Is it time to ditch the bible?

I don't think we should ditch the bible. I do not agree with everything it has to say but a lot of the bible reflects other beleif systems as well.

I am a buddhist and I think there are a bunch of buddhist teachings in the B. Maybe it's just me...

Anyway - I believe that any book or document of ANY kind that asks people to focus on something other than the world that we are told to worship is a step in the right direction.

As I see it, religious ritual exists not to say "Hey God look at me, but hey ME look at God!"

PEACE

reply to post by colec156


My THEORY is that this region was filled with the most oppression, strife and suffering of human kind, the jews and other people of the books, Christians and the Muslims had divine revelations revealed to them.

With the Latter being the correct all for the three major systems as it encompasses refined practises and systems and structures for life; these being best practises for business , marriage, charity, etc etc.

Remember that Europe WAS NOT the cradle of civilisation and savages roamed the barron lands in comparison to the middle east. Who at that time had the modern systems of infrastructure, education, mathmatics, sciences, social security based states and many more things that i cant remember and have no knowledge of.


261NE

For those with an enquiring mind may I suggest a book I have found very interesting. This alternative is for opened minded individuals only it is called
The Talmud of Jmanuel. Cheers

Its already getting ditched,Christianity is dying fast,cant remember where now but i saw a report on here saying it will have practically died out by 2100 in the west if the current trend continues.People just cant be bothered with boring,tedious line after line of drivel,a bad work of fiction for more simple times.Nothing more Nothing Less.

The Bible is a long, ponderous book. I was raised Christian, and knew at that time all of the verses, and the meanings that were prescribed to them by those who taught them to me.

However, 35 years later, I still hold the Good Book to one simple rule; the Golden Rule (and no, I've no idea which verse or chapter of which gospel it is held in):

Do unto others as they would have them do unto you.

Basically, the entire message of the Bible (New Testament, at least) is:

"Don't be a jerk."

If people just got THAT message out of it, and were to attempt to follow such logic, life would be better all around.

Zealots follow all details to the letter. The basic message is one of simplicity. One that can't really be argued with.

-Anonymous Guy who's too bored to register

I'm wagering big that a real Creator of biological and other works of art, if one exists, has enough inner peace (therefore outer love) to avoid a lifestyle even remotely resembling a mafioso or warlord like the pathetic, jealous little psychopathic thing of the Old Testament.

The Buddha taught the "do unto others..." Golden Rule (virtually verbatim as the Bible) first, and there's no truly solid reason to believe Jesus existed. There is ageless wisdom and beauty in ALL religious texts that must never be forgotten, BUT, as institutionalized organizations, religion is a poisoned-to-death baby that needs to be thrown out with the poisonous bathwater. The Bible isn't the only book that needs to be ditched.

reply to post by Thistled


I agree to an extent. The bible has discrimination all throught its "holy" pages. Wars, slaves, death, magic, etc.....It all just sounds a little like a fairy tale to me

The biggest problem here is that you are concentating on the words of men and NOT of God. People read to much into the Bible believing that everything is fact, the truth is there is alot of information that has been added and/or altered but the message is still there :

You shall have no other Gods but me.
You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
Respect your father and mother.
You must not kill.
You must not commit adultery.
You must not steal.
You must not give false evidence against your neighbour.
You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.

It's true that religion in itself is Evil however God is not. God is very real and the time WILL come when you will know for sure, lets hope you are right with him when that day comes.

Originally posted by badmedia

Originally posted by twistedworld
A Guess what. You can't help but have an opinion or belief about god. You by default have a religion.

Utter nonsense, and totally wrong.

Originally posted by twistedworld
What would you all do if we could go back in time and observe all the supposed happenings in the bible and find out they were just written stories and never occured.

Something I questioned as a child, and was told by the priest,
"It is the word of god, and you don't question it. To suggest it is a made up story is a bad thing to do."
I thought it rather odd that a holy man would tell me not to question. So I am a sinner for I dare to question.

????

reply to post by Anti - Government


Many are called but few are chosen.

Originally posted by LeoVirgo
reply to post by twistedworld

 

The history of how the cultures of those lands, that were worshipping many gods are backed up by many tablets found in Cannon, Egypt and Mari. The kings mentiond in the Bible are also mentioned in tablets that were records for political means and trades between the cultures. There is real history of what was tranpiring in those lands. Now this doesnt mean it was divine or that is was god who told them to do the aweful things they did. But it is a book of history, no doubt.

No one is trying to push anything on you, you starting a thread about the Bible....you should be open to all responses.

LV

Erm, I started the thread. Thanks for the input, history book you say?

I got a good question

When God gave his first command: Let there be light. What kind of light was he referring to!

It cant be the sun. He created the two big lights later on in the week.

reply to post by spy66

reply to post by Solomons


REALLY ???

i would like to see that report - seriously

it all depends where you look and what you look for

" most " protestant denolninations in NORTHERN europe - are in steep decline [ specifically the UK , SCANDANAVIA , GERMANY , BENELUX COUNTRIES ]

but catholicism is no where near dead in italy , soujern france , spain etc

and further afeild look at korean pentecostalism - that is booming

and cathoicism in south latin america is healthy too

and in north america - branches like the ` souther baptists ` and others are growing , NOT declining

so where did you get this notion - cos i do not see any imminent collapse of christian sects - except in the countries i mention

Originally posted by daptodave
reply to post by Valhall

 

I am a firm unbeliever in the bible. I have many arguments with those that want to about how the bible is wrong and so on and so forth.

