I’ve been having a long discussion with my friend Carl over the perfect inerrancy and flawless guide to life that is the Christian Bible (see If We All Followed The Bible, The World Would Be Perfect). It seems that Carl has finally realized that I’m a complete heathen who will never be convinced, so he’s giving up on me. His final comments are after the jump.
In all these conversations, I’m reminded of a longtime statement from Bill Maher: “Religion is a neurological disorder”. On a recent “Real Time” segment, Dave Foley updated that with “Religion is a gateway psychosis”. It’s worth considering when you have a whole group of people who cling so tightly to these strange notions in the face of all science and logic. If you tell everyone you know that aliens abducted you and put probes in your ass, you’re a nutjob, but if you claim to have a personal relationship with a 2,000-year-dead Jewish revolutionary, you’re respected. So strange…
Since you continue to downplay the Bible’s true worth, I have decided that this will be my last posting on the subject.
Actually, I’ve been very supportive of the Bible’s worth as a source of moral living (e.g., Sermon on the Mount) while showing disdain for its supernatural ravings. I’m not saying the Bible is worthless, but just that it is a book like any other that needs to be examined critically and taken with a few grains of salt.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the Bible is a very ancient book, parts of it having been written over 3,400 years ago. At the same time, it is the most up-to-date book in presenting sound, practical counsel for modern-day living.
Yes, the counsel to avoid menstruating women or to burn offerings unto God or to stone adulterers is veryu practical for our modern times.
It is the best seller of all history, over 2 billion copies having been distributed world-wide in more than 1,300 different languages.
Does that count all the free Bibles you find in hotel rooms? How many of the 2 billion copies were actually purchased by an individual rather than a church or a ministry?
Besides, if best-seller status is the hallmark of holy works, should we consider the works of Grisham, King, and Moore to be holy?
No other holy book has had so universal a distribution, and most others are not nearly that old. The Koran of Mohammedanism is less than 1,400 years old. Buddha and Confucius lived about 2,500 years ago, and their writings date from that time. The Scriptures of Shinto were composed in their present form no more than 1,200 years ago. The Book of Mormon is only 175 years old. None of these holy books can accurately trace human history back through 6,000 years, as does the Bible. To understand original religion, we must therefore go to the Bible. It is the only book with a universal message for mankind.
OK, if age is our determining factor, where does the Code of Hammurabi, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Chinese writings of antiquity fit in this hierarchy?
Speaking of accurately tracing human history, why is it that the Bible has two passages that trace the lineage from David to Jesus, and in those two passages there are only two names that are in agreement? And where in the Bible do they mention Cro-Magnon man, Neanderthals, Australopithecines, or other human ancestors? (Oh, right, the Earth is only 6,600 years old, man was created divinely in the form he currently exhibits, and all those fossils were placed by God as a test of our faith.)
The wisdom and beauty of the Bible message have been acclaimed by thinking men from all nations and from all walks of life. The famous scientist and discoverer of the law of gravity,…
That would be the theory of gravity, a theory no more proven than evolution. Go on…
Sir Isaac Newton, said: “No sciences are better attested to than the Bible.”
By “better attested to”, does that mean, “has more adherents”? Certainly more people believe and attest to the Bible than science — most people are ignorant of science. As is the Bible. Its scientific and historical accuracy is mostly a joke — claiming that rabbits chew cud, some insects have four feet, or creating plants before there was a sun to power their photosynthesis, for example.
Patrick Henry, the American revolutionary leader famous for the words “Give me liberty, or give me death”, also declared: “The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed.”
Sure! The cost of 2 billion books is certainly enormous. (Just joking, I know he didn’t mean monetary worth.)
Even the great Hindu sage Mahatma Gandhi once told the British viceroy od India: “When your country and mine shall get together on the teachings laid down by Christ in this Sermon on the Mount, we shall have solved the problems, not only of our countries but those of the whole world.” Gandhi was speaking of Matthew, chapters 5 to 7 in the Bible.
And he was speaking to the English at the time, using their religious metaphor to address a universal truth. Even I’ve been saying all along that the teachings of Jesus are universal truths. “Do unto others” and “love thy neighbor” aren’t true because they’re in the Bible, they’re true because they’re true, and they have been a truth in every major religion on the planet.
So can we trust the Bible? Absolutely! The candor of the Bible writers and the Bible’s internal consistency give it a clear ring of truth. People of honest heart need to know that they can trust the Bible, for it is the inspired Word of “Jehovah the God of truth.” (Psalm 31:5)
Well, I’ve gone to great lengths to show that the Bible is full of internal contradictions, but you refuse to admit it, claiming that it’s all a matter of context and writer’s point-of-view and a myriad of other rationalizations to support what you wish to believe (that the Bible is perfect), even when confronted with the most basically verifiable contradictions, like who was Jesus’ paternal grandpa, Jacob or Heli? or did David kill Goliath with a sword or a sling (and there’s no Old Testamanet/New Testament escape from that one; this contradiction is found wholly within 1 Sam 17:49-51)?
Take care, “Radical” Russ
I shall, Carl, and thank you for your contributions. Your posts help illustrate what we rational humanist thinkers are up against. Science and logic and evidence are poor tools against intractable faith, and you’ve demonstrated just how intractable most of the FEBACs™ are.
In closing, let me at least agree with you that there is plenty of Good Stuff in the Bible”.
