Some thoughts occurred to me, as they frequently do, that got my mind going...
Firstly, Moses seems like an Aquarius. In the Zeitgeist video, it suggested that Jesus represented the Age of Pisces coming after he Age of Aquarius. I decided this sort of made since -not from a Biblical stand point, but from a historical stand point. Aquarius are weird, bold, strait forward, and pride themselves on putting logic and reasoning before emotion. Welcome to Greece. They were unusual, stoic, and prided themselves on head above heart.
Either way, Moses seemed to be focused mostly on passing down the Top 10 rules. Jesus on the other hand seemed more Pisces. He was more spiritual and stressed Forgiveness and Compassion. That might be why I prefer Jesus -no offense Moses.
It's strange to me though that people can claim the whole Bible to be entirely true with no flaws or errors, but wasn't some of what Jesus did during his time changing or adjusting some of the rules? If he was just repeating the same thing that had already been established in the Old Testament, why was he so significant? Wasn't he bringing something new to the table, and changing some of the old views already on the table. Didn't Jesus tell people they were adhering some of the Biblical practices wrong, and they should be more focused on love and bringing people together?
Then there's this weird issue of "All or Nothing" versus "Pick and Choose". There was someone who said that some of what the Bible wrote was specific for that time. In other words God intended it to be interpreted at that time for those people specifically. Then other things written in the Bible were for All Time -like "though shalt not kill". But then there are other people who say that if you start trying to pick and choose which parts of the Bible you agree with, you deviate from the "true message" that the Bible is perfect in itself and everything in it is intended to be for all time. But then you wonder why those Christians can still eat pork, even though it says not to. There are over 600 rules in the Bible. It's confusing...
For me, most things that the Bible says make sense and have pure logic behind them. Then there are things that seem to be more oriented toward the culture the Bible was written in. And then there are things I can't understand that I think people may be misinterpreting because under certain circumstances what is written makes sense, but those circumstances are not what most people are speaking to.
Then there's the issue of: Is the Bible Literal, Metaphorical, or Both. If Both, then which parts are which? I think it's both -mostly because of Genesis v. Darwin's Theory of Evolution. But there are some who say it is all literal a we are all descended from Adam and Eve -which sort of implies incest on some level but whatever... and other people say it's all metaphorical and Jesus never really existed -which is historically inaccurate.
I think it's both. The Bible illustrates stories to present a message -that's kind of how they did things back then. You want to make a point, you illustrate it with a metaphorical tale. But then they were also recording historical facts as well, like the Hebrews in Egypt. Genesis was a metaphor from God creating the Earth. If it was written that planets, galaxies, dinosaurs, meteorites, millions of years, and evolution were involved in the process; people's brains would have exploded and they wouldn't have understood God's ultimate message of : I made you and the planet you are on. We do the same with kids. When kids are afraid of thunder, you don't tell a kid the scientific reasons behind why clouds make those sounds during a storm -you say, "Don't worry, the clouds are just grumpy -like dad is sometimes when he comes home from work and starts mumbling to himself."
It makes sense, but ultimately, I'm still confused.
You're opening up so many cans of worms here...but you're worth the effort to try and clean it all up...
ReplyDelete1. I don't know about Jesus being a Pisces...but the two animals that he's compared to over and over again are the Lion (his aggressive, like your jaguar side) and the Lamb(his submissive, like your deer side). So what is he based on these animals? =)
2. Let's define Biblical "perfection". It is perfect in its mission to bring people to heaven. It will not explain the whole world, it will not solve math and science issues --- it is a book written to lead people to heaven. It is perfect in this regard, and you will find no contradiction towards this cause in the Bible, despite it being written by so many people over such a span of time. That being said, science will never prove it wrong, it is historically accurate, math doesn't go against it, and it never expires despite the passing of time.
3. The Old Testament talks over and over and over again about the "coming" of the Messiah, a man who would make more sense of what is written in the Old Testament. That man is Jesus. He never went against what the Old Testament said, He simply gave them their deeper, true meaning. The leaders in Jesus' day didn't always like this, having made their living and clout in the "old" understanding. That's why they had him killed; He threatened their entire way of life, their money and their power.
