Cherry Picking The Book

[Matt]

Hey everyone,

Lately, by browsing the boards, it has got me incredibly annoyed how alot of Christians are cherry picking the Bible to suit them.

Here is a good case. Two quotes from the Bible (and the same book of the Bible) are given here:

Most conservative Christians jump on this very fast and ignorantly hold on to it...

"You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination." -Leviticus

Yet blatently ignore this....

"It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling, that ye shall eat neither fat nor blood."-Leviticus 3:17

I know there are many more examples of this, I'd just thought I would bring up one I have seen that is prelevently done on this forum.

My best guess on why this happens is: Conservative Christians go after homosexuals because they are ignorant or because they have low self esteem and don't bring up the other line because they don't want to loose their tasty meat (blood and fat are in meat).

I would love to see some Christians who do do this (I know you are out there ) explain their reasons for cherry picking the Bible in this and other cases.

Matt

[Aussie]

Because it suits the argument at the time, or feeds the bigotry, one or the other. Very Christian!

[Technosoul]

Quote by: Matt Hey everyone, Lately, by browsing the boards, it has got me incredibly annoyed how alot of Christians are cherry picking the Bible to suit them. Here is a good case. Two quotes from the Bible (and the same book of the Bible) are given here: Most conservative Christians jump on this very fast and ignorantly hold on to it... "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination." -Leviticus Yet blatently ignore this... "It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling, that ye shall eat neither fat nor blood."-Leviticus 3:17 I know there are many more examples of this, I'd just thought I would bring up one I have seen that is prelevently done on this forum. My best guess on why this happens is: Conservative Christians go after homosexuals because they are ignorant or because they have low self esteem and don't bring up the other line because they don't want to loose their tasty meat (blood and fat are in meat). I would love to see some Christians who do do this (I know you are out there ) explain their reasons for cherry picking the Bible in this and other cases. Matt

Everyone knows we cut the fat off the pork chops and eat the good part, also we don't eat the bones. And only Vampires would brink blood.. yuk.

Everyone knows you should not sleep with a woman like you would a man, you got to flip 'em over and use the other side. But they did not get much sex education back in those days. Or table manners for that matter.

[tivodan1116]

Quote by: Matt Most conservative Christians jump on this very fast and ignorantly hold on to it... "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination." -Leviticus Yet blatently ignore this.... "It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling, that ye shall eat neither fat nor blood."-Leviticus 3:17

How do they blatantly ignore it? That verse refers to the leftovers after sacrificing a goat on an alter to God. If any of them sacrificed a goat on an alter, and then took the leftover fat and blood and ate it, then they'd be breaking that verse. It's not a general prohibition.

The one doing the cherry picking is you - you can't be bothered, apparently, to read the entire chapter of the Bible (Leviticus 3), let alone gain a true understanding of the religion before you troll for argument.

Try again.

[HelioPrime]

^ We just addressed this in the thread about wether or not God is evil. People pick out single lines from an entire passage or multiple connected passages and post the line at face value claiming it shows how God is evil, or sexist, or racist, or whatever else the poster desires.

Speaking of cherry picking.... ah the irony....

[Matt]

Quote by: tivodan1116 How do they blatantly ignore it? That verse refers to the leftovers after sacrificing a goat on an alter to God. If any of them sacrificed a goat on an alter, and then took the leftover fat and blood and ate it, then they'd be breaking that verse. It's not a general prohibition. The one doing the cherry picking is you - you can't be bothered, apparently, to read the entire chapter of the Bible (Leviticus 3), let alone gain a true understanding of the religion before you troll for argument. Try again.

Didn't we have a bad day...

Actually, it refers in general of the eating of blood if you read Leviticus

See:

"Any Isrealite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." -Leviticus 17:11

I think you may be the one needing to read the Bible.

[HelioPrime]

Quote by: Matt Didn't we have a bad day... Actually, it refers in general of the eating of blood if you read Leviticus See: "Any Isrealite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." -Leviticus 17:11 I think you may be the one needing to read the Bible.

You clearly haven't read the section yourself. The OP contains a line from section 3, not 17...

The part of section 3 where your line comes from leads off with: "If he presents a goat, he shall bring it before the LORD Goat sacrifice? *gasp*

0.o

[tivodan1116]

Quote by: Matt Didn't we have a bad day... Actually, it refers in general of the eating of blood if you read Leviticus See: "Any Isrealite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off." -Leviticus 17:11 I think you may be the one needing to read the Bible.

