This Bible Not Original

FreePeace

Here is an interesting article by a local columnist that underscores the invalidity of the Christian religion as God's chosen one. It also casts serious doubt on the Bible as well as Jesus' originality. This is really nothing new to those of us who have researched it.

http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive2/122301/cl2.htm?date=122301&story=cl2.htm

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The Golden Rule is universal to all religious faiths
By Lindsey Williams columnist

As the religious season for Christians, Jews and Muslims nears an end for this year - while some believers are at war with each other - cynics are entitled to ask if there is no central truth all faiths can share?

All three religions are founded on one God, though with different names and different prophets. Yet, denominations within the faiths, and between faiths, are earnestly killing each other and invoking God in the process.

Protestants versus Catholics in Ireland. Muslims and Jews against each other in Israel and Palestine. Sunni Muslims versus Shiite Muslims in Iraq. Taliban Muslims fight moderate Afghan Muslims. Orthodox Catholics and Muslims experiment with "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans.

The United States welcomes all religions and protects them constitutionally. However, it seems constantly engaged in squabbles over the propriety of public displays of Nativity scenes, menorahs, crosses, Stars of David, angels, decorated pine trees and billows of yard lights.

Special religious days are marked on most American calendars -- Saint Patrick, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Passover, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Ramadan.

Halloween and Valentine Day are ancient religious occasions still observed but have lost sacred meaning. Santa Claus is on the way to usurping Christ-mass.

Despite U.S. tolerance, religious terrorists murder Americans and destroy their property -- specifically because we don't take sides in religious disputes.

On what, then, can we all agree?

The answer has been known for centuries as the Golden Rule, and is encoded in every religious faith. It is worthwhile pausing in our present holiday mood, amidst troubling world events, to review the many ways the universal truth is expressed.

* * *

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." - Judaism, Leviticus 19:18.

* * *

"A certain heathen came to Shammai and said to him, 'Make me a proselyte, on condition you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.' Thereupon Shammai repulsed him with the rod which was in his hand. When the heathen went to Hillel, the latter said to him, 'What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah. All the rest of it is commentary. Go and learn.'" - Judaism, Talmud, Shabbat 31a.

* * *

"Do not do unto others what angers you if done to by others." - Greek philosopher Socrates, 400 BCE.

* * *

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." - Christianity, Bible, Matthew 22:326-40.

* * *

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." - Jesus Christ, Matthew. 7:12.

* * *

"Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." - Islam, Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13.

* * *

"One should not behave towards others in a way which is disagreeable to oneself." - Hinduism, Parva 113.8.

* * *

"Tsekung asked, 'Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct for life?' Confucious replied, 'It is the word shu, reciprocity. Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you'." - Confucianism, Analects 15.23.

* * *

"A state that is not pleasant or delightful to me must also be to him; and a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?" - Buddhism, Samyutta Nikaya 353.

* * *

"Comparing oneself to others in such terms as 'Just as I am, so are they, and just as they are so am I,' he should neither kill nor cause others to kill." -- Buddhism, Sutta Nipata 705.

* * *

"One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts." - Yoruba Proverb, Nigeria.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist

FreePeace
"The World is my country, and to do good, my religion." --Thomas Paine
TruthQuest: http://beam.to/truthquest
Who Am I? -How to Reinvent Yourself After Leaving the WTS

borgfree

I can just hear the people of ancient Egypt saying " Oh, all of those "so called" miracles Moses is doing is nothing new, our own magicians have been doing that stuff for years."

Borgfree

"You can fool some of the people all of the time" especially if you are a member of the WT GB

COMF

our own magicians have been doing that stuff for years.

Had they been?

gumby

FreePeace....Where can you find out the dates of the various books of beliefs you posted?A website would be preferred for ease of finding.

borgfree

COMF,

They must have been doing some kind of magic tricks or they would not have been called magicians. (or whatever translation) But, the bible says they "copied" (somehow) what Moses was doing, but, for only the first three miracles, then, the real power was evident.

Borgfree

"You can fool some of the people all of the time" especially if you are a member of the WT GB

COMF

Here's a fairly modern-day slant on the same thought--a bit verbose, perhaps, but enjoyable in the telling.

COMF

- http://www.scarletmoon.com/fred/sounds/mp3s/The_Balance.mp3

After he had journeyed,
And his feet were sore
And he was tired,
He came upon an orange grove,
And he rested.

And he lay in the cool.
And while he rested
He took to himself an orange
And tasted it;
And it was good.

And he felt the earth to his spine.
And he asked.
And he saw the tree above him,
And the stars,
And the veins in the leaf,
And the light,
And the balance;

And he saw magnificent perfection.
Whereon, he thought of himself in balance,
And he knew he was.

And he thought of those he angered;
For he was not a violent man.
And he thought of those he hurt;
For he was not a cruel man.
And he thought of those he frightened;
For he was not an evil man.
And he understood.
He understood himself.

Upon this he saw that,
When he was of anger,
Or knew hurt,
Or felt fear,
It was because he was not understanding!

And he learned Compassion.
And with his eye of compassion
He saw his enemies
Like unto himself.

And he learned Love.
And then... he was answered.

"The Balance"
Graeme Edge

ISP

I agree Freepeace I posted something similar in connection with a recent awake article!

The Golden Rule is said to epitomise Christianity...but was founded..many centuries before Jesus! Go figure!

ISP

* http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=14545&site=3#174017

Heres the link!

ISP

Rex B13

Why do you people keep 'missing the boat' on this alleged problem of pagans having good, Biblical ideas? If, as the Bible contends, all religion goes back to worship of the one, true God (surprisingly to some, most ancient religions begin with 'one god' then spin off into polytheism) and we all have God-given consciences (as Paul points out in his theological treatise in Romans) then why would Christianity NOT have inherent similarities to paganism?
Zoaraster certainly had some Biblical ideas, the Magi who came to visit the infant Jesus were observant of Daniel's prophecies and other scripture. They were from the land of Persia and their forebearers served with Daniel in the Babylonian court.
When are all of the Bible doubters going to realize that practically every objection they have can be turned back on them? It all depends on your world-view, so your 'problem' is actually a 'proof'!
Rex

COMF

It all depends on your world-view, so your 'problem' is actually a 'proof'!

Eloquently put, Rex. I doubt that any of us could have better described the source of your proof.

COMF

This Bible Not Original

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