awesome. Another question I want answers to is what were the criteria for pickiing the books that make up the Bible. I know that there are other books I have a lot more research to do on this subject. But why does the Christian faith have to be based on these books and why aren't the other books taught. The only thing I want to understand is that Christians just believe. They never question the faith. Why not question the faith? Isn't faith supported by evidence? That's the same as believing someone is guilty of a crime without weighing the evidence before hand. The Bible is not evidence. Why weren't the Gospels written as Jesus lived...instead of years later? Why didn't Jesus write the New Testament. He was God according to Catholics...then why didn't he just write it. He knew Judas was going to betray him...and that was his apostle. Why wouldn't authors of the book get it wrong too? Why aren't these questions being asked? Why blind faith? WHY?
You are asking questions that the answers can forever shake your faith. Faith is belief without - or even IN SPITE OF the evidence. Which to me, faith is a terrible, awful, and downright evil thing to consider a virtue. But that is just an opinion of course.
But you are asking several different things and they are all kind of confusing when they are jumbled up like this.
I'm not sure if this is going to add to your confusion or dismay but science isn't out to prove god or jesus or anything exists or doesn't exist. Science merely looks (and so far has found) natural explanations for the world and universe around us. Can science explain everything? No. Does scientific evidence point to the bible as literal truth? No. Quite the opposite in fact.
Again, not to add to your confusion, but here are some more questions for you...
why would an all-knowing, all-powerful God have to correct his mistakes twice? Once with a flood and once by sending his Son to die.
And wouldn't an all-knowing (omniscient) God already know what is going to happen even before he "lets there be light"?
Why would an all-knowing, all-loving God create Evil and let evil loose in the world KNOWING what is going to happen? And why create Man to fail and then punish him for failing?
why would God be jealous of other Gods (ten commandments) if no other Gods exist? and the phrase graven image is used so we are talking about other gods and not substitutes for gods like sex and money.
And why would a God - whose mind we can never know - display a childish human emotion like anger and jealousy anyway?
And why didn't He just forgive us since we are His creation and can only act the way He made us, instead of making his own Son suffer for us - and then make a big deal about it? If you are going to do us a favor, just do it - no thanks is normally necessary. Especially when He didn't even have to lift a finger and just sent his Son to do the dirty work. Some "loving" father, huh?
The two stories that got me questioning my parent's faith (it never really was mine - i didn't pick it), was the story of Moses and the story of Isaac and Abraham. The part in the Moses story that sickened me is when God killed all the first born sons in Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to "let his people go". Weren't all those newborns God's little creatures or just fodder for his angry tantrums?
The second story is when God commands Abraham to take his first born son Isaac to the top of a mountain and sacrifice him. Abraham is actually going to do it and God steps in at the last minute to save the day and instead father and son sacrifice a black ram that magically appears. OK - first off any father willing to kill their son (or daughter) is disgustingly sick and demented. But following a God that demands blood sacrifice up to and including humans?!? yikes that is one fucking twisted scary story.
I could go on and on and on - but these are the types of questions you ask when you read the bible as the word of god and interpret the text literally. If you read things in the metaphoric and allegoric language that was intended then some of these hate-filled and contradictory items becomes more poetic and some of the stories are actually quite beautiful and touching but many still contain hate, bigotry, racism, and intolerance. Of course, hate, bigotry, racism, and intolerance are recurring themes in any religion (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) based on the torah and subsequent writings.
