I may regret asking this, but I have an interdenominational, interfaith question about the literalness of the Bible for folks who are familiar with the doctrine of the more conservative denominations of Christianity.
So in the more traditional branches of Judaism, it is generally held that the Torah was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, word-for-word. However, the other two sections of the Tanakh are not literally the Word of God, but rather the words of the prophets and important sacred writings (poems, histories, etc.) Now, obviously there is a spectrum of beliefs and more liberal Jews will attribute the five books of Moses to more earthly sources, while still holding them as very sacred. However, even the strictest of orthodox Jews still interpret the Torah and base their understanding of halacha on the Talmud and commentaries. Bottom line: in Judaism, the absolute *most* amount of sacred texts that form the Hebrew Bible that are attributable to God as God's direct words are the books of Torah, which are still interpreted by human beings to be able to be put into practice.
However, I have come across an alarming amount of Christians who say they take the [whole?] Bible literally. I genuinely don't understand what is meant by this, as only the first five books were ever attributed to God as direct revelation, and so even if you assume that the New Testament is also 100% verbatim word-of-God revelation (which I don't know for certain if these Christians do assume that) you're still missing the vast chunk of the Prophets and Writings from the Old Testament.
So I guess my questions are: When Christians say they 'take the [whole] Bible literally,' what do they actually mean by this in practice, since even the Hebrew Bible (never mind the whole Christian Bible) has tons of apparent contradictions that can only be resolved through interpretation? Is this actually common and/or historical doctrine? Or is this American Christianity being bizarre, especially in the last 50 years?
Do Christians who hold by this concept make a distinction between the books of Torah and the rest of the Bible? If not, how do they get around the fact that the other books were not verbatim revelation?
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i get why people would opt to say walter was a terrible person since the beginning, but i think that's like, the most boring takeaway you can get about his character. he was already insecure and prideful from the start, and it's what would hurt him and keep hurting him. but like, being insecure and prideful are regular traits any regular person can have. the actions that he makes because of these traits, which in turn keep fueling his ego more and more, are what makes him an interesting character. and he was already pretty capable of hurting other people, but he wasn't doing it out of malice, but more because of careless selfishness at first. what makes walter terrifying is that the more he does it, the more he becomes aware of what he's doing, and the more he keeps going and keeps being more and more meticulous and deliberate about what he does that hurts people and even to the point when it was specifically to hurt people.
i think the traits were there in walter from the beginning—the pilot did a pretty good job of establishing how powerless he's felt all his life and just how susceptible he is to letting this newfound perceived power get to his head so easily. he even says this explicitly in 5x06 "Buyout" when he tells jesse "i'm not in the money business, i'm in the empire business". but saying he was this monster from the start kind of implies he didn't undergo through a character arc throughout the show when it's quite literally what he did. he got worse. so much worse. through mostly the fault of his own fragility.
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WIP Intro - Aeternum
Knowledge is power, they say. But nobody had told her about the sorrow that comes with it.
Summary:
By now Thanea has come to terms with her role as an outsider amongst the humans. Because who needs humans when you have mermaids and ghosts for friends? But then Nevras steps into her life and questions everything. Why can she see behind the veil that hides the magical world from human eyes?
What began as a fascinating project for him becomes more and more personal. And how can he tell her that his existence is ruled more by death than by life?
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Setting: Our modern world in which all the fairytales and myths are real but humans are blind to the magic
POV: 3rd person; alternating between the two protagonists
The main characters:
☽ Thanea Wächter (she/her) - age: 25 || librarian || the only member of her family that sees behind the veil || got bullied in school for seeing things that “aren’t there” || her only human friend is her big brother || very reserved until she feels comfortable in sb’s presence
☽ Prof. Dr. Nevras Void (he/him) - age: ??? || studies and teaches the history of ancient civilizations with a focus on shamanism, dark magic and curses
☽ Zalen (he/they) - age: a few thousand years || fallen guardian angel || owner of a bar for magical creatures where you can usually find him in drag || Nevras’ only best friend
Status: writing the 1st draft
Side note: writing this together with my friend Bailey who writes Nevras’ POV
OC Intros: Thanea
Tag list (let me know if you wanna be added/removed): @deadlycupid @starlitcrossroads
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saw a video about 2 player ttrpgs and one of them was like "this one's about a pretend marriage" and i was like oh? and i looked it up on itch (eyes on the prize, fyi) and it's 50% as of right now and i was like OH? and i bought it immediately & ive read most of it and i am a big fan. and i KNOW that i have friends who would have fun playing it (it's a 2 player or 4 player game; the 4 player variant has 2 fake couples) but asking them is going to be so cringe. yeah we're gonna make up people and pretend to be them and then pretend to pretend to get married and the characters when they start their pretending they're gonna be like "oh we don't have any romantic feelings towards each other this is strictly plot" but then (get this) they will start to develop real feelings for each other. and we're gonna act it out together and pretend to be them but don't worry! we have no romantic feelings towards one another. this is strictly plot. when WE (irl) pretend to be in love it's actually platonic, unlike the people who we are pretending to be to each other. so do you have like 2-5 hours you wanna dedicate to that next week
and the worst part is that's 100% what i want. like i have roleplayed romance before with friends it is literally not a big deal because the whole point of roleplay is that the character ISN'T you. but with a fake relationship the crushing weight of dramatic irony hovers behind me
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Drabble request 🤓 A little Mac and Jack in the sandbox with a little injured Jack, please and thank you ☺️
Here is a sleepy pup
ohmygoodness little baby puppy!!!!
prompts
Mac wrings his fingers together, twisting and pulling them until they start to burn at the joints. He gives himself exactly one second longer to panic before forcing himself to focus.
“Can you bend it?” Mac finally asks, leaning closer to his overwatch.
Carefully, Jack holds his right hand up. The sun bends through the Humvee’s windshield, giving a perfect spotlight on his swollen middle finger. He pushes his fingers down as far as he can, but while the other three curl into a fist, his middle stays alarmingly at half mast.
When Jack’s face contorts into a grimace, Mac holds his hand out. “It’s okay if you can’t.” He doesn’t want to be causing Jack anymore pain, even if this time it’s for diagnostic purposes.
Jack blows out a breath. “That ain’t good.”
“Yeah.” It’s an understatement, and they both know it. “We gotta call it in. Head back.”
“Yeah, alright.” With his good hand, Jack pulls his radio from his side and holds it up to his mouth. While he relays the new plan, Mac shucks some of his gear and tosses it in the back. He waits inside the relative safety of the vehicle before Jack is done, and then pulls his door open.
“The hell are you doin’?”
Poking his head back inside, Mac gives his overwatch a look. “Walking over to the driver’s seat?”
“Uh, no. When have we ever done things like that?”
“When have you ever had a broken hand?”
“We don’t know that it’s broken.”
Mac gives him a look. “If it’s not broken, something else is definitely wrong with it.”
“Thanks for the pep talk, hoss.”
“So you shouldn’t be grabbing the wheel, making it worse.”
“Well, hold on now. You don’t even have your license.”
Mac lets a weird noise of his throat. “What? Where’d you get that idea from?”
“They givin’ out licences to middle schoolers these days?”
This time, Mac rolls his eyes. It’s just another jab at his age. “Jack, c’mon. You shouldn’t be driving with that hand. I promise I can get us back to base just fine.”
“No offense, Carl’s Junior, but I’m pretty damn sure I can drive better with one hand than you could do with both.”
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