On Tue, 2003-01-21 at 20:38, Paul Baker wrote: > You probably don't believe that a Catholic HS religion teacher could be > more concerned with loving the lord than any of the catholic doctrines > but it's true. If time hadn't wiped most things from my memory I could > give you enough examples to fill 10 threads. A lot of what he taught to > the ones willing to listen was that bible is primarily just a book (or > at least originally was) of short stories and poems based loosely on > actual events and many (such as the creation stories) are pure fiction > only intended to make a point. The bible is not supposed to be taken as > an almanac of historical events. It is a story book. We did go over a > lot of stories, mostly the gospel, where he gave us his interpretation > of the real action event that may have taken place actually was. The > one that really stuck in my head had to do with the story about the > loaves and fishes. In the bible it says that Jesus performed a miracle > where he magically multiplies the bread and fish to feed the whole > gathering of people with plenty left over. I don't think that Jesus was > this obvious. I think what really happened really had nothing to do at > all with Jesus other he was there. When the boy brought his bread and > fish to Jesus willing to share it with everyone, the crowd was so moved > that they did the same. Everyone sharing with everyone was the real > miracle. (hey isn't that what we are all trying to do with this open > source stuff afterall?) Of course this everyone sharing with everyone > is a miracle idea is kinda lost on most people. They would be more > impressed by magic tricks, so that's what was told so that people would > remember the stories. That man should be the Pope. > You really can't take anything in the bible literally. The bible was > passed entirely verbally for many hundreds or thousands of years before > it was written down. Things are bound to get changed as they are passed > from one generation to the next and even across languages. And of > course don't forget that when King James finally had pen put to ink I'm > sure a lot of politics went into it. It's a shame there are so many > Christians that take the bible so literally. And really you can pick > any point you want to prove and find one or more passages in the bible > that taken out of context will prove your point. Both sides of any > argument can do it. It really just comes down to who has more of the > bible memorized for the particular argument. Crap like this gives us > good sane Christians a bad name. Agreed. > One thing I also came away with from his teaching was that the > existence of God will never be proven. This is by God's design. Yeah I > know it sounds like a bullshit theory. But seriously. God gave us free > will. Part of that free will is deciding whether or not we want to > believe if she actually exists. God left it up to us to decide for > ourselves--he didn't leave a bunch of sloppy proof laying around to > make the decision easy for us. If we some day found "proof" that God > existed, then we would all be forced to believe in God and any other > stupid rules that someone wants to attach to the existence of God, such > as abortion or pre-marital sex or even birth-control are sins. That's > just stupid and God knows better. She knew that if some stupid zealot > could make a bunch of rules claiming they came from God and then show > proof on top of it that we all would be forced to believe. Good bye > free will and then the world would be a pretty boring place more likely > than not. ...thus defeating the apparent purpose of our existence. Excellent analysis. > Well anyway I've probably given enough reason for people to hate me now > so I'll stop. s/hate/love/ Alex. -- PGP Public Key: http://aoi.dyndns.org/~alex/pgp-public-key -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS d- s:++ a18 C++(++++)>$ UL+++(++++) P--- L+++>++++ E---- W+(+++) N- o-- K+ w--- !O M(+) V-- PS+++ PE-- Y+ PGP+(+++) t* 5-- X-- R tv b- DI D+++ G e h! !r y ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
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