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Originally Posted by Livia Regina
Tangential, but please tell me you are kidding.
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No, there are many sources out there to look at. Google: "Bush rapture" "Bush Zionism" etc. There's an earnist belief out there that Bush can help bring the rapture with his dealings in Israel. I've read at least a dozen NYTimes articles about it. I'm not going to spend the time to search and quote for you, since most of my information is from actual paper... maybe someone involved in tracking this or with a curiousity streak will post some excerpts from articles for us.
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I've read parts of the Bible and it never struck me as a story about life. It's all about the "life of the world to come" or a story showing everyone how not to be damned. Not a very life-affirming story.
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Well, this is the problem. And it is based on several things: A) the process of how things originally got into The 5 Books of Moses/Old Testiment/New Testiment (and how things were omitted), B) the large number of contributors to the Bible and their political agendas, C) the way the text has changed over the years, D) the large numbers of translations (Hebrew to Greek to German to English), E) lack of historical documents accompanying the Bible to explain the accounts in the Bible, and F) contradictions or, to be generous, seeming contraditions.
Given all of these factors, it is very hard to wrap your mind around a large text such as the Bible. I will grant that there are some good lessons in there, just as there are in all other religions. However, it is very easy to find what you want in the Bible and twist the meaning for your own causes. If you want the Bible to be positive, it will be positive. If you want it to be negative, it will be negative. I think it is clear at this point, that logical arguments to believe in the Bible literally are fundamentally flawwed. So, what we're left with are logical arguments about faith, theological arguments, philosophical arguments, political arguments, sociological arguments, and historical arguments.
My approach is the same approach as to any other literature text or historical document. If you want to know the value of it, read it, and then research about it. Read different opinions on it, criticisms, historical studies, news articles related to it, etc. What I find discouraging is that Biblical arguments are often reduced to interpretation arguments based solely on one's personal read of the Bible. I suggest that you don't limit yourself to one religious text, and read about other religions and philosophies. If something about the metaphorical (or, as stated earlier, theological) meanings you find in the texts help you feel that you have a better understanding of the universe or how to live in the universe, then that's great.
You know from what I've stated so far that I'm not interested in the Bible as an authoritative text, and I'll leave it at that.