Philosophy Now Forum

The following are 5 quick questions about the Bible and Bible doctrines. You can treat this as a quick survey, as I'm looking for opinions and thoughts as to the answers of these questions for a project. Please, only answer if you are a non-Christian. I am definitely interested in any opinions held by Christians, but as for these questions, I am looking for specifically non-Christian answers.

1. What is the Bible?
2. Should the Bible be read? Why/why Not?
3. What is Bible doctrine?
4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?
5. How is the Bible to be applied?

I'd love to hear your opinions! Thanks!

Dwight wrote:The following are 5 quick questions about the Bible and Bible doctrines. You can treat this as a quick survey, as I'm looking for opinions and thoughts as to the answers of these questions for a project. Please, only answer if you are a non-Christian. I am definitely interested in any opinions held by Christians, but as for these questions, I am looking for specifically non-Christian answers.

1. What is the Bible?
2. Should the Bible be read? Why/why Not?
3. What is Bible doctrine?
4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?
5. How is the Bible to be applied?

I'd love to hear your opinions! Thanks!

1. Too vague a question. It is a book written by many different authors.
2. Yes. It has been highly influential in Western culture and should be read in that light (at least).
3. Old Testament - God is terrible and frightening and you'd better be glad he's on your side (if you're a Jew). If you disobey him, he'll thrash you. New Testament - God is still terrible and frightening, but also loving(?) and compassionate (??) and half human (???) and half, or third holy spirit (?I give up). He will thrash you if you disobey by sending you to hell, but doesn't want humans to thrash each other (no 'eye for an eye'). Rather, love each other with the knowledge that your enemies 'will get theirs' after they die.
4. Also too vague. Screws some people up, barely affects others, 'saves' some.
5. Have you read the Talmud?

Dwight wrote:1. What is the Bible?

It is a book of books that is accepted as "truth" by Christians.

Dwight wrote:2. Should the Bible be read? Why/why Not?

I never did care much for the "should be's", so I won't say that it should or should not be read, but I would not recommend reading it to most people. The Bible is a difficult read and a great deal of it has been misinterpreted by a lot of people. A good example is the "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" passage. Most people interpret that to mean that if someone pokes out their eye, they have a right to poke out an eye in return, but that is not what the Bible says. The Bible states very clearly that vengeance belongs to "God", but if it is necessary (I am paraphrasing here) then no more damage can be done to the other person than what was originally done, no more than an eye for an eye, no more than a tooth for a tooth. That passage is not about getting even, it is about not escalating the problem.

It is a book that needs to be studied more than it needs to be read, and the studying requires a certain maturity and scholarly interest.

Dwight wrote:3. What is Bible doctrine?

Not sure there is an actual "Bible doctrine". I divide the Bible into four sections; the first six books handed down by Moses establish "God" as being the beginning and the end and all important, then the laws about how to live comprise the rest of this section. The rest of the Old Testament is about the Jewish history. Most of the New Testament is about the life and philosophy of Jesus, then there are the Revelations, the prophesies.

I think that "doctrine" is interpreted and established by the religions in their studies of the Bible.

Dwight wrote:4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?

Words and knowledge can affect anyone's life -- especially if they believe it.

Dwight wrote:5. How is the Bible to be applied?

In my mind it is a history book with a lot of wisdom tucked into it. So it would be appropriate to learn from the history and apply that learning to the future.

Dwight wrote:I'd love to hear your opinions! Thanks!

I was raised Catholic, but walked away from that 40 years ago. Reading the Bible was part of what made me walk away, as I learned that what religion teaches and what the Bible states is not always in full agreement. Anyway, these are the opinions that I hold now. I hope this helps with your project.

Gee

1. What is the Bible?
The cobbling together of a bronze age creation myth, a bit of tribal history and four conflicting stories of probably the single most influential character in literature.
2. Should the Bible be read? Why/why Not?
It doesn't really matter; it's power is not in the words, but the fetishization. People will wave it around making all sorts of claims for what is actually just a book.
3. What is Bible doctrine?
Again; it doesn't really matter. The range of lifestyles led by the people who all claim to live by it amply demonstrates that pretty well any doctrine can be nailed to it.
4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?
Almost without exception, badly.
5. How is the Bible to be applied?
To a brick and dropped down a well.

Uwot;

uwot wrote: 5. How is the Bible to be applied?
To a brick and dropped down a well.

I never would have considered you the book burning type -- too intelligent.

Am I missing something?

Gee

Gee wrote:I never would have considered you the book burning type -- too intelligent.

Am I missing something?

