scratchme1010

Now that we have stepped away from the JW faith, how do you feel about the bible itself?

Ridiculously outdated book that people claim it's sacred or something.

What about those awkward sections of scripture? How did you rationalise or justify those sections?

They aren't "awkward". It is just downright stupid to adapt a book that was written thousands of years ago, and interpret by the we we live, think and see the world today. To make a good analysis of the content of that book, one has to put it in context, meaning that you have to understand the way humanity at the time it was written, in the area where it was written, perceived the world.

I don't care for its content, can't care less about what it says, so I don't rationalize anything, not even when I was supposed to like that book.

What is the most troubling section of scripture you have come across?

Depend of what perspective are you analyzing that book. What I find troubling is people still pretending that the bible has some value today. The value it has is exactly that people give to money. Without people thinking that the bible has value, just like money, it would be just printed paper.

skin

This verse here, was this common back then?

Deuteronomy 23:1

23:1 “No man who has been castrated by having his testicles crushed or who has had his male organ cut off may come into the congregation of Jehovah".

James Mixon

David buys a wife with 200 penis parts. Originally the deal was 100 foreskins but David figured he's getting a great deal so he up the bet. 1 Samuel 18 :25. That's a hell of a dowry.

humbled

There is no way to understand or explain Genesis 22.

The story of God testing Abraham flies in the face of the scriptures that “cannot be broken”

1) God cannot lie

2) God condemns child sacrifice as evil.

3) God does not test/tempt anyone with . evil

Genesis 22 has him do all three.

I left over this. The only “out” for God in the matter was to say that the original Hebrew word for burn offering was not derived in any sense from the word for sacrifice. The story must be about a strange teaching of blind faith by a god talking to a man with a limited definition of worship.

It is impossible to give God a pass on the story otherwise. He would be evil by his own reckoning.

JW GoneBad

There really are too many Biblical accounts that are troubling and disturbing...so I'll just mention the one at 2 Samuel 11 about David's affair with Bathsheba and David's murder of Bathsheba's husband in an attempt to cover up the affair.

Then there is the account in Genesis 38:15, 16 where Judah, during one of his horny moments has sex with who what he thinks is a prostitute who winds up having twins. Mind you, this is the same Judah (one of the twelve tribes of Isreal) who is a forefather of Jesus Christ. It's been said that many a Bible Scholar has trouble and finds it disturbing talking about this account about Judah's delight with prostitutes. .

Vidiot

EverApostate - "I bring this up whenever I get into a conversation with any Christian. And would ask them if I was the man who picked the stick and they were the Israelites, would they have stoned me? Would be fun to watch the Terror look on their face."

It's a good bit to use to prove to people that they themselves don't - and, in fact, can't - take their own Bible 100% literally.

"Would you execute your own neighbor for blasphemy?"

"Of course not!"

"Why not?"

"Because it would be wrong!"

"Wrong, as in 'unethical'? 'Immoral'?"

"Of course!"

"Really? 'Cause according to your own Bible, not only is it not immoral, it is viewed as a highly moral command. Therefore you should not only be willing to do it, you should actively want to do it."

"N..no, that's not true! That's impossible!

"Search your fee...er, Bible, you know it to be true." (sorry, couldn't resist)

"You're a bad man! I hate you!"

"Yeah, that's wrong too, according to Jesus."

Drearyweather

For me, the genocide mentioned in the Bible is less disturbing than the Holocaust, WW1 and WW2

Ireneus

My first jolt occurred when I imagined myself, for a moment, as Isaac being tied up by Abraham at the command of God, and counting the seconds for the dagger to pierce my neck. Imagine the trauma that Isaac was subjected for no reason. God first preventing the conception till Sarah becomes old, and giving a child in the old age, and asking the child to be sacrificed ...all of which make no sense.

Only when I read Jeremiah 7:31 I understood that God would never ask such a thing from anyone, and it is story made by 'liars' (Jeremiah 8:8)

Annon

I used to worry about all these passages in the Bible, trying to fit them in with a God of love. Then someone explained to me that the bible we have today is not complete. The original text had some words that are missing in our versions. The most important are found at the very start, they translates to "Once upon a time"

StoneWall

Genesis 3:22 (KJV)
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

This would nullify all that stuff about needing a savior/redeemer/ransom just by Adam reaching out and grabbing the fruit of the Tree of life and living forever.

What is the most troubling or disturbing biblical passage you ever had to rationalise when a Jw?