That's not faith. that's insanity. iin?

I agree somewhat. I've met a lot of intelligent people that are religious, and I don't discount faith as a matter of principle alone.

Having said that...I took 4 years of Latin in high-school. Part of the AP class was just translation (the Aeneid was our longest running "project").

Anywho, I only mention it because of the experience I had whist translating from another language. It's a really interesting process, because inevitably, every time you translate something, you come to a passage where a word can mean two or three different things. In order to "chose" how the word is translated, you have to use the context of the passage, and make your decision accordingly. However, sometimes that word determines the entire meaning of the passage...so how you chose to translate it changes everything.

There's a passage in the bible. I'm not gonna look it up word for word, but it's something like "it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven." I read somewhere that the word for camel can also be translated as "thick thread," which would change the entire meaning of the passage from "it's impossible for a rich man to get into heaven" to "it's unlikely."

I always found that extremely interesting. The fact that the bible is translated...it means that whomever translated it made choices about what was said. I mean, even if one were to believe that it is indeed the word of god, I'm surprised that more people don't acknowledge the fact that it's passed through the imperfect hands of man.

I always found that kind of fascinating ...

Seriously? You gotta study Latin Greek and Aramaic to get the nuances of the bible perfectly. Or you can just kind of, love one another and all the important jazz:)