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Old 02-09-2005, 11:09 AM   #7 (permalink)
Rodney
Observant Ruminant
 
Location: Rich Wannabe Hippie Town
Christianity is about questioning, really. It was originally a radical religion that looked around at society and said, "You're not doing it right; you're oppressing people and grabbing privilege in the name of God." Guess what: 2000 years later,that's still happening. Jesus, if he were alive, would be as controversial today as 2000 years ago and as dangerous to the power elites as then, they who use Christianity as a control mechanism. We might not crucify him this time around -- we're much more civilized -- but he might have an "accident."

The Bible is not literal truth; it is the spiritual history of a people, and of two religions: what they believed and thought about God, and how they thought God responded to what they did in the world. Is it the literal truth? No. But it doesn't really have to be, to true in spirit.

Don't confuse metaphor with reality. The writers of the New Testament sure didn't. The gospels were articles of faith, not of factual reporting. Are the loaves and fishes factual truth, or was the real truth that the love and example of Christ brought the food out of the crowd itself? We'll never know, but it was the tradition of religious writing of the time to infer the miraculous from the commonplace. In a way, it still is.

You should also question whether everything happens because God has a plan -- or if things just happen, and God is there to help.

I would recommend to you a book written by a rabbi, but very applicable to Christian thought (it is the Judeo-Christian Tradition, after all) called "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." Author is named Harold Kushner. Very helpful for all those "If God controls everything, then why..." questions.
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