Ian McKellen Admits to Ripping Pages from The Bible

[david_x]

Can a master builder construct a house using a child's toy toolbox?

I would hope so. I could and i'm by no means an expert.

 

[david_x]

I believe in the Bible thusly, it is the pure light of God as seen through the prism of man's understanding. We get the light, but it is refracted (much the same way that Moses was unable to behold God's face and can only see his back).

What is the highest number that we can count to?
Where does space end?

Both of these things cannot be truly understood because they are infinite and we are finite.

For that to be true, you must think that something is not right. What can possibly be so wrong with the writings of the least prophet.

 

[InkBlott]

I would hope so. I could and i'm by no means an expert.

I look forward to seeing your results.

Here is your toolbox:

 

[david_x]

I look forward to seeing your results.

Here is your toolbox:

It may be going a little far to compare the Greek language to plastic tools.

 

[InkBlott]

I believe in the Bible thusly, it is the pure light of God as seen through the prism of man's understanding. We get the light, but it is refracted (much the same way that Moses was unable to behold God's face and can only see his back).

What is the highest number that we can count to?
Where does space end?

Both of these things cannot be truly understood because they are infinite and we are finite.



Lol, while I agree with you about Paul writing Paul, I disagree that "most Christians here" would agree with us.

For that to be true, you must think that something is not right. What can possibly be so wrong with the writings of the least prophet.

May I suggest that ProdigalSeeker has made a better point than you are giving credit. The story of Moses seeing God's backside is the very story that introduces Moses carving the second set of tablets for the ten commandments. If you take away the chapter break, which was later introduced, the cleft stone in which Moses is hidden could very well be taken as the very stone from which Moses extracted the tablets upon which God inscribed the commnadments. The story is not there simply as an amusing interlude to the more prosaic bits but to make the very point that ProdigalSeeker has grasped. The writer of Exodus understood that the scriptures, even if inscribed by God's own hand, did not so much reveal God as hide one from the full glory of God. From the written word, we can gain but a glimpse of the trailing backside of God's passing by.

Interestingly, the old tradition of reading the scriptures as a corporate exercise counteracted this inadequacy to some degree. The coporate understanding of the words, with a great number of imaginations and a great deal of history and experience brought to bear allows for the emergence of a much more nuanced expression of the ineffable truths that the words touch on than do the words themselves.

And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."
Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." Then the LORD said, "There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen."
The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

​

 

[InkBlott]

It may be going a little far to compare the Greek language to plastic tools.

It is but a human language scaled to human needs.

 

[david_x]

It is but a human language scaled to human needs.

None the less, the all powerful can bend even meager tools to his need.

 

[brinny]

po' thing....he's just dust in the wind as we speak..and don't know it...what a tragedy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3YEw4a7ixQ

 

[InkBlott]

None the less, the all powerful can bend even meager tools to his need.

Didn't say he couldn't. Just saying the the medium is limited. In any hands. There are ways to compensate such as by means of storytelling, or the kind of amplifying wordplay that can take place in poetry, or the deliberate seeming-contradictions of a koan. The scriptures use all of these techniques. But to think we have grasped, for instance, the spirit of the law simply because we have words on a page, let alone to have grasped the ineffable, is to narrow our religion. Get a religion narrow enough and people have to tear the pages out of their Bibles just to get a little elbow room.

Rather than condemn the person tearing out the pages, this should call us to examine where we have gone wrong. It is a symptom of a malaise greater than any one man's.

 

[Belk]

po' thing....he's just dust in the wind as we speak..and don't know it...what a tragedy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3YEw4a7ixQ

Awesome song! But I disagree, I would guess that as an atheist he is fully cognizant of being dust in the wind.

 

[david_x]

Didn't say he couldn't. Just saying the the medium is limited. In any hands. There are ways to compensate such as by means of storytelling, or the kind of amplifying wordplay that can take place in poetry, or the deliberate seeming-contradictions of a koan. The scriptures use all of these techniques. But to think we have grasped, for instance, the spirit of the law simply because we have words on a page, let alone to have grasped the ineffable, is to narrow our religion. Get a religion narrow enough and people have to tear the pages out of their Bibles just to get a little elbow room.

Rather than condemn the person tearing out the pages, this should call us to examine where we have gone wrong. It is a symptom of a malaise greater than any one man's.

Words can encompass the whole, this does not mean that the Bible doesn't describe Him.

 

[InkBlott]

Words can encompass the whole...

Hmm. I think words can imply the whole. They certainly can't emcompass it. The whole emcompasses words.

...this does not mean that the Bible doesn't describe Him.

Describe yes. Encompass no.

Some of the descriptions are dangerously one-sided and human-sounding and the worst of humanity at that. You are talking to an atheist who can still spend half a night crying over an abusive God concept. Why? Because it describes allientated and allienating aspects of humanity that can do tremendous harm--that badly need to be recognized and placed back into context with an eye to healing, reintegration and wholeness. Instead we find them projected outward and magnified to monstrous porportions. They threaten to crush us!

For instance, how do you touch on purity with a language that parses concepts--that chops them up into pieces? That sifts the content of our psyches? Without knowing Mr. McKellen, I suspect this particular difficulty may be what's burning his butt.

So, he tears the offending pages out. It's a pretty brave thing to do. Interestingly, torn out, their power to harm is gotten under some control. They can be reapproached, worked-on and reintegrated in a higher state. Maybe Mr. McKellen isn't up to that task. It's OK if he's not. It's a corporate task.

 

[david_x]

Hmm. I think words can imply the whole. They certainly can't emcompass it. The whole emcompasses words.

Psh, sorry. I mean't can't. Funny how a little thing like 't makes such a difference.

 

[InkBlott]

Psh, sorry. I mean't can't. Funny how a little thing like 't makes such a difference.

After I posted, it occurred to me that it was a typo.

Oh well, I had fun putting together my reply to your typo.