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In my readings I find that more of it appears metaphorical.

Take for instance a favorite of the Jewish religion: *taken from the King James Version so the translation from the Torah may differ slightly* Thou shalt not cook a lamb in it's mother's milk.

This phrase appears somewhere around 10 times in the Torah. At some point in the far off distant past the grand Rabbi's of the time got together and decided that it was a literal law from God, telling them that they should not mix meat and dairy together. Litereally, do not cook meat in milk. To this day many devout Jewish person's do not mix meat and milk, they even have different silverware and cooking utensils so that there is no chance that any particle of meat ever touches a dish where dairy is to be prepared.

For all the time I've spent thinking of this phrase (though probably not as long as the Rabbi's) I can not seem to come to the conclusion that I shouldn't eat meant and milk together, not that cooking anything in milk sounds tasty to me... anyhow, when I read that phrase 10 times over in the Bible it does occur to me that there must be a reason it was said so many times, but at the same time it doesn't cross me as a dietary law, more of a moral law. Something deeper, more akin to the soul and being. It is hard for me to put into words that I like, the closest I've come is: Do not destroy a mother's child using the work of her hands.

Another way to think of it; do not blame a child for the shortcoming of their parent's.

I don't think any of the bible is meant to be taken litterally. Its more of a guideline to live your life by. At least, that's what I believe.

I agree. 3nodding

I honestly dislike it very much when people in my church talk about things in the Bible literally when they are metaphors, parables, or things that only applied back in those days as opposed to now. It really bugs me because it seems they're interpreting it wrong (than again I may be wrong, only God knows when it comes to the Bible I supposed). When the head of a church, temple, what have you tries to force you to see a certain perception as the only way to perceive it though, thats what gets me going and you don't wanna be around me when I get going. The way I see it, you should make your own interpretations of it and talk amongst others who have read that passage to see what theirs are. Not automatically accept someones perception of it as your own. Where's the growth (or fun?!) in that? As for other things, well there's no way I take most of what the newspapers or magazines say as literal cuz reporters are taught to exaggerate (and I know this from a first-0hand experience being a reporter for my school newspaper and from some problems with my dad's company and how the reporters covered the story). Basically, I go with the "make your own interpretations and talk about it with others" theory to be the best for me. But that's just me *shrugs*

Hee hee..whenever I get Fundies knocking on my door, I simply ask them who wrote the bible. Most often they answer "God." To which I must correct them:

"God? God came down, picked up a pen a wrote this? What about the gospels? There's 4 different versions...why write 4 different versions?"

"The apostle wrote all those..."

"So..men wrote it.."

"Yes..."

"And men are prone to errors, no?"

"But this was inspired by god."

"Inspired. As in god gave them suggestions...and they wrote it.."

"I guess..."

"So..if they were merely suggestions, how do you know everything was written down correctly?"

"Would you write something incorrectly that god told you?"

"Not deliberately, but they could have misinterpretted it..and god didn't come down and tell them word for word what to write..."

"..."

"Which means..the bible has mistakes and shouldn't be taken literally..."

"Well, I have to go..good day.."


Needless to say, I successfully eliminated all the door to door evangelists the first time their church sent them over. Funny how they never came by again... ^____^

Telemarketers got it worse... I scared them all off..My friend who was a telemarketer spread the news of my legacy and we didn't get many calls from her company...

As for spammers in my inbox, I'm relentless...I go to their site and find their main email address and I send them at least 100 emails telling them to stop spamming me... They I've gotten considerably less emails from spammers that way. ^__^


I don't do well with advertisements that interfere with my personal space... sweatdrop

I would tend to agree to this, for this is what some Priests and preachers say about the Bible, isthat is it a guideline. But if you look at the 10 commandments, the first commandment is "Thou Shalt not believe in any other God but me" seems a little of a guideline that is overwhelming?