They weren't written under gods instruction.
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Why doesn't the Bible mention.............
- Thread starter fishy
- Start date
meddlehaze
Ambassador
Your conclusions seem to presuppose an unintelligent, non-intervening or non-existent God.Why doesn't the bible mention, aeroplanes, electricity, gunpowder, Nuclear fission, Space Shuttle. Space Stations, motorcars, aircraft carriers, vaccines, skyscrapers, cruiseliners, mosques, machine guns, nuclear weapons or billions of other things that have occurred since it was written, if it has so many prophecies in it and god knows all? Why didn't god mention any of this stuff when telling the authors what to write? Is it because god didn't know all this stuff, or he didn't tell anyone what to write, or he just doesn't exist and these are really the stories of bronze age goatherds?
Do you read Plato? Do you read Nietzsche? Do you come up with your own writings?
Do your own writings become false in 2000 years?
Record is record.
Caladan
Agnostic Pantheist
Did I say otherwise? I clearly said the scriptures were written by men. nowhere did I say that they were inspired by God, written under God's instructions, or anything close to that.
Renji
Well-Known Member
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It doesn't, but it does contradict the claim that has been put forward in this thread that God didn't mention modern techology because he wasn't concerned with technology.
Are you joking? Be careful - you're reaching so hard I'm worried you'll pull something.It occurs to me that much of the modern technology discussed in this thread was developed and/or greatly altered by western thinking. It also is apparent that western thinking over the last 2000 years has been greatly influenced by the Bible. Instead of saying, "Why doesn't the Bible talk about the technology we see today?" I am wondering if we can say with any degree of certainty that the technology we see today would even exist as it is if not for the influence in our thinking of all the influences, including the Bible (and any other sacred texts that have greatly influenced thinking.)
While it is obvious that the Bible does not seem to contain plans for building any of the technology that we see today, how do we know that some of the principles that are contained in the Bible may not have been first accessed by scientific minds from their understanding of the Bible and then applied to scientific endeavors. Perhaps the Bible led to a gradual increase of consciousness -- which in turn led to an increase of technological advancement.
For example, in the design and building of steam engines, I understand that at some point there was a big problem with danger -- like they kept blowing up. So, a relief valve was invented. The principles of forgiveness taught by Jesus in the Bible is the same principle for a release/relief valve -- let it go -- when pressure builds up, let it go before it causes a really big problem. It may have been presented as a "spiritual" truth, but it is also a principle that works in machinery.
I am not suggesting that scientific understanding came directly from the Bible, but we do know that many, many people's thinking have been directly influenced by it. I think it is an error to consider that the Bible, which is a component of our history and influence of our thought -- an ingredient in where we are today -- that that one ingredient ought to contain the sum total of the experience. (It not the pie. It's just the sugar. OK, let's make it the apple -- just for fun.)
Pressure relief valves have absolutely nothing to do with forgiveness.
However, if you do want to run with the awkward claim that steam engine design was inspired by the Bible, if James Watt really did want to follow the Bible's example on this, wouldn't he have vented the excess pressure into his son?
Okay... as long as you recognize that these two conclusions have implications for how the Bible should be interpreted.
It doesn't, but it does contradict the claim that has been put forward in this thread that God didn't mention modern techology because he wasn't concerned with technology.
Are you joking? Be careful - you're reaching so hard I'm worried you'll pull something.
Don't worry. I'm fine, but thanks for your concern about my well-being.
Pressure relief valves have absolutely nothing to do with forgiveness.
I do think that they serve similar functions. As I see it, both serve to release pressure whose continued build up would have a negative effect, eventually. Obviously, they apply to entirely different scenarios. If you think it is a bizarre sort of comparison, please explain why you think the comparison doesn't work.
However, if you do want to run with the awkward claim that steam engine design was inspired by the Bible, if James Watt really did want to follow the Bible's example on this, wouldn't he have vented the excess pressure into his son?
I think that the paragraph that preceded the example -- the isn't it possible there are connections we don't see sort of example -- (reposted below this one) was pretty clear that I was not presenting it as claim, but as an example of principles that may have progressed through human consciousness through non-scientific means, and eventually found scientific or practical application.
"While it is obvious that the Bible does not seem to contain plans for building any of the technology that we see today, how do we know that some of the principles that are contained in the Bible may not have been first accessed by scientific minds from their understanding of the Bible and then applied to scientific endeavors. Perhaps the Bible led to a gradual increase of consciousness -- which in turn led to an increase of technological advancement."
