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Bible poll: fiction or nonfiction?

Bible: fiction or nonfiction?

  • Fiction

    Votes: 16 61.5%

  • Nonfiction

    Votes: 10 38.5%
  • Total voters
    26
  • Poll closed .
It is book related my bloody, cut-throat, face-carving, blow-your-brains-out friend. :D

We can discuss the bible 'til the cows come home.
 
Motokid said:
...my bloody, cut-throat, face-carving, blow-your-brains-out friend. :D
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Wow... that would make a great title for a member with a similar name (to mine) on another forum, no?
 
Perhaps religion should be a category equal to fiction and non-fiction. Some people are non-literalists who believe that the stories/myths teach universal religious *truths* So, what we see, is the use of "fiction" to teach "non-fiction."
 
SFG75 said:
Perhaps religion should be a category equal to fiction and non-fiction. Some people are non-literalists who believe that the stories/myths teach universal religious *truths* So, what we see, is the use of "fiction" to teach "non-fiction."
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I agree. I've always equated the bible to something like Aesop's fables.
 
Enough debating whether it's ficition or non-fiction. Just put it under religious or spiritual section and people with their personal opinion decide on were religion stands!
 
Samerron said:
Enough debating whether it's ficition or non-fiction. Just put it under religious or spiritual section and people with their personal opinion decide on were religion stands!
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Good thought, but we need a moderator for that forum. Who is willing to step up to the task?
 
I think its bit like Capote

Non - Fiction, fiction. The stories were probably true, but they have been embellished, or the meanings have changed through chinese whispers, one person saw the event and told another person and so on untill another person wrote it.

It also seems to have a ounce of magic realism :D
 
Hmm I do think it should go under the spirituality section but I also would like to make another point. I am a Christian and I do study the bible. The bible to me is just stories created to show us how to live with morals and values. I don't neccessarly believe that all of these stories are true but that's not really the point. The point of the bible is to help us learn how to live our lives whether the stories are true or not. They are there to give us guidence and to provide us with morals and values. I don't believe God intended the bible to be all true because if they wrote the bible by stories that actually happened that'd be really boring. They have to have something to pull people in. I mean they already have problems with not having many believers to begin with. :p Sorry couldn't help myself with that one. But to sum this up the bible was created to show us how to live through stories that represent different lessons. Whether they are true are not is all up to the reader.
 
Bookworm Beauty said:
Hmm I do think it should go under the spirituality section but I also would like to make another point. I am a Christian and I do study the bible. The bible to me is just stories created to show us how to live with morals and values. I don't neccessarly believe that all of these stories are true but that's not really the point. The point of the bible is to help us learn how to live our lives whether the stories are true or not. They are there to give us guidence and to provide us with morals and values. I don't believe God intended the bible to be all true because if they wrote the bible by stories that actually happened that'd be really boring. They have to have something to pull people in. I mean they already have problems with not having many believers to begin with. :p Sorry couldn't help myself with that one. But to sum this up the bible was created to show us how to live through stories that represent different lessons. Whether they are true are not is all up to the reader.
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We don't have the proper forum set up for this discussion yet, so I'm stepping out on a shaky limb here, but I feel I need to say this. I think it was CS Lewis who said that Jesus was either Liar, Lunatic, or Lord. As a Christian, I believe he was Lord. Ok, that means He was who he claimed to be, so his testimony and example are pretty vailid proofs for what is and is not true. If these Bible stories are just neat morality tales, why does the Lord of Lords, God in the flesh, treat them as if they are fact? An example is the story of Jonah. Jesus said when predicting his own death and ressurection, 'As Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish, so will the Son of Man be three days in the earth." I don't know how God caused a large fish of unknown species to swallow up a grown man, kept him from being digested, then throw him up onto dry land, in the precise location he should have been if he'd just obeyed in the first place..but if Jesus, being God in the flesh 'swallowed' the tale, maybe I should too.
 
I think it's OK rules-wise as long as you're discussing it in the context of the Bible, abc. Can I ask, in relation to that, whether you believe that the creation story in Genesis is fact, ie literally happened? (I ask without prejudice, merely for information on where you're coming from.)
 
Shade said:
I think it's OK rules-wise as long as you're discussing it in the context of the Bible, abc. Can I ask, in relation to that, whether you believe that the creation story in Genesis is fact, ie literally happened? (I ask without prejudice, merely for information on where you're coming from.)
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I do. I don't know how long those days were, but I do accept the story as written.
 
Shade said:
I think it's OK rules-wise as long as you're discussing it in the context of the Bible, abc. Can I ask, in relation to that, whether you believe that the creation story in Genesis is fact, ie literally happened? (I ask without prejudice, merely for information on where you're coming from.)
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have you ever heard of the Epic of Creation? also known as The Enuma Elish, an ancient Sumerian sacred text.. seems whoever wrote the bible, or at least parts of it, has taken much of that work, edited to take out a few references to most of the multiple gods the Sumerians believed in, and put it forward as a new and original work to celebrate yet another god... of course, it all depends on what you believe to be true....

http://www.halexandria.org/dward181.htm
 
abecedarian said:
We don't have the proper forum set up for this discussion yet, so I'm stepping out on a shaky limb here, but I feel I need to say this. I think it was CS Lewis who said that Jesus was either Liar, Lunatic, or Lord. As a Christian, I believe he was Lord. Ok, that means He was who he claimed to be, so his testimony and example are pretty vailid proofs for what is and is not true. If these Bible stories are just neat morality tales, why does the Lord of Lords, God in the flesh, treat them as if they are fact? An example is the story of Jonah. Jesus said when predicting his own death and ressurection, 'As Jonah was three days in the belly of the fish, so will the Son of Man be three days in the earth." I don't know how God caused a large fish of unknown species to swallow up a grown man, kept him from being digested, then throw him up onto dry land, in the precise location he should have been if he'd just obeyed in the first place..but if Jesus, being God in the flesh 'swallowed' the tale, maybe I should too.
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Hmm good point. I'm not an expert on this subject and I'm still searching my own beliefs so I have no response to that. Sorry.
 
Bookworm Beauty said:
Hmm good point. I'm not an expert on this subject and I'm still searching my own beliefs so I have no response to that. Sorry.
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Don't be sorry! This is where you are right now, and that's just fine.
 
sirmyk said:
This is just a simple A or B poll regarding the Bible's placement on bookstore shelves: fiction, or nonfiction?
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The Bible was written some 40 years after the event and is certainly not fiction....it is up to you to believe or not believe in the event.
 
which event was that? are you talking about the jesus myth? debate is strong over the dates for the gospels, 40 years after that event is only one of the dates put forward for one of the gospels.. i should look it up, but i think i remember one of the favoured dates for the writing of even the earliest gospel was sometime in the next century... like, no eye witness accounts that's for sure, so the jury is still out on whether that is fact or fiction... again tho, it depends on what you believe in....
 
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