Gee

Have you ever considered being the straight person in a comedy duo?*
Actually, despite my being facetious, a look at how western civilization was developing prior to the imposition of this story, and the lengths various churches have gone to to impose their interpretation of it; how the rest of the world has managed without it, I don't see any compelling evidence that it has been a force for good. I think the elements of christianity that people find worthwhile were there in the Stoicism and Epicureanism that the Romans adopted from the Greeks and their own notion of pietas, although to my mind, humility and servitude are overrated.
It's pointless to speculate how western civilization would have developed without the bible, but it is part of our history and should be read in that context. And then tied to a brick and thrown down a well.

*For the hard of thinking, here are the missing words:
Gee. Am I missing something?
uwot. The joke. Boom boom!

1. What is the Bible?

A rather desperate recourse for those lacking good literature, with some interesting enough stuff in it.

2. Should the Bible be read? Why/why Not?

Nothing SHOULD be read, though an unwritten 11th commandment would have it otherwise.

3. What is Bible doctrine?

Mountains out of molehills usually.

4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?

Someone with an inordinate amount of time and only that book to read could glean many many positive things from it, its external interpretations (non individual) that tend to distort and affect negatively.

5. How is the Bible to be applied?

Lightly and less frequently than Also Sprach Zarathustra

I'd love to hear your opinions! Thanks!

Dwight wrote: 1. What is the Bible?

A book of outdated and overrated legends and ledgers.

2. Should the Bible be read?

Just the good parts, not the boring ones: Genesis, not Numbers; Ecclesiastes, not Kings.

Why ?

So you'll know where half the significant novels of the 20th century got their titles. Also the stories are instructive: you may need to understand the religious mind-set, as militant Christians and Muslims and Jews increasingly influence government policy.

3. What is Bible doctrine?

Basically: Obey your betters (rulers, prelates, judges, officers, bosses) - unquestioningly, always.

4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?

Depends on their social position. Rulers, prelates, generals, CEO's - very well. Workers and peasants - not so well, except when it's time to burn something down for it wickedness. Midwives, Druids, gays, skeptics, dark-skinned people, Muslims, Jews, Protestants, Catholics (and vice versa), children, foot-soldiers and anybody else caught on the wrong side of a crusade - fatally. Middle-to-upper-management - not at all.

5. How is the Bible to be applied?

Sparingly, if at all.

Dwight wrote:The following are 5 quick questions about the Bible and Bible doctrines. You can treat this as a quick survey, as I'm looking for opinions and thoughts as to the answers of these questions for a project. Please, only answer if you are a non-Christian. I am definitely interested in any opinions held by Christians, but as for these questions, I am looking for specifically non-Christian answers.

1. What is the Bible?
2. Should the Bible be read? Why/why Not?
3. What is Bible doctrine?
4. How could the Bible affect someone's life?
5. How is the Bible to be applied?

I'd love to hear your opinions! Thanks!

These are subfundemental questions, the mark of some grossly ignorent person. Have you been shelterd as a kid? ..bumped your head a lot or just born this way?

Ignorent is as ignorance does.
Soliciting information and opinion from others tends to defray ignorance, while reflexively jeering at others tends to inflate ignorence.

Skip wrote:Ignorent is as ignorance does.
Soliciting information and opinion from others tends to defray ignorance, while reflexively jeering at others tends to inflate ignorence.

Very nice outlet of hot air.

If you was CEO of a big buisness, would you have some idiot running around asking silly questions, what is a PC? ..what is a mouse? ..what is a program?
No ofcause not, it should be very basic knowledge, if then someone begins asking such questions, he should be fired ASAP!!!

..this should be very basic logic.

I'm not paying him, though. Whatever he does with his survey (xtian college assignment, probably) is his business and none of mine. As an outlet for hot air, it's the best I've been offered so far today. You too, I guess, or you wouldn't have bothered to reply.

Skip wrote:I'm not paying him, though. Whatever he does with his survey (xtian college assignment, probably) is his business and none of mine. As an outlet for hot air, it's the best I've been offered so far today. You too, I guess, or you wouldn't have bothered to reply.

Now you are actually being cynically! A helpful person would try to steer him to the true path of knowledge, that doesn't happen by sating his silly questions, but motivate him to seek knowledge himself.

Feed a starving man a fish, you must feed him for the rest of your life, but teach a man to fish, and he can feed himself the rest of his life.

Feed a starving man a fish, you must feed him for the rest of your life,

What with mercury poisoning, it won't be too long.

... but teach a man one exhausted cliché, and he can annoy others the rest of his life.

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