Again, what ever suits your minds eye Doc....
Blade, here is the problem. I actually want to think of you as a nice guy, well-meaning and reasonably intelligent. The difficulty is that I (and many others on the forum, given their responses that I have seen) find it difficult to deal with you because of what I see as religiously obsessive behavior. That obsession makes it difficult for us to have any fruitful discussions with you on subjects indirectly related to Biblical admonitions - because you won't consider that some of the Biblical stuff is just flat outdated and outmoded. Obsession tends to do that, and those who
are obsessed never see it in themselves, only in others.
A more modern viewpoint on individual rights suggests that men and women are equal in the eyes of the law. If you compare that to the Bible, you see that the Bible suggests that the man is "lord and master" of his house, with explicit descriptions of how and when he should beat his wife when she does not agree with him. Issues like a man marrying his deceased brother's widow also come into play. Slavery is condoned in the Bible but not in more modern ways of thinking about human rights. Can you not see that the Bible's viewpoint is out of date? Philosophy of human rights has changed - but the Bible has not.
The problem, of course, is that you won't entertain the obsolescence of those parts of your "Good Book" because you fear what ELSE might be shown to be meaningless or outdated. And after that, your Good Book would no longer be so good for modern times. Of course, ANYTHING that stagnates tends to fall by the wayside anyway, but you can't see the truth of that concept because your Biblical obsession gets in the way.
I have to admit that it took me a long time to reach my current viewpoint. I was raised as Methodist and believed for a long time - but during a family crisis, I turned to the Bible for help - and found none. I looked for comfort - but there was none. I looked for answers - but they were sorely absent. The Bible did not stand up to critical scrutiny, and in that time of crisis, my own beliefs were not enough to prevent me from reading the Bible critically. It doesn't stand up to critical analysis. All the answers were of the form, "We are not meant to know the mind of God" (or the plans, intentions, etc.) Translation: I can't tell you why something bad happened and don't think I will ever know why.
That family crisis was when I found that my thinking needed to evolve to match modern times and my then-current reality. That was when I realized it was time to let go of that old way of thinking. It was holding me back from being my own person.
Believe it or not, some Buddhism (particularly but not exclusively) of the Zen variety was most helpful. Don't ask "WHY" on cosmic questions because such things don't need a reason. They just are what they are, one with their own nature.
Trust me this much - it was not an easy transition to let go of Methodism. I had to learn to forgive a lot of people for propagating the lies of religion, and the key to that forgiveness was the realization that they had not seen through the lies themselves, so were only repeating what they had been taught as children. It is for that reason that I don't hate you, Blade. You are simply repeating what you were told without critically reviewing it first. And for that I can forgive you, for I have been there myself.
