There's obvious tells that the Bible is the work of man, not a God.
Just look at the Ten Commandments.
Where are the obvious commandments that would be there if they were written by a loving, caring God?
Like:
"Thou shalt not enslave other people."
"Thou shalt not rape."
"Thou shalt not kill children of your enemies."
Why all the symbolism? It's so open to interpretation that it's simple to justify anything you want. If these books were from a deity, you'd think it would want to be crystal clear. Please don't start with the "discernment" crap, which is just self-serving post hoc rationalization.
God couldn't foresee that Humanity would go off the rails and prevent it to prevent all the suffering? Why not? That's no loving, caring God. That's an abuser.
Those would be society-shaking Commandments, but they aren't there. There are plenty more in both the Old and New Testaments. Funny how most of the Commandments just encourage the "justice" the tribal leaders were already using, isn't it?
An instruction about washing your hands before eating (because the deity was aware of bacteria and viruses and parasites) would have made the whole tale far more compelling.
It seems that the council might’ve got some part of the marketing campaign right, though, since humans are still looking at and believing in their own interpretation of said book.
If you think the bible was changed at the first council of Nicea in 325AD your a bit late, the earliest manuscript that had turned up when I was last studying the topic (2001) was from 125AD and the earliest complete New Testament comes from 175AD and all worthwhile modern translations are based heavily on these early manuscripts.
James Fell - don’t soft pedal ever! It doesn’t suit you. The words here and the damned religion of Christianity (as are all the others) was a clever power and wealth grab by men and will always be nothing more than that- keeping the poor poor and deliberately so they don’t rise up because they’re brainwashed with a promise of heaven?????
The bible is a farrago of nonsense and dangerous propaganda. End of story.
There's obvious tells that the Bible is the work of man, not a God.
Just look at the Ten Commandments.
Where are the obvious commandments that would be there if they were written by a loving, caring God?
Like:
"Thou shalt not enslave other people."
"Thou shalt not rape."
"Thou shalt not kill children of your enemies."
Why all the symbolism? It's so open to interpretation that it's simple to justify anything you want. If these books were from a deity, you'd think it would want to be crystal clear. Please don't start with the "discernment" crap, which is just self-serving post hoc rationalization.
God couldn't foresee that Humanity would go off the rails and prevent it to prevent all the suffering? Why not? That's no loving, caring God. That's an abuser.
Those would be society-shaking Commandments, but they aren't there. There are plenty more in both the Old and New Testaments. Funny how most of the Commandments just encourage the "justice" the tribal leaders were already using, isn't it?
An instruction about washing your hands before eating (because the deity was aware of bacteria and viruses and parasites) would have made the whole tale far more compelling.
It seems that the council might’ve got some part of the marketing campaign right, though, since humans are still looking at and believing in their own interpretation of said book.
Yeah, these guys were a bunch of misogynistic cretins. *gack*
If you think the bible was changed at the first council of Nicea in 325AD your a bit late, the earliest manuscript that had turned up when I was last studying the topic (2001) was from 125AD and the earliest complete New Testament comes from 175AD and all worthwhile modern translations are based heavily on these early manuscripts.
James Fell - don’t soft pedal ever! It doesn’t suit you. The words here and the damned religion of Christianity (as are all the others) was a clever power and wealth grab by men and will always be nothing more than that- keeping the poor poor and deliberately so they don’t rise up because they’re brainwashed with a promise of heaven?????
The bible is a farrago of nonsense and dangerous propaganda. End of story.