Obvious Fables in the Holy Books

Discussion in 'Religion' started by Ted Grant II, Jan 8, 2017.

  1. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
    People who love to quote from Scripture during sermons usually leave out the parts that they know will not be believed or are contrary to the morals they wish to promote.

    I'll give and example of an obvious fable from the Bible.

    When the Israelites were wandering in the famous (but not unique) desert, with Moses and God guiding them, the people complained to Moses about the lack of food and water. Moses complained to God, who reliably provided some food and water, but the people weren't pleased with the quality. They complained further, so Moses asked Aaron to to spy out the land ahead. Aaron sent his three best soldiers, knowing that God would not approve of this innovation, as He had said that the route to the Promised Land would be chosen by Him alone.

    Anyway, off they went, taking with them some provisions, including a "paddle", which one assumes was some kind of spade for digging holes where they could relieve themselves. On the first night, they were attacked by some Baalites and although they managed to escape, they left their paddle behind and one of them was found dead the next morning. The two remaining spies discussed what to do and decided to carry on, as they feared Aaron's wrath. The next night, they were attacked by wild animals that had four faces and one of the soldiers was swallowed alive, but his companion escaped by hiding up a tree. The remaining solder decided again to carry on with his mission, being vary careful, hiding among rocks and sleeping up trees.

    One night, he decided to travel in the dark, to avoid being seen, but this was his undoing.
    He stumbled into a bottomless pit and fell to his death.

    Can you see that this story must be fiction?
    Ask yourself, with all the witnesses dead, how could all the details be recorded ?

    Many stories in the scriptures were clearly not witnessed by the authors.
    For example, the creation, when God says, "Let there be light".
    There were no people around to record this and in any case, languages were developed by humans over many thousands of years. English did not exist when the Universe was created !

    It puzzles me why "Scriptures", which are clearly works of fiction, came to be believed.

    One trip to a public library reveals an interesting fact.
    Most books are grouped into Fiction and Non-Fiction categories.
    Some books are unclassified however, presumably because the librarians are not sure.

    The vast majority of books are in the Fiction category.
    The reason is obvious. Fiction is unlimited. Anyone can make up a story with any elements.
    You can include magical events and people love it, especially children.
    Kids queue up for the latest Harry Potter book.

    Non-fiction, on the other hand, is limited to what is known and what is known is finite.
    Plus, to the average reader, real facts are boring, when compared with magic.

    The Bible is the best selling book of all time.
    It is filled with magical events and superhuman powers.
    It's in the Unclassified section along with books about Ghosts and Angels.
    They should be in the Fiction category.
     
    Xelasnave.1947 likes this.
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  3. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Of course only a total fool would contend that everything in the bible should be taken literally. Virtually no preachers do so, nor have they done so at any point in history after about 400 AD - perhaps even earlier. And then again, no preacher is going to recite the whole damned thing, so inevitably they will "leave out" most of it. What they actually do, as most people realise, is to choose a passage that illustrates an idea or a behaviour that they want to draw to the attention of their flock.

    If your post is just laboriously making the point that you think the bible should be classified as "fiction", then forget it. Religious texts are classified as, er, religious texts, for the reason that they have a particular cultural significance to society, whether you like it or not.
     
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  5. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    That's not true
     
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  7. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    Please when you want to be critical of the bible could you separate New testament from the Old testament
     
  8. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    At least you agree that it is a "flock" of sheep.

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  9. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Don't you mean "sheeple"?
     
  10. rpenner Fully Wired Valued Senior Member

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    For what possible purpose? By what communicable standard? You have only about half a thought here.
    Why should they be treated separately when they are routinely published together? Why should they (or either) be treated differently than the Book of Mormon or the Vedic scriptures or the Koran?

    Critical thinking doesn't stop at a bookmark.
     
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  11. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    Typo.

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  12. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    I think I understand what he is getting at. From the viewpoint of Christianity, the OT is respected as the old Jewish inheritance of Christianity, but it is the NT, about the life and teaching of Christ, which defines Christianity, often by way of revision and contrast to what was in the OT.

    Thus it seems to me that attacks on Christianity which rely solely on quoting selected bits of the OT do not really hit the mark.
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Written by the same God, and the source of the Ten Commandments. So it's fair game.

