The more common sense you use, the less you believe (or need) the Bible?

Question

It seems that The Bible becomes less and less relevant the more we think about it and don't just take it 'as gospel'.
The oppression of women is one example where religion has been put straight in recent generations.
Nearly all Christians have already accepted that homosexuals shouldn't necessarily be put to death - although most still think it's a sin.
Many Christians have also had the sense to accept that the Bible may have got it wrong in proclaiming that the earth is just 6,000 years old.
And the creation of the world in seven days is seen by some as maybe just 'figuritively speaking' - perhaps it was a bit longer.
So it seems the more we think rationally about the Bible, the less pertinent it becomes.
If we take away all the irrelevant stuff, we are basically left with, "Be nice people. Amen."

Hardly need religion or the Bible for that, do we?

Fish - I capitalise Bible to show a little respect. Atheists can have respect, you know.

Fish - I capitalise Bible to show a little respect. I also capitalised your name. Atheists can have respect, you know.

Birdsflies - Christians seem to pick and choose at will what they will take literally or dismiss altogether - I follow with interest when they suddenly decide that something else has now become outdated, because it has now been interpreted differently!

btw - don't tell me to read the Bible. As I went to a C of E school for 8 years, I am more than familiar with the workings of Christianity and the contents of the Bible.

Caicos Turkey - 'being nice has led to current problems'? What a strange thing for a religious person to say in today's world.

Jay Z - you seem to be arguing that Christians take all of the Bible as the truth. I argued that that some of them don't take it all as truth. I think you are wrong.

Big Pen - What??? No I haven't 'got it'.

Jean - Did you think up all your beliefs by yourself with no help at all?

Aye - I didn't mention God in my question, but seeing as you want to make a distinction... I think it's fair to say that without God there would be no Bible. Also, without God there would be no infidels or 'abominations' who do not believe in Him. There would be no hatred or intolerance towards those of different beliefs or persuasions, and there would be no killing in His name. Yeah, I've got a problem with Him AND His Bible.

Answer 1

True, if you think about it, 2000 years or so ago, there were no scientists to prove or disprove anything, so it became a moralistic way of life that got way out of control (forming of religions). The bible is a conglomeration of stories that were told after the fact, which means that they were highly embellished (if they happened at all).

Answer 2

The problem with common sense is that it's not so common. And the less you believe about the Bible the more you believe about other belief systems (including, 'All belief systems are wrong').

Your own belief prejudices shine through clearly. The Bible never said the earth is just 6,000 years old. People interpreted that. The oppression of women is condemned by the Bible; no-one was more anti-mysoginist than Jesus; Christians have never believed that God gave them the right to put homosexuals to death; that was an Old Covenant prerogative that ended when Jesus inaugurated the New Covenant.

So it seems the more you think rationally about the Bible, the less pertinent your common sense appears. If you took away all the irrelevant stuff you've mentioned, you will be left with biblical Wisdom, which goes way beyond 'Be nice to people'; it says 'God's grace to closed-minded sinners is undeserved, yet free. Hallelujah!'

Hardly need anti-religion or anti-Bible thinking, do we?

Answer 3

very very true.
The bible (particularly the old testament) is full of war-mongering - if you are victorious in battle you can take a vanquished warriors wife as your own for 60 days!
Some of the war mongering:

Moses in Deuteronomy 21: 10-14:

When the Lord your God gives you victory in battle and you take prisoners, you may see among them a beautiful woman that you like and want to marry ... She is to stay in your home and mourn for her parents for a month; after that, you may marry her. Later, if you no longer want her, you are to let her go free. Since you forced her to have intercourse with you, you cannot treat her as a slave and sell her

The Lord commands the Israelites to seize the lands occupied by other peoples, promising he will aid them in their battles. ‘All the people will see what great things I, the Lord, can do,’ he boasts to Moses.
I will drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as you advance. Do not make any treaties with the people of the country into which you are going ... Instead, tear down their altars ... I, the Lord, tolerate no rivals’ (Exodus 34: 10-14).

‘When you capture cities in the land that the Lord your God is giving you,’ he says elsewhere (Deuteronomy 20: 16), ‘kill everyone’.


Hmmmm. peace lovin god....

Inconsitencies?
How about the attitude to inequality & pacifism:
on the one hand:

Matthew 5: 39, which in the King James version reads: "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also".
----- Turn the other cheek.

