How am I supposed to take The Bible seriously...

Ok, I just opened the Bible at random & I got this passage in Numbers 5, "A Test For Adultery." Supposedly God told Moses that if a man suspects his wife of cheating on him, he should bring her before the priest & force her to drink "bitter water." If she really is an adulterer, her "thigh will rot & her body will swell." If she is innocent, she will be fine. Gee, I wonder what is the % breakdown of women who got the thigh-rotting as opposed to being fine? It goes on to say that if the woman gets ill with the "horrible disease," the man will not be censured because it was her own fault.

I've heard from Christians that I can't pick & choose what parts of the Bible I want to believe in, that I have to take the whole enchilada. Am I supposed to believe that this is God's mindset, poisoning a woman with who-knows-what hideous thing? This little passage is indicative of the beliefs of a Semetic tribe over 2000 years ago. It is not the word of a Supreme Being. A word from a Supreme Being would contain some enlightenment in it, not simply parrot the primative beliefs of an ancient people.

How many more passages are like this in the Bible? How can I possibly take it seriously (other than as a historical document or mythology)?

(by the way, this passage never mentions what happens to a man suspected of adultery; should he not partake in some of the "thigh-rot" himself?)

Originally posted by Cassie Clay
Ok, I just opened the Bible

Well, Cassie, that was the first mistake. Close the bible and back away slowly.

I've heard from Christians that I can't pick & choose what parts of the Bible I want to believe in, that I have to take the whole enchilada.

Well why not? All the one's I know pick and choose. Hypocrites, every last one.

How many more passages are like this in the Bible? How can I possibly take it seriously (other than as a historical document or mythology)?

I don't, that's just me. Believe it or not, the bible was written when men thought they were better than women. I know, this is hard to swallow, but it's true. If you look hard enough, there are still remnants of this practice around today.

(by the way, this passage never mentions what happens to a man suspected of adultery; should he not partake in some of the "thigh-rot" himself?)

See above post. Man wrote the bible, not God. God did not tell them to write it. If God wanted to write a book he would not need someone to do it for him right? He's the big cheese, he could do it himself. Or could he? hmm?

By the way, I'm being serious and trying to be sarcastic a bit. Although, not a fan of anyones God, I am not an Athiest....yet

[edit on 9/23/2004 by bobafett1972]

Hi Cassie:

Try reading the racist-sexist-xenophobic-genocidal vomit placed into the mouth of the clan god YHWH in the Torah in the paleo-Hebrew, it gets even worse...!

Get your highlighter out, you'll need it !!!!

I just started reading the Bible recently. I was brought up in a roman catholic school for a long time of my life, but oddly enough I have never read the thing. I don't ascribe myself to any religion by the way. But yea, the Old Testament is very strange. I think I'll be much more interested in what Jesus says in the New Testament. I can sympathize, the Old Testament gets old real fast with all the rules and restrictions and I could see how it could give rise to Christian fundamentalism.

Though, I haven't read the New Testament yet, I'd recommend checking out the words of Jesus.

[edit on 23-9-2004 by Jamuhn]

As of now I do not think anyone alive has enough knowledge to determine whether God, in whatever form, is real of not. My self, I believe the bible to be the word of some supreme type of being, possibly aliens or possibly a "god" of some sort, handed to us to try and guide our moral development. If you think about it, christianity is not about worhsipping, it is about being nice to people. Same with Islam. Religion has become very misguided by humans warping it to meet thier own selfish goals.

Originally posted by bobafett1972
Well why not? All the one's I know pick and choose. Hypocrites, every last one.

Glad to see you go about this in a mature, intelligent fashion. Or is it only those people you agree with who aren't stereotyped into nice little boxes?

Originally posted by Esoterica

Originally posted by bobafett1972
Well why not? All the one's I know pick and choose. Hypocrites, every last one.

Glad to see you go about this in a mature, intelligent fashion. Or is it only those people you agree with who aren't stereotyped into nice little boxes?

I guess you did not read my entire post. You know the part where I hinted at trying for a little sarcasm? How is anything I said immature? I do not recall stereotyping anyone? I said, "All the one's I know pick and choose." Key words here are I and know. Meaning I know them. So therefore I have seen there B.S. up close. So, maybe you should not be rude, because I sure as hell was not.

