The bible is written in such a way

Discussion in 'Religion & Philosophy' started by bricklayer, Dec 4, 2018.

  1. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The bible is written in such a way that more contradictory, many self contradictory, inferences can be take from it than from any other literary source, by far.

    There is an indispensable distinction, even when there is no difference, between what is implied and what is inferred. "Because the bible says", amounts to nothing more or less than 'because I infer'. "Because the bible says", can only be employed by those who have not out grown their first impression of what the bible says.

    The bible is the key to understanding everything else, and the nature of everything else is the key to understanding the bible. As our understanding of the balance of creation changes, it will affect our understanding of the bible.

    For a very long time, we were left to believe the sun rose and set. After all, the bible says so. Now we know that the Earth rotates on its axis. We know that the bible uses figures of speech and descriptions from particular perspectives.

    I came across the God of the bible in my search for a necessary being. I was familiar with the bible; I had read it. I have read many of the most significant religious texts available to me in English. To date, I am left to believe that the God of the bible uniquely fulfills the implications of a necessary being. Most of the believers in the God of the bible do not infer the God of the bible to be necessary, and even those who do give lip service to God's sovereignty most certainly do not infer their own subjectivity, their own contingency.

    If I could not find a necessary being in the God of the bible, I would have simply moved on until I found one. I have not found anything even close to the God of the bible in any of the other texts that I've explored.

    I do not consider myself to be a religious person. I consider myself a scientific person. Religious people have doctrines; I do not. Science is the process wherein doubt is removed by testing new and old ideas. Religion is the process wherein doubt is suppressed by resistance to testing new and old ideas. Doctrine is comprised of ideas held in common which are no longer subject to testing. I have no ideas that I am unwilling to test.
     
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  2. The Wyrd of Gawd

    The Wyrd of Gawd Well-Known Member

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    The biblical Jealous deity is an evil character. Why do you want to follow such a crazy being?
     
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  3. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    "Follow", please expand upon your idea of "follow".
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2018
  4. The Wyrd of Gawd

    The Wyrd of Gawd Well-Known Member

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    Haven't you said or implied that you are a Christian who believes in the Bible?
     
  5. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Are you referring to "follow" as an expression of understanding? Is it a way of saying that one follows another's sequence of ideas?
     
  6. The Wyrd of Gawd

    The Wyrd of Gawd Well-Known Member

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    Didn't the Jesus character say that people had to leave their families and stuff and hit the road to sell his delusion? That is what *follow* means.
     
  7. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Its meant to be personally interpreted. Anyone that claims otherwise has an agenda.
     
  8. Swensson

    Swensson Devil's advocate

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    How does the Biblical God compare to Jewish or Islamic interpretations? Don't some passages of the Bible suggest a God which changes with the world, i.e. that the God of the Bible is contingent in some way?
     
  9. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Your post is somewhat confusing You start out talking about the Bible as a mess of contradiction (which is correct) and various other problems. Some of this is explained by allegory rather than literalism.

    You then talk about the God of the Bible as a "necessary being" and go on to say that you have not found a better for you in any other religious texts.

    OK - my first question would be - Which God of the Bible are you referring to ?

    Is it the flip flopping irrational xenophobic genocidal God of the OT - a God with the most nasty and petty of human characteristics - a God who gives a command - "Children are not to be punished for the sins of their parents" and then commands the Israelite's to kill children - because of the sins of their parents

    or

    Is it the Love neighbor as thyself, do unto others, judge not lest you be judged, let ye who is without sin cast the first rock God ?
     
  10. Spooky

    Spooky Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There are no contradictions in the Bible, only your interpretation of what is being said.
     
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  11. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm not familiar with the "delusion" quote you cite above. However, at least I'm following your thinking now; that's something.
    Let me be clear. I am not left to believe in the actual existence of a necessary being because I found one in the God of the bible. I am currently left to believe that the God of the bible uniquely fulfills the implications of a necessary being. If I could not find a necessary being in the God of the bible, I would continue to look elsewhere. Even as it is, I am constantly testing new and old ideas.
     
  12. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You've made your agenda clear.
     
