 debbyski says: "The writer has a strategy—an agenda that is often very shrewd and sometimes deceptive—that you're being invited to participate in," Ferlo says. "Being fooled is part of the contract and part of the pleasure. Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called it willful suspension of disbelief. But if people think the Bible is all about belief, they have a hard time with that. I'm asking them for a willing suspension, not of disbelief, but of belief. That's a hard thing in a religious setting. If you approach the text as the 'truth,' you can't possibly get to a deeper place of intimacy with it. With only one pole, there's no place to go. Conversation, he adds, "is one of the deepest and subtlest ways of play and growth and intimacy, and it's a bipolar experience. To read the Bible as a conversation is to read it as a question, not an answer, a starting point, not a final declaration. It's not easy; it takes energy to suspend our own assumptions and welcome surprise." How many of those people who take the Bible literally are ready to sell their daughters into slavery stay in an abusive marriage (men and women) never divorce, give up that nice ham dinner after Easter Sunday Service and everything else dictated by the Bible. Or are they still going to pick and choose? Your words are enlighted. You areca thinking being with a heart which fundamentalists are not. They are Literally the herd that can be taken over a precipice. And they are, taking all if us with them if we let them. I've done a lot of research on this. By myself and in groups. I've talked to "BIG" christians about it. I've talked to pastors about it. I've read the bible a few times. I've read writings of the time, outside the bible. After quite a few years, I have come to one thought. "It might just be a sin to follow the Bible as we know it today." It's been screwed with more than any important writing! The word is God will come back to right all wrongs. I believe the dismissal, denial and demonization of HIS word will be at the top of His list when He arrives. I also found out I'm not very religious. Definately spiritual but not religious. Excellent post @debbyski (as usual) and I agree with you too @googleit, my only hope is that many of our "true believers" would take the time to examine their holy books from various POV's. Instead of immediately taking up the posture of "defenders of the faith" it should be one that examines the totality of the "context" in which those words were laid down. Yeah, I know it's so much easier to just "believe" what you've been told, but the truth is, you'll never know the truth unless you READ it several times yourself and ASK the real questions about what you've read. Don't accept the circular reasoning that usually marks the literalist, dig! DIG! But of course, there are those that have n... The first thing, I think, one has to come to the conclusion that the Bible is the true word of God. If you can't get there, than you are on your own to find out how right you were when you close your eyes for the last time. So, misinturpret, judge, condemn and distort it anyway you like. In the end, the truth will be revealed and you will find out just how "right" you were, hopefully not into eternal damnation. So, misinturpret, judge, condemn and distort it anyway you like. In the When I read the Bible I feel all of those things have already been done to much of it. I feel what I'm reading is a distortion of His word. Personally I believe in Him. Some parts of the Bible are very close to me. But to go to church and have a preacher try to convince me it's the actual word of God. Well I know better. People of that day were kinda stupid ya know. Easily swayed. They thought the world was flat. The books of Mark, Luke etc were not written by them. They were written years later by people interpreting what they think took place. Constantine remodeled the Bible, destroyed almost all of what he took out and killed most everyone involved with those writings and most everyone wh... this concept that fundamentalism is the good old time religion etc. is just wrong. previous believers took the bible seriously; seriously enough to spend a lot of time and effort to understand just exactly what it might mean, rather than just assuming it happened to support their own prejudices. thinkers as diverse as St. Augustine and Maimonedes both asserted that it is a mistake to feel that either science or common experience are wrong where they seem to conflict with the bible; that in fact in such cases, it must be your interpretation of the bible which is erroneous, without having to lose one's faith in the bible's correctness. AND ANOTHER THING!  If you mention writings from the old testement, christians of today say "Jesus changed all that, we don't have to do what the OT says anymore" In the OT God said "Ye shall gather in my name" Well obviously we don't have to anymore. In the New Testement Jesus says "when you pray don't go on and on like the gentiles do (i bet that got a giggle or two at the ol supper table) He goes on to say. "Go off and be alone. You don't have to sak Him he already knows what you need." SO if the OT is out and the NT is in, why do we go to church? Why do pastors never preach on this part of the NT? I think that would be because somebody makes a lot of money when we go to church. As Bo... You don't have to sak Him ASK ASK Him. I have little faith in the bible. But I have great faith in the power from above. I have experienced many strange and unexplainable happenings while praying and while in church. I've had God overwhelm me and clear every milky thought in my mind. I have felt Him close to me on a number of occasions. I have never seen things more clearly during these times. He has pointed me in a direction and said GO! I'm still moving in that direction. He's out there! He's real! This I know from my own personal experiences. The church? the bible? I just don't feel comfortable with these two. That He does ratilfar. VERY mysterious ways! I'm living proof. In the end, the truth will be revealed and you will find out just how "right" you were, hopefully not into eternal damnation.How condescending of you. And arrogant, don't forget arrogant.... Perhaps a tad judgemental. to each, his or her own is what I say. Thats what makes the world go around. Or is it God that makes the world go around? I forget. OH I just remembered.......... It's Al Gore that makes the world go around. I've been reading Bart Ehrman's books on the bible, and he has a lot of very interesting things to say about it. "Misquoting Jesus" deals with the textual integrity of the oldest known manuscripts and how they came to be in their present form; "Jesus, Interrupted" is an examination of biblical contradictions and "God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer". His commentary is interesting for a number of reasons - he has the language skills to read the oldest texts in the original Greek, Hebrew and other languages, and despite claiming to have lost his faith as a result of his studies, the integrity of his scholarship is not compromised by that. Cool I'll check it out. Thanks Jorjor. Debski.............. ya gotta quit talking so much! Who me? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPq9tF1FbnA U can call me anytime if ure sweetie don't mind us being friends Oh funny. Before I clicked on it I thought to myself...... ~~~~** == (me thinnin) ((*&^ ( this is going to be Blondie "CALL ME" I was half right. back to thinnin now >>>(a short think).. she don't care! we have "one of those" kind of relationships. no pressure, no jealosy, no worries. we both know there is NO WAY either of us would / could do the other wrong. I never had that before her. It sure is cool!!!!!!!! |
View the Top Clips from April 20, 2009
Embed This Clip In Your Site...
|
|
|
|
|
New from the makers of Clipmarks: Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!
|
|
