The thing is, the old testament is more or less supposed to be ignored after Jesus did his swag. And most of the crazy stuff is all in the Old Testament. Which is also the Torah. So I guess most of your issues are actually with the jews.
That's another thing that bothers me. If the important part of the Bible is the New Testament, then why is the Old Testament still taught? Or at least taught so much?
Because Jews are important in Christian values. Therre are New Testament-only printed versions of the bible though.
Yeah, but most jews are very creative when interpreting these rules and most are ruled not to apply today by the rabbi's. Judaism has a saying, a metaphor about a king who give each of his two servants a bag of wheat, and says to them to return it the next day. The wise servant use the weat to make bread, the foolish servant give back the weat without doing anything with it. The moral of the story is the following, you are supposed to interpret these rules to the time, it is foolish to Always keep them the same. Rules need to adapt over time to follow Gods will. This means, despite my disgust over the old testament laws I have great respect for judaism. I just wish some christians would learn this from the jews, Gods Word is not static.
Indeed, as time changes so does the world around us, and as we adapt we must be conscious that God's Will would adapt within us. I remember saying something along those lines more than once back when I was actually a member of a church, and a Youth Group Leader.
This is kind of a tangent, but I feel like it's worth saying here; So, I am an atheist, I truly believe only in what I can see and that is how I personally have decided to live my life. BUT, I see so many fellow atheists being jerks all the time about it. I think that people need to keep in mind that most religious concepts are so huge that no one really can say with absolute certainty ~ and even then depending on how you define god or gods it could even be technically compatible with exactly what an atheist believes so... yea I just bring a message of tolerance and a word of warning against jumping on people's train of thought without giving them a chance to explain or realizing that in the end it can be just a personal thing. Yes political parties based on religion MIGHT be dangerous, but most religious folk are just ordinary people that take comfort in their beliefs and it helps them get through the day or gives them a set of ideas to work with, or a community to be a part of and they mean no harm. Like I said, I'm happy with my disbeliefs, but I have plenty of great friends with faith in something, and I hope we can all learn from each others perspectives. also, Yamiookami, your Avatar and Signature are epic xD
I feel that would be the case, though very few Jews have any sort of ideology even approaching the dogmatic views of the few Christian extremists that are often dragged into the limelight. I've only met a handful of Jewish people that believe in parts of the Torah literally, and of those none put stock in the anti-gay, anti-woman ideologies in the Torah. I think the real problem is when people take too much of their holy book literally.
Ah but the holy book is the infallible word of god, is it not? Many would think it in bad taste not to take it literally.
It sounds like you have never visited Israel xD I totally agree with the sentiment of literal interpretations being a bit ...well... it can get out of hand pretty quickly is all I'll say. One of my best friend's dad is actualyl a pastor of all things - and I really get along with him because he tends to preach about the positive things, looking at the book more subjectively as a source of ideas rather than some historic account of absolutes. Obviously he believes in the basics, but it's a healthy belief and not a <go around harassing people and tell minorities they are lesser> kind of a deal.
'We call people who take their Holy Text seriously, and literally, terrorists. What does that say about Religion?' -Jacob Petulla I'm not anti-religion, but damn this makes sense.
many, yes, but not the majority in my experience. If you approach most common folk with a combative attitude about it they will be aggressive back to you, but as long as you present the idea passively, in an understanding sort of way; "So i know the book says X about this group of people, but i think it would be more in line with Jesus's overall message to be nice to everyone regardless" - examples like that., they will be more receptive to agreeing that literal interpretations may not always be best.
The bible is both literal and metaphorical. Some parts are literal. Some metaphorical. Figure out which are which.
And what is it that splits them in to these 2 categories? Surely if everyone sees them different then it isn't really a good thing to follow.