I married a devoutly christian woman.

When we had had a particularly nasty argument about some piddly piece in the book, she degenerated into tears and said something to me that has stayed with me ever since;

"You might not believe, but I do, and you have NO RIGHT to take that away from me."

I agree... ditch it for yourself... but dont think by arguing the point you are making happier people - your only taking something they value away from them - even if you're right.

Dave

My point exactly, your lovely wife cried. It brought her to tears, the very thought of losing her religion. Can she not see her life will continue, and she can be happy, helpfull and indeed be enlightened without it.
But that is not what it teaches, it says without it and to not follow is a sin.
That is very clever.

Dave I don't mean to offend, but is it possible you raised a very very good point with your wife, and at that very moment she burst into tears, because she was losing the argument, she thought, "my god - don't prove me wrong on this for it is the bible, and I have nothing else without it?" ??

If that is the case, then the bible is a successful tool for controlling and scaring people.

Originally posted by Thistled

But that is not what it teaches, it says without it and to not follow is a sin.
That is very clever.

If that is the case, then the bible is a successful tool for controlling and scaring people.

Are you talking about Religion or the Bible? You seem to have created a tapestry here, interweaving two things that are not necessarily together.

where does the bible say if you don't accept it, it is a sin? I've never read that.

reply to post by Thistled


No your wrong .....she just cannot understand why those who have no hope would try and take away the hope of others .....
I find that to be very cruel ...and selfish ....just because people are miserable they have to try and make everyone be as miserable as they are ..
misery loves company ..
It also boils down to jeliousy .my two exes were jelious of the fact that I loved the Lord as much as I did ..they thought they should be my god ...


[edit on 2-2-2009 by Simplynoone]

reply to post by Thistled

I agree 100%. Religion has caused nothing but trouble in the past. Wars have been fought over it, millions of people killed, and all in the name of "God." These different types of religion, that are supposedly different but really based on the same story, seperate us as humans. It keeps us fighting with eachother while the people at the very top, that know all religion is just to control you, continue to take the world over. When that times comes, relgion won't matter. Do you think God will come save you? No. He apparently doesn't care about the people that die everyday due to hunger, poverty, war, disease, etc. It also says in the bible that people in governemnt are put there by him. Well I must say he's doing one awful job!!
Relgion does nothing but hold you back and keep you close minded. The people on the top of the pyrimid have used and will contue to use these fairy tales to control us unless we do something about it. It also keeps you afraid of punishment by the almighty "loving" God. You are afraid that if you do something wrong you will go to hell for all eternity or be punished. I know becase I used to be like that. I was scared if I even thought something bad I would be punished. What kind of unfair pressure is that? So basically your whole life you would have to be careful and and live by the "morals" in the Bible that was written by a man just like you and me. But then I reached the age of reason and realized something was wrong.
I know some people that read this that are Christians will automatically say I'm the devil or something like that. They will be so close minded and not open to a new opinion that I'm automatically wrong by their standards. I know from experience from trying to tell me friends this. Don't worry, just for thinking that there is no God you won't deemed to hell, you won't get punished, and you won't even have to spend one day in purgatory. But untill everyone realizes this Im afraid it might be hopeless.

Originally posted by Thistled
Hi JPM, how about these?

Leviticus 20:9 If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death.

20:10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

20:13 If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death.

25:44 states one may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations.

19:27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.

21:16-17 And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron that any of his descendants from generation to generation who have any bodily defect may not offer the sacrifices to God.”

These are just from Leviticus, the book of Exodus has a few clangers in there as well.

Valhall - I get the impression you are not happy. The title of the topic is a question, it is not designed to stir up a frenzy, although as the T&C for this forum clearly points out, it can get a bit heated and emotional at times.
This post is merely a question and I would like to see what others think on it.

I really don't understand you when you say, "stepping over a line" and the use of the word "authority". Can you stick to the topic please?

It's actually kinda dumb for us followers of Jesus Christ to get into these kind of arguments with someone who obviously doesn't believe. (notice I don't say Christians, because a lot of times there is a big difference, which atheists gleefully point out)

I mean, I could go through your points and try to educate you as to the reasons behind these statements, but, really, it's obvious you probably wouldn't change your mind. (I still will)

Let me just say that when this was written, the pagans and heathens followed a lot of practices connected to what we now call satanism ....basically worshiping the devil, Baal, Horus, etc.

The one about cursing your parents probably had more to do with actually "cursing" ie witchcraft, not badmouthing....

Adulterers were put to death to keep the practice from spreading, because allowing it go on created strife within the community, broke up families, which were necessary for stability, besides which being stealing, and lying, two things which God absolutely hates.....especially liars.....

The one about man lying with man, to do with health reasons and against God's plan of man and woman created for each other. Bestially was also condemned....

Slaves (better to be made a slave than killed by sacrifice) were supposed to be given their freedom after 6 years, according to a system called the Jubilee....

The hair thing was because the heathens and pagans did this....God didn't even want His people following any of their customs.....

And the last one was because only the priest tribe was allowed to make the sacrifices anyway, EVERYTHING about that had to be perfect and follow certain procedures, God wasn't speaking against people with disabilities.....

Too bad you didn't reference a website in your post, because usually it would be either an atheist site, if just speaking generally against the Bible, or a Jewish site, if particularly speaking against Jesus.

Start checking the links and you'll see what I mean.