Cherry Picking Season
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Semi-close to the end of my religious experiences, one of the final straws hit me one day: I realized how much we really do pick and choose. I realized how much we justified away with the flimsiest of excuses and reasons. The truth is, nobody takes the Bible literally. They only take certain parts literally. And you can come up with books upon books for the reasons why, and for a few of them, you can say okay, sure. I can see why certain issues are deemed cultural and irrelevant to ours: women talking in the church, slavery, women covering their heads, half the Old Testament, and other verses we don’t like. But when you study it deeper, you find that there is nothing there to justify away, and some of it is an outright story. For example, many Christians get around some of the strange OT laws while simultaneously insisting upon the validity of others by dividing the verses into moral law and cultural law–law that was just for the Jews during that time period. But the Jews made no such distinction, and there is not even a hint of distinction in the OT. It is simply a fabrication made up by man to excuse why he follows some parts of the Bible, but not others. Eventually, I realized that the Bible is perhaps one of the most superfluous books on the planet: you could probably condense everything that most Christians deem relevant into just a few pages, and the rest is purely historical information of varying degrees of accuracy. I also thought that if so many passages had to be explained away, what was its value (as far as a moral code which we should follow)? How could it all be holy and religious if we were only following half of it? A quarter of it? Sure, it has value as far as literature is concerned, but religiously?
I came to this conclusion relatively early in my journey, but held tightly to my beliefs for several years more. Looking back, I can see how this was the beginning of the end for me. It was close to the end of my researching for hours per day. After this, I watched, waited, and read snippets here and there.
Tags: Bible, Christianity, religion
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April 9th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Just what I’ve been saying for years now. “Everyone is just making it up as they go along.”
The infallible, unchangeably “Word of God”… pfah!
April 9th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Very true, the basis of Christian doctrine can probably be summed up in a very short distillation from selected portions of the Bible, and no, I do not take the whole book absolutely literally, I accept that there are parts to be practiced and parts that are not to be practiced, but then again I come from a tradition that is considered heretical at best, so what do I know.
As for the size of the book, I see it in part an expression of the fact that different people draw their lessons from different types of examples and narratives. There are some for whom the writings of Paul are an absolute quandry, who find Matthew far clearer. I myself find the Psalms to be an immense bore, but enjoy the Proverbs and the Book of Ecclesiastes. As for the Old Testament, Christianity in general would do well to steer clear of it, or at least a great majority of it. Not being able to understand it and properly consider the doctrines taught therein, has lead to no end of confusion and stupidity.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:33 am
The Holy Spirit teaches us the meaning of the Scriptures. Thankfully he believes exactly as I do about their meaning and anyone who disagrees with me is simply not a true Christian living with the Holy Spirit inside of them. They are left to interpret the Scriptures on their own without the Holy Spirit and, as a result, become misguided by Satan.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Just so no one misunderstands, I was being sarcastic. Poe’s law being what it is, I should have put a disclaimer in there.
January 24th, 2010 at 2:04 am
The bible is just like Jesus’ parables! They are stories meant to teach! I will probably use bible stories to teach my own children about dishonesty, treachery, greed, and infidelity, with the help of Veggie Tales…but I shall also read them Aesop’s fables, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Greek myths, and the folklore of our own country with the exact same grain of salt attached.