Can You Trust the Bible?

by MissingLink 18 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • WTWizard
    WTWizard

    Just the idea that God is anything more than a lousy, wicked, selfish, envious Tyrant that wants everyone to suffer the maximum possible amount is a blatant lie. You look at the first command: Had the first pair had the power to decide for themselves what is right and wrong, they would have had the power to improve their lives. Look at Cain (who offered up a sacrifice to the Almighty Ingrate), and was not accepted despite that it was the best he had (how can one offer up a lamb that one does not have?).

    And, what kind of righteous God would destroy all other nations solely because they were not obeying that Louse? That is what Jehovah did. Jehovah also punished Israel when they tried to improve their lot in life beyond the stagnation that He prescribed. And allowing famine and war, accidents, disease, the FDA, and general hardship because He is too busy turning the opposite sex off toward me (creating yet more unnecessary apprehension and suffering) just to get me into the Value Destroyer Training School down the road to repair His congregation! Is that anything other than pure wickedness on God's part?

    On top of that, why would one need a Satan to blame for all the miscues if the Almighty was also benevolent? No. Jehovah needed to blame innocent Satan for His own actions. Causing problems and then blaming Satan, getting away with causing lifetimes of trouble in Satan's name--another sign of a God that is truly wicked. Remember, Satan tried to get Adam to think for himself, ending his slavery to Almighty Tyrant.

    On top of that, I see all the incidents of where people like King David (initiated force to possess Israel) got away with it, even being glorified for killing tens of thousands of innocent people. Then he got away with several other sins while tens of thousands of innocent people got to pay the price. I definitely think that rules out the Old Testament as anything more than a mysticism filled story.

    What about the New Testament? What the Watchtower Society (indeed most Christian religions) will not tell you is that Jesus was actually doing the same sort of work as Satan! Satan, remember, attempted to liberate the first couple from religious tyranny. And so did Jesus, but at a later date. Most reference to "sin" that Jesus referred to were parables intended for a people that could not think for themselves, in an attempt to guide them into thinking on their own (try finding that in any Watchtower littera-trash). Most of the "sins" that Jesus preached against had to do with initiatory force, coercion, or fraud when properly decoded.

    Along comes Paul. Instead of being a peasant that couldn't think, he was educated and could think on his own. However, he took the parables of Jesus literally, creating transcription errors at the source. Paul was, in effect, telling people that they should literally do what Jesus said, as if it were for thinking people (it was for peasants trying to become thinking people). That is where you have most of the laws in the Bible. However, even at this stage, it is not that bad (though it is already out of date).

    It isn't until the early Catholic church assembled the Bible that you had problems. Remember, the early Catholics kept the Bible to itself, hand picked the parts that would fit their doctrines, and threw out the other books (which is why they are hidden). It wasn't until the King James version that the Bible, still with all its original faults and the problems the early Catholic church introduced, became a common book to common people. (Sounds like anything the Watchtower Society itself has attempted to pull?)

    I, personally do not trust the Bible literally. It is too full of glorified initiatory force, stock answered prayers (so Jehovah, the Almighty Tyrant, doesn't have to answer any new ones--He can just point to the stock ones), and misinterpreted stories. Besides, I will never put any faith in a God that has the whole opposite sex reject me (so He can have me in the Value Destroyer Training School), and then blames Satan like He did on April 1, 1995, for anything. Yup, Jehovah BAGHEAD, you can take those fxxxing stock prayers and shove them up your axx.

  • MissingLink
    MissingLink

    Thanks for the pointers Awakened07. I've added those links to my favorites and have been reading thru them.

  • B_Deserter
    B_Deserter

    Take a look at the genealogies in Matthew and Luke. Not only are the lines after David completely different in both accounts, there are even a different number of ancestors as well. Now, there is a common explanation that Luke lists Mary's line while Matthew lists Joseph's. Most scholars do not take this explanation very seriously, as it is quite daring and not backed up with facts, let alone the Bible itself. It's merely wishful thinking on the part of those who would say anything to convince themselves the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Additionally, elements of the Jesus story are borrowed from the stories of Dionysus and Mithras. Since both cults were prevalent around the time Jesus supposedly lived, it's not unreasonable to consider the possibility that the gospels are an amalgamation of different mythologies with some original material thrown in to fit the Jewish messiah prophecy.

  • Eyes Open
    Eyes Open

    Well, starting at the beginning, how about comparing the two creation stories (chapter 1's account being from the P source and chapter 2's account being from the J source) with each other and scientific facts?

    Someone requiring the bible's inerrancy can explain the differences away, but intellectual honesty can't.

  • 5go
    5go
    Jesus story are borrowed from the stories of Dionysus and Mithras.

    I have no problem with a historical guys Jesus and John the baptist were based on but they are clearly are made up stories for the most part.

  • serotonin_wraith
    serotonin_wraith
    Are there witches in the bible? I can't believe I missed that one.

    Oh yes, and apparently even Yahweh didn't know they weren't real, because he ordered his people to kill them!

    http://biblebrowser.com/exodus/22-18.htm

    << Exodus 22:18 >>


    New American Standard Bible(©1995)
    "You shall not allow a sorceress to live.

    GOD'S WORD® Translation(©1995)
    "Never let a witch live.

    King James Bible
    Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

    http://biblebrowser.com/leviticus/20-27.htm

    << Leviticus 20:27 >>


    New American Standard Bible(©1995)
    'Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their bloodguiltiness is upon them.'"

    GOD'S WORD® Translation(©1995)
    "Every man or woman who is a medium or a psychic must be put to death. They must be stoned to death because they deserve to die."

    King James Bible
    A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

    So anyone who believes the Bible is the word of God has to believe that witches really existed, and can't say the burning of thousands of them a few hundred years ago was bad. I can, and I do.

  • atpeace
    atpeace

    something that i will be reading (just got it today) is the book "the power of myths". i recently was reading another book that briefly stated that in greek mythology there are stories that are extremly similar to david & goliath, the birth of jesus, noahs ark, etc. the thing i wonder about is how so much of the bible reads and feels like a story. i don't understand all the dates and numbers, it seems so complicated and open to so many different interpretations. so - i'm starting with comparing the greek myths to bible stories.

  • MissingLink
    MissingLink

    atpeace - let me know what you think of that book. I'm at my spending limit at Amazon.com at the moment. But it does sound interresting.

  • Meeting Junkie No More
    Meeting Junkie No More

    Here I go recommending another book but this one I just finished and absolutely couldn't put down - The Hidden Scrolls - Christiany, Judaism and the War for the Dead Sea Scrolls by Neil A. Silberman. Best book I've read on the scrolls and what their discovery and content may mean for religion. Wish I'd discovered it sooner. Looking to read more from this author.

    AND NO, I now do not TRUST what we have come to call 'the Bible' at all. I love reading it though, and I have probably more than 25 different versions. I love the history of the compilation of the Bible now more than its actual content. The myriad interpretations of it are some of the most fascinating stuff I have ever come across. The Watchtower interpretations are some of the most shallow and fundamentalist I have ever come across.

    By the way, imho, Is the Bible Really the Word of God has to take the cake for the lamest book ever. Can't believe I swallowed it hook, line and sinker when I was a child...oh, I guess it was because I was a child at the time...

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