Originally Posted by up|dn 
The cosmology and understanding of how things worked was completely different than today. Most of us no longer believe that there's some place up in the sky where the gods live, or some place below the earth where dead people go (I don't know enough abour Mormonism to say what they believe about this). Most of us metaphorize it to the point that when we say "heaven" we're not talking about the same thing as what the authors meant, which in almost every case was simply "the sky", not some 5th dimension where spirits go. When someone has epilepsy, we don't say "oh he has a demon", and we also don't believe that there are spiritual powers of sin that contribute to disease and death. We say the words, but what the mean to us is different than what they would have meant to people from another culture and another time. To the ancients, there was no problem with Jesus or Elijah ascending to heaven on a cloud or whirlwind, since it wasn't really that far away. Current knowledge tells us that even ascending at the speed of light, it would still take years and years to travel to the nearest stars and obviously one would die as soon as they went even a few kilometres up.
To me the words in a translation are no big deal, it is the concepts behind those words that change. Most of the concepts in the Bible made perfect sense in that culture, but just make no sense (unless they're symbolized) today.
The goal of the ancients was mass control, to control every thought and action of civilization. If god had given instruction to Moses, or whoever, then some of that instruction would be based on sound physical evidence--not faith. Abraham had to chop off his foreskin in order to appease god. Why couldn't god demand some other less horrific act--like helping someone that needed it to prove Abraham's faith? Instead, strict obedience is demanded or death will follow.
We can take someone from the Amazon and in less than two weeks that person can understand the basics of science and biology, yet the bible's god has to give Moses lessons in human biology that is not true--man did not come from the dust but it would appear so to someone who found corpses decaying and did not know the progress or purpose of decay. Wouldn't god be able to explain himself for even Moses to understand if Moses had actually spoken with god? I find the whole thing one preposterous lie. Either the story of Moses is a lie or Moses lied. Take your pick. Either way, humanity has been lead by the nose for more than five thousand years by religion. It does not matter if one can find similarities in what we know in science today and what is written in a religious book. The stories were written by individuals claiming they wrote word for word what god told them to write.
Why would god lie to us about the formation of the universe and everything in it or why would he exaggerate telling stories to Moses when he could have taught Moses exactly and scientifically how he made the universe? The answer is, Moses lied about his relationship with god and he lied about what god never told him. If the lie is carried over to other religions, then they lie as well, teaching for commandments the fantasies (traditions) of men. Mormons or christian, it makes no difference. The good samaritan wasn't even christian and neither did christ demand he become one, which is something christians forget. You do not have to be a christian to have a happy and healthy life or be a positive influence in someone else's.
Christianity makes the bible stories relate to any event or purpose. The bible was written for six thousand year old Jews, not 21st Century humanity.
12-19-2007, 01:16 PM
