Re: A Parable of Two Carpenters

From: Alan Connor (zzzzzz_at_xxx.yyy)
Date: 12/02/03 

Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 02:28:57 GMT

On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 15:14:28 -0000, Beth <BethStone21@hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com> wrote:

<snip>

> Unfortunately, increasingly, because many of the "Bible belt"
> persuasion shout and act all judgemental (which is _highly_
> unChristian, in fact..."Love thy neighbour", "Love thy enemy", "Judge
> not, lest thy be judged", etc.), there's often a perception that the
> things Jesus was saying are like "restrictions"...you know, like
> "daddy" spoiling the kids "fun"...but, in fact, it's all really good,
> self-evident advice for living...which was what shocked a friend who
> once tried to annoy me by saying the old joke: "They've found the
> first missing page of the Bible...it says: 'the characters and events
> in this novel are purely fictious and any similarity to people,
> companies living or dead is purely coincidental...'"...and he found it
> odd that I just laughed at this joke, which he thought he could wind
> me up with...knowing I'm a Christian...but I simply said: "Perhaps
> that's actually true...maybe the whole Bible _is_ a work of
> fiction...not that I personally believe that...as, after all, many of
> the historical events and so forth are actually _known_ to have
> happened from other history and geological studies...but, were it all
> just a fiction novel, IT DOES NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST ALTER THE TRUTH OF
> THE MESSAGE"...and the Bible itself stresses the importance of the
> actual _Message_ of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness and so forth as most
> relevent...

I like that atitude very much. I am not a Christian myself, but regard
Jesus to be one in a long line of Teachers sent to us.

<snip>

>
> The hero has a thousand faces...all the myths and legends of the world
> are essentially the same in the underlying messages and truths...but
> this is to be expected, in fact...we're all human, we're all on the
> same planet, we're all subject to the same forces of Nature, the same
> _TRUTHS_ apply to us all, etc....it was humans themselves that
> invented these _PATENTLY ABSURD_ notions that because there was a
> river and a mountain, they'd draw a line on a map, create a flag of
> different colours and then proceed to kill each other repeatedly in a
> periodic cycle because of...well...it's anyone's guess why humans
> insist on this nonsense...but, regardless, humans have insisted on it
> for thousands of years and will, no doubt, keep doing it until it's
> simply not possible to do so anymore (Judgement Day? Which you can
> read as the Biblical or Hollywood "Arnie" one...again, different
> actors at a different theatre but the same basic play in which we are
> all actors playing our part :)...

True. The TRUTH is simply the truth. The "mechanics of reality". Christianity
has no patent on it.

<snip>

I enjoyed that very much, Beth. Sorry to take so long reponding. Been busy.

AC