What good does religion offer the world today?

Does that quote from the Bible necessarily refer to prostitutes?

What if it refers to a wicked woman who delights in causing pain and suffering among innocent people?


Off topic: Just my opinion, but NKJV sucks bad. Although I feel the same about most Bible translations.

NRSV is probably a least-bad option among common translations. I really think a decent Xtian translation should translate the Old Testament directly from the Septuagint though, and the only people who do that are the Eastern Orthodox Xtians.

I want to be President someday. (of the world)
Why In the hell would you want that job... I have watch so many Presidents hair turn gray while they were in office... You know that the opposite of disease is the ability to remain at ease... and that's one of the most stressful jobs in the world...

I just want to do some good in my lifetime.

What has the fictitious bible have to do with anything? I'm speaking as an individual who has traveled around the world several times.
Anyone willing to have sex with a prostitute accepts all the responsibilities from beginning to end.

I use to get mad at god… I'd say "you made me this way, you made me dyslexic… Then you tell me to know the truth and the truth well set me free… then you threw all these contradictions at me and want me to figure it out… and then there is the science thing! What's up with that? And mythology! You have got to be kidding me!

My first run at God was when I was seventeen … I would go from church to church looking for some answers… God forbid I follow my parents at that age… I am getting older now and have some short term memory loss, But I can remember this day, like it happened yesterday! I remember the last church I ever visited… I was doing my normal church hopping for that Sunday when I drove by this church with a ton of cars in the parking lot and I thought this might be a good place… I walked through the front door and about pooped my pants… You see I lived about 30 miles away from where the L A Watts riots took place and this was an all black church, and I am a white boy… Within seconds they sat me down and made me feel comfortable… I really, really enjoyed their service, but I knew it wasn't what I was looking for… I gave up looking for now…

By 1971 I had just gotten out of the army… No I didn't go to Vietnam, but had a rough time never the less, which I won't go into now… I vowed to find God when I got out… My pay at the time in the army was $310.oo a month; and in 1971 on an army base you can buy a heck of a lot of books at a bookstore with that… I brought home a foot locker full of religious book and I was determined to get to the bottom of this… My loving brother knowing I had a rough time gave me a bedroom, built in the garage, with no windows; for me to recuperate in… I locked myself in that room for 9 months and only came out to eat and go to the bathroom… I went in there with two measly questions… What is God and what is my relationship to him…

Within 3 months I had hundreds of questions… It was like I had this 10,000 piece puzzle on the floor in front of me and stupid me is suppose to put this together? COME ON!... Then one day I saw it… "Be still and know that I am God"… My mind was racing like a crazy person trying to put together this puzzle… All I have to do is stop thinking right… YA RIGHT!... I would always start with the lord's prayer to tune in and also protect myself.. And then I would make the attempt to shut off my mind… I hadn't heard the word mediation that often so I was kind of winging it… It took about 1 hour of meditation 3 times a day for 3 months before I got any serious results… I remember this like it was yesterday… I had done my prayer thing and had just shut my mind down when this enormous light showed up in my face…

My first thought was that my dad {who lived about a block away} had come over to tell me a joke and knew I was in there in the dark so he brought a flashlight… My dad was that kind of man, God rest his soul… He was a simple man; full of love and laughter… He worshiped my mother… My mother, the only true saint I had met in this lifetime so far… said he was on vacation this time around… Don't get me wrong, he worked his butt off to keep a roof over our heads… It's just that he always considered himself the most fortunate man alive, and therefor he was … Sorry I got off track…

So I open my eyes to say hi dad what's up… Now I reminded you I am in a pitch black room with no windows… I was surprise there was no one there…but what I could see? there was this very faint light around every object in the room… Finally! I had some proof… IN YOUR FACE SCIENCE! …IN YOUR FACE BLIND FAITH! ...If I had to hear " have blind faith" or "where's the scientific proof" one more time! Well you know… Just a quick note here; There is scientific proof now and if I have time will go into…

