What makes you religious? [Spirituality & Religion]

Let's make this clear: I'm NOT against the idea of a God because it is hard to believe that this complex world is the result of random circumstances. I'm very open to the idea of our instinct, intuition and morality being God given.

What baffles me is that many people don't trust the results of these "interactive tools" processing current events as much as 2000 year old static instructions. Why did we get all these abilities if all we need is ancient information?

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walabby · M

Religion = crowd control...

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

I don't think you understand Christianity at all. The book is not static at all.

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SW-User

@hippyjoe1955 That's a whole different message and a good update to the Bible if you consider the New Testament to be that. Still, the Bible is presented as the ultimate guideline, including the Old and New testament.

A few questions remain though:
- Why would God let people add new instructions without removing the instructions they replace, thus introducing contradictions?
- Why is the Bible still used as guidance and justification as a whole, including outdated instructions?

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

@SW-User If you understood the intent of the Law in the first place you would understand why it was never removed. The purpose of the Law was to show you that you can not become righteous by trying to keep a Law you can never keep.

SW-User

@hippyjoe1955 That actually makes sense. Thanks for this insight!
I would have gone with a bigger rewrite, marking old information more clearly as a reference in the context of new information, rather than keeping everything and adding new information hundreds of pages further, but you have honestly convinced me about the intend.

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SW-User

@TheSociopathicSadomasochist That helps a lot actually! I've never really considered recognizing the possibility of translation mistakes in the interpretation, but that does solve at least some of the contradictions. Thank you for enlightening me, really! (I realize that things easily sound sarcastic on controversial topics, but please trust me that I mean this genuinely.)

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Boallods · 26-30, M

In my personal view, discussions are pointless. You will believe and serve God if you've personally experienced Him; if you don't experience Him, but are instead "convinced" He exist due to some philosophical reasoning or alike, you will believe in His existence, and yet not care. He who thinks he can bring people to God by science or philosophy is foolish.

On the last point: the Bible is anything but static. The New Covenant abrogated the Old one, thereby giving the two greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God will all your soul, mind, and body, and love your neighbor as thyself. I see nothing static in that. There are, however, people who approach the Bible as a science book - but that's a completely different story.

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SW-User

@Boallods Thanks! It makes sense, except for one thing. Maybe it was a typo or maybe I understood, but you said your relationship with God is fallible and the Bible is not, but also that it is irreplaceable. Is the Bible better than your relationship with Him or not?

Boallods · 26-30, M

@SW-User I said that the experience of God is irreplaceable, not one's relationship with Him; do note the difference. For only experiencing God will bring you to Him. The Bible, however, will help you build that relationship once already there.

For sure, many people have experienced God whilst reading the Bible; the two are hardly exclusive. But reading the Bible without experiencing God is vain.

SW-User

@Boallods Thanks for the clarification!

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