Me and my friends have been talking about religion lately and they have been arguing that it is for ignorant people who need a false sense of beliefs/ meaning to life.

I told them that many Christians don't take the bible literally and more take in the main message that the bible delivers which is what I believe to be:

-Treat others as you would like to be treated
-Give and love as much as possible

So what I'm mainly trying to ask is do take in the Bible literally following the pages word for word or do you more take the bible more as an example and take the main messages from its stories.

Note: I'm not Christian but I'm trying to prove that religion can be a very rewarding/comforting thing to embrace.

I hope i explained this right, it was hard for me.

This post was edited by Thing1 on Jan 2 2011 07:30pm

as example of course

there are some stuff in Holy Bible that are not possible but they are statted just to show us how to act in some situations !

There are studies that have shown that spirituality in general has positive effects on an individual, but it was nothing unique to Christianity specifically. On the other hand, it could be an example of the placebo effect, where the fact that someone thinks they've taken some medicine actually makes their health improve.

Religious texts are full of a lot of good ideas for how people should live their lives, but then people cherry pick verses to influence how other people should live their lives. That's where the negative aspects of religion come in.

I take the Bible literally, but there are some passages that are presented in allegories (like the parables)

But when it comes to things like the resurrection, I take it very literally

-Matthew 4:4-
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God



-1 Corinthians 3:19-
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”

I dont kno what u mean by "cherry pick" but i kno that some people do take the text out of its context which can be a lil ehh,
I dont see it to be negative if someone is abusing drugs or thnking of doing bad things and someone uses scripture to encourage and defer them from acting upon there not so constructive plans
or if they are just trying to tell them about the good news of the Gospel and the saving work of Jesus Christ
but everyone sees things differantly

Yeah, that and the fact that many people choose which sins they choose to preach about week-in, week-out. Why is it that when I used to go to church regularly, I would hear the preachers preach the evils of homosexuality during every single sermon when other sins like adultery that are also culturally acceptable get free passes? I've honestly never heard a preacher decry divorce during a service (I went regularly to different churches for ~4 years and still go from time to time). That's what I mean by cherry picking, and I don't see how something like that is at all defensible, even in the eyes of God.

Was that 1 Corinthians verse addressing the part of my post that you underlined, by the way? I don't see how it's at all applicable. Are you saying that all attempts at understanding the world are foolish, even when they don't disagree with something that a religious person would believe (e.g. religion positively affecting a person's life and well-being)?

Just because they dont address it doesnt mean it gets a pass, but I see what u mean now by chery picking
but thats why we have to dig in the word for ourselves, going to church is awsome, fellowshipping with the congregation, worshipping, and hearing from the word of God
but like u mentioned, they arnt going to address every issue, differant things affect people in differant ways and some thing are more important to some than others, so thats what they are likely to address. I dont kno what you mean by "defensible but just because an issue is not addressed doesnt mean they are defending or condoning it

and Im not saying that all attepmts at understanding the world are foolish, but it depends on how far u buy into some of those observations (evolution)

Read "Matthew 24" in any bible. Especially if you're not sure what to think as far as God is concerned. Jesus tells us how the end times go down. (Words of Jesus in red)



Come unto Christ now, the hour is late. Come to the truth, watch and be sober, redeeming the time, for the days are evil.

This post was edited by Torm1 on Jan 3 2011 01:07am

Since the Creation stories are figurative and not literal (Six days? Please), why do you disbelieve in evolution when all of the evidence we find just confirms that it has happened? There's also a belief known as Theistic (or Divine) Evolution, and in that people believe that evolution occurred and that God had a hand in directing the path it took so that His will was still carried out, and that evolution is just the process that He used.

Bible translation is best left to those who have spent the required amount of time and effort in its study . Anyone who is genuinely interested should submit themselves to the authority of recognized teachers , most importantly those educated individuals who have the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit .

when it says six days, i think it was six days, after each day it says "and there was evening and there was morning, a second day" or a thrid day or forth and so on
and when God created man, there is no mention of a long period of evolution

-Genesis 2:7-
Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

This post was edited by JonnyDangerouz on Jan 3 2011 06:36pm