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The Bible - a stick to beat you with?

By Arthur Webster

What is it about religious(?) people that makes them feel that they have the right to beat anybody into submission by simply referring to chapter and verse? Does anybody else find it as annoying as I do that arguments are not entered into but are sought to be closed by quotes like Hypocrits 14:32?

The Bible is a selection of ancient texts that a religious hierarchy calling itself 'Christian' has carefully selected to support the type of religious teaching that it wishes to promote. The selection process was never open and nor has it ever been justified by reason or argument.

What books or testaments have been deliberately left out, I wonder.

There is no doubt that the words of the Bible are believed by many to be divinely inspired. If that is the case, I wonder why there is so much divergence and contradiction in fundamentals.

If we look at the story of creation, at the end of each day God looked at his work and saw that it was good. Fair enough, but why was the work of this divine creator so badly flawed? Why did He deliberately create a being that was susceptible to suggestion and then allow a tempter to have access to him? Why, in His wisdom, did he install a tree in the garden that the newly created man should not eat from?

When man disobeyed and ate from the tree, why did God not reason with man and explain to him that he had been naughty and that he must not do that again? We all know that God did not reason with man. He dismissed him from the garden and set cherubim and blazing swords to ensure that he could not return. I suppose we should feel that He showed compassion by clothing man before evicting him but isn't this punishment for simple disobedience out of all proportion to the crime?

What about poor Judas? Here is a man in the age of Jesus who has been vilified ever since for betraying Jesus to the Romans.

Will somebody please explain how Judas, by ensuring that a prophecy by Jesus would come true, had betrayed anybody? Jesus knew that He would be betrayed and told those at the supper that 'one among you will betray me'. Doesn't it stand to reason that Jesus was actually telling Judas that he understood the impulse which he harboured and that he was already in acceptance of the consequences? Wasn't He saying 'It's all right Judas - to you has fallen the poisoned chalice'.

Had Judas not betrayed Jesus, how would the ultimate sacrifice by God have come about? Should Judas really be condemned for carrying out God's will?

The Bible is not divine instruction and it has never been a cohesive piece of literature because the authors lived so seperately and in such differen ages. Even the translation of much of the writing has been carried out in secret amid much controversy leading to all sorts of rumours about suppressed books and revelations.

By all means use the Bible as a source of ideas and wisdom but please, do not use it like a stick to beat others into submission because you do not have the ability to formulate, express and justify your own ideas and opinions.

If God truly speaks to you, you will know His will and you will be given a voice to convince those to whom you would impart His teaching.

If God does not speak to you, could it be that you are not really listening?

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I cannot comment on what the so-called Bible-thumping "religious fanatics" say and do. There are too many of them, first of all, and secondly, the definition of what IS a "religious fanatic" varies depending on who you talk to. Too many of these people deal mainly in hypocrisy anyway.

I cannot, and will not comment on the positions that some Pastors and ministers take from the pulpit. But in my church, my Pastor goes to great lengths to teach us not to be "religious". Instead, he strives to follow in spirit what you said in the last line of your intel. To me, that last line is the whole point.

Religion is not what matters here. That's just a meaningless word. It is that last line of your intel that matters.

As for the Bible. The first 5 books make up what's called the Torah - the backbone of the Jewish Bible. The New Testament was written by eye witnesses to the events concerning Jesus (except for Revelations). It was written in a style that people of that time could understand. And, yes, there appears to be many holes and apparent contradictions. It may have been divine inspiration, but it was still written by humans. Humans are faulty.

Why certain books were left out and why certain books were included (the Catholic Bible is different than the Protestant Bible)... It's beyond me. If you watch the History Channel, there's lots of theory concerning that.

But I can tell you with a high degree of certainty, that the Bible is not a "stick" and was never designed to be so.

Don't try to understand God and why He did what HE did under certain circumstances. Concentrate on that last line of your intel.

Hi, James, a pillow was never designed to be a murder weapon but that is what it has been used for on far too many occasions.
I sometimes feel that those who quote the Bible do so out of a trained dependency. Original thought seems alien to them.
I'll keep listening!

Last night I went to what I thought was a meeting to answer the questions you pose in your Intel.

It turned out to be a 12 step program and after hearing some of the problems of others being a "recovering Agnostic" didn't seem so bad after all.

I have studied the Bible a lot and spent three years studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses. While I didn't agree with all they teach a lot of what they say illustrates how much religion has distorted and manipulated what is in the Bible.

The fact is that what the men in Constantinople in the fourth century decided was cannon enough to be included in the New Testament it was written by only 8 people.

More than half the books were written by Paul, the roman pagan soldier who was persecuting early Christians. His "conversion" sounds a lot like that of Joseph Smith's "conversion".

Ah, yes, Joseph Smith. Whatever happened to those golden plates from which he translated the Book of Mormon?
If ever mortal man was given the ability, the tools and the duty to clarify God's will - he should have been that man.
What a pity he wasn't.

WOW!!! You have a way of inspiring thought,Arthur. I am not an expert on any form of religion and so I won't enter into the debate of the issues.
However, I do believe in God and I too love the last line of your intel.
Thank you for sharing.
Best wishes.
Frederick

Thanks Frederick.
I have sought to understand religious practices and the divisive effects that they have upon humanity.
Failed so far!

It isn`t the Bible that`s at fault, it`s the people who misuse it. A kitchen knife can be picked up and used to stab someone. That doesn`t make the knife `bad` but the person who misused it.

I agree wholeheartedly that to ascribe good or evil to an inanimate object is foolhardy in the extreme but think of it like this:-
a bottle of Aspirin can be used responsibly to relieve pain if only a small part of the contents is used but if the whole bottle is used, calumny often follows.
Just as the use of a bottle of Aspirin needs to be learned, so does the use of the Bible.

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