skybird137 wrote:If I remember, isn't it the Catholic Church that once made it a crime for you to posses or make bibles?
Quite true. In fact, it was learning this in school that prompted me to read the Bible for myself at age 12 to learn why. Having read the Children's Bible, I wanted the straight dope! My... what a difference there was!!!
skybird137 wrote:Also, when most people read the bible, they don't actually read the book. What they do is that they only read the parts that religious leaders want them to read, and that excludes Genesis 19.
True for many people, but I read it cover to cover at age 12 - the first time of at least a dozen that I have done this.
skybird137 wrote:This is because children are taught a 'somewhat different' version of the story. The religious groups don't want you to read the real story, because then, you find out how you've been lied to.
Not so much that, but the fact that the Bible contradicts itself very badly in numerous places. I tried discussing this with my Catholic mom, bit she didn't want to hear it. She, like many religious people, are apparently too comfortable with their beliefs to investigate them. I was going to phrase that more critically but I don't want to offend anyone who still has their own religious beliefs... particularly on this particular forum.
skybird137 wrote:When I told my mother the proper story about Lot and his daughters, she was horrified.
Oh my, yes... the Old Testament in general is full of such graphic imagery; extreme violence as well as porn. Read the Song of Solomon for a good example of smut as literature, and the books of I and II Samuel and I and II Kings (I thru IV Kings if a Catholic Bible) if you want an epic story of lust and greed that would shame even J.R. Ewing from
Dallas. Violent language about heads being dashed against walls, children being eaten by their own parents, and so on. It made for very enlightening reading when I was a 12-year-old!!! And when I asked my mom to explain the '
Sin of Onan', well...
She almost took that Bible away from me!!!
skybird137 wrote:Also, the Book of Enos was left out of the bible, probably because it had a flat Earth cosmology, which would have left it open to ridicule by Greek and Roman scholars.
Well, that wasn't the only reason that the book (I assume you mean Enoch, not Enos; Enos is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon) was left out even as part of the Jewish Apocryphia; more because of is relatively recent date of publication (about 300 B.C. for the oldest parts; probably later than 100 B.C. for the rest of it) than because of its actual contents. It was the Jewish scholars of the day who decided not to include it not just the Christian scholars who came later, and the dates it appeared were actually the more important considerations. They were traditionalists, and the Book of Enoch was too recent to qualify. It is, however, apparently quoted in the Bible itself; particularly Jude.
skybird137 wrote:This is why religions generally don't want you to ask questions, or think for yourself.
Freedom of thought has never been a strong point of any religion, and is one reason science (the epitome of free inquiry) and religion are so often in conflict (just ask Galileo!). Being a person strongly interested in science, this bothered me for a long time. Such are the bonds (literally IMO) of a religious upbringing however that it was not until I was in my late 20s that I made a final break from all institutionalized religion.
Dare to be different... and make a difference.
To boldly go where no one in their right mind has gone before...