Korean Job Discussion Forums

Troll_Bait · Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2006 10:28 pm Post subject:

When I was a child in elementary school, I and all of my classmates were given a copy of the New Testament.
I think it was the right decision.
In my view, the Old Testament is too intense for young children.
There isn't too much to disagree with in the New Testament.

Gorgias · Joined: 27 Aug 2005

When I was a child in elementary school, I was given a rifle.
I think it was the right decision.
In my view, a rifle teaches you more about life and death in one second than reading the Bible every night for a year might.
...

In retrospect, @seoulunitarian, I sort of take back the "what's the point" comment. I respect the time it must have taken you to put these articles together. I too once went hunting for Bible and Classic quotes on a different topic, I think you can surmise the subject:

"And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth."
1 Samuel 1:12

"...thy mouth is truth."
1 Kings 17:24

"...and the mouth taste his meat?"
Job 12:11

"But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief."
Job 16:5

"They have gaped upon me with their mouth..."
Job 16:10

"And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain."
Job 29:23

"For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil..."
Proverbs 5:3

"On the tongue of such an one they shed a honeyed dew..."
Hesiod, The Theogony. Line 82.

"Of bodies chang'd to various forms, I sing...."
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 1

"We alter faces...."
Koran, The Women 4.47

@Xian, I guarantee you I am an educated and devout Christian. Not everyone shares your goody-two-shoes version of Christianity; some of us found more in the OT than @Troll_Bait did. And if I had wrote: ""my favorite" Rambo movie," would you have jumped on that? Why shouldn't someone have a favorite rape story, it's obviously a popular genre, just check out the volume of "forced" stories on sites like Literotica.

And who am I to lay down the moral laws, I don't want to be raped, I don't want my friends raped, but it's the terrible fact of life that life is cruel and nasty. Strange that it's okay to hunt and eat animals-- but not humans; but if you make love to an animal-- you're considered sick; a touch off topic, but goes to show how messed up the moral rules are.

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Xian · Joined: 08 Jan 2006

To clarify the verse in Judges 5:30. If you look only a few verses back, you note that this is not God speaking. This was the supposed thoughts and words of the mother of the man who was struck down and a wise women. There was an asumption that he was off plundering the Israelites.

Xian · Joined: 08 Jan 2006

Gorgias · Joined: 27 Aug 2005

@Xian, Christianity is not Christianity. Or maybe those two-thousand years of Christian-versus-Christian religious wars were primarilly motivated by economics, that's not that bad an interpritation. None-the-less, take a Coptic monk from Cairo, a Korean Evangelical Christian and a Catholic IRA militant and see how much they have in common theologically? Do you think those people didn't read their Bibles with care? That you might come from some picnic-eating new-age sect doesn't mean everyone's gonna use your hermenutics and come to the same tiny conclusions you do today. The Bible's a big book, different parts are bound to strike different people in different ways on different days.

As for the rape matter, "forced" is a huge sub-set not just of Classic works, but of erotic literature, graphic work and fantasy role-play. That you find it insensitive means very little to the many gifted artists and service providers who work in that medium.

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

georgias..regarding violence..rather than your catholic militant or Coptic christian, I would refer to the words of Jesus.. here are some..

"Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26:52).

And from the days of John the Baptist until now
the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,
and men of violence take it by force.
Matthew... Chapter 11:12

My kingdom is not of this world:
if my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews:
but now is my kingdom not from hence.
John... Chapter 18:36

Also- I agree your picture is very insensitive, please take it down:)

Xian · Joined: 08 Jan 2006

mithridates · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 8:13 am Post subject:

Troll_Bait · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:00 pm Post subject:

Gorgias (or "@Gorgias" if you prefer):

Please tell us, how does that animated picture at the bottom of your post contribute to an intellectual debate?

( ... silence broken only by the chirping of crickets ... )

Troll_Bait · Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2006 5:14 pm Post subject:

jaganath69 · Joined: 17 Jul 2003

Gorgias · Joined: 27 Aug 2005

The OP challenged us to consider rape in the Bible and what that means. Respecting the efforts and risks he took to make that post, I'm not gonna trash him like the rest of the posters are.

He gave his life away/
'cause it was nothing anyway.

The whole world is useless. That was always what the Religionists came to. 'My Kingdom is not of this world.' Nothing here matters.

Christ died to pay for the sins of Adam. All life is vanity. Everything in the world is greed. When Jesus gave up his useless life, it paid our guilt for our own impetuosities. Jesus knew his life and worldly hopes were vain, so he let himself be killed; in so doing we could feel that our own sins (everything we do, every breath we take) could be committed from the standpoint of a moral credit.

'God has no respect for persons.'

'In Him was light/
and the light was the light of men./
A light shineth in the Darkness/
but the Darkness comprehendeth it not.'
-John1

Not only does God not care about us, but God doesn't understand about us-- or even know about us.

There is no King of the Jews. The Deification of the Jewish Kings and of the Judges rank as the most absurd developments in the OT. The Ancient Israelites knew it was their imperative to create their own values and laws, not those decided extrinsically for them. Christianity is a Humanism, it is for every Christian to lay down their own moral rules against the void.

'Live by the sword, die by the sword.' How is that different from 'an eye for an eye' ethic? Rape and be raped in prison. Jesus understood the groundlessness of punishment and revenge ethics: 'turn the other cheek,' and take another undeserved blow, and don't take any useless, unfounded revenge on your assailer.

'The weak will perish and the wicked will prosper.' After reading that line two-hundred times, it's bound to start to make some sense. 'God helps those who help themselves.' Against the backdrop of the void, a Christian has free-will to decide on the actions he wishes to take. If those actions are despised by the community, they may are may not be met with punishment. 'Each according to his own conscience.'