blaen99

iTrader: (6)

Yeah, I was getting at what he was going to get into with you Gearhead.

He has "support" for his claims, but they come due to inaccuracy in his chosen translation.

Let me give an example, and I'm going to give away one of the traps I set for RayinNorCal in doing this.

The Hebrew bible had nothing on "Virgin" birth, it was simply unmarried woman and premarital sex. It was very cut and dry, as I elaborated before.

Then the Greeks got ahold of it. They added the "Virgin" birth mythos, which was taken wholesale from the Greek gods. This was explicitly with the intent to make it easier for the average Greek to understand and relate to. The origins of the "Virgin Mary" come from the ancient Greeks, and if you read a near-verbatim original Hebrew version (Assuming you can read ancient Hebrew or have the cajones to translate it properly...), you are left scratching your head wondering "WTF? Where did the Virgin Mary mythos come from?!?" This is precisely why I linked to an article on the original Hebrew and what it meant.

Then a Church realized "Okay, we can use this for our purposes, let's expand on it!". Give it over a millenium, add a good dose of the KJV and it's future variants, and then we are in a position where Ray was arguing with me previously.

Sparetire

I remember back in high school when I blamed religion for everything.

Then I realized that most people will use just about anything as a crutch to:
1) Explain the crazy crap others do.
2) Explain the crazy crap they do.
3) Justify 1 and 2.
4) Give meaning to their lives.
5) Meet chicks.

I also got past the age of 17.

Along these same lines I realized that smug weak-willed ***-hats in coffee shops who sat around talking about this crap a lot of the time basically used the same thought process as everyone else, just in a different direction. They have their little ideological constructs which they use to bash people into submission. Anti-gun people are great example of this brand of BS.

Which goes a long way toward explaining why pretty much everyone on this ------- planet seems to define themselves by what they wish to take away from someone else. Which is probably a pretty good survival strategy since this planet is more or less at a 0 sum game level now.

It would be a much more interesting argument if so many people were not selling faith as a way to prosper on this Earth in this life. Plays right into the anti-church crowds hands. Sorry folks, but faith don't guarantee ---- as far as happiness goes. Except on TV.

Sparetire

That I'll totaly agree with. Great example of people using faith as a crutch. Or maybe toilet paper is a better analogy.

buffon01

iTrader: (9)

I am just catching up on this. Good read. Those that want to defend the bible's integrity are in for a good one. Most, if not all, evidence show that it has been tampered with for the sole purpose of mind ------- and controlling masses.

Scrappy Jack

iTrader: (2)

To me, the real challenge with using the Bible as anything remotely close to a literal guide is that even the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was an oral tradition for a couple of hundred years. If I recall correctly, and someone will let me know if not, it was about the 5th century BCE during the Babylonian captivity that an editorial council sat down and decided which stories made it in to the written text - and, perhaps as importantly - which ones did not.

I believe it was the Nicean Council that underwent a similar process for the Christian Bible (New Testament). The story of Lilith and the Gospel of Thomas are two examples.

That is to say nothing of the assumption of the infallibility of man given the thousands of human hands, ears and languages that the stories passed through down millenia.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Please continue this discussion at jesuslovesyou.com and leave it off mt.net.