Encouragement to kill babies in the Christian Bible

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I think the reason people have so many problems with the Bible is that they read selected passages and wind up getting only a fraction of its meaning.

Even if you attend church on a regular basis, you will still only get bits and pieces.

So many people buy big huge books (think The Stand by Stephen King) and read them through cover to cover, but no one thinks to do the same with the Bible.

If people did read the Bible from beginning to end, they would discover that

1) It makes a lot of sense

2) Supposed contradictions are not contradictions at all

3) The Bible can serve not only as a source of spiritual knowledge but as a handbook for life as well as a historical document.

I could easily get caught up in a debate about all the stuff alleged against God but am not going to bother simply because it would be like trying to teach people who don't know English how to read Shakespeare.

Rather than rant against the God and the Bible, get to know Him and read his Word from beginning to end. If a person can do that and still hate God...well, then they are entitled to rant, but I would still hardly believe that they actually UNDERSTOOD the God and the Bible at all.

No, Didymus, that would mean that they didn't have your same interpretation of what they read about your god in the Bible, not that they lacked comprehension. There's a difference.

Plus, I don't know what Bible you were reading to conclude that it makes a lot of sense and doesn't contradict itself. First of all, the books in the Old Testament have been shuffled around out of their original order, so they shouldn't make a whole lot of sense, and if they do, it's an incorrect reading of the original text. Secondly, most of the translations into English are somewhat iffy, and definitely politically influenced (especially in the King James version). Thirdly, there's no way you can possibly say the Bible doesn't contradict itself, because it does, repeatedly, and to say anything else is simply a denial of fact. I would have even told you that when I was still Christian.

Now none of this necessarily has to affect anyone's ability to believe in something, because the point of religion is that you believe in things despite the facts getting in the way inconveniently. Fine. But not agreeing with a dubious religion after reading its texts doesn't mean someone is stupid. It means they think the tenets of your religion, as espoused by the holy text and by many of its followers (see Leviticus, once more, and also see the doctrine of conversion, which a lot of us find offensive), are wrong.

Elanivalae mentions the immorality of Leviticus in the bible. People might not know what she is refering to, so here are some examples. Leviticus says that:

Females are worth less than males.
(Lev 27:3-7 and 4:22-28 )

Menstruating women are filthy and sinful. If you touch them, you become filthy too.
(Lev 15:19-30, 33)

If a man has sex with a female slave who is engaged, the woman must be punished by whipping, and no punishment is mentioned for the man.
(Lev 19:20)

If the daughter of a priest goes around having sex, she should be burnt to death.
(Lev 21:9)

It is all horribly prejudiced against women and clearly immoral.

In a developmental psychology textbook I was reading today, it made a differentiation between how Rome and the Greek treated those with severe developmental disabilities. It said something like when Christian beliefs came around, they started treating those with severe and profound disabilities differently, with more respect and dignity. It was in the second chapter concerning mental retardation as a symptom and a syndrome.

Rome and the Greek use to throw babies with disabilities off of cliffs.

sc -- I have not heard of that before, but it is consistent with the Christian practise of accepting anyone and everyone into Christianity. For example, even if you are a murder, rapist, pedophile, or whatever, all you need to do is confess your sins, say 100 hail marys for penance, and then you are forgiven regardless of how horrible your crime was, and accepted into Christianity. That is why all these pedophile priests we read about in the news reports are able to stay in the church -- they just have to confess their sin to a fellow priest, and then they are forgiven. All is forgiven!

I went to a christian school for a few years, I have my own theories concerning those things.

Um... forgiveness is one of the better things in Christianity, one of the things that IS among the reasons why I consider myself Christian, and pretty much refutes the idea that any TRUE Christian could advocate the killing of "sinners", since those "sinners" have to be forgiven.

I think it's interesting to listen to people from different sects of Christianity fight about what makes someone a "true" Christian. I also think it's interesting that the few sects that manage to not be incredibly annoyingly hypocritical and overbearing are the ones that don't really care.

Now if only they'd all go UU or liberal Lutheran, accept that people are who they are, and stop trying to freaking convert me on the bus, at work, downtown, on campuses, etc. Last year I visited Tokyo and had a white American Christian try to convert me in Harajuku, of all places. It's the sort of thing that makes you have nightmares that you're being devoured by needle-toothed carnivorous Jesus fish. *shudders*

I don't like the eye contact when that happens. Also figuring out the logic of what is being said at the time it is being said is difficult. Then to feel bad and somehow unsaved for not understanding it at all, it is impossible to fake believe what is being said.

I think it is impossible, wowzie!

True. God may have removed some books, men have removed some possibly to fit their own agenda. All we can do is have faith that the messages God wants us to hear are still present.