to get spat on

I will accept my payment of spitting and jeers, like I have a choice.

I have tried to wrap my mind around the concept of accepting every line of the bible as the direct action of God and the word of God. I am too arrogant, thinking I am smart, and favor a more reasonable assessment. I reason out the bible in a humanistic way. I know that this leads to error, because I am a human and prone to it.

So, if I am a human, pastor is human, cleric is human, deacon is human, are we not each capable of rendering a decision on the bible? As we not all capable of reading the books and having an ever-so slight or vastly different take on it? I think with the number of denominations (and false ones like Mormans+) that we can indeed come up with different understandings.

Is a deacon chosen by an Angel? A deacon goes through a legal process in the church with selection and evaluation. I don't believe congregations get to elect one. If that is the case, then humans, ultimately, are choosing. I add here the decades-long history of knowing a problem priest (non-Catholic and those who are Catholic) passed along through different parishes rather than fire the "employee" for violating the trust of the company, in part, committing fraud and perhaps embezzlement.

I try to reason out understandings of many things. I take the bible, not as a complete volume of all of the will of God, but rather as history with the miracles of God, explained to the peoples to the best of His ability.

Could Noah wrap his mind around the concept that there were other nations, oceans, continents, polar bears, penguins ... uh, no. Could the writers of Genesis possibly understand the sun, radiation, the moon, the stars, the planets, the milky way, comets, no. Could early biblical people understand plate tectonics, rock formation, fossils even from their own time period, climate normalities and changes, again no.

Did those people understand chemistry, biology, etc. I think trying to explain to early people these concepts would have been a waste of time. Some people, through disease and famine lived less than ten years. Living to thirty was good! Would these short-lived people, living-in-a-bubble people understand even what a million is? Had they ever seen a million of anything other than locusts and sand grains? How about a billion, trillion? Who do you convey spans of time to people who don't have calendars? Many didn't have sundials or the like.

Explain the world, existence to simple-minded persons. You cannot convey the complexities because the lack the ability to understand -- in a sense, too stupid. I mean this, for each generation is taught as much as they can be of what was, then how to use modern technology and understanding. Try teaching many older adults to use the computer when they never have. It can be a long process. Try explaining mountain building to a young person.

If you accept everything, then you would be in a quandary regarding a periodic shift of passion and rage throughout. Whereas if you look at it as history flecked with God's miracles, then ... it begs another go, another read.

The concepts of the ten commandments itself is a point of contention as one school of thought is that "thou shalt not kill" is inaccurate, in that it was meant to be "thou shalt not murder" based on the translation. Translation ... who does that, man.

So a human translates the bible from language to language with the NIV being a newer version. So, with English being as completely versatile and ambiguous as it is ... when it is translated next ... what will the meaning of "bad" be? Will bad be, "cool", be of evil-intent, misguided, inconsiderate, foul-smelling. Ah! Someone, ultimately approves of the translation.

There are written and unwritten languages of the world. The Holy Bible is being written in those languages as I am typing. Will the translator be more even-tempered or more like David Koresh, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Hitler? The principles stand alone. Make the world better and stronger (improve it) by your being in it. It is the one truism in most modern religions.