You make some interesting points, let me see if I can address each of them in turn...
If God intended us to believe blindly, in anything, why have we been allowed to grow such inquisitive brains? That appears to be a contradiction, and I can't believe that God would contradict Himself.
First of all, where did you get the idea that God would want us to believe anything blindly? Only a con man would try to sell us something on blind faith. If you're referring to blind faith, then you're absolutely correct, but that's where the modern day preachers fall short... blind faith is only for those who have no direct experience, therefore one would have to rely on blind faith... we can find direct experience all around us... having a highly intelligent and sophisticated sensory organ, e.g., the brain, does not immediately exclude the existence and significance of God's laws... I see no contradiction here, our incredible ability to think and grasp abstract thought as well as we do is remarkably unique and clearly sets us apart from all the other animals... clearly, this is one of the notable features that elevates us as humans above all the other creatures...
Unfortunately, there are many contradictions that can be found in the bible, as there are many contradictions in scientific theories. I have always wondered why God would give a commandment to Moses the "though shall not kill" in Exodus 20/21, and then turn around and give Moses a detailed list of people to kill in order to reach the land of milk and honey in Leviticus. That just does not make sense to me.
You're absolutely correct when you make reference to the modern day Bible... that book has been translated and retranslated, worked and reworked, interpreted and reinterpreted hundreds upon hundreds of times by scholars and zealots over the past many thousands of years, there is little wonder that what we have today is a completely diluted and misguided copy of the original... there's much to say about it, but if I may here, the sixth Commandment does not say, "Thou shalt not kill," it says, "You must not murder." We kill plants and animals to eat and survive. The ancient Hebrew word for kill is harag and the ancient Hebrew word for murder is ratsah, the original text clearly tells us that we must not murder... and murder refers only to killing another human being... as far as stories in the Bible are concerned, there have been so many mistranslations of them for so many thousands of years that any original story itself could easily have been something very different...
As long as logic is not considered to be the final answer, I see no harm in applying it to thinking. I recognize the frailty of any belief, but do not accept the belief of anything based on a book written by men. I guess that is a reflection of what I have seen done, and said, over many years, that many people take as an absolute.
I agree with you completely, and the use of the diluted modern day Bible as the foundation for Spiritual teachings today is the very reason itself that religious teachings in general have taken a back seat to science over the past 100 years... but, I would not dismiss logic completely here, logic is a valuable tool that can be used to reason through these issues...
I don't deny, and do believe, in the presence of a divine deity, but in a different way than some others. The universe, including the planet earth, could not have come into existence by accident. Something cannot come from nothing. There must be a power, IMO, that is the controlling factor in all that exists in this universe.
Everyone believes in Divine Presence, even those who say they don't, they secretly wish they could, if only they had a reason that could justify it, if only they could find something to hang their hat on... but the preachers and talkers use misguided references and quotes from a book containing poorly put together recipes... no wonder none of it makes any sense and it all tastes so bad...
GZ |
