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Okies, I finally decided to commen in here....

The Bible ( as we are discussing here) NEVER tells anyone what religion to believe or to follow. It is a bout Faith. Religion is of Man/Human origin.
When whoever tries to tell you this church or that church is good, bad, indifferent...WATCH OUT....The Bible does not say you have to Catholic or protestant or say you have to be Baptists, or Methodists, or anything else.

I challenge anyone to show me where it does specify anything other than belief in being a Christian.

I suppose anyone can tear The Bible apart as far as stories go....There is a description of Jesus and among other things it said he hair like lamb's wool ( if I remember correctly). It matters not of his physical description or lack their of...that is not the issue.

Certainly the most accepted version of the Bible is The King James. At one point in time, it was punishable by death to have any other copy of the Bible.
The Bibles that have been retranslated have all been taken from the King James text.
I know of no Bible that went back to the Original ancient text and have been retranslated from them. I have read TheFour Gospels and Revelations translated from the "original text".
The closest of the Gospels to Jesus, was written over 100 years after the Death and Ressurection of Christ.

There are places and events that are mentioned in the Bible that confirm the Bible. Enough to prove anything beyond a shadow of doubt? Perhaps not to some people , but then again it is all about Faith. There is more I could say but this is not about discussing the Bible persay but what it means to an individual, at least as best I can understood the topic.

The Bible is History and a way of life and a change that was brought about by Jesus.
I do firmly believe the Bible has been misused and abused by many for whatever "selfish or slef important" reasons they decided to use them for.
As it says in The Bible..... Many are called but few are chosen.
For the most part people are sheep and easily down whatever path a leader will take them.

Of course, there is a lot allegory in the Bible....one only need look at the Parables for confirmation. Sure stories changed for better or worse, through translation(s) and time. Through translation, there is a trade off as usually nothing can be translated verbatim. Somethings lost and somethings gained. Such as The Commandment "Thow Shall not Kill" It originally meant "Thou shalt not Murder." At least according to some translations. There are many numerous others.

Play a simple game with a group of people.....say 30 people in a circle one whispers something to one person at the start, then the next person whispers something to the next person and so on and so on down the line.....See what you end up with. I will lay odds it is totally different than what the orinal statement or question was.
Not everyone was able to read and write in those days and there are people in our modern society that cannot do so either. The scholars had to take what they learned and heard and make the best of it as best they could.

Anyway those are some of my thoughts, as we were asked to present....

Brad,
I think you have a good topic and asked for input so you could learn, and become better able to minister to your flock. I don't condemn or see anything wrong with it, nor do I see you questioning anyone about their religion or their Beliefs or their Faith.
If they Believe differently from you, I do really think you are more interested in why and what they actually believe in, being more important than in why they don't. You are helping yourself to learn and to understand others and their beliefs, as well as your own Faith and beliefs.

Thank you. Perhaps we can discuss more about this at another time elsewhere. Thank you for bringing this up. (Asshat <grinz> said with great affection and endearment!)

tommcat327 wrote:

Sidew13 wrote:

tommcat327 wrote:religious people scare me in general

please excuse any misspells......
The Religious Extreamist is what scares me. Most Religons are of a peaceful nature. People who bomb abortion clinics in the name of Jesus or fly planes into buildings in the name of Mohammad are not true to their religious roots.

it doesnt take much to be an extremist in my opinion though. while they may not be extremist there are far too many people in the world who make decisions based on religion.
i dont consider the president one but i really believe he makes a lot of decisions based on his faith, which scares me.

. . . at least, that's what he would like his evangelical base to believe.

Cheers.

took awhile to find it, but i would recommend taking a listen to the interview and reading his book....

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=5052156

SchoolGirlHeart wrote:

Soraya wrote:I agree. And to make matters worse, I've mentioned this to several other people and they didn't understand why I was shocked by this.

PS: To answer another question, I do not know exactly what year of bible college he was in...but I believe he was just starting, or had only been there a semester.

That's a little scary, that people can be that Anglo-centric......

Wonder how many people would totally flip out if they really realized that Jesus had brown skin?

I'm not even sure that those types of people are anglo centric so much as just closed to anything other than what they are taught and comfortable in believing.

I believe those types of people (those leaning toward the 'holier than thou' stereotype) use their religion as a crutch. They are incapable of even considering any other religion and incapable of exploring what a religion or faith could be other than what they've been taught and rely on. They believe in the 'one true religion' and there are no others.

At least that's what my neighbor informs me (said with much sarcasm)

sy wrote:

SchoolGirlHeart wrote:

Soraya wrote:I agree. And to make matters worse, I've mentioned this to several other people and they didn't understand why I was shocked by this.

