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I am religious and believe in free will

70 (27.6%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

113 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (24%)

Total Members Voted: 249

[Arx]

I'm wondering if the whole sacrifice of Isaac story was fabricated by the Council of Nicaea.

Nope. It's in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are at a conservative estimate two centuries older than the Council of Nicaea, and at a liberal estimate closer to six.

[origamiscienceguy]

What version would you suggest? I've read some pretty old literature so I wouldn't mind reading the King James Bible if that's the most accurate and/or popular one. Or should I try one of the newer versions?

I'd Recomend the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible) It is not as well known as some of the others, but it is very colsely translated to the original Hebrew/Greek that the Bible was written.

[Bohandas]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

There is no resolution that will leave both of you happy.

Uuuuugh! I feared that might have been the case. I'll give the prostration thing a shot, though. Even if I don't get spiritual insight from reading the Bible it'll lend me more insight into how others view the world. What version would you suggest? I've read some pretty old literature so I wouldn't mind reading the King James Bible if that's the most accurate and/or popular one. Or should I try one of the newer versions?

Why settle for one? Use Biblehub's paralell translations, either of five side-by-side translations of whole chapters or well over a dozen translations of individual verses.

I'm partial to Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and Berean Literal Bible myself though

[ChairmanPoo]

Upon reading up on  Carthaginian Child Sacrifice and the new camp that says that it's probably a blood libel the Romans came up with, I'm wondering if the whole sacrifice of Isaac story was fabricated by the Council of Nicaea.

... if you scroll down you'll see that there's too much awful evidence of Carthagian child sacrifice for it to be just the product of propaganda.

[DragonDePlatino]

@Frumple

After looking through my options I've settled on the New King James Version. It uses the same design principles and source as KJV, but with much more modern language like NIV. There's also a nice series of readings online so I can listen while drawing. Right now, I'm midway through the Gospel of Mark and it's been very interesting. Mark 4:16 really jumped out at me because it felt like it was specifically addressed towards people like me.

@Arx

Thanks. One of the greatest things about Christianity is how open it is to interpretation with things like this. I'll keep these passages in mind and bring them up in our next discussion. And don't worry, I don't plan to make an informed descision about my faith until I've poured through every last word of this book.

@origamiscienceguy
@Bohandas

So many options! Even though I've committed to this version, I'll definitely have to look through these other versions. Translation accuracy has always been a favorite subject of mine. (Blame Clyde Mandelin)

[penguinofhonor]

The New KJV seems to retain some of the original's mistakes. Lucifer is mentioned by name, at least.

Personally I go with NIV most often, but I use biblegateway.com so I can switch around to any translation I want. Though I usually only check multiple translations when I'm picking at specific language. I have a paper Bible too that I like (it's a very well made book) and it's Today's New International Version. I have no idea what the differences are between that and the regular NIV.

[wierd]

biblegateway.com does, IIRC, 12 different translations.

[penguinofhonor]

They have 50+ different English translations, and it looks like you can view up to five at once.

You might be thinking of a different site. I've accidentally ended up on similar-but-worse Bible sites many times.

[Orange Wizard]

NIV is the better version these days, iirc.

NIV is considered more accessible, but the ESV is a better translation, and is what I would recommend. King James is cool-sounding, so I lean towards that one for presentations and such, although it retains a few errors.

[Tiruin]

Given insanity has been defined as doing the same thing many times and expecting different results, does prayer fit the bill?

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
 - Albert Einstein

To be honest, I'm not sure that quote could be applicable to religion. If I recall correctly, in the original context Einstein was talking about the scientific method. And if you think about it, the scientific method is pretty insane. You come up with a hypothesis, prove yourself right via testing, then spend the rest of your life repeating the experiment and trying to prove yourself wrong. In contrast to religion, science revolves around constantly trying to prove itself wrong. It is...insanity.

It's not applicable there, because of the unspoken context that gives credit to the quote being lost due to how prevalent its use is nowadays [especially for superficial prevalence, or "[I'll use this quote because it makes sense with my statement]" x_x

@Arx

Thanks. One of the greatest things about Christianity is how open it is to interpretation with things like this. I'll keep these passages in mind and bring them up in our next discussion. And don't worry, I don't plan to make an informed descision about my faith until I've poured through every last word of this book.

Always be reminded of context so some words won't be lost due to association with modern definitions. Many people...accidentally misinterpret many verses due to incomplete context. x_x

[Bohandas]

Given insanity has been defined as doing the same thing many times and expecting different results, does prayer fit the bill?

I don't think you can counter a platitude with another platitude

EDIT:
Or was it that you can only counter a platitude with another platitude?..

[Orange Wizard]

It's also kind of a funny point to make about religion when the entire point of empirical science is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

[Graknorke]

the entire point of empirical science is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

What no it isn't? It's about doing smilar things with slight differences to try and find what factors relate to what outcomes and in what way.

[Orange Wizard]

Details, details.

[Graknorke]

Details, details.

Yes, exactly! Well, or sometimes when you realise the whole model was wrong but that doesn't happen too often.