AmazingDisgrace wrote:It's the God-commanded genocide that really makes it unacceptable for me. It's more than enough dog poop to ruin the whole pan of brownies.
for what it's worth, I believe the genocide thing never happened let alone was commanded by God.
It's not poop, it's fudge made to look like poop.
That's General Leo. He could be my friend if he weren't my enemy. eritis sicut dii I support NCMO
I wonder what word of God means. I am sure it means a rather wide variety of things to different people.
I figure that if you use the LDS model of authority and special people knowing all sorts of secret knowledge than the Bible ends up as full of holes. I do not use that model. I do not believe there was a real flood. I think there are a variety of folk tales included. With Nehor I do not believe everything statement and idea in it is straight from God. I thnk it is a record of peoples faith and thought and can be related to be loosing the false authority image and joining into the thought process.
Protecting her husband??? Jews have spent a lot of time negotiating the oddities of their legal tradition. Some fragments require a good bit of negotiating to continue to use at all. I have read the law books a few times. I cannot remember any rule like this. what the heck is it?
I think it has to do with politics and only in recent history has there been a separation of Church and State. As science coming in at full force and effect and critical biblical analysis coming in from the opposite direction you may see it's influence diminished dramatically.
But I recently became a Old Testament fan after reading Robin Lane Fox's book the unathorized version - truth and fiction in the Bible. He's a wonderful writer and explains how everything was put together.
I do give the Old Testament credit for one thing. It's one of very few national records from that time period that doesn't always speak of it's leaders and the nation as a whole in positive terms.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
AmazingDisgrace wrote:It's the God-commanded genocide that really makes it unacceptable for me. It's more than enough dog poop to ruin the whole pan of brownies.
for what it's worth, I believe the genocide thing never happened let alone was commanded by God.
It's not poop, it's fudge made to look like poop.
Yea - I agree on this - there maybe very little truth in the old testament as truth being defined as what actually occured. I remember reading something recently that tricks were cool back then as you just look at Genesis. The writer I was reading cited greek text for people tricking each other and there was nothing wrong with it if it produced a greater good. If people back then saw tricks for a greater good as good then what type of faith would you have in their holy texts.
The Nehor wrote:Then explain to God that you want an explanation.
I actually did that for about three years. The only explanation I ever got was from the archaeological evidence telling me that the conquest of Canaan never happened. And since the whole point of scripture is to make an appeal to authority to tell us about the character and will of God, concluding that an authority like Moses was either a legend or a bloodthirsty warlord makes that authority pretty unreliable.
"Every post you can hitch your faith on is a pie in the sky, chock full of lies, a tool we devise to make sinking stones fly"
The Shins - A Comet Appears
The Nehor wrote:Then explain to God that you want an explanation.
I actually did that for about three years. The only explanation I ever got was from the archaeological evidence telling me that the conquest of Canaan never happened. And since the whole point of scripture is to make an appeal to authority to tell us about the character and will of God, concluding that an authority like Moses was either a legend or a bloodthirsty warlord makes that authority pretty unreliable.
I think the whole point of scripture is to give us a bare starting point to contact God.
Also, God gave you archaeological evidence? Wow, he's never done that for me.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
Maybe it is jus cause the Old Testament is reallly OLD. Old religion and myth seems to get cur more slack and given more respect than the new ones like Mormonism.
The Nehor wrote:I think the whole point of scripture is to give us a bare starting point to contact God.
I can see the appeal of that approach, but I don't think it fits with the way scripture is treated in Mormonism. Most Christians believe that a certain idea about God is true because it's written in a book of scripture. Mormons generally go a step further and believe that a certain idea about God is true because it's written in a book of scripture that they prayed about and then had a spiritual experience that they interpret to be God's indication that the book's content is true. The church encourages members to keep seeking personal revelation, but it also teaches that any valid revelation will be in agreement with the authority of the scriptures. A Mormon who says that he received a personal revelation that homosexuality is not a sin, for example, will be corrected by his leaders, and their corrections will be based on what's in the canon, and what modern prophets have said on the subject. If he keeps talking about his revelation, he'll be disciplined. So the standard of truth in Mormonism is still "what certain men claim God told them to tell us".
The Nehor wrote:Also, God gave you archaeological evidence? Wow, he's never done that for me.
Check the settings on your seer stone. They have trouble detecting the weaker signals from pottery shards when they're tuned to the "Gold and Silver" or "Attractive Women" presets.
"Every post you can hitch your faith on is a pie in the sky, chock full of lies, a tool we devise to make sinking stones fly"
The Shins - A Comet Appears