It doesn't matter what you say to them about anything, they always come back with "it's the will of god".
Or the answered prayer thing, they'll never admit that their prayers aren't answered. The line I like the best is when they say that every prayer is answered, god just doesn't always want you to have what you want, so what appears to be unanswered prayer is really answered prayer. That would be like saying my gas tank half empty when actually that half of the tank really is full.
I find that I've read more of the Bible (about 90% of it) than most people who claim to be Christian. I've read the entire OT twice while at University for classes on Biblical history and archaeology. It's quite interesting what you learn from people who have studied it from a critical historical perspective. It's also interesting to learn about the discrepancies between the original and the English versions by professors who read ancient languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, ancient Greek, Ugaritic, Akkadian etc. and have compared the stories in the Bible to similar stories written by cultures contemporary to the Biblical writers.
There's a thing that goes around, that my own family members have said to me, that "proves" the Bible writers were divinely inspired, and that is that forty different people wrote it (we don't know that actually, how many people had a hand in writing and editing it) and that they wrote about the same thing in different time periods. Of course even half a thought about this and you'll realize that doesn't mean a thing and that a writer could take up the story after having read it. It's not like they lived half a world away from each other or something absurd like that. They were all in the same location. It just goes to show you how unthinking people are when it comes to religion.
@ A World Quite Mad - Pretty funny. Without going into detail, I have had formal biblical/theological training leading to a graduate degree and a lifetime of rather intensive biblical study and one thing is sure, we don't have a clue who wrote most of the Bible. Except for a few letters by Paul, we don't have a clue who wrote most of the New Testament. We do know that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write the gospels to which their names are appended! The names attached to various books mean nothing and some are out and out forgeries.
"They" did no such thing as write the "same thing in different time periods." That makes no sense at all.
In the Protestant version of the "Bible," there are 66 books, written over a period of 1000 years.
Most of it is myth and legend and historical fiction and about 50% of the O.T. is poetry.
Archaeologists today have played an important role in understanding the Bible and along with many, if not most, critical scholars have concluded the stories of the patriarchs, Moses, the conquest of the land, etc. are all fictional based upon tales told of old. There is absolutely NO archaeological evidence to support any of what we read about Abraham, Isaac, Solomon, David, etc.
When you come to the New Testament it gets even more muddied. The 27 books of the canon were never formally established...but became "scripture" by virtue of the Orthodox forcing everyone to use them (and often killing those who refused) but that didn't happen until the latter part of the 4th century and even then many groups refused to do so.
Before that there were hundreds of competing Christian groups with their own "gospels" and "letters" they felt were "authoritative." We have a number of these in our possession by virtue of the Nag Hammadi discoveries in Egypt in 1948.
Yes, most people are abysmally ignorant of the Bible. Even those who claim to have read it. I could read Shakespeare a hundred times and still not understand most of what he wrote. Reading and comprehension are two different things.
@ Vogter2100 - I've been to your site, obviously...and I always try to give credit in the body of the post...this time I just screwed up. Maybe I thought it was clear in the video as to the producer was...
Anyway, a belated thanks. I'll be back, if it's OK with you.
5 comments:
Yup, that just about says it all.
It doesn't matter what you say to them about anything, they always come back with "it's the will of god".
Or the answered prayer thing, they'll never admit that their prayers aren't answered. The line I like the best is when they say that every prayer is answered, god just doesn't always want you to have what you want, so what appears to be unanswered prayer is really answered prayer. That would be like saying my gas tank half empty when actually that half of the tank really is full.
I find that I've read more of the Bible (about 90% of it) than most people who claim to be Christian. I've read the entire OT twice while at University for classes on Biblical history and archaeology. It's quite interesting what you learn from people who have studied it from a critical historical perspective. It's also interesting to learn about the discrepancies between the original and the English versions by professors who read ancient languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic, ancient Greek, Ugaritic, Akkadian etc. and have compared the stories in the Bible to similar stories written by cultures contemporary to the Biblical writers.
There's a thing that goes around, that my own family members have said to me, that "proves" the Bible writers were divinely inspired, and that is that forty different people wrote it (we don't know that actually, how many people had a hand in writing and editing it) and that they wrote about the same thing in different time periods. Of course even half a thought about this and you'll realize that doesn't mean a thing and that a writer could take up the story after having read it. It's not like they lived half a world away from each other or something absurd like that. They were all in the same location. It just goes to show you how unthinking people are when it comes to religion.
@ A World Quite Mad - Pretty funny. Without going into detail, I have had formal biblical/theological training leading to a graduate degree and a lifetime of rather intensive biblical study and one thing is sure, we don't have a clue who wrote most of the Bible. Except for a few letters by Paul, we don't have a clue who wrote most of the New Testament. We do know that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write the gospels to which their names are appended! The names attached to various books mean nothing and some are out and out forgeries.
"They" did no such thing as write the "same thing in different time periods." That makes no sense at all.
In the Protestant version of the "Bible," there are 66 books, written over a period of 1000 years.
Most of it is myth and legend and historical fiction and about 50% of the O.T. is poetry.
Archaeologists today have played an important role in understanding the Bible and along with many, if not most, critical scholars have concluded the stories of the patriarchs, Moses, the conquest of the land, etc. are all fictional based upon tales told of old. There is absolutely NO archaeological evidence to support any of what we read about Abraham, Isaac, Solomon, David, etc.
When you come to the New Testament it gets even more muddied. The 27 books of the canon were never formally established...but became "scripture" by virtue of the Orthodox forcing everyone to use them (and often killing those who refused) but that didn't happen until the latter part of the 4th century and even then many groups refused to do so.
Before that there were hundreds of competing Christian groups with their own "gospels" and "letters" they felt were "authoritative." We have a number of these in our possession by virtue of the Nag Hammadi discoveries in Egypt in 1948.
Yes, most people are abysmally ignorant of the Bible. Even those who claim to have read it. I could read Shakespeare a hundred times and still not understand most of what he wrote. Reading and comprehension are two different things.
This is a huge topic, but worth discussing.
Thanks for writing.
Wow.. thanks for posting one of my vids here. :)
@ Vogter2100 - I've been to your site, obviously...and I always try to give credit in the body of the post...this time I just screwed up. Maybe I thought it was clear in the video as to the producer was...
Anyway, a belated thanks. I'll be back, if it's OK with you.
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