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Did God really write a book?

Moonjuice

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
One of the things that I often think about when contemplating the worlds major religions is the idea that the message god wants to deliver to the entire world is often given to a single person, alone (Moses, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, etc.). It is up to that single person to deliver gods message to the world. We aren't even arguing about the content of the books, many of us are trying to understand if a god exists at all. Once that is settled, then perhaps we will be in a better position to examine which book is actually the book god wants us to follow. It should be easy, if only one of the religious text is actually from god.

I'm convinced that god didn't tell these people to write anything. I believe human authors of all religious books wrote it themselves and no gods had anything to do with it. This is true for every religious text. If you believe your religion has a doctrine or book that was actually written by or "breathed" by a God, I have a question for you:

Is there a single verse in that book that proves it had to be written by a God, because it could only have come from a God? If so, the evidence will force me to at least accept that a God does exist.

I'll give you an example of the kind of thing that the entire world would probably find convincing: A verse in the bible that includes anything factual about the natural world, that could not be known by a human at that time, and is too detailed to be a guess. It could have only come from an actual creator of the entire universe.

Could be something like "I have created vast pools of crude oil under the ground. One day, you humans will figure out how to extract it and refine that oil into fuel in order to operate machines you will build to travel. Those machines will allow you to move from one country to the next, across oceans, and even to travel through the air at hundreds of miles per hour." Or maybe it's something less obvious, but still completely convincing?

Does this exist in any text that is supposedly gods word?
 

Wildswanderer

Veteran Member
One of the things that I often think about when contemplating the worlds major religions is the idea that the message god wants to deliver to the entire world is often given to a single person, alone (Moses, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, etc.). It is up to that single person to deliver gods message to the world. We aren't even arguing about the content of the books, many of us are trying to understand if a god exists at all. Once that is settled, then perhaps we will be in a better position to examine which book is actually the book god wants us to follow. It should be easy, if only one of the religious text is actually from god.

I'm convinced that god didn't tell these people to write anything. I believe human authors of all religious books wrote it themselves and no gods had anything to do with it. This is true for every religious text. If you believe your religion has a doctrine or book that was actually written by or "breathed" by a God, I have a question for you:

Is there a single verse in that book that proves it had to be written by a God, because it could only have come from a God? If so, the evidence will force me to at least accept that a God does exist.

I'll give you an example of the kind of thing that the entire world would probably find convincing: A verse in the bible that includes anything factual about the natural world, that could not be known by a human at that time, and is too detailed to be a guess. It could have only come from an actual creator of the entire universe.

Could be something like "I have created vast pools of crude oil under the ground. One day, you humans will figure out how to extract it and refine that oil into fuel in order to operate machines you will build to travel. Those machines will allow you to move from one country to the next, across oceans, and even to travel through the air at hundreds of miles per hour." Or maybe it's something less obvious, but still completely convincing?

Does this exist in any text that is supposedly gods word?
There were prophecies written in the Bible that came true. What more do you need? They were written long before the fact.
 

Unveiled Artist

Veteran Member
There were prophecies written in the Bible that came true. What more do you need? They were written long before the fact.

What specific detailed prophecies came true in the 21st century that does not warrant anyone's belief or faith even knowledge of scripture to discern its validity by multiple disciplines all over the world?
 

Moonjuice

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
There were prophecies written in the Bible that came true. What more do you need? They were written long before the fact.
Really? I think I have examined every "prophecy" in the bible. I haven't found a single one to be even remotely convincing. What is the most obvious and powerful prophecy that you find so convincing? Maybe I missed something.
 

PureX

Veteran Member
Why would God need to write any books? I can't think of any reasonable reason. And why would God use a completely doubt-able human to do it? That makes no sense, either.

What does make sense is that a lot of humans would want to imagine that they have "the big answers" right in their hands. So I'm guessing that's what's really behind the cult of biblical infallibility.
 

Moonjuice

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
Did God really write a book?

I think you can say God/Allah wrote the Quran.

I even think God co-wrote modern books : Conversations with God
Is there a single verse in that book that proves it had to be written by a God, because it could only have come from a God? If so, the evidence will force me to at least accept that a God does exist.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
Is there a single verse in that book that proves it had to be written by a God, because it could only have come from a God? If so, the evidence will force me to at least accept that a God does exist.
I think you are asking for something theoretically impossible then. I use reason.
 