Nope, still you. Chapter 17, like Chapter 3, refers to animal sacrifice and prohibits eating of blood - the blood from the animals used in holy rituals. The verse goes on to simply say that if animals are to be used for food, the blood should be drained from the vessels before eating. Since we do that as a natural part of our butchering process (hanging cows, for example, on the processing line), it's still fine.

Also, it only refers to the Israelites. Hence why non-Jewish descended Christians are called Gentiles and do not bother with many of these Kosher rituals - because according to the text of the passages you cite, they do not have to.

And I'm not even going to get into the entire philosophy of Jesus' new covenant with man.

Please stop now before you look any more foolish. There are some atheists on here and elsewhere whose Biblical knowledge is quite extensive and complete. You are not one of them.

(If you'd like to continue, however, I suggest you get a better Bible r
resource. The one you have mangles the original text pretty badly - for example the passage you cite doesn't even contain the word "alter" )

[Matt]

Quote by: tivodan1116 Nope, still you. Chapter 17, like Chapter 3, refers to animal sacrifice and prohibits eating of blood - the blood from the animals used in holy rituals. The verse goes on to simply say that if animals are to be used for food, the blood should be drained from the vessels before eating. Since we do that as a natural part of our butchering process (hanging cows, for example, on the processing line), it's still fine.

My Bible puts that into a new paragraph. They make it sound like a general statement, not one really referring to sacrifice. I guess if you're right I should get a new resource.

Not all the blood is drained.

Also, it only refers to the Israelites. Hence why non-Jewish descended Christians are called Gentiles and do not bother with many of these Kosher rituals - because according to the text of the passages you cite, they do not have to.

It says aliens living among them, so we'd be considered aliens.

And I'm not even going to get into the entire philosophy of Jesus' new covenant with man. Please stop now before you look any more foolish. There are some atheists on here and elsewhere whose Biblical knowledge is quite extensive and complete. You are not one of them

.

I'm actually not an atheist.

(If you'd like to continue, however, I suggest you get a better Bible r resource. The one you have mangles the original text pretty badly - for example the passage you cite doesn't even contain the word "alter" )

I'm going to have to look for one, I agree. The one I have, as you have pointed out, is not that clear.

Once I get my hands on another one I'll try to continue this. But for now I don't want to bring up another quote, until I get a Bible which is a little more clear.

[Matt]

Quote by: HelioPrime You clearly haven't read the section yourself. The OP contains a line from section 3, not 17... The part of section 3 where your line comes from leads off with: "If he presents a goat, he shall bring it before the LORD Goat sacrifice? *gasp* 0.o

That part is not in my Bible, and I'm not lying.

[Matt W]

Quote by: Matt Not all the blood is drained.

And how exactly would someone living 2000 years go know that? According to them, it's done, they've obeyed God. Enough said.

[Dadoo]

My sister is a devout J.W.
She is embarrassed and ashamed that I have "eaten " gallons of blood thru my tunneled catheter. I needed about 45 transfusions to survive a mortal illness.
She's glad I'm here, but ashamed of what I did to survive!
I wouldn't call it cherry-picking, in this case, because it obviously causes a rift in my sisters otw reasonable sensibilities.
She eats a steak, but believes that blood, on it's own cannot be morally ingested by any route.

Dadoo

[tivodan1116]

Quote by: Matt It says aliens living among them, so we'd be considered aliens.

You live among Israelites? Huh. I live among Americans - Are you in Israel or some "Little Israel" pocket of some other multicultural city?

[Zhavric]

Quote by: tivodan1116 And I'm not even going to get into the entire philosophy of Jesus' new covenant with man.

Yeah... because if you did then I'd start pointing out how Christians really pick and choose what they choose to believe and all the places where Jesus doesn't specifically "upgrade" the OT, yet Christians ignore it anyway. Basically, it would be me making your arguments look silly by pointing out that Christians spend most of their time abusing the English language when it comes to this subject.

To be sure, Christians cherry pick all the time:
We have the old testament which says, "an eye for an eye".
We have the new testament which says, "turn the other cheek".
Modern Christians do neither.
Their morality has nothing of the draconian measures of the OT, but nor does it have the hippy forgiveness of the NT.
Instead, they choose to partake of something in the middle and in doing so boldly declare the uselessness of their holy book while at the same time claiming to live their lives according to it. It's moronic. A testament to the power of early childhood indoctrination and the idiocy it causes adults to believe.

[Matt]

Quote by: tivodan1116 You live among Israelites? Huh. I live among Americans - Are you in Israel or some "Little Israel" pocket of some other multicultural city?

Some Israelites live in North America.

Anyhow, the main point got diverged by me misquoting. The main point was how things are cherry picked extensively throughout the Bible, not just this one point.