From what I know of the old testiment, it was written thousands of years ago right? Well, this is a long time ago. How many other books claim to have documentation about what humans did that many years ago?

You are making the mistake of comparing practices of Jewish nomads of ancient times to those of modern day man.

Even today, primative cultures have basic superstitions and practices. This is something that they can easily understand. Remember, the jews came out of egypt where mystism was the main belief. This is all people knew back then, and possibly God worked in a similar way for their benefit because of the level of understanding they had.

I don't think that picking and choosing has anything to do with this. You have to read the stories in the context of how they were written. This is a reflection of how humans interacted with God in ancient times.

Originally posted by shmick25
This is all people knew back then, and possibly God worked in a similar way for their benefit because of the level of understanding they had.

I agree. But should the way God supposedly interacted with humans in ancient times have bearing on us now? Members of Judeo-Christian religions often point to passages from the Bible as "proof" for things like why homosexuality is wrong, women are inferior to men, witches should be killed, non-believers are going to burn in hell, and so on. But what if those passages they refer to are just a remnant of an earlier time? What if God wants to interact with us in the 21st Century in a manner that suits our level of understanding?

Isn't it time God dictates a new Bible?

I personally think that the bible contains a good set of instructions of living a good life and fullfilling our spiritual desires. Unfortunately, people like to take a lot of things out of context.

When asked what are the greatest commandments Christ said, 'Love God and Love one another'. Does this means that the other commandments held no importance?

Christ knew that if humans could get these commandments sorted out, them the other commands would be filled as a consequence. Did you know that the 10 commandments can be broken down into the above 2? Love for God and Love for man. I personally believe that if we as humans could follow these, it would be a better world. What further instructions do we need?

When your talking about the bible, I assume your talking about the King James Version, of course this isn't really the original bible, it's a translation from the Hebrew and Greek texts that it was originally written in.

It's also important to remember that the new testament had 33 books till Constantine converted the Romans to Christianity, he got rid of six books and edited the gospels (except John, which is apparently unscathed).

The original 33 books are available as a translation called the apocryphe, particularly interesting is the Gospel of Thomas, which states that Jesus didn't die on the cross at all, and that Simon of Cyrene stood in for Simon Zelotes.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, we don't have any real idea of what the Bible really says, we just have chinese whispers. For those who care research the truth, you'll find that Jesus himself would be mortified if he had any idea of the way in which he has been portayed.

Yes and that translation is kept the same word for word from the Hebrew and Greek. Don't you think God knows how many versions of the bible their are. And being all knowing and all powerful don't you think that He is able to keep the truth together. The word of God is powerful unto salvation. The word of God is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Originally posted by NothingMakesSense
As of now I do not think anyone alive has enough knowledge to determine whether God, in whatever form, is real of not. My self, I believe the bible to be the word of some supreme type of being, possibly aliens or possibly a "god" of some sort, handed to us to try and guide our moral development. If you think about it, christianity is not about worhsipping, it is about being nice to people. Same with Islam. Religion has become very misguided by humans warping it to meet thier own selfish goals.

Being nice to eachother so that society has some sense of control. The Bible is just another tool of government.

Quote: "Religion has become very misguided by humans warping it to meet thier own selfish goals."

Yes agreed - this has been very evident in the last few years!!!

Quote: "Isn't it time God dictates a new Bible?"

Perhaps this has happened already - the word "Bible" simply means Book!

Originally posted by Seraphim_Serpente
Quote: "Religion has become very misguided by humans warping it to meet thier own selfish goals."

Yes agreed - this has been very evident in the last few years!!!

Quote: "Isn't it time God dictates a new Bible?"

Perhaps this has happened already

Consider the following from The Urantia Book:

THE URANTIA BOOK
FOREWORD

FOREWORD

IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia--that being the name of your world--there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations. Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in those papers which the Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of Urantia.

It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning.

