[poll] Kicking the hornet's nest...

[Eliyahu Jones]

Any body here read the bible?

You know what I've noticed lately?  God is wrong pretty often, and not just about geology or anatomy (like four legged insects).  No, I mean morally.  Like when he says to go and murder a bunch of women and children; this story from I Sam 15 is one such example.  

So we are left with a quandry: if the bible represents a true and accurate series of events, then this god of yours is prone to fits of evil.  Or the bible is wrong...

Discuss.

[That Chick]

I have read the entire Bible.  I have to agree.  Either the Bible is wrong, or God is really messed up--or at least used to be; prone to fits of evil, just as you said.  I feel a presence in my heart that is both powerful and kind, and I can only think it must be the real God; or at least some kind of Force or something (pardon me borrowing from Star Wars, lol).  I think that if a god exists, which I personally believe it/he/she does...then the Bible is way, way off.  Because the god I feel is, as I said, kind.

I mean, come on.  The Bible is just a bunch of writings from religious people of their beliefs.  We will never know for sure what parts of it may be true and what parts are not; though if you ask me, there is a great deal of myths.  And let us not forget about how much it has been butchered, only certain books kept while others were deemed heresy or whatnot, verses added and subtracted, interpretations varied, ad infinitum....

I think the Bible has a few wise words if you decide you want to pick through it word by word, but for the most part, it's just a piece of crap.  If I go to hell for saying that, so be it.

[Eliyahu Jones]

First of all, let me say that I appreciate your input, Ma.  What's up with this god fellow, anyway?  Is it really like the force with light and dark sides?  The Q-balla has this concept of the left handed emanation of God Energy; from the left come things like Judgment and Severity.  On the right you have corresponding aspects of Splendor and Mercy, and all of these result in the getalt that it "G-D" (YHWH). But if you have equal and opposite aspects, then what you are dealing with really is not a personality but rather a matrix of emanations.  In taking our own consciounesses through the different aspects of the Divine Nature, we impart personality to "god."  If we get confused, we may not realize that al of these are inside of us, and that our conscious directed energy is contributing to and co-creating what God "is;" instead, we become convienced that the divine is a finite personality that "outside."  Maybe Samuel was meditating on the level of Judgment or Severity when he got the instruction to murder all the Amalekites.  If he had been able to realize that the Judgment and Severity within himself was a  partial manifestation of God, and that the same god was also manifesting through the consciounesses of the Amalekites, he might not have endorsed such an atrocious course of action.

Here's a link to the Tree of Life, whoever take ahold of her is blessed...
 http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.projectmind.org/treenew.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.projectmind.org/treeoflife.html&h=640&w=340&sz=23&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=1CP0KTBBLkI_CM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=73&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522tree%2Bof%2Blife%2522%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

[That Chick]

I find it funny that the link you posted won't load.  "Here's the Tree of Life! - Just kidding."  Sorry...that just amused me.  Anyway!

You have a very interesting way of viewing God.  Perhaps I am incorrect in assuming that God is an outside force that just so happens to permeate everything and everyone.  I don't know.

[Eliyahu Jones]

Jeeze.... How about this one?

http://www.bota.org/images/treeclr-7.jpg

Maybe that will work....

Anyway, who is to say what is correct or incorrect about what god is?  I just think that some formulation are better, i.e. the ones that tell you to love your neighbor, not murder her.

[Eliyahu Jones]

How about now:

http://www.bota.org/images/treeclr-7.jpg

At the very least, you could copy and paste it...

[Jason24]

I seriously think that if the same passages in the Bible were instead found in the Quran, we'd never hear the end of it from conservative commentators about how evil Islam would be. They'd probally blame 9-11 on being inspired by such verses. I know what you mean. I've read the Bible from cover to cover too.