Reading The Bible Properly Can Improve One's Reasoning Skills.

I read the results of a recent poll and it was absolutely no surprise to read that when NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar. When the hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf coast one poll found that 4 of 5 folks approached could not find Louisiana on an unlabeled map of America. Now....at least 80% of these numbskulls believe they will rise up from their graves and meet ol' Jesus floating on a cloud, fly off to eternal bliss in a pearly gated community while the people who disagreed with that load of it burn baby burn.

"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own--a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive, and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in nature."
~Dr. Albert Einstein~

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding" ~Thomas Jefferson~ (excerpt from a letter he wrote to John Adams in April 1823)

[video=youtube;8r-e2NDSTuE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-e2NDSTuE[/video]

 

Aside from the poll statistics you provided in the first paragraph (which contains no source link for validation), the remainder appears to be just more opinions of other people. Ironically, opinions that obviously flatter your opinion. Now in that quote from Einstein that you submitted, he did say something like "...although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." It is amazing that someone with such an unusual intellect as Einstein on the subject of religion would make that comment and then when speaking of things which are (supposedly) real, that he would say something like ""As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." - Albert Einstein Oh well. I suppose that short of talking with Einstein, one can only guess at the intent of either statement.

 

Huh, pls elaborate what U mean by "My version is how 'the book' says it went down."
I was only saying that A&E knew what was right / wrong: that that was the ideal state of 'all good', so perhaps the concept of evil was not significantly experienced (never eaten the forbidden fruit prior,never died before) although dying was arguably understood as a significantly 'negative' experience (God did warn against suffering that particular fate).

Perhaps death is the Gen2 definition of evil...so that means that A&E was aware of what evil was but due to inexperience (only achievable through consumption of forbidden fruit where A7E were concerned): the situation in Eden was all 'cookies and cream' because A&E did not perpetuate any 'irreversible' evil deeds (e.g. eat the forbidden fruit which implies usurping of God's sovereignty, power, glory etc).

 

It doesn't make sense today. It did in the ancient world. Ever eaten shellfish from contaminated waters.

 

Yup, even TODAY, war is a bloody affair: with terrorist groups not just chopping heads/ burning POW but also making a YouTube spectacle of the affair.
Guess I shall cut the chase here: we may be critical of such practises but my guess is that such criticism might be missing the woods for the trees since without OT laws (and perhaps Jesus subsequent clarification of the interpretation of OT laws), we wouldn't even be discussing this over the internet since on the balance of probabilities, I think that all these OT laws, even though imperfectly interpreted, have granted society is semblence of order sufficient for the mordicum of progress to the state we are today (that we may communicate freely over internet across time zones/ continents).

Yes it was bloody, yes it does seem inhumane by today's civilian law enforcement standards buy in the context of illiterate warring tribes, sometimes people do do disgusting things and chopping off heads would be the easiest (except messy but ultimate) way of ending a life (people might not be convinced that a death sentence has been carried out from a far since nothing convinces more than a head detached from the rest of the trunk).

Also, just because an act is recorded in the bible (which at times reads like a particular author's personal diary/ letter etc) automatically implies endorsement by God since it is CLEARLY stated in Genesis 3 that mankind henceforth (consequent of the 'fall') exists in a fallen state and plagued to their death by the curse of sin. So one must decipher from the text God's persistent influence towards the saving of every accepting soul from the plague of sin (an issue transcending a person's cessation of life in a medical context (clinical death)).

I am grateful that as mankind transcended time (stone-bronze-iron age etc) and interpretation of old testament teachings became slightly corrupted by corrupted religious leaders (Pharisees) more interested in dishonest profit and personal gratification, Jesus came at the opportune occasion to do what was necessary (teach the correct way to appreciate old testament teachings and prophesy as well as to die to forgive people's sins etc).

John's beheading for instance was in no way sanctioned by God but recorded in the bible as fact and remains evidence of mankind's fallen (sinful) state.

One must thus be savvy of the context in which a death penalty has been conducted and so far, I see no significant flaw in Christian theology in so far that actions are correctly attributed to respective 'good' and 'bad' parties.

