Personal interpretations of scripture leads to unsolvable discrepencies

I am starting to see a pattern in these daily over the top religious posts. It seems as though you are looking for someone to come in and disagree with you so that you can argue with them. Your interpretation of the scripture is not the same as everyone else's, yet you seem to assert without any doubt and without any evidence, your personal beliefs about the properties of gods. Of course you know that somebody is going to come in and point out some different scripture and explain why you are wrong. Because religion only exists in your minds. If there were a god or multiple gods then there would be some objective way to come to some agreement about what his properties were and what he expected from you. But i think that is what this all about. Since there is no objective way of discerning the will and properties of gods, people imprint there own interpretations onto the scripture. Which makes reading the bible exactly like reading tarot cards or tea leaves. Then you are ultimately only argueing your ego against someone else's

The problem with only having faith in gods, instead of having objective reasons for believing in them, is that faith allows for the individual to shape god to their whims. A certain piece of scripture can take on a different meaning to anyone who reads it.

When the fictional character does not show up to clarify and mediate, the people are left to deal with the problem themselves. Group think causes different factions to splinter apart from the main group, and folks choose sides based on whatever sounds appealing. The leaders are always chosen from the most charismatic amongst them.

The architects of the talmud knew what they were doing when they invented original sin. Or perhaps they truly believed in it themselves. It is the ultimate catch all for everyone. God becomes the solution to all the problems that god gives you. Which are just about everything.

Guilt is a normal emotion for any social species though. It is an integral part of empathy. Hell.... Most people feel guilt, even when they have no reason too. We all know people who apologise to furniture and walls. The people who go to church are told that their natural urges are wicked and that they won't be invited to the big party unless they follow the rules. Which leads them to feel even more guilt over a clearly unattainable standard. Couple that with the threat of hell fire and some daily beheadings for the uncooperative, and it's a surefire plan to get every worried parent to make sure their children knows what they think god expects from them.

That went on for thousands of years and we have some really good records of where christianity brought their swords tipped with the convincing evidence of a loving god to the natives. That is why these major religions have spanned continents and displaced and destroyed countless native cultures. How can a religion of peace have been started on a foundation like this?

Eventually even that ideology had groups that splintered off. We are left with three distinct major mosaic religions. The jewish faith, the muslim faith, and the christian faith. Each of those have thousands of splintered denominations. Now some people today see the corruption in the churches and have lost faith in the idea of organized groups. They are not ready to drop the notion all together, so they just twist the scripture any which way that includes them in the group that is right and lets them place themselves above all the other people around them. This is evident when you meet any of the many people who use their religion to justify looking down on anyone else. Whenever someone says you shouldn't do that because.... And then quotes something from the bible, they are just acosting you with their ego. Pretty much any time someone reads scripture to prove a point, they are just pushing their ldeals on you. personal interpretation leads to unsolvable discrepencies. Which leaves you with far too many egos fighting for the chance to tell you what they want god to be and how you should be punished for not meeting THIER standards. Many of them are more than ready to argue about whatever fantasy that makes them feel special inside. Interpreting scripture is no different than reading tarot cards or tea leaves. You get whatever message serves you the best.

So, some questions for those who are constantly making the over the top religious posts. Does feeling persecuted make you feel more rooted in your faith? Do you come here looking for opposition so that you can boost your convictions?

Reacting to your title, rather than the exceedingly boring wall of text, scripture IS personal interpretation. It was written down by people, argued over by people (such as at the Council of Nicea), and only the politically correct version of whatever issues they had was deemed official by people in positions of authority. Texts that did not match what was deemed correct were purged and suppressed, e.g. the Gnostic texts, at the cost of many lives. What remains as "scripture" is what has survived the crucible of thousands of years of persecution of views deemed incorrect.

If you actually believe God sat down at his IBM Selectric (or with a quill pen) and banged out the official Zip! POW! Bang!!! "Word of God," then you are delusional.

Yea. It was a bit long winded. Looks like you got the gist of it though.


a reply to: schuyler

a reply to: Woodcarver

I think you nailed a lot of it.

The Abrahamic faiths were a box of swords with instructions on each one that said "YOU are the only one that can decide who gets stabbed by these and if anybody with another sword tells you otherwise, you are allowed to stab them".

a reply to: Woodcarver

One of my favorite memes.

a reply to: Woodcarver

When the fictional character does not show up to clarify and mediate, the people are left to deal with the problem themselves.

Many of them attest to such clarification and mediation. They feel god's presence, a holy spirt infuses them with divine discernment. Such that only a personal relationship can bestow. And yet, among those that claim this they still have differing interpretations! So either they are all full of it, or god is intentionally instilling different interpretations.

Here we go again

There are two laws

Love God
Love each other
or
Treat them as you would have them treat you

Not as they treat you, as you would want them to treat you

Its not that hard if you apply a little common sense, some just try to hard to add more.

a reply to: Raggedyman

some just try to hard to add more.

Scripture is full of 'more'. Lots of commandments supposedly from god. It's great that what you take from it is the golden rule. Believers take much more from it all the time and have a theologically defensible position based on scripture. For instance, someone might discriminate against LGBT based on verses in OT and NT, yet how is that compatible with what you just said about treating others the way you'd want to be treated. It's not. A conflict in interpretation, yet both utilized the same source material. Hence OP.

This is why I ignore religion and instead follow an existentialist philosophy. All the security of knowing I was born to have purpose and none of the ridiculous theological baggage.

“Existentialism is nothing less than an attempt to draw all the consequences of a coherent atheistic position. It isn’t trying to plunge man into despair at all. But if one calls every attitude of unbelief despair, like the Christians, then the word is not being used in its original sense. Existentialism isn’t so atheistic that it wears itself out showing that God doesn’t exist. Rather, it declares that even if God did exist, that would change nothing. There you’ve got our point of view. Not that we believe that God exists, but we think that the problem of His existence is not the issue. In this sense, existentialism is optimistic, a doctrine of action, and it is plain dishonesty for Christians to make no distinction between their own despair and ours and then to call us despairing.” -Sartre

"The Bible is very easy to understand. But Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. They pretend to be unable to understand it because they know very well that the minute they understand, they are obliged to act accordingly." -Kierkegaard

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” -Bukowski

Many Christians have a similar rant. It's frustrating, to say the least to see people cherry pick - and even twist - scripture for their own personal agenda. People get hung up on single verses, fight over them, reinterpret them, fight more... And completely miss the big picture central messages of the bible.

Part of the beauty of scripture, to me, is how it can reach people with different needs and in different places in their journey.

As a side-rant: There are some really really weird things in the bible, especially if taken out of context. I wish more of my brothers and sisters in Christ would openly admit this. Pretending like there isn't weird stuff in there is a stumbling block to many potential seekers. Let's focus on the truth of the Big Picture and the central message of the gospels.

Endless arguments over obscure passages does not benefit God's kingdom or the people we are called to love (which is everyone - enemies included!)

a reply to: spygeek

-Bukowski

a reply to: VegHead

Hey, show Me some weird stuff in the Bible!

originally posted by: 3n19m470
a reply to: spygeek

-Bukowski

a reply to: Lucid Lunacy

All can choose to have individual experiences that bestow individual understandings of the One. As in any relationship with another sentient, what goes between two has nothing to do with anyone else. Pointless waste of energy arguing about who's experience is more valid than others, or has more meaning or is closer to Truth.

Letting ego and human need for conflict get in the way of their Journey to Truth is I think, understandable. We All are after all, very flawed corporeal beings who must struggle a little just to grow.