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Re: karin, poles, trilogies, and machines

> > > > this notion that Christians have no right to judge is silly when
> > > > the Bible clearly lays out a set of standards by which we are
> > > > instructed (hence the term "bible") to hold ourselves and others
> > > > to.
> >
> > Hence the term?  Uh, no.  "Bible" simply means "book".
> > http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?bible=Dictionary&va=bible
>
> Okay, I stand doubly corrected, but if you follow your link you'll see
> that the mere "book" definition is OBSOLETE, while the defintion as any 
> authoritatitive book is valid.

Two points, in response.  First, "hence the term" implies that the term
*came* from somewhere, and the link I provided clearly spells out that the
term "bible" *came* from the Greek word for "book".  Second, the link goes
on to say that one possible definition for "bible" is "a publication that
is preeminent especially in authoritativeness or wide readership", and
that is not *quite* the same thing as saying that a "bible" is "a set of
standards by which we are instructed" to do anything.  One of the specific
examples the link provides of a "bible", in this sense, is "the bible of
the entertainment industry".  The weekly box-office top-ten lists are, in
one sense, a "bible" for the entertainment industry, and authoritative,
because they are "widely read" and studios around the world base their
decisions on the information in those lists.  But there is no set of
*instructions* in those lists.  They are not a book of laws.  And you
could say the same thing for the other example provided, "the fisherman's
bible".  Such a "bible" would have authority because it is compiled by
fisherman who know their trade and are able to share what they have
learned from their experience, and because it is read by fisherman who
want to gain the insights of those who have gone before them.  But those
who read the book are still free to improvise new rules and new principles
for fishing, if they find new techniques that work for them, or if they
encounter situations that are not covered in the book.  The "fisherman's
bible" is not at all authoritative in the sense that you seem to think the
Christian Bible is authoritative, as a rule book that needs enforcing.

> Sorry, in my mind the term "Bible" has been internalized to mean
> "instruction book".

You mean that it has been internalized that way in your *own* mind?  Or
that, as you see it, many people have internalized it that way?

> That worldview informs me in ways that were manifested rather
> unfortunately in the above paragraph.  Really, is that so wrong?

Certainly *could* be.

> >    What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are
> >    you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel
> >    the wicked man from among you." -- I Corinthians 5:12-13
>
> I refered to that this morning.  Great minds...  Did you miss my post?

I guess so -- sometimes I skim, and don't read so closely.

> > Ah, but there's a difference between "judging" and "being judgmental".
> > Just as there's a difference between "arguing" and "being
> > argumentative".
>
> Wow, thanks!  That really nails it!

Yer welcome.  :)

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 "I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
      Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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