I had a thought bout the Bible

[Deke]

I generally try to avoid these kind of threads, but I just kind of wanted to play devil's advocate (pardon any pun you may draw from that) to keep this conversation intelligent.

Now, dress people better, give them better manners and attitudes, and you have????? What most of us see when we go to church. People who sit down and listen to someone that studied a book that both of them believe to be true to become smarter about a certain subject. Yep, there's a huge difference there, huh? You don't see people running down to their local school and calling everyone there stupid for believing whats written in some "book". Why not? You two are doing the same thing to people who believe the "book" they feel is accurate.

I will agree that both religious and non-religious topics alike require a certain amount of faith. However, to imply that those who study science require the same amount of faith as those that study the bible is misguided. Let's take a basic principle of both the bible (Jesus is the son of God) and a basic principle of physics (force) as an example.

A. Force

A professor tells a student that if he pushes the side of a wheel (applies force), the wheel will accelerate in the direction of the force. The student calls bullshit. The professor tells the student to read the text book. The student reads it and still calls bullshit. The professor then tells the student, you don't have to believe me, I'll show you. Force is applied, the wheel accelerates.

B. Christ is the son of God

A minister tells a church goer that Jesus Christ is the son of god. The church goer calls bullshit. The minister tells the church goer to read the bible. The church goer still calls bullshit. The minister tells the church goer he must have faith.


I realize this is an incredibly simplistic example. But the matter is, the building blocks of science are things that someone can see and prove for themselves. They don't have to have faith, it occurs right in front of their eyes. With religion even the most simplistic ideas are constructed on faith.

And please don't read into this that I think that makes religion bad/stupid. I greatly respect faith as long as it's not blind.

I'll tell you what. I challenge either one of you to list out EXACT EXAMPLES of how the Bible has "changed". You both seem to be so eager to use that as your punch line, so I'm going to call you out on it. Put up or shut up time ladies. You say the Bible is, according to you, changing so much that we must be dumb to believe it. I just proved to you how brilliant you are for putting all your life eggs in the text book basket, so now prove to me why I should not put all my faith on the Bible.

I don't have the time or desire to quote specifics, but after a quick google search, I found that the word apocrypha refers to passages of the Bible that a given publisher doubts or rejects. The fact that there is such a word certainly leads me to believe that not all Bibles are created equally. And of course the ever popular wikipedia link if you are in fact interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_apocrypha


Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert on this topic by any means. I'm simply someone who likes to have civil, intellectual discussions. If I make people think twice about something or someone makes me think twice, I consider it a success. If anyone resorts to name calling in my direction, I will consider you an unintelligent asshat unworthy of my time or attention

[Jaimecbr900]

I will agree that both religious and non-religious topics alike require a certain amount of faith. However, to imply that those who study science require the same amount of faith as those that study the bible is misguided. Let's take a basic principle of both the bible (Jesus is the son of God) and a basic principle of physics (force) as an example.

A. Force

A professor tells a student that if he pushes the side of a wheel (applies force), the wheel will accelerate in the direction of the force. The student calls bullshit. The professor tells the student to read the text book. The student reads it and still calls bullshit. The professor then tells the student, you don't have to believe me, I'll show you. Force is applied, the wheel accelerates.

B. Christ is the son of God

A minister tells a church goer that Jesus Christ is the son of god. The church goer calls bullshit. The minister tells the church goer to read the bible. The church goer still calls bullshit. The minister tells the church goer he must have faith.


I realize this is an incredibly simplistic example. But the matter is, the building blocks of science are things that someone can see and prove for themselves. They don't have to have faith, it occurs right in front of their eyes. With religion even the most simplistic ideas are constructed on faith.

Not only is it a very simplistic example, but it compares apples to airplanes.

Was it not "scholars" that at one point SWORE the earth was flat? How flat is it really? THAT is my point. Each and every one of those people that try and argue this never ending debate base their "beliefs" or lack thereof on "PROOF", i.e. Science, common sense, tangible, etc. Welllll, the "scholars" of yesteryear justified their "knowledge" 50 ways to Sunday and even wrote it down on books of that era. It was taught in schools, common knowledge, and as far as they knew tangible as well since sailors would often dissapear so the theory of "falling off the edge of the earth" held water in their eyes. Right or wrong? Wasn't it just yesterday that we thought a computer had to be monochrome and microprocessors were science fiction?

Well, my point is that it is ironic that I want to put my FAITH, which by definition requires no tangibility from my end, on a book that not only has been around far longer than the "earth is flat" scientologists, but when those that support the idea that I'm crazy and stupid use a BOOK chock full of inaccuracies and unproven theories that next year will be retracted or corrected to "prove" I'm wrong.....they are suddenly automatically right because they read it....in a tangible book..... Get it? Kinda like the pot calling the kettle black.

My example was also simplistic but much like the Bible carries the basic message correctly. Proponents of the idea that if it's not logical or tangible or "can be proven w/o a doubt right this very second when I say so" then it must absolutely positively be WRONG is ironic because they use information out of BOOKS that are force fed to them by HUMANS whom we all know never make any mistakes at all. Kinda like......well, the pot calling the kettle black......AGAIN.