Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Denver Mods 4/2/84) 6/24/83; site drutx.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!ihnp4!drutx!cwh From: cwh@drutx.UUCP (Hoffmeyer) Newsgroups: net.books Subject: The Porno Ord and the Bible Message-ID: <1727@drutx.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 13:11:32 EST Article-I.D.: drutx.1727 Posted: Thu Jan 10 13:11:32 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Jan-85 01:03:50 EST Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver Lines: 36 > Come to think of it, there are a lot of things in the Bible that seem to > suggest that women should be treated as property, subjected to the will > of men, etc. Including sexually... Right on! The bible thumpers have always been an inexhaustible source of amazement, never more so than now. The so-called "good book" is, in some parts, a barbaric document written in barbaric times by barbaric people. These guys come marching into "the fertile crescent" - they were an *invading army* that sacked cities, and slaughtered the inhabitants. I seem to recall a passage where some man crawls into his bed one night and has sex with the woman in the bed - turns out it's not his wife! WHAT!? Yup! Seems that the *man* didn't have to give a good d__n (*care* enough) to check the identity of the woman in the sack with whom (what?) he was having sex! "No, Reverend Fundament, I don't want to ban the Bible, I just want to be sure of what we're discussing - a quasi-historical, poetic, cultural mythology; a piece of literature written by a primitive and superstitious people living in a barbaric and singularly non-objective period of history." Is it great literature? Yes. By any measurable standard. It describes what is probably the greatest epic story around - the journey of a people, in time, space, and awareness from creation to godhead. Is it "good"? Parts of it, yes. Clive Staples Lewis called the story of Christ, the "best" story, because in it the god-man comes to earth, and by His total sacrifice, destroys mankind's greatest fears, death and despair. However, I no more wish to have the laws of my country based on the Bible than to have them based on the Kalevela or the Elder Eddas. "...no, no we don't do that - not enough trees to spare. We stone them here." - Carl drutx!cwh AT&TIS Denver