I have always wondered why people say that to be a perfect model citizen you should follow the bible. There are two reasons I would not agree with that. 1) The bible is messed up. Following the bible would mean having sex with your family members, tricking people, selling people into slavery, having multiple wives and so on. 2) No one in the bible is perfect so why should you be.
In the Tanakh no one is perfect. I think one of the main points of the Tanakh is to teach people to embrace their imperfections because it is what makes you who you are and it is what makes you human. Not even the god that most people believe in is perfect. He makes mistakes too. Like when he had to correct his mistake of mankind by wiping everyone out with a 40 day flood. Another thing about the characters of the Tanakh and there imperfection is that it shows that people change. A lot of people in the Tanakh start out as not so awesome people. But they transition, they mature, they grow, they change. I think that is another main lesson; just because you start out one way doesn't mean thats how you will end up forever, people change.
Just some things to consider.
I believe people in the Torah are imperfect. Absolutely. And that is a wonderful thing. It shows that even very holy people are imperfect and make many mistakes. Gd loves us even though we are messed up. We are in here in the human form in this life to make our mistakes and then to learn from them, to correct them, until we are the people who we mold ourselves to be.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you note that Gd makes mistakes. I think that is a great observation. And a good example. How could someone Divine make a "mistake". And we are created in the image of Gd. Maybe we all don't really make mistakes we just live a challenging life and make rectifications?
I like the way you think. Remember too that some of the things that were acceptable back then, thousands of years ago, are no longer acceptable in our society.
No we don't have to be perfect, but we do have to be aware, learn from our mistakes and correct ourselves into being the person who we wish to be. Believe me, the older you get the more you realize you aren't perfect, you, (I) made a lot of mistakes and it is important to be kind to myself and to move on and do better.
You have learned a great lesson! We all change during our lives. We seek to follow a belief system called religion. I'm sorry so many think the bible is literal which it is not one must remember it is written by humans who change during their life. As the rules of social society have changed over time.
ReplyDelete