WHY DO YOU INSIST on clinging to the Bible as anything other than fiction? (page 4)

Silver

I don't even have one anymore. I can't stomach it.

Balsam

Have been reading some of Thomas Paines writtings from the 1800's, the man could be speaking to today. Very interesting.

Personally it is liberating to not have the religious dogma hanging over my head not that my research has convinced me that the bible is a book of fiction.

Country_Woman

WHY DO YOU INSIST on clinging to the Bible as anything other than fiction?

because some parts are absolutely "true" ?

as others, I think that a lot of the books are written as "propaganda" to lead their people.

But there is still something in it that I need to believe - al though I can't pin it down exactly.

(maybe I am not willing to study / digging farther)

Sunnygal41

So many other cultural references with similar stories and things to share that there are out there. Books like the Upanishads, Popol Vuh, Baghvadgita (Sp?), Black Elk Speaks, Be Here Now, etc..

Exactly, Valis. This is what I've tried to share with my mom, who is still "in". For example, the native americans on this continent have end time prophecies, also. The JDubs and Christians in general don't have the exclusive corner on some mystical revelation from the Creator, in other words.

Terri

AK - Jeff

absolutely believe it - I have not abandoned Christianity, just the Jw flavor of it - and Christianity is based on Christ - the Bible is fulfilled in him.

By the way - Hi kenneson! - saw you on JW Info Service - we emailed... you new LDS you -

Jeff

one

It seem like the posters who have really done their reasearch into this issue are telling their viewpoint with the least amount of words,

but that is not the reason why i have nothing to say...

funkyderek

But if anyone thinks they are superior because now they don't believe, towards those who do believe, that is narrow minded and pathetic. Just because they don't believe, doesn't make them any better than those who do. Simply a difference of opinion.

No it isn't. A difference of opinion is (for example) whether Mozart is better than Beethoven. You can argue forever about it. There's really no definitive answer. The matter of which one was born first is different, however. Those who believe Mozart was born first are, in a narrow but very real way, better than those who think Beethoven was.

While I would defend anybody's right to believe that Beethoven was born before Mozart, those who do so are simply wrong. Those who persist in believing that when confronted with the evidence are pig-headed and/or stupid.

Leolaia

I regard the Bible as a selection of the most highly esteemed literature of ancient Israel and Judah. It contains their laws, their history, their songs, their poetry, their wisdom. So why in the world should it not include fiction? Why among fundamentalists is that such a bad thing? There seems to be a conscious equation between "fiction" and "falsity" or between "myth" and "falsity". But that is just ignorance of what fiction is. People don't write fiction to lie. People tell stories to communicate deeper truths about the human condition that are best expressed in such a way. So I don't see any problem for recognizing the use of fiction and myth in the Bible, I don't see it impinging on its merits and value. Like in fables, it is the moral that counts, not whether the story actually happened. Would you reject the moral of an Aesop tale just because the story never really happened? The NT refers to noncanonical legends such as the legends of Jannes and Jambres, Enoch, Moses and the Archangel Michael, and so forth, but it does not cite these stories to insist these are historical events but rather to communicate the morals, the lessons, that these stories communicate. As a diverse anthology of literature, the Bible has many ancient stories which may make us cringe today and which reflect the society and times in which the stories were written, but I really wouldn't want it any other way -- as it is an honest, living, collection of literature which attests the development over many generations of people's experience and beliefs of the divine, of their faith and love, their hopes and aspirations, and the world in which the synoptic message of Jesus and his kingdom (which I cherish as a sublime expression of social justice and the importance of personal behavior and love for one's neighbors, the poor, the weak -- a message which I embrace and take to heart regardless of my agnosticism) was expressed. I don't believe that recognizing the Bible as literature situated within its times and prior literary traditions, and that it contains myth and fiction, doesn't mean that we shouldn't listen to what it has to say about us and about how we should treat one another. In short, I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the bathwater....

Utopian Reformist

After debunking and removing all doubts as to the veracity of any religious holy book, religious belief system, a human may finally realize that it is primarily fear of death and fear of the unknown that are responsible for the creation and development of susperstitious religious beliefs.

Once an individual has made this realization, it is easier to accept the nature of human death, and the lack of knowledge concerning unknown dimensions. It is a refusal to accept death as natural, finite and currently without prevention, that continues supporting, endorsing and promoting illogical, supernatural, occult-like, mystified, superstitious religious doctrine.

The abject refusal and insistence on hopes, rewards, and life ever after in the unknown keeps humans in fear, makes them pliable and easy prey for clergy, and prevents further scientific and medical progress by colluding with politicians.

Religion really needs to be banned everywhere once and for all.

WHY DO YOU INSIST on clinging to the Bible as anything other than fiction?

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