I thought the gospels were written by their namesakes. No?

Depends on who you talk to. Lots of debate on authorship.

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I believe Moses dies before the end of the 5th book he is supposed to have written, so authorship is kind of iffy.

Then again, there's a whole novel about "Well, God told Somebody, who told Somebody Else, who is actually the person who wrote it down, and who knows what kinds of wacky shit he introduced into divine word??" That novel is The Satanic Verses. (Muhammad is described as illiterate in the Quran, so he clearly had a scribe. In Rushdie's novel, the scribe puts in some random crap, and also "corrects" a lot of the stuff Muhammad is dictating to him. And also there's this whole thing with one character growing goat horns, and another leading her whole village into the sea. Complicated.)

She blinked and said, "No, it means 'Lamb of God.' Let me hug your neck!"

This is when jiu jitsu and tragedy happen. The antipathy I feel for proselytizing is as a hill of beans compared to the Denali of Violent Distaste I bear for being touched by strangers. If a stranger wanted to touch me for a religious reason? I would introduce that stranger to her maker.

People! Personal Bubbles!

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I often wonder why Biblical literalists aren't surprised that the book is so confusing and contradictory. I mean, would a supreme being really have such a limited grasp of rhetoric? If the Bible was written by God, then we can all be grateful that God never took a job writing technical manuals or instructions for programing VCRs.

Heh. I am always surprised that I've never known a believer to take scripture as literally as the non-believers I know.

Inspiration (which scripture claims of itself) doesn't mean dictation. The Bible is made up of separate books. This particular one is a letter to one of the early churches to address problems within. A good part of the confusion comes when people (regardless of world view) insist on quoting things out of context with the whole. There are sincere, honest arguments about a lot of scripture, but by far, most of what I see is people cherrypicking, regardless of their beliefs. One of the basics of hermeneutics is to use exegesis rather than eisegesis.

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One of the basics of hermeneutics is to use exegesis rather than eisegesis.

Ow. My brain hurts.

I mean, would a supreme being really have such a limited grasp of rhetoric?

Would a supreme being write in King James's English? (Actually, I am told there are people who believe that that is exactly what happened.)

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I believe Moses dies before the end of the 5th book he is supposed to have written, so authorship is kind of iffy.

I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend Who Wrote the Bible? to anyone that's interested in that sort of thing. Friedman traces different voices, talks about what poilitical stuff at the time of recording could have influenced different verses (a lot of fascinating stuff regarding the golden calf, for example), and shows how the tabernacle could have fit inside the temple. It's interesting. Mostly about Genesis and Exodus, iirc.

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Lots of debate on authorship.

And God's one of those options?

I believe Moses dies before the end of the 5th book he is supposed to have written

Well, he certainly died before the gospels, so he's off the hook there.

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how do we feel about someone saying "have a blessed day"?

A lady said this to me just yesterday. I assume it was given with good intent and took it so. Blessed means a lot of things, including, "to confer prosperity or happiness upon" so how can that be bad?

There are many days when I feel blessed, sans religion.

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a lot of fascinating stuff regarding the golden calf, for example

Stuff like, "Why a golden calf?"?

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Stuff like, "Why a golden calf?"?

Sort of. Why the centralization of temple offerings in Judea would have benefited from a scriptural mention of the badness of golden calves, anyway.

Also, how one thread of Genesis never mentions Isaac after the sacrificial incident.

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I believe Moses dies before the end of the 5th book he is supposed to have written

And, boy, the writers of Moses!fic were so pissed.

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