This is the result of one of the key problems I have with organized religion (or disorganized, whatever, I don’t judge in that regard) in that it teaches people that they can define “truth” however they want. From there, they start defining all sorts of things however it suits them best. Add in a dose of arrogance (which is a mandate to believe that what the good book tells you is always right, er, what someone tells you what the good book tells you because I have yet to meet a Western Christian that has bothered to learn Hebrew in order to read the book in it’s native tongue, yet they take the translation verbatim) and you have a recipe for some seriously stupid activities.
The preacher at my mom’s church years ago was an archaeologist. PhD and all. He could read several ancient languages, including Hebrew. His sermons were awesome. When possible, he would inject contemporary historical references, analysis from historians, alternate translations, word etymology, and pictures of the locations in present day. All to add context. No, it wasn’t some “Hey, here’s proof of a young earth” stuff. It was “Here are tablets referencing the same Babylonian kings.” “This is the meaning and context of this word at that time.”
But to your point, what he was doing was encouraged in our church: Don’t take things at face value, get the context, judge for yourself. Not many people studied old languages, but few did. I have seen people stand up during a sermon and debate the preacher. And win.
Yea, that’s the (one of the) things I hate about sweeping statements like the one I just made – there is always an exception. Usually plenty of them.
In all my travels, I’ve met exactly two people whom I honestly believed – everyone else is just following the dogma &/|| were just wolves in sheep’s clothing.
However, for those interested, the Jefferson Bible is the best version of that book ever put to print.
- Are we sure that correlation isn’t causation in this particular case?
- 12 may be just the age that a lot of politicians would prefer Miss America be…
what, the senators who oversee science are Republicans?
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
