Phat writes:
I wanted to start this topic on a whim after I heard Percy say in response to Kleinman:
quote:
Kleinman writes:
You seem to have gotten a very tiny bit out of the Bible. You missed the part where Jesus said, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her".
Percy writes:
So you think society should be guided by a book with obvious contradictions.
Which brngs up a line of questions.
Where are the sources of wisdom? Do they begin and end with objective evidence and the scientific method? Should they?
Note how, in politics for example, people mimic canned answers from the ideology which they follow. Very few of us go beyond the narrative with our own original thought.
AZPaul3 hates theism with a passion. Many of you lean towards the same conclusion. In light of the passing of Dr.Charles Stanley, I will include this video in this post as it pertains to "Godly wisdom" and the source thereof. In light of Percys claim of obvious contradictions, what can one conclude about Theistic philosophy versus secular philosophy?
I just have a couple of thoughts on your post which is well done BTW. Firstly the quote about casting the first stone is not just a comment on regarding on own failings and not to be too quick to condemn, but it is also a repudiation of public stoning which was a large part of that culture. Heck, in the OT they have Yahweh pronouncing that some poor schmuck who picked up firewood on the Sabbath should be stoned to death. This would be one of the contradictions that Percy would mention. You can't have it being both commanded and rejected, so the only Christian answer can be that Yahweh did not command it and there some human failing that is responsible for that being written the way it was.
As to Percy's comment I think it is important that we don't think of the Bible as a list of laws and commands as in a constitution, but view it as a narrative that can read as a whole which can influence us to do the kind loving thing, and part of that is so that we can see a picture of how human nature perverted the message of love and kindness for individual power and greed.
Over the years I have become increasingly in line, without realizing it, with the so-called "emergent or emerging church". The best source of information on that is Brian McLaren, and I think that the best place to understand him is his book
A New Kind of Christianity
He has told you, O man, what is good ; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8
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