Do you believe the moses or mary stories?

[sealybobo]

Or Mohammad or Joseph Smith stories? I'm trying to figure out how many of us take all the stories literally like talking snakes or virgin births. I know a lot of people who say they are Christians but don't take the bible stories literally.

If you're Jewish, do you really believe Moses talked to God or were you just born Jewish and you believe in God but admit you don't take the old testament literally.

Im not even going to ask Mormons or Muslims. Of course they believe their books are literal.

 

[Steven_R]

I don't believe in any religious stories. They are no more factual than Greek or Norse mythology.

That said, I think there are some great lessons to be learned in the Bible and the Koran, and there are some horrifying bits too. And they should be studied for their impact on art and literature and society in general, as well as historical documents (not proof of God but as documents of the time). Plus there are just some great and entertaining myths in those books.

 

[TheOldSchool]

It's fully possible there's a supernatural entity that created it all. But he's certainly not described by the thousands of religions that man has had faith in over the millenia.

 

[Indeependent]

I believe everything in the Torah occurred and I am under zero obligation to force anybody else to believe so.

 

[Weatherman2020]

Hilarious. They keep bringing the Bible over and over for just one reason. They know it's true.

 

[TheOldSchool]

Hilarious. They keep bringing the Bible over and over for just one reason. They know it's true.

Who?

 

[sealybobo]

I believe everything in the Torah occurred and I am under zero obligation to force anybody else to believe so.

Jews are the one religion not interested in recruiting converts. Very exclusive club. You can get in but its not easy.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

Or Mohammad or Joseph Smith stories? I'm trying to figure out how many of us take all the stories literally like talking snakes or virgin births. I know a lot of people who say they are Christians but don't take the bible stories literally.

If you're Jewish, do you really believe Moses talked to God or were you just born Jewish and you believe in God but admit you don't take the old testament literally.

Im not even going to ask Mormons or Muslims. Of course they believe their books are literal.

My opinion:

I believe Judaism is derived from Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek mythology and stories of the great flood and Samson can be found in other mythology.

Christianity is from the Emperor Constantine and I believe he had to elevate someone like Jesus to a godlike position because a mere mortal from a low class could never be above a Roman Emperor, so Jesus had to be a child of a God like Hercules and other mythical people of the past. ( I know Hercules is Greek )

So I believe the books are a guide to live our lives, and if we do we will feel more enlighten, but should they be take literally?

In my opinion no.

I am more of a Taoist in life even though I have Jewish and Catholic family members...

 

[Steven_R]

If I had to belong to a religion, it would be something along the lines of Deism, where some god created the universe and then promptly turn its back on it.

Either that or Jedism. I rather like the idea of the Force.

 

[shimon]

Moses exsisted their is proof not sure about the others I posted on June 15 2015 the hidden Moses showing proof of his exsistence in museums around the world one can find the info if you dig hard enough....You can look up my post in the search part of this forum... Regardless we do not worship Moses a man so it really does not matter....

 

[Blackrook]

They never found the body of Jesus, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they looked.

 

[Mudda]

The only way Mary gets pregnant while still being a virgin is if she was getting asspounded and some of the cum dribbled into her *****. Jus' sayin'.

 

[Granny]

I'm not Jewish, but I tend to lean more heavily on the Old Testament than the New. There's much to be learned there that makes sense just in living our ordinary lives today. The Ten Commandments make perfect sense - at least to me. The so-called "Jewish dietary laws" also make sense to me ... if there's truth in the adage that you are what you eat. I wouldn't go to the extremes that some of the more strict Jewish sects adhere to ... too many dishes to wash ... but, still, it makes sense to me.

I think people who are the least knowledgeable about religion in general - along with the history of religion - just lash out in absolute hatred and demand complete eradication of any religion because they're miserable to begin with. It ain't going to cure their misery.

 

[Weatherman2020]

Hilarious. They keep bringing the Bible over and over for just one reason. They know it's true.

Who?

Show me the hundreds of threads on Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc etc.

You are only infatuated with what the Bible says because you know deep down its all true.

And if you didn't and were sane, you'd wish it was true.

 

[Meriweather]

I believe everything in the Torah occurred and I am under zero obligation to force anybody else to believe so.

Jews are the one religion not interested in recruiting converts. Very exclusive club. You can get in but its not easy.

It is unfair, I think, to call Judaism a "very exclusive club."

Jews learned thousands of years ago that an open door policy resulted not in people converting to Judaism, but foreigners wanting to incorporate their own ideas and beliefs within Judaism. Today Jews will tell you many Christians who say they want to "convert" to Judaism really want an inside lane to convert Jews to Christianity (Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews for example).

 

[Meriweather]

My opinion:

I believe Judaism is derived from Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek mythology and stories of the great flood and Samson can be found in other mythology.

Judaism derived from Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek mythology is like saying the Barbie doll derived from Raggedy Ann, or, the microwave oven from the radio. Just because two physical things or beliefs have similar components does not mean they are derivative.

Christianity is from the Emperor Constantine and I believe he had to elevate someone like Jesus to a godlike position because a mere mortal from a low class could never be above a Roman Emperor, so Jesus had to be a child of a God like Hercules and other mythical people of the past. ( I know Hercules is Greek )

No, Christianity is not "from the Emperor Constantine." He stopped the persecution of Christianity, but all elements of Christianity in play today emerged well before Constantine--which is easily proven.