PS: To answer another question, I do not know exactly what year of bible college he was in...but I believe he was just starting, or had only been there a semester.

That's a little scary, that people can be that Anglo-centric......

Wonder how many people would totally flip out if they really realized that Jesus had brown skin?

I'm not even sure that those types of people are anglo centric so much as just closed to anything other than what they are taught and comfortable in believing.

I believe those types of people (those leaning toward the 'holier than thou' stereotype) use their religion as a crutch. They are incapable of even considering any other religion and incapable of exploring what a religion or faith could be other than what they've been taught and rely on. They believe in the 'one true religion' and there are no others.

At least that's what my neighbor informs me (said with much sarcasm)

A lot of it is about fear, fear of eternal damnation. Someone told them that they know exactly want the Bible says by proof-texting (picking out one or two specific verses while ignoring the whole text or the context in which it is) and by scaring people into conversion and telling them that if they want their family, friends, and yes even neighbors to aviod Hell, then they have to convert them to this brand of Christianity. And so you have roving gangs of people who claim to know the truth and feel it necessary to bombard people with this so-called truth. I feel, however, that we only know snippets of the truth and that the entire truth of God is so beyond our comprehension that we won't know the entire story until we enter the relam of God.

UAHparrothead wrote: ..... I feel, however, that we only know snippets of the truth and that the entire truth of God is so beyond our comprehension that we won't know the entire story until we enter the relam of God.

That's kinda where I was going with my jigsaw puzzle analogy back on page 4. Of course, it sounds a whole lot better when you say it.

markruble wrote:I agree with many here who say that bringing up the subject of how one believes or doesn't believe is a very personal matter and really shouldn't be discussed. What good really comes out of this? This is my opinion, after all I'm entitled to my opinion.

topics that shouldn't be discussed?

this is a discussion board

& now for comic relief ... I think (to answer the 1st post/question) that the Bible is the greatest story ever told. I ran out of patience for reading years ago for some reason, I really miss a good book & have several I need to catch up on. Living on the boat, I think I'll slowly get caught up
BUT as far as the bible is concerned, is there a bible book-on-tape?
I'd do that on a cross country trip; but I don't think I could make it through reading it the old fashioned way
that being said I am an Athiest

LaTda wrote:

markruble wrote:I agree with many here who say that bringing up the subject of how one believes or doesn't believe is a very personal matter and really shouldn't be discussed. What good really comes out of this? This is my opinion, after all I'm entitled to my opinion.

topics that shouldn't be discussed?

this is a discussion board

Agreed. I just usually stay out of the religious and political discussions because they tend to lead to hurt feelings.

As long as we keep it on the level, nobody taking anything too personal, it's cool.

sy wrote:

SchoolGirlHeart wrote:

Soraya wrote:I agree. And to make matters worse, I've mentioned this to several other people and they didn't understand why I was shocked by this.

PS: To answer another question, I do not know exactly what year of bible college he was in...but I believe he was just starting, or had only been there a semester.

That's a little scary, that people can be that Anglo-centric......

Wonder how many people would totally flip out if they really realized that Jesus had brown skin?

I'm not even sure that those types of people are anglo centric so much as just closed to anything other than what they are taught and comfortable in believing.

I believe those types of people (those leaning toward the 'holier than thou' stereotype) use their religion as a crutch. They are incapable of even considering any other religion and incapable of exploring what a religion or faith could be other than what they've been taught and rely on. They believe in the 'one true religion' and there are no others.

At least that's what my neighbor informs me (said with much sarcasm)

<light bulb goes off> Well said! I'm guessing that at the very point those people (those who believe their religion is the only true/right religion) accept that other people's religions are acceptable then by logic theirs is diminished somehow; else how can all religions be 100% correct?

.. just thinking out loud here.
I do truely like to talk about religion, it can be fascinating

LaTda wrote:

markruble wrote:I agree with many here who say that bringing up the subject of how one believes or doesn't believe is a very personal matter and really shouldn't be discussed. What good really comes out of this? This is my opinion, after all I'm entitled to my opinion.

topics that shouldn't be discussed?

this is a discussion board

& now for comic relief ... I think (to answer the 1st post/question) that the Bible is the greatest story ever told. I ran out of patience for reading years ago for some reason, I really miss a good book & have several I need to catch up on. Living on the boat, I think I'll slowly get caught up
BUT as far as the bible is concerned, is there a bible book-on-tape?
I'd do that on a cross country trip; but I don't think I could make it through reading it the old fashioned way
that being said I am an Athiest

i didnt know you were an atheist too, congratulations

as for the comment about not discussing religion, i completely disagree. it should definitely be discussed as much as possible.

I've got to say this - I AM PROUD TO BE A PARROTHEAD.