(I added the word "seem" to the original composition of the first sentence of that paragraph just before posting. I do not know for a fact that there are not plans for building anything we use today and was concerned about making a claim that there is no such thing in the Bible, which I do not know either way. I was not intending to imply that I thought there were any specific plans there.)
We are talking about a general question regarding why doesn't the Bible contain information about technology in existance thousands of years into the future. What about the next 2,000 or 20,000 for that matter?
Do you think I was reaching really far in my assumption that the Bible has influenced people's thinking over these many years? That was really my point.
Okay... as long as you recognize that these two conclusions have implications for how the Bible should be interpreted.
Thank you. I'm glad it's okay.
You must really enjoy laughing at people. :sarcastic
Why doesn't the bible mention, aeroplanes, electricity, gunpowder, Nuclear fission, Space Shuttle. Space Stations, motorcars, aircraft carriers, vaccines, skyscrapers, cruiseliners, mosques, machine guns, nuclear weapons or billions of other things that have occurred since it was written, if it has so many prophecies in it and god knows all? Why didn't god mention any of this stuff when telling the authors what to write? Is it because god didn't know all this stuff, or he didn't tell anyone what to write, or he just doesn't exist and these are really the stories of bronze age goatherds?
Hello again Fishy, you ask very good questions. I like them. Thank You
I replace bible with Qoran inyour questions and reply you by the words of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi:
Because the rights of the wonders of human civilization can only be that much in the Qur'an's discussions. For the Qur'an's basic duty is to teach about the perfections and acts in the Sphere of Dominicality and the duties and situations in the Sphere of Worship. So the rights of human wonders in those two spheres fall to being only a weak sign and slight indication. For if they were to demand their rights from the Sphere of Dominicality, they would receive very few.
For example, if man's aeroplane36 was to say to the Qur'an: "Give me the right to speak and a place in your verses", the planets, earth, and moon, which are the aeroplanes of the Sphere of Dominicality, would reply in the name of the Qur'an: "You take a place in relation to your size." And if man's submarines were to ask for a place from the Qur'an's verses, the submarines of that sphere, that is, the earth and stars, which swim in the vast ocean of the atmosphere and the ether, would say: "Your place beside us is so small as to be invisible." And if the brilliant, star-like electric lights were to demand the right to speak and ask to enter its verses, the electric lights of that sphere, the shooting stars, Iightening, and stars and lamps which adorn the face of the skies, would say: "You may enter its discussions and explanations in relation to your light." If the wonders of civilization were to demand their rights in regard to fineness of art and seek a place from its verses, then a single fly would tell them to be silent, saying: "You do not have the right of even one of my wings! For if all the fine arts and delicate instruments gained for man through his faculty of will were to be gathered together, they could not be as wondrous as the fine art and delicate members of my tiny body. The verse,
bids you to fall silent!"
If those wonders were to go to the Sphere of Worship and demand their rights, they would receive a reply like this: "Your relations with us are very few, and you may not easily enter our sphere. For our programme is this: the world is a guest-house, and as for man, he remains there only a short time. He is a guest with many duties and in a brief life is charged with preparing all the necessities for eternal life. The most important and essential matters will be offered to you. But most of you see this fleeting world under the veil of heedlessness, as an eternal abode, in a form worked with worldly feelings. So your share of worship, which is based on foundations of worship of the truth and thinking of the hereafter, is very small. However, if there are among you respected craftsmen and artists and inspired inventors, who, purely for the benefit of God's servants, serve the general interest and public ease and attainments of social life, which is a valuable worship, these signs and indications of the Qur'an are surely sufficient for those sensitive people, who of course form a minority, in order to encourage their efforts and appreciate their art
Renji
Well-Known Member
*ignore list, for just laughing but lacks the ability to answer*
Andywelikandy
Member
Why doesn't the bible mention, aeroplanes, electricity, gunpowder, Nuclear fission, Space Shuttle. Space Stations, motorcars, aircraft carriers, vaccines, skyscrapers, cruiseliners, mosques, machine guns, nuclear weapons or billions of other things that have occurred since it was written, if it has so many prophecies in it and god knows all? Why didn't god mention any of this stuff when telling the authors what to write? Is it because god didn't know all this stuff, or he didn't tell anyone what to write, or he just doesn't exist and these are really the stories of bronze age goatherds?
