The Bible is a beautiful peace of artwork. An anthology written thousands of years ago in languages that have evolved along with the culture of those who wrote it. It tells the collective story of a people. Their struggles, their migration, their victories, defeats, and, apparently more importantly, their relationship with this thing they called יהוה
(the name may have been lost in translation)
A body of rulers (the church) amassed the writings of these ancient people and compiled stories that they thought showed a consistent picture of a thing they called 'God'. This thing called 'God' is used to help them rule to this day.
Like any other form of artwork, people tend to interpret it based on their own experiences, emotions, and needs. Sometimes the artist fails to construe the true meaning of their artwork because they can't overcome simple human perceptions.
I agree that it's the people who teach it, interpret it, read it, perceive it rather than the writing itself. It seems that people lose sight of basic reading comprehension skills when they read sacred texts. The skeptics and the apologetics
It's why I'm all for the Bible (at least certain portions of it) and other religious texts being taught in public schools. Put on the reading list right along with Crime and Punishment or the Illiad. Make students do a book report discussing the same concepts you would for the tales of the Brothers Grimm.
Oddly enough, before I went to Kuwait, I had a cultural brief where the man told us that you just can't pick up the Quran and read it. Reading and understanding the Quran takes many years of learning. And don't even try to read it in english; that's just a waste of time.
I've always thought the biggest problem with religious texts is that people throw reading comprehension out of the window.
What is the bible, really?
Who wrote it? Was it written by one person or by multiple people?
Was it written all at once or over a long period of time?
Were the events written as they happened or did a significant amount of time pass before the events were recorded?
Was the bible written as one book or was it a bunch of smaller documents compiled well after they were written?
who compiled these documents? Why did they?
Are there more documents? Why were they left out?
WHat language was it written in? how many times has it been translated? Has it been translated from it's original language directly to english or was in translated into other languages before it got to it's present english form(won't mention how the english language has changed)? Is every english version translated the same?
Who said it was inspired by God? What does inspired mean?
Who said that God wrote the bible? is there really any passage in the bible that makes that claim?
Every other book (fiction and non-fiction) is read with consideration for the person who wrote it and the time/culture they wrote it in? Why isn't this considered when reading the bible?
If you read a book about thomas jefferson and found it inspirational to your life, are you obligated to follow all of Jefferson's teachings and do everything just like jefferson did?
*Edited
original Oct 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment