Personally, I think you anti-Bible folks should just lay off of it... You're attacking the Scriptures as though they're the source of your ills, so you continuously debase them, diminish them, and attack anybody who trusts them as the inspired word of God.

As is your right... but it doesn't make doing it respectable. In fact, you're downright mean when it comes to the Bible. I know I've said this a hundred times, so I don't even know why I'm bothering saying it again, but let me set the record straight:

This whole "christian" political agenda is people trying to force others to obey Bible standards. However, the Bible itself, in multiple places, clearly indicates that there is no value in obedience that comes only under compulsion by other men. So, men forcing other men to obey God's standards is neither condoned nor beneficial. In fact, doing so works against the message.

This world will do what it wants. It will pass laws rewarding homosexual couples. It will pass laws rewarding people for having children out of wedlock. It will pass laws providing money to schools to teach about the benefits of masturbation, and initiate wars to encourage people to murder one another for one cause or another. But Christ's followers are no part of the world... not in a literal sense, but in a spiritual sense. We will do what we can, in our own homes and congregations, to emphasize the value of life and of chaste conduct. We will obey man's laws. We will use what the Bible teaches to back us up. We will, each and every one of us, decide for ourselves if we think its worth obeying... not because we are being forced to... but because we love our Heavenly Father and want to please him.

So the rest of you can just keep attacking, bashing, trying to tear us down, But I don't know what it will accomplish. Maybe its because it makes you feel superior... in intelligence or logic or whatever you feel glorifies you. Maybe you want to shame us into submission. I don't know, but I trust you will all just keep doing that because that's the kind of nasty people you are.

However, I hope you aren't doing it because you think the Bible and Jesus' teachings are somehow damaging the world. Indeed, misinterpretation of them, ignorance of them, combined with man's innate desire to control others... THAT is damaging the world. But absent the Bible, that desire to control others and teaching out of ignorance/ manipulation would still be causing trouble, and it always will.

If you think getting rid of the "fictive spaceman" will make us better off, you've got it all wrong, because the "fictive spaceman" and "5,000 year old book" aren't the problem. The problem is that humans are inherently sinful, prideful, and seek every opportunity they can to exploit others for their own gain. And guess what? The fictive spaceman and his dusty old tome DISCOURAGE that sort of behavior. The problem is, some false teachers who claim status as educators when it comes to the Bible and God have used The Bible and God to exploit others. Go figure.. people claiming to be teachers, teaching the wrong thing to manipulate others? what's new?

Why do you think they kept the Scriptures in dead languages that nobody could read for OVER 1500 YEARS? hmmm? Maybe it's because that "dusty old book" was actually arguing AGAINST the very doctrine that those false teachers were claiming it supported. What do you think caused the enlightenment? The Bible was actually TRANSLATED. What you attackers have isn't just a profound lack of understanding of the Holy Scriptures, but a profound lack of understanding of human history and nature.

Personally, I don't understand why you can't just hash it out with the false teachers who claim God is telling them to force the rest of you to obey church doctrine (which the church claims is based on scripture) and leave the rest of us, who sincerely love God and respect the Bible, out of your attacks? Why not direct your attacks at mainstream Christendom and leave the Bible and God out of it? Those people don't represent God and the Bible. They represent themselves and the twisted doctrine they've come up with. I mean, seriously... Good Friday (which Thomas Riley observes)? Lent? where are those in the Bible? And if the Birth of Christ was so darn important, why didn't the scriptures even give the day? And the death of Christ... yes, that was important, we were given the day, but we celebrate it by gorging ourselves on aphrodisiacs and sugar, and playing games with fertility symbols like rabbits and eggs? Seriously?

My point, please, if you have any compassion, direct your attacks at the people trying to force their values down your throats, not at the Bible and God which they falsely claim to represent. The source of your political conflicts aren't in the Bible and God... its in the people who have misused the Bible and God to try and exert control over others.

We witness. We teach. You decide. Followers of Christ will never try and force you to believe what we believe. That is not our place. It is God's place, and his alone to compel you into believing what his word teaches, only through love, and only then if you want him to.

As for me, the only thing that's kept me on these boards the last year was a desire to defend the Bible when it was attacked or misrepresented. But I'm done. I have no reason to be here anymore. I'll focus my energies in something productive, like studying the Holy Scriptures, honing my skills, and expanding my hobbies. Adios.

Sorry about not allowing comments. It's Erik Walker, mainly. He says I'm a heretic and would probably go off over this post. I don't want to see that. If you want to comment, please email me. tgorle1@umbc.edu

Edit: Just thought I'd add here what Timothy said to me in an email, in response to this post...

Travis,

I don't see you as any different from Erik.  Sorry.  You *believe*, and
that makes you just as dangerous to society as he is.

-Tim