I am a Cultural Christian; I have questioned all of my life this unseen entity named by various names, but generally called God. I have seen True Believers do atrocious things; I have also seen True Believers lead wonderously good and productive lives.
This had led me to one inalterable fact: True Believers are human, just as their counterparts are.
Al says, "I won't defend the literalness of much of Genesis, much of which (like the Eden story or the Flood) strike me as much more likely to be metaphor or parable than actual fact." However, most of the blatent xians that I am acquainted with believe that every word in the Bible is the literal truth, and anyone who doesn't believe that will go to hell.(sorry, Al, that's what they say...)
There is a phenomenon known as Cafeteria Catholicism. This lets every catholic kinda pick and choose which parts of the catholic religious doctrine/discipline s/he will obey. If their conscience hurts them, they know that they've gone too far... but it's OK to get right up to that point.
The Pope doesn't like this.
But the Cafeteria Catholics don't care. They only want three kids, and goddammit that's Final!
Sorry, Al, but that's only part of a religion. That's only part of a belief. The Pope is God's representative.
The Bible is God's Word.
If part of it is metaphor or parable, then there is no cause to believe that it all isn't.
It can't be, "Well, darn it, This Part Right Here is God's word, and this here part, well, was probably made up by somebody."
There are many translations of the bible. Obviously, not all of them could be right, only one of them. Al. is that the right one that you're holding in your hand?
And, while we're on the subject, what kind of a God would allow a wrong translation of His Words? And even if He did, just for His Own Amusement, wouldn't that be rather cruel to his subjects? I mean, like, how could the True Believers really know what to believe?
That means that somewhere out there in our little world... is the One Bible, the One Faith.(Is it them Southern Baptists? I heard that They think it is!)
And everyone who doesn't happen to be a Southern Baptist? is verily going to get to go to hell and burn Forever!
Al states that "religion has been, on balance, a greater force for good than evil..." I cannot accept this statement. For one thing, as an atheist, I do not believe in the concept of Good vs Evil. There are things that people do/say that elevate mankind, and things that people do/say that debase mankind. I believe that the main thing that elevates mankind is logic. Believing in things "on faith" is not logical; therefore, it is debasing.
Al also quotes that "The Christian feeling that every child should be saved, for whatever reasons, probably saved thousands of female lives a year, for centuries." I'm sure that this is true; this seems to be good livestock husbandry. According to parts of the bible, women are owned by their husbands. Only in this century, and through the logical democratic extension of our constitution, have women been able to claim any rights of equality, in or out of religion. Many Christian faiths now have "token" women in their pulpits. The attitude seems to be, as always, that the women are meant for breeding and obeying God's laws, as interpreted by their husbands.
Nice thunderstorms again. Mostly south of here, though, according to the radar on the weather channel. The lightning, though, is directly overhead. I wonder how that works?
Anyway, here it is 01:00 and I'm fading fast. I did remember to take the trash out to the street, so that I won't have to get up in the morning to do that. Tonight I've been wandering around on the web, mostly reading journals. Nothing really interesting going on, though.
Well, I almost got my twelve hours of sleep... I think that I'll be in good shape for my shift tonight. Actually, I'm kinda looking forward to it.
I got the nicest email about my page that I've gotten for a long time. Sometimes it seems like I'm chuggin' along here getting nowhere and then I get a real good ego-booster. It really makes my day. Hell, it makes my month! That reminds me, I've got to add some more to my Nice Things file. And my Funny Page too. I'm really gonna have to break that one up a bit, it's getting ridiculously long. The only trouble is, that could be almost a full-time job...
Well, I checked my links, and got stuck on the funny page again. Sometimes I crack me up. One of the nice things about having a bad memory is that there are no old jokes! I especially like the want ads section....
That's enough for today. More tomorrow morning....
I appreciate Al giving me the opportunity to participate in such a discussion as this. Al's point is given in his journal entry for 06JUL1997.
GOD>>>>>>*<<<<<<counterGOD