This, I believe, is the "down and dirty"(on your knees/ all hands on deck) way of interpreting the bible, reading out of context/ cutting + paste indiscriminately is the skeptic's easy way out...

Rgds
B.C.

 

There is nothing wrong with the heading provided because it DOES specify the caveat that one's approach towards reading the bible to begin with must be seeking+honest+ pure, otherwise bad outcomes would likely occur (e.g. U become a money faced prosperity-gospel preacher/ U misquote bible verses and offend someone of a different religion).

So yes, one must approach bible study with an honest perceptive mind to obtain best results. Likewise, a study into the nature of santa claus and the story behind his existence DONE PROPERLY is a good parent-child bonding activity that I believe that not few would dream of having done.

 

After eating from the tree, they gained knowledge. They knew good and evil. Not prior. According to the book.

 

was there more contaminated waters back then? don't call it a sin then, just say eating shellfish from contaminated waters will make you sick.... or better yet if your a God, fix the problem

.

 

When done properly in this Age when science and knowledge are so advanced, the Bible makes clear sense and is factually correct when reading comprehension is good:

The first dozen verses are amazingly correct:

Gen 1:1 says a Big Bang beginning did happen.
Gen 1:2 says the formless disk of rocks rotation the Sun was void of global shape, which was true.
Gen 1:3-5 says the Dark Cosmic Age existed before there was any light in the Universe.
Gen 1:6-8 describes the forming of an atmosphere above and waters below.
Gen 1:9-10 describes "all the waters under heaven gathered together into one place," which was a Pangea-like truth.
Gen 1:11-13 explains that the Plant Kingdom came before the Animal Kingdom, which was true.
Gen 1:14-19 tells us that God assigned the Sun and Moon and Stars to keep time on Earth. ("made" in Hebrew means "assigned.")
Gen 1:20-31 explains about the animals and finally, man, made to image "Reality," mentally, in the form of Truth inside his mind.

Chapters 4, 5, and 10 explain the correspondences of the Genealogy with the species of Paleontology:




Genesis 6,7,8,and 9 tells that a great "flood" out-of-Africa took place when all other mankind went extinct, as did happen not 40 "days" ago, but 40,000 years ago.

 

Nah,...
They ATE from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
They fested on the ideas, and changed good behavior for evil based upon lies they derived at.

 

These weren't regulations just for the Jews. Many of these regulations were taken from earlier civilisations who had experienced 'sickness' from eating such things as shellfish, pork etc. Where did all the sewage go. Into local water supplies, into the sea etc. No local sewage works and clean water 'on tap'.

 

yes, people believed many myths back then, and new myths grew from old myths, Christianity got much of it's myth from previous myths

 

Much of the Health 'regulations' and 'family relationships' are actual, even the 10 commandments are actually from earlier civilisations. They are found in ancient documents, steles, monuments abd tablets. Most of the myth is in the religious teachings.

 

Not to mention that all of them squatted, (*)(*)(*)(*) on the ground, wiped on their hands and sometimes went a week before they saw enough water to bathe in.

 

"My lord, you should make eating shellfish a sin."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because some people contaminated the water and then ate the shellfish, causing them to get sick."

"Some people got sick due to their own stupidity? This changes everything!"

 

The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 34:12-28. They are Israelite/Jewish specific so no other group had them.

 

I'm only telling you what is known in ancient times. I don't believe 'god' told them anything. I've just studied the times. I am agnostic

 

My mistake.

 

No problem

 

And by all means over 12,000 children starving to death each day and millions of others suffering from malnutrition. Not to worry...Vatican City still has it's gold, silver, precious art, fine buildings and a bunch of useless pedophiles who wear dresses and wave smoke pots.

 

What a joke.

 

The Koran or the fact that it is religion and politics combined?

 

Neither, the Qur'an is essentially a book of guidance for those who submit to the one God.

 

Yet it is both religion and politics combined. Why do you think Muslim nations are led by Imam's as the final word?

 

There's little difference in Islam and Christianity. Think back on Christian history. Witch hunts, Crusades, Inquisitions, public floggings, most wars, etc. Islam just got started a few hundred years behind Christianity. That's where they are now.....a few hundred years behind most civilized nations. All religion is rank bull(*)(*)(*)(*) and the world would be five times better off without any of it.