Question for atheists with knowledge of the Christian Bible?

Question

I don't believe the Christian Bible, and can understand where most of the concepts of self-sacrifice, obedience, etc. would have come in handy for power over society when it was written. I'm not confused about the promise of a return, as it's just that - a promise; hope. I am confused, however, about the elaborate detail on things such as the Mark of the Beast. It seems as though it would have been easier to not write more than was necessary for their cause. Why is the description so detailed, and what was/is the social purpose of this "prediction"? Thanks!

Answer 1

The Mark of the Beast has social significance in that it imposes the rule of religion over government.

The Beast is meant to impose this mark from a state sanctioned position.

Telling Christians that they were to reject this mark and the beast allows the Church to claim dominance over governmental law. It gives power to the church, so they can ultimately guide followers and with enough population control governments. The church used salvation as a means of this throughout the middle ages, and could possibly do it again by claiming that a governmental leader was the antichrist and that people following that government were marked by the beast.

Answer 2

Well, it isn't really that detailed. So little so that there are many different views...
Preterist view
Futurist view
Historicist view
Spiritual or idealist view
Eastern Orthodox view
Anglican view
Latter-day Saints view
Paschal Liturgical view
Esoteric view
The New Church view
The Radical discipleship view
Alternative view
...and many others by individual interpretations within all denominations.

Some say that the proposed National ID Card is the Mark of the Beast. Others think that it will be a microchip implanted in people. Some take the Mark of the Beast and the subsequent predictions in Revelations literally, and others allow varying room for interpretation. It goes on and on.

There were also several other apocalypses that had large followings in early Christiandom, but they didn't get cannonized.

The social purpose, as I see it, for revelations is to give christians hope for their suffering and sacrifices: That Jesus would return and reward them.

Messiahs are a common theme among many religions, not just christianity.

BTW, I am an atheist, but prior to two months ago, I was a christian.

El Chistoso

Answer 3

It's a scare tactic. It is an over the top one but the purpose of the passage is to put fear of evil into them. A lot of the bible is over detailed so, that the reader is subconsciously more able to visualize, feel as if they are their witnessing it and that also makes the passage more stand outish in the mind. At a time not too long ago the bible was everything it was entertainment , it was radio, it was television, it was the Xbox 360 and to some extent it was the only reading source availble to some.

Answer 4

The longer that Jesus was dead, if he existed, the easier it was to add more detail to the stories. Paul wrote long after Jesus was dead, but he was the first of the writers. He gave very little details about Jesus. The Gospels were written much later and actually added in details about Jesus' childhood.

Revelations was written mostly as predictions of what the major powers of the time would do. It is similar to wild predictions today that are made about such as such country callapsing or World War III starting. The added details probably had some significance in those times, or maybe were just random things the writer through in.

Answer 5

It is detailed, but it is also very symbolic. Beasts with seven heads and ten horns and all that. The detail is there actually to disguise the true meaning. The author of Revelation was a gnostic and they had a symbolic language all their own, but they key is that most people (unenlightened) get bogged down in the details and miss the true meaning. This is how you keep secrets in a public document, code and distraction.

Answer 6

You guess. The solutions I even have seen (and gained) in this board practice that. Too a lot of people who declare familiarity with the Bible understand easily no longer something between Genesis and Revelation. I even have spent extra advantageous than 40 years interior the learn of comparative religions and their scriptures, and characteristic collected a great library of religious and scriptural background. Too many Christian understand the bible only at 2d hand...what they hear from their pastors or their mom and dad. very few can carry their own in a dialogue with genuine bible pupils. edit: youthful smart pest: till you're only a troll attempting to be lovable, how are you able to anticipate us to have faith you once you are able to no longer even spell what you pretend to appreciate??? The be conscious is Torah, no longer "Tora"...till you happen to be the reincarnation of a international conflict II eastern suicide pilot!!

Answer 7

I really have to agree with the writer above me... Kallan...

Revelations strongly resmebles the religious delusions experienced by mentally ill people. The details and "forcasting" are also typical of psychotic states. The writer of that book had been treated very terribly.

There were no initial purposes, I think, of the book until the council of nicea, where the terrible and frightening descriptions could be used to further manipulate people.

Answer 8

Not an atheist nor a christian, but I do have a couple of degrees in it.

The Book of the Revelation was written by a man who had been tortured (legends say boiled in oil) and exiled to a prison camp on the Isle of Patmos. The detailed writings in his vision could be nothing more than hallucinations from someone suffering from PTSD.

Answer 9

Most of the symbols of the bible would have been immediately recognizable to those living at the time it was first written as contemporary people and institutions. It's to make the story more credible and relevant to the listener's own experience -- sorta like having Forrest Gump shaking hands with President Kennedy.

Answer 10

Who knows, maybe John was high on something. It is/was not uncommon for people to use hallucinogenics in order to have a ''vision'' or other deep religious experience. I would assume that there was also some effort to incorporate ideas that could be interpreted the way the writer wanted them to be interpreted. Maybe politically etc.