. . .A Collection of Writings of Unknown Date and Authorship Rendered into English From Supposed Copies of Supposed Originals Unfortunately Lost.

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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

Sounds about right.

Rendered into Latin... we still have the Latin don't we?

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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

Rendered into English too, but that is no guarantee of veracity. The Bible is a conglomeration of writings with no particular self-consistency and not a single shred of proof as to it's supposed Divine origins.

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Fanaticism is redoubling your efforts after you have forgotten your goal.

i'm piss of a theologian so apologies for what i'm thinking is a pretty dumb question, but...


would it be safe to say the Koran and Jewish Bible are of a similar nature (unknown origin, age, oodles of translations, etc)?

Pretty fair. Except it was written in old Hebrew and I also can think of at least three places where the translation into English is questionable

I think the bible is valid as a means of teaching morality but not as a literal work although there are historical figures and events that are accurate.

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"artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up" "V" in V for Vendetta

672 days to go.
http://www.backwardsbush.com/?gclid=...FRQxSgodT0dCxw

do you really need the bible to teach morals, though?

like, honestly, if you can't figure out why killing is bad without the bible, you should probably live alone in the desert.

Greeting and Felicitations,


.. a propaganda tool developed by the Catholic church and Jehovah to instill guilt. The guilt is then used to bring believers in for Jehovah and money in or the church.

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

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... the authoritative writings of Christianity; inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by humans, and beautifully written if you actually read it.

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"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
-John Calvin

I've actually read it. Probably more times than anyone on this board.

And still I reach this 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

But you wonder if it really matters... people are going to take only what they want from the Bible, no matter where it came from anyways.

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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

Not all of it beautifully written, get a copy of Ben Edward Ackerley's THE X-RATED BIBLE and read all the scriptures that they don't talk about in Church. There is a lot of stuff in the Bible that is pretty disgusting, from misogyny to sexual perversion to violence to genocide. If the word "blasphemy" means to speak evil of God, then the Bible has a lot of blasphemy in it, in my opinion.

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The apocalypse is coming... we're gonna need more ammo.

there is a lot of weird stuff (read 2 kings 2:23-25 for an example) but read psalms, read proverbs, read some of Paul's letters or the sermon on the mount. Its great stuff.

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"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
-John Calvin

I freely grant that there are some great things in the Bible, but all MY life I'd had the religious shit kicked out of me by people using the bad things in the Bible. I know that you say these people are a minority in the Christian religion, but they are the ones doing the damage and I don't see the mainstream of Christianity reining them in or even decrying their works. Is it a minority in all of the states that have passed amendments disenfranchising homosexual people? The Christian majority finally put an end to slavery, when will they do the same for us? How many more of us will have to be beaten, raped, or killed before the Christian majority stops the persecution?

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The apocalypse is coming... we're gonna need more ammo.

I won't dispute your premise. But does it matter? Attribution, dating, and translation are problems if you're relying on a modern bible as a source of history. But they are no problem at all if, through the gift of faith, you see the book as God's word. Jesus said to his disciples "He who hears you, hears me" (Lk 10:16). Just so, for believers, he who reads the bible (transcribed and translated by men) reads god's word.

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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