Sorry, but there is nothing in the Christian Bible that couldn't have been written by you or me. From R. G. Ingersoll on the subject of what a such a book of divine origin should be like:
· It should be a book that no man -- no number of men -- could produce.
· It should contain the perfection of philosophy.
· It should perfectly accord with every fact in nature.
· There should be no mistakes in astronomy, geology, or as to any subject or science.
· Its morality should be the highest, the purest.
· Its laws and regulations for the control of conduct should be just, wise, perfect, and perfectly adapted to the accomplishment of the ends desired.
· It should contain nothing calculated to make man cruel, revengeful, vindictive or infamous.
· It should be filled with intelligence, justice, purity, honesty, mercy and the spirit of liberty.
· It should be opposed to strife and war, to slavery and lust, to ignorance, credulity and superstition.
· It should develop the brain and civilize the heart.
· It should satisfy the heart and brain of the best and wisest.
So go ahead, produce a book such as the new testament, if it is that easy.
Sorry to disagree with you Tony, but there is nothing in that book that was beyond the ability of human beings to write, which is true of every book ever written. If you think otherwise, produce a biblical passage that you or I couldn't have written.
Let's look a some randomly chosen passages, shall we, and you tell me which one of these couldn't have been written by anybody including me, you, and your next door neighbor:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Genesis 3:3 But God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Genesis 4:4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering
Genesis 5:5 Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.
Genesis 6:6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
Genesis 7:7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Genesis 8.8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
Genesis 9.9 I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you
Or pick your own passages to demonstrate that these scriptures couldn't have been written by human beings. How is biblical scripture better than the Iliad (you asked me to produce a book)? These citations actually read better:
“There is the heat of Love, the pulsing rush of Longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible—magic to make the sanest man go mad.” ― Homer,
The Iliad
“Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” ― Homer,
The Iliad
“Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.” ― Homer,
The Iliad
“Let me not then die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter.” ― Homer,
The Iliad
“Sing, O muse, of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.” ― Homer,
The Iliad
“Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.” ― Homer,
The Iliad
Who the heck is R. G. Ingersoll?
A nineteenth century atheist. You're free to look that up, but does it matter? His comment remains valid whoever said them.
Here are some more words from him that I have saved:
"We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy, idealess, vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your Bible and the works of your best minds. We have heard your prayers, your solemn groans and your reverential amens. All these amount to less than nothing. We want one fact. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one little fact. We pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and implore you for just one fact. We know all about your moldy wonders and your stale miracles. We want a this year's fact. We ask only one. Give us one fact for charity. Your miracles are too ancient. The witnesses have been dead for nearly two thousand years "- Ingersoll
"The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave" - Robert Green Ingersoll
"An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself without going in partnership with state legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment." - Robert Green Ingersoll
"Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth--each of the other." ~ Robert G. Ingersoll
"RELIGION IS FEAR AND SLAVERY
What, after all, is religion?
It is fear.
Fear builds the altar and offers the sacrifice.
Fear erects the cathedral and bows the head of man in worship.
Fear bends the knees and utters the prayer.
Fear pretends to love.
Religion teaches the slave-virtues -- obedience, humility, self-denial, forgiveness, non-resistance.
Lips, religious and fearful, tremblingly repeat this passage: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." This is the abyss of degradation.
Religion does not teach self-reliance, independence, manliness, courage, self-defence. Religion makes God a master and man his serf. The master cannot be great enough to make slavery sweet." -- Robert Green
Ingersoll
MINISTERS WONDER HOW I CAN BE WICKED ENOUGH TO ATTACK THE BIBLE - Robert Green
Ingersoll (1833-1899)
"I will tell them:
"This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed and stopped the onward movement of the human race. This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
"This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world.
"This book is the breastwork of kings and tyrants -- the enslaver of women and children. This book has corrupted parliaments and courts. This book has made colleges and universities the teachers of error and the haters of science.
"This book has filled Christendom with hateful, cruel, ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to kill their fellows for religion's sake.
"This book funded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of torture, built the dungeons in which the good and loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died. This book piled fagots about the feet of the just. This book drove reason from the minds of millions and filled the asylums with the insane.
"This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed the blood of their babes. This book was the auction block on which the slave-mother stood when she was sold from her child. This book filled the sails of the slave-trader and made merchandise of human flesh.
"This book lighted the fires that burned "witches" and "wizards."
"This book filled the darkness with ghouls and ghosts, and the bodies of men and women with devils. This book polluted the souls of men with the infamous dogma of eternal pain. This book made credulity the greatest of virtues, and investigation the greatest of crimes.
"This book filled nations with hermits, monks and nuns -- with the pious and the useless. This book placed the ignorant and unclean saint above the philosopher and philanthropist.
"This book taught man to despise the joys of this life, that he might be happy in another -- to waste this world for the sake of the next.
"I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty -- the greatest obstruction across the highway of human progress.
"Let me ask the ministers one question: How can you be wicked enough to defend this book?"
