Sunday, September 05, 2010

Must the Bible Remain 'Holy'?

By the Rev. Howard Bess
September 5, 2010

Christianity is in a great state of flux, exceeding even the diversity that came out of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago. Today’s upheaval is fostered by the Internet and its free flow of information and opinions.

Read on.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Israeli archaeologists ( I. Finkelstein, N. Silberman, Z. Hawass, Z. Herzog, W. Denver, et al ) agree that there was no Exodus & no Joshua invasion.

Archeology also shows that the backwater state of Judah in this era had a population of ~5,000 people spread over ~25 villages including Jerusalem and that Jerusalem in that era had no walls, no monumental buildings and was mostly illiterate.

There was no Moses, Abraham or covenant or Promised Land, just propaganda created 700 years after the "Moses era" to create a legacy for the benefit of a group based in Jerusalem circa 500 BC.

Also, the same archaeologists now agree that the great United Kingdom of David and Solomon circa 980-930BC is a fairy tale.

Perhaps killing on a Biblical scale by Crazy Christians helps their "Bible Consciousness.".

U.S. Soldiers Punished For Not Attending Christian Concert
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/8/19/113223/843

Jewish/Christian Messianic Prophecies have helped neocons sell the "War on Islam.

Remember G.W.Bush tried to recruit the French President with the Gog Magog Prophesy.

Gog Maygog
http://tinyurl.com/nvflee

Sun Sep 05, 12:57:00 PM 2010
Anonymous said...

Rev. Hess has asked that the "endless reading of the Bible devotionally be curtailed." He states this as if he does not realize that this is and has been the intention of the historical critical method of reading the Bible that has influenced him. His supposed third option is an anemic version of "throwing the Bible aside."
There is nothing particularly interesting of the Bible if it simply asks questions, and does not offer some answers. One may disagree with the answers, but they are still answers nonetheless. To state that the value of the Bible is in the questions it asks, is to say very little. The reason readers recognize that the questions asked by the Bible are important is because one need not read the Bible to encounter these questions. These are questions that any thinking person will ask. What makes the Bible of any particular value is the answers that are given.
Furthermore, the reason the Bible has become of some devotional value to some readers is due to the answers given. Obviously these answers are not of devotional value to some, and that is okay. But, to ask that the Bible be read in a less devotional way is like asking travelers to take a plane instead of a bus, not because it is quicker, but because it is simply another mode of transportation. People take an airplane instead of a train because it meets some particular need in a way that a train does not. Likewise, people read the Bible devotionally because the answers it presents meet particular questions in a way that other "answer givers" do not.
Whether gratefully or not, the Bible will always be read devotionally because of its answers, not its questions.

Sun Sep 05, 01:05:00 PM 2010
Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
There is nothing particularly interesting of the Bible if it simply asks questions.

One can find "conflicting" answers to the same question in different parts of the Bible.

The Bible must be exposed as totally coming from man with NO God involved in any way.

Mon Sep 06, 08:08:00 AM 2010
Morton Kurzweil said...

The 'Bible" is another compilation of various texts based on oral tradition over many centuries. The only consistency is the belief that the words are derived from a divine source.
The need to believe in a fate or a supernatural power is universal. It is a product of imagination,tear of the unknown, and the need of the human animal to survive as a species through herd instinct.
Why is there belief, but no belief in a universal divine authority? Why is the xenophobic fear of the stranger the driving force of tribal culture? Why is overpopulation the fundamental cause of environmental destruction and the reason for war and acquisition of resources?
These are questions answered by all religious texts by promoting the morality and ethics of the tribe to overpopulate and overuse resources.

Mon Sep 06, 06:42:00 PM 2010

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