In the hope of facilitating comprehension and of preventing confusion on the part of every mortal who may peruse these papers, we deem it wise to present in this initial statement an outline of the meanings to be attached to numerous English words which are to be employed in designation of Deity and certain associated concepts of the things, meanings, and values of universal reality. www.urantia.org...

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

In formulating the succeeding presentations having to do with the portrayal of the character of the Universal Father and the nature of his Paradise associates, together with an attempted description of the perfect central universe and the encircling seven superuniverses, we are to be guided by the mandate of the superuniverse rulers which directs that we shall, in all our efforts to reveal truth and co-ordinate essential knowledge, give preference to the highest existing human concepts pertaining to the subjects to be presented. We may resort to pure revelation only when the concept of presentation has had no adequate previous expression by the human mind.

Successive planetary revelations of divine truth invariably embrace the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as a part of the new and enhanced co-ordination of planetary knowledge. Accordingly, in making these presentations about God and his universe associates, we have selected as the basis of these papers more than one thousand human concepts representing the highest and most advanced planetary knowledge of spiritual values and universe meanings. Wherein these human concepts, assembled from the God-knowing mortals of the past and the present, are inadequate to portray the truth as we are directed to reveal it, we will unhesitatingly supplement them, for this purpose drawing upon our own superior knowledge of the reality and divinity of the Paradise Deities and their transcendent residential universe.

We are fully cognizant of the difficulties of our assignment; we recognize the impossibility of fully translating the language of the concepts of divinity and eternity into the symbols of the language of the finite concepts of the mortal mind. But we know that there dwells within the human mind a fragment of God, and that there sojourns with the human soul the Spirit of Truth; and we further know that these spirit forces conspire to enable material man to grasp the reality of spiritual values and to comprehend the philosophy of universe meanings. But even more certainly we know that these spirits of the Divine Presence are able to assist man in the spiritual appropriation of all truth contributory to the enhancement of the ever-progressing reality of personal religious experience--God-consciousness.

[Indited by an Orvonton Divine Counselor, Chief of the Corps of Superuniverse Personalities assigned to portray on Urantia the truth concerning the Paradise Deities and the universe of universes.] www.urantia.org...

The marks of human response to the religious impulse embrace the qualities of nobility and grandeur. The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power. He is thrilled and energized with the assurance of belonging to a superior and ennobled fellowship of the sons of God. The consciousness of self-worth has become augmented by the stimulus of the quest for the highest universe objectives--supreme goals.

The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an all-encompassing motivation which imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living. The morbid recognition of human limitations is changed to the natural consciousness of mortal shortcomings, associated with moral determination and spiritual aspiration to attain the highest universe and superuniverse goals. And this intense striving for the attainment of supermortal ideals is always characterized by increasing patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance.

But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist's detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing

away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.
www.urantia.org...

True religion is not a system of philosophic belief which can be reasoned out and substantiated by natural proofs, neither is it a fantastic and mystic experience of indescribable feelings of ecstasy which can be enjoyed only by the romantic devotees of mysticism. Religion is not the product of reason, but viewed from within, it is altogether reasonable. Religion is not derived from the logic of human philosophy, but as a mortal experience it is altogether logical. Religion is the experiencing of divinity in the consciousness of a moral being of evolutionary origin; it represents true experience with eternal realities in time, the realization of spiritual satisfactions while yet in the flesh.

The Thought Adjuster has no special mechanism through which to gain self-expression; there is no mystic religious faculty for the reception or expression of religious emotions. These experiences are made available through the naturally ordained mechanism of mortal mind. And therein lies one explanation of the Adjuster's difficulty in engaging in direct communication with the material mind of its constant indwelling.

The divine spirit makes contact with mortal man, not by feelings or emotions, but in the realm of the highest and most spiritualized thinking. It is your thoughts, not your feelings, that lead you Godward. The divine nature may be perceived only with the eyes of the mind. But the mind that really discerns God, hears the indwelling Adjuster, is the pure mind. "Without holiness no man may see the Lord." All such inner and spiritual communion is termed spiritual insight. Such religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth as they function amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings of the evolving sons of God.

