Question for Christians?

[Janesmum123]

Hey There,



So I found God, well he wasn't exactly lost its more that I was lost.

My problem isn't so much with God as it is with the bible.

I really desperately want to believe but I cant bring myself to believe
everything that is written in the bible.

At the same time however I feel like I'm just picking and choosing what I want
to believe because it suits me, which might be wrong (ok probably is wrong)

So what do I do?

And do you follow the bible exact?

Do you question it? Is there anything you wont believe that's in the bible?

Do you really see it as a holy book?



Please note these are genuine questions.

Please do not turn this into a fight, I'm looking to discuss with other
Christians so I can learn

[BlissedOut]

Have PMd you.

[SpaghettiMonster]

Hi while I'm not a Christian myself, I do know people who are and I have asked them sort of the same questions. Most of them say that they don't really follow the bible word for word but take the most important parts/lessons and use them in their own lives. Such as treat others as you would want to be treated etc.
A lot of people I have spoken to basically say that there is a lot in the bible that doesnt apply to today's world.

Again this is what I have been told by a few people I know who are religious so please understand that i am not trying to offend or anything like that

[Happy2be3]

I believe it is INSPIRED by God... If we believe in God we have to believe that God would make sure the a bible ends up just as it was meant to :-)

[sunnyflower]

I think that if you truly want to know what God wants you to know and understand he will show you if you pray and really seek him

[JohnC]

I feel like I'm just picking and choosing what I want
to believe because it suits me, which might be wrong (ok probably is wrong)

But everybody does that. Even the most vehement American biblical literalist ignores the quite clear statements throughout the Bible that the Earth is flat and immovable, the latter most famously in Psalm 93:1 ("... Surely the world is established so that it cannot be moved.")

Most people realize nowadays that much of Bible must be understood as metaphor if it is to be understood at all. (Only wingnuts insist Noah herded pairs of dinosaurs, kangaroos and polar bears onto a wooden ark.)

The problem is that no one can agree which parts are metaphorical and which should be regarded as "literally true", and the power of prayer does not seem to have injected any unanimity into the minds of believers over the millennia.

This used not to be a problem, when the Catholic Church was the sole repository of biblical interpretation and meaning, and those who disagreed were burned, or tortured into recanting their heretical interpretations. The Reformation changed all of that, and ever since people have been "picking and choosing".

So I don't actually think there is a solution to your problem. Sorry.

[sunnyflower]

I must be a wingnut then, I believe many animals did enter the ark guided by an unseen force . Dinosaurs however did not enter, they all perished in the flood which explains the presence of these fossils and the absence of any today.

[JohnC]

I must be a wingnut then, I believe many animals did enter the ark guided by an unseen force . Dinosaurs however did not enter, they all perished in the flood which explains the presence of these fossils and the absence of any today.

Great example of what I'm talking about -- different people reading the same text in different ways and coming to different conclusions:

1. You believe Noah and/or God denied dinosaurs a berth on the Ark.
2. The main creationist web site Answers in Genesis says "dinosaurs (land vertabrates) were represented on the Ark".
3. Most Christians believe this story of a worldwide flood that destroyed all life on Earth should be read metaphorically, though there is no unanimity on the "real meaning" of these passages.
4. Scholars notice that the Genesis story is a redaction of two different flood stories, and that this flood myth is very similar to Sumerian and Babylonian stories that predate the Jewish version.
5. Scientists point out that dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago and that anatomically modern Homo sapiens do not appear in the fossil record before 200,000 years ago, so the whole discussion is moot.

The point being that the Bible is a collection/selection of ancient texts whose meaning is determined by the presuppositions the reader brings to those texts.

[babynomad]

I'm not a Christian but I was christened and did bible study at Sunday school , read and re read the bible , the only thing I think is truly important is the Ten Commandments , even then it's the essence of that which is important , being a good person . Doing no wrong . That's it for me . God for me is not complex not about mystery or being allowed into a earnt club. God is life , creation of thoughts and ideas in nature and distruction and in joy and pain . I don't like the word god really it's just a group of letters that try to explain the energy of life an death and all that is magnificent in our world and beyond.

But as a Christian I can see how learning from the bible stories an studying them to find answers is appealing but I really think to be a good Christian or indeed a good human being you just have to feel love for others and do the right thing .

[JohnC]

... the only thing I think is truly important is the Ten Commandments

I always find it a little odd when people cite the Ten Commandments as some sort of pinnacle of moral guidance, given that most of the text is taken up with Yahweh's rather neurotic obsession with being worshiped correctly and exclusively.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me

It was this sort of thinking after all that led the Taliban to dynamite the Buddhas of Bamiyan. As for punishing children for the thought crimes of the parents, this is the sort of thing that lands people in court for crimes against humanity in today's world.