Luke 22: 36, when, at the Last Supper, Jesus warns his disciples of the persecution they were shortly to face, he said: "let him that has no sword sell his mantle and buy one". In other words, "Arm yourself - even if you have to go without a coat"
Hardly Pacifism - more a call to arms! Which one ?????


and this one:
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24) ...

While Paul says:
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT).

Now if the bible is the instruction for us to live then we should be forgiven for being a little confused.


now JAY Z below counterposes two positions. - Either Christian morality or Immorality. A common argument but a disingenous one. Can't you have morals without religion? Some of the ostensibly most religious - G W Bush, Pat Robertson or Jesse Helmes show that you can have religion without any sense of morality.

My opinion? Construct your own humanist values and live your life as you see fit.

Answer 4

I think that you have not read the Bible to take such a shallow view of its contents. Common sense is not necessarily the best guiding principle for life. Common sense leads people to take a pragmatic view when it comes to destroying unborn babies because they are an inconvenience to the mother or to getting rid of old people because they are unproductive and in the way. As for being nice people, isn't that the problem with Britain today? A desire to be terribly nice to everyone has led to many of our current problems. No, my friend, when you break away from the wisdom of our Creator and go your own way, you have no basis for your moral values and chaos ensues. For my part, it is the Word of God which makes sense of everything. Without it, the universe would be meaningless.

Answer 5

The Bible does not oppress women but honors them. Jesus first openly said he was the Messiah to a woman. He first revealed himself after his resurrection to women. Women played important roles in the preparation for his death and burial, whereas most of the men seemd to scatter.

When Abraham did not want to comply with Sarah's plea to send away Hagar and Ishmael, God told him to listen to Sarah and that He would look after them himself.

Two entire books are devoted to the activities of women, Esther and Ruth, showing how women often conduct themselves wisely and lovingly in family and work situations.

Proverbs chapter 31 shows how capable wives are, describing the many things that men would probably be incapable of.

The Bible is full of accounts of the activities of various women who act in a faithful, wise and loving way, which is what God wants of men too.
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With regard to homosexuality, it is condemned in the Greek scriptures as well as the hebrew scriptures. However, Jesus taught that everyone should be respected, not for what they do, but for who they are and that they have the capacity to worship God in spirit and truth.

It is not right to be abusive to anyone, even if they are sexually oriented towards their own gender. Homosexual acts are wrong, but homosexual people themselves have every right to be treated with dignity beyond that. However, your right to choose your life partner does not make it right in God's eyes.
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The Bible does not explicitly say that the Earth is Six thousand years old. It does indicate that man has only been on the earth that long, but the specific language shows that the earth could be virtually any age from as little as 50,000 years old up to as much as the longest estimate that scientists have come up with.
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The term "day" has been mis-understood to mean 24 hour periods, but again the specific language does not necessarily indicate this.

There is a scriptural principle which exchanges "Day" for "1000 years". However, whether this applies to creation is unkown.

We ourselves might use the term "day" loosely to mean an indefinite period of time. "In my day" does not refer to 24 hours, but a period of time lasting a short but indefinite number of years.

Also the text of creation is written from an Earthly point of view. When it says let there be light, understand it as though you are standing on the Earth at the time. It's talking about when light first reached the earth, which was undoubtedly a gradual process. The language of the Bible does not indicate a sudden brilliant flash. The same principal holds true with the rest of the creation account.
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We are endowed with a moral code which we can all follow if we want to whether we believe in the Bible or not. However, that fact on it's own does not negate the need for the Bible.

If God exists, but you don't believe in Him, you can't expect to benefit from His blessings (apart from weather, food, resources, etc, which everyone benefits from anyway) and you might miss out on the greatest blessing of all - the re-application of His original intention of having the human family live for ever in paradise conditions on the Earth.

Answer 6

Friend, That is your problem, You are not using Common Sense, Every day the Bible becomes more real than ever before, & I as a Christian have NOT ACCEPTED HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE, & the Bible says about those homosexuals & Lesbians, that they are worthy of death, No I will not kill them, I am just telling you scriptures, as far as the earth being 6000 yrs old, NO it is NOT there was a Prehistoric time, & YES I AM A TRUE CHRISTIAN, does it seem strange that a Christian, will say that, It is in the bible. & the 7 days you would like to make a 24 hour day is wrong Each day consisted of 1000 yrs, & the 7th day was 1000 yrs, That types out the Jesus Christ & His BRIDE ruling & reigning for 1000 yrs. which is also known as the Millennium, So therefore friend you lack any common sense.

