Zone1 Really?

[Donald H]

Enlightenment means the light goes on in your own head, not passed to you by someone else. A simple perusal of "Gray's Anatomy" should disavow any intelligent person of the theory of evolution.

Enlightenment for me has been Ding's acceptance of the fact that the bibles (the word of god) are partly symbolic double talk and partly literally true.
That's the common ground with my atheism and Ding's beliefs.

The Catholic Church has always relied on the ignorance of the flock concerning the Bible for their power over them.

Exactly!

Once the Bible was widely published (thanks to the printing press) and read by the masses the Reformation and Protestantism freed the Christian world from that ignorance.

Yet there's still another active threat of the CC spliting again.
Putting off the impossible errors and impossibilities in the bibles as 'symbolic' is not acceptable to the literal believers. Some way must be found to reconcile 'symbolic truths' and 'literal truths, and that still hasn't been found.

*That's why you, me, and Ding keep searching.


*Meriweather searches silently and in isolation.

 

[Woodznutz]

A common ancestor for all apes, including all of the human missing links!
Can we go that far yet?

Any 'links' were destroyed in the various cataclysmic events recorded in the geologic record. And, only those species that God wanted in the post flood world were taken onto the ark. Many species no doubt went extinct.

 

[Woodznutz]

Enlightenment for me has been Ding's acceptance of the fact that the bibles (the word of god) are partly symbolic double talk and partly literally true.
That's the common ground with my atheism and Ding's beliefs.

Exactly!



Yet there's still another active threat of the CC spliting again.
Putting off the impossible errors and impossibilities in the bibles as 'symbolic' is not acceptable to the literal believers. Some way must be found to reconcile 'symbolic truths' and 'literal truths, and that still hasn't been found.

*That's why you, me, and Ding keep searching.


*Meriweather searches silently and in isolation.

At the end of the day what one believes is a personal thing. It's the common beliefs that hold us together. I would never fault another Christian for rejecting things that I believe. For example, when God said, "You shall go on your belly (lit. give birth from your belly) and you shall eat dust (dirt)..." he was talking to Eve, not the serpent.

 

[Donald H]

Any 'links' were destroyed in the various cataclysmic events recorded in the geologic record. And, only those species that God wanted in the post flood world were taken onto the ark. Many species no doubt went extinct.

The fossil record containing dozens of missing links wasn't destroyed.

eg. All humanoids before homo sapiens.

 

[Donald H]

At the end of the day what one believes is a personal thing.

I agree! There's no objectivity contained in Christian beliefs.

It's the common beliefs that hold us together.

And threatens to divide the churches even further. Let go of 'literal' beliefs and begin to embrace (swallow) the 'symbolic' backslide, even though it's a difficult and bitter choicee.

I would never fault another Christian for rejecting things that I believe. For example, when God said, "You shall go on your belly (lit. give birth from your belly) and you shall eat dust (dirt)..." he was talking to Eve, not the serpent.

Crawling on her belly meaning giving birth, might work when there is no other explanation available? But don't you think it's quite a stretch.

However, it's still less a stretch than the literal belief of living 3 days in the belly of the big fish.

I can accept it as meaning giving birth as a temporary explanation until something better is invented.

 

[ding]

What did I say to you Christian, that has brought out that kind of strong emotional outburst?

We've actually reached agreement on what can't be literally true, and what isn't. Do you have some examples of the symbolic? I think you'll find that I agree on that too if it's kept rational and believable.

It wasn't that strong. More like a promise. As long as you keep ignoring the author's intent, I'll be there to correct your idiotic trolling.

 

[ding]

Enlightenment for me has been Ding's acceptance of the fact that the bibles (the word of god) are partly symbolic double talk and partly literally true.
That's the common ground with my atheism and Ding's beliefs.

Exactly!



Yet there's still another active threat of the CC spliting again.
Putting off the impossible errors and impossibilities in the bibles as 'symbolic' is not acceptable to the literal believers. Some way must be found to reconcile 'symbolic truths' and 'literal truths, and that still hasn't been found.

*That's why you, me, and Ding keep searching.


*Meriweather searches silently and in isolation.

Looks like I turned you into "W".

 

[Woodznutz]

I agree! There's no objectivity contained in Christian beliefs.

And threatens to divide the churches even further. Let go of 'literal' beliefs and begin to embrace (swallow) the 'symbolic' backslide, even though it's a difficult and bitter choicee.

Crawling on her belly meaning giving birth, might work when there is no other explanation available? But don't you think it's quite a stretch.

However, it's still less a stretch than the literal belief of living 3 days in the belly of the big fish.

I can accept it as meaning giving birth as a temporary explanation until something better is invented.

Crawling on the belly was a wrong translation. Most of the discourse between God and Eve was about childbirth. Giving birth from the belly is paired with "dust you shall eat". Pregnant women have eaten dirt throughout history, not snakes.

