Every bloody thread turns into an Israel-Palestine discussion. Can we please discuss whether or not the Bible is due for a major revision?? I think it is. As science continues with it's unstoppable progresses, theists will rearrange their belief in ancient mythology to fit in with what science discovers...as they always have done! The Catholic Church for example, not wishing to appear completely stupid, now accept that evolution happens. That would have been unthinkable a decade ago. I'm old enough to remember the time when 'God' was an 'enigma', 'unfathomable', 'unapproachable', a mystery that could never be understood by mere mortals like us. But here we are today and every bloody Christian you speak to is having a 'Personal Relationship' with this 'mysterious enigma'.
OK ... Back to the Bible.. Most Christians I know have never read it, nor are they ever likely to.. It's an ancient relic, and it will not help even if it does get a nice new revision, most Christians will never ever read it, we only go to church these days for weddings and funerals.. Now bear in mind that I am Irish,, and at one time the Irish were a very very Christian people (99% roman catholic), we were the whipping boys of Europe and ruled over by our bigger stronger neighbor. (not roman catholic) Back then the Bible was all we had,, we clung to for dear life, every home had one, even if we did have to hide them when our neighbours might search our homes looking for them. Our Bible was not the correct flavour. But you move on and evolve as people as a nation, and old ways become more and more irrelevant, and the Bible is a case in study,, Hell when I was small and in school, we were not allowed to talk about dinosaurs in class. I got slapped once for talking about a T-Rex I saw on TV,, That did not fit in with the whole Adam and Eve thing, so was not allowed.. ( it was 1968 I was 5 years old ) And that's what religious books do, they hold poeple back,, and yes even the ones that start with a K and not a B.. We all need to let old Relics go and move on, as a species.
What we are witnessing in our era of history is the lengths to which apologetics and the bible lobotomized (insert your ancient holy book of choice) will go to in their efforts to reconcile the ignorance of the bible authors with an ever non compliant and changing collective knowledge base. To an objective eye devoid of the per-requisite indoctrination and without the fore mentioned bible lobotomy, outside of a handful of references that seem to be describing things the viewer does not understand (i.e. Spaceships of Ezekiel), there is nothing contained within the bible that would suggest that the authors were privy to anything beyond their contemporary knowledge base. The book should be used as a warning to our species as to how primitive our thought processes were at one time, not as some source of divine authority justifying just about anything on a pick and choose basis.
You're casting the blame on a book , the real blame is on the limited minds (limited in both science and religion) that did that . I grew up when religion was in full burst mode after 50 years of strict atheism . If anything religion prepared when we where kids for the science we learned latter on . There is no general consensus among Christians due to the huge number of sects but the Christians that I know agree with both the Big Bang theory and Darwin's evolution . There is no reason to disagree because there is no conflict if anything there are striking similarities between Genesis and the discoveries of science . You often hear that God acts in mysterious ways . Only a limited egomaniac mind could think that he in his limited knowledge can understand the way a omnipotent and omniscient entity thinks and acts . One of the foundations of Christianity is humility , the religious leaders that think they know the Bible inside out show no humility . I'm not gonna say that they're not true Christians because that's a never ending argument however this kind of people are limited in intellect , with little or no humility and without a drop of kindness .
I think that is a fair criticism, though in fairness, it was Satguy who decided to use the formation of the State of Israel as an example of the type of religious idiocy that needs to be overcome. It was a ridiculous comparisson and it needed to be called out as one. By all means, please proceed with the forced conversion of those foolish deists from their backward thinking. I believe the Catholic church of old found burning at the stake to be a useful motivator in forced conversions. Perhaps y'all should give that a try.
I can think of another book that needs revision. This one justifies rape, puts the blame on the victims and forces the victim to marry her aggressor. Both are pretty outdated, don't you think?
Yet we see, on so many forums, theists telling us what 'God' wants and doesn't want, what he likes and doesn't like, what he is/isn't going to do and when he's going to do it etc. If the Church could have its way, it would still be doing it.
A revision from 2011. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/04/controversial-bible-revision-about-that-virgin-thing/
I suspect any group of people left unchecked in their quest to inflict their ideas on others is capable of doing it. That is the very reason I brought it up.
May I add that in general we live in peace now with our bigger stronger neighbour, even thought the bible does recommend an eye for an eye. We have moved on from all of that, even the small bit of our country that they hung on to now seems to have settled down, it took 30 years of two of the most proficient terrorist groups the world had ever seen going head to head. But hey,, you can’t hang on to hatred for ever. In our case a 1000 years seemed long enough. With occupation accounting for 900 of those years. I can see now why Britain felt that they had to divide up our country before they pulled out. It was because there was two different flavoured holy books involved, and back then, at that time there would have been no middle ground, Holy books don’t leave room for middle ground. Just look at what they felt they had to do when pulling out of India, again there was two different flavoured holy books at play, and again there could be no middle ground between these two books. Now both sides of that fence have nuclear weapons pointed at each other.. Although one side is doing it’s best to move on and take it’s place in the modern technological world, the other, not so much,,
Excuse my confusion, but didn't both sides of that conflict use the same holy book as the source of their authority? It strikes me as perhaps more comparable to the Czech Republic and Russia bickering about which brand of communism was better, with good communists killing other good communists all around in the name of bettering the the life of the common working stiff.
No, one is sanctioned via some old guy that lives in Rome, the other one is sanctioned by some old guy living in Westminster or maybe Canterbury, I'm not sure and don't care. There might also be some passages changed concerning Mary.. Ok, my work here is done, I have put forward my view on the OP's opening question.. Is the Bible due for a major revision? , I say NO ,, and it's time to put it away and move on. I feel the same about all the other Holy Books also, They hold people back and can split countries in half. Let them all go and move on,, as I am doing now..
Some of us are following what you are speaking of. Typical of immigration, people will sometimes transplant their conflicts to their new country. The only first hand experience I have had with what you are describing is when a Protestant landlord tore up our rental agreement on moving day when he found out we were Catholics. We had to scramble to find another place to live. That was 1960, when people say "give us that old time religion" . . I have to say no thanks
This non-binding resolution "recommended" that Palestine be partitioned into 2 states. Recommendation: [TABLE="class: ts"] [TR] [TD][TABLE="class: ts"] [TR] [TD]something (as a course of action) that is recommended as advisable.wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Stop trying to hide the fact that fanatical Jews used bible verses to steal what was not theirs.
Sounds good to me. The UN partition was never official. The West Bank was conquered by Jordan. Jordan, Egypt and others attacked Israel in 1967 and got their collective asses kicked, leaving the West Bank to Israel. Lets just put a star of David on it and tell Abbass he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. By the way, on this one occasion, I would be willing to admit your attitude does, in fact, reflect the attitude of the Palestinian people.
Then stop citing resolution 181 and admit that Jewish fundamentalists stole Palestine in the name of their God.
We are discussing whether or not the Bible is due for revision Mikael. Let us try to keep at least one thread clear of the Israel-Palestine problem huh?
I think it's relevant to the topic. The bible has been used to commit many atrocities in the past, the theft of Palestine is just one of these atrocities. Here's a shot list of atrocities committed in the name of the bible: If the bible is not revised, then Christians and Jews will continue to use bible verses to commit cruel acts.