Answer 7

1) Speak on it with intimate knowledge of what the Bible says for yourself.

2) Read the Bible scripture about women for yourself.

3) the Bible teaches that all sins are equal with the exception of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

4) The Bible does not say that the earth is 6,000 years old. Many people misinterpret the text about how time is irrelevant to God because He is eternal.

5) Once again God is not bound by time, we are.

6) Please read the Bible for yourself then get back to us, try not to speak from third party information.

Answer 8

In essence, what you are saying is, "The more we compromise our faith, the more we can tolerate immorality."
Your rational is damning both to yourself and to those who follow your logic.
You have no idea what you are talking about in regard to the compromises you think have occurred in "Many Christian" circles. I for one believe in a literal 6 day creation; I believe that the Christian Church has done more for womens liberation through the centuries, I believe homosexuals were never stoned even though Leviticus Law demanded it.
I sense your "irrelevant stuff" includes your personal sin nature, Christ's atonement, and your need for a savior as well. I pray your "common sense" may lead you to a saving knowledge of the Truth who sets you free.

Answer 9

It isn't about the more common sense u have the less u need the bible. The bible was written by man, and yes man makes mistakes. We have to look at things in the prospect of today. Because we don't follow it to tee doesn't make us use it less. Most of us following the lessons, that teaches us how to live our spiritually. Because we don't agree with everything in doesn't mean we use the book itself less, just certain things we don't agree with.

Answer 10

Lectio Divina is Latin for “spiritual reading” and represents an early monastic technique of prayer which continues in practice though less widely, intended to achieve communion with God as well as providing special spiritual insights and peace from that experience. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, listen and, finally, pray from God's Word.

History
Lectio Divina was first expressed in the year 220 AD. It was found that to read the Bible profitably it is necessary to do so with attention, consistency and prayer. The systematization of “spiritual reading” into four steps dates back to the 12th century. Around 1150, Guigo II, a Carthusian monk, wrote a book entitled “The Monk’s Ladder” (Scala Claustralium) wherein he set out the theory of the four rungs: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI stated, “This is the ladder by which the monks ascend from earth to heaven.”

Method
Lectio is typically practiced daily for one continuous hour. A selection from the Holy Scriptures is chosen ahead of time, often as a daily progression through a particular book of the Bible.

Time
Selecting a time for lectio divina is important. Typical methods are to pray for one hour in the morning, or to divide it into two half-hour periods, one in the morning and one in the evening. The key is to pre-select the time that will be devoted to the prayer, and to keep it. Using the same time every day leads to a daily habit of prayer that becomes highly effective.

Place
The place for prayer is to be free from distractions. This means it should be isolated from other people, telephones, visual distractions, etc. Some find a religious icon to be helpful. The same place should be used for lectio if possible, especially as one first begins to practice it. Familiarity with a location reduces the possibility of distraction away from the prayer. Some practitioners conduct other devotions, such as praying before the Catholic Eucharist, as a preparation for Lectio Divina.

Preparation
Prior to reading, it is important to engage in a transitional activity that takes one from the normal state of mind to a more contemplative and prayerful state. A few moments of deep, regular breathing and a short prayer inviting the Holy Spirit to guide the prayer time helps to set the tone and improve the effectiveness of the lectio.

Once the stage is set it is time to begin the prayer. There are four phases of the prayer, which do not necessarily progress in an ordered fashion. One may move between different phases of the prayer very freely as the Spirit guides.

The Four Moments
Lectio
Read the passage several times.

Meditatio
Reflect on the text of the passage, thinking about how to apply to one's own life. Gravitate to any particular phrase or word that seems to be of particular import. This should not be confused with exegesis, but is a very personal reading of the Scripture and application to one's own life.

Oratio
Respond to the passage by opening the heart to God. This is not primarily an intellectual exercise, but more of the beginning of a conversation with God.

Contemplatio
Listen to God. This is a freeing oneself from one's own thoughts, both mundane and holy. It is about hearing God talk to us. Opening our mind, heart and soul to the influence of God. Any conversation must allow for both sides to communicate, and this most unfamiliar act is allowing oneself to be open to hearing God speak.

Answer 11

Is your problem with Bible or God? Those are really really different