Can you believe In God, yet not in the Bible?

[Jayci]

Hi,
My name is Jayci. I am new to this forum. For the past couple years I have been struggling with the many contractions that blind faith brings.
I've always questioned organized religion because it's to often welded as a weapon to control the masses. I have always felt a greater presence in my life, a loving figure forgiving and strong. Yet the leaders of all organized religions contradicted what I felt to be true in my heart. We are told to love God the father and that he loves us back unconditionally, yet I would go to church after church searching for that feeling people talk about when they find God and I never felt that going to a church. I have always had a problem with the hypocritical Judgements of people in each church.
So I started thinking, if God says "to not judge others lest you be judged", and " to treat others how you would want to be treated", then how could people that call themselves Christians pass judgements, make rules of their own, and demand money for blessings. How could the different religions create these rules like how to dress, what to listen to, how much to tithe, who to help and that other religions are wrong? None of it made sense. I found most of the time the preachers couldn't even answer my questions. That's the problem. I was looking elsewhere to find fulfillment when all along I only needed to follow my heart. I came to the conclusion the Bible is not God's word, It's mans. I believe when God instructed Moses to write down the 10 commandments that perhaps that's the only literal part we need. It is really very simple. God doesn't call upon natural disasters or kill our children to punish us because his love is unconditional. He doesn't send plagues or floods. Man just uses God as a scapegoat when we experience tragedy as a way to explain something people can't understand or because we are angry and need someone to blame. I know this because as a parent I love my children to much to want to hurt them so badly and cause pain. I believe man put that in the Bible as a tool to scare us. His gift to us is free will. With free will we created evil. Not God. So in my soul searching I have turned away from the churches and religions but I now believe in God more than I ever did before. I found that feeling so many others spoke about. I know who my father is and he is awesome in his love for us!

 

[iBrian]

Nothing wrong with having faith without an organization - you'll probably find that it's very common indeed.

 

[Kylie]

Of course. Why would Christianity have the monopoly on gods?

 

[mangalvaar]

I know who my father is and he is awesome in his love for us!

Hi, Jayci. I enjoyed reading your post. I must say, I like your view that God does not send natural evils or kill children as ways to punish human beings. Congratulations on thinking about religious matters for yourself and making the right decisions for yourself.

Something that I find interesting is where do we get the concept of God. Many people get the idea of God/deities/the divine from sources such as family, society, spiritual teacher, or scripture. Although you do not accept organized religions and the Bible, what would you say is the source of the idea of God for you?

 

[Alif Balaam Yashin]

Two points here:
1) There is no "The Bible". I assume you are referring to the Christian bible? There are other bibles.
2) God. I also assume you are referring to the Abrahamic god, Yahweh? There are thousands of gods throughout the world's religions.

 

[Achilleion]

That's the direction I've been going, Christian Gnosticism, Esoteric system.

 

[TheLightWithin]

Yes its absolutely possible to believe in G-d without believing the Bible or any other holy book.

You can gain a more objective view of the Bible and what it is (yes, written by humans) by looking into the field of bible scholarship if you haven't already. Dan McClellan on YouTube is a good resource, or AB Hagashi, or Bart Ehrman.

 

[otherbrother]

I came to the conclusion the Bible is not God's word, It's mans.

I agree up to a point. Certainly stuff men made up to approximate their experience of an unknown that seemed useful, like creative solutions appearing out of nowhere. The God function was discovered during times of limited resources and means, along the lines of necessity is the mother of invention. But the process of tapping into the good Unknown is very real, is a kind of “divinity” woven right into us, and when noticed, reminds us that we all are sons and daughters of a Useful/good Unknown. We are all anointed with the potential to live creatively and fully/abundantly, originating from a deeper reality than we see on the surface.
So, the Bible is probably a meaningful myth inspired by the Good Unknown (or “God”). It is from God in that manner, but I’m sure there are many other Unknown inspired texts also. The key is to accept them figuratively, metaphorically—not literally. Those religious texts do become tools for social manipulation by humans when taken literally. Spirituality seems largely a right brain gift. The left brain tends towards details or foci that mimic facts and tend to forget the background patterns into which they are (spiritually) enmeshed/embedded.

 

[otherbrother]

I believe man put that in the Bible as a tool to scare us.

