[geeks] Re: [rescue] It's official, the U.S. is screwed for 4 more years

[Phil Stracchino]

On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 06:25:23PM -0500, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Tue, 09 Nov 2004 @ 12:02 -0500, Phil Stracchino said:
> > For example:  The Old Testament, commonly regarded as the more barbaric
> > and bloody part of the Bible, says (or is almost universally
> > mistranslated as saying) "Thou shalt not kill."  But it also says, "Thou
> > shalt not suffer a well-poisoner to live" ('witch' is a mistranslation),
> > and "If a man comes to kill you, then rise up and kill him."
> 
> The Bible is a canonized record of the works of many people different
> people, written in many different contexts.
> 
> Drawing absolute comparisons from one section to another is useless.

Absolutely.  So is picking a single statement and saying "The bible
says this," as though that ends all debate -- when in fact the Bible
says this, and also that, and also the other, and the one you're citing
is mistranslated and you're using it out of context because you don't
realize you're using an incorrect translation, and ....


> Finally, your analysis is incorrect because it ignores the context of
> the two verses.
> 
> It would be like trying to equate the law regarding murder versus self
> defense.

Actually, it's exactly that kind of error that I was trying to point
out.  That, and people who "resolve" the apparent contradiction by
picking out one line that agrees with the viewpoint they want to
present, and throwing everything else (including context) out with the
bathwater.



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