The best innoculation against the virus of religious belief is to be educated about its primary textbook.
You mean maybe things like the God of peace and love waging slaughter in the Old Testament and promising it in the New?
I'll go with that.
bible no other book
by bobld 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Chariklo
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bobld
Thanks for your comments.
Like I said on the outset,many view the bible as a great book for how to live.I don't see it that way at all.It may be a history book.
When someone tells me to read it every day because it is beneficial,I don't agree anymore then reading about Hilter everyday is beneficial.
Try reading all those names times and times and a half time is just stupid and a waste of you guess it times and t.
Just read the shit for yourself and you will agree it is ( ).
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OldGenerationDude
I am surprised to read a lot of "wives tales" and Witness propaganda from people who claim to have rejected the Bible on grounds of using one's intellect, on reason, and on education.
Too many people do not open their minds to the possibility that what they've been told about the Bible does not match any historical account. First of all, the Christian Bible came about not due to politcal reasons, but to counter the claims of Marcion of Sinope. It's wide distribution is due to the historical walk of the Welsh girl Mary Jones and how that inspired the creation of Bible societies to provide copies of the Bible for everyone (something which did not exist until the 1800s).
This isn't saying that I want everyone here to abandon their current values and convictions and believe in the Bible. But remember how when we were in the Watchtower, how educated about Biblical matters and religion we thought we were back then? A lot of what some are saying against the Bible here and other places is just as inaccurate.
No, don't get me wrong. Please check out some of my other posts if you doubt what I am saying, but this isn't an attempt to debate the view of atheists and others who reject the Bible. What I am questing in this writing are why write things like the Bible was developed for political reasons or comment on the very few (and very small) destruction of unauthorized translations by the Roman Catholic Church (which happened pre-Mary Jones, meaning very few copies were destroyed at a time when no average person owned a copy), as if this was an attempt to destroy the Bible itself? These aren't accurate claims.
These type of stories are not effective in discussing the Bible with educated believers, theologians, textual scholars, exegetes, catechists, and the like because they aren't accurate or even true. That's why they don't make a dent in the faith of some. And calling the Bible names and using curse words sounds like we are letting our emotions and personal tastes interfere with the use of an open mind, logic, and sticking to verifiable data (which should be able to stand independent validation).
Again, I have no problem with your not wanting to believe in the Bible and all the claims of worthlessness some wish to attribute to it. The issue are the reasons. They don't match anything you learn in university programs and accept academia regarding how and why the Bible was developed, and when in history people began to actually own and read the book--a relatively recent phenomenon in history, I might add.
No one will take the advocating of using an open mind, free thought, the use of a critical approach, and the benefits of formal education in these matters seriously if we don't rise above the name calling, demonizing, and rumor-believing ourselves. While I don't claim that people have to go to college and take theology and history after leaving the Watchtower, I can tell you after what has taken a little more than a decade that nothing I thought I knew about religion or the Bible was even remotely close to what is taught and known in the circle of higher education. I could get several more specialized degrees and still not know everything or be what I think an authority on a subject should be.
I'd hate to keep making the same mistakes I did while in the Watchtower when I use to make fun of something I didn't believe in or wouldn't allow or stand for my current views to be tested and verified indepent of the JWs, my self, and my desires. If we no longer believe in God and the Bible and feel we can help and aid people to adopt a better way, we should do so with humility recalling how we were once so convinced that we had the truth as JWs that we were blinded to our own ignorance. Let us hope that cannot be said of us now and of what we write, say, and do today.
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mP
@cofty
YOu do realise that the story of Harry Potter is the story of Jesus retold in modernish when compared to Judea, England.
You can search for JKRowling you has basically admitted this fact herself.