Christianity, why the need?

[Too Few Lions]

The OT...think of it as a parent with a young child would dictate how to and what to do where as the NT assumes the child is now an adult and already has been taught...no longer "forced" as a child might be to follow rules in a household would, but now independant and can think and act as an adult would.

or otherwise more historically, think of the OT as the writings of Judaean and Israelite priests in the 9th-6th centuries BCE, and think of the NT as the writings of Hellenised Jews in the 1st-2nd centuries CE, living in a vastly different Roman world influenced by Greek philosophy. Society can change a lot in a thousand years.

[xSilverPhinx]

In other words, biblical interpretation is like science - when something is disproven, it is no longer believed, or it is reinterpreted. What's wrong with that?

This is something I thoroughly dislike, it grinds my gears when religion and science are held together on the same page, they aren't related even in the slightest.

They're not interpreted in the same way to begin with. Is it even correct to say that science is "interpreted"? ??? Not to spiral this thread into another semantic argument, but that word is more subjective than not.

[Stevil]

Would it be accurate to say that Christians are adept at either:

Not discussing the details of Christianity (with non Christians) with a goal of honest inquiry
or
Dancing around discussions and avoiding any direct attempt to address the issues of concern?

Is this the mental gymnastics they often get accused of?

[The Magic Pudding]

Is this the mental gymnastics they often get accused of?

I thought it was their leaps of logic.
And then there's the extremely complicated stuff.  Lots of little steps that seem straight but are all slightly curved and when all joined together create a lovely circular argument.

[Truthseeker]

Would it be accurate to say that Christians are adept at either:

Not discussing the details of Christianity (with non Christians) with a goal of honest inquiry
or
Dancing around discussions and avoiding any direct attempt to address the issues of concern?

Is this the mental gymnastics they often get accused of?

Seems to me they do not even want to discuss the bare fundamentals let alone details. 

[history_geek]

Dancing around discussions and avoiding any direct attempt to address the issues of concern?

Isn't that what the apologists have been doing and refining for years, now? That and making philosophical arguments that lead nowhere but they try very hard to make it sound as if they actually had something to back them up...

[Stevil]

Isn't that what the apologists have been doing and refining for years, now? That and making philosophical arguments that lead nowhere but they try very hard to make it sound as if they actually had something to back them up...

Could you imagine what science would look like if they didn't bother with physical tests and observations?
The world would be flat, sitting on the backs of a stack of turtles, there would be monsters at the edges of the world, the sun, moon have specific paths where they traverse from one portal to another, teleporting back to the West so they can start the same journey over.

[Too Few Lions]

Isn't that what the apologists have been doing and refining for years, now? That and making philosophical arguments that lead nowhere but they try very hard to make it sound as if they actually had something to back them up...

Could you imagine what science would look like if they didn't bother with physical tests and observations?
The world would be flat, sitting on the backs of a stack of turtles, there would be monsters at the edges of the world, the sun, moon have specific paths where they traverse from one portal to another, teleporting back to the West so they can start the same journey over.

yep, just the way the original writers of the Bible believed the world to be!

[Truthseeker]

...the sun, moon have specific paths where they traverse from one portal to another, teleporting back to the West so they can start the same journey over.

Actually, Joshua 10:13 tells of a time when the sun and the moon stood still .  So apparently, since the Bible is the inerrant, infalible word of god there was a time when, I guess, the sun and moon revolved around the earth. Hmm

[Stevil]

...the sun, moon have specific paths where they traverse from one portal to another, teleporting back to the West so they can start the same journey over.

Actually, Joshua 10:13 tells of a time when the sun and the moon stood still .  So apparently, since the Bible is the inerrant, infalible word of god there was a time when, I guess, the sun and moon revolved around the earth. Hmm

The moon still does, apparently 

But, yeah, maybe god changed things once people developed scientific knowledge, just to make things scientifically consistent. A cover up if you will, not to be deceitful, but just because gods wants us to believe without evidence rather than to know.

[Truthseeker]

There are actually numerous examples of the laws of nature being suspended in the Bible that are dubbed as miracles.  But this one here is just a straight up fallacy.  And yes I certainly did not mean to include the moon in my statement.  I just included that whole portion of the verse and was not thinking straight. 

[Truthseeker]

I found this artilcel qutie intriguing.  Can thinking undermine religious faith?

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-religion-analytical-thinking-20120427,0,5374010.story

[Tank]

I found this artilcel qutie intriguing.  Can thinking undermine religious faith?

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-religion-analytical-thinking-20120427,0,5374010.story

There's a thread about that here http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=9909.0

[Truthseeker]

EEEKK!  Sorry.

[Tank]

EEEKK!  Sorry.

No need to be sorry. I'd rather see a good story linked to multiple times than no at all. Don't feel inhibited from posting. The staff can merge and members cross reference as I did.