The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues is that we fail.
Mere Christianity – C. S. Lewis (1952)
There seems to be the idea that religious texts set out an almost impossible mission. That there is an almost guarantee that mere people will never be good enough for the divinity they strive to follow, regardless of how diligently they try to conform.
To me, the cryptic codes are far to open to interpretation for them to ever hope to mean the same thing to everyone, and many go further by containing contradictions within the teachings.
Take for instance …
Christianity (The Bible)
- ‘Thou shalt not kill’ (Exodus 20:13)
- "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has counselled rebellion against the LORD your God who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, to seduce you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So, you shall purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 15:5)
If something as fundamentally in opposition as the act of taking a life then it is little wonder that people find it almost unachievable to know how to relate the bible to everyday life.