(based on this wonderful writing)

I rarely stop to debate with street preachers or bible-thumpers because it is a waste of my time and energy.  However, after attending a city meeting, I just couldn’t help myself.

The Bible is such a great book.  It’s got to be, it’s been on the best-seller list such a long time.  Whether it’s truly written by God, or by men who believed they were the messengers of God, there are really some great stories in it.  So what is in there that is so great?  I think it’s the rules.  We as individuals need rules to live by, and we as a society need rules as well.  And rules that are absolute, that are beyond our questioning minds are comforting too.  We all need parents, someone telling us “Don’t do that…” and when we ask why we are told simply “Because I said so.”  Meaning, don’t bother to trouble your head about this.  These are simply the rules, and if you follow them, everything will be OK.  And that works, up to a point.   If the rules are fair, accurate and up to date, that makes a lot of sense, and is so comforting.  We can focus better on what is in front of us, because we know the boundaries.  But what about when the rules become outdated?  What about when the rules stop being changed, but we keep on living, growing, changing, and pretty soon they just don’t make any sense?

Following outdated rules from the Bible or any other writing does more harm than good.  And these writings have been translated and re-interpreted so many times, I can’t understand how anyone could take it as God’s word.  It is now a work of man, and a living document of our thinking and morals.  It seems logical to me that we have this living document.  It’s always good to look back at ourselves to see where we’ve been.  Hopefully when we do this, we see some of the errors of our ways so we don’t repeat awful history.  I know this is naive of me.  Slavery is depicted in the Bible, and there it still is, for the first 100-200 years of our own country’s history.  Stoning seems like a pretty bad idea on so many levels, but I have heard people professing in public that this is acceptable simply because it says in a living document that God says it’s OK.

I know that the God I believe in would not approve of this, and if I choose to eat pork or sleep in on Sundays or wear short skirts or sing really loud or love a person, any god that exists in my belief system would still love me.  In fact, I think that whatever mysterious power or being is responsible for this miracle of life on earth has a pretty sharp sense of humor, and is thrilled with all the variety of life and thought that has grown on this round marble we call home.  But what do I know, anyway?  I’m a small speck on a little planet among many, and whatever thoughts I have of the divine, I wonder if they even impact whatever mysterious power or source is out there.

Considering the Divine.  Just another way I spend my days, especially while I’m creating something of my own.IMAG0532