Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
The Judeo-Christian tradition is not the work of a single author, nor the work of a political agenda with the express intent of corrupting, fooling and extorting it's followers. To apply that label to the entire Bible would be guilty of giving foresight to people who had none. At it's most secular, the Old Testament is a cultural mythology of the Israelites and later the Jews. The deep and often very profound insights found throughout these books give witness to the rise of Western culture and morality. Unlike Ron Hubbard, who wrote Dianetics simply to make a buck, the Hebrew myths of the OT and later the Gospels of the NT are instrumental in philosophizing and finding how human's ought to behave.
This has given us, as humans, immeasurably important gifts. The societal notion of the worth of the individual has it's roots in the destruction of the Jewish temple. The notion of reciprocal altruism has roots going all the way back to the patriarchal myths and the convenant between God and the Israelites. Indeed, even the West's portrayal of women has come about, albeit slowly, from the way Jesus radicalized and revolutionized the social views of his followers.
To write off the believability of the Bible and to put it on the same level as Scientology simply proves to me that you are too lazy to study up on it.
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I am glad you can prove things about me without knowing me. Well done! I can't do the same about you, so I won't try, and will instead focus on the issue at hand.
Soooo, I guess morality didn't exist before the bible then? Since it gave rise to it? It hasn't been around for very long when you look at the span of human history. And there was no worth to the individual prior to the destruction of the Jewish temple?
I'm sure the majority of human history would tend to disagree with you. Since Jericho was inhabited 10,000 BC.
They are both books. That's it. There is nothing magical about the bible. It has a bunch of stories dating back a long time, and provides an interesting perspective into the minds of Bronze age peoples living in agrarian societies.
It also has a 2 millenium head start on Hubbart and came about at a time when there weren't a lot of books. Hence the significance of it's impact. An impact that has caused probably as much suffering as it has "gifts", depending upon who you talk to.
As far as what it has contributed to western society... well it very much depends on who was, interpreting it. It isn't like it was written in English. Or at once. Or by one guy. Or that it hasn't been extensively edited to suit whomever was in charge at the time.
And it isn't like it provides a step by step guide as to how to live your life. Unless you accept all of it - in which case you are an intolerant homophobic mysoganist who believes in genocide, zombies, and incest. All things that can be found clearly stated in the bible as having the full support of god.
Now, I have been harsh on the "good book". That's not really fair. It is just a book after all, and the interpretation of the writing is what leads to trouble.
So Cruise reads his book and you read yours. You both take lessons from them and apply them in your life. And yet somehow, you don't think you are both doing the same thing? Just because he might not have as many reviews of his book, simply because yours was published first? Great, your book is more popular. Doesn't mean it is any better.