i hope the guy from face-book reads, and then replies with his specific questions, he's already asked a bunch on face-book, but the original post is very nice, and this dude hijacked it to make some points about certain weird scriptures that he seems to be infatuated and infuriated with... i don't want to pollute the original beautiful post any longer responding to a person with a huge christianity-chip on their shoulder...
... so, if you read through this, and want to respond, feel free to do so, this is a more respectful environment to vent your
... Christians should feel free to show any concern they have with what i wrote, tell me how i'm wrong... most folks that read scripture understand that it serves multiple purposes, some of if is historical, some of it is history told in 'story format', much of it is figurative, much of it is metaphorical/story in format, much of it uses analogies/story format... some of it can be interpreted quite literal, and should be... however, some Christians have 'so much faith' that they think the scriptures they read today is still perfectly intact, that nothing's been lost in translation and interpretation... and i'm not in that camp... but to know what verses and stories and instructions to take literally, and which is stories that might be teaching multiple principles has been an area of contention for at least a zillion years ago... sometimes you get lost in a story and it may speak to you a bunch of different ways, sometimes parts of a verse seem to stick-out than other parts, sometimes a few chapters together tell a story in themselves... but there are 'spiritual principles' scattered through-out the bible, you can get as granular/detailed as you'd like to regarding dogma and priorities, but the spiritual principles are the things/theories that help guide you through day to day life... you don't have to think about exactly how and when to serve representative bread and wine at the next church gathering day in and day out, but if you forget about respecting/treating others in a loving way that you'd appreciate being treated, and start being an ass-hole, then how much did rituals/details/dogma interfere with the rest of reality, and keeping you from missing the point, spiritual-principles are the one's that help you understand 'the point', and help resolve many questions/equations...
... if you work your way through a bible you'll find many themes and principles hat are repeated in various ways, and through various stories... sometimes reading scripture is like reading the boring part of a book anticipating the cool parts... but, people from various centuries had interesting ways of communicating, recording history, and teaching future generations about important matters, they used lot's of rituals and traditions to help mark special events/occasions... so, stew-on this for a second, how different is your lifestyle and vocabulary than your ancestors from a hundred years ago, life-style, culture, language/vocabulary, societal priorities both good and bad, all of those things should be considered when reading scripture... i'm probably some heretic because i think my favorite version of the bible is flawed in some ways...
... go ahead, feel free to critique my opinions, or shoot holes through my preferred religion, and understanding and interpretation of it... go a head and tell me not to use swear-words too if you'd like, let it rip -- ct
i hope the guy from face-book reads, and then replies with his specific questions, he's already asked a bunch on face-book, but the original post is very nice, and this dude hijacked it to make some points about certain weird scriptures that he seems to be infatuated and infuriated with... i don't want to pollute the original beautiful post any longer responding to a person with a huge christianity-chip on their shoulder...
... so, if you read through this, and want to respond, feel free to do so, this is a more respectful environment to vent your
... Christians should feel free to show any concern they have with what i wrote, tell me how i'm wrong... most folks that read scripture understand that it serves multiple purposes, some of if is historical, some of it is history told in 'story format', much of it is figurative, much of it is metaphorical/story in format, much of it uses analogies/story format... some of it can be interpreted quite literal, and should be... however, some Christians have 'so much faith' that they think the scriptures they read today is still perfectly intact, that nothing's been lost in translation and interpretation... and i'm not in that camp... but to know what verses and stories and instructions to take literally, and which is stories that might be teaching multiple principles has been an area of contention for at least a zillion years ago... sometimes you get lost in a story and it may speak to you a bunch of different ways, sometimes parts of a verse seem to stick-out than other parts, sometimes a few chapters together tell a story in themselves... but there are 'spiritual principles' scattered through-out the bible, you can get as granular/detailed as you'd like to regarding dogma and priorities, but the spiritual principles are the things/theories that help guide you through day to day life... you don't have to think about exactly how and when to serve representative bread and wine at the next church gathering day in and day out, but if you forget about respecting/treating others in a loving way that you'd appreciate being treated, and start being an ass-hole, then how much did rituals/details/dogma interfere with the rest of reality, and keeping you from missing the point, spiritual-principles are the one's that help you understand 'the point', and help resolve many questions/equations...
... if you work your way through a bible you'll find many themes and principles hat are repeated in various ways, and through various stories... sometimes reading scripture is like reading the boring part of a book anticipating the cool parts... but, people from various centuries had interesting ways of communicating, recording history, and teaching future generations about important matters, they used lot's of rituals and traditions to help mark special events/occasions... so, stew-on this for a second, how different is your lifestyle and vocabulary than your ancestors from a hundred years ago, life-style, culture, language/vocabulary, societal priorities both good and bad, all of those things should be considered when reading scripture... i'm probably some heretic because i think my favorite version of the bible is flawed in some ways...
... go ahead, feel free to critique my opinions, or shoot holes through my preferred religion, and understanding and interpretation of it... go a head and tell me not to use swear-words too if you'd like, let it rip -- ct