Mendalla
Why the Bible?
Posted on: 08/14/2013 15:53
Okay, a lot of the discussion around here ultimately comes down to "how do you interpret and understand The Bible"?
If one is a Christian, The Bible is something that one has to reckon with and develop some kind of understanding of.
But why The Bible?
If you are of the conservative, fundamentalist, or traditionalist wings, there's no question of why. The Bible is the basis of Christian faith because it says it is. The fact that that is a circular argument doesn't seem to matter.
But what about those liberals and progressives who do acknowledge the validity of other traditions; other paths. Why do you stick to The Bible? Or do you?
Is it just that it is what you know so you stick with it?
Or is there really something left that is powerful enough to keep it at the centre of your faith once you remove the need to follow because of a belief in exclusivity of salvation?
One of the reasons I stopped considering myself a Christian (or UU Christian) is because I just don't put The Bible in a central position. It is there. I read it. I get wisdom from it and acknowledge the power of some of it. But is isn't alone. I read the Gita. I read Lao Tzu. I read classical philosophy. I read poetry. I follow science as it explores the universe. And I find deep truth in them that is every bit as inspiring and important to me as what is in The Bible.
I find it hard to go to a Christian church week after week because I only hear from The Bible, not these other paths/strands that speak to me. I wonder if my sermon on astronomy and spirituality or my service celebrating various creation myths would be welcome, even in a liberal pulpit. That is why, at least in part, every attempt at attending a UCCan ends up with me back as a UU. The world and our understanding of/relationship to it are just too big a topic for one small collection of texts.
At least that's what I've found on my journey.
How about you?
Comments
WaterBuoy
Posted on: 08/21/2013 06:25
And this encompasses all things that mortals don't wish to know ... which is quite a bit if you've ever thought about it!
Thank you Arm for clearing up that muddy river! Sometimes like me an alien here, I feel like heavenly fallout ... dirt of the other kind? That'sleight ... like being shunned or reflected upon ... a mire bounce off the Wahl Rues ... anybody read the Walrus ... a magazine on fantasy of mental disturbances ... when thoughts pop out of emotional backgrounds ... on our rare occasions ... or is the Eire occasion? Just weird from the view on this side ... step out a bit and see it from the other gui's Ide ... might give you a howl ... or a whine in the unseen part ... bottom line soul mon ...
WaterBuoy
Posted on: 08/21/2013 06:28
Somepeople believe there's nothing lower but there's no bottom to the darkness ... or that witch we don't know ... sort of akin to abstract process esse ... just a fringe activity like Rae Hab ... chi lived in the Wahl ... very OI Li critter ... hard to grip ...
WaterBuoy
Posted on: 08/21/2013 06:41
"Why the Bible?" ... gives a person a choqan start to something that has to appear to have no end (Gospel according to Jahn, or Jain) as soon as you speak of it ... the stoics will reverberate on it immensely ... allowing us outsiders to ramble on ... allowing for the word gyþsae ...
Can you make anything of that word? Hitler hated them, and he a master of weird words (Rhett Oric) caused many of the spell bound to be all wrapped up in what he said ... so much taurus in one place ... it should be a distributive rule ... John Crapper wanted it all in one place ... and thus the white throne ... a cool thing ... in the po'whirld where snow jobs are considered fertilizer for things that didn't work last season ... and recycle and ressurrection goes on ... and on and on ... like Feidermous ... a mire Ba toute of a hole in the ground? Is this your language Arm?
One must always keep an open mind/soul'psyche to all alien things ... you'd be amazed at what you'd miss other wise ... you know the other perspective! It is often neglected in a split persona ... like a divine god that can't get it all together ... now that's a strange concept to me ... a gatherer of odd things ... except Jon ... he just won't be had ... very isolated out there in the west ...
InannaWhimsey
Posted on: 08/22/2013 18:15
the Bible is one of those awesome time travel devices called a 'book' that runs entirely on the reader's imagination...
like the cathedrals of yore, humanity shouting across time, 'we were here!'
and like termites and their cities, another recruitment strategy for some people to build upon
WaterBuoy
Posted on: 08/23/2013 08:25
And still there's Moor beyond (myth) that as stated in the Gospel of John 21:25 ... something that is ignored by literalists ... really? Thus they become phun deis to mess with ... or do word plae if you wish ... words won't hurt but they really do disturb some with the aspect of change coming on them ... they despise the prospect of being a' pall'd ... covered with mire stuff ... it is an alternate form of space! When nothing becomes something ... and literalists can't understand this cycle as bicycle in which some mutuality is prerequisite ... what isn't may come back at ijah ... where the "Y" is an aberrition of the old Arabic "i" and "j" which didn't exist in English for some time ... thus converting ye to je and then the spirit within as cottoning anything ... it begins to absorb thought as linen parchement ... gives the doc you ment staying power as paprii tends to disintegrate anywhere in Eire'd surroundings ... pulp fiction?