"The inner spaces that a good story lets us enter are the old apartments of religion." --John Updike
Many conservatives and fundamentalists refer to people like me as revisionists, and I that that as a compliment, because I think stories need to be revised. They need to be seen and heard again with critical eyes and ears for the 21st century. We keep the stories alive when we re-interpret them for ourselves and ask questions about their relevance to our own lives. As it says in Proverbs, "Without vision, the people perish."
Despite my reputation as a liberal, I am pretty conservative in one area: I think we all ought to read the Bible, or whatever the sacred text or texts of our particular religion happens to be. You should read for yourself, instead of relying on secondhand interpretations that might be intended to serve some interest other than your own.
We place our religious resources in grave danger when we rely on so-called authorities to do the interpreting for us. The myths of the Bible, such as the creation myth of Adam and Eve, came out of the collective unconscious. But then, the male authorities of a very patriarchal culture edited the Bible, canonized it, and interpreted it for us. Men were put in charge of the myths and their patriarchal fingerprints contaminated them. That's why I recommend that we read the Bible for ourselves and become our own authorities.
You might be surprised that your experience with the stories may be far different from the first time you heard them, when somebody else interpreted them for you. These rich and varied stories are like diamonds that can be turned over and over, revealing very different facets that can be appreciated in varied lights. They are like literary kaleidoscopes, so that when you turn them in different ways you can see different formations.
If religion is about the business of helping us become human, then these sacred stories are about how to be human. That is what religion is. To me, the idea that these myths welled up out of the collective unconscious is a liberating and empowering realization.
For some, questioning the purported infallibility of the Bible is heretical. For others, it's liberating. I say take whatever train that will get you where you need to go. My own liberation train helps me become my own authority, granting myself the right to critique the self-appointed religious authorities and power brokers, both past and present. That's where the opportunity for growth is.
A large part of the human enterprise is for us to eventually, sometime in our lives, stand up and say, "I'm ready to live my life. I'm going to become my authority and act as the interpreting body for my own life. That's my responsibility - and privilege - and I can't or won't abdicate it to an external authority."
Claiming our autonomy and authority is the most exhilarating part of the human enterprise, and it's something we must do, despite the cost. While the cost is often dear, the cost of not doing so is even greater, for we deny ourselves entry into the kingdom of God. We must choose to start the journey.
My own journey was that I finally woke up one day and said, "I'm going to quit being afraid of this and quit avoiding it. I'm going to get myself to it. I want to get in it and live it. I may make mistakes and I may be criticized, and there will be those who don't like the way I'm doing it, but I'm going to do it."
This is what's commonly called a conversion experience, and when it comes in the form of claiming rather than abdicating authority, of deciding to seek truth and mystery at whatever cost, rather than trying to desperately fix the truth to a dead God image, then it is truly a liberating and life-affirming experience.
We can be liberated from the stringent fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible myths and begin to collaborate with our souls and God to embrace our own conversion in our very own distinct and individual fashion.
BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 100 versions ...
Bible - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pure Intimacy - Pro-Gay Revisionist Theology: Did God Really Say...?
When I read anything, I am revising the reading through my own perceptions. When you read the same thing, you are revising the reading through your perceptions. We can only do the best revision work possible, and it helps NOT to assume we aren't revising while someone else is....I am for revisions because I learn from others and believe in expansion.
www.HealingScienceToday.com
If you want to understand the Civil War you dont read one book in 2010 written by a white southerner immediately after the war in 1865 and then profess to understand every complex aspect of that war. That would be utterly ridiculous. Also a book written immediately after the war by a single source would probably be more emotional and less objective and would be less likely to be able to explain the underlying reasons for the war then a book written years later after years of careful research and study of MANY sources and perspectives of information.
The truth is that documents from ancient history are almost NEVER objective, unbiased, unemotional, honest and fair. A common theme of ancient text is the authors regularly used ridiculous elaborations and/or outright lies in order to please their ruler and/or audience at the time. The only true thing about the bible is that most of the stories in it are just those sort of ridiculous fabrications that earn the term myths.
In the bible God first tries his hand at Dictatorship with the 10 commandments. Once that fails due to the disobedience of his hopelessly flawed creations he then crucifies his kid and then says, through the new testament, "There are only 2 Commandments now - Love God and Love your neighbor."
Well, that really is the golden Rule in essence, the Love your Neighbor part. Why? Because if you did love and obey the imaginary deity you believe in as God you would do WTF he said and if you did love your neighbor - ALL OF YOUR NEIGHBORS you obey te Golden rule. And...if you do that you cant possibly violate the other old school 10 commandments or the golden Rule which is "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
So you see, its all the same thing really, nothing new. Why you need an entire book full of stories about threats, intimidation, fear, and atrocites to try to get across the basic fundamental Peace concept of "Love your Neighbors" or "Do unto others" is something that I will never understand. Frankly, that whole fear approach God implemented in the bible hasn't worked a damn bit. Humans are still the same self-serving, unfair, dishonest, and inherently flawed creatures that the imaginary deity first turned loose in the imaginary garden.
Probably these points have already been made but...why would anyone waste their time reading something, or trying to interpret it, when it's already corrupted? Or that these myths rose from the unconscious? Why not instead research to see if the Bible actually has been contaminated or the scripture has been taken out of context?
"I'm going to become my authority and act as the interpreting body for my own life. That's my responsibility - and privilege - and I can't or won't abdicate it to an external authority."
So Jesus Christ, the Bible, Paul, etc. are not useful authorities? If Jesus was who he said he was, and there is a cumulative case pointing toward that very fact, wouldn't you think he would have some insight and authority?
I think it's curious that you recommend reading a book of myths that has been edited and contaminated by people you apparently distrust.
"You might be surprised that your experience with the stories may be far different from the first time you heard them"
I'm not going to read them, but if I did, I expect they would seem even more shocking, offensive, and disturbing than the first time I heard them as a young person.
Why not take the next step and liberate yourself from soul, God, and the rest of the mythical fantasy common across the different religions?
Michael
5.
a human being; person.
6.
high-mindedness; noble warmth of feeling, spirit or courage, etc.
7.
the animating principle; the essential element or part of something.
8.
the inspirer or moving spirit of some action, movement, etc.
9.
the embodiment of some quality: He was the very soul of tact.
So sure, I'll class the typical religous/spiritual definition of "soul" as fantasy (with an extremely small possibility of one being found somewhere/somewhen just as with other supernatural entities). There's no evidence for a "spirit" being somehow infused into a person. And if you want to complicate that by adding a supernatural entity that is doing the infusing, then the remote probability gets even more remote.
If someone wants to say "that blues singer has SOUL!" I've got no problems with that because that doesn't drag in any supernatural concepts. That's just commenting on the skill/emotion being used and/or conveyed by the artist.
Michael