I realize you're probably a true believer, but for a lot of people there is no truth. The bible is written by people, translated by people, and interpreted by people. I don't believe in your religion or any other, but even assuming it's true, the fidelity of the text is poor at best.
Totally agree. I'm not religious at all, but at least being a "fundamentalist" seems intellectually honesty. If you believe your religious text is the true word of an all powerful God, surely it's infallible? What gives you the right to pick and choose which parts to take literally or not?
Would an all powerful God who wants "true believers" to find salvation leave them for thousands of years muddling through with just an ambiguous and inconsistent book to live by?
Are you implying that the various Christian religions do not believe the Bible is 100% true?
If so, how do they decide which parts aren’t and which parts are?
When I google, I find various resources from Catholic and Evangelical groups that say the Bible is 100% true.
Do you believe that the Bible is the true, unerring word of God, and if it contains apparent contradictions, that's due to mistaken interpretation? Just want to know what the ground rules are before deciding to participate.
No sane person can take the bible literally. It's a piece of paper containing text that was written long ago when people didn't had this much technology.
The Bible is best seen as a story rather than a factual account. Like anything in this world, its value lies in its symbolism. It's a beautiful book if read truly rather than read as a weapon for attack to say "I believe in this!"
Christian evangelicals in this country believe the Bible is 100% true and the exact word of God. The same Bible was pruned hundreds of years ago from stories the Catholic Church didn't like.
I don't think it's very useful to quote the bible as a source of what Christians believe. So far as I can tell, only a tiny sliver of Christians believe the work in its entirety.
…the source of the bible doesn't say what you claim it does..
You are being daft. I don’t claim it says this. The Christian experts who made the NIV claim it.
I know of no Christian who thinks the Bible (not translations of it) is not the divinely inspired written word of God. Meaning, that God wrote it. Not literally jotting down the word but divinely guiding the authors. That is, the words, meaning, and intent come from Him.
You are being deliberately obtuse. I’m not going to respond anymore to you. And if you think at any point I psychoanalyzed you then you don’t know what that word really means.
That is disingenuous framing. One does not need to “believe” that the Bible is false, only lack a belief that the Bible is anything other than another book written by humans.
Besides, there are hundreds of religions with their own holy books. Why should I take yours any more seriously than the Bibliotheca or Dianetics?
As a religious person what is the justification for a non literal interpretation of the Bible? Was there a commandment that says God wanted you to interpret that way? Why does God want his messages to be non literal instead of literal?
Perhaps each person is given a choice. You have three. Interpret the Bible literally, interpret the Bible symbolically or not even play the game and realize that no interpretation of the Bible is correct because the book is just as fictive as the Koran or any other holy book from an ancient religion.
How would a human reconcile with their beliefs and how they were raised with reality as it exists around them. Science says that no one can turn water into wine, the Bible says that it can. Logically speaking the Bible is wrong. But when I've spent years reading the Bible and my entire identity is built around religion my only option is to say that the Bible is not to be interpreted literally. I must create a lie that validates reality and validates my identity.
Also how would I know that I'm lying to myself? If I or anyone I knew was doing this form of psychological self manipulation, how would I know?
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