You don't ask non-lawyers to figure out what the law means

I don't think legal documents and the Bible are a reasonable comparison. While both are difficult for untrained readers, its for entirely different reasons. Legal writing is difficult because it's designed to eliminate uncertainty and inconsistency, about words means one and only one very specific thing. That involves lots of unfamiliar words and sentence structures. The Bible (and a lot of other religious writing) is difficult because it has an archaic source, much translated and interpreted though many different languages and includes a diverse mixture of poetic language and metaphor. Legal experts are taught what the individual legal terms mean so as to be able to interpret legal documents themselves. Priests are taught what the interpretation of the Bible is.

That said, I think you make a fair point about people in general interpreting meaning from the Bible. It is clear that it is possible to take pretty much anything you want from a reading of the Bible (especially if you've decided what that will be before reading it) and it is much more commonly used as a tool (or weapon) than the spiritual guide it was apparently intended to be.

I'm not convinced priests and theologians are especially immune to any of this though. Like everyone else, their interpretation of the text will be very much influenced by whoever is teaching them.

I'm not sure whether that leads to a favourable conclusion from your point of view. It suggests to me that the Bible isn't of much use in establishing any definitive truth regarding the nature (or indeed existence) of God and leaves us in the same "We don't know" position that we started in. It also puts a major stumbling block in the path of any argument based on Biblical principals, even the commonly accepted ones such as "Thou shall not kill".

 

I love how the OP says the Bible needs "professionals" to interpret it and then ignores 1000s of years of just that when it comes to the Hebrew Bible. Going so far as to say that Jews got it wrong. Hilarious. The Christian version of the Hebrew text are often mistranslated and misunderstood to make their theology work.
When it comes to the stories of the Hebrew Bible what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, Jews have literal volumes explaining their understanding.

As for laws it doesn't take law school to understand what the law means since one can research how the law is applied. (funny that is based on how the Jews in the 1st -3rd century decided to explain Jewish law) and there is a definition of malice in 187-199.

The failure of many is to assume they understand the Bible based on the words on the page. The Hebrew Bible is poetry not prose.

 

There is no way you're a lawyer.

 

You are right on target here Rook. The invention of movable type was the beginning of the end for bull crap religions like Catholocism. Once the common man began to have access to historical data and the free exchange of ideas, the greedy scumbags who created these religions as a means of control over their subjects began to lose their absolute power.

Cheers

 

Hus would disagree with you.

Unfortunately your church had him murdered.

 

So I take it the "honest" way would be to grab out the good parts but ignore the bad parts?

 

Translation: "I don't like that people are pointing out flaws in the Bible, so I'm going to claim they're just ignorant."

So YOU are an expert on the Bible, but not anyone who disagrees with you. Right? What's funny is that atheists are generally more knowledgeable on the Bible than Christians. Most Christians haven't even read the Bible. And if the message of god is so important, why did god make it so complicated so that not only was it in a form of media that many have been unable to comprehend at all (the world has been mostly illiterate for most of human history), but even if they could read it, it would still be too complex for the average person to understand? The Bible says man cannot be trusted, and yet, you would have them trust other men to interpret the word of god for them.

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No, you didn't. And is this really your best response to Burzmali's points?

 

So the word of god is an imperfect moral guide? Interesting.

And yet, no where in the Bible does it say that the stories in the OT are myths and that the stories in the NT are not myths. But I guess you, in your vast knowledge of the Bible know the difference and are just not sharing your great wisdom with us, right?

So, what you're saying is that god really had no contact with them, because if he did, then we could judge them by the morality of god.

Uh, here's the problem with that: according to the Bible, god commanded them to go up to cities and start wars with them if they wouldn't become their slaves. So, first off, it's not like they had no option of, oh, I don't know, not attacking random cities in the first place? Second, I thought Jesus said to love your enemies and to turn the other cheek, so this is a direct contradiction. Third, god said that they could beat their slaves and own them until they die. How exactly is that a necessity of war - to enslave people for their entire lives and be allowed to beat them?

No, the alternative was leaving them alone instead of committing genocide. What an insane argument. It would be like a serial rapist giving the defense of, "well, the only alternative to rape would be murder!" Or, how about none of the above?

 

The law is whatever people say it is. People usually accept what others tell them the law is. If they feel strongly about an issue they will likely support the law that reinforces their own biases. For example, most people think that acts such as murder and stealing are wrong. Therefore they will easily convict anyone charged with such acts even though they could find the person not guilty if they wanted to, and their verdict would stand. That's why so many innocent people end up in prison. They automatically assume that the person is guilty because he's charged with a crime that they don't like.

When people read the Bible they bring their own biases to the table and put a spin on it that reflects their beliefs. If their beliefs coincide with what they Bible says about how they should behave they buy it without a second thought. But there's no one who will ever accept all of it, including the Pope.