Religion lives and prospers, then, not by sight and feeling, but rather by faith and insight. It consists not in the discovery of new facts or in the finding of a unique experience, but rather in the discovery of new and spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind. The highest religious experience is not dependent on prior acts of belief, tradition, and authority; neither is religion the offspring of sublime feelings and purely mystical emotions. It is, rather, a profoundly deep and actual experience of spiritual communion with the spirit influences resident within the human mind, and as far as such an experience is definable in terms of psychology, it is simply the experience of experiencing the reality of believing in God as the reality of such a purely personal experience.
www.urantia.org...

To the unbelieving materialist, man is simply an evolutionary accident. His hopes of survival are strung on a figment of mortal imagination; his fears, loves, longings, and beliefs are but the reaction of the incidental juxtaposition of certain lifeless atoms of matter. No display of energy nor expression of trust can carry him beyond the grave. The devotional labors and inspirational genius of the best of men are doomed to be extinguished by death, the long and lonely night of eternal oblivion and soul extinction. Nameless despair is man's only reward for living and toiling under the temporal sun of mortal existence. Each day of life slowly and surely tightens the grasp of a pitiless doom which a hostile and relentless universe of matter has decreed shall be the crowning insult to everything in human desire which is beautiful, noble, lofty, and good.

But such is not man's end and eternal destiny; such a vision is but the cry of despair uttered by some wandering soul who has become lost in spiritual darkness, and who bravely struggles on in the face of the mechanistic sophistries of a material philosophy, blinded by the confusion and distortion of a complex learning. And all this doom of darkness and all this destiny of despair are forever dispelled by one brave stretch of faith on the part of the most humble and unlearned of God's children on earth.

This saving faith has its birth in the human heart when the moral consciousness of man realizes that human values may be translated in mortal experience from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the divine, from time to eternity.
www.urantia.org...

The full realization of the reality of mortal life consists in a progressive willingness to believe these assumptions of reason, wisdom, and faith. Such a life is one motivated by truth and dominated by love; and these are the ideals of objective cosmic reality whose existence cannot be materially demonstrated.

When reason once recognizes right and wrong, it exhibits wisdom; when wisdom chooses between right and wrong, truth and error, it demonstrates spirit leading. And thus are the functions of mind, soul, and spirit ever closely united and functionally interassociated. Reason deals with factual knowledge; wisdom, with philosophy and revelation; faith, with living spiritual experience. Through truth man attains beauty and by spiritual love ascends to goodness.

Faith leads to knowing God, not merely to a mystical feeling of the divine presence. Faith must not be overmuch influenced by its emotional consequences. True religion is an experience of believing and knowing as well as a satisfaction of feeling.

There is a reality in religious experience that is proportional to the spiritual content, and such a reality is transcendent to reason, science, philosophy, wisdom, and all other human achievements. The convictions of such an experience are unassailable; the logic of religious living is incontrovertible; the certainty of such knowledge is superhuman; the satisfactions are superbly divine, the courage indomitable, the devotions unquestioning, the loyalties supreme, and the destinies final--eternal, ultimate, and universal.
www.urantia.org...

In the realm of religious experience, spiritual possibility is potential reality. Man's forward spiritual urge is not a psychic illusion. All of man's universe romancing may not be fact, but much, very much, is truth.

Some men's lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. The animal must adapt itself to the environment, but the religious man transcends his environment and in this way escapes the limitations of the present material world through this insight of divine love. This concept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to find truth, beauty, and goodness; and when he does find them, he is glorified in their embrace; he is consumed with the desire to live them, to do righteousness.

Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail.

The great challenge to modern man is to achieve better communication with the divine Monitor that dwells within the human mind. Man's greatest adventure in the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness--contact with the divine presence. Such an experience constitutes God-consciousness, an experience mightily confirmative of the pre-existent truth of the religious experience of knowing God. Such spirit-consciousness is the equivalent of the knowledge of the actuality of sonship with God. Otherwise, the assurance of sonship is the experience of faith.