Suppose your great, great grand father heard, let's say the word cosmonaut or astronaut or laptop computer, do you think he would have had a clue as to what they meant? Now pl. apply that to the Bible.
Andywelikandy
Member
The Holy Bible is the Maker's Handbook for godly living. Jesus Christ came down from heaven and changed all the teachings of the Old Testament because no human being could follow OT teachings to the letter as Almighty God required such living. For 2000 yrs down from Adam and Eve, the first parents, mankind was put to a test and right from the beginning mankind failed. Then God destroyed mankind with a world-wide flood in the days of Saint Noah, saving Noah and his family of 7. Mankind failed again trying to keep God's laws over 600 of them. Had God not come down as a human being in the form of a Savior named Jesus Christ, not one of us would end up in Heaven, the Abode of Almighty God. Mankind is INCAPABLE of living up to the Standards that God expects of us. So He came down and changed everything and gave us just two laws: Love God; love your fellow man, replacing 600 plus previous laws. Unfortunately, even the 2 basic laws are being broken left, right, and centre, every second, minute and hour of every day by SINFUL mankind. But fortunately there is still a God-given remedy.
And here it is:in Galatians 2:16: Knowing that a man/woman is not justified by the works of the law, (i.e., by keeping the law) but by the faith on Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith on Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified (i.e., saved).
Nada
#
Why doesn't the bible mention, aeroplanes, electricity, gunpowder, Nuclear fission, Space Shuttle. Space Stations, motorcars, aircraft carriers, vaccines, skyscrapers, cruiseliners, mosques, machine guns, nuclear weapons or billions of other things that have occurred since it was written, if it has so many prophecies in it and god knows all? Why didn't god mention any of this stuff when telling the authors what to write? Is it because god didn't know all this stuff, or he didn't tell anyone what to write, or he just doesn't exist and these are really the stories of bronze age goatherds?
He did not have to.There is enough in the holy scriptures to let mankind know He is God.
Does it have to?
And besides, imagine it did, what do you think people in the past would have thought? They would have said it is crazy and then non of them would have followed the Bible. There would be no believers ever!
Does it have to?
And besides, imagine it did, what do you think people in the past would have thought? They would have said it is crazy and then non of them would have followed the Bible. There would be no believers ever!
So you believe that an all-knowing God that was already describing angels, demons/djinn, Heaven, and all sorts of things that most people at that time would have never seen wouldn't have been able to figure out how to mention things like refrigerators or airplanes without making the story unbelievable? Really?
Presumably, it wouldn't have been to give proof of God; it would have been to give believers the guidance they needed.
Throughout the ages, Christians haved divided themselves over issues that arose since the Bible was written, whether it's about the role technology should play in our lives to institutional slavery or rights for women. If the Bible had been clearer, then there would be fewer of these schisms.
Whatever version of Christianity you think is right, most Christians don't follow it... which ultimately reflects on Christ's character (if you think he had something to do with the Bible): most of his sheep have gone astray, which is the mark of a bad shepherd. Better shepherding - perhapsby giving a more relevant Bible - might have prevented this.
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Yup
Let's think about how this conversation would go:
- "Hi! I want to tell you about my religion."
-- "Okay. What are your beliefs?"
- "First, we think the world was created by an invisible god."
-- "I'm with you so far."
- "And we believe that he has an army of helpers called angels, who are also invisible."
-- "Sounds good. What else?"
- "They all live in Heaven, where we also go when we die."
-- "Where is Heaven? Can I see it?"
- "No, it's invisible, too."
-- "Shame. Still, this seems reasonable so far."
- "And the end times are coming, when a beast with 7 heads, 10 horns, and swords in its mouths will punish all the non-believers for their wickedness by throwing them into a lake of fire."
-- "Hmm. I didn't think that fire could be poured into a lake, and I've never seen a beast like the one you describe, but sure... I'm with you."
- "Oh - by the way: in the future, there will be machines that keep food cold."
-- "Hold on right there! Now you're talking crazy. I'm out of here. Keep your wild cult with its bizarre beliefs to yourself."
Andywelikandy
Member
"- "They all live in Heaven, where we also go when we die.""Okay
Sorry...only those who are holy as Almighty God is holy gets into His presence in His Abode.
No sin or any sinful person will ever be allowed into the presence of Infinitely Holy God.
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