[CaitlinBriana]

First, I am not a Christian. Personally, I believe in science, and for me, that takes out any possibilities of a god. I do not hate religion, people are free to believe what they want, no matter how foolish I think it to be. I enjoy Christianity as a religion, for its historical significance, however I dislike the majority of its followers, as the majority in my life have forced religion on me. This topic is completely non-biased, though.

If you read the Bible, you'll find lots of contradictions, and many people against Christianity use this to say that its writers were hypocrites. It is my understanding, especially between the two testaments, different people wrote different parts of the Bible. That would account for differences in facts. Also, the testaments were written at different periods in history, and the portrayal of God and the morals and values reflects different views on the world, different events going on, and different needs of the audience. Perhaps the people of the old testament needed a harsher god to explain the world, where later on, a kinder god made more sense.

I think most people (probably even most Christians) know that the Bible is not something that should be taken LITERALLY as real events. Still, one of the main attacks against Christians is about the Bible being inaccurate, etc. If you look at texts, religious or fictional, from other cultures, you'll find some of the same kinds of writing as the Bible. One of the purposes of a story, especially in the ancient world, was to teach morals and values of a culture. I'm more familiar with the old testament, so most of what I say will pertain to that. When I read passages from the Bible, I see writers who were making up stories to convey some moral message to their readers. It is quite possible that they might have loosely based some events on real life happenings, authors today do, but mostly I believe they just made it up.

I don't think they made it up in order to create a religion where some thousand years later people would blindly believe it all to be truth, nor do I think they necessarily passed it off as full truth. The morals in the Bible are probably morals that they thought God told them were good or bad. In order to catch people's interests, they put it into a story. The only part they may really have taken for truth was Adam and Eve, and parts of Genesis, because they had no scientific explanation back then.

I want to know what you think the Bible was intended for and how you interpret it.

[Omega]

I think you hit the nail on the head. The Bible is stuffed full of cultural influence. In order to understand the Bible one must understand its context. Morality is a product of society. As society changes so too does morality. This is reflected in the different values outlined by sections of the Bible that were written at different points in history.

To be honest, I don't think the Bible is doing us much good these days...

[Jinsue]

Is that to suggest we will get/need a new 'Bible'/moral handbook soon? One that is more up-to-date would probably make a lot more sense but then no one in this modern day would accept it on-mass because everyone loves being different and doing their own - at least they like to think it. It would be interesting to know what the next 'Bible' will come from/be like. One can only speculate now I suppose - it would result in the death or forced updating of current Christian religions, but then a lot are dying out now as it is anyway.

[Omega]

I don't think we need a moral handbook at all. Our current moral handbook, if that's what you want to call the Bible, is hurting more than helping.

Something I always found fascinating is that no one actually uses the Bible as their source of morality even if they think they do.

Of all the outdated notions contained within the Bible the inferiority of women and moral acceptance of slavery are the most distinct. Many people who think they derive their moral understanding from the Bible do not agree with it in regards to things such as women's rights and slavery. But how can this be? They are using an exogenous moral understanding to judge the Bible without even realizing it. Their true moral understanding is derived from society.

[Fweeeq]

You're pretty harsh on the Bible Omega. I think the true messages written in the Bible are very relevant today. To love your fellow man will always be good moral advice. Could you explain the last part of your post a little more? What do you mean by exogenous moral understanding.

[DizzyD]

An exogenous moral understanding would be a moral understanding derived externally. One derived from outside the Bible in this case.

[WILLOW]

To my understanding, the old testament just explains how the christians or before they labeled themselves christians, took over nations. Back in them days people called the people that they thought were higher than them for some reason, lord or God. Another one of my understandings is that the writer wanted to write something that no one has ever heard before. In my eyes I believe he succeeded. That is why the bible is so popular today. I believe that some parts of the bible should be taken literally and others not. Like when moses split the red sea. At first when they talked about it, it seemed like moses did something magical through the power of God, but if one reads on the bible itself explains exactly how moses supposedly split the red sea. It said they actually built damms on two sides opposite of each other and left the middle of the sea open. Then after the Egyptians tried to follow the Israelites, they broke the damms and the water came upon them. That is why when they explain the splitting of the red sea, they say that it was like two walls on each side. They were literally walls on each side opposite of each other.

I think the bible has a few purposes. One purpose is for entertainment. The other purpose is to teach basic morality and the last purpose is to gain finances from the people through its belief system.

[Partysmasher]

The bible was a control technique now socially, morally and scientifically redundant.

[Mythros]

i was thinking...(lol), if i was god, and i was going to have men write a manual on how to live it would be more like a manual. meaning, why would god want so much filler in it? its easy to confuse the meaning of a book with many stories, but its not that easy to confuse a page and a half of blunt statements. maybe the new testament and everything but the ten commandments in the old testament is not meant to be a manual or maybe god did not get to make revisions? lol idk.. if we are not suppose to be effected by it, why write it?

[MyArete]

Originally Posted by Fweeeq

You're pretty harsh on the Bible Omega. I think the true messages written in the Bible are very relevant today. To love your fellow man will always be good moral advice. Could you explain the last part of your post a little more? What do you mean by exogenous moral understanding.

The beauty of the bible is that I can pick it up, and with it, justify anything I want to. You can find a passage that'll let ya do any thing you like. And a group of books so convoluted and obviously influenced for past political expedience, has no “true” meaning. However, if it did, what a meticulously balanced act of self delusion it takes to believe that teaching is that man should love one another. This balancing act is almost deserving of admiration, or at least awe. Of course, here in America preachers & priests highlight only parts that will be accepted by an audience who becomes more and more educated. To take a barbaric document like the bible, and believe it's teachings are relevant, requires a great deal of self-delusion or ignorance. And better moral teachings can be found in the Illiad or any number of Dr. Suess's books. Values: child sacrifice, blood for “sin”, hell for the different, servitude ….. seriously, relevant? In this age of science and reason the bible still puts forth the idea of "taking things on faith"; this book has no relevance. What's it for? I use it to teach Christians what they are supposed to believe in. Their really unaware and not happy when they find out. Its also a pretty good sleeping aid.