For the next three months I keep meditating reading and meditating and reading… You would think that after such a breakthrough that it would be downhill from there… I discovered quickly that any fear or excitement would make the light go away… And let's face it, I was all excited by now, and a little afraid… Oh I forgot to tell you, when the light would show up this energy would show up, it would consume my body at the same time and I would also have to ignore that… It took a long time for me to drop my fear or excitement and move forward… It got to the point where the light and energy would all show up closer and closer to the beginning of the lord's prayer and so, as the light and energy would show up, I would just stop thinking and give in… Eventually I would make it, and get past it… Once I got past it, things would change… I would either go somewhere, or stay right where I am and learn! I really would have no memory of what would happen for just about 45 minutes… Then I would become aware of the light and energy and it would slowly fade away… And then it happen… You remember that 10,000 piece puzzle of questions I have on my floor… Well it all came together in one big giant picture… and all my questions had been answered… And then, from an outsider's perspective, I made the two biggest mistakes in my life…

My brother at this time was working full time and going to school full time and asked if I could get a job and help out… After what he had done for me there was no hesitation… I was walking six feet off the ground by now and thought I was invincible.. The second mistake I had made was walking out of that room satisfied with my knowledge of what I had just experience and didn't even think I could lose ground now… I walked six feet off the ground for about 6 months more… I tried to meditate as much as I could but it wasn't enough and I fell back again… I remembered what Jesus said when he said we are all gods of the most highest, and you can do what I can do and more… I can't help to think what I have thought of a thousand times before and every humane on the face of this planet should be asking… If Jesus was real… and he wasn't a liar… THEN WHY AM I, NOT FUNCTIONING AT MY FULLEST POTENTIAL… I read something a long, long time ago and don't quote me… but I think it was a German who followed the path that Jesus took from monastery to monastery the 18 years he was gone between the ages of 12 and 30… Supposedly all these monasteries have a record of him coming through there… For me it's back to the grind… I have to find a job that I can tolerate to keep a roof over my head… I vow to myself that if I don't get to where I want to be by the time I reach 30, I will join a monastery…

In 1976 when I was 25 I meet my soul mate and we have been together every since… After years of abusing my body to keep a roof over our heads my back goes south and takes me off my feet… Some days the pain would get unbearable and that’s when I would beg God for help… It would always come in some form or another… I knew the monastery thing went out the window, so I vow to get back on track when I am fully retired… When my back goes, I figured I have lost my chance this lifetime… It's hard to meditate when you are suffering… It's taken me 20 years to get around it… It might look from the outside, that I have an unjust God to let me suffer like that… But I am just finishing up some earthy karma and have lead a very blessed life… I have yet to see a person that has had better parent's and a beautiful wife like mine…

My third run at God, once I had found out how to get around the pain, has been pretty easy… It's pretty hard to unlearn what you have already learned so when you drop back, It's easier to get back on you feet again… I'm retired now and don't have to worry about keeping the roof over my head so my time is my time, and it is true what they say… He gives you rest when you come home…

You tell me. You're the one who quoted it.

Not all of the Bible is fictitious though. There is a bit of Jewish history mixed in there. The trick is to cull the true parts out from the untrue parts.

Other writings from that era are similar. Egyptian hieroglyphs tell fictitious stories about Egyptian Gods. There are still lots of historical records to be gleaned from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Cuneiform markings have fictitious tales of Gilgamesh. But historical information is there to be gleaned as well.


Anyway, regardless of whether the Bible is fictitious or not, a good translation is still a good translation, and a bad translation is still bad.

I much prefer good translations. It doesn't matter if you're a religious person wanting to read what the scriptures say or a scholar trying to pick historical nuggets out of the writings, accuracy is to be preferred over inaccuracy.

100% is fictitious. That it may contain what some people may call truth is explained by the fact that even fictional stories has truths.

That is incorrect. These ancient writings contain nuggets of historical facts in them. Historians identify these facts and use them to learn about what happened in the past.

Which nuggets?

Im pretty sure he meant, male cow feces nuggets.

