Tipsy, am I correct in saying, you do not follow the bible word for word? If so that changes my entire debate. For I was under the impression, that you, with all the verse quoting, followed the book to a T.
So where exactly do you stand? Do you follow and come to your own interpertation, or, do you sit down and just find it a good book to read for leasure?
I mean you are kind of sending a mix messege here. One second you quote and say (basically) this is what is said and thats what i do, other is don't take it literally.
So what is it then one or the other. Please clarify.
Well, since I haven't done a rant on my beliefs on the bible for probably months, I will just go all out on answering this. Well, when I really started reading the bible, before I became a Roman Catholic, I did it just as any other person would, I just read it. People try to disprove the bible all the time with all of the problems that are supposively in it. There are the obvious ones, which are actually the easiest to explain, such as when I put the guy living for hundreds and hundreds of years. Then there are the subtle, but much larger one, like how the two creation stories in the book of Genesis cannot possibly coexist. Instead of doing what many people do, and just say the bible is a bunch of bull, I went further to study it, because obviously if billions of people believed in it, there had to be a reason.
So, I was doing this all when I was a freshman in high school. It wasn't until I got an English teacher who was crazy about how to read literature that it hit me. If in order to read a lot of classic books, I need to know the background history, why should the bible be any different? So, I looked at the background history is when the bible actually started making sense. Now, to be more specific I'll talk about the Old Testament and the New Testament separately, since they are incredibly different.
The Old Testament was written over two thousand years ago. There has been quite a bit of change in culture between an eastern culture from over two thousand years ago and the western culture of today. There is one massive difference between the and now in how they read the Old Testament. It was written on spiritual importance, and factual importance took a far off second. On the other hand, in today's culture we are obsessed with facts. If one thing is even minutely off, it is wrong. This is the big historical background thing.
Now is the thing that is the real pain, the Hebrew language. The Old Testament was obviously written in Hebrew. And Hebrew, to put it mildly, is a bit different than English. First off, there are no numbers in Hebrew. There is nothing like the Arabic numerals or roman numerals. Numbers in the Hebrew language are words with double meanings. The example I always give is with the number seven. The number seven, written, 7, 77, 770, 70, etc, always has the symbolic meaning of perfection behind it. For example, the universe was created in seven days. It was created perfectly.
Onto the New Testament. The big difference between them other than the time period difference between them is that it was written in Greek. The Greek language is a lot closer to the languages today than Hebrew is, and it doesn't have as many of the crazy symbols and such in it.
Now, the bible as a whole. The bible is basically the moral code given by God through divine inspiration. To put it in very simple terms, it means that God tells the person what to write, but God cannot violate the free will that he gave man. So, the morality of God's word is in the bible, but the person writing it may write something like the creation stories. This is putting divine inspiration very simply so people get a just of what it is, it is more complex than just that though.
The other thing you need to notice is if you look for a lot of teachings, they are in parables and stories and such. Some of the most well known things in the bible are the stories told by Jesus such as 'The Good Samaritan." There are many parables which to not blatantly state the moral, but Jesus says something and then gives a story explaining it in a scenario.
To sum it all up, the biggest problem with people in general today is they don't take the time to understand the bible. I am not only talking about atheists and agnostics, but even fellow Christians and fellow Roman Catholics. The thing is, it is a moral code. It is a spiritual book. In all honesty, I could really care less if most of the stories which everyone questions such as Noah's Arc really happened, they are there to teach us, not to be a history book.
The New Testament can be taken more literal than the Old Testament, but don't expect it to be right on every little detail. I could care less if Jesus went to Jerusalem on Tuesday October 2, 20 AD or Wednesday October 3, 20 AD (Note: those dates are made up). One of the reasons that I think Jesus created his church on the earth was to stop what happened to Judaism with Christianity. Jesus could have cared less if you ate pork or not. But, what he does want to you follow are the Ten Commandments, the actual law of God.
So, if you still feel like reading my post after all of that, I will continue.
Lastly you keep saying politics and religion what do you interprate is the difference between them. To me they are essentially the same. It all boils down to belief. Name me a war that wasn't fought on belief. You cant because weather it's over land, religion, money ect. It is still belief.
I can't name a war that wasn't made on a belief. Now, you name me a war that follows both of these two phrases: There is only one God and you shall love your neighbor. That is what the Catholic Church is based off of. There is never a war justified in the name of God. To go back to the example from a previous post when you talked about Al Queda. They claim that they are doing a jihad, when in reality the word jihad literally translates from Arabic to English meaning "to do the right thing."
The term of faith is to me just a answer to everything in religion. Why do you have faith? What is it that you hold so dear, that faith can not waver within you. I mean, if the devil himself struck you down you would be ok wouldn't you, because you have faith, that you will indeed go to heaven. What if their is no heaven then what. AND DON'T SAY I HAVE FAITH THEIR IS A HEAVEN!!!!!!!!! grrrr lol.
Well, if there is no heaven, I won't be in existence to worry about it, will I. Though that was kind of a smartass answer, it does make a point. In this life I believe in God with a passion. If you have ever seen someone tell a three year old or someone that Santa Clause doesn't exist, they look at you like you like you are crazy. I have been convinced through a combination of study and for lack of a better word, personal revelation, that the God of Abraham does exist. There is a phrase that a priest in my diocese uses, if you want to play ball with Jesus, be ready for him to throw it back at you.
When I was young I had a friend, her mother died from cancer. Her father after this became a alcoholic, then shortly after, becane to rape his daughter (my friend) thinking it was the only way he could really remember his wife. (Whatever the hell that means) Needless to say this girl committed suicide from overdose on pills. So according to the bible, she will go to hell for suicide, while the father, who is truely sorry for his deeds, will repent and go to heaven. How the hell can you believe this is just. What god would send a innocent teen to hell for what she saw as her only way out, but let this sick bastard go to heaven. How can you have faith in a god after something like this. Faith is bull! She was in a highly religious family and belived faith would save her from this personal hell she was in.
You have faith, in a belief and a god who, has abbondoned you. You are nothing without your faith, and theirfore cling to it as a lifeline. Because life has no meaning for you without faith. Well guess what, maybe just maybe, that is how everyone feels. Faith to me is as empty as the meaning of life. To reinterate I do believe their is a god, but, I dont believe we have any purpose, nor do we have any set pattern within our lives that will lead us to where we must be.
Now can you see where I am coming from? If you need more to go by ask me I can deffinitlly tell you about my daughter.
I have a few things to respond to in the scenario. The lines put along with God, all powerful, all merciful, all knowing, all understanding, etc, are said without their weight really being recognized. I personally believe that God will forgive anyone who asks for it from him. When your friend killed herself, she killed her body, not the most important part of herself, her soul. Sin isn't something where God has a tally board and goes, lying +1 point, murder +10 points, etc. Everything is relative. Your friend from what I can understand from your post killed herself because of the pain she lived in. God is as I put it, all understanding.
You have faith, in a belief and a god who, has abbondoned you. You are nothing without your faith, and theirfore cling to it as a lifeline. Because life has no meaning for you without faith. Well guess what, maybe just maybe, that is how everyone feels. Faith to me is as empty as the meaning of life. To reinterate I do believe their is a god, but, I dont believe we have any purpose, nor do we have any set pattern within our lives that will lead us to where we must be.
The worst things about these types of scenarios is how common they are. Something bad happens and poof, there goes God, when it is that time in their life that they need him the most. From how my religion understand God, he does not violate our free will. All the sin in the world is caused by people using their elective power to sin. God does not control every person you see, he let's them decide what they do. It is them who choose to sin.
Well, that concludes one of the longest posts I have written in awhile.