You know, Mark, there's so many people on this post (and indeed, in real life) who are so screwed up. They profess something they don't live by, they hide their religion, they cut down others for having a certain belief, etc. Very rarely does a glimmer of honesty come through. I just thought I'd say that. That was the most blatently honest post I think I've read so far. I think a lot of people are like you, Mark. They just don't admit it.

That being said, allow me to counter argue your first couple of paragraphs.

It happens so often in religion, we take what a MAN wrote, and can't see how GOD could ever say such a thing. God only dictates. But the bible was written in Hebrew and Greek and then along comes King James and has a bunch of scholars translate it. I don't know if you've ever taken a foriegn language class (probably if you went to high school) but did you ever notice how not only is the translation not the same, but sometimes they talk differently too? I noticed that in Russian. (Took it for five years by a true-blue-died-in-the-wool-Russian lady - who, by the way, was an excellent teacher.) There were certain phrases, for example, Tee Schlyapa (not spelled the same way in Russian) which translated into: "You jackass". Now, being the word person I am, and not the phrase person - that was my sister - I picked it apart and said that schlyapa meant "hat". Mila agreed with me, but still said it was disparaging. Like, you're are as dumb as a hat. Or something like that. Still, they use different phrases to mean different things.

Point is, God doesn't do things by commitee. King James' wonderful scholars HAD to get some things wrong. They were mortal. And none of them were prophets, seers, or revelators.

So, when God says something completely ludicrous, perhaps it's the translation. Just a thought.



Lysithea


p.s. You'd make a good LDS. No offense if you're offended.