Quote (ThatAlex @ 4 Aug 2015 00:00)

You're a decent human being, Scaly.

Quote (thesnipa @ Aug 3 2015 04:59pm)

False. I am a believer who is more than willing to accept their are contradictions in the holy text. How else do you think a book turns out after hundreds if not thousands of edits and translations into other languages?

I believe that the holy text was divinely inspired, but much of that was likely changed and lost over the years, not to the point that i believe the overall message has been tarnished. If you want to search for factual discrepancies in the Bible you will find many, i believe these are as i said, a result of the editing and translation process.

I also wholeheartedly believe that some portions of the bible are not divinely inspired at all, but added later to serve other ends, such as cultural sheepherding which was an important role of the leaders (both religious and non-religious) of the day. The bible's condemnation of homosexuality is my greatest example, i simply dont believe it is a sin, whatsoever.

Im sure your next question is how can i possibly know which portions are divinely inspired, partially divinely inspired, or not divinely inspired whatsoever? I cant, i admit fully that i cant, so instead i simply approach my religious study with the overall idea that some is true and some is false. This way i essentially take each passage with a grain of salt and decide how large that grain is for each passage. Upon re-reads or re-studying a certain topic i often change my mind completely or just slightly alter my stance. I personally believe that having concrete beliefs about anything is dangerous, so i try not to walk down that road.

(TL;DR) I cant be sure any part of the bible is true or false, so i decide how to interpret each passage on each re-read, but never take a concrete unchanging stance.

Quote (duffman316 @ Aug 3 2015 10:13pm)

Quote (IceMage @ Aug 4 2015 03:23am)

He's a year away from dropping Christianity all together. There's simply no way a believer can hold onto the faith if they think their holy text is filled with inaccuracies and false teachings.

Quote (Diablokgb @ Aug 3 2015 10:27pm)

Welcome to current Christianity.

Quote (IceMage @ Aug 3 2015 07:23pm)

He's a year away from dropping Christianity all together. There's simply no way a believer can hold onto the faith if they think their holy text is filled with inaccuracies and false teachings.

Quote (IceMage @ Aug 3 2015 10:23pm)

He's a year away from dropping Christianity all together. There's simply no way a believer can hold onto the faith if they think their holy text is filled with inaccuracies and false teachings.

Quote (thundercock @ Aug 3 2015 10:42pm)

He didn't say there are false teachings. Just that some insignificant details are likely inaccurate from the original text.

Quote

Im sure your next question is how can i possibly know which portions are divinely inspired, partially divinely inspired, or not divinely inspired whatsoever? I cant, i admit fully that i cant, so instead i simply approach my religious study with the overall idea that some is true and some is false. This way i essentially take each passage with a grain of salt and decide how large that grain is for each passage. Upon re-reads or re-studying a certain topic i often change my mind completely or just slightly alter my stance. I personally believe that having concrete beliefs about anything is dangerous, so i try not to walk down that road.

(TL;DR) I cant be sure any part of the bible is true or false, so i decide how to interpret each passage on each re-read, but never take a concrete unchanging stance.

Quote (duffman316 @ 4 Aug 2015 03:13)

Quote (IceMage @ 4 Aug 2015 03:23)

He's a year away from dropping Christianity all together. There's simply no way a believer can hold onto the faith if they think their holy text is filled with inaccuracies and false teachings.

Quote (duffman316 @ Aug 3 2015 10:47pm)

you really believe that a book written/translated by human authors for the purposes of influencing the masses wouldn't have been manipulated for political purposes?