 

[sealybobo]

I believe everything in the Torah occurred and I am under zero obligation to force anybody else to believe so.

Jews are the one religion not interested in recruiting converts. Very exclusive club. You can get in but its not easy.

It is unfair, I think, to call Judaism a "very exclusive club."

Jews learned thousands of years ago that an open door policy resulted not in people converting to Judaism, but foreigners wanting to incorporate their own ideas and beliefs within Judaism. Today Jews will tell you many Christians who say they want to "convert" to Judaism really want an inside lane to convert Jews to Christianity (Jews for Jesus, Messianic Jews for example).

I heard gentiles visited Jewish temples and they liked the whole ceremony and socializing that was going on but they didn't want to go through everything that it takes to become a Jew so they came up with Christianity. Basically all you have to do is believe the Jesus story and be dunked in water (baptized) and you're in. Much easier club to get into. If Christians had to do as much as Jewish kids have to do to get in the club, most would not.

 

[Granny]

I think you're probably right about Constantine. He was a believer in the already existing teachings of Christ but played a great role in furthering of those teachings. I don't know (I'm not a great student of ancient history) but I think the story is that Jesus said something about Peter being the rock on which he would build his church - which ultimately in time became the Catholic Church. My recollection is that part of inducing "pagans" and/or "heathens" into following these teachings was to incorporate or "weave" some of their gods into those teachings. With time came those who had differences with some of the beliefs held by the Holy Roman Church and broke away to form their own groups - Martin Luther, the Lutheran Church - John Knox, the Presbyterian Church, etc. It's still going on today - man's image of little bits of this or that which is taken as some literal translation of whatever.

I know there's some kind of snake handling church in the next county up from me - and I don't know what they believe in this snake handling stuff, but what I do know is that I'm not deliberately stepping foot in any place that has rattlesnakes running amok all over the place. If they're happy ... I'm happy for them ... have at it.

I think the bottom line is if someone wants to believe in this Creator God for whatever reason - peace, hope of a better tomorrow or a better place than the one we're in - then leave them the hell alone. If someone wants to completely deny the existence of any kind of Creator - fine. Religion (or the lack thereof) is a personal matter to each individual.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

My opinion:

I believe Judaism is derived from Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek mythology and stories of the great flood and Samson can be found in other mythology.

Judaism derived from Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek mythology is like saying the Barbie doll derived from Raggedy Ann, or, the microwave oven from the radio. Just because two physical things or beliefs have similar components does not mean they are derivative.

Christianity is from the Emperor Constantine and I believe he had to elevate someone like Jesus to a godlike position because a mere mortal from a low class could never be above a Roman Emperor, so Jesus had to be a child of a God like Hercules and other mythical people of the past. ( I know Hercules is Greek )

No, Christianity is not "from the Emperor Constantine." He stopped the persecution of Christianity, but all elements of Christianity in play today emerged well before Constantine--which is easily proven.

Prove it then because your word is not the final word on it!

" Estimates for the dates when the canonical gospel accounts were written vary significantly; and the evidence for any of the dates is scanty. Because the earliest surviving complete copies of the gospels date to the 4th century and because only fragments and quotations exist before that, scholars use higher criticism to propose likely ranges of dates for the original gospel autographs. Scholars variously assess the majority (though not the consensus[32]) view as follows:

• Mark: c. 68–73,[33] c. 65–70.[34]
• Matthew: c. 70–100,[33] c. 80–85.[34]
• Luke: c. 80–100, with most arguing for somewhere around 85,[33] c. 80–85.[34]
• John: c. 90–100,[34] c. 90–110,[35] The majority view is that it was written in stages, so there was no one date of composition. "

Gospel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So Mark Book was around 68 to 73 AD which make it a Bard story.

Matthew and Luke were at least around 80 AD, so another Bard story

John is most likely around 90 AD, so another Bard story.

The first complete copy of the Gospels was around the fourth century and it was around the same time of Emperor Constantine, so yeah Constantine did influence the Christianity we know today.

Now to your dismissal of Judaism connection to Sumerian, Babylonian, and Greek Mythology and the fact is Judaism has more in common with them and get their stories from them.

The first story of the great flood is found in the Sumerian writings and is not first written by the children of Judaism.

Flood myth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Leviathan is from the Canaanite mythology.


Flood myth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So yeah, I am standing by what I wrote because I have read enough to come to the conclusion that Anu, Chaos, and God are all the same immortal being that many generations have consider the creator of the Universe...

Chaos (cosmogony) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want a link to God then Google, Yahoo, or Bing it or just read your Tanakh.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

I'm not Jewish, but I tend to lean more heavily on the Old Testament than the New. There's much to be learned there that makes sense just in living our ordinary lives today. The Ten Commandments make perfect sense - at least to me. The so-called "Jewish dietary laws" also make sense to me ... if there's truth in the adage that you are what you eat. I wouldn't go to the extremes that some of the more strict Jewish sects adhere to ... too many dishes to wash ... but, still, it makes sense to me.

I think people who are the least knowledgeable about religion in general - along with the history of religion - just lash out in absolute hatred and demand complete eradication of any religion because they're miserable to begin with. It ain't going to cure their misery.

There are 613 commandments...

613 commandments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia