timberlandko wrote:One who actually has studied not just a particular Bible or two, but who objectively, dispassionately, rigorously has studied the Bible, its various traditions and translations, its history and development from its origins through its assorted canonizations all the way to its present-day representations, its antecedents, its cross-cultural contemporaries, and the cultures, traditions, and literatures of what has come to be Western Civilization, can come to no other conclusion but that The Bible is folklore.
I agree. The vast majority of Christians who claim to have studied the Bible have not truly done so. They have memorized a few verses, selected their preference on which side of a few contradictions they believe, figured out how the stories fit together, etc. but rarely do actually study the origins of the Bible. You are right, it is practically impossible for someone to
comprehensively study the Bible and remain a believer. I speak from personal experience.
Most people are not aware that the Ten Commandments are truly just a repeat of the Code of Hammurabi and the Hindu Vedas (the references to giving rights to women was removed, of course); that Moses is a legend similar to many other legends like Manou the Indian legislator, Nemo the Lawgiver, Mises, Manes the lawgiver, Minos the Cretan reformer, etc.; the reed boat story of Moses was modeled after the legend of Krishna; Jesus Christ is a fake name that essentially mirrored Jezeus Krishna and that was derived from the Egyptian legend of Horus KRST; Abraham is truly an abominated form of Brahma; the story of Noah's ark was from earlier legends (I've quoted a Sumerian legend from 2600 B.C. earlier in this topic); the concept of Mother Mary was borrowed from the Egyptian legend of Isis, known as Mata-Meri; the name of their God "Yahweh" was taken from the Egyptian "IAO"; Esther of the Old Testament is an abomination of the Goddess Ishtar; St. Josephat is taken from the buddhistic title Bodhisat and is a remake of Buddha; the Egyptian Horus' principle enemy was "Sata" when then became Satan; Hell is essentially the Greek Hades mixed with the theme of the valley of Hinnom; many phrases are purposely mistranslated like how "Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" should truly end with the words "the valley of Hinnom"; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was truly the result of an Assyrian conquest and was not a judgement of "God"; and one can keep mentioning blatant absurdities, retellings of folklore, political tactics and scare tactics, and other cases of so-called "pious fraud."
Arella Mae wrote:Please understand though, this critical thinking is something I'm not really used to.
You need not remind us.
That's a good one! My computer has been acting funny today and I wasn't sure it was accepting it when I submitted it because nothing happened. I did ask the moderators to take those extras out!
I know of someone who has studied the Bible so extensively and comprehensively that he can start from the beginning of the New Testament's first book and quote it from memory to the end. Now, in order to do that and to be able to explain each and everything he just quoted and tell you where it came from, I'd say that's extensive and comprehensive, wouldn't you? And you know what? He's got more faith and belief in God than I could ever imagine having. Now, logic tells me if there is one person in this world that can do that, then there are probably others.