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The burden of faith (Free verse) by Bobjim
Faith can be a difficult thing, To trust in one as far above you, As you are to an ant. To pray to one who could, on a whim, Destroy you utterly, bless your works, Or ignore you entirely. And never reveal himself, But for the words of others. And then you must hold faith with these others too, Or the core of your faith would be eroded, Perhaps never to recover. You must consider the chinese whispers, For these will oft be all you hear of the miracles. The discounting of which, Could lead to the discounting of deities. You must listen to, believe in, and follow, In the teachings of all you hold as prophets, Or you detract from their holy task. And all commandments from above, Must be obeyed unerringly, Lest your soul be subject to eternal torment. Such is the burden of faith.

Up the ladder: You tell me

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Arithmetic Mean: 5.0
Weighted score: 5.0
Overall Rank: 7801
Posted: August 16, 2005 3:07 AM PDT; Last modified: August 16, 2005 3:07 AM PDT
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Comments:
[5] Dovina @ 69.175.32.104 | 16-Aug-05/5:47 PM | Reply
The first seven lines are good. After that, you add something to the requirements for faith faith, something unnecessary in my opinion - faith in certain people. I don't see how "the core of my faith would be eroded" if I fail to take someone's word for something. Doesn't the Bible tell us to judge these things?
[n/a] Bobjim @ 143.167.177.29 > Dovina | 17-Aug-05/3:33 AM | Reply
It should have been 'could be eroded'. And it must be taken with the previous few lines, which talk about God only revealing himself through other people. You can't use Biblical references against this line because the Bible is the words of others afterall. If you didn't believe the disciples through the Bible, wouldn't that be eroding your faith?
[5] Dovina @ 69.175.32.104 > Bobjim | 18-Aug-05/10:26 AM | Reply
Not necessarily. It depends on what my faith is in.
[n/a] Bobjim @ 143.167.132.18 > Dovina | 19-Aug-05/4:24 AM | Reply
Touche
[n/a] ALChemy @ 65.188.89.69 > Bobjim | 19-Aug-05/9:50 AM | Reply
The Bible has been rewritten and butchered in the process by nearly every translation ever made. So you can certainly doubt everything except the spirit of the bible and still have faith in it.
[5] Dovina @ 69.175.32.104 > ALChemy | 19-Aug-05/3:54 PM | Reply
I don’t think it’s been butchered very much at all. The old manuscripts that have been dug up recently show that not much has been changed through miscopying and bad translation.

Maybe you’ve been reading “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown, which promotes the notion of Bible butchering. The book opens by saying that he has written a work of speculation, not necessarily history. Then he asserts that the Nicene Council selected the New Testament books form literature in circulation at the time, and that other selections could have just as readily comprised a different Bible. In this way he writes a bible with almost no credibility, and proceeds with his bogus hypothesis.

Actually, the books we call the New Testament are pretty well grounded in history. You may argue with what they say, but hardly with whether they come down to us essentially unchanged.
[n/a] zodiac @ 212.118.19.46 > Dovina | 20-Aug-05/5:52 AM | Reply
First of all, most of the big mistranslation debates are over the Old testament; things like whether it was Adam's rib that was taken, or Adam's hip, or even - enigmatically - "Daddums' spliff". Considering that most of what Bobjim's talking about in the poem is Old Testament stuff, that's not such a crazy thing to worry about.

Or maybe he means the Bible's mistranslated from the actual events that transpired, like Jesus saying "I'm tired" and John writing "Jesus says 'I'm God'." That's not impossible either, considering, one, John was like a hundred when he got around to writing gospel and, two, he had motive to revise Jesus upwards, being, by some accounts, "The one Jesus specially loved and called 'Snuggles'."