And God-consciousness is equivalent to the integration of the self with the universe, and on its highest levels of spiritual reality. Only the spirit content of any value is imperishable. Even that which is true, beautiful, and good may not perish in human experience. If man does not choose to survive, then does the surviving Adjuster conserve those realities born of love and nurtured in service. And all these things are a part of the Universal Father. The Father is living love, and this life of the Father is in his Sons. And the spirit of the Father is in his Sons' sons--mortal men. When all is said and done, the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God.
www.urantia.org...

I think that those who genuinely seek religious answers can find them in The Urantia Book. Those who feel the Bible has outlived its value (although, I don't believe that) can find some answers here. I can say that having studied The Urantia Book has certainly enriched my life, as has studying The Holy Bible and I Ching, among many other works.


[edit on 04/9/24 by GradyPhilpott]

Personally, the apocryphal books have fundamentally different styles from the accepted canon, thus they were ruled out . As to the KJV, I personally try to read more modern versions, which reflect many of the newer archeological discoveries and ancient manuscripts unavailable to the writers of the KJV. I particularly like the New International version, which was translated by a consortium of professionals from over 70 different denominations, where they differed, most NIV Bibles have footnotes with alternate translations, such as 1st John 5:7-9, some early manuscripts do not contain verses 8-9.

As to the rules and strange customs of the OT, many of the more extreme ones were ruled out and discarded in latter OT times, excpet by very fundamentalist Jews, and these laws were done away with by God himself through prophets. While not ruled out on a rule by rule basis, general rulings were handed down by prophets.

Another note:

The customs of the Old Testament were given to Israel by God because Israel was , by nature of its diversity and size, um, 'misbehavin'. The people of Israel earnestly desired to please God, albeit only when they were about to be punished or engaged in battle, and asked their leaders to obtain God's instructions. So God, wishing to prove that righteousness is not obtained through the practice of law, but by self reflection and relationship with God, set the ruling standard so high that no person could ever achieve it. This was in preperation for the coming of Jesus, through whom the law was made into a 'measuring rod' to prick the heart and allow a person to see just how flawed and imperfect they were apart from God. Jesus died and rose as a substitution sacrifice, through whom we can have a direct relationship with God and not have need to constantly try to adhere to the bizarre laws demanded of God by the ancient Israelites. We have the forgiveness of sins because of the blood spilled by Jesus, which cleanses all sin.


Something I need to interject here. Many people ask me, "How do you know there is a God?" Well, I can only say this. There is a feeling that comes over a person the moment they ask Jesus to be their savior. It is not a coerced feeling, a feeling forced upon you by anyone or at the height of a feverish sermon designed to illicit certain emotions. It is a real, personal sensation. In addition, when I received the gift of the Spirit, I literally felt it wash over me like a wave. This feeling comes whenever I have communion with God.

How do I know these feeling are not coerced during a sermon or service? Simple.

I had these experiences outside of church when they first happened, during times of study and self reflection and prayer.

Remember, all you who doubt the Bible, or God. The Bible says, 'you will know them by their fruits'. A real Christian follower of Jesus knows that He said to 'study to show yourself approved, that you may be able to give answer to any man that needs ask of you'. In other words, a true follower of Christ reads and studies the ENTIRE Bible and takes the WHOLE Thing into account. Anyone doing less is not being true to the calling. Remember, 'BY YOUR FRUITS YOU WILL KNOW THEM' you could substitute the word 'works' or 'deeds' for fruit. Want to know who the real ones are? Look at their actions.


The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieveing world simply finds unbelievable. -Carman

Originally posted by everlastingnoitall

Something I need to interject here. Many people ask me, "How do you know there is a God?" Well, I can only say this. There is a feeling that comes over a person the moment they ask Jesus to be their savior. It is not a coerced feeling, a feeling forced upon you by anyone or at the height of a feverish sermon designed to illicit certain emotions. It is a real, personal sensation. In addition, when I received the gift of the Spirit, I literally felt it wash over me like a wave. This feeling comes whenever I have communion with God.

How do I know these feeling are not coerced during a sermon or service? Simple.

I had these experiences outside of church when they first happened, during times of study and self reflection and prayer.

