Bullshit
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- cphunk0
Everyone has their own beliefs - I personally respect each person's beliefs. Two things tend to annoy me however: State which is governed by religion, and people who feel it necessary to force preachings on others, regardless of their religious or non-religious beliefs.
If any of you feel inclined, I just finished reading an interesting book by Joseph Ledoux called "Synaptic Self" which covers a wide variety of topics ranging from "the soul" or the mind vs the brain, thought processes, etc. Heavy read (biologically and philosophically), but I found it very interesting.
- ********0
I can email you yourself if you want..?
- no-spin-zone0
The Bible does say that stuff about enslaving your daughter and stoning people on the Sabbath. You defended it by saying that was how the times were and it was a reaction to those times.
So basically, you are saying that some of the things in the bible don't make sense today. But only you can pick and choose what those things are apparently?
- cphunk0
Synaptic Self: Joseph Ledoux
- discipler0
no-spin, the Bible does not commend slavery; rather, it recognizes the reality of slavery. The regulations and penalties under the OT Levitical Law are viewed in light of the New Testament, not the reverse. And the Law is called a "curse" in the NT. A curse which we are no longer under, because of the redeeming work of Christ on the cross. We have been redeemed from the curse of the Law.
You see, these types of things cannot be glossed over and read out of context at face value, like how Penn & Teller interpret them. This always ends in misunderstanding of the culture, context and science of Biblical interpretation.
A text out of context becomes a pretext for error.
- t_rock0
god himself??? isn't it a bit much to presume god is a "he"?
- no-spin-zone0
isnt it about time for a newer testament?
- GouchoMarx0
I suppose you think that Mary was fucking immaculately conceived dontcha? Well whoever it was did an immaculate job but lets not be silly and think that was really God that put a seed up her, that was a cover up for the society of the time, and them not appreciating sex before marriage - which pretty much brings your entire shit crumbling down around your feet not that you'd be prepared to admit it, you'll probably just go and dig up some article off god.com or whatever, I've heard fucking priests say its a load of crap, not that they dont have faith, but at least they can see that there's a load of horsecrap amongst that book aswell as some common sense. fucking religion, them catholics were proper cunts on them crusades, nuffin but trouble them cunts.
- Mimio0
Bart Ehrman's 'Misquoting Jesus'
read it
- ********0
hey discipler :)
well, believe it or not, no pun intended, Ive actually been to a church a couple of times since we last went to and fro on the matter..
Its a fairly 'modern' church, with a 'light' service, 90% of which was a study of some chapters of Romans..
Everyone was very pleasant, and there was nothing said in either the sermon, nor the bible study that contradicted any of my personal theology, indeed it was cool to be in an environment where such matters were discussed..
I did come away, though with a sense that it was all rather too abstracted, too intellectual, or dogmatic rather..
Christianity to my mind, has its strengths lie in what it says about love, and how to treat one another, in the light of the knowledge that we are all part of 'the body of christ'..
That we are one indivisible whole, made seemingly seperate by the illusion created by our minds, is the ultimate reality - how we behave towards one another knowing this is well covered by the teachings of christ, be he a fictional character, an historic figure, a spritual entity, or whatever, what is important is this truth...My understanding is that he said not to worship him, but what he said, in that we are all the 'sons of god', strive to act with that as your guiding principle, rather than idolatrise his persona..
It has always seemed to me that the church is too hung up on the abstract notion that christ was literally the physical offspring of a supernatural entity, which descends into such meaningless obscurities as 'give your heart to jesus', which I was urged to do whilst standing with my hand up..
Whilst I understand that to be more like this persona is indeed a step towards revealing my true nature as a temporarily subjective region of experience within a unified cosmic conciousness, just saying to oneself 'I give my heart to jesus and ask him to heal my heart and wash me from sin', doesnt really achieve much, indeed it rather negates the personaly responsiblity of self-realization and responsible action and personal growth..whilst I wish that to appeal to an entity outside of onesself for transformation is appealing, ultimtely I realise that there is nothing outside of myself, that 'I and not I' is an illusion created by my self-reflecting conciousness, and that the concept of christ to which I am appealing is a contruct of my own imagination.
It is only my concepts that separate me from the true god within me, my fundamental nature of oneness and universality; it is my notion of self, reflected back at me, that propentiates this illusion that reality is a combination of me and everything else, whereas this is the one truest thing there is to know..
Nonetheless, as I say, it was a pleasant time, even if the majority of the congregation were your average gun-owning, hunting-shooting-and-fishing death penalty proponents.
- discipler0
Hi mikotondria. It's cool that you are objective enough to check out, first hand, what a Bible-believing church is all about (assuming it was a Bible-believing church). Pity about all the gun-toting hunters and such, but I guess it takes all kinds. ;)
- brozilla0
You see, these types of things cannot be glossed over and read out of context at face value, like how Penn & Teller interpret them. This always ends in misunderstanding of the culture, context and science of Biblical interpretation.
A text out of context becomes a pretext for error.
discipler
(Dec 14 05, 10:04)----------
I would say 99% of the christains I know do just as you describe above.
- ********0
I don't mind both discipler's and mitokondria's viewpoints. Be yourself and don't listen to anyone. Ultimately, even if God doesn't exist, you will have tried to live a moral lifestyle and not hurt anyone along the way.
- cphunk0
good ideal - but... unfortunately that depends on the person.
- bolus0
that is true in a way jaz, but some religions still hurt a lot of people around the world.....
- Mal0
I can't imagine life without boobies!