Moonjuice

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
I think you are asking for something theoretically impossible then. I use reason.
I agree, I think it is impossible. If god actually wrote a book, I would expect the contents of the message to be more profound than what we see. What we see, in my opinion, are books that are written by humans, clearly coming from the human mind. If it was coming from the all powerful creator of the universe, wouldn't it be obvious? I'm only looking for a single verse, one sentence that could only have come from God. I have yet to see that in any of the ancient religious texts.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
I agree, I think it is impossible. If god actually wrote a book, I would expect the contents of the message to be more profound than what we see. What we see, in my opinion, are books that are written by humans, clearly coming from the human mind. If it was coming from the all powerful creator of the universe, wouldn't it be obvious? I'm only looking for a single verse, one sentence that could only have come from God. I have yet to see that in any of the ancient religious texts.
Any possible profound thing said could be said to have been written by a man. Why not?
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
One of the things that I often think about when contemplating the worlds major religions is the idea that the message god wants to deliver to the entire world is often given to a single person, alone (Moses, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, etc.)
"Given to 1 person" makes sense to me; only very few people are "pure/tuned in" enough to hear "God's" Voice

Why you think God wants to deliver 1 message to the entire world, cultures are so diverse?

What is your "picture" of God you had in mind when writing the OP?
 

infrabenji

Active Member
One of the things that I often think about when contemplating the worlds major religions is the idea that the message god wants to deliver to the entire world is often given to a single person, alone (Moses, Mohammad, Joseph Smith, etc.). It is up to that single person to deliver gods message to the world. We aren't even arguing about the content of the books, many of us are trying to understand if a god exists at all. Once that is settled, then perhaps we will be in a better position to examine which book is actually the book god wants us to follow. It should be easy, if only one of the religious text is actually from god.

I'm convinced that god didn't tell these people to write anything. I believe human authors of all religious books wrote it themselves and no gods had anything to do with it. This is true for every religious text. If you believe your religion has a doctrine or book that was actually written by or "breathed" by a God, I have a question for you:

Is there a single verse in that book that proves it had to be written by a God, because it could only have come from a God? If so, the evidence will force me to at least accept that a God does exist.

I'll give you an example of the kind of thing that the entire world would probably find convincing: A verse in the bible that includes anything factual about the natural world, that could not be known by a human at that time, and is too detailed to be a guess. It could have only come from an actual creator of the entire universe.

Could be something like "I have created vast pools of crude oil under the ground. One day, you humans will figure out how to extract it and refine that oil into fuel in order to operate machines you will build to travel. Those machines will allow you to move from one country to the next, across oceans, and even to travel through the air at hundreds of miles per hour." Or maybe it's something less obvious, but still completely convincing?

Does this exist in any text that is supposedly gods word?
I believe it was Thomas Paine who said amongst many the many negative things about the christian bible that the worst possible way for god to communicate with us is through text. I feel that.
 

stvdv

Veteran Member: I Share (not Debate) my POV
I agree, I think it is impossible. If god actually wrote a book, I would expect the contents of the message to be more profound than what we see
What is your "picture" of God when you wrote this. When we don't define God, then your "Title question" will never be answered in agreement

Usually I have experienced that it is useless to teach students more than they can fathom, hence no need for "more profound"
My Master said "Help Ever, Hurt Never", that is all you need to know from the Bible (or any other Scripture")
Another one He gave was "Love All, Serve All"

I love simplicity. And when people are unable to live according to the above advices, why should a Master give more. If people can't follow simple guidelines, they are definitely unable to follow profound ones. They might only end up in their "head", instead of practising what they learned
 

Moonjuice

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
Any possible profound thing said could be said to have been written by a man. Why not?
Of course men can and do write profound things. What I am asking is in the holy texts of major religions, many claim that books were actually written directly by god or delivered to humans from god by way of angels, or revelation. Just like you did. You claim God wrote the Quran. I'm saying I don't believe you yet. Is there anything specifically in the text that would tell the average reader, this is a book written by the creator of the universe? The fact that your initial answer is "theoretically impossible" should tell you something about your own claim.
 

Moonjuice

In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
What is your "picture" of God when you wrote this. When we don't define God, then your "Title question" will never be answered in agreement
I am using the standard picture that god is the creator of the entire universe. This covers most of the worlds major religions that are based on texts that claim to be the word of god.
 
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