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  13. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The bible is obviously written in such a way that people take many different inferences from it.
    Many of those inference are contradictory, some self-contradictory. I am able to navigate though the bible in the same way that brought me to the bible. I am able to maintain a necessary interpretation of the God of the bible. I acknowledge that there are myriad ways to interpret the bible. There are also myriad ways to interpret the koran, the hadith or the vedas. What sets the God of the bible apart, in my experience, is the ability to interpret a necessary being from the God of the bible.
     
  14. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    If individualism, choice and self determination is 'an agenda', then sure, I guess.
     
  15. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You seemed to have missed my point entirely. My point rests upon the distinction, even when there is no difference, between what is implied and what is inferred. An implication is necessarily what it is. An inference is not necessarily what is implied. I do not attribute the "mess of contradiction" to what is implied in the bible; I attribute that mess to what is inferred.

    I decided over forty years ago to not accept anyone else's interpretation of the most important things written. I decided to read them for myself. I did not disregard the inference taken by others; quite to the contrary, I've sought out the good judgement and well thought thesis of others, but I've always formed my own opinions based upon my own research. I'm a reader.
     
  16. Giftedone

    Giftedone Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I understood your point - and good that you keep your own council. My question related to your perspective that the God of the Bible is the God for you.

    My question is simple ... which God ?
     
  17. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That is correct. An implication is necessarily what it is. An inference is not necessarily what is implied. The contradictions come from what is inferred not from what is implied.
     
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  18. Spooky

    Spooky Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Does it matter which name you call Him by or rather that you have faith in Him?

    Think about that and get back to me.
     
  19. Spooky

    Spooky Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I can dispel any so called contradiction in the Bible very easily, I've done it many times.

    Kinda just waiting for someone to test me on it.
     
  20. BarleyPopGuy

    BarleyPopGuy Banned

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    The forever argument! Like gun control and abortion, have at it.
     
  21. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Look at the Bhagavad Gita, it's intentionally designed to have paradoxes, or seeming contradictions.

    The point of this is that any statement only has meaning within a particular context, so if two statements say the opposite thing they're not necessarily in irreconcilable conflict.

    This is all the more true with metaphysical concepts.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2018
  22. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Sovereign God, necessary being, Holy= Inviolate (not subject to change), simple actuality, no potentiality, infinitely more sovereign over His creation than an author is over his novel work.
    The God who reveals both what He is (good) and what He is not (evil) because anything, even God, is revealed just as much by what it is not as it is by what it is. That God. Do you need me to me more descriptive? more exhaustive? more detailed?
     
  23. bricklayer

    bricklayer Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That is because all statements are merely analogous.
     
  24. Swensson

    Swensson Devil's advocate

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    What is your interpretation approach to those bits of the Bible? And what is it about the other texts that makes you disregard them, when for the Bible you simply looked for another interpretation?

    It seems to me it is easier to come up with interpretations for material you know better and which you come across more often (I can come up with plenty of reinterpretations of Biblical stuff, and I'm hardly a scholar of it). It doesn't seem implausible to me that your selection doesn't single out the most true one, but the most intellectually comfortable one.
     
  25. James Knapp

    James Knapp Well-Known Member

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    I believe we may be on the same page here. I read the bible myself and the interpretation that I have is my own. I go to church every week and during the service, the pastor gives his (Or our church's) interpretation which quite often are different from my own understanding. I have found that each pastor will have their own agenda when reading passages. The Bible is written where so many verses can be read in different ways that I am unsure if anyone in the world has ever truly understood the real meaning.

    I was a gnostic for a long time and lived a life of misery and sin, I started reading the Bible (with doubt in my mind about God) and realised that all of my beliefs tie in with the scripture. I started to realise the negative effects my actions were having on others and particularly myself. I decided to follow the scripture as closely as I could, almost as an experiment to see what the outcome would be, and boy that was the best decision I ever made. I was baptized 6 months ago and I am in the best mental condition I have ever been in and feel like I am becoming who I was born to be.

    I always say the same thing when speaking to my atheist/gnostic friends about religion and the Bible. Whether there is a God or not (which I believe there is) the Bible is full of wisdom and knowledge, and the Bible saved my life.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2018
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