but never the whole thing, and so it would feel pointless to me if I didn't go through all the "boring stuff." Some boring stuff we'll keep though, like Job. Only if it's inane is it worth skipping.

We can start with Matthew, that's fair.

Mostly I want to keep it informal, no rules. So I'll start the Matthew thread around next tuesday. Then on to Genesis for Christmas, or should I say Hanukkah?

[goldcowboy]

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I note already the difficulty of choosing which version is the word of god. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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You know, of course, midge, that any modern-day version is a translation (or a translation of a translation) of the original manuscripts, so obviously cannot be taken as the literal "Word of God". You are indirectly alluding to the concept of the Bible as the infallible inerrant Word of God. But in fact this concept basically only arose in the early twentieth century, and has caused a great deal of trouble for everyone ever since. You might want to take a peek at http://www.crivoice.org/inerrant.html

which is an essay on the inerrancy debate written by a theologian from the Church of the Nazarene. This in itself is interesting because Church of the Nazarene is one of the more conservative denominations in the Wesleyan tradition.

[vhawk01]

Ok, but when the first parts of Matthew aren't on my Biochem exam on Friday, I'm coming on here firing.