Spot on

[Berzerker]

If he thought marriage was weakness, wouldn't you find him saying that Christians should divorce their wives rather than saying they should remain married, even if the spouse was an unbeliever later on in the chapter?

Divorce under that rationale would qualify as adultery based on what Jesus taught, but here is what Paul said:

Now to the unmarried[a] and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

One weakness is worse than the other, therefore marriage is encouraged for those lacking self control... Kind of a weird argument, the hopelessly promiscuous should marry because adultery is a sin?

[ricketyclik]

[IMG] http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-460/h--...on-02.-006.jpg /IMG]

[Elok]

Nikolai, I'm not sure what you expected to happen, posting this when the two people most likely to side with you are banned at present. I mean, I'm generally down with ridiculing liberal Xian attempts to dodge plain contradictions between the two halves of their belief system--but this isn't exactly a sympathetic audience. Also, the cartoon isn't particularly good. And it's not like liberal Xians have a monopoly on ignoring inconvenient Bible verses. Over here, we've got whole churches set up to tell people that owning lots of money is a sure sign that God loves you more than everyone else.

[loinburger]

"The 'eye of a needle' thing actually refers to camel-shaped holes in the wall that were all over the place in Jerusalem, so it's incredibly easy for a rich man to get into heaven!"

[Lorizael]

"The 'eye of a needle' thing actually refers to camel-shaped holes in the wall that were all over the place in Jerusalem, so it's incredibly easy for a rich man to get into heaven!"

I always assumed a rich man getting into heaven was as easy as capturing a camel, killing it, pureeing it, and pouring it through the eye of a needle.

[Berzerker]

Over here, we've got whole churches set up to tell people that owning lots of money is a sure sign that God loves you more than everyone else.

who do boxers thank after kicking ass and taking names?

[Nikolai]

So is this comic meant to show the liberal as somehow being the bad one? Because it sure doesn't succeed. It just reinforces that a literal reading of the bible is ridiculous. If you think the Jonah fable must be literally true, you're an idiot with no grasp on reality.

*enter idiot with no grasp on reality*
Jonah was an image, a forebear on Jesus. He died, and rose after having been in the stomach of the fish for three days. I believe in a God that has the ability to create the universe by speaking. Why not this?

[loinburger]

Your god could presumably do all sorts of stupid things, but that's not a very good reason to believe in them.

"Why are you stoning that adultress?"
" God created the universe by speaking!"

[Nikolai]

That's not a good argument you're making there, loin. Try some more salt.

[loinburger]

It just seems that you've got to prioritize. When you picture God, who do you picture - somebody who saves people via whale consumption? I hope not, so if somebody else sees the story as metaphorical then why would you suddenly up the priority of the story that you probably give little if any thought to on a daily or even yearly basis? This would make more sense if you viewed God as a petty tyrant and somebody else viewed God as a benevolent caregiver - that's a pretty fundamental difference in interpretations and may warrant the effort of your debating / browbeating the heretic. Calling somebody an idiot over a difference in opinion over a whale story is, at the very least, petty.

[Nikolai]

Agreed. I didn't call anyone an idiot, that was all Boris.

As for the OP, I think it makes a good point. A lot of the Bible is not literal, like the parables of Jesus. But a lot is, and what isn't has a point of being there. The liberals are on a dangerous road as I see it, see last image. They risk being deemed as ashamed of Jesus, and that is serious business for a Christian.

[loinburger]

Sure, but there's being ashamed of Jesus, and then there's being ashamed of the people who wrote/revised/compiled the Bible. Two different things.

[Elok]

Yeah, but bringing up Jonah for ridicule in the first place is somewhat petty. The "LOL ignorant primitives" argument doesn't work too well; Israel is bordered on two sides by water, and they didn't have refrigeration or anything back then, so odds are good that basically everyone who ate fish at all at the time was reasonably familiar with what a fish's guts looked like. Such as the full third of the twelve disciples who were fishermen. Even those who didn't live by a coast are unlikely to have thought, "Derp, an underwater animal is sure to have three days' supply of breathable air in its stomach. People get swallowed alive by giant marine animals all the time." The same story features weather control and the ultra-fast growth of a plant, so the fish is simply one more miraculous element. Also, a fairly small portion of the original story, and not especially important to its larger meaning. The fish/whale/whatever is a plot device.

[DaShi]

Are you doing the comic?

[Nikolai]

Sure, but there's being ashamed of Jesus, and then there's being ashamed of the people who wrote/revised/compiled the Bible. Two different things.

Not really. Divine inspiration, it's a thing we Christians believe in. All of Scripture is God breathed and useful. As a Christian, you can interpret differently, but you can't cut things out.