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Religion: is the cultural compulsion a theological obligation?

That is about its only worth and barely at that. It is a book of stories and as such that is where it belongs. But any analysis or interpretations of those stories as works of literature show they are poorly written. often giving very one dimensional characters and plots that contradict other stories.

Just out of curiosity, what's your training in the analysis of literature?

And how much training and time have you spent in analysis of the Bible? Take a course or two? What?
 
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It is a simple question. Not one that has any relevance either. Another simple question is what purpose does it serve to ask such questions. And not defensive, i just recognise a con when i see one.

How is asking what book you've read a con? It seems like your refusal to answer is revealing the con.
 
No, it really isn't. That's what some may say when they are either uneducated or bias against the subject.
Not at all instead that is what some theists say when they have nothing better than to make assumptions about the other person rather than deal with the actual argument.
It's really easy to demonstrate how it isn't cherry-picking. Christians aren't prohibited from eating pork. Right there is a very simple and easily understood example to show that different times are under different standards.
That has nothing to do with contradictions. that is what is called a proscription or in this case not a proscription.

Another simple example, there was no law to follow before the law of Moses was given. Those two examples shows the three different dispensations that have existed.
Dispensations are not contradictions either.

Nor do i accept your claim that there was no law before moses.
A law is knowing the difference between right and wrong
Genesis 2: 16-17. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
And they must have known that difference and broke a law in doing so.

A law is also knowing what you must or must not do.
Genesis 1: 26. 26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
God told them what all men must do.

And if you disagree that these are laws because they were not written down s moses laws were. Paul had something to say on that.
Romans 2:14-15. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law,g they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)

But as i said, these are not contradictions that you have given.
A contradiction is something like this.

Genesis 1: 1-27 Where god created all things and then man and woman last.

Where as in genesis 2:5 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

two differing accounts make for a contradiction.
 
How is asking what book you've read a con? It seems like your refusal to answer is revealing the con.

What answer would you like. i have read many books seems good enough. Why do you keep avoiding the question of what purpose does this serve,. Seems the con is still being played out.
 
Just out of curiosity, what's your training in the analysis of literature?

And how much training and time have you spent in analysis of the Bible? Take a course or two? What?

I am not going to answer because the subject matter here is not me. It is on what i say and what i can demonstrate. Are you trying for an appeal to authority by this line of questioning?
 
I am not going to answer because the subject matter here is not me. It is on what i say and what i can demonstrate. Are you trying for an appeal to authority by this line of questioning?

I would expect that someone who offers such a strong opinion on the quality of any book to offer a sophisticated analysis and/or credentials. You've done neither.
 
What answer would you like. i have read many books seems good enough. Why do you keep avoiding the question of what purpose does this serve,. Seems the con is still being played out.

I'm just curious about what books you've read. The fields of apologetics and philosophy are quite broad, so I want to know the kind of quality of work that you've read.
 
I would expect that someone who offers such a strong opinion on the quality of any book to offer a sophisticated analysis and/or credentials. You've done neither.

A more in depth analysis can be given if needed. Pointing out only a few of the faults is all that is required. Credentials need not be offered at all as the debate is about what is said, not who is saying it.
 
I'm just curious about what books you've read. The fields of apologetics and philosophy are quite broad, so I want to know the kind of quality of work that you've read.

Again the debate is not about me. I do not offer up anything about myself. Whether you take it as i have read or not i am indifferent to. Whether you can offer any rebuttal to what i have said is another matter.
 
Again the debate is not about me. I do not offer up anything about myself. Whether you take it as i have read or not i am indifferent to. Whether you can offer any rebuttal to what i have said is another matter.

You're being awfully sensitive about this.
 
"Again the debate is not about me." sg

"You're being awfully sensitive about this." pt #60
Perhaps.

But even a hyper-sensitive posting member has a right to engage in dialogue without being dragged into ad hom.

Shouldn't posted comments address the topic? Or at least, comments in response to previous posted comments ostensibly about the topic?
 
A more in depth analysis can be given if needed. Pointing out only a few of the faults is all that is required. Credentials need not be offered at all as the debate is about what is said, not who is saying it.

All you say regarding the quality of the literature is that it's "badly written" and that it "often gives very one dimensional characters and plots that contradict other stories." That's not exactly a substantive analysis. No clue given as to whether you're referring to the OT or NT or both or whether "badly written" refers to tone or word choice or what.

If you're willing to offer such a broad, sweeping indictment of a book that others find well-enough written to teach college courses on its value as literature, you should be able to provide more than a cheap throwaway dismissal.
 
All you say regarding the quality of the literature is that it's "badly written" and that it "often gives very one dimensional characters and plots that contradict other stories." That's not exactly a substantive analysis. No clue given as to whether you're referring to the OT or NT or both or whether "badly written" refers to tone or word choice or what.

If you're willing to offer such a broad, sweeping indictment of a book that others find well-enough written to teach college courses on its value as literature, you should be able to provide more than a cheap throwaway dismissal.

That would be because i was critiquing the book as badly written rather than picking out specific faults in the narrative. Other broad problems of the book is that not only is it written by multiple authors it has been edited by multiple editors giving it the dysfunction in the details not matching at times. This carries through the ot and nt. if i was going to get specific then i would mention the faults to the specific chapters. Another critique could be that fact that times have changes and the readers themselves are more literate and demand better from a book that cannot deliver.

I could keep going on but what bother when the point is already made. Now it is just a case of sitting back and dealing with those who will never be satisfied and will always demand more and more. Your basic argument would be that because the critiques are not infinite then it has failed to critique.
 
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