How do people know so much about the bible that?

Question

never actualy take the time to study and understand what is is saying. Yet they barf all over people that find truth and a deep meaning to it?

Answer 1

The same way we know so much about anything we don't know about: political position, ethnic types, or economic system. The easiest way to put up an inpenitrable shield is to "barf over". Then everybody gets to clean up and argue over the barf. It is a simple defensive mechanism. If you move to attack then you don't have to examine where you stand.

Answer 2

The scripture does say 'don't cast your pearls before swine'. And lets face it, there's a little bit of the pig in most of us at times...you know, the negative attitude that crops up when we're in a mood. That's just human nature, I think. People do the same thing about politics, finance, business, managment AND the bible. Some people just get a perverse pleasure in knocking the wind out of anyone who finds treasure of any kind and shares it with excitement.

Instead of getting annoyed (and it is annoying sometimes) try looking at those incidents as an opportunity to learn ways to address opposition---to bolster yourself emotionally. We cannot escape opposition. After all, even Jesus had opposition, so we know that when people oppose us, we're in good company.

We have every reason to be confident, since what we are discovering in our study is both enlightening and exciting. So don't be disheartened: If you let pot-shots bring you down, then you'll BE down. Try to look for the good and ignore what doesn't lift you up.

Hoping the best for you...

Answer 3

I don't "barf" on anyone. That is a very gross image.

I've studied the Bible and other religious texts diligently, not in order to argue against them with believers. I began doing so when I first began questioning the faith in which I was raised. Many of my questions have been answered, and I answer more every time I read more or talk to believers. Merely because I don't agree with what you see as the "meaning" of the text does not mean I have no understanding of it.

Answer 4

Well that's a very broad comment. But speaking for myself ,after 48 years of arduous study, from every denominational viewpoint, I am quite sure I understand what the Bible is saying. I am also quite certain that as with any religious text it contains a good amount of humanly acquired wisdom and no divine revelation.

I'm an atheist at long last, but I still find truth in the Bible regarding human society and interpersonal relationships. I also find nonsense there like a global deluge higher than the highest mountain, talking snakes and jackasses , and a man in the belly of a fish.

Where I find deep meaning in scripture changes as I change. I'm in my fifties, and my significant otherI is in her thirties, and the first book I learned to read as a three year old, the Book of Ruth, is pretty meaningful as a tale of redemption and second chances right now. But there's nothing deep and divine there unless you engage in isogesis.

I'm sure it will be the same for you over the years. What seems really huge now will be replaced by something else that reflects your current circumstances, because religious and mythical literature is a mirror in which society and self is reflected and evaluated. But it isn't divinely revealed, though looking into any mythology tends to reveal ourselves to ourselves in how we interact with it.

That said, when barfing on Bible folk I try to make a distinction between barfing on someone for finding truth in the Bible, which you certainly can, and barfing on someone for asserting the Bible is inerrant and God breathed and all true and relevant to life, which is the unexamined zealotry of the faithbot who if raised in Riyadh would be saying the same of the Quran with as little critical examination of their claim.

Answer 5

I beg to differ. I believe most Atheists have done their "homework".

I myself have read the Bible many times over and if not for those readings, I would have never spotted the inadequacies in that theology. Also, I take time to research on other religions, which is a lot more than I can say for some people here who just bash another's religion without knowing the history behind it.

Answer 6

I found that many people who say they've studied the bible and the christian faith have done so with a literalist perspective and one that has been infused without a questioning and open mind. Ask someone to consider that Jesus' miracles may be metaphorical representations of people's changes of heart or ask them to consider that the bible may have non-divine elements in it, and they shut down. I've studied and practiced buddhism; when people tell me that things that are attributed to the buddha may not be his real words or even that buddha may not have existed, I consider it and am not rigidly attached to it -- they may be right. It doesn't matter - as long as the teaching affects me. Given that, if people are so positively and deeply affected by the bible then it doesn't matter what anyone says against it, right?

Answer 7

True, i will agree, with you, mainly because they want to appear wise in themself and have a knowledge but deny the power thereof. Or they thinking that they have a knowledge that is superior to others and that makes them qualified to speak on behalf

However, true students of the Bible, are learners, disciplers, reading studying and forth telling, they explain, exhort, show, declare, direct and help, they undergird, they are courteous, and help others, are open to suggestions and open to others opinions. They show that to know the Word is truthfully an ever growing ever increasing and ever exploration of that which is unfathomable and past knowing all that there is to know - my favorite teacher of the Word says - there is in the Word of God always more light to be seen that in every generation that can cause a revival and newness and freshness in ones spiritual life. It is a journey -

John Wesley said it best: I have thought I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: just hovering over the great gulf; till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I drop into an unchangeable eternity!I want to know one thing - the way to heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way; for this very end He came from Heaven. He hath written it in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unis libri - a man of one book! Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone: God is here. In his presence I open, I read His book; for this end, to find the way to heaven.

Answer 8

Exactly!

Without research, one cannot really know what is being said. If you only take one scripture on a subject, ignore the rest on that same subject, and base your belief on that one scripture - what if those other scriptures give a clearer understanding?

Then, not only are you missing out on something that is very important, you may actually be putting yourself on opposite sides of the very God that you claim to represent!

Answer 9

Lots of the time the problem is that some people know a whole lot of bible doctrine but really dont try to live it.

Answer 10

The Bible says many will be led astray. The people who do read it and use it against believers have blinders over their eyes and mind simply because they refuse to believe.