My discussion partner in the other thread doubts it is...
He cited one example among others insinuating Bible contradicted itself. According to Matthew, Jairus said his daughter died, see Matthew 9:18-10, whereas Mark 5:21-24 quotes him in a sense that she is dying right the moment when they spoke.
Contradiction, no?
Well yes, Jairus contradicted himself.... doesn't mean Bible is wrong.
This is at least my 5 cents.
In my opinion, the Bible can be trustworthy even if the Canon was established only centuries later and even if the authors were partially unknown.
Thomas
Keeping faith in the face of overwhelming evidence that the bible has contradictions is truly heroic.
Genesis 1.25 says that mankind was created before animals.
Genesis 2:18 says that mankind was created after animals.
There were many people (apostles) around to vouch for the validity and authenticity of the bible. The bible was written 100 years after all of them were dead, and after they were all dead they all got together (as dead people) to verify, certify, and guarantee that the bible was correct (this is how their chapters got into the bible).
Some kings didn't like certain passages of the bible, so those were changed by the kings.
Jews didn't believe in Satan, but Christians do, and Satan is in the Christian bible (where did he come from?). Remember, the Christian faith is a spinoff of the Jewish faith.
But, the Muslim faith is also a spinoff of the Jewish faith.
So.....why is there a difference in the Jewish, Muslim, and various versions of the Christian bible?
Are the Mormons right about their version of the bible (Christ came to America, Europeans were the 1st settlers in the Americas (which has some credence due to the Solutrean Hypothesis)?
Why trust one bible over another?
Most people rely on the bible for info about God (to believe in God). So, if the bible is wrong, wouldn't God's existence be questionable?
I look at the bible as a statistical problem, much like quantum mechanics. Sure, there are unknowns, but you can statistically say that some of it is valid. Certainly it is true that certain ancient cities existed (some are known today, and some have been discovered and match biblical records). So, as a history book, the bible is sometimes true. According to quantum mechanics, electrons have wave functions that are imaginary (that is, there is square root of negative one in them). Though they are imaginary, the probability, which is the product of a wave function and the complex conjugate of a wave function, as a real value (so we can predict a statistical probability for the position of an electron).
Similarly, though we know that there are mistakes in the bible, there is a statistical probability of finding truth if we look hard enough.