Your thoughts on prayer

It's worse than that, Diana.

The Bible is full of internal contradictions. It's as bad as a Microsoft instruction manual!

Hi John:  Yes, absolutely confusing, as well as dark and contradictory to the concept of God as a loving creator!  But I think the Bible, taken as a whole, is a portrait of the "evolution" if you will, of the spirituality of the human race.  Each book, letter, poem, biography, historical narrative, etc. of the Bible was written for a specific audience during a specific time in history.  As such they are snapshots of the progression of human history and its understanding of God.  It is precisely the example you gave above that is so confusing to people and why pulling a verse from scripture to support one's position on anything or taking a fundamentalist interpretation of scripture is so damaging.

But the question then becomes, why are these stories part of the canon of scripture that the faithful believe to have been written with inspiration from God?  It can be very complicated, but there are eternal truths to be gleaned and maybe not necessarily from any one particular story.  Kind of like Aesop's Fables. The actual story may not be historically true, but the message it conveys is the take home message.  The moral of the story, so to speak.  A lot of scripture is like that.

Hi, Ruth.

Sorry to be so late with my reply. Had to drag myself away from the net for a while and get some work done!

I agree that the Bible is kind of like Aesop's Fables - in fact I think it's exactly like Aesop's Fables. It's a story with moral implications. So is Cinderella. So is Snow White. So is Jack and the Beanstalk.

The problem is, there are millions of people who would be infuriated by that comparison, because for them the Bible isn't a story. It's the true, unvarnished word of God. Just take a look at the website Sue G-R mentioned.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/about/faith

1. The 66 books of the Bible are the written Word of God. The Bible is divinely inspired and inerrant throughout. Its assertions are factually true in all the original autographs. It is the supreme authority in everything it teaches.
2. The final guide to the interpretation of Scripture is Scripture itself.
3. The account of origins presented in Genesis is a simple but factual presentation of actual events and therefore provides a reliable framework for scientific research into the question of the origin and history of life, mankind, the earth, and the universe.

It's full of gems like that - full of certainty like that.

And of course, in a world in which there are other faiths with adherents who are just as certain of the factual truth of their religion, such certainty is very dangerous.

However, I've got nothing against religious music!

This is my first post on this issue. Prayer and religion seemed to have passed me bye, I simply never have understood how folk become so involved with it. I don’t understand why we need religion and nobody has ever been able to tell my why. When ever I talk about this type of thing I get some quite sharp, and on occasions aggressive responses so it would be great if this could be taken for what it is, an opinion with no intent to offend anybody or anybody’s beliefs.

 I have absolutely no objection to anybody believing in anything but what I can’t understand is why some people feel they have to try and encourage me to alter my ways and thoughts. I’m quite happy in my own little way and enjoy life, I do my best to help others if I can and keep out of trouble. So why religion…. We are born, we live, we die.

 A long time ago I worked with a bloke who was torpedoed in the war, he told me he was adrift for three days before being picked up safely. He told me he prayed from the time he was hit till the time he was rescued, he went on to say he had never prayed before and he has never prayed since. He told me when all hope had gone he prayed, not because he believed it may help but because there was nothing else he could do. I hope I never find myself in such a predicament but I guess if I did I would pray.

 Religion and especially churches hold great interest for me but I see it all as an outsider and I’m really quite happy with it all.

 I’m not going to respond to any input as I know it always ends up being complicated with folk trying to explain why I’m wrong, I may well be wrong, but then so may you.