|
|
#21
03-03-2007, 06:48 PM
|
|||
|
|||
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
To give an example Lev 25:44 says you can possess slaves, etc. 300 years ago - great. Now - not so great. But how to do you work it out?? It's revealed to you and yet you don't own any slaves? Is there a higher law than set out in the bible? Do you have the bollox to try and own slaves given it's against the law nearly everywhere? [/ QUOTE ] You've either never studied the entire Bible enough to put Leviticus into the correct context in which it exists, or you are reading the Bible with the purpose of picking out flaws and contradictions in Christian beliefs. Either way, you aren't analyzing it accurately. How much do you know about the slavery described in Leviticus? How is it the same and how is it different than slavery in 19th century America? Or is slavery just slavery and that's the end of it? What do you know about the Mosaic Law? How much of it applies to Christians today? How much of it does not? Or do Christians just pick and choose the parts they like or the parts that their priests and pastors like? There isn't an index that says which bits to ignore and which bits to follow? First you have to understand what it is that you are reading, when it was written, to whom, and what the political and cultural context was in the authorship. Any intelligent investigation does this with any piece of literature. Why is the Bible different? 
|
|
#22
03-03-2007, 08:00 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
How much do you know about the slavery described in Leviticus? How is it the same and how is it different than slavery in 19th century America? Or is slavery just slavery and that's the end of it? What do you know about the Mosaic Law? How much of it applies to Christians today? How much of it does not? Or do Christians just pick and choose the parts they like or the parts that their priests and pastors like? [/ QUOTE ] Here's an excerpt From Mark Twain's autobiography that I found revealing regarding 19th century southern Christian preachers on the issue of slavery. [ QUOTE ] In my schoolboy days I had no aversion to slavery. I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. No one arraigned it in my hearing; the local papers said nothing against it; the local pulpit taught us that God approved it, that it was a holy thing, and the doubter need only look in the Bible if he wished to settle his mind — and then the texts were read aloud do us to make the matter sure. [/ QUOTE ] Link
|
|
#23
03-03-2007, 08:14 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] To give an example Lev 25:44 says you can possess slaves, etc. 300 years ago - great. Now - not so great. But how to do you work it out?? It's revealed to you and yet you don't own any slaves? Is there a higher law than set out in the bible? Do you have the bollox to try and own slaves given it's against the law nearly everywhere? [/ QUOTE ] You've either never studied the entire Bible enough to put Leviticus into the correct context in which it exists, or you are reading the Bible with the purpose of picking out flaws and contradictions in Christian beliefs. Either way, you aren't analyzing it accurately. How much do you know about the slavery described in Leviticus? How is it the same and how is it different than slavery in 19th century America? Or is slavery just slavery and that's the end of it? What do you know about the Mosaic Law? How much of it applies to Christians today? How much of it does not? Or do Christians just pick and choose the parts they like or the parts that their priests and pastors like? There isn't an index that says which bits to ignore and which bits to follow? First you have to understand what it is that you are reading, when it was written, to whom, and what the political and cultural context was in the authorship. Any intelligent investigation does this with any piece of literature. Why is the Bible different? [/ QUOTE ] It amazes me to see the extent that an otherwise intelligent person (I'm assuming) will go to in order to delude their self. Do you ever wish that you were born an idiot so you wouldn't have to construct these elaborate arguments to suppress your reasoning abilities? Your claim basically amounts to stating that you must posses some esoteric understanding to decipher when/where/how biblical doctrine should be applied. I for one am immediately skeptical of anyone who thinks like this.
|
|
#24
03-03-2007, 08:48 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
It amazes me to see the extent that an otherwise intelligent person (I'm assuming) will go to in order to delude their self. [/ QUOTE ] See...even you have faith in things that are obviously untrue!
|
|
#27
03-03-2007, 11:01 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
Your claim basically amounts to stating that you must posses some esoteric understanding to decipher when/where/how biblical doctrine should be applied. [/ QUOTE ] No. Just apply the same standards used on any other piece of historical literature.
|
|
#28
03-03-2007, 11:51 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
What's your point? That's not the first time somebody has used Scripture incorrectly to support an unbiblical opinion. [/ QUOTE ] You helped me to clarify my point. The reason Scripture is used repeatedly to support varying positions is that there are as many diverse interpretations of the bible ( or the word of God ) as there are Christian denominations. God’s word does not lend itself to simplicity and ease of understanding.
|
|
#29
03-04-2007, 12:47 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] What's your point? That's not the first time somebody has used Scripture incorrectly to support an unbiblical opinion. [/ QUOTE ] You helped me to clarify my point. The reason Scripture is used repeatedly to support varying positions is that there are as many diverse interpretations of the bible ( or the word of God ) as there are Christian denominations. God’s word does not lend itself to simplicity and ease of understanding. [/ QUOTE ] Indeed, presumably God thinks the Bible's messages, whatever they might be, are very important. And yet they're relegated to a text from a barely literate age, written from sources decades removed from the principles, cobbled from obvious copies of tales relaying the exploits of prior deities, riddled with contradictions, stuttering language, often incomprehensible logic and mores, notions of the physical world in direct opposition to modern science. Never mind the mistranslations and selective editing, and the multiple editions. You mean this is the best an all-powerful being can do? Where the Hell is God's website? And how can any intellectually honest person say they don't have a problem with all of the above?
|
|
#30
03-04-2007, 01:20 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Re: unbelievable ignorance
[ QUOTE ]
riddled with contradictions, stuttering language, often incomprehensible logic and mores, notions of the physical world in direct opposition to modern science [/ QUOTE ] This is not true.
|
 |
|
|
Linear Mode
