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Poster: Faith & Reason editor Caption: To ensure civility all submissions are editorially reviewed before posting.
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Poster: PEGGY GROTE Caption: i love david's quote--we are the writers of our own journey and should hear our truth in the silence of our life. thus, reliving perhaps some of the great gifts found in this ancientwork. the bible has its msysteries and our lives have new mysteryes to share with a world in need of new awakening!!
Poster: Tom Johnson Caption: There is a great deal of reference to the Christian bible in many of these responses, though why so many people, especially those embracing fundamentalist beliefs, make it such a central point in their lives has become a mystery to me. After what I've read and researched I understand that the old testament stories were handed down orally around the tribal campgrounds for not just centuries but for millennia. This is not to denigrate them in any way because most were remarkably good stories, though not all were original with the Habiru people, but still were
passed on by word of mouth. Though some of the original may have been lost or altered in the meantime, those wandering pastoral tribes had no written language and what we see in the first part of the bible today is the result of transcription by the Sumerians five hundred to a thousand years BCE after many subsequent translations, with no guarantee of absolute fidelity.
Yet there are those who insist on believing every word in that bible, both old and new testaments, getting their history, geology, astronomy, and anthropology all from one source, and a purely mythical one at that.. The people who related those stories in the first place knew nothing about the above, all they had was myth and conjecture while modern science has found so much of the history of the earth, its formation, its living creatures, its evolution in absolutely unshakable evidence that one wonders how bible–believing people can hold onto such antiquated and impossible ideas.
Poster: Dan Seifert Caption: Grossman's statement seems to follow the canonical path of Torah, Prophets, and Writings and our contemporary need to connect story with our stories while helping others' to connect their experiences, as well as the need for meaning. This thought speaks to a faith community purpose in education: to cultivate a community that faithfully participates in the faith stories.
Poster: Rami Caption: Whilst the quote is very interesting I think it is an intellectual must to watch the entire interview. Bill Moyers asks beautifully thoughtful questions and David Grossman answers in the most profound thought provoking way. A giant author whose work I admire, and a brilliant mind. a must. Thanks for the great interview
Poster: Dave Mark Caption: David Grossman has a very valid point. Having said that, I think we should use our lives, and our world as a starting point rather than the bible. After all this is the way the bible began. If our culture is progressing, I believe we can create something far better.
Poster: E.K. Caption: While investigating the Bible, I very much doubt that a believer in any supernatural phenomenon can have a balanced judgment about its contents even if well intentioned. Perhaps why societies have not been able to evolve into agreeable communities is because we are destined to inherit nature’s indifference as a result of being members of the universe.
Poster: C. R. S. Caption: Inserting our stories into the sacred text is akin to eisegesis - introducing one's own ideas or reading into a text, as opposed to exegesis - getting the meaning of the text from the text itself. If the text, as internal and external evidence demonsrate, is the Word of God (the Bible), then to insert or mix our stories into it adulterates, even may nullify, the text. Clearly, neither Bill Moyers nor his guests accept the Bible as the divinely inspired Word of God. That approach leaves us to piddle around and philosophize as though the Bible were just another book. Were that the case, why bother at all? Since, instead, it is the Word of God, it behooves both Moyers and his guests to accord it the respect due sacred, and immutable text. Rather than presuming to judge both God and His book we do well to study it and learn from it. In the cases of Noah and the flood, and the life of the judge Samson, for example, we have clear historical accounts of actual events. They are not myths. They explain a great deal about the vile outrage involved in transgression against the Holy One. Write your little stories. You may even reject the Bible as the Word of God. At least have the decency to keep your pitiful drivel apart from the Bible. That sort of presumption and folly are typical of the attitudes that provoked the Righteous Judge to send the flood to destroy the earth and to use Samson ( a mere man - but undefeatable when the Spirit of God was upon him) to rout the pagans around Israel. I would relesh the opportunity to discuss these issues further.
Poster: Bernard Weisblum Caption: David Grossman and Bill Moyers seemed to agree on the comparison between Samson’s suicidal act of destruction of the Phillistine temple and contemporary acts of suicide-bombing/murder. The comparison with mutually assured destruction (“MAD”) differs and is more appropriate.
Poster: Nancy Drake Caption: What do you mean?
Poster: GEB Caption: David Grossman is a brilliant and profound thinker. His interview with Mr. Moyers gives us a glimpse at an alternate way to view a well known ancient biblical story from a more psychoanalytical and humane perspective. However, his exegesis into the Samson story is only a prelude to what I think is perhps its greatest value, that of a metaphor for how the real life story of Israel is unfolding today...Our hope is that Israel pays attention to Mr. Grossman and the lessons drawn from Samson's life (which doesn't end so well), before the pillars begin to fall !
Poster: Elena Kondracki Caption: Please let David Grossman know how devastated I am hearing of the loss of his son. Nothing can salve the wound when one loses a child. He wanted so badly for the war to stop and no one in Israel would act on his advice. It was through your program that I first heard him speak and the admiration and respect were immediate.
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