Is the Bible Good For Us?

nPeace · Apr 10, 2021

Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

Shadow Wolf · Apr 10, 2021

That is abysmally low when those with severe illness is your go to, and not in amy way that demonstrates better efficacy than other methods of "addiction treatment."
Faith based is faith based. Rehab doesn't work. Bible or not, religion or not, higher power or not, evidenced based addiction treatment is a rarity.
You're claiming the same thing a million other things have touted.
The Lack of Evidence in “Evidence Based Treatment” for Alcoholism and Addiction - Fifth Avenue Psychiatry

The reality is that many treatment modalities for Substance Use Disorders, though considered “evidence based” often have very weak evidence behind them, in some cases none, and often are misused and or administered by clinicians who do not have the training, experience or education to appropriately suggest them, let alone administer them. If one looks closely at the research, no medication or type of psychotherapy, even including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, stands out as truly being effective or close to a cure for most addictions.

Deeje · Apr 10, 2021

Shadow Wolf said:
That is abysmally low when those with severe illness is your go to, and not in amy way that demonstrates better efficacy than other methods of "addiction treatment."
Faith based is faith based. Rehab doesn't work. Bible or not, religion or not, higher power or not, evidenced based addiction treatment is a rarity.
You're claiming the same thing a million other things have touted.
The Lack of Evidence in “Evidence Based Treatment” for Alcoholism and Addiction - Fifth Avenue Psychiatry

I think you missed the point SW. What was it that led to the addiction in the first place?
Hopelessness is the fuel of depression. Drugs are being used to create a temporary solution to this problem and to exploit it at the expense of the addict. The instantly addictive nature of crystal meth needs only one hit and you are craving more. What creates relapses after rehab is usually what sent them there in the first place....hopelessness....seeing no way out of their situation.

Selling the drug to fund your own addiction is an old method among drug addicts, but in order for rehab to work, you have to have more than just a desire to quit.....lots of these people do...but the motivation is lost very easily because they see no light at the end of the tunnel. It requires something greater than yourself.....a power that comes from the Creator. Its all very well to discredit that power if you have never been the recipient of it, but we have in our ranks many who have conquered their addiction with God's help....and a clear hope for the future has a lot to do with that.

The Bible is what provides that help, and reliance on God rather than on your weak self, I believe makes all the difference.

sayak83 · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

The commonly used method of using individual examples to justify a proposition is illogical. You need statistical analysis of all positive and negative data controlling for other extraneous factors to get to any justifiable conclusion. This is a general critique, not limited to this OP.

Heyo · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

You cherry picked one thing religion (and so the Bible) is good at while ignoring all the bad teachings in that 1700 year old book.
The Bible also brought us the crusades, the witch hunts, misanthropy and misogyny especially, slavery, homophobia, feudalism and many other things we have overcome since the Enlightenment, against Bible teachings.
The Bible is not fit to teach morality in today's world. It has its perks but like blood letting it is limited in its applications and mostly outdated.

Shadow Wolf · Apr 10, 2021

Deeje said:
I think you missed the point SW. What was it that led to the addiction in the first place?
Hopelessness is the fuel of depression. Drugs are being used to create a temporary solution to this problem and to exploit it at the expense of the addict. The instantly addictive nature of crystal meth needs only one hit and you are craving more. What creates relapses after rehab is usually what sent them there in the first place....hopelessness....seeing no way out of their situation.

Selling the drug to fund your own addiction is an old method among drug addicts, but in order for rehab to work, you have to have more than just a desire to quit.....lots of these people do...but the motivation is lost very easily because they see no light at the end of the tunnel. It requires something greater than yourself.....a power that comes from the Creator. Its all very well to discredit that power if you have never been the recipient of it, but we have in our ranks many who have conquered their addiction with God's help....and a clear hope for the future has a lot to do with that.

The Bible is what provides that help, and reliance on God rather than on your weak self, I believe makes all the difference.

You missed my point that, more or less, lots of things and people claim that. Amd it's why I criticized faith based approaches because they don't work. There is no strong evidence to support the claim you have to believe in a creator or higher power. That is faith based, not evidence based.
A treatment that is actually effective we can expect to work for most people regardless of their religious status. Secular or religious, it should work the same. 12 step programs and other similar programs have shaky evidence to support them. But because people prefer faith, they'll make the same claims you do, but in regards to equestrian therapy. Yes, it's a "real thing," and it works about as good as the rest of the faith based claims.

Deeje said:
What was it that led to the addiction in the first place?

I don't know? Probably because the thread is about meth addicts.

joe1776 · Apr 10, 2021

Heyo said:
You cherry picked one thing religion (and so the Bible) is good at while ignoring all the bad teachings in that 1700 year old book.
The Bible also brought us the crusades, the witch hunts, misanthropy and misogyny especially, slavery, homophobia, feudalism and many other things we have overcome since the Enlightenment, against Bible teachings.
The Bible is not fit to teach morality in today's world. It has its perks but like blood letting it is limited in its applications and mostly outdated.

The cherry-picking criticism is on the nose.

Humanity has made moral progress but the Bible, written by men who meant well, but who lived in morally immature times had nothing to do with it.

