Re: OT: One for the

Agreed about not taking Biblical passages literally in all instances.
However, the two examples you use do not support your point. Neither
example appears in the Bible, literally or figuratively.

The first example about meat/fish during Lent seems to be a Catholic
teaching (I am not Catholic). And I know the Bible does not attach a
date of December 25 to Christ's birth, or even suggest that we
celebrate it by purchasing gifts for our friends and family.

SweetBitches wrote:
> The inherant flaw in your argument is that it relies on a direct interpretation
> of the Bible. People think of the Bible as one book, where it is actually a
> collection of books. There were some 150 accounts of the life of Jesus, 4 of
> them ended up in the Bible. Why? Because the people in charge of the church at
> the time the Bible was put together only selected the ones that fit they felt
> best represented their views. Actually, when Christianity was in its infancy,
> there was a rift over what type of religion it would be. One group wanted a
> separate religion, while the other considered it to be a sect of Judaism. Each
> group was organized in a different city. The Judaism camp came under siege and
> most were wiped out, therefore the 'whole seperate religion' camp won kind of by
> default.
>
> Catholics are not allowed to eat meat on Fridays during lent, but they are
> allowed to eat fish. Why is this, some decree of God? No. Originally no meat
> was allowed, but some Italian fisherman had a friend at the vatican who had the
> ear of the pope who declared that fish is not meat. Then the fishermen all get
> paid and kick up a little of that action to the church.
>
> Was Jesus born on December 25th? Of course not (most biblical historians think
> it was more like June or July) but they were trying to conivince all the pagans
> of Europe to convert. They all had big celebrations for the winter solstice.
> The church determined that if they declared Jesus' b-day to fall around the same
> time, it would appease the people, and so we have Christmas.
>
> Anyways I got way off of my original point which was that the Bible was written
> and assembled by man, and was put together for political purposes. It shouldn't
> really be taken literally, nor should it be the basis of an argument, in my
> humble opinion.
>
>
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