Does anyone here believe the Bible?

by sawthelight 29 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  sawthelight

  Seeker
  you said
  "Keep in mind, most people who believe evolution are people who believe the Bible as well. "

  i'll have to clarify myself
  who here believes the entire bible?

  "Evolution says nothing about God or religion, either way. "
  I wasn't asking what evolution says about god or reliion. i fact the word religion is starting to have some nasty overtones from my perspective.it's the bible im interseted in not any religion.

  "Believers say that this is the means God used. So just because you see talk about evolution, it doesn't necessarily mean the poster is an atheist."
  Genesis says everything was Created according to its kind. this is deffinitely anti-evolution.

  Please don't take this as a personal attack. i am just trying to clarify my position and clarify my original post.

  again without discussing the tenents of evolution is there any who do believe the Bible (not a current religion)
• 

  Introspection

  Tina, I said IF a person does not believe the bible because the WTS teaching then that logic would be a problem, who is this "some of us" you are talking about? If it doesn't apply to you then it doesn't apply to you. Tell me, how is the reasoning itself faulty? As far as I can see it just either applies or it doesn't. It is a possibility that "someone" may not do the research isn't it? Are you saying it is impossible that "some of us" would not take the time and effort to do that kind of research? I simply made a general statement, but it would seem that you are saying I am pointing to "some" specific group when I haven't. I might note that I made the statement that there are things of value, to speak of the bible as a whole would be a completely different matter. The idea of the golden rule is in the bible, is that not of value? Come on Tina, I'd think that I've been around long enough to where a long timer like yourself has a better idea of where I'm coming from.
• 

  sawthelight

  Tina

  when you say Christianity are you talking about state regulated religions? i don't like these either. if your wondering what i'm referring to, it is the tax exempt gov't corps called religious organisations. in the USA they are 501c3 other countries have similar setups. these are not headed by YHWH but by the respective liciencing government. keep this in mind when examing the behavior of adherents to the these groups. the anlican curch headed by the ruling monarch of England is also the same as well as the church of ROme and any other state sponsered state regulated "religion"
• 

  Tina

  Hi Intro
  My post wasn't directed at you.You're reading more into my post than what is actually there. I never implied what you are saying about who researched and what. You took a simple short post and embellished it with your projections kiddo. The golden rule? Nothing wrong with it,since you brought it up as it wasnt mentioned in my post.

  Carl Sagan on balancing openness to new ideas with skeptical scrutiny..."if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense-you cannot distinguish useful ideas from worthless ones."
• 

  spike

  The Bible is a good book with good principals. Do I believe what the WTS teaches,No. I'm back at the basics before I accepted the concept that the Bible was God's inspired word. I remain a humanist.
• 

  Introspection

  Ok Tina, I can see your response as directly to the thread topic and Sawthelight. I hope it's atleast evident that I was trying to make sense of things as opposed to a simple assumption. (the embellishment was not dull was it? )

  I must say, a question of this type is vague and hard to talk about. I was trying to keep it general, but it looks like that attempt might have accounted for my misunderstanding.

  The bible is a big book, what does "believing in the bible" mean to a given individual? That all the contents are to be interpreted literally? There are some books where it is obviously symbolic. Everyone will have a different take, in that their beliefs are not exactly the same. Actually, I suppose if you want to talk about "the fundamentals" as established at the counsel of xyz, (I'm sure others who know more will know the reference) atleast that's a place to start.

  Actually, the bible is a collection of books. We're taught that it has one theme and there are connections, but when you get right down to it can you really pinpoint all of that in the 66 books?

  And there's also the matter of what you understand Christianity to be. I'm sure all of us here are familiar with the idea of it as being following Jesus, as that was also taught to us as a response to other Christians. (after all, the JWs are not considered as Christians by many) But what does THAT mean? How do you understand Jesus? I personally keep it simple, love your neighbor is a cool idea, I'll go with that. But then there are other people who says that's not enough. Well, all I can say is if you want to really get into beliefs then that's a completely different game. My simple answer to this question would have to be "Yes, some of it." But of course that doesn't say a whole lot. I think you'd really have to start other threads and it would probably be more appropriate to put them under the Beliefs board. But frankly, my view of beliefs is that it's just a mental game. Sure we have to believe something, but is spirituality just about believing things?
• 

  ballistic

  I believed it was GODS WORD when I was a JW.
  However, I have lost all faith in the bible and in any form of organised religion after I was disfellowshipped.
  How can you base your life on something which is open to interpretation?
  Especially when you have been brought up believing you have the only correct interpretation and it turns out to be a can of worms?
• 

  bboyneko

  How many here beleive the quran? The Bhagavad Gita? The Talmud? The Tao-te-ching? The Upanishads ? The Veda? (the veda is the oldest holy book in the world)

  Just because youve had a bad experience in a fundamentalist cult dosent mean you need to stop beleiving in all of the above holy books god saw fit to bring to you. I cant beleive some people here dont think the Veda is not the word of god. Cretins! Cretins!

  But umm..as has been pointed out mny times before to the zillions of people who have asked the same question over and over and over again: we are not MORONS..we didnt simply reject a book that is supposed to 'save' us becase of a bad experience, we rejected it cus we actually RESEARCHED it and looked at it CRITICALLY just as we looked at the JW's..the same basic premis works here-

  If it is the truth it will stand up to scrutiny..if it is not it will crumble..and crumble it did. The bible is very very contradictory and full of hate and genocide ordered by god. Not my kind of book. Possiblt he mayans with their human sacrifices had a kinder rleigion than the ancient jews or early christians.
  -Dan
• 

  Introspection

  I will add just one thing, and that is it would only make sense for you to base your understanding and belief of the bible based on its contents. If you just tell yourself it's the word of God without first gaining some knowledge about it, then what kind of faith is that? Maybe I'm just a theocratic slacker, but I never went through it (in its entirety) that thoroughly, I mean hey if you really want to get into it you need to have some knowledge of greek, hebrew, aramaic and know QUITE a bit. So, sure if you want to study it then study it, it may be intersting to read such discussions. But talking about it in a round about way just isn't that meaningful.
• 

  ballistic

  I agree INTRO,
  afterall, most of us here didn't study the bible, we studied the Watchtower and WT books at so-called bible-studies.