    Also, I have no idea what's going on here, since Ted also said that any errors in the Bible come from human interpretation. Clearly, fiction is an error.
     
  14. birch Valued Senior Member

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    5,077
    Bolded part 100% true and even more illogical will contradictorily claim the entire bible is the perfect and infallible word of god and god is perfect.

    If god is perfect, the bible wouldnt need to be revised as in the big elephant in the room wouldnt need to be ignored by constant omission.
     
  15. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
    You may be interested to know that the fabel that I quoted is certainly pure invention.
    How can I be certain?
    I made it up.
    It's not in the Bible !
    My plan was to show that a made-up-story could easily pass as actual Biblical material.

    I suspect that many of the Biblical writers looked at what had been invented before and thought to themselves, you know, I could make up a convincing story, just like all the others. So they then picked out a few details that they found and incorporated them into their new stories. So, for example, Revelation, the book so much admired by prophets of doom, has many notions copied straight out of Ezekiel, where creatures are described having unusual characteristics such as four faces, the face of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle etc..

    They also pretend they are fulfilling prophecies in the old testament in doing so. They sometimes actually tell you they are doing it! A good example is in Matthew chapter 1, verse 22 and 23...

    "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us"

    This is a misquote from Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14.
    How do I know? Because the next chapter tells us "And I went unto the prophetess and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz".

    So it's an old story, rehashed as a prophecy predicting the birth of Jesus.

    Who ever wrote the book we call Matthew, clearly pinched earlier texts to embelish his yarn.
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2017
  16. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
    The word "should" cannot be said to be true nor not true.
    If I say "you should clean behind your ears before you you to bed", I am not saying something that is true nor not true, I am offering advice, which may or may not be good advice. If it turns out to be bad advice, then you could say it is not true that it is good advice, but until the advice has been tested, we don't know whether or not it is good advice.
     
  17. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
    Some books contain both "testaments", but I suspect the Jewish Bible doesn't contain the New one. One of my books has the New only. Some Christians have taken the trouble of actually reading the whole of the Holy book and know that the Old is quoted many times in the New, especially by Yeshua (aka Jesus). Oftentimes, the New writers state that some of the events in the New fulfill prophecies in the Old and these examples are used by some theologians to "prove" the unity and truth of the Bible. In any case, if the Fall of Man myth isn't true, then we don't inherit sin, which means there was no need for Yeshua to save us from that sin, which completely removes the need for him to be sacrificed to his father. In other words, if you want the New Testament, you'll have to accept the Old one, warts and all. Remember that Yeshua came to complete the word of God, not delete it.
     
  18. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    The Tanaka I am not sure it have only the old testament .
    How can be not true " the fall of man , " I sin every day so I fall every day so Yahshua was necessary. Think about If every individual that sins have to bring an offering of a lam at the present time it would be disastrous with pollution and smell of burned flesh. So tank to Yahshua for his sacrifice.
     
  19. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    There was no sacrifice. Jesus admittedly had a bad weekend but then went to paradise. His death has nothing to do with one's immoral actions - an artifact, by the way, of an imperfect design. So don't blame yourself for that.
     
  20. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    No. If you want the idea of Jesus' salvation, you need to accept the idea of the Fall of Man. Not the whole OT "warts and all".

    The question then is what is really conveyed by the idea of the Fall of Man - and the accompanying doctrine of Original Sin. The latter is quite subtle and has been much discussed in theology over the last two thousand years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_sin

    Personally, I find the idea of Original Sin as an inherent tendency to sinfulness quite easy to understand. I have always associated the Fall with the acquisition of moral responsibility, via eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which can be seen as a metaphor for becoming aware of good and evil, combined with this inherited tendency not to do the morally right thing. Just like a child as it grows up.
     
    Last edited: May 12, 2017
  21. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Your story wouldn't pass at all. There are too many details that are clearly not Biblical: the "paddle" nonsense, animals with four faces, a bottomless pit. Nobody who has read the Bible would be fooled by your story.
     
  22. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    188
    Deuteronomy 23:13 "And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee"

    Ezekiel 1:6 "~each of them had four faces and four wings".

    Revelation 9:2 "He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit..."

    Matthew 5:22 "~Thou fool, shall be in danger of the hell of fire".
     
  23. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Ezekiel and Revelation are both figurative. Your made-up story makes no distinction between figurative and literal.
     

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