[quote]pushharder wrote:
[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
[quote]pushharder wrote:
[quote]IrishSteel wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
Although the Bible may say in various ways that women are somehow below men, one should not think of the Bible as an entity in and of itself. The Bible simply contains the words of men from a far gone age saying these things about women. Given that, if the Bible were to be written today with contemporary morals in mind, women would most certainly be given an equal status amongst men. The words may even be written by women, some of which may try to imply or outright claim that it is MEN who are inferior in some way. Who knows? The point is that it is imperative to keep in mind who wrote the Bible and in what times it was written before applying the lessons contained within it to life in the 21st century. We must interpret the Bible through contemporary set of lenses.[/quote]
What? You should stop reading into the Bible in such strange demeanor. Anyone that reads the Bible and thinks humans as inferior needs to do a little more reading. We are the fucking bosses of this shit, except for the Lord of course. We are made perfectly, with free will, how better does it get? And no, if the Bible was written today it would not be written by women.[/quote]
First of all, I never said that humans themselves are inferior to anything else (nor are some humans inferior to other humans) or that they may be considered so in some contemporarily-written version of the Bible. My point is that the Bible serves as a guide for how to live our lives in the way God intends (or something to that effect if you believe in God), and as such, we should not view it 100% literally.
In order for it to be relevant in a society that is far, far different from the one in which it was written and the one it describes, we must allow for a viewpoint that is relevant to today’s society in some instances. While it shall always be considered bad to kill, some things (like gender equality issues) may not be forever bad or moral or whatever.
For the most part, in western society women are viewed as the equal of men. There may be material inequalities like physical size or average salary, but as humans ourselves we are considered to be equals. If it says otherwise in the Bible, then so be it; but this standard will necessarily be rejected by virtually all women who have grown up in an environment where they are told from the start that they are not inherently inferior to men. It will also be rejected by men who hold the same views, thus becoming irrelevant to much of today’s society.
If the Bible becomes irrelevant in one area because it must be viewed literally and thru ancient eyes, then it is not a leap to presume that society will continue to see more irrelevancies in the Bible, even some that are incorrectly interpreted as such. The message of the Bible, or any other holy/sacred text, is not intended to exclude or become dated. It is intended to encourage people to live life in the manner that God intended, not drive them from this text and its message because it cannot relate to a growing, changing society. It must remain able to span any and all generations.
As for man being created perfectly, well we may have been, but somewhere along the line we changed to a species that is incapable of true perfection. We are still the dominant species on this planet, but we are far from perfect.
Regarding your claim that women would never write or participate in the writing of such a document today: that’s absolutely comical. There are women in Washington and our state capitals writing and shaping all sorts of documents and so forth that we apply to our lives everyday. It isn’t inconceivable at all, nor is it ridiculous to assume, that women may in fact participate in the writing of the Bible (or a similar such text) were it to be written today instead of two millenia ago.[/quote]
well, sorry that your bible turned out to be such a disappointment for you. Glad mine is still relevant, inspired and applicable to today. Good luck with your outdated bible . . .[/quote]
The Bible and the US Constitution are somewhat analogous, aren’t they? We have our “progressives” hither and yon and e’erywhar in between, it seems.[/quote]
We amend the Constitution, remember?
[/quote]
I didn’t say it was a perfect analogy. We don’t amend the Bible. Only God can do that.
Man wrote the Constitution and instilled methods to change it. God wrote the Bible; check with him on how to change it. I think He reserves that right to Himself exclusively.[/quote]
The Bible is for interpretation, or are you saying that how you understand it to be is the only interpretation? You cannot possibly have the same mindset and read the same message as a man from 50yrs ago much less one from 2000yrs ago in which case the Bible has evolved.
To say that the interpretation of the Bible hasn’t evolved is not true. It has. I am sure you know of how women were previously treated as a direct response to interpretation of the Bible. Thankfully that has evolved. Not to where it should be, but things happen slowly some times. Previously if a woman died in childbirth she was considered unclean and was not allowed burial on hallowed ground.
I shouldn’t have posted because I don’t hold to the Bible as I don’t agree with it for so many reasons. So in that regard I don’t care if the Bible is outdated, it doesn’t effect me.
The only thing that can be irksome and can effect me is people who believe women should be subordinate and submit to men. Luckily that doesn’t happen to often in the business sector and in my personal life I can tell them to hit the road.
There is also that saying that you can change a person’s opinion but not their belief (however right or wrong) so if you can’t reconcile with someone’s belief that is when you just dust off your hands and move along.