Excellent. Thanks.
No problem. Never stop learning!
Seventy percent of believers do not take the Bible literally. About thirty percent do. It is not going to affect their life (or anyoneâs life) if they choose to believe the literal seven days of creation or that the moon gives off its own light, etc.
What seems odd to me is not the people who take every word literally, but the ones who spend so much time trying to find errors in a book they have no belief about in the first place.
I believe in God; I have had an experience of God. It did not mesh with how I was reading the Bible. I went back and studied Hebrew and commentaries as far back as I could find. After years of this I became satisfied that my experience of God and the Bible indeed mesh.
Blessed are those who accept the Bible as is. They save themselves a lot of time. 
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Itâs a character trait.
Bible literalists take the Bible literally and claim it is the inerrant writing of God.
What character trait allowed them to believe that?
When these folks are presented with the myriad of errors in the Bible, they cross their arms, elevate their noses, and repeat that the Bible is the inerrant word of God and anyone who says different is just trying to cause trouble.
What character trait allows people - religious or non-religious - to continue to believe something when all the evidence shows its false?
Take the Bible and religion out of the equation, and lets talk Democrat and Republican. (Leaving out religion, even though apparently most Republicans are viewed to be Christians, and most Democrats are viewed - by Republicans - to be Godless atheists.)
We all see the same news - at least we would if certain Republicans would read all the news instead of just their one little Bible - yet we all have different interpretations of it, and believe those interpretations implicitly.
What character traits cause people to believe what they must know is false, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.
Donât you think, Meri, that thatâs an interesting part of human nature that is worthy of study?
It is not going to affect their life (or anyoneâs life) if they choose to believe the literal seven days of creation or that the moon gives off its own light, etc.
But it does affect otherâs peopleâs lives. Take the Bible literally and youâve got women submitting to their husbands even though the husbands are total â â â â â â â â â Youâve got fathers beating the crap out of their kids because the Bible says âspare the rod and spoil the child.â
Youâve got people who wonât seek medical help because the Bible says that God made everyone the way they should beâŚ
And on and on.
The same character trait that allows me to believe that the sack of flour in my pantry comes from wheat. Even if it didnât come from wheat, it does what I want it to do, so I donât really care.
Having God in oneâs life is the main point. As long as He is there, none of the rest matters, not to some. Think about it. How much math, physics, history, languages do we know? At some point, in every single thing, we reach the limit of what we are interested in knowing and go on to something else. The rest of what we donât know simply doesnât matter. Our life, and how we live our life, is usually our top priority.
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True.
And religious folks shouldnât be able to impinge on how other people live their lives.
Other than knocking on the door and wanting to talk to you about their religion (which is hardly an impingement on how you live your life), how has anyone impinged on how you live your life?
No it cannot. That doesnât mean it isnât true. My biggest problem seems to be the total randomness of Godâs mercy. Why he sticks an innocent three year old with cancer. A million people pray and she dies anyway. Iâm struggling with the randomness.
It wouldnât be an illusion if it wasnât random enough.
What is the one little Bible the Republicans are reading? Does this Bible have a greater slant to the right than other Bibles slant to the left?
As long as the reader/watcher knowsâand adjusts for the slantâit is a lesser problem than who is selecting the news to present to the citizens. We had barely left the 70s when I began yelping about corporations buying up the news media. My family and friends got tired of me insisting this was NOT A GOOD THING. My poor daughters grew up with this mantra.
While everyone else was talking about the election, I was haranguing about how the election was being covered. I do so to this day.
What every citizen should ask: âWhat isnât being covered today?â and âWhat part of this story was left on the cutting room floor?â
It is not good enough to go from one story to another these daysânot when the same corporation is the holding company for each agency. And, if one wants to know what is really going on when oneâs daughter is deployed overseas, donât look to any of the US media. Look overseas and adjust for slant.
If people took the Bible literally, men would love their wives more than they love themselves. If the Bible were taught correctly, everyone would know that the rod is a reference to the rod shepherds use, not to beat their sheep, but to guide them along the right path. In other words, the best way to spoil a child is to not guide them along right paths. Has nothing to do with spanking, let alone beating.
Too bad this cannot be taught in school, hmm? 
Youâre in the religion forum, not the political one. Try again. And be more loving this time. 
Look for God in matters of the spirit. Wholistic medicine takes into account body, mind, spirit and how they all work together. Sometimes spirit can make an impact on the bodyâas can the mind (mind over matter, we hear). However, sometimes an injury to one is so great there is little the other two can do as much as they are willing.
There are certain risks and truths we have to face living in a physical world. God doesnât stick anyone with cancer, be it an innocent child, or an innocent senior adult. Or the guilty for that matter. Cancer is of the physical realm. Spirit and mind can sometimes overpower an illness, but not always. Just know God is doing all He can to help our spirit and He is there whatever path a physical illness takes. Our spirit does outlast our physical bodies.
Alex was making a comparison, an analogy. I went along with it.
That was an in joke. Months ago Iâd started a thread in the Political forum asking what news people read. Democrats read everything and had an informed opinion, the Conservatives listened to Fox. Period, dismissing everything else as fake news.
Why isnât it taught in church?
When Christians want to talk to you about their religion (Iâm leaving Islamists out of the equation although France might have something to say about how Islam is impinging their citizens right to live with their heads attached to their bodiesâŚ) they always start out with the âGodâs loveâ part, but if that doesnât work they go straight to the âYouâll burn in hellâ part.
Instilling fear in people that theyâll go to hell is certainlly impinging on peopleâs lives.
The prosperity gospel taking peopleâs money so that the preachers can have their jets while the people eait and expect that prosperity that never comesâŚ
People who pray and pray, confident that God will heal their childâŚbecause they donât believe in medicine or vaccinations⌠and the kid dies needlessly
The examples of religion impinging on peopleâs lives are endless.
People need to solve their own problems - and I admit that weâve caused a lot of them - without waiting for a non-existent God who wouldnât do anyhthing even if he did exist because heâs testing everyone, faith-wiseâŚ
A little off topic but how does an âinformedâ opinion differ from an opinion? And who judged who had the informed opinion rather than simply an opinion?
Where do you think I learned it?
However, it is true that most homilies and sermons in Christian churches are based on the New Testament, not the Old Testament. And, of course it became an adage that took on the meaning many still give it today.