The Hebrew deity really was worshiped as early as 1400 BC. The Israeli people really were a distinct population in the West Bank area as early as 1200 BC. The Israeli people really did have a primitive kingdom under Saul before 1000 BC. The northern Israelite Kingdom and southern Kingdom of Judah really existed. David really was Judah's first leader. The Israelites really were a regional power in the ninth century BC.

No, I was referring to science and archaeology as usual.

what archaeology? Pretty much most sites they have attempted to locate from the bible turn out nothing. That is unless they are biased theological archaeologists who just say they found something with zero evidence.

The records of the Hebrew deity dated to 1400 BC.

The records of the Israeli people as a distinct culture dated to 1200 BC.

The West Bank ruins from around 1200 BC showing people following Jewish dietary practices.

The ruins from King Saul's primitive kingdom before 1000 BC.

The records from the ninth century BC showing the House of David as an existing dynasty.

The ruins of the northern Israelite Kingdom and southern kingdom of Judah.

The records from the ninth century BC recording the Israelites as major participants in prominent battles and subjugating neighboring kingdoms as vassals.

Cuneiform records provide evidence of ancient Mesopotamian empires like the Babylonians and the Assyrians.

Egyptian hieroglyphs provide evidence of a number of ancient Egyptian dynasties dating back as far as 3000 BC.

What good does religion offer the world today?

I guess I never made an attempt to answer this questions… The simple answer is that it is the way out of your suffering… It's not like God is sitting in a chair somewhere making  decisions on who is going to suffer and who is not…The laws of nature have always existed and if you're going to ignore them then you will suffer… Suffering is just God's cattle prod, trying to get you back in the corral before the wolfs come down and get you… Suffering is God's way of tell you to take care of your body, planet and the human race… Religions also scares people into being good who would other wise might have not been… Religions are also guides for people who want to be good that might otherwise be lead astray… The problem with most of them is everybody gets stuck in the mythology and the contradictions… Some of the mythology was written by men to camouflage nuggets of truth to hide it from people like Alexandra when he was running around burning libraries… A lot of the mythology, like multiple deities and Gods, is their way of trying to explain the different attributes of the one God and put it into words and ideas… To really explain God is impossible because as soon as you try to put it into words, you go from infinite to a finite concept… This is one of the reasons that there looks like there is contradictions… If you are talking about it from a infinite point of view then you are talking from the view of the totality of wholeness… If you are talking about it, or looking at it from a finite point of view, then you are looking at it through the multiplicity of oneness.. The religions that advocate violence instead of love are flawed and misinterpreted by lower consciousness barbarians like ISIS…They are like the small minded people who throw the virgin into the volcano to appease the sun god… Can you imagine the mindset of a suicide bomber that believes he's going to get seventeen virgins when he dies… These people have been brainwashed by others in the name of religion… It is this kind of Ideology that gives religions a bad name and convinces people there is no just God… I'm not going to go out limb and say that none of the religions in the world were written by God through man's mind, but like I have always said {Words are a poor substitute for an accurate communication…} The only time God uses words might be to put an idea in your head… God injects in the gap between your thoughts, to give new ideas and to help you out… This is why proper mediation is so important… And it free! ...All it takes is a little time and you'll get to know the truth, and you can stop speculating! ...I could go into the science behind God but you'd have to have a work knowledge of Quantum mechanics (QM; also known as quantum physics or quantum theory….) I am really not sure if anyone on this forum really cares about it… Like I said I don't know if this is a forum for me… I'd like to exchange thoughts on the subject, but I can't see where I am getting an even return on investment… Namaste

I hope that me and my closet friend " my sister" will go to heaven soon. I think God's cattle prod may have been a bit out of adjustment when he came into me and my sister's life. Do you have a problem with younger women than you?

I'm sure you may find it challenging to handle two women at once but if you try you might be surprised.

Interesting! ...but not really sure I see your point... But then again you missed mine!

It's all about how we perceive life that can make the difference...
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