Bible not to be taken literally.

[Jara sang]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html

Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true. The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshipers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.

“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.

The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.

Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of creation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools, believing “intelligent design” to be an equally plausible theory of how the world began.

{snip}

They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Like, for instance, being gay is "an Abomination"?

The religious "authorities" are stuck between rocks and hard places. Although I am not a religion-hater, I have to say that a great many of them deserve the pressure for once.

--p!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I honestly think they will give up the gay hating eventually, just in the

same way they gave up support for slavery. I think that day will eventually come. (No, I am sure not all churches will let it go, but they will be few and most will look at them as being odd for clinging to certain ways and mindsets.)

[Double T]

3. The biggest problem is that the fundamentalists will NOT believe it......

Fundamentalists would no longer be able to be intolerant and walk around with a 'holier than thou' attitude. How many wars would there have NOT been throughout all of history if religious fundamentalist did not exist??????

[Deja Q]

4. Then what's the frigging point to religion? They say their own is full of

bunk?!

[Bellamia]

6. The point of Religion?

Well, I like best a definition from Grad School. Religion is an attempt to answer the unanswerable questions humans ask. Like, why do bad things happen to good people? Etc.

[Jara sang]

9. Religion and politics go hand and hand.

Religion controls the mind, politics control the body.

[Bellamia]

7. Point of Religion

Duplicate, delete

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Not bunk.. metaphorical. Marcus Borg's "The Heart of Christianity"

gives a great overview of what progressive Christianity is all about.

[Zynx]

5. This has been the position of the Church for years.

It's part of the reason Protestants always attacked the Catholic Church for "improvising" and "making stuff up".

[Skidmore]

8. Well, maybe it's time for them to annouce the Pauline doctrine

regarding women and other undesireables should not be taken literally either.

[RoBear]

10. I went to a Catholic college

over 40 years ago and we were ALWAYS taught that the bible was a moral document and not to be taken as history. The Catholic church also places a great deal of emphasis on tradition, considering it as important as scripture.

I no longer attend any church, but I do like to have things "in place" so to speak, thus the attempt at clarification.

That being said, I think the church does a great deal of harm because it places too much emphasis on that old misogynistic flaming queen Paul and not enough on the words of JC.