Attention Christians - please give me your thoughts

We were discussing the 'other' books written but that were not included in the Bible. HUNDREDS of them.. all authenticated by being from the same time period.  Why are these ignored by Christians?  I would have thought that Christians would have been flocking to read them and include them in the 'big book'.  Is it because some contradict what the current book says? Is it because Mary's book insinuated that there was more between her and Jesus?

When I was a Christian and I found out about this I remembered being very excited and wanting to read them!  But no one else did.. it was hush hush and disregarded... part of the reason for my spiraling decent (or incline!) to Athiesm.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Edit: We started discussing this in the "Muslims voting for Obama calling him their savior? " thread

Original Post by kateduttongillett:

Original Post by kindlerenz:

Of course it HAD to be written by men. What do you expect, a giant HAND to reach down from the clouds with a feather pen?

 

 I love that image!  As well as God Bowling when it storms.

 I thought that was the little men in the Rip van Winkel story that are bowling.

And if there can be a burning bush that talks, why can't the bible have been written by a giant hand with a feathery pen?

Original Post by kindlerenz:

Why couldn't men have been on earth at the same time as dinosaurs? Sorry but I don't understand the line of thinking. I must have missed something.

because science has proven that the dinosaurs lived tens of millions of years ago and that humans have only been around for ten thousand years or so.

Original Post by kindlerenz:

Why couldn't men have been on earth at the same time as dinosaurs? Sorry but I don't understand the line of thinking. I must have missed something.

 Fossil evidence, which of course I'm sure you find fake or false.

Original Post by jules817:

peaches,  my point was that i will not take anything literally or as fact from a site written by people who believe men hunted dinosaurs. if other people want to, good luck to them!

 

 Why is that so hard to believe?  It is a standard belief that cavemen existed, right? 

Point is, just as with the books of the Bible debate, when it comes to science, anything that we "prove" which also contradicts the Bible...well, those things will eventually be disproven.  We are mere humans.  We make mistakes.  Why do people trust scientists so much?  Were you actually helping them collect data? 

Original Post by pgeorgian:

Original Post by kateduttongillett:

It was written by men, inspired by God.  God created us in his image.  He Created.  He made us like him -- To Be Creative, which is were we get thinking, writting, making art, dancing, the whole lot - and when we are truly creating is when we are closest to God.  I think that the men who wrote the books in the Bible desired closeness with God.

and none of the women of the time desired closeness with god?  none? 

 Back to my first comment about the bible being chosen from a large group of books by a council at the vatican in the 13C.   All Men,   Look at history, men have suppressed women for centuries....so thats the document you have.  Jesus had lots of women followers, who else was going to make the meals for Jesus and the twelve??  

Original Post by moonikins:

and none of the women of the time desired closeness with god?  none? 

 Well, if the women did write that or desire closeness to god it wasn't divinely inspired, so says 250 old men in 325 AD.

not to mention the fact that literacy was reserved for the elite.  so if you weren't rich and privileged, you couldn't possibly be divinely inspired.

Original Post by kae03:

in the greek, women were not stripped of power and authority...Priscilla was a contemporaryof Paul and was listed first when he spoke of them...showing that she, not her hubby was the main worker...

the scripture that many use against women was talking about a certain situation where women were interupting in the service and not letting the dude teach....so they were told to wait and ask questions after...

 

 There are a number of books written at the time of Jesus and shortly after that gave women equal footing in the new Christian church. None of those books are included in the bible. That's what we're talking about.

Original Post by cassrd05:

Why do people trust scientists so much?  Were you actually helping them collect data? 

i trust scientists at least as much as politicians and writers of fiction.

Excuse me folks....i'm going for the cookie jar.

what PG said in post #62

Original Post by kateduttongillett:

Original Post by pgeorgian:

Original Post by kateduttongillett:

It was written by men, inspired by God.  God created us in his image.  He Created.  He made us like him -- To Be Creative, which is were we get thinking, writting, making art, dancing, the whole lot - and when we are truly creating is when we are closest to God.  I think that the men who wrote the books in the Bible desired closeness with God.

and none of the women of the time desired closeness with god?  none? 

 Back to my first comment about the bible being chosen from a large group of books by a council at the vatican in the 13C.   All Men,   Look at history, men have suppressed women for centuries....so thats the document you have.  Jesus had lots of women followers, who else was going to make the meals for Jesus and the twelve??  

 The Bible was created in 325 AD at the Nicene council. What you're talking about in the 13th century is something else.

And the fact that men suppressed women for centuries before and after Christ and that the Bible suppresses women as well means you believe your god suppresses women and that the suppression is divinely inspired.

to #64 - what's your point about cavemen? Modern man and cave man... neither was around when the dinosaurs were. We are talking millions of years difference here.

I don't believe that we have any conclusive evidence that any of the New Testament books were written "in the time of Jesus".  In fact, there is a discrepancy as to when "the time of Jesus" actually was.

my metaphorical crown of thorns is itchy like crazy this morning.

Original Post by kateduttongillett:

I think that it was the 13 C. when a group of high ranking Catholic guys got together to look at what had been written and decided what would be included and what wouldn't .   From what I have studied about it, it was like these guys choosing thier favorites and excluding others that they didn't want to deal with cannonically.

You might take a look at the Nostic Gospels.

 Well, the 13th century was when the Great Schism happened. The Catholic Church split into the Roman and the Greek orthodox. The Coptic branch of Catholisim began a few hundred years later. Try to find a Greek Orthodox bible. You'll see a whole bunch of books that aren't in the Roman Catholic version

Also, there are two versions of the New Testiment. The Greek version and the Hebrew version. Most Christian bibles use the Hebrew version, while Catholic Bibles use the Greek Version. ( All Catholics are Christian, but not all Christians are Catholic.)

So, it depends on what version of the bible you are looking at to find the "whole picture." There are some books in the Vatican's vaults that haven't seen the light of day in almost 1500 years! Well, maybe when there were two papal seats. One in France, the other in Rome. Jeeze, I'm such a nerd!

Original Post by kindlerenz:

Certainly something I'd never put much thought into before but I'm sure there must be a logical reason for it. One thing I am sure of, is that every word that is in the current Bible is meant to be there. You just have to have faith here.

 

 

I just had to lol at this post... claiming that there must be a "logical" reason and then telling us to just have faith. =P

Take a look at this website. It gives a chart at the bottom laying out the dates of importance to Christianity and Judaism, including when books were written.

The new testement didn't show up untill about 50-75 years after the death of Christ. Before then followers of his teachings were called "Of the Way." The term Christian started about 20 years after the books came out. Or so I've heard from sermons

i've been praying for a unicorn for like, 20 minutes. where is it?? i was gonna name it Harold.

And "Modern Man" lived in caves and walked the Earth at the same time as Neaderthals.  Neither were around when the Dinosaurs were here.