Maybe YOU've been reading Dan Brown. (On a side note, isn't it the worst writing you've ever seen?) For one thing, the assertion that there are other contemporaneous 'gospels' (historically suppressed by the Vatican) that are slightly different from Matthew, Mark and company IS perfectly true. For another thing, have YOU read the Dead Sea scrolls? One of them (currently on display in my country) is entirely taken up with a fascinating account of gold hidden 100 paces from 'yon olde crooked tree' or something such. THAT, my friend, would have made good Sunday reading. Oh, yeah, and there's as yet no historical evidence for Jesus-the-Christ, so what are you on about?
[n/a] ALChemy @ 65.188.89.69 > zodiac | 20-Aug-05/7:14 AM | Reply
Ex-freaking-actly my point. In the end you still need to rely on faith. Your right about Jesus. Even that tablet with his name on it and Salomon's box were proved to be fakes. I'm familiar with the references you made all though I have many doubts about these works as well. And no I haven't read any of them. The first 2 by choice. The last one because I haven't gotten access to a copy and translation yet. The actual words in the bible have been written and rewritten by all kinds of holy and maybe some unholy men. Why is it that the Dead Sea Scrolls make no mention of the Immaculate Conception and suspiciously the Greeks actually worshiped a goddess who immaculately conceived a child before they changed over to Christianity which then became Catholicism and translated the bible which was then translated again into English? I don't believe in the bible or any other book on a worshiping level. I believe in God and that God's spirit exists in the bible as well as in some other works. I believe that the word of God is not in black or green or red on thin white paper but that the word of God is whispered in your ear by God's spirit as you read the stories that were truly written by mere men. A poem of a rose does not make a rose nor does a book of God make God. God was here before the bible and before words. So if you proved every word in the bible wrong I'd still believe in God and what God stands for. And If I had never heard of God I would only hope that the spirit of God was always present in my soul.
[n/a] ALChemy @ 65.188.89.69 > ALChemy | 20-Aug-05/7:57 AM | Reply
Sorry the first reference I said you mentioned was actually Dovina's. My bad.
[n/a] Bobjim @ 143.167.132.26 > ALChemy | 22-Aug-05/2:05 AM | Reply
I hope that was actually as much in support of the poem as it sounded.
[n/a] Bobjim @ 143.167.132.26 > zodiac | 22-Aug-05/2:02 AM | Reply
Actually, the poem never even mentions anything specifically Biblical, so how can you declare it to be about Old Testament. Especially when I then use the disciples to in my argument for the poem, the disciples who are very much New Testament.
[n/a] ALChemy @ 65.188.89.69 > Dovina | 20-Aug-05/7:54 AM | Reply
Imagine 12 men (or maybe 11 men and a woman or heck even 3 men and a baby) were sat down in front of a tree and told that this tree is a manifestation of God. They were then asked to write a poem describing the tree. Some wrote and some didn't and one even hung himself over it. Eventually Three poems were chosen and the rest were either burned, hidden or confiscated and kept from the public by Catholics depending on which conspiracy you’re theorizing. Those 3 poems were then taken by their authors and taught to people in different parts of the world who all spoke different languages. After the authors' deaths they translated the poems into several languages and into many different versions with many different schools of philosophy on their meanings. All this being done under the influential meddling thumb of powerful politicians.
Now based on only a recent version of the three poems go into the world’s forests and find me that tree.

The real Bible was spoken in the loving words of mothers and father everywhere and passed down generation to generation.

I believe Jesus loves me not because the Bible tells me so but because my mother does and I don't really care who or what told her about Jesus.
[7] Bethy @ 24.222.32.211 | 17-Aug-05/12:10 PM | Reply
Yes, God did enter my mind...but I was kinda thinking about my Dad...:) Bethy
[n/a] Bobjim @ 143.167.132.21 > Bethy | 18-Aug-05/7:03 AM | Reply
Curious. May I ask why?
[7] Bethy @ 24.222.32.246 > Bobjim | 18-Aug-05/4:09 PM | Reply
My Dad passed away just over a year ago...he was my best friend and my biggest fan :) I veiw my father as the one far above me...he woke every morning and said 'Hello world!...he was a sassy,funny kinda man with an answer for everything...he knew it all...
destroy you- with his words of dissapointment
bless your work- he prasied me when I did well
he was a private man with mysteries that seem to be waiting to roll off his lips...I took care of my Dad for years and nursed him...I was with him when he died...He was God to me...thankyou for asking...you just inspired me to write a poem for him...Thankyou Bobjim...:) :) Bethy
[n/a] Bobjim @ 143.167.132.18 > Bethy | 19-Aug-05/4:18 AM | Reply
You're more than welcome. I'm glad the poem meant so much to you, even if it wasn't in the way I intended.
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