I don't find the Christian Bible valuable. I have read it cover-to-cover three times, and thousands of passages from it. I haven't found a single idea in it to be useful. Some are correct, but the Bible doesn't have exclusive access to those ideas, nor was the first to state them.
Can you give me an idea from the Bible that was first written there and that has value to mankind? Which ideas are original to the Bible? I imagine that praising the meek can be found nowhere in earlier writings, perhaps not in later ones either. But is this a good idea? Meekness is an undesirable quality except in the eyes of those willing to exploit others. Meekness is a disease of the spirit - the failure to evolve to the level of an individual willing to take a stand for himself and that in which he believes. It is not the same as humility, which is a virtue.
Or maybe you like turning the other cheek? That seems original to the Bible. Others recommend forgiving, or trying to negotiate a peace, or just walking away. Offering the uninjured cheek to the one who just injured the other one is not good advice. It merely encourages additional violence, and depicts the victim as weak and foolish.
At this point, the believer often informs me that this is not what the scripture means. It means to forgive. No it doesn't. If it meant that, it would say that. Instead, it says to simple turn your head and ready yourself for a second blow.
You have read the Bible, but apparently there is a reason you gained nothing from it.
Right off the top of my head, I can think of several texts that has value to mankind, even today, and you missed all of them? I am not sure that those texts would make a difference to you. You probably would only see what you consider bad, or useless. However, here is just one. Leviticus 19
I see a Bible filled with internal contradiction, unkept promises, failed prophesies, intellectual and moral errors attributed to an allegedly otherwise perfect god, and errors of science and history. By your reckoning, this justifies my seeing glaring evidence of the Bible's inauthenticity.
I expect that would be the case for those who throw away the "glasses".
I think I said it to you before. I am not sure.
2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12
11 That is why God lets a deluding influence mislead them so that they may come to believe the lie,
12 in order that they all may be judged because they did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.
I've already explained this.
They are not objective evidence. They may be evidence to you, but they are not objective if they exist only in your mind. Nor are they evidence for anybody for whom they are not evident.
Then I think that you didn't understand what I wrote.
I understand the anti-intellectualism of much religious belief. Academia and reason are the enemy of faith and faith-based systems of belief. The Bible is replete with passages that identify wisdom as foolishness and foolishness as wisdom. Of course, the Bible doesn't attempt to define wisdom. It just claims it for itself.
You'll have to tell me which religious belief you are speaking of, because I don't know of any. However, I understand that some people think intelligence is only limited to those who believe as they do.
I get the feeling you are not referring to intelligent scientists who are professors in fields of science, and other professors with higher education degrees, who don't accept evolution.
So perhaps there are religious people that think anti-intellectualism go hand in hand with people who just can't accept that people don't believe what they believe... and for sensible reasons.
Interestingly it doesn't take genius to understand the things in the Bible, which seem to confuse some.
My concept of wisdom is knowing what to pursue to be happy, which differs from intelligence. An intelligent person can be unwise, as when he successfully pursues goals that do no make him happy.
This to me, is an example of a misguided view of intelligence.
So wisdom is dependent on if one reaches a goal that makes him happy?
There sure must be a lot of wise people that trampled on others, and lied, bribed, and stole their way to the top.
The wisdom of God - not the worldly wisdom, which you just described, and the one the Bible identifies as foolishness - mentioned in the Bible, is described this way...
Wisdom
The Biblical sense of
wisdom lays emphasis on sound judgment, based on knowledge and understanding; the ability to use knowledge and understanding successfully to solve problems, avoid or avert dangers, attain certain goals, or counsel others in doing so. It is the opposite of foolishness, stupidity, and madness, with which it is often contrasted. - Deuteronomy 32:6; Proverbs 11:29; Ecclesiastes 6:8.
The basic terms signifying wisdom are the Hebrew chokh·mahʹ (verb, cha·khamʹ) and the Greek so·phiʹa, with their related forms. Also, there are the Hebrew tu·shi·yahʹ, which may be rendered “effectual working” or “practical wisdom,” and the Greek phroʹni·mos and phroʹne·sis (from phren, the “mind”), relating to “sensibleness,” “discretion,” or “practical wisdom.”
Wisdom implies a breadth of knowledge and a depth of understanding, these giving the soundness and clarity of judgment characteristic of wisdom. The wise man ‘treasures up knowledge,’
Look how simple that was. You just got a simple explanation of why the Bible mentioned wisdom as foolishness. That's worldly wisdom - foolishness. The things that some people think makes them intelligent, or wise.
Which scripture calls foolishness wisdom? I have never read that in the Bible.
I am a very happy person, and offer that as evidence that I chose wisely. I did not choose religion, although I tried it early in life for a decade before returning to secular humanism, which values are consistent with those that have led to personal satisfaction. There is nothing that I want any more but to go on living as I do. And the principles that got me to this place were found outside of religion.
You are not alone. Like you, some people feel that "happiness is the truth", and once they get there, they are good.
Many others, view life differently, yet they are happy not because happiness was a goal, but they gained happiness because they set a goal to serve God for the rest of their life.
Their happiness is based mostly on the joys they get from doing so.
Their joy increases from year to year as they share that joy with others, and see others find joy. Also, they look forward with anticipation to future joys - never ending, and this keeps them joyful, even during sad times, like losing loved ones in death, losing a home or possessions by a disaster, or losing good health.
They enjoy that happiness with a united brotherhood.
All because of the Bible, and the valuable treasures it contains.
Psalms 89:15 Happy are the people who know the joyful shouting. O Jehovah, they walk in the light of your face.
You don't seem to understand what constitutes scientific evidence. It isn't necessary to witness an event to know that it occurred. I'm sure that one day in the recent past, you were born, even though I didn't see it.
It is only necessary to show that the scientific theory of biological evolution is possible to assert that it could have happened. One needn't show that it did happen to call the theory the best explanation for the available evidence.
Besides, these aren't the standards of the religious for belief, so it is meaningless when the religious attempt to hold others to them.
What you call evidence for a god doesn't rise to that level for me. It can be better explained naturalistically. If you disagree, please give me a fact better understood as the result of a supernatural deity than some other way.
I understand what evidence is. I'm just making certain you understand.
If you reject evolution, you aren't much of a scientist, just as if you reject the divinity of Christ, you aren't much of a Christian priest or pastor. The idea that the theory of evolution is correct is not a matter of debate in the scientific community, and hasn't been for decades. It's settled science. Research today doesn't investigate whether evolution occurred, but how it occurred - what paths did it take to bring us the tree of life, and across what timeline?
I don't think you are a scientist, are you?
I don't think any scientist would make such a statement, unless they are just plain biased, and egotistic, imo, and I don't think it is reasonable that a person would even think it, much less say it, imo.
If the Divinity of Christ makes one less than Christian, evidently it is due to a mainstream view held by theological thought, rather than the first century Christians teachings, and the Bible.
Objective evidence is what can be experienced by the aided or unaided senses, which must be interpreted to decide what it implies. For example, if I find a body on the street with two bullet holes in the back of the head, my objective evidence is the bullet holes, not its interpretation. My interpretation (or inference if you prefer) is that there was a homicide.
I have never been given objective evidence best explained by assuming that a god must be responsible for it. If I had, I would probably be a theist, or at least much closer to being one than I am.
Thank you.
So one final question on this, before I conclude with the information you requested.
What objective evidence is there that man thinks, dreams, or sees visions - some people refer to this as hallucinations?