I wondered if you were somehow pulling our virtual legs so I googled a website with the reference you gave and ... OMFG.
Lessee, it pisses off Balak/Balaam that the donkey doesn't do what he wants and he hits it and says he'd kill it if he had a sword, but God gets pissed that Balak doesn't do what he wants and threatens to kill him ... and God is righteous and Balak is not. Okay, so gods in general don't have to play by the rules (they get to make the rules, right?) but ... WTF?
...and I wonder why I can't wrap my brain around being religious.
The Bible was my atheist family's version of the Necronomicon. It sat there, blackly, on the shelf, and we never opened it. It simmered with the growling power of the Old God. Open it, and the words therein would stab our minds with shrieking madness from beyond the grave!
So, we became Unitarians, instead.
But, of course, the only way to get past all that is to read the thing, and process all the inner-child reactions. Right now I'm at the "Beavis and Butthead Read the Bible" level. Gimme a year or so - it'll mature.
Re: My apologiescardigirlMay 11 2006, 20:50:44 UTC
What in the world do you feel you need to apologize for??? Reading and quoting the Bible??
I agree that too many people who believe in the Bible being literally true probably haven't read it in its entirety -- but rather that they've been told the "important" and "relevant" parts (but of course, not identified that way). I heard of a woman, an evangelical i.e. Protestant, who averred that she didn't need to read the Bible because people smarter than her, like her pastor, had done so and could tell her what she needed to know.
Didn't that go out with the Reformation? Wasn't that half the point?
Those alternate versionsfriendly_drelbMay 11 2006, 15:22:08 UTC
I was about to comment to you that I thought it was Balaam (where I know that from I have no idea) but cardigirl's comment made it unnecessary. (And yet here it is.) BTW, what's the what this weekend? Any soccer games or whatnot on Saturday?
You're right, though. There's a disturbed Warner's Bros. feel to parts of the Old Testament that make me expect to see Porky doing end credits, wearing a wire halo and cupid wings.
I grew up with the darned thing, being the Preacher's Kid and all. It's the one blessing I take from my childhood - being able to take the biblical references thrown at my by Evangelical hate-mongers and extend it to the next verses where their point gets utterly mangled in a most embarassing way - but that doesn't prevent parts from still reading like a bad drug trip.
I'm convinced that those who insist that the Bible be interpreted literally have never sat down and read the thing.
I'm convinced that those who insist that the Bible be interpreted literally have never sat down and read the thing.
Yeah, when I hear that, I know that what they see is not a text with a history, but something like a golden calf, or a magic wand. Once I realized that life got easier.
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Lessee, it pisses off Balak/Balaam that the donkey doesn't do what he wants and he hits it and says he'd kill it if he had a sword, but God gets pissed that Balak doesn't do what he wants and threatens to kill him ... and God is righteous and Balak is not. Okay, so gods in general don't have to play by the rules (they get to make the rules, right?) but ... WTF?
...and I wonder why I can't wrap my brain around being religious.
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So, we became Unitarians, instead.
But, of course, the only way to get past all that is to read the thing, and process all the inner-child reactions. Right now I'm at the "Beavis and Butthead Read the Bible" level. Gimme a year or so - it'll mature.
(I think I'll post this...)
Reply
I agree that too many people who believe in the Bible being literally true probably haven't read it in its entirety -- but rather that they've been told the "important" and "relevant" parts (but of course, not identified that way). I heard of a woman, an evangelical i.e. Protestant, who averred that she didn't need to read the Bible because people smarter than her, like her pastor, had done so and could tell her what she needed to know.
Didn't that go out with the Reformation? Wasn't that half the point?
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BTW, what's the what this weekend? Any soccer games or whatnot on Saturday?
Reply
You're right, though. There's a disturbed Warner's Bros. feel to parts of the Old Testament that make me expect to see Porky doing end credits, wearing a wire halo and cupid wings.
Reply
Reply
I grew up with the darned thing, being the Preacher's Kid and all. It's the one blessing I take from my childhood - being able to take the biblical references thrown at my by Evangelical hate-mongers and extend it to the next verses where their point gets utterly mangled in a most embarassing way - but that doesn't prevent parts from still reading like a bad drug trip.
I'm convinced that those who insist that the Bible be interpreted literally have never sat down and read the thing.
Reply
Yeah, when I hear that, I know that what they see is not a text with a history, but something like a golden calf, or a magic wand. Once I realized that life got easier.
Reply
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