Religious Texts Are Generally Confusing

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So many of these texts tend to contradict themselves without being so obvious. And I think the people that are faithful to them are confused, too, but I don't think they want to admit it. I go with what I know most about for an example. The Bible. So we have a wrathful angry God. But you know if your people were disrespectful you're going to be angry, too. But then we have Jesus and although he showed anger on a couple of occasions, he was more forgiving. He was more approachable. He let people come to him and showed how love wins people over, but I don't see God doing this in the old testament. I understand you need to punish people for certain actions, but did he win people over with at least some mercy. It doesn't seem like it. So God's son turns everything around in his death and asks his father to forgive them.

Now today we have people saying that God hates you when you sin. But in fact it's hate the sin love the sinner. Then they go on to say that God doesn't love everyone. He didn't seem to love people despite their sins in the ot. God is rather confusing and personally I don't trust everything that a human wrote, so how do we even know all of it's true. Faith is what we have and we can only accept what we understand. Who can trust a flawed human being?

Another thing i think about often is how people enslave themselves to it. I love God and all and I guess you're a slave to one side or the other, but how can you be happy, if all you do is for him and not yourself. I feel if you're trying so hard to be 100% Godly, you can't be 100% happy. There are things about us that are ourselves. They are worldly things. We're not perfect, but we should be wearing a God mask all the time. We need to be ourselves, too.

What led me here to all that was all this anti-homosexuality stuff. They were born that way. They don't have love feelings for the opposite gender. If you know how you feel about the person you're going out with or are married to, wouldn't it be obvious that someone would feel that way about the same gender? And say you are a believer and you're gay, but you deny thst part of you, just so you won't go to hell. You may be doing it for God, but how can you deny yourself happiness with another human being? It's do sad. Sometimes I wonder if it really were true about God, does he want you to not be happy?

Religions and religious texts are man-made. They also generally reflect the values, ideas and culture of the time/place they were written in.

Genesis 1:6-8 indicates that the top of the sky is made of water.

I bought a Bible and read Genesis and it is just confusing. All of the names and ages and especially the footnotes just does not lend itself to comprehension and understanding. Plus, the words in the book that are not used in today's language. I will read the rest of the Bible eventually, but it is an arduous task.

I recently came to the conclusion (as detailed in This Post) that while religious texts make little or no sense when read from a scientific perspective, they were apparently not written as historical or scientific documents, but as parables - narratives used mainly to inspire people with weak faith to have stronger faith, and to drive away those people who have no faith at all.

So, whatever state-of-faith you bring to your scriptural readings will likely be amplified and reinforced by those readings.

Here's a link to The Book of "Genesis" in Hebrew and English.

Maybe Ruveyn can look it over and verify its accuracy ... ?

It seems that the focus here is on Judeo-Christian books, yet the title read "religious texts"..

I would advise you to read the eastern religious texts, they are much more profound and meaningful, without the need for too many silly stories (with the exception of Hinduism).

Here are some interesting works... links: (click)
Taoist Daodejing (by Lao Tzu)
Taoist Chang Tzu (Zhuangzi)
Zen Buddhism Intro-ish (Koans)
Confucian Analects (not quite a religious text but an important philosophical text - by Confucius of course)
Buddhist Diamond Sutra
Hindu Bhagavadgita

Not a religious text, but this is one of the best books I've read in my life:
Alan Watts - The Book: Taboo against knowing who you are
An amazingly easy read, Watts' writing style flows like the dao he speaks of, and if you take on this book with an open mind I guarantee it will affect you.

If you would only read one of these, I suggest the Daodejing (it's not that long)... then Alan Watts' "The Book"..

Hopefully I didn't compile this list for nothing

Oh, and I've read the Bible (king james), The Qu'ran, and Lavey's Satanic Bible as well.
We're all fairly familiar with the bible, I won't waste my energy.
The Qu'ran was horribly repetitive and just all around terrible in its ideas about life and practices.
Of these three books, the Satanic Bible is probably the most reasonable, at least it puts forth a workable worldview that's realistic; that of the selfish, atheistic narcissist - I'm sure we all know at least one of these!

Read what David Hume has to say about religious or metaphysical texts:

"When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance, let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames, for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."

I prefer reading the TNKH is Hebrew. Even the generally accepted Hebrew version of the scriptures is the work of a committee of redactors and editors who did their thing during the Babylonian Exile. So the Hebrew version of the TNKH is not even the original version for a significant amount of the material. It is a redact.

ruveyn

God still loves you when you sin, but that doesn't negate the fact you've sinned. A parent loves their child, but when they do something bad, they get punished, but they are still loved.

Religious texts can be confusing, but they can also be very profound. A quick look through the Book of Proverbs for example, can provide incredible insight into how to live a good life. Reading through the teachings of Koheleth in Ecclesiastes is very humbling. It takes time to understand.

But to start with, a lesson from Rabbi Hillel.

A man dared Rabbi Hillel to teach the entire Torah while standing on one leg. Hillel accepted, saying. "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."