“I guess what I’m trying to figure out is why is having a rainbow in a classroom is indoctrination and not having the Ten Commandments in a classroom,” Texas State Rep. James Talarico argued in a now viral video.
Texas State Rep. James Talarico using biblical scripture to tear down conservative Christian arguments
More knowledge is always a good thing but religious texts can and are twisted to suit an agenda all the time. We can’t go back and ask the authors for clarification so we’re left arguing about what a person believes the text means.
The earliest text in the New Testament was written around 50 years after Christ’s death. There’s no definitive account of his life because the accounts in the gospels are sometimes contradictory. It’s messy, almost like it was written by a bunch of people recounting stories they heard rather than it being the literal word of God.
But they (the right) usually quote it by removing all context and by only using snippets of the text so there’s no interpretation required, in which case it’s very easy to retort by using the same tactic or by quoting the whole passage.
Heck, just telling them that “it’s written all over the place in the Bible that only God has the ability to judge” takes care of most of their message.
True, but if you bring facts, logic, and citations to a discussion about belief and faith then all it takes is, “that’s not the interpretation I choose to believe” to end the conversation.
More knowledge is always a good thing but religious texts can and are twisted to suit an agenda all the time. We can’t go back and ask the authors for clarification so we’re left arguing about what a person believes the text means.
That just leads to another debate of who wrote the damn thing.
Hint: It wasn’t God or Jesus, but it won’t stop them from guessing those two first.
The earliest text in the New Testament was written around 50 years after Christ’s death. There’s no definitive account of his life because the accounts in the gospels are sometimes contradictory. It’s messy, almost like it was written by a bunch of people recounting stories they heard rather than it being the literal word of God.
But they (the right) usually quote it by removing all context and by only using snippets of the text so there’s no interpretation required, in which case it’s very easy to retort by using the same tactic or by quoting the whole passage.
Heck, just telling them that “it’s written all over the place in the Bible that only God has the ability to judge” takes care of most of their message.
True, but if you bring facts, logic, and citations to a discussion about belief and faith then all it takes is, “that’s not the interpretation I choose to believe” to end the conversation.