Jonah was as dead in the belly of the whale as Jesus was in the heart of the earth. Both were resurrected, Jesus to eternal spirit life, Jonah to physical life like as Lazarus.

 

[Donald H]

Crawling on the belly was a wrong translation. Most of the discourse between God and Eve was about childbirth. Giving birth from the belly is paired with "dust you shall eat". Pregnant women have eaten dirt throughout history, not snakes.

Jonah was as dead in the belly of the whale as Jesus was in the heart of the earth. Both were resurrected, Jesus to eternal spirit life, Jonah to physical life like as Lazarus.

I'm good with your fallback position of "jesus spirit life".

That allows us to throw out physical life which eliminates any need to believe in some bullsh-t resurrection. Now we can replace all the impossible nonsense on physical happenings in the bible, with having to do with the spirit in our minds.

Jonah? I can't get any closer to your theory than just whale sh-t. Or better still, the whole story is bullsh-t.

 

[ding]

Now we can replace all the impossible nonsense on physical happenings in the bible, with having to do with the spirit in our minds.

Not quite.

 

[ThisIsMe]

It seems to me that a lot of people on this site who profess to be Christian often forget this one:

"Each of you knows that the foundation of our faith is charity. Without it, our religion would crumble. We will never be truly Catholic unless we conform our entire lives to the two commandments that are the essence of the Catholic faith: to love the Lord, our God, with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves."— Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

I agree, we should all be more charitable. However, thr government takes money out of my check each pay period and sends it to all kinds of charitable causes. I try to give in addition to that, but most of us are already paying over 20% of our income to a government that simply wastes it.

If we could get them to stop blowing our money on these frivolous causes, there would be more money to use on these charitable causes.

 

[Unkotare]

Would you, as a Christian, like to live in Haiti?

if it were safe. of course.

 

[Missourian]

and to love our neighbor as ourselves."

Yeah...I agree. This is the one I have the most trouble with. Because many people are stupid, evil, narcissistic, hateful, selfish and will stab you in the back to take any advantage no matter how small.

And worst of all, they cut you off in traffic then give you the finger like YOU did something wrong by occupying the space they wanted to be in.

It's hard to love someone that you simultaneously would strangle the life out of if you knew for a fact no one was watching.

 

[BlackSand]

It seems to me that a lot of people on this site who profess to be Christian often forget this one:

"Each of you knows that the foundation of our faith is charity. Without it, our religion would crumble. We will never be truly Catholic unless we conform our entire lives to the two commandments that are the essence of the Catholic faith: to love the Lord, our God, with all our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves."— Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati

.

Hey ... Didn't the Catholics do the whole Spanish Inquisition thing ... Doesn't really sound very Christian to me ...
And that was centered on them telling people what it was they were supposed to be doing as Catholics.

Not a good look ...

.​

 

[BreezeWood]

Didn't the Catholics do the whole Spanish Inquisition thing ...

they have never repented for any of their crimes ... just unkotare sprinkling some sugar for their token photo op.

 

[The Irish Ram]

At the end of the day what one believes is a personal thing. It's the common beliefs that hold us together. I would never fault another Christian for rejecting things that I believe. For example, when God said, "You shall go on your belly (lit. give birth from your belly) and you shall eat dust (dirt)..." he was talking to Eve, not the serpent.

But Genesis tells us who God was talking to and makes the distinction between the Satan and Eve.

Genesis 3:14-24 Then the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live. And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

 

[Unkotare]

Would you, as a Christian, like to live in Haiti?

Some of the nicest people I've ever met are from Haiti. Polite, religious, family oriented, intelligent. Wonderful people.

 

[Meriweather]

Hey ... Didn't the Catholics do the whole Spanish Inquisition thing ... Doesn't really sound very Christian to me ...
And that was centered on them telling people what it was they were supposed to be doing as Catholics.

Did you every study the political aspects of the Spanish Inquisition? Getting involved in politics is never a good look or a good outcome for anyone. Ask Abe Lincoln.

 

[Woodznutz]

I'm good with your fallback position of "jesus spirit life".

That allows us to throw out physical life which eliminates any need to believe in some bullsh-t resurrection. Now we can replace all the impossible nonsense on physical happenings in the bible, with having to do with the spirit in our minds.

Jonah? I can't get any closer to your theory than just whale sh-t. Or better still, the whole story is bullsh-t.

Well, those stories aren't for everyone.

 

[BreezeWood]

Did you every study the political aspects of the Spanish Inquisition? Getting involved in politics is never a good look or a good outcome for anyone. Ask Abe Lincoln.

being anti slavery and saving the country from the draconian bible belt - is not a good look, abraham lincoln ... some people have no shame at all.

meriweather surly will be starting a petition to bring boby lee back to life just like jesus.