The bible

[MOHAN ROACHE]

can the apostles be trusted to have been genuine inspired men of God?

[ChaoticMindSays]

There is nothing to trust, only something to believe and I'll do neither.

[Belinda]

To whom or what do you refer when you say 'God'?

[ape]

[SpiralsHappen]

The bible is a collection of ancient metaphors that descended from the greek and egyptian mystery schools about ancient astronomy, astrology, and becoming your own God/authority through shamanistic use of entheogenic drugs aka enlightenment. To understand the old testament you have to understand that the "God" character is what the gnostics called the Demiurge, the sadistic evil creator god that hates mankind. He's merely a tyrant and represents authority. The belief system found in the New Testament is more along the lines with what the Aztec Indians practiced who worshipped the Sun and their sacred magic mushrooms they called the flesh of the gods. Which is the same thing as the flesh of Christ, the manna, the forbidden fruit, the honey, the medicine, the bread of life that will take you to heaven... Jesus is the serpent, look up an image of the staff of moses... there's your Jesus on the cross, the medicine, the caduceus. It isn't just Christianity, all of these ancient religions were based upon astrotheology and shamanism. The ancient people worshipped mostly the sun and entheogenic plants like hallucinogenic mushrooms the tree of knowledge, and cannabis the tree of life. Many of the more indigenous type religions still practice the ancient ways, such as the Native American Church that eats the sacred peyote which they call the medicine or the ayahuasca shamans in Brazil.

[Belinda]

I think that what SpiralsHappen writes about the similarities between Christian beliefs and those of other religions is true. However, I wonder if SH implies that Christianity is therefore bad, or untrue in some way, or good perhaps because it is so akin to other less famous religions.

My guess, if I may, is that SH does not intend any of those,or only those, but intends to point out that as philosophers we can rise above our religious prejudices and view Christianity from the broadest possible perspective. To compare religons is to use a broad perspective.
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Socialist

[Scott]

Historically, scientifically and secularly, I do not think the bible(s) can be trusted. It was written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years by more than 40 different authors. The gospels in the Christian Bible were written decades after Jesus' supposed death. It was edited by self-interested and often corrupt officials of Churches. At best, it's like playing a big game of Telephone. It's stories are thus more like tall tale or a myths than historical accounts, much like stories regarding Hercules. This is apparent when we consider stories involving talking snakes, 9.5ft tall giants, 300-year-old human beings and people walking on water. Even less fantastically unbelievable stories that tell of things that could have happened without violating commonly known facts are still told through the same unreliable sources and methods.

Religiously, I think most members of any given religion that believes in an omnipotent god or divine intervention think that their god(s) would ensure the accuracy of their religious texts. In other words, they may religiously believe the text was written by god(s) via humans. But a religious person may believe practically anything even without evidence.
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[Nick_A]

Usually people think that value comes from reading the Bible. Actually the value comes from letting the Bible read you.

[ape]