...How much of it do you take/interpret literally? For me, I have a saying. "If the literal sense makes good sense, use no other sense unless you come up with nonsense."

This is a question for Christians and Non-Christians who have read at least some of the Bible.

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Somebody Set Us Up The Bomb

Christians take some parts literally, and some metaphorically.

Basically, they can pick and choose which parts they think are literal and metaphorical

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"...atheism is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a 'non-astrologer' or a 'non-alchemist.' We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle."
-Sam Harris

Dude, I think you take Spider man way too literally.

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There are worse things to take literally.


TMNT

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The Dark Knight = God of movies

I take your mom literally. In the ass. lololololololololololololol!!!!!111

But enough with crappy comebacks,

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Somebody Set Us Up The Bomb

Christians have the liberty of being able to make sh*t up along the way. How can you call it legitimate if you pick and choose what you want to take seriously and what you don't?

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Exactly. The idea that you are able to pick-and-choose what you take literally is absolutely absurd. I think the Bible is nothing more than a fairy tale, and a pretty sh.tty one at that. I mean, for f..k's sake, J.R.R. Tolkien was not only able to tell a better story, with better moral messages, but he did it much better. Not to mention the fact that he handled continuity better, too.

I've always taken the Bible for what it is (except when I was young...I didn't really like the Bible), and that is an Eye-witness account.

The Bible, essentially, is made up of 66 books that tell one of 3 things:

-A first-hand account to a major event in history (Ie: The first four books of the new testament talk about Jesus's existence.)
-An opinion from a single person to an entire group of people. (1st & 2nd Corinthians are letters to the people of Corinth from Paul, I think. Could be wrong about the author, though.)
-Or it's a description of a dream. (Ie: Revalation)

All of these are open to interpretation...and I think some people get too caught up in the "literal" sense of the Bible. It's meant to be a book of hope that tells us how we can deal with problems that we face in life. It's not a scientific evidence keeper that tells us everything about how life works.

Basically...the idea is this: "Believe the way the Bible believes...live the way the Bible tells you to live...and you will reap the benefits that the Bible explains."

The second part to take into consideration is the fact that it is history.
Not only in the sense that it was written so long ago...but the fact that it's text has survived to modern times...and the fact that it's still making such a huge impact on the world that we live in today...it really is a part of history. American history, at the very least.

The point of the book is to be a guide...not the all-telling, all-knowing book of the universe. It was written by PEOPLE...not God (eventhough he may or may not have inspired it...the point is that 66 people [actually...less than that. Some books are from the same author as another, or have an unknown author.] came together with a common approach to life, and this was their result.)

Take it or leave it...but think about this:

Imagine that you and 12 buddies got together to write a book. Basically...in that book, you tell all of the things you saw, heard, smelt, thought, imgagined, experienced, etc. while you were alive...here in America. You included songs (Psalms), famous quotes (Proverbs), and even a few letters (like the one from MLK while he was in jail --> Corinthians) from this time period.

From here...you can either go back a couple thousand years...or go forward a couple thousand years using a time machine...or your book could be popular enough to sell hundreds of thousands of copies across the globe.

With a gap of a few thousand years...lets see if they don't consider YOUR story to be a fairy tale, no matter it's purpose.

Just something to think about.

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Davo is my favorite this week.


THANKS SOLID................................& STORMS!!!

Not mentioned in sig: <3 Lammie

And yet the Bible is usually VERY clear about what it says. There's no getting around the fact that Christians have the liberty of choosing what they feel should be taken seriously out of that book. You believe that the Bible is less strict than it seems; that view is no more valid that the opposing view of Bible purism.

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alot of the bible you have to look at in the context with the contemporary time that it is written