Evangelical Evolution on Abortion

Nice rationalization...just because it's translated doesn't mean it's not the word of G-d. Religions are based off of it, I doubt what you are saying about things falling through the cracks would fly well in most churches.

What does our resident amateur theologian think on the subject?

The scriptures are inerrant insofar as they were written in the original manuscripts.

I'm not sure trying to pick a fight over inerrancy in English language bibles today vs. what an atheist might or might not believe is a valid comparison of "doctrine".

Even in English one can count several renditions of The Bible, beginning with the King James version I suppose (though I'm really not certain of that was the first). But I did mention "literally" in my previous post, and to suppose that the KJV is 100% the word of God, is questionable to me at least in a literal sense.

For example the book of Daniel contains some historical inaccuracies in the early part of the book, which cause some scholars to conclude it was not written until long after Daniel died, while others think otherwise. However Jesus apparently indicated is was Daniel in the book of Matthew.

In the book of Ecclesiastes (a wonderful book BTW) the author is commonly believed to be King Solomon in his old age, and it is a philosophical reflection of lessons learned in his life. I don't necessarily believe that this book is the literal word of God, but "the inspired word of God," is entirely another matter.

But don't get me wrong, I am a staunch believer in the basics and message of The Bible. The atheist dogma offers me nothing but negativism and heartburn, and The Bible offers me many things involving hope, gratification and the peace that passes all understanding. Becoming a true believer has meant an enormous change in my life.

Don't want to be accused of preaching, but Romans 10;9 is living proof to me - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. But of course, the apostle Paul wrote these words, if one wants to get nit-picky.

I mentioned earlier that people believe what they want to. Their choice, I'm willing to witness as to my faith and I have, but only with well defined limits.

In summary, ours is probably just a matter of semantics, it's what's in one's heart that matters.

Today I learned that slavery is okay, just as long as you're sort of nice to your slaves and let them go after 6 years. Thanks Rx.

Christian slavery = perfectly acceptable
Pagan slavery = abhorrent and disgusting

And don't forget it's okay if you get caught while raping a single girl... just as long as you marry her. Because her father wouldn't be able to pawn her off to any other self respecting dude who's rightfully expecting dibbies in on the action now that she's no longer a virgin.

Deuteronomy 22; 28-29
“If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days."

The moral of this Old Testament Law? Don't get caught with your pants down.

No one has a right to tell another what they can or can't do with their body and what's inside of it. I don't care what anyone believes..just keep your damn beliefs to yourself, rather than invading another's personal life. It's so damn sicking the bigotry and invasion of privacy that organized religion promotes.

No one has the right to tell another what they can or can't do with their body or what's inside, or outside of it. If you believe that you have the right to dictate what someone can do with their body, then please remove yourself from this country, as this is a democracy, one that has freedom of religion, but also freedom from religious ideologies, as guaranteed by our Constitution.

Do people feel special and powerful because they have a religion, that they feel that they should force their beliefs upon others? Well, get off your high horse -- and keep your religion to yourself. I don't care if you believe that you're doing 'god's work,' or 'it's in the bible,' or whatever nonsense you want to use to justify your reason to tell another what they can or can't do, quit it. Just quit it now. Stop it. Keep your nose where it belongs.

You have no right to tell me what to do with my nose!

High advice from someone who apparently wants only their opinion heard. This is a discussion board. If you can't handle dissenting opinions, maybe you should heed your own words and move along.

Good Post.

We all have the option to do what we want but but do we have the right? The question involves the legality, morality or decency of what we do and what should be sanctioned by the culture we exist in?

This is an opinion board and should embrace all opinions sans the too often seen nastiness; something we can all work to improve ourselves at.

He essentially meant that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

Well excuse me. I thought it was another secular rant. Insofar as people having things forced on them, I'd say there is plenty of that go around and the secularists are a active as anybody I can think of.

You are an idiot.

When one has run out of ways to argue, he might as well throw out a generic insult.

It's pretty easy to twist anything you want to into your own point of view. Congrats! you made it. BTW, that was before the time of Christ....in a theocracy.

We sometimes want to replace our understanding of a present day concern and project it to several thousand years in the past....and then make a pronouncement based on our worldview. Probably not the proper way to go about making a case for a discussion.

That's right. And I answered your insult in kind.

I didn't insult you. If you find sarcastic commentary about something you've posted on the politics board to be personally insulting, then you probably need thicker skin.

You have basically insinuated that God-approved slavery should be looked at differently than Roman slavery or slavery in early America. I personally think slavery is disgusting no matter what the root is, and don't think Biblical slavery is any exception.

Yet, you seem to be perfectly fine with doing the opposite; taking texts written thousands of years in the past and applying them to modern society.

Did anybody say that "slavery" (as you know it) should be applied today because the bible recorded it in the context of a theocracy at that time? No. Just because it is IN the bible doesn't necessarily mean that God condoned or looked favorably upon it.......

I never said that anyone said that slavery should be applied today. I just thought it was hilarious that you essentially said "things were different back then, you can't use today's morals to judge an ancient society", yet Christians get extremely offended when anyone suggests that ancient scripture isn't exactly relevant to modern society and shouldn't be incorporated into our government or laws.

As far as whether God condoned slavery...

If he didn't condone slavery, he sure went out of his way not to say it. Hell, one of the 10 Commandments says you shouldn't covet your neighbor's slaves. If slavery is wrong, why doesn't it say "Thou shall not own slaves"?

Bit of a risky argument to make there.