No Debate

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There is no debate between faith and a lifetime of questioning, seeking, and uncertainty. When you decide to believe in something, the details and facts take a quick backseat to pure emotion. Proofs and disproofs no longer matter when faith is the conscious decision. So, belief thru faith is in every respect a whole other reality. It cannot be partially embraced, or casually experienced. Faith is a total immersion of commitment to living that is not influenced by flawed human example, or transient understandings. 

Folks have always debated about the accuracy or meaning of Scripture. My sense is that all of these many, human authors sincerely believed that God spoke thru them, and that they were merely recording the expressions of the Spirit. 

After a lifetime of studying these subjects, my sense is also that the fairly well-documented history of the Bible's assembly is a compelling chronicle of subjective inclusion and exclusion, politics, intrigue and religious rivalry, culture and custom of the prevailing times, economic partnerships, and chance. It's a chaotic history, at best. 

Therefore, I believe the Bible is full of typical human error thru transcribing, mistranslation, misunderstanding, intentional misdirection, and myth.  

Many things can be true at once. The Bible-- this is where the personally discovered gleaning, or separating the wheat from the chaff happens-- also includes a ton of truths, historical realities, keen wisdoms, common sense, values and principles like the Ten Commandments and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, that exemplify the greatest moral achievements of our imperfect humankind, and of civilization. 

At the same time, I accept and totally respect the Literalist's belief, the emminantly possible and unwavering conviction that the Bible is God's complete Word, without error.

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