I'm Christian and I actually agree with atheists on one issue?

Question

I am a fundamentalist Christian and I take the Bible to be the absolute truth of God. I am confused when it comes to more liberal Christians that pick and choose what they what to believe? How do they choose what to believe in? What are they basing this on? Where is their evidence?

It doesn't sound very scientific.

They will believe one story happened and the next one they will take as allegorical and it's not all based on how hard they are to believe.

Most of the more liberal Christians actually believe the stories of Jesus happened pretty the way they are written down. They have no problem with Jesus walking on water, but they don't believe a woman was turned into salt. My argument is God is all powerful so who says he can't do whatever he wants?

Anyways, regardless of what you think of my beliefs, you can at least say I am consistent in them.

What do you think?

Answer 1

I do agree with you. Christianity would be far more effective in the world today if we would all stand behind the Truth. It is either all or nothing!

When we begin to look at our faith through the eyes of the world, we darken our view.

Answer 2

I may not believe everything in the Bible, but I don't think that the writers of the Bible were stupid. I believe a lot of the stories, the ones meant to teach morality and such lessons are allegorical. However, I do think they mixed in there some historical facts as a way of lending the Bible real-world credibility. I do agree that you are more consistent, for it makes no sense to think that a man could walk on water but a woman could not turn into salt. Liberal Christians, like people of any ideolgy, often pick what they want to believe and ignore the lessons they really don't care to learn or live by. It's called cherry-picking their beliefs; something many people do for obvious reasons.

Answer 3

Belief is not always based on "evidence". Interesting that you chose the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in your question; I saw a show on that which provided "real" scientific evidence to support the story. Stories such as this; in my mind, are quite possible, yet just as likely to have been altered slightly by the storyteller, for various reasons. It has always been my argument that people on here are wasting a huge amount of time arguing the details-one end of the spectrum taking everything literally, while others pick on them for refusing to think about any other possibilities (myself included). My take on this?? IT JUST DOES NOT MATTER!! If you believe in God, isn't that enough?? Human history is a sad story of bloodshed based on people maintaining that their brand of religion is the only way to salvation. God must weep. I think if we all could follow the basic message of Jesus:" Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", we'd be at a good starting point.

Answer 4

In my opinion, more "liberal" Christians are "evolved" Christians. The reason for this being is that everything (no matter what, even toilet paper) goes through an evolution. That means, everything changes with time, society, culture and thinking.

Since we live in a more diverse world that is based on freedom of thought/belief/expression (which was not so much the case back in Socrates/Christian days) people have beliefs that collide with others and there is a real "conversation" going on between members of society (both religious and athiest) and there are people "challenging" other peoples beliefs more freequently and not being incarcertaed/burned as they would have been back in the days.

The new "modern" or "evolved" Christians have basically taken the bible as (for the sake of argument) the "word of God" HOWEVER they have further interpreted it in todays world. For example: all though "homosexuality is a sin" according to the bible, the new "modern" Christians take the idea of "love thy neighbour" or "love everyone" or "everyone is Gods children" to mean that "homosexuality is not a sin". Rather, we should respect peoples differences.

Now, this kind of thinking would not sit well with old school litteral bible interpreting Chritians. HOWEVER, Christians (especially the "modern ones", have thought "hey, if we do not "modernize" Chritianity and do not change with the times (much like the old and new testiment have), then Christianity is doomed and will not survive, perhaps it will die. THUS we must evolve our beliefs and relate them, weave them through a more diverse society and keep basic principles of love, chairty, respect and build upon them and allow homosexuality (using homosexuality as an example). Perhaps even change views of child spanking and critisize it as wrong and "un bible" as it "harms" a child rather than "respecting" it as a human being worthy of respect.

Now from an Athiest point of view, I say...if God is all powerful then why is he not intersecting and stopping the "change" or "evolution" of traditional Christian thought and belief to a new and diverse one? Hmmm...

I hope I sort of answered your question, even if I did not I hope you enjoyed my views or perhaps my interpretation of your question will begin a new thought experiment for yourself. Cheers

P.S. One cannot stay "consistent" with their beliefs, as all beliefs evolve depending on the culture/society you live in. If ones belief is that "all women must obey men" then your view will never sit well in a feminst/liberal socity such as Canada and perhaps the United States (i think?, I know it wouldn't sit well in Canada)....Your "old school" belief will die out or will be the minority in society. Therefore you must change/evolve with society...there is nothing wrong with that....actually thats how religions still continue to exist today and even values evolve!...back in the day women valued staying at home raising children attending to their husbands...today it is a different story!

Answer 5

I trust the Bible from cover to cover. Some things in the Bible are told that we don't need to follow this rule or that rule so those can be cancelled out. But the ones that remain true through the Bible are for us to follow.

As for the stories in the Bible. Yes, I believe that Jesus walked on water, that Elijah called fire from the sky, that Moses parted the sea, that Jesus rose again, that Noah save the animals and man. I trust the Bible completely.

Now this might sound crazy to some, but hey I never said I needed their approval.

Answer 6

There are parts of the Bible that come right out ans say they are "parables" which are stories to make a point, not to be taken as factual narrations of actual events.

There are places that are meant to be taken exactly... and others that are not.

It takes wisdom to discern the difference.

******************

Delete ALL the chaper and verse breaks. They were inserted by the translators.

It will change how you read a lot of sections...

Note also that the King James Version was a purposeful mistranslation. King James rejected 3 versions that said he was committing grevious sins... so the translators used flowery language to make the king authorize (allow) the publication of the book.

Answer 7

I have always said that if you are going to accept any of the bible literally, you should accept all of it. Of course, I accept none of it, but at least I can admire consistency - though you might not be as consistent as you think. After all, the bible, literally interpreted, supports slavery and murdering children for backtalking their parents. Are you that consistent?

Thing is, if something is consistently nuts, it's hard to admire consistency alone. As Emerson once noted, A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."

Answer 8

I think the prob. is that much of the bible was not written in a literal sense, and people try to interpret it literally. For example, the whole Lot's wife turning to salt story. That passage wasn't meant to mean she literally turned to salt, it probably meant that she became barren, because back in biblical times, it was said that any area of land where food wouldn't grow was turned to salt.

Answer 9

If you're a fundamentalist Christian and you take the bible as the absolute word of God, then you must agree that if your kids are evil-doers, you have to stone them to death, right?

Answer 10

Jonah lived in a whale. Methuselah lived 909 years. The earth was created 6000 years ago. Balaam and his donkey argue with one another. Fine, believe what you want to believe, but don't call people who are not biblical literalists unscientific.