by JH 29 Replies latest jw friends
So many verses in the bible are so clear. Example: Don't steal, don't fornicate, don't have sex with a person of the same sex....etc. Some verses couldn't be clearer.
So, If you do something contrary to what the bible teaches, does it affect you?
Do you rather say, that you just don't believe it's God's word, and then your conscience is ok, or do you just say, "I do what I feel like doing", let it be God's word or not?
Things like stealing etc etc go against my own personal morals and so I would choose not to do these things because of that reason, not because some book tells me not to do them.
I do not any longer think of it in those terms. I have a conscience that keeps me from doing wrongs. But the Budist the Hindus and all other religions have the basic right and wrongs. There is a universal code of right and wrong this code is what I go by now. I don't think of the bible as inspired but just books written by wise men of their day.
The Bible also says it's ok to kill people - including members of your own family - if they don't worship the same as you do. It also says that a man can rape a woman and as a result she has to be married to him for the rest of her life.
I don't consider the Bible to be the ultimate set of laws binding on all humanity, since many of the "laws" it contains are the some of the most inhumane laws ever recorded.
I pat myself on the back and remind myself that the activity is something that Jesus would probabaly NOT do.
GBL
I concur with Scully re the Bible's codes.
It seems true that we bring to our religion our own basic morality. This would explain why even within the same group, there's a range of application (such as the way they treat non- or ex-JWs). If they have a cruel streak, they apply the df'g rules with relish. The others don't seem to apply them much. Some have questionable business ethics and some don't. That would explain why most people don't really change a lot when they leave. Maybe they try some things for a while but eventually settle to their own level of ethics.
Also, why some religions (or maybe most), emphasize the hateful parts of the Bible in the Old Testament, while playing down or selectively using the kinder parts, e.g. Love thy neighbor. Some homophobes stress the parts of Bible that condemn that, while ignoring divorce, which Jesus condemned.
Or maybe not.
Pat
good question.
to me the bible is a non issue. so intellectually it doesn't bother me to go against what it says. i would never murder or steal, but like was said earlier in the thread, that is systemic to my own moral code. it's funny how the bible lumps fornication and homosexuality in with murder and stealing. sick.
emotionally, however, i still have the hooks latching me. i attribute this to my upbringing. so when i do something that is against what the bible says, but perhaps not against what human nature says, i have a pang of conscience that lasts for about 20 seconds.
"If you do something contrary to what the bible teaches, how do you react?"
I chuckle to myself, cross it off my list of things to do today, and go make myself a sandwich.
-Tad
I know that I do not fall under "the law of do's and don'ts" anymore. I fall under grace and under grace there is no condemnation - not that I just go and do what the hell I like now, but if I fall - I already know that by grace I'm forgiven & don't beat myself up about it.
As Scully so artfully pointed out....we are much more enlightened as a people today than in bible times. Alot of the laws regarding adultry and homosexuality were not prohibitions as such...but property and non-hospitality, or prostitution laws. Translating many of these things into English is rather clumsy and their true meanings not understood.
So because we don't treat women like cattle...to be owned and traded....I feel our current society is much more evolved than in Jesus time. In another 100 years we will look back and see how much more tolerant and accepting we are than today.
In the OT you were to stone someone to death if they wore a shirt made of two threads,,,,,aka cotton/poly blend.
So if your behavior doesn't hurt anyone, nor cause guilt for yourself...then do it. As Bill and Ted the movie quoted "Be good to one another".
