To Those Questioning Illogical Stories in the Bible

I have been struggling with faith throughout my entire life. I have always considered myself a believer in God and Jesus and have said, "Well...yeah, I'm a Christian." Easter Sunday 2008 changed me. I finally "felt" like a Christian. Some people might find this ridiculous, some may agree, I don't care, but I "felt" the holy spirit and felt like I had a relationship with Jesus for a brief period at church on Easter Sunday. Since that day it has sparked so many questions about religion inside me. I started reading the Bible (not as much as I should). After reading some I thought to myself, some of these stories sound totally illogical.

For example, Noah's Ark, in no way do I believe that two of each animal lived on a boat together during a giant flood that God created. If it happened...wow... but faith itself is not going to get me to believe that story. This is just one story of quite a few that I am extremely skeptical about. I've thought a lot about this and am starting to figure out exactly what I believe. Some Christians will say, "The Bible is God's word" or "The Bible is Inspired by God", and they will believe every story in the Bible because, "God did it." Well, ya know that's fine I guess but here's my take. These stories to me are simply stories telling a lesson. The Bible is full of lessons and I think these stories are just more lessons not to be taken literally. For example, forty days= a long period of time. So when the Bible says that something happened for forty days I am not going to think why the heck everything happens in forty days in the Bible. Also, when Abraham is said to be 500 years old in the bible, 500 years= respect. Taking the Bible literally after 2000 years in the writing and many different versions just seems a little iffy to me but I do consider it holy and I do think the lessons preached in it are great to live your life by.

To those who argue that the Bible is the word of God and therefore is true. Honestly, who am I to tell you what to believe? If you want to believe that it's great that you take your faith to that level. This argument made me think of something I learned in a class my freshmen year of college. The class was Interpretation of Literature. My T.A. highly stressed the concept that when reading a piece of literature to think that, "The Author is Dead." This basically means that writing and the creator are unrelated. Justin got it from an essay written by a French literary critic, Roland Barthes. The essay was called, "Death of the Author." Barthes wrote, "Readers must separate a literary work from its creator in order to liberate it from interpretive tyranny, for each piece of writing contains multiple layers and meanings." By applying "The Author is Dead" concept to the Bible it helps me understand my doubts of some illogical stories. Maybe God did intend to have his followers put these stories into the Bible to tell a lesson; not for people to actually believe every word literally. And also, when I hear that the Bible was inspired by God that also makes me think that these stories are not meant to be taken literally. To "inspire" a book does not mean to "write" a book. Just as if Bach inspired me to write a piece of music that does not mean the music was written by Bach.

Some Christians may say that I'm not a true Christian if I don't believe every word in the Bible. That's fine, as long as I chose to believe that Jesus is the son of God and learn and try to follow his teachings I am going to call myself a Christian. I've heard some Christians say, "Well I'm going to be safe and keep believing every word. It is not about logic, I have faith!" Well, I'm pretty proud to say that after thinking about this a lot and developing opinions that I use logic to develop my faith. I feel as though now I can read through the Bible and not constantly block my faith by thinking to myself, “How in the heck did that really happen God?” I hope this helps anyone who has struggled with believing stories in the Bible it sure helped me getting my thoughts out about it.

 

If you are going to believe that Jesus is the son of God, why not just take the whole thing literally. God is the most illogical part of the whole concept of Christianity, so thinking about if Noah's ark could have occured seems no stretch at all.

 

Being a follower of Jesus will get you further down the road than being a follower of Christianity.

All you need are HIS words, not everybody else's that were attached to them.

You could write them in the palm of your hand.

The path isn't hard to find if you just follow his words.



x

 

Absolutly Xexon. Jesus didnt come to make a new religion. He came to destroy all the old ones and introduce us to our Father. Religion comes between man and God.

 

It comes as an angel of light.

Just like their own scriptures said it would.



x

 

omg i love doctor who. christianity has alot of fun little storys in it and so do all religons but i dont understand how people can take a cluster of fables and use them to dictate how u and others should live thaire life

 

It doesn't matter what other people say. You've got to do what you believe is right.

I don't get how people can think the Bible is infallible anyway. It says right in it that if anyone takes away from it or adds on to it then they are doomed. How can it be altered if it's infallible?

I agree, the Bible has a lot of good insights, but overall it's just a book. It really is just a book.

 

Faith is a belief in the trustworthiness of an idea that has not been proven.

I have a lot of faith in math and sciences such as physics.

I have zero faith in any religion. Religions, ( all of them ) to me, are nothing more than a method of control of the population by a human authority.

Stories like the Ark, and other 'miracles' can, and have been debunked as myth over and over again.

 

people use it as a tool to hurt others

 

Another fan, thats 3 (I have come into contact with) in the last few days.

 

Right, I don't get how some Christians can explain almost everything by saying, "It's in the Bible."