I suppose you HAVE to interpret it. eg. "Moses tied his ass to a tree and walked into town." Two possible interpretations. You must choose. "Let the dead bury the dead." Two possible interpretations. The dead will rise out of their grave with shovels or the other one... The first is illogical: one dead guy would have to remain unburied since there would be no dead guy to bury him. Or, I suppose he could rig up a system with a string that he could pull whilst lying in the grave. And interpretation is good for hiding fuck ups. eg. Genesis, flat earth, killing witches etc.
Excellent. Hey Voodoo Child... Very good post (seriously). Generally you make a lot of sense here (vulgarities notwithstanding). Oh and "Sodomize Your Teacher" is better, and less offensive than "Kill Your President". But... not much... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! -Mike
The Bible is easier to interpret once you have a handle on the message. For instance, we know that Jesus said Love God with all your heart and soul, and your fellow man like yourself - and that this summarises the Ten Commandments. From that conclusion, everything should be seen as spiraling into that idea (i.e. nothing contradicts it). You can interpret, but only within the bounds of what you already know. We also know it's supposed to be a gospel (O.E. god-spel: good message) of salvation. We get to know Jesus and his message, we see how people act, what God condemns as sin, and how redemption takes place. There are letters written to the first Christian churches. There are clearly some controversies, but there will always be where opinion is present, especially when the text is supposed to be 'authorative'. I think the biggest problem people have with the Bible (other than that they can't believe some of it), is not the interpretation, but the applicaton of it. If you think about it - it's not such a hard life to live, even if you can't accept it fully (the Bible also says what matters is what you persist in, and eventual think is right. Give me an example of a part that requires interpretation, and I'll show you what I mean. Would you like the 'dead bury the dead' part?
