Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[KDbeads]

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For me it was the scriptures on stoning unruly sons, etc. I read them around the age of 7. It hit home on a few too many levels and well, thus began my questioning of why a god of any type would allow or demand that to happen. And why the church would stand by a man who beat his children in the 'name of god'.
Trust me, a 7 year old is terrified enough of abuse but to have it written in the good book and having the church back it up.... well lets just say I had nightmares for YEARS thinking I was evil or some sort of demon.

ETA.... seriously I thought I was some sort of demon, I drew dragons and the church nearly tossed us out. My sister had night terrors and all our toys were taken away. I started having sleep paralysis episodes and thought I was being punished for being a horrible demon child. Took many years to overcome what those people did to me. Many years....

 

[michickenwrangler]

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VERY true! Council of Nicaea: human men decided which books would be included in the New Testament. Lots of stuff was left out, Gospels according to other apostles (including Mary Magdalene), Revelation of Peter along with thousands of letters and other first hand accounts of Jesus' life.

It always irks me when people say that the Bible was written by God. No, it was written by men and decided by men. I suppose you could make the argument it was divinely inspired, but I doubt that even God has the patience with sit in with dozens of bickering bishops.

 

[Reinbeau]

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VERY true! Council of Nicaea: human men decided which books would be included in the New Testament. Lots of stuff was left out, Gospels according to other apostles (including Mary Magdalene), Revelation of Peter along with thousands of letters and other first hand accounts of Jesus' life.

It always irks me when people say that the Bible was written by God. No, it was written by men and decided by men. I suppose you could make the argument it was divinely inspired, but I doubt that even God has the patience with sit in with dozens of bickering bishops.

Decided by men and written by men to give themselves power, supposedly bestowed upon them by their higher power. I've always had a problem with that.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Redux, are you still out there? I'm wondering if we are getting too much into bashing Christianity, and not enough into why we believe what we believe. I'm sorry if I started it by relating my beliefs to the parable. I love this thread, and I don't want it to get negative.

 

[michickenwrangler]

What Reinbeau and I are trying to say is that this is the reason we maintain a level of skepticism is that certain organized religions pick and choose things in order to give a minority power. Men I used in the general sense of the word--mortal humans--and not to bash the gender of men.

Historically, Constantine, Emperor of Rome, was not baptized until his deathbed and he only granted TOLERANCE for Christianity, he never made it the state religion. That was Theodosius some 80 years later. Constantine was very interested in Christianity, gathered a bunch of bishops together and told them "You should have a book of Jesus." So they made a book of Jesus. A LOT of stuff was tossed out or not included. So, was this humans trying to pick things that fit their own image of religion or did God inspire them?

I've read the Gospel of Mary Madgalene for an early Christian history course (taught in a secular manner by a Sephardic Jewish professor who speaks English, Italian, French, Latin and Hebrew) and it's just plain weird. Contradicting the "DaVinci Code", I think it was left out because the second half is really bizarre and it's hard to make sense out of. First part is interesting, second half is just strange.

Even though my husband and I are fairly non-religious, I still want my daughter to learn some of the better known Bible stories. There is a lot of merit to many of the stories and I think Jesus' message of forgiveness and peace is really just common sense for living a good life. Some tenents of Christianity, I do not agree with (humans lording over the Earth) but most of the stuff is just being a decent person.

 

[redux]

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I am still here. I think the bashing is the result of people answering Deb1's question about how they came to diverge from their former faith.

I think people are keeping it respectful; they are criticizing ideas, not Christians.

 

[MaggieRae]

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I am still here. I think the bashing is the result of people answering Deb1's question about how they came to diverge from their former faith.

I think people are keeping it respectful; they are criticizing ideas, not Christians.

Exactly.

 

[RThomas]

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Check out the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which is completely different than the Gospel of Thomas. I think someone previously posted a passage from it. It goes more indepth into Jesus' childhood than any other gospel. None of it is probably true, but still interesting.

 

[destinduck]

i loved the first few pages however the bashing begins. us humans are not perfect My last post for this thread. Just wanted to see where this thread headed .(right where i thought it would) love all yall really

 

[redux]

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sorry you feel that way. It is sometimes difficult to explain your views on these things without stepping on someone's toes.