Jewish people today don't think Jesus is the one spoken of in the Old Testament. So they still wait. But as far as there being someone who would come and make serious "changes" to things, that is a clear teaching in the Old Testament, hence it happening is no contradiction...it's a prediction come true.
4. As for what we do today and don't do, it's confusing because you haven't read it in context. =) You'd have have better chance telling me what the Matrix is about --- based only on what you've heard. But basically, it goes like this: God did give many rules that were clearly and specifically meant for a group of people who lived in the desert. He gave other rules that were morally based, and could be applied to all peoples. It's rather simple to figure out which is which (mainly be common sense), but the "universal" rules were repeated again and said to be universal. It's really simple...just a matter of actually reading it.
5. Bible is written from too many cultural viewpoints and times to be bound in culture. We've been through this. =)
ReplyDelete6. The Bible is both literal and metaphorical at times --- and clearly stated to be so when either side happens. Once again, it's a matter of reading things in context. You are correct.
7. Adam/Eve Incest --- the reason why incest is wrong, primarily, is due to the jacked up kids that would result due to not enough variety in the gene pool. Genetics teaches us that every generation carries more "flaws" in their genepool...our kids (if we have kids, cuz I don't want any) will have more "flaws" in their genes that we have. That's why it's good for our kids to marry people who are not related to them, because they will marry people with different "flaws", thereby having their "flaws" made up for by another's good traits.
Now following along with the logic that every generation has more and more flaws, it goes to reason that if we backwards in time, they had less and less flaws. Adam and Eve, therefore, would have had the most perfect genes ever, hence the main danger of incest wouldn't be there. And there were was no rule against incest for awhile. Once more people came along, then God enacted the rule.
Not confusing if you actually read the Bible. I think you think the Bible is so huge that reading it wouldn't help you out. You couldn't be more wrong. Again, the Bible isn't here to answer every question in the cosmos --- like I said, you can never explain to a baby why touching shiny knives is WRONG...among other things --- it's just enough for us to go to heaven.
And THEN I got all kinds of questions for God. =)
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"I don't know about Jesus being a Pisces...but the two animals that he's compared to over and over again are the Lion (his aggressive, like your jaguar side) and the Lamb(his submissive, like your deer side)."
ReplyDelete-Dude I didn't even realize that! wow. I wasn't calling him a Pisces, I said he marked the beginning of the Age of the Pisces. It fits.
" it is a book written to lead people to heaven. It is perfect in this regard"
-Gotcha. Yo comprendo.
"He never went against what the Old Testament said, He simply gave them their deeper, true meaning. The leaders in Jesus' day didn't always like this, having made their living and clout in the "old" understanding. That's why they had him killed; He threatened their entire way of life, their money and their power."
-Gotcha. Yo comprendo. It's making sense again.
"God did give many rules that were clearly and specifically meant for a group of people who lived in the desert. He gave other rules that were morally based, and could be applied to all peoples"
-So you're with me on the Both option.
#6 "You are correct" -Sweeeeet :)
"Genetics teaches us"
-So do you believe we literally decended from Adam and Eve and therefore their offspring incested offspring, or are we going with Darwin on this one?
And how do people have more "flaws"? Are we talking diseases -because most of those can be due to our environment and overpopulation yah know.
"And THEN I got all kinds of questions for God." =)
Well we finally agree. We're going to have a big question/answer session when we get up there.
I believe that all humanity descended from Adam and Eve. Darwin probably believed it too; you do know that Darwin never spoke about humans descending from mud piles, right? That's what people said AFTER Darwin, extrapolating his ideas waaaay more than intended.
ReplyDeleteHe spoke of micro-evolution and survival of the fittest, things that we can see happening today. It's the people later on who added claims that we cannot see or test today.
As for the "flaws" -- it's the reason why a brother and sister have a high chance of having kids who have issues. Study up on the subject --- I'm not scientist and it can be explained better. Wikipedia "incest" and then "inbreeding". That explains it well.
