Well, I didn't intend to echo the Watchtower in saying that the Bible is the final authority for a Christian. I think what I meant was not really what I said, in this case, strange as that sounds. The Bible doesn't cover everything, and Jesus did not come to establish a new version of the Law. The Bible can be a guideline, but that's where objectivity, the concluding part of this discussion of mine, comes in. Not every word of the Bible can be followed or used to make a rule of thumb, because there's so much of a risk for legalism to creep in. The general idea of doing good to others as best we can and taking good care of our own selves is really the bottom line of it.
Christians originally had much freedom of thought, and their unity was based on a foundation of belief in Christ. Christ accepts us as we are, invites us to be friends with him as we are, knowing that deep down, we're only human and will always break the rules.
I don't know. I apologize if that confused people. If it weren't for the Bible, I assume we would know nothing of God or Jesus unless their message was still spread by word of mouth alone. I mean, apart from learning from nature, that is. I was approaching it from a Christian perspective primarily, but still trying to emphasize that there's a need to step back from that, especially because some people use the Bible to bash other groups or ideas or whatever. That's where the need for objectivity comes in the most.
-sd-7