Your musings aren't worth the time it takes to read them more than once.
And you know this because.....?
Your musings aren't worth the time it takes to read them more than once.
So sorry you feel this way, but obviously "my musings" generated discussion and isn't that the purpose of this forum? You don't have to participate if you don't want to. Your opinion has not added much to the discussion, other than becoming yet another attempt to make me feel bad about myself for thinking differently than you do. I'm happy to tell you that it won't work. If anything, I feel sorry for you that the most you can contribute is hit and run attacks on me personally.
BTW, do you have a reason for feeling this way? Something to back it up? Or are you just ranting?
To the rest of those on the thread:
I guess this is my ending statment on this whole thread. I'm not saying I won't respond to anything else posted, just that this is a wrap up of what I've been trying to accomplish with this thread and what I've gotten out of it in the last 24 hours.
It's not like I plucked the Documentary Hypothesis out of the air. I read Richard Friedman's book "Who Wrote the Bible" years ago in college (and am reading it again now) and I'm in my first year of a 4 year Catholic Biblical Study program. Yes, I'm a newbie at this, but I didn't make the theory up. I was interested in why others don't agree with it. Many folks have gave me some good links and books to read that will further my understanding of the Bible. Others on the thread gave me a lot of think about. (I like the idea that God is light, I think I'll keep that one close to my heart.) I read the Bible and study it with an open and prayerful heart. If I didn't have an open mind and heart, why would I have started this thread asking for other's opinions?
Some folks on this thread have convinced me that you can argue with a fundamentalist/literalist until you are blue in the face and it won't make a difference in either your opinion or theirs. Kind of like liberals that way. But that's ok, they can read the Bible any way they want to. If that's what they believe, more power to them. I won't attack them, disparage them, or condemn them.
I believe the Bible is the inspired work of God, written by men. Being a history junkie, I'm intrigued by the idea that the Torah was written at different times and different people. As mentioned above, I've got some kind people sending me off in directions that might disprove that theory. I'll be interested in reading why the DH is no longer a valid theory in the minds of some. It may shake my foundations a bit, but life is a learning process. "That he not busy being born is busy dying."
I'll be reading and studying the Bible the rest of my life. I don't think there is one wrong way or right way to read it. I'm saddened that many who don't agree with the way I'm studying it now feel they have to attack me, call me names, suggest I'm on drugs, say I'm totally ignorant, call me a false Christian and tell me I'm going to hell because I don't agree with them. Yes, Christ said the path to him is narrow, but I believe that means keeping the two most important commandments. Many on this thread have broken the second one.
But I prayed on this last night. I can understand that different people approach God and his word in different ways. I've decided to ignore those who attack me and focus on those who have given me good information to continue my studies. That was the purpose of this thread, to learn.
That being said, thanks for joining in!