[quote]vroom wrote:
If the bible was supposed to be literal it wouldn’t have been written by men…
OllyB wrote:
That assumes the Bible’s supposed to be anything at all 
I think taking any text (especially those like the Bible) as being literal is always going to be at least slightly dodgy.
[/quote]
My text is always to be taken literally.
Well, yes, you may be dodgy enough…
[quote]vroom wrote:
If the bible was supposed to be literal it wouldn’t have been written by men…
When is the last time you saw mankind achieve perfection?
Expecting mankind to achieve such perfection is itself an affront due to the amount of hubris that would entail.
Think about it… we’ve “advanced” for thousands of years now, and we are still a screwed up species filled with all manner of faults.
[/quote]
I think if you’re going to believe in the bible, it makes more sense to take it literally. Think about it: if you’re God, and you are giving an instructional booklet to the entire world, wouldn’t you make it as easy to understand as possible? Why would you make it metaphorical while presenting it as historical? Unless of course God is really a trickster God, and is just trying to fuck with us.
I suppose you could say there isn’t a God, and the bible’s just a story with a moral, which is more plausible.
[quote]lothario1132 wrote:
Yeah. I’ve seen this same twist before, though. There was an old Star Trek where Captain Kirk and gang encounter a crystalline species and it constantly refers to them as “ugly bags of mostly water”. :)[/quote]
Uh, no it wasn’t the “Original Series” with Bill Shatner. It was The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart, sometime in the 2nd season or very early 3rd (after Tasha Yar was killed but before the band collar uniforms became “standard issue” to Starfleet).
If you took the Bible literally you’d be really really confused by all the odd little laws, rite?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
We devour and infest any natural region that can support us until nothing is left. If we can’t even keep from fucking up this one little planet, why would he give us more?[/quote]
Relax, Agent Smith. We’re not perfect by far, but we’re still here and the planet still sustains life.
Getting more, though, is exactly what we’ll need if we do fuck up this planet badly enough that we can’t live on it anymore. There’s a lot more stuff out there for us to fuck with, if we can ever manage to reach it. Or maybe we’ll learn and take care of whatever else we manage to get out paws on.
As far as we can tell, it’s not like anyone else is using it anyway.
[quote]cap’nsalty wrote:
I think if you’re going to believe in the bible, it makes more sense to take it literally. Think about it: if you’re God, and you are giving an instructional booklet to the entire world, wouldn’t you make it as easy to understand as possible? Why would you make it metaphorical while presenting it as historical? Unless of course God is really a trickster God, and is just trying to fuck with us.[/quote]
Which Bible? The New International one? The New American Standard version? The King James bible? The Revised Standard? The New Revised Standard? The Living Bible (requires food an water)? Or maybe the New Century Version? The original Hebrew and Greek texts? The oral tradition before?
How can you read it in English when some terms and expressions don’t translate well at all from Hebrew or Greek?
What about the Quran? The Torah? The Rig-Veda?
Considering that there’s around 3000 variations of faiths, sect, cults and religions of all kinds around the world, I’d say God did a bang up job of being perfectly clear about what he meant.
[quote]Madman2 wrote:
lothario1132 wrote:
Yeah. I’ve seen this same twist before, though. There was an old Star Trek where Captain Kirk and gang encounter a crystalline species and it constantly refers to them as “ugly bags of mostly water”. 
Uh, no it wasn’t the “Original Series” with Bill Shatner. It was The Next Generation with Patrick Stewart, sometime in the 2nd season or very early 3rd (after Tasha Yar was killed but before the band collar uniforms became “standard issue” to Starfleet).
[/quote]
HAHAHA!!! Caught you in my “geek trap”, didn’t I? I KNEW I’d get somebody! I knew it!
There is nothing that brings the geek out of the woodwork like an ill-formed Star Trek reference.
PS My mom has all the Next Generation on VHS. Don’t feel bad.
[quote]lothario1132 wrote:
PS My mom has all the Next Generation on VHS. Don’t feel bad. :)[/quote]
What is this “VHS” you speak of?
[quote]Professor X wrote:
lothario1132 wrote:
PS My mom has all the Next Generation on VHS. Don’t feel bad.
What is this “VHS” you speak of?[/quote]
It’s like an 8-track tape for the tv.
[quote]The Mage wrote:
Professor X wrote:
lothario1132 wrote:
PS My mom has all the Next Generation on VHS. Don’t feel bad.
What is this “VHS” you speak of?
It’s like an 8-track tape for the tv.[/quote]
Explain VHS in terms of an even older technology. That’ll work.
VHS means Variable Hiss and Static. It was invented by Max Beta.