If you think of developmental stages (as many have), the fear tactic was of a tribal DEPENDENCY stage. In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the dependency stage meets group survival needs. Better to be afraid than dead! But as relative mastery of survival occurs, humankind can advance to individuality, a concept of “self” that was hardly relevant in the tribal survival stage. This is the independence stage. The Modern era is dignified by the discovery of selves and individual rights. But, as Ken Wilber says, that stage also has a “disaster.”
Every person for themselves can’t be sustainably satisfying or healthy. Once, in Buddha-like fashion, we have decided that we sufficiently met the needs of selfhood, self awareness, etc., we may transcend it and move onto the stage of interdependence. Is this the world of love that spiritual teachers and leaders like Jesus and others pined for and pushed for (promoted)? The stage that we weren’t ready for in Christ’s time because we hadn’t developed a firm sense of selfhood. True love requires an integration of secure independent selves with Other/others/us all. In terms of understanding, the dynamic synergy of interdependence requires a higher level thinking, probably aided significantly by the latest development in the human brain (the prefrontal cortex). While it may have evolved physically, it doesn’t mean we’ve learned to fully use its integrative abilities. We collectively must learn to see and experience the big picture of which we each are an important integral part. This may be the “second coming” in which the world learns to more fully appreciate and be driven by (motivated by) love. The ability to conceptualize dynamics may have been behind the myth of a Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge of dualistic right and wrong (and many other dualistic distinctions as well—left brain identification) will give way eventually to a broader and deeper understanding of the dynamic interaction of life. Individually, it means I an spiritually connected to other beings and things. In a way (The Way?), I AM them and they are me. The Golden Rule gets easier once we have that identification with spirituality.
I sense that you discovered spirituality and need to put it first for a while. And I think that is a good move. Maybe later you might use church as a viable spiritual growth vehicle, despite its hypocrisy and other flaws, because it does offer a series of prompts for a truly individual spiritual experience and spiritual skills/growth, but only once we loosen our grip on the religion and allow it to assist the main thing (to grow spiritually). Religion is a mere means to the main thing. I am so happy to hear that you have untangled spirituality from religion (or should I say dogma?). That kind of liberation is my dream for others and myself. To actually be the spiritual being I always was potentially.

 

[otherbrother]

If you think of developmental stages (as many have), the fear tactic was of a tribal DEPENDENCY stage. In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the dependency stage meets group survival needs. Better to be afraid than dead! But as relative mastery of survival occurs, humankind can advance to individuality, a concept of “self” that was hardly relevant in the tribal survival stage. This is the independence stage. The Modern era is dignified by the discovery of selves and individual rights. But, as Ken Wilber says, that stage also has a “disaster.”
Every person for themselves can’t be sustainably satisfying or healthy. Once, in Buddha-like fashion, we have decided that we sufficiently met the needs of selfhood, self awareness, etc., we may transcend it and move onto the stage of interdependence. Is this the world of love that spiritual teachers and leaders like Jesus and others pined for and pushed for (promoted)? The stage that we weren’t ready for in Christ’s time because we hadn’t developed a firm sense of selfhood. True love requires an integration of secure independent selves with Other/others/us all. In terms of understanding, the dynamic synergy of interdependence requires a higher level thinking, probably aided significantly by the latest development in the human brain (the prefrontal cortex). While it may have evolved physically, it doesn’t mean we’ve learned to fully use its integrative abilities. We collectively must learn to see and experience the big picture of which we each are an important integral part. This may be the “second coming” in which the world learns to more fully appreciate and be driven by (motivated by) love. The ability to conceptualize dynamics may have been behind the myth of a Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge of dualistic right and wrong (and many other dualistic distinctions as well—left brain identification) will give way eventually to a broader and deeper understanding of the dynamic interaction of life. Individually, it means I an spiritually connected to other beings and things. In a way (The Way?), I AM them and they are me. The Golden Rule gets easier once we have that identification with spirituality.
I sense that you discovered spirituality and need to put it first for a while. And I think that is a good move. Maybe later you might use church as a viable spiritual growth vehicle, despite its hypocrisy and other flaws, because it does offer a series of prompts for a truly individual spiritual experience and spiritual skills/growth, but only once we loosen our grip on the religion and allow it to assist the main thing (to grow spiritually). Religion is a mere means to the main thing. I am so happy to hear that you have untangled spirituality from religion (or should I say dogma?). That kind of liberation is my dream for others and myself. To actually be the spiritual being I always was potentially.

Perfect synchronicity: Just as I was parking the church bus I drive to shuttle folks from a retirement village to church, a moth landed on inside of my driver’s side window. I rolled the window down to “liberate” it, Out it flew, free as a bird (or should I say “moth”)!