There was a time in my life when I was "born again". I felt the exact same sensation you described. Life was good. I just started to explore other religions is all. To me, spirituality is a very personal thing. I need no church/building to worship in. I believe in a Supreme Being, I just do not believe there is one "true" religion is all. Blind Faith to me does not come easy. I am not asking for any "proof" of God. I just have my own way. If I am wrong, so be it. It will be by my own hand that I meet my fate. This I can live with.

Mat 19:1 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan;
Mat 19:2 And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.
Mat 19:3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Mat 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
Mat 19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh
Mat 19:6, Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Mat 19:7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away
Mat 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Mat 19:9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
Mat 19:10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
Mat 19:11 But he said unto them,All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
Mat 19:12 For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Part of the problem that I see with people that wish to pick apart the bible, is that they have not truly studied it first. They take the same old clich�s and use them repeatedly. They want one-sentence answers for questions that often are extremely complex, and try to paint the Christian into a corner. Most that don�t believe, never will, and they try and wear down Christians by asking the same things over and over, until the Christian does not want to even try and explain it anymore, then Viola they got what they wanted their opportunity to prove themselves right over Gods word. Perhaps its more to prove to THEMSELVES that whatever that they are doing that the Bible says is unacceptable, is now justified in their own minds so they can continue doing it. That is pretty much what Christ is saying her about why Moses let them have divorce, because they only where going to listen to what it was their hardened hearts where telling them, and not what was God�s plane for marriage.


On a second note, I would like to know why its always the Bible being picked apart on this web site?

If I wrote a thread that picked apart Homosexuality, Witchcraft, Gnosticism, Masons, Islam, or any other religion, I would be banned from this board so fast it would make my head spin, yet it seems to be perfectly OK to insult and pick on anyone with a Christian background. I find that in trying to express my opinions on any topic here on ATS that involves religion, I usually start out being very politically correct and careful about what I write, while giving an answer that is as true as I can make it, so as not to insult anyone. Then I am usually greeted back with insulting remark after remark against my religion. Can anyone tell me why this is?

That's a respectable view. As you know, Jesus said 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me'

This, unfortunately, means that there is but one way to salvation. I also, study other religions, I have a question, though.

In every case and forum I have ever been in, Christianity is the single religion that draws the most hotly contested debate, both for and against. No other religion illicits such widespread hatred among those who vehemently deny it, nor such fundamentalist upholding and posturing by those who practice and live it. I fall somewhere in the middle. I believe that the way to God is the common Christian view, as outlined by Jesus in the Gospels. I do not, however, promote trying to ram truth down a person's throat. I will state my opinion, as I understand it. I don't generally engage in debate the like so some over Dead Sea scrolls, Maccabean revolts, etc (remember, I said generally, so don't call me hypocritical anyone if I actually do decide to participate in such an event).

Christianity has been made more real to me partly because of the rampant, angry, forceful quest to denounce it.

Originally posted by everlastingnoitall

I fall somewhere in the middle. I believe that the way to God is the common Christian view, as outlined by Jesus in the Gospels. I do not, however, promote trying to ram truth down a person's throat. I will state my opinion, as I understand it.

I feel the exact same way. I was raised a Christian, but kind of fell away for years wondering if it was what I really believed or just was taught. I looked into different religions, and even read into things that I would now consider Occult. The funny thing is that the more I studied, the more I began to realize there was truth to what I originally believed, and the outside studying simply seemed to strengthen my Christian faith.

The problem is that it feels like people want to question on things, and for brevities sake you have to give short answers. Then they use that short answer back against you, because they think they have found a chink in the logic of it. Eventually it comes down to the fact that you are just not going to be able to explain all the, �Where�s and Fore�s�, and you just have to give up.

The thing that I hate the most is when they use Clich�s against you; like, �Judge not lest you be judged�. If you try to explain that this means that I cannot judge another man�s heart, but I can judge their actions, you can hear the cries of HYPROCATE being echoed from the highest mountain peaks.

Originally posted by everlastingnoitall

Christianity has been made more real to me partly because of the rampant, angry, forceful quest to denounce it.

Yep true enough, and it does say that if you are a Christian you will be hated throughout the world, so I guess we should all just expect it.

Well, Open season on us Christian�s I guess