Is the Bible just as fake as the JW's (page 3)

New Worldly Translation

I second the advice to read The Bible Unearthed. It's a really excellent book that untangles OT history with archaeology and contemporary records.

It also points out that a lot of the 'conquests' and smiting in the bible between Israelites and the neighbouring tribes on their quest for the promised land didn't actually happen. Not that it excuses the bible writers for their fervid imagination writing such grotesque stuff.

The OT is mainly fighting, sex, rape, slavery and songs/poetry (which is actually good considering when it was written). The 10 commandments aren't the 10 people normally think of. I think there's several entangled stories of Moses getting them, and they're all different. Moses trots up and down Mt Sinai about six times, the poor old sod.

The NT is Jesus mainly, who I always thought was a pretty dull character and kind of a dick at certain points as well. Most of the good stuff in the NT is also in other philosophical writings and Buddhist texts predating it.

I do find the bible much more interesting now that I know it isn't literal truth though. Its all pretty fascinating Imo.

I'd also recommend podcasts by Robert M Price. He does the Human Bible and Bible Geek podcasts.

opusdei1972

I'll try to get the book.

SAHS

Whether or not there is some kind of entity with some sort of intelligence which put in place the structured processes of the universe, one thing I do know is that ALL the world’s religions, which attempt to explain the nature of an “Almighty God” by arbitrarily putting him into some kind of theological “box,” are WRONG, WRONG, DEAD WRONG! That’s right, NONE of them are correct, because a scientific premise of a magical deity is really invalid by definition. (I.e., Harry Potter is, in fact, just a movie, and there ain’t no such thing as magic, folks.)

Things can be contrived and embellished, especially words, especially over centuries, especially by those with, um, less than honest and righteous intentions. (Why, we still see plenty of those kind of people today, don’t we.) Trickery and charlatanry have always been, and continue to be, a fundamental part of the fabric of human society in so many other areas, so why wouldn’t that also include the area of religion, of all things? (Remember, there’s nothing like religion to promote the self-serving, egotistical, narcissistic interests of a powerful elite minority.)

It’s really not too hard to imagine that fiction and cultural mythology would be the very nature and essence of religion itself (yes, all of them), because, well, just think of this for a moment: We currently have folks purporting there to be a Sasquatch (Big Foot); Loch Ness Monster; Abominable Snowman; little green men from a flying saucer in Roswell, New Mexico; Chupacabra (“goat-sucking” demon creature); Leprechaun (Irish folklore); etc., etc. . . . Not to mention dragons, unicorns, Smurfs, Care Bears, those talking M&M candies, etc. – and who knows, perhaps one of those juvenile fictitious creatures or characters will eventually be written up in some holy book in the future and widely accepted as fact. Things like that can evolve and eventually graduate from obvious fantasy to some dogmatic words read aloud in churches of the future.

redvip2000

There isn't any "good" advice found in the Bible that didn't already exist in other cultures long before the Bible was written.

Are you saying that when the bible came out with "Don't Kill" and "Don't Steal", it wasn't completely revolutionary? Aww damn..

cofty

You can just imagine the Israelites happily killing, stealing and raping until Moses came down the mountain and said, "hey guys I have some bad news for you, it turns out this shit is wrong. Who would have thought it?"

SonoftheTrinity

What bothers me about the criticism of the Bible in which most people put all their faith in the entire Bible or disregard it completely based on their attitude toward organized religion, rather than reading every single book of the Bible on its own merits, and reading every apocryphal book on its own merits when you done with all of them, and then decide what you find to be truth, untruth, literature, history, and myth. The Bible shows me that God is so humble that he became a humble dirty Jewish hippie love child, comprimising his omnipotence, his omniscience, and his omnipresence. Jehovah's Witnesses don't look like humble dirty Jewish hippie love children to me, and the authority of the watchtower organization seems to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent in their dull morbund dub lives, like modern day pharisees. The rules of the Watchtower make the 613 laws of Moses look like a cakewalk so I understand why you are burned out with all religion. Being married to a dub sometimes makes me wonder if I have unknowingly started to become a deist just keep my sanity around her. I say my prayers in front of her in a liturgical language not because I am a lover of ritual, but so that I don't get mocked by her, instead quietly rejoicing the utterence of blessings from ancient times. It is a solemn act of post-patriarchal intellectual and spiritual passive aggression equal to her loud hollow organizational praise that happens around the same time at the dinner table. I wonder what God is thinking about it.

cofty

rather than reading every single book of the Bible on its own merits

What makes you think some of us haven't done that?

I find the books of Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Job and Jonah to be fascinating.

Most of the rest of the OT is either dull of barabaric.

I find nothing in the gospels worthy of respect. The epistles are about how the early church tried to control their memebers while waiting in vian for Jesus' failed parousia.

Revelation is mostly borrowed from earlier apocalyptic books.

MadGiant

"or disregard it completely based on their attitude toward organized religion, rather than reading every single book of the Bible on its own merits, and reading every apocryphal book on its own merits when you done with all of them, and then decide what you find to be truth, untruth, literature, history, and myth." -

What make you think that I haven't? Should we cherry-pick specifics soothing verses? What should we do with the verses that describe incest, bestiality, sadomasochism and violation of human rights?

Believers might find comfort in some of "Jesus" words but, it should serve as a reminder that just because a man appears righteous does not necessarily mean he always practices it. Imagine observing a man who tells the truth most of the time but occasionally tells a hurtful lie. Should we not feel wary of such a person? Or if someone breaks his promise, should we not feel cheated? Especially if that person calls himself the Son of Dog, we should expect him to act perfectly all the time, not just some of the time.

His saying should reflect consistency, giving no hint of hypocrisy. The performances of Jesus describe the actions of a con-artist, gives obvious half-truths and then promises them salvation for their sacrifice. Moreover, the Biblical Jesus gives wrongful information, breaks promises, lies, calls people unsavory names, orders killings, among other things. He gave questionable advice about income, marriage, and future plans and he ended his short life in tragic suicidal death. Remember, their no evidence of Jesus outside the bible.

Many Christians object to any criticism of their religion where they see only the good without the bad.

"The Bible shows me that God is so humble that he became a humble dirty Jewish hippie love child, comprimising his omnipotence, his omniscience, and his omnipresence." -

In short, you believe that an omnipotent spirit being from another dimension raped a young human girl in order to give birth to himself so he could later torture himself to death as a sacrifice to himself to appease himself for something he started in the first place. You have to forgive me but, that is not "humble", that insane and stupid.

Ismael

LostGeneration

The Bible shows me that God is so humble that he became a humble dirty Jewish hippie love child, comprimising his omnipotence, his omniscience, and his omnipresence.

So humble that he threatens to burn everyone who doesn't recognize him forever and ever. Nice guy.

AndDontCallMeShirley

The Bible shows me that God is so humble

.

Oh, sure. That's why the first four of the Ten Commandments didn't address anything really important, things like pedophilia, ending slavery, tolerance or treating women with dignity. No, the first four were focused on the self-absorbed, narcissist Yahweh making sure he got all the attention He thinks He deserves, like a spoiled brat.

Jealous, petty, cruel, hair trigger temper, maniacal, genocidal...hardly the attributes of a humble person.

Is the Bible just as fake as the JW's

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