We Reap what we SOW.

[patrick jane]

My point is that the quote about reaping what we sow is too often used by Christians to blame the victims of misfortune for having brought it on themselves, when in fact, they are suffering misfortunes brought onto them by ourselves and others. We live in an socio-economic system that runs on greed, and then we blame those who get trapped in poverty for doing it to themselves. When in fact, we are doing it to them by our participation and approval of this greed-based system, every single day. The whole reaping what we sow thing becomes a great excuse for ignoring the plight of others. And for ignoring our participation in it.

Home Run for PureX

 

[PureX]

It doesn't make a biblical principle wrong just because people abuse it or use it wrongly.

People do blame innocents and people do refuse to place any blame on the guilty....neither are right and neither makes the principle of sowing and reaping null and void.

Yet, it is clearly misleading a lot of people.

If I were to write a book with the intention of teaching people mathematics, and many of the people who read and followed my book were not learning mathematics, should I blame the readers for this failure of intent? Or should I blame my book?

Modern day Christians seem to be really big on the idea of self-reliance and self-responsibility. They really believe in the idea that we should, and do, "reap what we sow". Yet this idea is faulty in many ways, because we as individuals simply are not in charge of all the circumstances that determine what we can sow, and what we will reap. So in fact, the analogy is faulty. Because we very rarely reap what we sow. We reap what a whole multiplex of circumstances will allow, much of it beyond our control, and much of it having nothing to do with what we've sown.

I know you idolize the Bible and so you don't want to hear this, but it's exactly this kind of idolization that is causing Christians not to acknowledge their error in thinking. Because they believe if God said it, it must be true. Yet God didn't say it, some man wrote it, and it's not always true.

 

[glorydaz]

Yet, it is clearly misleading a lot of people.

If I were to write a book with the intention of teaching people mathematics, and many of the people who read and followed my book were not learning mathematics, should I blame the readers for this failure of intent? Or should I blame my book?

Modern day Christians seem to be really big on the idea of self-reliance and self-responsibility. They really believe in the idea that we should, and do, "reap what we sow". Yet this idea is faulty in many ways, because we as individuals simply are not in charge of all the circumstances that determine what we can sow, and what we will reap. So in fact, the analogy is faulty. Because we very rarely reap what we sow. We reap what a whole multiplex of circumstances will allow, much of it beyond our control, and much of it having nothing to do with what we've sown.

I know you idolize the Bible and so you don't want to hear this, but it's exactly this kind of idolization that is causing Christians not to acknowledge their error in thinking. Because they believe if God said it, it must be true. Yet God didn't say it, some man wrote it, and it's not always true.

You're not a farmer are you, Purex? If you were, you'd realize that you don't pop a bean into the ground and have it pop up magically the next day a full blown beanstalk.....like Jack did. For you to claim a Biblical principle, like reaping and sowing, is a fallacy because you see where it's abused, and you cannot see that it has any truth, is simply the thinking of the natural man of the flesh.

 

[PureX]

You're not a farmer are you, Purex? If you were, you'd realize that you don't pop a bean into the ground and have it pop up magically the next day a full blown beanstalk.....like Jack did. For you to claim a Biblical principle, like reaping and sowing, is a fallacy because you see where it's abused, and you cannot see that it has any truth, is simply the thinking of the natural man of the flesh.

Not surprisingly, you completely missed the point.

The farmer puts the seed in the ground, but whether or not he reaps the benefits from that seed depends on many things that are out of his control. And this is all the more true in a very complex, inter-related society like our own. So using this analogy to justify blaming the poor for being poor, as many Christians do, for example, is simply wrong, and is based on a poor Biblical analogy. But these Christians will never accept that they are wrong, because they have made a false idol of the Bible, and so can never consider that the Biblical analogy might be misleading them.

The fact is that we do not reap what we sow, hardly ever. We reap what the circumstances of our lives give us, and much of that was never in our control. So is not our doing, good or bad. All we are responsible for is how we deal with what comes our way.

 

[ok doser]

The fact is that we do not reap what we sow, hardly ever. We reap what the circumstances of our lives give us, and much of that was never in our control. So is not our doing, good or bad. All we are responsible for is how we deal with what comes our way.

bull crap

sounds like you never learned about hard work and effort, and are content to float through life like forrest gump's feather, taking what you find

roll up your sleeves and put a little effort into your life for a change, and see where that gets you

 

[glorydaz]

Not surprisingly, you completely missed the point.

The farmer puts the seed in the ground, but whether or not he reaps the benefits from that seed depends on many things that are out of his control. And this is all the more true in a very complex, inter-related society like our own. So using this analogy to justify blaming the poor for being poor, as many Christians do, for example, is simply wrong, and is based on a poor Biblical analogy. But these Christians will never accept that they are wrong, because they have made a false idol of the Bible, and so can never consider that the Biblical analogy might be misleading them.

The fact is that we do not reap what we sow, hardly ever. We reap what the circumstances of our lives give us, and much of that was never in our control. So is not our doing, good or bad. All we are responsible for is how we deal with what comes our way.

When the ground gives you weeds, pull them up....don't just sit back and say, "See, this whole idea of reaping and sowing sucks." Like I said....you're no farmer. :chuckle:

 

[PureX]

When the ground gives you weeds, pull them up....don't just sit back and say, "See, this whole idea of reaping and sowing sucks." Like I said....you're no farmer. :chuckle:

None of us are farmers, anymore. Which is partly why the analogy no longer works. But even if we were, we still couldn't make the sun shine, or the rain fall. Or stop the plagues of pests or marauding armies from devouring what we have sown.

But you will continue to struggle to maintain your ignorance, I'm sure, because that's what modern Christianity seems to have taught you is most important thing: to maintain that ignorance at all cost. And to falsely label it "faith".

 

[ok doser]

None of us are farmers, anymore.

some of us are

WHich is partly why the analogy no longer works.

the analogy does work

your claiming it doesn't doesn't make it so

But even if we were, we still couldn't make the sun shine,

hydroponics with UV lights?

or the rain fall.

man - you really don't have a clue about growing things, do you? :chuckle:

if you need rain, it can come out of a hose

Or stop the plagues of pests

pesticides

or marauding armies from devouring what we have sown.

not a whole lot of marauding armies around here

do you have a lot of marauding armies there in Pennsylvania?

'cause i don't hear about it on the news