MAStudent

I have a Bachelor's in Philosophy. Studying philosophy taught me to classify ideas, prioritize concepts based on whatever you are focusing on, compare and contrast things, qualify what it means to "know" something (epistemology), and be comfortable with the position: I don't know.

I have been a stout athiest, a stout christian. I have studied people that believed only what you use your senses to perceive can be believed, and I have studied people that believed you can't trusted your senses (mirage anyone?) and only things that pass the logic test should be upheld.

*Hindu's believe there are many paths to the top of the mountain
*Buddhists believe there is no such thing as a self, that there are only seeds of human traits in a wherehouse, and that when a person is born they get some collection of these trait (seed for music, seed for wood-working)
*Taoists never mention god, only that there is a path to walk, and that there is a thread that runs through everything and ties it all together
*Christians believe Jesus came from God to educate the world, and that there is "no way to the father but by" him.
*The bible was written by imperfect people, no matter how inspired they were
*What you really believe is what you do when everything falls apart
*People gravitate to the ethics that suit their preferences
*One day when I was an atheist, I was running around a track at Fresno State University, and something hit me in the chest hard enough to stop me in my tracks, and I heard "I am here"

I wrote this song:

The parts of me and you (chorus)
and this and that
Light and dark
Thin and fat

Eternal teeter totter (chorus)
but a thread runs through it
A thread runs through it
What is the thread that runs through it?

Get busy crackin seeds
but a thread runs though it
a thread runs through it
what is the thread that runs through it?


Or dirty minded
when I asked you if you knew it
or could no one make you do it
see a thread run through it?

(chorus)

Words are just sounds
that we use
but whatever words you choose
a thread runs through it

The fawcett is on or off,
why don't you leave it on?
A thread runs through it
what is the thread that runs though it?

(Chorus)


(A Thread Runs Through It copywrite 2004)

Scarlett O'Hara

Didn't God tell the writers of the Bible what he wanted them to say? Were they not under the influence of God?

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annapurna

No.

Christian biblical canon was determined by the Council of Trent, Synod of Jerusalem, etc... I don't think that God spoke to the people of the council to determine the final canon.

MAStudent

Is this proveable?

I don't know.

I think the bible may be inspired by what I call God, but how well can the intsrument (humans) get it right?

If God "says" "The path is very narrow on the ridge"
And some Prophet writes "I want you to shoot an arrow at a bridge"

what can we do?

I think it is up to each person to listen. What is God telling you?

MAStudent

The Arabic word for God is "Allah"

The Hebrew word is "Eloh" since it takes a germanic mail ending, it is used as Elohim. Elohim is all through the bible.

Allah- pronounced "uh LUH"
Eloh- pronounced "ay LOH"

say it fast and who can tell the difference. Is that what all the fighting is about?

noise

the bible is a collection of myths with some historic facts stirred in to increase the efficacy of its stories. it is largely metaphorical, and should not be taken literally.

while the jesus of the bible may have connections to a real historic figure, the story of his resurrection is just another retelling of the classic tale of shamanic death and rebirth. this, like many common metaphors found in world religions, is ultimately sourced in experiences of altered states of consciousness.

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my flac collection

bungalow

what are phallacies? illogical dicks?

cardboard adolescent

phreudian slip

SATCHMO

Tall tales

chiron

This thread reminds me of a caller from the Loveline radio show who was guy talking about his piercings and happened to mention in passing that he was a Christian.

The host asks him what he thinks about the "your body is a temple" bit in the Bible. The guy replies that "I fully believe that my body is a temple and so I can choose to decorate it however I like".

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Exterminate all rational thought.