oh, you don’t think the bible is real? let me throw some bible verses at you, that’ll change your mind
This was one of my issues when I was a Christian. There is no external authority that the Bible was the inherent word of God and no way to ensure that the words within it were transcribed or even translated within the Authority of God.
There is a whole study of Bible hermeneutics that is about finding authority within the Bible.
You know how in the show Community Abed was always trying to meta the show? Imagine that, but really not funny and it’s taken seriously.
Another problem with Bible (and other similar books) is that it doesn’t make sense that omnipotent god would communicate to humans trough vague book that would have many different interpretations and possibly have it’s meaning changed a bit with translations to different languages. At least there are Christians who accept that events from Bible never happened.
transcribed or even translated within the Authority of God.
on that topic, in case you haven’t seen it, i recommend biblical scholar bart ehrman’s presentation on problems with the bible.
Am I allowed to throw all of the Bible verses at someone? Like at the same time.
book club
Cult. It’s a cult.
Cults are small. Christianity is big. And it was Christians who, during the satanic panic, created a false association in pop culture between cults and abuse. See, back in the 60s, the hippie movement was turning young people away from Christianity and towards new age spiritualities like wicca and thelema. The christians had to put a stop to these cults, so they created a myth that cult=abuse.
If cults can be big, then there’s absolutely no difference between a religion and a cult. Personally, I define a cult as either an NRM (The more common use in the 20th century) or a local sect (the more common use in antiquity). Christianity is clearly neither. I am politically motivated not to consider Christianity a cult, because I believe it makes unjust apology for Christianity. Cults are, politically speaking, groups which have been targeted by the Satanic panic. The fact that Christianity is not a cult, and that anti-cult religious leaders have not labelled Christianity a cult, is historically important. We can’t go using words in a way that implies Christianity is the victim and confuses the history. I object to calling Christianity a cult precisely because I think ill of Christianity.
Eh, I’m gonna go ahead and keep calling any group with charismatic authoritarian leaders/councils a cult. The word “cult” is inherently tied to worship which involves giving up some of your own agency or, at least, taking things on blind faith or admiration.
Any time you have adherents giving up their free will/agency, that’s abuse and manipulation, to me.
Cult - charismatic leader is still alive. Religion - charismatic leader is no longer alive. That’s how I see it, at least.
Okay, why don’t you go ahead and explain why thelema, one of the cults I mentioned, is abusive. And to help, here’s a comprehensive list of the rules of thelema as described by Alistair Crowley:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
That’s it. That’s the entire rules. Okay go!
The bible is real. And very useful, to roll blunts with in a pinch.
It’s more:
- a man sees something here doesn’t understand. He makes up a story to explain it.
- The story is shared among a tribe for generations, occasionally a skilled storyteller improves it
- Eventually writing is invented, the story at some point is written down, maybe improved one more time as it’s put to paper
- It’s copied over generations, occasionally improved by good writer, it is adjusted and added to a collection of stories about God and his prophets and miracles
Even had the writers wanted to fact check the stories, they couldn’t, they had spent too long in oral transmission.
Even the new testament wasn’t written by the people who were there at the time, it was more like telling the stories that your grandfather heard from his grandfather
People are pretty prone to improving stories they tell, they make them flow better, they make people’s motives clear when really they were hidden
To put a finer point on it, your understanding of the author’s understanding of the thing in this instance is a third Venn circle without much overlap to those first two. 🤌🏾
One of the most frustrating things of dealing with bible people is when the request for proof comes up. They just point at the Bible. Like it’s some text that has deep references to verifiable and cross referenced historical fact. Like Pontious Pilate’s administration leaving records of some guy doing magic on the regular, him getting in fights with rich people, or even just a criminal docket of hanging a magical guy.
Nope. They just point at their book as proof of itself.
what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence
And when they still point to that bible of theirs, start quoting your favorite incest story.
