Religion: pros & cons (Religion)

by dhw, Monday, September 22, 2014, 13:04 (3725 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: One of the places where we differ, it would seem, is that you hold the bible(and by extension God) accountable for the actions of humans with free will. -This is a complete misunderstanding of my whole argument. My point was twofold: 1) The Bible is a collection of books written by and selected by fallible human beings. 2) It is wide open to interpretation, and consequently is of little value as a guide because humans can use it to justify whatever actions they wish to perform. This is not to say that it is not full of wise counsel, but “seek, and ye shall find” applies just as much to what you and I would regard as the baddies as it does to the goodies. I am therefore questioning the value of the Bible as a truthful record (e.g. how does the narrator of Job know what God said to Satan?) and as a book of moral guidance. Of course the blame for bad behaviour lies with people and not with God (if he exists). By the same token, I would argue that the credit for good behaviour also lies with people and not with God. As I wrote earlier, humans can lead moral lives without God - a statement with which you agreed.-The convention of Jehovah's Witnesses is an excellent example of how people ought to behave. I expect Shias of different nationalities would also hold peaceful conferences, and so would Sunnis. In the past, Catholics would have held hands with Catholics, and Protestants with Protestants before they went to war with each other. No, it's not God's fault that the world is full of “madness”, but let's not pretend that religion is the cure.-The rest of your post is based on the same misunderstanding, apart from one blip. You say there is nothing in the Bible that would have prevented me from marrying my wife - not even the bit about marrying within the faith, because 1 Cor. 7:13 and Romans 2:14 say it's OK. (I do admire your amazing ability to quote these relevant passages.) Sorry, but I can't find any passages in Deuteronomy that tell me to ignore Deuteronomy and read Corinthians and Romans instead. (Or are you saying that the OT is not the Word of God, whereas the NT is?) Besides, Cor. 2: 6: 14 makes it clear that my wife (who was a Methodist) should not have got herself “unequally yoked” to me (an “unbeliever” and so by definition unrighteous...thank you, Paul, for your tolerance). Again, my point is that you can find whatever you want in the Bible. Of course it's not God's fault. He didn't write it, and he doesn't interpret it for us.