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Alright what you are saying sort of makes more sense. But we know homo sapiens or whatever they were called, "homo whatevers" aka Early Monkey Men, evolved from earlier mammals. So if Adam and Eve were the first two official "humans" to evolve, then at least we can say they weren't really what the Bible painted up literally speaking. The Bible metaphorically told of The Begginning of Man. Unless snakes can talk and apples give knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, we don't *know* that humans evolved from other species of mammals. It's what many deduce based on what they can see today, but nobody has ever seen it and it cannot be tested. As it is with most of what we discuss, I ask you to look at the evidence against what is popularly spread as "fact", then come to your own conclusion.
ReplyDeleteThere are people who add deep evolution to the Bible, saying that Adam and Eve is pure allegory, that the "7 Days" = 7 million years, that the apple and the snake and tree are all symbolic...
There are people who take it literally, all of it. Jesus spoke of it as if it was literal, as did all of the famous people (Moses, Paul) who spoke of it.
There are plenty of good reasons that this story doesn't have to be metaphorical....for example, it wasn't a snake that spoke, it was the devil IN a snake that made it speak (like a possession).
Another idea to consider; the world in which Adam and Eve lived was a world completely without sin. It was a perfect world. The rules in this world (one of which is never dying) would be very different than the world today. Once sin entered the world, then the world changed very, very much. So the features of what we read of that world, though it may seem as fantasy to us, may have been its reality.
When you read the descriptions of heaven, for example, it sounds a LOT like the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived. We know heaven exists. So why couldn't have that place been like a heaven on earth, where trees do indeed bear apples that give knowledge?
Just a theory.
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You made some sense. Heaven on Earth would definitel be a different world where those sorts of things would have been possible.
ReplyDeleteBut where the heck do Dinos fit in? Did they come before or after Adam and Eve then? And what about scientific findings of Monkey Men evolving and mammals changing over time -instead of just a chicken appearing randomly one day and evolving out of nothing.
Dinosaurs --- note that every culture under the sun has stories of dragons. Note that every culture that has stories of dragons has stories of men killing dragons. Some argue that these were indeed the giant lizards that are popularly called dinosaurs, and that man killed them off. Hence, one theory is that they did indeed come after adam and eve --- if the Bible is to be taken literally.
ReplyDeleteAs far as monkey-men evolving into us --- remember that we have never seen this happen. It is not testable. It is a guess based on what some people think they see in the bones on the earth. Might be a very intelligent guess, and it might be right --- but until it is proven, it is still a guess.
We've never found a real "missing link", and all of the former "links" (like the famous Lucy) have been shown to be little kids, or handicapped kids, or malformed humans.
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Cave men -not Bigfoot -have been found via bones that can be carbondated to show what time they were alive on earth and scientists can see the transition in these beings over time from more ape-like to fully standing man (National Geographic is my friend).
ReplyDeleteDragons? I don't remember T-Rex having wings. And these were all fought off and killed in the Knights and Crusador times or various times throughout history? What about smaller dinosaurs that were found -like the Oviraptor -which were just scavengers and posed no real threat to man. I don;t think man would have been capable of wiping out those sorts of creatures -especially if they were dragons. Jurassic Park status.
Take some time to study the flaws in carbon dating. As a matter of fact, when you begin typing "carbon dating" on Google, the first auto-fill option that will show up us "flaws", so well-known is the issue.
ReplyDeleteCarbon dating is an easily tricked and manipulated measurement, in short.
You might not remember the T-Rex having wings, but I'm sure you know Pterodactyls do, and many other dinosaurs. And not all dragons have wings, silly. ><
Perhaps man didn't kill off all dinosaurs/giant lizards/ dragons. You ever study the Komodo Dragon? And how scientists say it is a layover from very ancient times?
Everybody says dinosaurs died due to not being able to hang with the rise of mammals...they were essentially too big to live with mammals and man. A theory is simply that this could have happened more recently than we may think.
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That'd be weird. But we can see that the kimodo dragon and alligators and other reptiles aren't really dinos. They don't have bones burried deep in the sand in the middle of the desert where millenia ago it was flourishing land. Also there are modern day horses that we can trace the evolution of going back to their original ancestors.
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