Oh what a devious little man I am...

[komencanto]

Randi´s comments about religion this week inspired me to seek out a believer´s responce to silly things in the Bible, just out of curiousity. So I have posted a message in a popular christian message board

Originally I claimed I was a Christian who was confused when he read the bible. I decided to give up the deception and edited my post with an apology. You can now read it here: http://www.bibleforums.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=95161#post95161 .

OK, now I´m going to go through the replies I have got and see what the basic points are. I´ll give you quotes as I go along, and we can see how we go, and how best I can respond. Would any of you mind giving me a hand with the discussion? Here are some points currently on the table:

Reply 1:

"I was also trying to read the King James Version...sorry...go get a New Living Transaltion...or just use the link I am going to give you to read it online."

I wonder whether I will find similarly objectionable passages in other versions of the bible. We´ll see. Other versions will probably be less offensive at least. But then, I´m willing to take a look at this one.

"First please understand the Old testment was writeen for the Jews...we do NOT follow those teachings except for the Ten Commandments....or I should say we don't follow those laws."

OK, fair enough, I´ll cut down on quotations from the old testiment. The OT is much more offensive than the new one though, the new one is pretty reasonable in parts. Are we still meant to follow the Ten Commandments? Because I know that for one I think they are pretty shoddy rules except for the big 3.

"The people then were very very harsh..and God dealt harshly with them.......
.....You would have to be harsh and really crack down on the child at first...but as he learned and quit fighting against you...you could relax some of the rules some...as he earned them by not being so wild and out of control."

OK, I think I could mount a fair objection to this. What do you guys think?

"Jesus killing the Fig Tree was to tell a story of the future...many of the things Jesus did or said had more then one meaning. The Fig Tree represent Israel and the Jewish people...they are God's chosen people but seem to have a really hard time obeying and following God."

Could anyone help me with this one? I´m not sure if it is reasonable or not. I guess one could turn any act into an analogy in this way if one really tried hard enough.

"Take one thing in the bible at a time...ask question about it...ok? Once you really understand it will make more sense to you and you will realize God knows excatly what He is doing.""

Will do....

[arcticpenguin]

Have you decided on a strategy as the 'debate' progresses? Do you point out the obvious contradictions and say, "of course! I understand now"? Or do you become irate that you have been misled?

[espritch]

Why the deception? Why not just start with something like: "I've been reading this here bible and it don't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe you guys could clarify some stuff for me?" That way you're not starting from a deliberate deception and no one can accuse you of false pretense. Then they have to actually address the issues raised.

[Marvel Frozen]

Originally posted by espritch
Why the deception? Why not just start with something like: "I've been reading this here bible and it don't make a lot of sense to me. Maybe you guys could clarify some stuff for me?" That way you're not starting from a deliberate deception and no one can accuse you of false pretense. Then they have to actually address the issues raised.

Not really, they can just ignore the post. Or, depending on where you post it, they can delete your post and ban your account.

[Yahweh]

Faking your identity?! Tsk tsk, bad.

(Personally, I would have taken the route of "One of my atheist friends was asking me tough questions about the bible, how do I respond to them...", that would be more believable... wait, forget I mentioned that... *sulking*)

[komencanto]

I´m just doing this for some fun. I´ve been reading in philosophy about rhetoric and going in with false modesty expecting to be taught and then acting confused when your opponents arguments don´t add up. That is my intention.
Yeah, I agree its bad form to fake an identity, but hey, its just some fun, we´ll see how it goes. The people there are nice, I´ll just try and prod their ideas a bit.
At least I´ll be making decent discussion, whether under false pretences or not. And it´s fun trying to imagine how a young converted Chritian would react to this stuff.