The Bible: Absolute Truth and Nothing but the Truth?

FineA1

Check out these sites which contain valid information about inconsistencies in that 'great' book called the Bible:

http://www.greenwych.ca/bible-a.htm
http://biblical.justdrew.net/bondage.html
http://members.aol.com/ckbloomfld/
http://smithbrad.nventure.com/bible.htm
http://www.uib.no/zoo/brage/bible/bible_co.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/584959/posts

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A very knowledgeable brother from another site that I subscribe to puts it down a little something like this...

"Religion is in the wrong hands...."

The reason we are so disconnected with nature, one another, and God is because of the barriers that have been erected between the people and their spirituality via organized religion. The notion that we are to be tied to one particular book, with one (generally foreign) culture's cosomogony, and that we are to be led by one human being limits our spiritual growth. It fossilizes our sense of divinity and entraps us in a dogma that has no relation to the present times.

If the people take back our spirituality and sense of religion, the crusty old establishment will not be able to control us. They will not grow fat off of Black families rushing to the toy stores every Christmas. They won't be able to hold their cruel notions of sin and hell over our heads. Afrikans will not sit back and allow Arabs to torture them in their own countries due to a misguided worship of the Arabs' Prophet. Not only that, but the churches in the US have been under the thumb of the establishment since the 1960's. Once they saw how powerful the church was during the Civil Rights Era, they infiltrated them right away. They were able to appeal to weak and greedy preachers who would rather drive a Lexus than preach the truth.

That's why I love the self-educated posters on this list. Remember that a preacher, priest, or shaykh is not any holier than you are. They have just studied. STUDY. Do your own research. Don't forget that your relationship with God is your responsibility. And PRACTICE. You do not need anyone to connect with God. Don't let bad experiences with clergy-folk or things you've read (whether in books or the Scriptures) scare you away from Her/Him. Your prayers are heard just as well at home as they are in church. Maybe you don't pray at home the way you pray in church or the mosque. Do it your way. God knows your heart.

Sa Djoser Djoseru
http://www.blackchat.co.uk/theblackforum/forum26/20527.html

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"...Christians are caught in the strangest of religious paradoxes. On the one hand, they are asked to confer the highest qualities of power, perfection, and omnipotence upon God, yet at the same time, they are asked to seek and accept explanations of the imperfection of this God to uphold their faiths. That is how these fallacies and inconsistencies became the foundations of Christian faith, belief and "absolute truth..." -- "The Africans Who Wrote the Bible, Dr. Darkwah, page 72"

3/19/0611:59 AM

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Original Post

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HonestBrotherA1

quote:
Originally posted by Fine:
I like the way this brother from another site I belong to put it down:

"Religion is in the wrong hands...."

The reason we are so disconnected with nature, one another, and God is because of the barriers that have been erected between the people and their spirituality via organized religion. The notion that we are to be tied to one particular book, with one (generally foreign) culture's cosomogony, and that we are to be led by one human being limits our spiritual growth. It fossilizes our sense of divinity and entraps us in a dogma that has no relation to the present times.

If the people take back our spirituality and sense of religion, the crusty old establishment will not be able to control us. They will not grow fat off of Black families rushing to the toy stores every Christmas. They won't be able to hold their cruel notions of sin and hell over our heads. Afrikans will not sit back and allow Arabs to torture them in their own countries due to a misguided worship of the Arabs' Prophet. Not only that, but the churches in the US have been under the thumb of the establishment since the 1960's. Once they saw how powerful the church was during the Civil Rights Era, they infiltrated them right away. They were able to appeal to weak and greedy preachers who would rather drive a Lexus than preach the truth.

That's why I love the self-educated posters on this list. Remember that a preacher, priest, or shaykh is not any holier than you are. They have just studied. STUDY. Do your own research. Don't forget that your relationship with God is your responsibility. And PRACTICE. You do not need anyone to connect with God. Don't let bad experiences with clergy-folk or things you've read (whether in books or the Scriptures) scare you away from Her/Him. Your prayers are heard just as well at home as they are in church. Maybe you don't pray at home the way you pray in church or the mosque. Do it your way. God knows your heart.

AMEN

3/19/068:00 PM

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kresgeA1

Good piece. I would add, however, that there is a communal or social dimension to the religious or spiritual that should not be neglected. Indeed, I would argue that religion or the religious/sacred/numinous is to constitutive of community. The notion of individualist spirituality that is now so popular, is predicated on an Enlightenment fiction of the self.

3/20/061:20 PM

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HonestBrotherA1

quote:
Originally posted by kresge:
Good piece. I would add, however, that there is a communal or social dimension to the religious or spiritual that should not be neglected.

I agree with you. This is an important point. But it can be difficult, under current circumstances, to reconcile a desire for spiritual community with the need to maintain the integrity of individual conscience in matters of belief.

Or at least I've found it to be so.

3/20/062:05 PM

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kresgeA1

quote:
Originally posted by HonestBrother:
quote:
Originally posted by kresge:
Good piece. I would add, however, that there is a communal or social dimension to the religious or spiritual that should not be neglected.

I agree with you. This is an important point. But it can be difficult, under current circumstances, to reconcile a desire for spiritual community with the need to maintain the integrity of individual conscience in matters of belief.

Or at least I've found it to be so.

I hear you. My wife and I are still spiritual sojourners in Houston.

3/20/063:02 PM

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MelesiA1

If the Enlightenment concept of the self is a fiction. It may be, but that line, abbreviated as it had to be for this medium, sounded dismissive of the Enlightenment's concept.

While it has problems in its effects, that may not be entirely the fault of the concept.

The Bible I think is more communitarian than the Enlightenment was, but it also places moral responsibility on the individual to follow God make the right decisions. Proverbs speaks to the fool, for instance, and wisdom calls to each one of us and we must answer individually, and the prophets do not allow us to rely on our clan, nation, or temple but we must each "walk humbly (circumspectly or thoughtfully) with our God."

So where do you draw the line between the community and the individual?

3/21/0612:40 AM

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kresgeA1

Melesi,
Self as understood as a autonomous consciousness is, I believe, a fiction. This is not to say that human beings do not have a degree of agency. It is this sense that I believe that one can speak of "individual" responsibility.

I was perhaps too brief in my response. The principle impulse for the response, however, was the tendency I see in contemporary society toward individualistic dare I say narcissistic forms of spirituality. When I read it, Hebrews 10:25 jumped into my head. Or as we used to say back in the day, there is no such thing as a solitary Christian. You are meant to be one with another in the spirit of community. It is in such a context that one experiences growth, as iron sharpens iron.

Moreover, this is characteristic of most spiritual, religious traditions. Indeed, as I said, religious experience seems to be constitutive of human community. This is pointed to in scholars as diverse as W.E.B. Du Bois to somebody like Mircea Eliade.

3/21/068:03 AM

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MelesiA1

I think you dare say it quite rightly.

Sometimes I have banged my head against a wall over the ways that some of my friends think. Contemporary Christian music is full of that narcissism, and I have written to Christian radio stations about it because it's like bad literature: it isn't just a waste of time, it makes you stupid. So far, of course, I haven't made a difference.

Then, of course, I have to ask the question, "Lord, is it me?" I pray not.

Yes, community is our life. Our individual decision is only the door into a whole new existence in a Body.

3/21/062:47 PM

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HonestBrotherA1

quote:
Originally posted by Melesi:
Sometimes I have banged my head against a wall over the ways that some of my friends think. Contemporary Christian music is full of that narcissism, and I have written to Christian radio stations about it because it's like bad literature: it isn't just a waste of time, it makes you stupid. So far, of course, I haven't made a difference.

This is