Be honest: when you read the bible what makes you think it is of divine origin? [Spirituality & Religion]

@CopperCicada And the rape, murder, slavery, infanticide etc hun? 🤷‍♀️

@Harriet03 Anyone can hurt and kill people. Anyone can be selfish and fall under base emotions. A religious narratives that celebrate that are underwhelming to me.

To conquer, even just reign in, our base emotions is miraculous.

@CopperCicada God's words Alledgedly! Don't cherry pick, it's either true or it's not hun! ✌

@Harriet03 I [i]do[/i] cherry pick. [i]Everyone[/i] cherry picks. Everyone just thinks their cherry picking is right, just and correct.

@CopperCicada And that's when the problems/ hate/ discrimination starts!!

@Harriet03 Ironically-- that's where turning away from the hate and discrimination starts as well.

@CopperCicada Why do they bang on about gays, abortion etc yet don't condem the eating of Shrimp, wearing mixed fabrics, working on the Sabbath, helping the poor, welcoming foreignours? It's all in your magic book, but it's ignored! 🤦‍♀️

@Harriet03 Not my faith community.

The religious world is bigger than fundamentalists.

@CopperCicada Its all in your user manual hun! Perhaps you should read it again properly!!

@CopperCicada


But what makes you think that has a divine origin or inspiration rather than simply human?
As harriet points out, there's an awful lot of nastiness done and commanded by god in the bible.

@Pikachu Like I told @Harriet03... [i]I'm like anyone else. I cherry pick. [/i]

I could cherry pick that queers are an abomination or that women are inferior.

Fuck that.

I came up on a ration of hatred. I turned my back on that. I don't need a religious discipline to instruct me to hate. Humans have been great teachers.

What I've needed in my life is to break my ego down and to cultivate a loving heart. So that's what I take from the faith of my upbringing. [i]The Sermon on the Mount.[/i] I'm a doer, not a talker. That's enough for a lifetime. That's something I do, inside me, to be a better person. [i]That's what I've cherry picked.
[/i]
And that's what I've needed from my adopted faith. Buddhism. Explicitly about cultivating love, kindness. And I'm far from the only person to see the connection with [i]The Sermon on the Mount[/i]. That faith family has its own problems. But that's what I've cherry picked. Didn't have to work hard. There's a whole menu for that.

Not just me doing that cherry picking. I'm not alone.

But hey. I'm owning my cherry picking. I'm self honest about textuality, interpretation. I'm self honest about spiritual self responsibility. I'm honest about my psychology. I had a yearning, a need. Darkness. I sought, I made choices. I changed. This is who I am.

I'm not going to feed anyone a line that I believe X, Y and Z because a text says to. Or because God said so. I don't hide behind that. We all make our own choices. Create our own values. Adopt them, cultivate them.

So my comment really says more about than anything else.

@CopperCicada

lol well it is refreshing to see someone own up to cherry picking.

But i'm still not clear on why you feel the good cherries are indicative of a divine origin or inspiration

There is no "nastiness" done by God at all. People who say such ridiculous things haven't really understood God and his motivations at all. Those people are the same people who retaliate if someone does something terrible to them or their children. If someone raped and tortured and killed your child what should the punishment be? you probably would say, prison or death penalty, but God loves that person and wants us to love them too even if it was your child they tortured. So you have very little knowledge of our loving God if you say such things that our God is not fair. He is a just God. More just than you because you are wicked, and he died for you anyway and loved you when you didn't at all deserve it. You wouldn't die for someone who hated you. You hate God and that is the truth. As long as you hate God you will be cursed by God. He wont answer your prayers, or even here them. Our God is righteous and just. "How can you escape if you neglect such a great salvation" God says.@Pikachu

@Carazaa I'm not particularly worried about the "nastiness" of God, but rather of his followers. It is very easy to rationalize what is in one's mind and heart as the will of another: the needs and desires of one's family or country. To believe one's inner voice is that of God is almost irresistible.

Through history we have rationalized and enabled horrible things through this conviction that our inner voice is in fact God's. And our religious texts are like Rorsach ink-blots. We can find anything there.

It's a matter of putting words in God's mouth. In my own family faith was used to justify and defend domestic violence and marital rape. We can and do put anything in God's mouth. We've justified as a society anti-Semitism, slavery and the subjugation of women on the basis of what words we've put in God's mouth.

We do that despite knowing God is utterly unknowable and transcends all categories as God transcends the limits of our minds.

From my seats what's missing is spiritual personal responsibility. We hide behind textuality and God itself. We defend ourselves by saying it is written in the Bible or some other text. God said so. And so it is.

I don't think so.

We are responsible for what we hear God say. What we read in the Bible or Koran or whatever scriptures we follow. We are responsible for that. For accepting some verses and discarding others. For accepting some interpretations. For what to accept and reject. For who to love and have contempt for...

@Pikachu I guess it depends on how literal and materialistic you wish to be. The mystic would say the kingdom of heaven is in your own heart.

Well if you prefer to ignore Gods words that he will punish sin then OK but only Jesus paid for humanities sins. I put my trust in HIm. I would agree that people aren't living up to His calling, and many Christians make me mad, but me for one I live by Jesus words " Treat others the way you want to be treated" "Love your enemies, and pray for those who despitefully use you!" Many just want to feel good but that wont get God's blessings.@CopperCicada