The Bible. Despite many reasons to dismiss it why do so many believe?

by nicolaou 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Double Edge

  Could the world really be supported on the backs of four elephants? Would having enough faith make it so?

  Of course not. Faith is only effective when it deals with something that is TRUE but probably not experienced by the physical senses. Some people like to take the Bible in its' entirety and pick it to pieces thereby claiming it to 'false'. For me, the 'treasures' of truth and wisdom within the Bible are what sustain it as being something more than just another book.
  

  “Love is patient; love is kind
  and envies no one.
  Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
  never selfish, not quick to take offense.
  There is nothing love cannot face;
  there is no limit to its faith,
  its hope, and endurance.
  In a word, there are three things
  that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
  but the greatest of them all is love.”
  
  Who could argue with such a quote?
• 

  parakeet

  ***Who could argue with such a quote?***
  
  Then what do you need the rest of the Bible for? Just type that quote on a placard and throw the rest of the Bible away.
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  Double Edge

  ***Who could argue with such a quote?***
  
  
  Then what do you need the rest of the Bible for? Just type that quote on a placard and throw the rest of the Bible away.

  Actually, you could... for me, that quote IS the message of Jesus Christ. Yet, there are many, many other things, lessons, quotes, whatever... that you can take away from the Bible and use in ones journey through life. The problem is, some people will quote and try to use EVERYTHING ... for me, that can be a problem because of conflicting ideas.
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  parakeet

  ***The problem is, some people will quote and try to use EVERYTHING ... for me, that can be a problem because of conflicting ideas.***
  
  That's the problem isn't it? Who gets to choose what parts of the Bible are relevant? If it were a clearly written book with no internal contradictions, there would be no problem. As it is however, anyone can come up with literally thousands of absolutely "true" interpretations, and the conflicts arising from those interpretations have caused centuries of misery and death. Whatever small value there is in the Bible, the struggle to understand it and defend that understanding is not worth the game.
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  JMO, but it's kind of understandable that people put their trust in something that promises a better life or existence than the one they're experiencing. Many believers in bible writings are living a bare thread or miserable existence.

  The words in the bible promise to resolve all of mankind's problems.

  It doesn't make what's written in it the truth, but many, many people are coached and/or taught from toddler stage to believe in the scriptures. It can create a huge problem for them when confronted with reality vs. scriptures, as the believers' whole belief system is based on those words and other men's interpretations of those writings. They just never entertain the thoughts that no one walks on water, snakes do not talk and not even one person, let alone 8 of them could survive a boatload of carnivores for 40 days and nights, never mind a year.

  The mind is a powerful thing. It can create a whole reality for its host.....out of mere ideas and imaginings.
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  Shining One

  "Do not seek to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand." Saint Augustine
  >A man cannot walk on water, truly dead people do not come back to life and 1 + 1 will never equal 3.
  Three assumptions and only one is correct and provable.
  >These are just a few of the absurd impossibilities that one must swallow and accept in order to 'believe' the Bible.
  Poison the well by calling the miraculous events 'absurd'. It is absurd that thinking human beings can see the wonders of creation and yet say there is no evidence for God's existence. My perspective and it is as valid as yours. In fact, your assumptions in the material world require more faith than do my beliefs.
  >Why does the belief that the Bible is 'truth' persist?
  Why is the material world the only thing that you admit can exist?
  >Men cannot survive a fiery furnace unscathed, the sun cannot stand still in the sky and donkeys cannot speak Hebrew. Unless you believe the Bible.
  You make assumptions that require faith and evidence to believe. Yet you yourself do not recognize that you are doing what the believer in God does.
  Rex
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  Can anyone here prove that the "miraculous events" depicted in the bible writings actually occurred? Or that they actually can occur today? I think not.
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  parakeet

  I remember reading somewhere (maybe in something of Alan Watts) that Buddhism teaches there are two ways to approach reality: one way is to follow the "trackless path" on your own, side by side with your fellow travellers, but on your own path. This is called the "way of the monkey." The other is the "way of the kitten," who believes it needs a guide to help it along a path that's already been trodden. The way of the kitten is considered inferior because it depends on the illusion that there's someone or something greater out there that can tell us how to live. Hence the Buddhist saying, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!"
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  jwfacts

  I always found it strange that a Witness would mock the Ancient Egyptian belief that their God/Pharoahs lived to be 1,000's of years old, but had not problem believing that the Bible forefathers lived to 1,000, that angels morphed into men and had giant children and that the earth was covered to the highest mountains in water.

  Belief is the acceptance of what is impossible to prove and people believe what they want to believe. It is simle to do so by invoking the statement, "with God all things are possible", though what they mean is that "with my God all things are possible".
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  Satanus

  I like that, parakeet. It makes a lot of sense.

  S