Quote Originally Posted by DrivenMind
Doesn't the first paragraph depend entirely on who's translating or interpreting scripture? One of the things I find most disturbing about organized religion is the fact that so many people seem to believe there is some sort of objective way of knowing exactly what god meant in his many books. The fact that so many people are able to sit down and discuss such a subjective subject believing their conversation will yield some objective truths is really quite a terrifying thing when you get down to it.
I actually agree. I actually outlined this previously a few posts ago. The only thing I would point out is that there are some thing that all Christian's should have in common. That is what can be discussed uniformly amongst those who are believers. If you get really specific then you will start to see those subjective things taking hold. For instance the Bible is very very specific on where people stand in relation to God and what tithing is and what a covenant is. its only when people who ignore what is actually written for their own personal reasons that a cloud starts to form and the grey sets in. And I also believe this is why we have the ability to reason. Because we should be checking our beliefs with other tools that we have been given. Like science, logic, history, translated language, etc...There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that the only thing we should use to understand God and scripture is the Bible.


And say what you will about the Bible being a handy reference for morality, and this may very well have been its original purpose. However it is worth nothing that there has never been anything absolute about moral truths.
I don't think the Bible is a reference for human morality. it tells us that human morality is out of our reach and that our morality has nothing to do with our ability to mend our relationship with God...(trying to keep the point simple, but it is a lot more involved than that)

There is nothing absolute about human law (as in legislated law) but there are absolute things that humans understand to be moral law, long before the books of the bible were written. For instance, nobody had to tell you that murdering or stealing is wrong. nobody has every had to define that. People still do it, but those who do often have to try to justify it, which shows that they knew something was not right about what they just did. In other words you can't go to any country on this planet, kill someone in public and not expect a reaction. Its never been that way. That seems pretty universal to me.