Literary it is indeed a great work. Some of it ranks right up there with Milton's Paradise Lost, Dante's Divina Commedia and similar works. Its use and abuse throughout history doesn't preclude this assertion.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

....... a wonderful literary read detailing Christian mythology. It should be taken as nothing more. Certainly, there should be little difference seen between The Bible, and the stories of Medusa and the Kraken of Greek mythology. All are wonderful stories - but they are just that.

Having studied the origins of the bible vigorously, I can quite assure you this is not god's word.

If all Christians came at the study of the bible with as an open mind (and the preparation to use logic instead of what has been ingrained in them from day one) as did I, they would reach the same conclusion.

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson

I agree with you Mark. I don't have any problem with The Bible ... my problem is with the people who wrongly interpret it. I get angered when people don't take the entire Bible as "the word", but are rather selective in which parts they choose to read or adhere to (and these parts conveniently enough are usually those passages that reinforce their own prejudices); and ignore those parts that don't.

I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. Very few people there had actually ever read the entire bible, much less a good portion of it. Instead, they relied on the pastor to spoonfeed them. I know this is the case in a good many other churches, as I've had a lifetime of observation to develop this opinion. I'm not saying there aren't a good number of Christians who have read the thing front to back; they're just a sizable minority.

Further, if one had undertaken a study of comparative religions as I did in college & grad school, and then spent a good chunk of their adult life continuing to study religion (particularly the origins of "holy" documents) in an avocational style, the only conclusion one could draw is that the bible is not a very reliable source in terms of anything god might have said.

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson

The Bible should be used as ONE of the tools to inform a persons religious belief, not THE tool. It is full of inaccuracies and contradictions, and gives rise to an ill-educated class if people rely solely on its teachings. You can be a great Christian if you don't adhere to The Bible in much the same way as you can be a Christian if you don't attend Church every Sunday. It's about how you live your life; not the adherence to strict contradictory doctrine, IMO.

Assure me all you like. It's meaningless. Religion and spirituality exist because humans know there is more to the world than can be apprehended by logic and reason. In fact the "god" whom you assure me did not write the bible cannot be explained by logic or reason.
Once you grant that there can be a being who is beyond logical comprehension, you grant that he can deliver his message in a way which defies logic.
Faith is certainly informed by reason and many people of faith readily believe the evidence of their senses and accept the conclusions of methodological naturalism. But there is no set of observable, empirical, measurable evidence that you can subject to reasoning which will prove god did not choose the bible as a method of communication.
In the variety of religious and spiritual beliefs you will find people who balance ratios of reason and faith across the entire spectrum. The fact that your ratio contains more logic than a bible believer's is completely irrelevant to the relative value of your belief or theirs.

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A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the utmost extremes of injustice and oppression.
Edward Gibbon

I wouldn't say that. I think we have more to learn from (some) Bible stories than the story about Medusa.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

That's true ... but put into context, the ancient Greeks had things to learn from their mythology also, such as (I can't recall his name) the chap who was cursed with vanity and so fell in love with his own reflection. What I was meaning is that in all of the stories and parables of the worlds various religions there are elements which we can adopt in our everyday lives - but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that they are just stories to help us decide the path we want to follow in life. They should not be used to define our path and make our choices for us.

Exactly. We get so caught up in Jesus, we forget to listen to what he supposedly said.



(And the chap was narcissus... yes, I'm veeeery familiar with that myth. )

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

It is obviously the only conclusion you were able to find. While I have read the entire bible more than once I cannot claim to have studied religion in the same depth as you. But I do know people who have. And some of them have come to conclusions different than yours. And even though I cannot qualify as an "expert" I really don't see how your experience is any more valid than those of poeple who have studied to the extent of their ability and circumstances allow and still believe the bible comes from god.

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A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the utmost extremes of injustice and oppression.
Edward Gibbon

Yup, I totally agree with you on that point. A vocal minority associated with the Christian faiths focus their teachings on a very small and select few lines from The Bible, and choose to seemingly ignore the overall teachings. It's this selectivity that I see as serving nothing more than reinforcing their own prejudices. Why do so many (seemingly) believe that Christian teachings must be taught from the "fire and brimstone" point of view? All we ever hear about is preachers talking about the ills of gay marriage, etc, yet we rarely (if ever??) hear a positive approach or teaching from these individuals or groups in the media about their religion? Where's the vocality in talking about loving one another, being good people regardless of race, colour, sexuality, etc? It seems that modern religion has been hijacked (? or was it always like that?) by the people who believe that religion is taught by instilling fear and hate, rather than joy and love.

I'll also grant you that my kids very much believe in Santa Claus. They can go to the mall & sit on his lap, see his picture everywhere, watch movies starring him on television, and see all the wonderful presents he brings 'em on Christmas morning. In their minds, Santa is very, very real.

So, does that mean Santa exists too? It would certainly defy logic. . .

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson

I wasn't smoking hashish while doing my studies. They obviously were.

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"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither breaks my leg, nor picks my pocket."

Thomas Jefferson

Yup, I totally agree with that.

I don't believe you have to know the bible to know about morality. That's preposterous. "Strict Constructionists" of the bible are people who aren't evolved very much. Nobody's body floated up to Vacation Village in the sky. Didn't happen. If you believe that still, than you believe in witchcraft.

If James Cameron did find Jesus Christ's remains, that would be accurate because nobody went flying up into the sky. Stop believing it. We're adults now.