The Bible is a awesome Book even if you dont believe its Gods word

[janie48]

Have you not contacted a Jewish rabbi to answer your questions? The Old Testament laws were for the Israelites only. No doubt jewish rabbi's will be able to answer why God was so severe with the Israelites.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is good at explaining passages in context from the OT, he has studied quite thoroughly the historical and cultural period of those times.

Though I very much doubt Unbeliever would be interested.

 

---------- Post added 06-09-2015 at 20:00 ----------

 

I'm not quite sure that's their agenda.

 

I may well be wrong but I read it as saying that the Bible isn't all peace and love and there are some sections Christians don't highlight because it in fact goes against their agenda.

 

Like I said though I may have interpreted it wrong.

There's enough "peace and love" in it for me.

[GhostRiders]

I think you're missing the point that some posters are making though.

 

Let's look at it another way.

 

If isis preached peace and love while still indulging in rape, slavery and murder would you follow them because of the peace and love they preached or would you condemn them for the atrocities they committed. Or perhaps you'd follow them and still criticise the bad things they did, hoping they could change.

 

Unfortunately you don't see this from Christians, at best they ignore the negative aspects of their God, at worst they try to justify it.

 

Can you see the difficulty for a none Christian? We essentially see both sides, but most importantly we see denial and justification of acts of pure atrocity.

[unbeliever]

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is good at explaining passages in context from the OT, he has studied quite thoroughly the historical and cultural period of those times.

Though I very much doubt Unbeliever would be interested.

 

---------- Post added 06-09-2015 at 20:00 ----------

 

There's enough "peace and love" in it for me.

 

The bible is not a good guide for modern morality.

It's that simple.

It may well have been one of the better philosophical works of its time, even though it is very derivative, but it's not "an awesome book for those who don't believe".

There are plenty of other works on morality which don't have these gaping flaws.

[janie48]

The bible is not a good guide for modern morality.

It's that simple.

It may well have been one of the better philosophical works of its time, even though it is very derivative, but it's not "an awesome book for those who don't believe".

There are plenty of other works on morality which don't have these gaping flaws.

I don't need you to preach to me about morality.

[unbeliever]

I don't need you to preach to me about morality.

 

Please don't take this as an attack.

I'm responding to the theme of the thread.

There's good and bad in the Bible. It's nothing special in that regard. But there's nothing magic about it either. It's not original ideas and it's far from perfect.

 

The vast majority of Christians are good people. But I am convinced that this is not because they are Christians. Morality does not come from a holy book. I'm expect that you're a genuinely good person, but that's not because of the Bible. If it was then you wouldn't have a problem with slavery and I'm sure you do.

Your goodness is your own. Be proud of that and be aware of the limitations of this and indeed all holy books so that it doesn't lead you astray.

[janie48]

Please don't take this as an attack.

I'm responding to the theme of the thread.

There's good and bad in the Bible. It's nothing special in that regard. But there's nothing magic about it either. It's not original ideas and it's far from perfect.

 

The vast majority of Christians are good people. But I am convinced that this is not because they are Christians. Morality does not come from a holy book. I'm expect that you're a genuinely good person, but that's not because of the Bible. If it was then you wouldn't have a problem with slavery and I'm sure you do.

Your goodness is your own. Be proud of that and be aware of the limitations of this and indeed all holy books so that it doesn't lead you astray.

I will agree that being good (which I believe most of us aspire to whether theist or atheist) doesn't only come about from the contents of the bible.

Examples of human weakness and inner conflict are demonstrated throughout the bible, even in the gospels because that's the nature of human beings.

 

Be assured though, that even though I'm far from perfect, I will never be lead astray by anything I read in the bible.

Edited September 7, 2015 by janie48

[apelike]

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is good at explaining passages in context from the OT, he has studied quite thoroughly the historical and cultural period of those times.

 

That's because the OT was a living history and is an almost exact copy of the originals. The tetragrammaton was also invented at that time also as a way of protecting Jews from blasphemy by uttering Gods name. That's the bit Jehovah witnesses don't want to understand as they believe Gods name to be Jehovah.

 

The NT is a collection of copied books chosen to form the NT. They have changed over time with very few original manuscripts in existence. Some of the books have dubious origins and authors and is not the same as a living history.

[jfish1936]

The NT is a collection of copied books chosen to form the NT. They have changed over time with very few original manuscripts in existence. Some of the books have dubious origins and authors and is not the same as a living history.

 

I would say we have NO original manuscripts of Bible books. Some of the copies are early, but I think the parchment/papyrus on which St. Paul wrote is lost forever.

Some books are attributed to authors who were probably long dead by the time they were written; we do this today with some classic textbooks, such as the "Gray's Anatomy" we studied -- with acknowledgement of the actual authors, but still called "Gray's" to show its historical continuity. So, if they thought it belonged with the Pauline material, the old timers saw nothing wrong in putting his name on it. Similarly with Isaiah.

Fiction can sometimes be verified archeologically; the US Civil War did occur somewhat as depicted in "Gone With the Wind", and relics can be found today; This doesn't prove the story od Scarlett and Rhett to be historically true.

[flamingjimmy]

Instead of pouring contempt on anyone who is inspired by scriptures from the books in the bible, which would include, not only Christians from virtually every race including black people descended from slaves (who in spite of that still choose to be guided by the bible) as well as those Jews who only follow the books in the old testament, you might question why there is so much slavery nowadays. Such as forced labour, sex slavery and human trafficking etc.

But you won't unless you can blame all immorality on Christians.

 

What on earth? I haven't poured contempt on anyone, nor do I have any contempt for you or other people who are Christians just for being Christians. I think you're a nice person, just wrong about a lot of things.

 

Nor have I ever blamed all immorality on Christians or ever said anything remotely like that.

 

My point is simply that the bible is a not a good book to get one's personal morality from, and contrary to the OP, certainly not an 'awesome book for nonbelievers'.

 

Your attack on me here is completely unfair, unfounded and unchristian.

 

---------- Post added 07-09-2015 at 16:23 ----------

 

I don't need you to preach to me about morality.

 

You need more than the bible though, otherwise you'd have no problem with slavery.

 

---------- Post added 07-09-2015 at 16:26 ----------

 

I've said my piece, and I haven't come on here to discuss the bible with anyone.

 

Ok great, but that's what this thread's about so if you haven't come here to discuss it then you're being off topic. Let me guess, you think we're the ones with the closed minds?

Edited September 7, 2015 by flamingjimmy

[janie48]

That's because the OT was a living history and is an almost exact copy of the originals. The tetragrammaton was also invented at that time also as a way of protecting Jews from blasphemy by uttering Gods name. That's the bit Jehovah witnesses don't want to understand as they believe Gods name to be Jehovah.

 

The NT is a collection of copied books chosen to form the NT. They have changed over time with very few original manuscripts in existence. Some of the books have dubious origins and authors and is not the same as a living history.

I've heard it all before, so I'm quite aware of what atheists say about manuscripts in order to dismiss the bible.

 

If I doubted all historian accuracy, I would be questioning much about what I'd been taught, such as details of the authenticity of Plato, Socrates, and many other ancient writings about people I've heard about.

 

Faith for most Christians isn't just about what is written in the bible, it has to be experienced.

Edited September 7, 2015 by janie48