edit: this is longer that I anticipated, heh. If you want the answer to the question of the thread, just read the part starting at: So why believe at the Bible
why is it that people use such superficial definitions of alot of things.
A Legend & a saga are tales, with alot of fantasy added, but with a grain of truth in it every time.
The Bible is that: a collection of legens and sagas, with a core of true elements. Did Mozes really ascend to a mountain on his own and come down with 2 holy slabs of stone? Highly unlikely. Did they make up the 10 commandments around that period: that sounds very reasonable. Did Jacob die wrestling God? Not very likely either, but a fitting end to a great leader who took care of his people for so long. Best to have him remembered as "struggling with the journey" to finally get there.
see, images are so much more fun and so much better for people to understand and remember. Why do you think Jezus used parables to bring across alot of his message?
Noah & his Ark... basically just stolen, yes, you read it, stolen from other religions. At the time the Israelites were nomadic or banished (I don't remember which) near other cultures and the elders started to see that their own were beginning to take over local legends like the great flood as it was described by that culture. So they just adapted some names, details & numbers and proclaimed it as their own legend.
Another thing to be said is the story of the Virgin Mary. According to literary traditions, at the time the first gosples were being written, there was a custom to have an important person's birth become a virginal pregnancy. The only way this can happen is afterwards, they just add this part, again to make it that much more alluring.
Does that diminish the value of Mary? Of course not. She is still the mother of Jesus and still stood by him and took care of him. That is what she symbolises.
As for the religion having a trial & error method...
What do you think Deut. & Leviticus are? They are added much, and I mean much later than the other books. They were just a bunch of rules that were added to the books, rules that were good, necessary and just made plain sense at the time. It was the trial & error method at work. The thing is that people always like to classify things, and declare them final.
What would have made more sense, would be to realise that those books are children of their time, and should be updated constantly. But when the New Testament was written, they figured that since these stories were the Old Testament, that it was finished, done, over and closed.
Lev & Deut are NOT the core of Christianity. They don't have ANYTHING to do with it. They are just interpretations of the earlier books, with clear and specific wording for each case.
(remember the notice on the boards about not posting pictures of children under 18? Remember how many countless replies that came with "what ifs" ? That's what Deut & Lev are for... To smother rule lawyers that try and find the line they can't cross. Seems like it's part of human nature mostly, even thousands of years later.)
See, I love being catholic and I love to use common sense. And yes, most of the things I talked about were taught to me. At school. By a catholic priest.
So why believe in the Bible? Not because of all the litteral interpretations, like so many people constantly try to do. But because of the truth, the message hidden in those stories.
David & Goliath? Who knows whether there was a giant at those times or whether it was just a big bulky man, but does it matter? The point of that story is that if you are small but have skills and the wits to use them right, you can easily overcome brute force.
Why believe in Jesus? Not because of what the historical figure represents, but what the figure in the Bible tried to achieve, what he wanted to become... And to try and aspire to that ourselves.
As for the person who says they would rather be true to themselves, I agree, you can burn in hell
Someone who is just true to himself can never better himself, since he believes himself to be more than good enough (or that is how it sounds to me).
If you don't even bother to try and make a difference around you, to maybe cut yourself short once in a while to significantly help others and try to be respectful to others and yourself, then yes, go burn for all eternity.
If you do try, and genuinely want to become a better person, then you can do it by a number of means.
One of these means is the Bible & the Christianity that comes with it