I'm a member of a Grateful Dead member's fansite as well. There's no way those people over there could discuss this without a lot of animosity. There's a semi religious discussion going on right now and it only took 3 posts before the athiest told the christian to take their beliefs and not discuss them in public. This is the same group of people that discussed The Book of the Dead at great length with no complaint.

It does me so proud that at least, despite all our different beliefs, that we can at least get along and respect each other

ph4ever wrote:I've got to say this - I AM PROUD TO BE A PARROTHEAD.

I'm a member of a Grateful Dead member's fansite as well. There's no way those people over there could discuss this without a lot of animosity. There's a semi religious discussion going on right now and it only took 3 posts before the athiest told the christian to take their beliefs and not discuss them in public. This is the same group of people that discussed The Book of the Dead at great length with no complaint.

It does me so proud that at least, despite all our different beliefs, that we can at least get along and respect each other

Oh, get bent.

ph4ever wrote: There's a semi religious discussion going on right now and it only took 3 posts before the athiest told the christian to take their beliefs and not discuss them in public.

that's odd, it is almost always the christian that will tell an atheist they are wrong and shouldnt be allowed to discuss religion.

tommcat327 wrote:

ph4ever wrote: There's a semi religious discussion going on right now and it only took 3 posts before the athiest told the christian to take their beliefs and not discuss them in public.

that's odd, it is almost always the christian that will tell an atheist they are wrong and shouldnt be allowed to discuss religion.

Well I think the atheists and the Christians are both wrong and when my people return to this planet you've all got a lot of 'splainin' to do.

rsgeist wrote:

tommcat327 wrote:

ph4ever wrote: There's a semi religious discussion going on right now and it only took 3 posts before the athiest told the christian to take their beliefs and not discuss them in public.

that's odd, it is almost always the christian that will tell an atheist they are wrong and shouldnt be allowed to discuss religion.

Well I think the atheists and the Christians are both wrong and when my people return to this planet you've all got a lot of 'splainin' to do.

This doesn't have anything to do with Thetans and all, does it?

RinglingRingling wrote:

rsgeist wrote:

tommcat327 wrote:

ph4ever wrote: There's a semi religious discussion going on right now and it only took 3 posts before the athiest told the christian to take their beliefs and not discuss them in public.

that's odd, it is almost always the christian that will tell an atheist they are wrong and shouldnt be allowed to discuss religion.

Well I think the atheists and the Christians are both wrong and when my people return to this planet you've all got a lot of 'splainin' to do.

This doesn't have anything to do with Thetans and all, does it?

Actually, we're Alphans.

(what, you thought "Alphabet" was just a nickname?)

I'm an atheist, so I think all religious people should burn in Hell.

Sam wrote: The closest of the Gospels to Jesus, was written over 100 years after the Death and Ressurection of Christ.

Just FYI, but most scholars place the Gospel of Mark, the first of the Gospels written, at about 75-90 CE, so it was more like 50 or 60 years after the Resurrection.

UAHparrothead wrote:

Sam wrote: The closest of the Gospels to Jesus, was written over 100 years after the Death and Ressurection of Christ.

Just FYI, but most scholars place the Gospel of Mark, the first of the Gospels written, at about 75-90 CE, so it was more like 50 or 60 years after the Resurrection.

Thanks,
I by no means consider myself to be a Bible scholar. I am by no means out to impress anyone, I just learn as best that I can.

I am was not sure of the exact years that hadpassed, but if I recalled it correctly, that is what the author that went to the original text and translated said. As you indicated I am probably wrong on the years that passed It has been a very long time since I read the book.
I used to have a leatherbound copy of Dake's Annotated Reference Bible ...that I gave to my Mother. It dissappeared after her death. I won't comment any further on that item or the following incidents.

My apologies for being mistaken on the date.

Sam wrote:

UAHparrothead wrote:

Sam wrote: The closest of the Gospels to Jesus, was written over 100 years after the Death and Ressurection of Christ.

Just FYI, but most scholars place the Gospel of Mark, the first of the Gospels written, at about 75-90 CE, so it was more like 50 or 60 years after the Resurrection.

Thanks,
I by no means consider myself to be a Bible scholar. I am by no means out to impress anyone, I just learn as best that I can.

I am was not sure of the exact years that hadpassed, but if I recalled it correctly, that is what the author that went to the original text and translated said. As you indicated I am probably wrong on the years that passed It has been a very long time since I read the book.
I used to have a leatherbound copy of Dake's Annotated Reference Bible ...that I gave to my Mother. It dissappeared after her death. I won't comment any further on that item or the following incidents.

My apologies for being mistaken on the date.

Nothing to apologize for, I appreciate your comments