I was just reading the bible

yea............well the bible is annoyingly contradictory.

 

I don't know if it's the Bible that's so much contradictory as it is the people using it as a weapon. The Bible says it's all detestable. It's followers make exceptions for most of the cases it specifically states... except for homosexuality. That's where the contradiction lies. It seems that most people want to ignore the rules they break but want to enforce the ones that they don't. It's hypocritical. I would love to see what church services looked like if everyone was punished according to the Bible's mandates. I'll bet you that most people deserve to be stoned or killed for stuff they've done if they strictly followed those dictates. Prostitutes should be stoned. Thieves should be butchered. If you think about someone sexually - just think - you are committing the deadly sin "lust!" We're all screwed in that case. :roflmao:

 

The bible is old and outdated. The bible tells us to use women as if they were our own property.

 

I don't take most of the letters in the New Testament very seriously. They were all written after Jesus's death in a time when they were all still trying to figure out what being christian actually meant. They were also trying to find a way to implement it where they could lessen persecution and make the transition more comfortable for people who converted. This led to them keeping many old jewish laws and conforming to the laws and beliefs of the time even though they may have contradicted what Jesus taught.

This is a good example of one of the comprimises made. Jesus taught forgiveness in these matters. The best example of this is the story where a crowd was going to stone a prostitute and Jesus stopped them saying "Let he who has no sin cast the first stone." Jesus was also known to spend time with detestable people. He put more value into trying to help people change their ways then punishing them for it. I can't see him condoning the death penalty for this, even if it was considered such an abomination.

If you want to follow what Jesus taught your best bet would be to follow the gospels. The New Testament letters do have some good ideas, but there is also much contradiction and they should be taken in the historical context, not as gospel.

 

www.godhatesshrimp.com

Yes, it's true.

 

Sorry but the following is just my opinion:

THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN BY MAN! I really don't have much faith in the bible I believe there is a god and thats about it.

 

I must have been really tired when I wrote that last post, confusing Leviticus with a new testament letter. It's been quite a while since I've picked up a bible and I was working off of fuzzy memory.

I just looked through Leviticus and all it is is a book of law of the time. The whole thing seems to just list off any action that may cause conflict or was considered unclean at the time and banning it at the price of death or exile. Many of the things that were considered wrong or unclean then are no longer considered wrong by most christian churches. While it did provide some good laws that we still follow today, with good reason, much of what is in there needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

We weren't there to witness the events in the bible and the bible has been put through so much translation and retranslation by so many people for so many years and into so many different languages, who can tell if anything is even left of the original bible.

 

Leviticus also tells us not to wear clothes of two different fabrics, or to shave, or to wear gold or pearls.

 

but inspired by God.

The part in Leviticus that you quoted (whoever it was, sorry, i don't know) was from the Mosaic law, which didn't continue to operate when Jesus came to the earth (just like the jews didn't have to sacrifice an animal fro their sins anymore, as the atonement was paid by Jesus). so that law doesn't really apply anymore. another example is how the mosaic law says "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", and Jesus said "turn the other cheek".

it's not that the old testament is unapplicable, just that those were the laws for the people of that time, and the new testament has laws more... suited for our time. the apostles also said things about men lying with men (and women etc)

 

My husband goes to a church who take the Bible literally. I've been casually pointing out things that just don't make sense and reasons that we should NOT take the Bible literally. I think I'm making a little progress. I even convinced him to attend a gay friendly church a couple weeks ago with our son.

 

Good gurl. =]

 

One of the problems with the bible is that it has been translated from an ancien language and many 'approximations' or interpretations have been made along the way. From what I have read many of the old Hebrew words don't have an exact translation so the person translating finds the nearest word to fit what they have understood the sentance to mean.

You only need a closet homophobe or woman hater to be doing the translation and everything gets pulled out of shape to suit the morality of the person doing the translation. Another point is that there were not many written records for many thousands of years and again the 'scribes' often wrote what they had understood the translation to mean and not necessarily the litteral meaning of the word.

One last thing, man or rather men wrote the bible on their own interpretations of what they felt God wanted them to say. Who amongst us today can say with 100% certainty that the words in the bible/koran/torah come from a higher being and not some very charasmatic people who, truely believed or not, that what they were saying were indeed the words of God.

I have a tendancy to believe that most of the bible was written to make us behave in a certain way when laws and prisons were not especially developed but that the 'masses' needed guidance in what the authorities deemed 'accepable' but that most of it has little place in today's society.

 

The bible is an excuse for their atrocious behaviour. They don't understand us, and because they're closed minded bigots, they use the bible as an excuse. Half the homophobes who use it as an excuse don't follow the teachings anyways.

Basically, what's meant to happen is that people read the bible and follow the rules. What they're actually doing is making their own rules and looking for evidence in the bible that supports it.

 

Amen!

 

Hah, I like how you agreed.

 

Haha, I like the way you think!

 

Something often said by my loving mother "I dosent make much sense to me to follow an ancient book written by old men in tents." Really they were just trying to to set a system of laws but applying it to a society millenia ahead is not really too far of from saying that women should be sent away from others when they have their period becayse they're unclean(Hello tampons and pads!!). The bible was appropriate for its time but most of it is just pointless now.

 

I saw something the other day that made me laugh. But it made me ponder: back when Christianity was the minority, Christians were killed often. Now that it has gained such huge abundance, the guy I saw made it seem as if Christians must crush all opposition or different ideas. Isn't that hypocritical or ironic, just as they were met with oppostion by the leading religion at the time, now they must oppose new ideas of this time as the more abundant idea.


I know almost nothing of formal church teachings, and hardly anything of the bible, but my basic idea is: Isn't no sin greater than the other? So me being gay is equal to anyone who has premarital sex, which is quite frequent these days, more so than homosexuality.