Organised religion debate

[ACubed]

Greetings! After a good debate in another thread it was suggested someone makes a new thread posing some questions about religion, so here are some talking points, I'll number them so easier to reference:

1. holy books - do people believe the stories actually happened? If so how can you square this with modern science/evolution, and if not how can you pick and choose what exists?

2. do people of faith acknowledge that the holy books contradict themselves?

3. is the sexism in the holy texts acceptable? How can this be the true word of God if it's so darn mean?

4. if you had been born into another religion would you follow it or convert? For example, if any muslims on here had instead been born in a Jewish family do you think you would have converted to Islam?

5. following on from that, is it not surely luck which faith most people follow? How does this affect your certainty in your faith?

6. why do none of the holy texts mention the evolution of mankind, other planets or galaxies, or any other modern science which has been proven?

Sure there are lots more questions but I've gone blank. I'm more than happy to answer any questions like these on my lack of faith!

Interesting stuff. I was once privileged to spend a weekend with an orthodox and a reform rabbi as well as with Christians from a wide range of traditions from fairly conservative to on the more liberal end. We studied scripture together and learnt from each other. The phrase that kept coming up was 'interesting - I hadn't thought about it that way before' which wasn't about dismissing ideas but about genuinely engaging and learning from each other.

On the other hand, there is a currently very vibrant strand of Jewish studies looking at the early rabbinic period (i.e. The droid covered by the writings of the New Testament) which sees Jesus in his Jewish context (much of this work follows on from Jesus the Jew by Geza Vermes, also Ed Sanders's work on Paul ) and the NT writings as Jewish texts. The Jewish New Testament is a fascinating product of this new research.

As for the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, another way is to see it's the relationship between older and younger brothers. When I studied st the Woolf Institute for Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations that was definitely the metaphor that made the most helpful basis for conversation.