h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

'There is nothing beautiful in the Bible that is not in the Song of Solomon.'

Discuss.

'Ah, but good old 'sanctified common sense' tells us that's all metaphorical.'


as applied to the Song of Solomon:


sanctified common sense tells us that the Song of Solomon is a metaphor of how God loves His Church: with His little head.

<>

Yes, it should, but it's very difficult to change the title subject line. Maybe we can petition the H2G2 people.

'There is nothing beautiful in the Bible that is not in the Song of Solomon.'

Discuss.



Some of the Psalms are quite nice. (Others aren't, as mentioned previously in this conversation.) Ps 15 speaks of a form of religion I generally approve of: what matters to God is how well we treat our fellowman. So it's a nice sentiment, and well written. Does that count as beautiful?

And I'm sure there are others. I came across a book called The Bible as Literature in someone's house a while ago. I read a bit of it. Might buy it for myself one day. The introduction goes through the story of Jeptha, and reveals quite a bit of poetic structure in what appears on the surface to be a prose narrative. They weren't absolute barbarians!

TRiG.

@ Tal - blast from the past there!

I wouldn't call it 'beautiful' necessarily, but my favourite section is the Book of Job. It raises some quite deep philosophical questions (how can the existence of suffering be squared with the existence of a merciful God?) without necessarily giving an answer.

Gif

Hi Gif

The Bible clearly shows in its manifold contexts that the mercy of God is not all-encompassing. Mercy is restrictive according to the grace of God-- a mercy that He dispenses according to His pleasure
(Rom. 9:13-16).

Human suffering is plainly the result of disobedience. If people live according to their own desires and if some of those desires break God's law (a morality that was designed to yield peace and order),it should surprise no one that the result is suffering. Drinking a bottle of whisky every day for forty years could very well produce cirrhosis of the liver. Smoking 30 cigarettes a day over the same period will most likely produce either bronchitis, emphysema or lung cancer. It's a predictable payback for ingesting noxious substances.

In the Divine view of things, mankind deserves only eternal punishment. None of us deserves mercy because we all repeatedly break God's moral laws. Mercy is that unqualified and undeserved means of grace whereby man does not receive that justice which he deserves.

The question that has puzzled theologians for centuries is how could God could hate Esau before he was born!? But that partiality is God's prerogative alone. It is perhaps more appropriate to ponder why God could love Jacob -- he was certainly more of a scoundrel than his brother. So is the mystery of the Divine will.

A bit off topic, I admit, but maybe we could discuss this away from this entry by direct message.



RC

Hi Gif

The Bible clearly shows in its manifold contexts that the mercy of God is not all-encompassing. Mercy is restrictive according to the grace of God-- a mercy that He dispenses according to His pleasure
(Rom. 9:13-16).

Human suffering is plainly the result of disobedience. If people live according to their own desires and if some of those desires break God's law (a morality that was designed to yield peace and order),it should surprise no one that the result is suffering. Drinking a bottle of whisky every day for forty years could very well produce cirrhosis of the liver. Smoking 30 cigarettes a day over the same period will most likely produce either bronchitis, emphysema or lung cancer. It's a predictable payback for ingesting noxious substances.

In the Divine view of things, mankind deserves only eternal punishment. None of us deserves mercy because we all repeatedly break God's moral laws. Mercy is that unqualified and undeserved means of grace whereby man does not receive that justice which he deserves.

The question that has puzzled theologians for centuries is how could God could hate Esau before he was born!? But that partiality is God's prerogative alone. It is perhaps more appropriate to ponder why God could love Jacob -- he was certainly more of a scoundrel than his brother. So is the mystery of the Divine will.



RC

Hi Gif

The Bible clearly shows in its manifold context that the mercy of God is not all-encompassing. Mercy is restrictive according to the grace of God-- a mercy that He dispenses according to His pleasure
(Rom. 9:13-16).

Human suffering is plainly the result of disobedience. If people live according to their own desires and if some of those desires break God's law (a morality that was designed to yield peace and order),it should surprise no one that the result is suffering. Drinking a bottle of whisky every day for forty years could very well produce cirrhosis of the liver. Smoking 30 cigarettes a day over the same period will most likely produce either bronchitis, emphysema or lung cancer.

In the Divine view of things, mankind deserves only eternal punishment. None of us deserves mercy because we all repeatedly break God's moral laws. Mercy is that unqualified and undeserved means of grace whereby man does not receive the justice he deserves.

The question that has puzzled theologians for centuries is how could God could hate Esau before he was born!? But that partiality is God's prerogative alone. It is perhaps more appropriate to ponder why God could love Jacob -- he was certainly more of a scoundrel than his brother. So is the mystery of the Divine will.



RC

the real mystery is why anyone would choose to worship the hateful deity you describe.

<>

This is true.

'<>

This is true.'




hurricanes (etc.) are plainly the result of disobedience?

Ultimately, yes.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.




Hebrews 4.13

Well, KZWG, you've certainly not demonstrated to me that there is any validity in the Christian religion and you have thoroughly convinced me that the Christian religion is foul, disgusting, completely negative and life-denying. I hope you weren't trying to do missionary work.

'The chimpanzee and the human share about 99.5% of their evolutionary history, yet most human thinkers regard the chimp as a malformed, irrelevant oddity while seeing themselves as stepping-stones to the Almighty..'

Richard Dawkins, Forward to The Selfish Gene.

Bible. (from Greek, *biblia* books, plural of biblion, originally diminutive of *biblos*, *bublos* *papyrus*)

The Concise Oxford.

Not from the bible but...

'to explain truth to him who loves it not is to give more plentiful material for misinterpretation.'...George MacDonald

mikey

Hi RC,

I suspect it may be too late to prevent this thread being derailed... but I will respond on your PS anyway.

Gif

Hi WG,

>Ultimately, yes.

You strange.



Gif