Anyhow, I'll replace the quote with this (please tell me if my Bible cut out any lines again):

"Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so."

Above this quote, it does say rule over every creature, but no where does it say eat.

The quote basically indicates God had an intention of feeding all the creatures (including humans) plant substances. Plus, in Heaven everything is supposed to eat only plant matter, which indicates in God's perferred world nothing eats flesh. So shouldn't Christians try to model it in this world?

[Gods_Mercenary]

Why would you have to eat anything as a spiritual being?

And what essentially defines a christian as a member of a certain denomination is what passages they choose to emphasize and which ones they skim over.

[Rogue Cardinal]

Quote by: Matt Hey everyone, Lately, by browsing the boards, it has got me incredibly annoyed how alot of Christians are cherry picking the Bible to suit them. Here is a good case. Two quotes from the Bible (and the same book of the Bible) are given here: Most conservative Christians jump on this very fast and ignorantly hold on to it... "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination." -Leviticus Yet blatently ignore this.... "It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling, that ye shall eat neither fat nor blood."-Leviticus 3:17 I know there are many more examples of this, I'd just thought I would bring up one I have seen that is prelevently done on this forum. My best guess on why this happens is: Conservative Christians go after homosexuals because they are ignorant or because they have low self esteem and don't bring up the other line because they don't want to loose their tasty meat (blood and fat are in meat). I would love to see some Christians who do do this (I know you are out there ) explain their reasons for cherry picking the Bible in this and other cases. Matt

There are TONS of cherry picking type things that you will find in Christianity.

Quick thing about your Leviticus....I would recommend that you don't cherry pick your arguments especially when you want to get down on Christians and Cherry picking. the bible is ripe with other things.

the FUNNY thing about this is the fact that CHRISTIANS don't have to follow jack squat in the OLD Testament. The OLD Testament is the Covenant with the JEWS. Christians aren't JEWS......Christians follow the NEW Testament.

you wanna have fun with Christians. Discuss how the New testament ties the lineage of Jesus to the Old Testament prophecies...and fails miserably. There are things written in the Bible on this subject that flat out make NO sense and there isn't a Christian on the planet that cares to talk about it......they would rather just have faith and not look up the facts in their own Bible.

You wan have fun with Christians.....talk about Biblical contradictions. you can have a FIELD day with these. And the best part is you don't have to cherry pick. The bible just flat out contradicts itself.

[HelioPrime]

Quote by: Rogue Cardinal you wanna have fun with Christians. Discuss how the New testament ties the lineage of Jesus to the Old Testament prophecies...and fails miserably. There are things written in the Bible on this subject that flat out make NO sense and there isn't a Christian on the planet that cares to talk about it......they would rather just have faith and not look up the facts in their own Bible. You wan have fun with Christians.....talk about Biblical contradictions. you can have a FIELD day with these. And the best part is you don't have to cherry pick. The bible just flat out contradicts itself.

By all means. Start a thread with the "tons" of glaring mistakes and problems.

I'm sure it will be an enjoyable debate.

[tivodan1116]

Quote by: Zhavric Yeah... because if you did then I'd start pointing out how Christians really pick and choose what they choose to believe and all the places where Jesus doesn't specifically "upgrade" the OT, yet Christians ignore it anyway. Basically, it would be me making your arguments look silly by pointing out that Christians spend most of their time abusing the English language when it comes to this subject. To be sure, Christians cherry pick all the time: We have the old testament which says, "an eye for an eye". We have the new testament which says, "turn the other cheek". Modern Christians do neither. Their morality has nothing of the draconian measures of the OT, but nor does it have the hippy forgiveness of the NT. Instead, they choose to partake of something in the middle and in doing so boldly declare the uselessness of their holy book while at the same time claiming to live their lives according to it. It's moronic. A testament to the power of early childhood indoctrination and the idiocy it causes adults to believe.

Yawn. Your shtick is tired at this point. Nothing but gross generalizations ("modern christians" do neither...) and unfounded insults based on nothing but your own bias. I've seen you make nearly this exact post probably a dozen times. Why don't you just start a thread called "Why I have an obsessive hatred of anyone but hard-line atheists," put all of your standard cut-and-paste posts in there, and be done with it?

What's "moronic" is that you think you can ascribe one behavior to over a billion people.

[Zhavric]

Let me go ahead and reply to the part of your post where you added something to the thread by addressing the issue I brought up about eye for an eye versus turn the other cheek:

Quote by: tivodan1116

Well, there you have it. Apparently, you're unwilling or unable to address my argument. Kindly reply to the argument or concede. Do so in your next post, please.