how can this be? i don't understand how the bible can go against it self so many times... and people do what ignore it? act like everything is honkey dorey? obviously somethings not right here people get a damn clue the bible can't be the word of god. simply put unless god is one with satan. not only that... but weren't the dead sea scrolls supposed to back up christianity and the talk about the new religion and the messiah or atleast mention something about christ???? nothing at all was mention wtf! before tonite i was a "backslid christian" who strongly believed in the bible but now i don't know what to believe but i still consider myself a christian until i talk to someone who can maybe answer a few questions of mine...but definately somethin is wrong i'm still clueless as to how people can ignore these things...... o well i have a brain and can put 2 and 2 together

Last night I was discussing a related topic with my girlfriend. We were talking about how kids can believe two completely contradictory things at the same time and not see a problem with it, and are not confused or thrown off by it. Mythology is the same way, painting two different pictures of the same god, both of which are true simultaneously. The Bible is the same way. I think thats just the way a not-so-domesticated brain works. Its a completely different thought process we have forgotten since ancient times.

Spirit,

Don't forget, children are taught the 'truth' of the bible from their earliest days. Not only that, they are 'taught' by the people they trust most, their parents. It is exceedingly difficult to overcome this initial learning. Several hundred years ago, Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) said that if he had a child until he was five years old, his thoughts were his (Loyola's).

*Nox wonders if Loyola liked little boys*

Nox

Up to a certain extent I'd say it's normal, that belief or in a way everything we can't rationally grasp is contradictory. And as we all know it is quite a challenge to cope with contradictions as we generally strive for certainty.
Nonetheless it is both absolutely ignorant and arrogant to call the Bible the 'word of god'. This is what I call: claiming the ultimate truth for yourself and which is by definition (you guessed it) utter bullshit.

The Bible offers teachings which can be useful as an ethical approach and even everyday life, but nonetheless it remains a book written by man and can thereby never be flawless (although IMHO even there exists such a thing as god he/she/it can't be flawless).

Anywayz, good thing to drop the gullibility and start overthinking what you believe in.

Keep the sake.

Peace out,
Lord Shadowcaster

The bible is a book about humanity
the good the bad
the holy the unholy
the pur and the corrupt
the rich and the poor
the past and the future
the falseness and the the truth

it is a book of contradiction because being a book of humanity it resembles humanities contradiction with itself.

Nox, Im not talking about the Bible. The conversation came up because my little sister likes my brothers girlfriend sometimes, while mocking her for being fat, stupid, and mean the rest of the time. She also hates my mother, but says she is more fun to hang out with than anyone else, and misses her when she is gone.

"Apologetics" is the practice where people come in and attempt to smooth talk all the problems away.

Some of the contradictions are pretty startling, but others are not so, and all are important, alot of these so called contradictions mearly come from morons pionting the finger and laughing like children, others are neccesary for the evolution of conciousness of the reader, and still more are missunderstandings and miss-translations that arise esspecialy when translating the Hebrew into English, I'd say that the language is almost completely nesscary for a full understanding of their writings, and the wake of the Greek ideas imbeded in place of this Jewish heratige has delt another blow, plus ideas change over time, for example Jesus didn't up hold the absolute straight and narrow of the Bible, and even (from memory) changed a few things around a little, and this seems to have happened with many of the writers, it's also interesting to note that God is refered to in a Feminine context I think over 10 or 20 times (one of the two) in the Old Testement, (at least in the Hebrew, I don't know about the translations) but this is usualy just disgarded as some sort of mistake, whilst the rest is "THE WORD OF GOD" concrete for ever more,
*I just saw Homer Sipson prancing around in a leotard on top of some wispy white clouds pretending to be God*

Just do some research,

Too many people seem to take the bible, and other religious texts, far too seriously.

Whether you believe in the validity of Christianity, keep in mind that the bible is NOT the word of God. It's what PEOPLE have written down as what they believe to be the word of God.

If you remember that, then the contradictions in the bible, along with any other 'religious' text, can more or less be taken for granted.

It's not God contradicting Himself, it's His people.

quote:

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Originally posted by ChemHeadWannaBe:
how can this be? i don't understand how the bible can go against it self so many times... and people do what ignore it? act like everything is honkey dorey? obviously somethings not right here people get a damn clue the bible can't be the word of god. simply put unless god is one with satan. not only that... but weren't the dead sea scrolls supposed to back up christianity and the talk about the new religion and the messiah or atleast mention something about christ???? nothing at all was mention wtf!

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Metaphor and allegory are concepts seemingly beyond the grasp of the literal mind. The left brained approach instilled by our modern civilisation, is unable to see the big picture presented in the series of metaphors and allegorical imagery of the bible.

Think laterally, take a step to the side and see all the facts you have lined up from a different perspective. This is balanced right/left brain thinking, the left brain lines all known 'facts' up in a linear fashion, while the right brain 'sees' a different angle, the possibilities, the alternatives, the left brain sees the trees, the right hemisphere cognises the forest.

Between is the the logical path, see both the trees and the forest, the contradictions seem a tool of instruction, designed perhaps to prompt the reader think for themselves?

quote:

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Originally posted by TigerJK:
Too many people seem to take the bible, and other religious texts, far too seriously.

Whether you believe in the validity of Christianity, keep in mind that the bible is NOT the word of God. It's what PEOPLE have written down as what they believe to be the word of God.

If you remember that, then the contradictions in the bible, along with any other 'religious' text, can more or less be taken for granted.

It's not God contradicting Himself, it's His people.

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Where else could you have any idea about christianity in the first place - isn't it technically the only source?
This is why I don't understand how all these people can believe in God (a christian God (like Deism i think is one of them)) but don't believe a word of the bible... yet that is the only real (lol) evidence that such a thing ever existed\happened whatever.

quote:

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Originally posted by Spirit of '22:
Last night I was discussing a related topic with my girlfriend. We were talking about how kids can believe two completely contradictory things at the same time and not see a problem with it, and are not confused or thrown off by it. Mythology is the same way, painting two different pictures of the same god, both of which are true simultaneously. The Bible is the same way. I think thats just the way a not-so-domesticated brain works. Its a completely different thought process we have forgotten since ancient times.

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Not overanalysing... maybe this is why kids are more care-free.

congratulations chemheadwannabe, you just turned 12

By the sounds of it I think you will turn into an agnostic or atheist as you dont have the intellectual capability to see anything other than black and white

Thats in your opinion!

Stupid bible, literally the cause of all the major wars and arguments on this earth.

Religion doesn't cause wars, people do, even when religion is involved it's about 90% pretext,