When You Read The Bible, God is Watching

Dittohead not! said:

In response to your parents telling you that God is watching. It was quite apropos and not critical of religion.

If calling the creation story a myth is critical of religion, then I apologize for that. It is a story that a few people believe to actually be true.

But, if I can't question the truthfulness of a story believed by only a limited few faiths, how can I discuss religion?

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I'll let the mods make the call on whether the tone of your comment about "throwing a fit about not wanting to go to bed" is appropriate and in the spirit of the religion forum. The way I understand it, this forum is meant to be a place for those of us who are interested in religion to discuss it without having to put up with this type of condescension or smugness.

Calling the creation story a myth is certainly critical of relgion. The definition of the word "myth" implies that something is unfounded or false, imaginary or unverifiable.

If calling large chunks of one's religious faith "imaginary" is not critical of religion, I don't know what is.

Peter Grimm said:

I'll let the mods make the call on whether the tone of your comment about "throwing a fit about not wanting to go to bed" is appropriate and in the spirit of the religion forum. The way I understand it, this forum is meant to be a place for those of us who are interested in religion to discuss it without having to put up with this type of condescension or smugness.

Calling the creation story a myth is certainly critical of relgion. The definition of the word "myth" implies that something is unfounded or false, imaginary or unverifiable.

If calling large chunks of one's religious faith "imaginary" is not critical of religion, I don't know what is.

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Not every faith believes that the creation story is real history. If yours does, then you can take that position. Mine doesn't, so we have something to discuss. Since you've already lost the debate about whether someone believes that the Bible was written (authored) by god, you now have to come up with something else.

Come to think of it, isn't saying that god didn't write the Bible critical of religion, at of least some people's belief system, in the same way that calling the creation story a myth is critical of religion?

Dittohead not! said:

In response to your parents telling you that God is watching. It was quite apropos and not critical of religion.

If calling the creation story a myth is critical of religion, then I apologize for that. It is a story that a few people believe to actually be true.

But, if I can't question the truthfulness of a story believed by only a limited few faiths, how can I discuss religion?

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You really didn't know that referring to the creation story in someones religion by calling it a myth would be offensive?

Posts like some of the ones here and discussions of religion outside of this forum make me understand the need for a religious discussion thread free from condescension and just downright vitriolic language. If you want to discuss religion there are ways to do it in a civil manner without being offensive even if you don't agree with the dictates of that faith. If you just want to blast religion and feel high and mighty and better than everyone else then feel free to join the rest of the community in other forum areas.

OK, you've convinced me. I apologize for having called the creation story a myth.

Now, about suggesting that no one believes that god authored the Bible, isn't that condescending to people who believe the opposite?

The OP of this thread shows a belief that god is the author, after all.

Dittohead not! said:

Not every faith believes that the creation story is real history. If yours does, then you can take that position. Mine doesn't, so we have something to discuss. Since you've already lost the debate about whether someone believes that the Bible was written (authored) by god, you now have to come up with something else.

Come to think of it, isn't saying that god didn't write the Bible critical of religion, at of least some people's belief system, in the same way that calling the creation story a myth is critical of religion?

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You can disagree without using insulting language.

I'm not Muslim, but I would never call Muhammed's journey to Jerusalem on the back of a flying horse a "myth" on the religion forum. Doing so is disrespectful, insulting, and critical/condescending. That's not what we have this forum for.

Dittohead not! said:

OK, you've convinced me. I apologize for having called the creation story a myth.

Now, about suggesting that no one believes that god authored the Bible, isn't that condescending to people who believe the opposite?

The OP of this thread shows a belief that god is the author, after all.

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I have never met a Christian who literally believed that God picked up a pen so to speak and wrote the entire bible and then sent it down to earth. Now that's not to say that there's not a few out there who do believe that, but the vast majority does not believe so, every bible I've picked up and read actually lists the individual who wrote each book (or who is believed to have written it).

The original post was a beautiful message that most of us understood because at some point most Christians will have that transcendental moment where they're reading the inspired word and feel overwhelmingly connected to God. We got the picture that by calling God the Author that it didn't literally mean that God literally wrote the entire text, but that it was authored through him and written by people aka inspired. The original post, text image didn't need to elaborate on all that because most of us understood what it was saying...

God is watching and doing what?