Quote Originally Posted by OnionsOfLove
If it did happen, the man was saved. The whales intentions will always be unknown, but someone can interpret them as having been to save the man.
can snakes talk? of course not. could it have been a metaphor that actually teaches people that their brain has the power to make them think that snakes talk? yes. i am a person who has the ability to reason and i do not differ physically from the person who wrote genesis. i have the ability to explain hard-to-grasp things using complex forms of imagery and metaphor, but i first have to accept that someone will not take me for an idiot. if you actually think that someone wrote "and the snake spoke..." because they were trying to say that "snakes can talk" then you are a very shallow thinker.
yes indeed modern science is quite different, but i just told you a way that modern science can prove exactly what was written in the bible that you call false. please read it again and re-evaluate it. the "ignorant, naked, half-starved savages" that you speak of are the same ones that built the pyramids, invented wine, came up with the mathematical concept of zero, and wrote the bible. if you were to open your mind for a whole three seconds and IMAGINE that those people were ACTUALLY SMART and that they were trying to TELL YOU SOMETHING you would have something to GAIN from their writing, especially if you were one of them. the old testament was something that almost brought together every single person at one time in the earth's history. it almost made everyone think for a split second that perhaps its true and perhaps we are all the same. imagine the possibilities that would be realized if everyone on earth TODAY were to UNITE.
everything that someone experiences in life has merit because something can be learned from every situation in someone's life. the problem is that people are so ignorant that they choose ignorance.
unless something has been proven mathematically people still have the ability to imagine the possibilities.
cheers
The bible is supposed to be the inspired word of god, and millions of people have been killed or oppressed due to it's teachings.

If there was a supreme being, why has he allowed his teachings to bring about murder, burnings, genocide, wars, oppressive laws, corruption, etc.?

Do you believe that the authors of this travesty were divinely inspired?

Since I know that the bible should not be used as a guide to life, does that make me "ignorant"?

What parts of the bible do you think could be helpful for humans to "UNITE"?

If the authors were "ACTUALLY SMART", wouldn't they just say straight-out what the truth is? If these authors were divinely inspired, would it matter whether they were "smart" or not, as they were just copying what god told them to write?

Isn't the real message of Adam and Eve, upon eating the fruit of knowledge, that their creator preferred them to be ignorant? Have not the churches and priests followed this path, with regards to thier followers?

In the libraries of the future, the bible will sit alongside books about witchcraft and voodoo.