Conscience, moral intuition, gets the credit. Over the centuries, conscience has been moving our species toward equality in human worth:

equality for slaves
equality for women
equality for homosexuals
equality for the children of the poor
equality for the insane
equality for the physically handicapped
equality for all races
equality for all groups, religious or non-religious

danieldemol · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

Your hypothesis is basically the Bible gives hope, therefore=good.

But people derive hope from all kinds of non-Biblically based beliefs and or books, yet you wouldn't automatically equate them with good.

Be just as cynical to Biblical beliefs as you are to other beliefs and you will see why being a source of hope is insufficient to cut it.

Spirit of Light · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

Often when people become ill or reach the bottom of their life, they tend to in one way or the other turn to religion, and yes many have turned to Christianity, that is for sure. And Christianity have change the life of many to the better.

If we look closer on this issue, this also happens within other religions. in non christian countries, people turn to the religion that they know of, that could be Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and so on.
So in it self, Christianity is not extra special.

But then again, some very religious people who happen to end up in really bad situations, they blame the God they were loving and believed in, and if the situation do not turn to the better, Yes they even chose to refuse their God and become Atheists.

Altfish · Apr 10, 2021

The Bible is a great money maker for many churches and their leaders; so it is certainly good for some people.

Twilight Hue · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

No. Putting all your eggs in a vauge collection of books is not going to improve anything.

Adapting to circumstances and accepting reality as it plays out will because it dosent create false expectations as those who live inside a rose colored existence.

Twilight Hue · Apr 10, 2021

Altfish said:
The Bible is a great money maker for many churches and their leaders; so it is certainly good for some people.

It's a horrid scam played on a fair number of desperate and depressed people.

WalterTrull · Apr 10, 2021

My favorite 'proof' film
Not about the bible so much, but proof in general.

ChristineM · Apr 10, 2021

Is the Bible Good For Us?

Consider, the most deprived area's of the US are in the bible belt, highest areas for drug use per local population are in the bible belt, highest instance of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases... guess where.

When comparing religious (and non religious) populations there are more christians in prison than any other faith.

If cherry picking one instance is good for you how about choosing from any of the above...

I would say it certainly hasn't been good.

Altfish · Apr 10, 2021

Twilight Hue said:
It's a horrid scam played on a fair number of desperate and depressed people.

Indeed

Unveiled Artist · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

It's good for those interested and use it to find meaning and healthy purpose in their lives.

Since this is in the debate section, no, not for "us." What the bible says has both negative (and more so) than positive thoughts and general motive. Many have been killed in it's name. So, it doesn't do good...when done people read it they leave the Christian faith. When I read it, analogy or literal I just couldn't find any healthy message on death, punishment, and literal sacrifice. It's like falling in love with the person and assuming her abuse doesn't matter because of you guys love each other. "It's okay. It doesn't define our relationship."

But it has saved many people. Just not "us."

pearl · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
The Bible Gives Hope

Better yet are those who through their lives exemplify the hope offered by the Bible, by their encounters with those in despair.

viole · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

Anybody with huge problems would basically swallow anything you throw at them, if that gives them hope. No matter how implausible that is. That is mainly why people believe in supernatural agents taking care of them. And why places where there is a lower density of people with problems, tend to become atheistic.

Ciao

- viole

Samael_Khan · Apr 10, 2021

nPeace said:
Is there any proof the answer to that question is a resounding YES?

Please, watch the following.
Inside Iraq's crippling crystal meth crisis - CNN Video

As you would have heard, if you watched the video, people who lose hope, often find it hard to cope, and easily turn to drugs - ruining their lives.
Losing hope, or hopelessness is demonstrably a bad thing, while the opposite - being hopeful - is a good thing. One is negative. The other is positive.

The Bible Gives Hope
To give an example of how the Bible's has benefited the hopeless and the not very hopeful.
Joe - a military veteran in the United States experienced personal and family tragedies which left him homeless for some 18 years. One year he began to visit a local public library, where he sometimes conversed with a librarian. Those conversations changed Joe's life.
After being invited, Joe attended a Christian meeting, where he was introduced to a Bible study. Joe found much comfort in what he learned, and he began to apply Bible teachings, even though this meant making big changes in his life.
Joe made huge changes, and today, Joe is happy with his new life.

This is just one of millions of real life experiences where through a study of the Bible, millions of persons have avoided, and even rejected the vice mentioned in the video, along with the problem that go with it. Thus giving clear proof that the Bible is good for us... undeniably so. Isn't it?

Why are you showing one bit of anecdotal evidence to support your view? What about those that the Bible doesn't help?

Samael_Khan · Apr 10, 2021

viole said:
Anybody with huge problems would basically swallow anything you throw at them, if that gives them hope. No matter how implausible that is. That is mainly why people believe in supernatural agents taking care of them. And why places where there is a lower density of people with problems, tend to become atheistic.

Ciao

- viole

One indoctrination tactic is to target people who are at a low point in their lives for conversion. You provide them with an irrational hope and they will follow you to the moon.

Is the Bible Good For Us?

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