God and Man

[Susan]

I believe in God, however I do not attend a church as I have found many are more interested in the financial and social control of their members rather than their service to God. I generally view the Bible with a skeptical eye. While the Bible's truths may have originated with God they have since been repeatedly edited to fit the viewpoints of imperfect men. I firmly believe that each person is given the ability to love God, each person is given the chance to do so, and each person must take the action to do so on their own. Not out of fear of a eternity in hell, or the wrath of a vengeful Deity. God doesn't work that way. God made us and could have made it inherently impossible for us to do anything but worship Him. God clearly did not want that as he gave man the gift of free will to be able to chose to love Him.

Our country is a place which strives to allow people to find their own way to God. We do this by keeping God out of the government and leaving Him to the people of this country. We are free to chose to worship and love our God. We are not forced to Him by sanction, deprivation, or by the force of arms.  That is how it should remain.

[4years]

I'll have you know my grandfather has quoted me 99% or 98% textual purity of the Bible.

Freedom of Religion I whole heartily agree in, and that includes not indoctrinating anyone for any reason. (Just an observation, primarily aimed at parents trying to make their children think their way)

I have a tendency to take anything man has had a hand in shaping with a grain of salt so to speak. I also tend to think one should be careful when one finds what one expected to find.

But as the saying goes, 'Just sand in the wind'.

[beth_finallyme]

I know there is a god. I have experienced her kindness.


Going to church one day a week, reading and following everything in the written by men bible and participating in organized religion, the things most believers take to be the most important mean nothing to god, absolutely nothing.



Kindness, compassion, generosity and forgiveness are what matters.



beth

[Nyssa]

Going to church one day a week, reading and following everything in the written by men bible and participating in organized religion, the things most believers take to be the most important mean nothing to god, absolutely nothing.



Kindness, compassion, generosity and forgiveness are what matters.

I think there is a potentional of great goodness that can come from having
an experience in a congragation. Yes we can experience the devine alone, but to share it we gain strenght from others.

I have always though that the Bible shoudl not have been limited to so many books, but shoudl have been an open collection, where everyone was encouraged to add their own story to the mix. Sure some stories would not be read as often as others, but everyone's conection with gawd is important.

Nyssa

[4years]

I suggest being mindful what you label things when you are with others. Not to say the divine does not exist, just that, I think, the divine is not the only source.

For what it is worth I think Kindness includes Generosity and Compassion includes Forgiveness.

Blessed are the Bodhisattva.

[Rose Dawson]

While the Bible's truths may have originated with God they have since been repeatedly edited to fit the viewpoints of imperfect men. 

Finally! Somebody who sees it my way  Just kiddin. But seriously......in my eyes, you couldn't be more correct. Why would there be so many different versions of the Bible in print (i.e. King James, New Testatment, Quabala, etc.) if there was only one God who supposedly only gave his Word to one person?

Our country is a place which strives to allow people to find their own way to God. We do this by keeping God out of the government and leaving Him to the people of this country.

Secondly, as much as we'd like to think this is true, Mr. Bush has done a fine job of trying to integrate the two i.e. trying to reorganize school prayer. Baah. But agreeably so, by separating the two, you allow for freedom of choice and personal accountability.

[Louise]

if there was only one God who supposedly only gave his Word to one person?

If you are referring to the Hebrew/Christian Bible, no one thinks that this was revealed to "just one person".  The Bible is a collection of books that were written down by human beings over a period of about a thousand years in several different languages, primarily Hebrew and Greek.  There are some disagreements over the precise text and different religious traditions accept different lists of books as canonical, but there is fairly general agreement on what the original text is.  Where the great variety comes from is from the different translations.  Translating the Bible began with the Jews who translated the Hebrew texts into Greek (the translation known as the Septuagint) and continues to this day.  As anyone who knows about translation will tell you, every translation is an interpretation.  The variety of translations does not mean that there is more than one God any more than the translations and adaptations of Hamlet mean that there is more than one Shakespeare.

The Qu'uran was supposedly dictated by God (Allah) to just one person, Mohammed.  Muslims regard the original Arabic text as the only true revelation.  All translations are only images--just as my photo on my driver's license is not me but an imperfect image.  Although Christians do not say this in so many words, they would also say that the only "divinely revealed text" of the Bible is the original text.  Despite this, some Christians seem to have the attitude that the King James translation of the Bible is the only real bible.

Hindus take their approach to revelation a step further.  The Hindu scriptures are collectively called the Veda (although the books called the Vedas are only part of this).  Hindus regard the Veda as the self-revelation of Brahman, the all-pervasive spiritual core of existence.  The only true Veda is that which is eternally spoken by Brahman.  All human manifestations of this, including the original texts, are mere images of this eternal truth.

Revelation can take many different forms, in different words and in different religious traditions.  Yet for those who believe in the unity of the Source of Being (God, Brahman, Heaven, whatever) all of these are partial insights into the truth.  Believers in revelation do not need to be literal fundamentalists.

[Lisbeth]

I'll have you know my grandfather has quoted me 99% or 98% textual purity of the Bible.

I think that number is a little high.  Although, the way the Jews instituted controls over the copying process, it's almost true for the Old Testament at least for the last couple thousand years.  Before that?  Eh.

I'd say 80% is probably a good number overall.

[Susan]

I think that number is a little high.  Although, the way the Jews instituted controls over the copying process, it's almost true for the Old Testament at least for the last couple thousand years.  Before that?  Eh.

I'd say 80% is probably a good number overall.

Ok so lets say we have 80% of ancient writings. Very little attributed directly to god. The rest is composed of the history of the Jews, the Jewish laws which were never intended to apply to the rest of mankind, and the gospels. Which most Christian churches ignore except when it suits them to twist them to the ends that they desire. The rest of them are conveniently forgetten about.

An Excellent quote: "Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?" - (Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner on the Ten Commandments ruling, June 27, 2005)

[Louise]

There are different ways of reading the Bible, as there are with any text.  One way is to read passages word for word, ignoring the textual and historical context in which the words were written.  This is the kind of reading that seems to be popular among certain Bible-quoting Christians who will find an apt verse for just about anything.  This kind of reading is not limited to Christians, either.  Many Muslims (not all) read the Koran this way.  Many political thinkers read the writings of Jefferson, Madison, and Adam Smith this way.

Another way of reading a text is to find the themes in the work taken as a whole.  To look not just at the words but to the plot and character development.  To read this way requires sensitivity to the genre of the literature and the histiorical and cultural circumstances in which it was written.  Readers who take this approach will not necessarily agree with one another.  Each will find in the text a meaning that relates to her own set of circumstances.  But this kind of reading can make a text live.  It is not just a set of words that is fixed for all time but a communication between the author and the reader.

My preference, whether reading Shakespeare, Plato, or the Bible, is for the second kind of reading.  Read in this way the Gospels really are good news.