Reasons for believing in the Bible as the literal word of God.

[YoursTrue]

Long story. Are you genuinely interested?




Short answer: No.

Slightly longer answer: No, and anyone who's hung up on that part is missing the point of Genesis.

Long answer: No, because the "long story" alluded to above would have been utterly beyond Hebrews of the 6th century BC to express in any meaningful way.

Humans are curious critters, as I mentioned before, and it's an unfortunate consequence of our insatiable curiosity that when we can't find sufficient answers, we sometimes make them.
This is not necessarily a bad thing -- mythology is a beautiful tradition that has influenced art and literature for thousands of years. But when faced with a myth, the answer to "did it actually happen like that?" is never yes or no, but rather, "That's not the point."

You have in Genesis a story which tells you that you are alienated from your God, and that you must work to reconcile that relationship. How many little details do you need to get bogged down in?



Nope.

All life: fish, plants, humans, everything... evolved from one single organism. the fish and plants are not our ancestors; they're more like our very distant cousins...



Are we talking about evolution "as you see it," or evolution as it actually is?

I've been through it as much as possible with some here. I've also read about it. I understand what (some, and many or most) scientists may call evidence of the theory. Genetics is one thing. I do not dispute that. Death is another, and miracles are also beyond evolution but evidently considered by many to be integral to the process.

 

[YoursTrue]

Long story. Are you genuinely interested?




Short answer: No.

Slightly longer answer: No, and anyone who's hung up on that part is missing the point of Genesis.

Long answer: No, because the "long story" alluded to above would have been utterly beyond Hebrews of the 6th century BC to express in any meaningful way.

Humans are curious critters, as I mentioned before, and it's an unfortunate consequence of our insatiable curiosity that when we can't find sufficient answers, we sometimes make them.
This is not necessarily a bad thing -- mythology is a beautiful tradition that has influenced art and literature for thousands of years. But when faced with a myth, the answer to "did it actually happen like that?" is never yes or no, but rather, "That's not the point."

You have in Genesis a story which tells you that you are alienated from your God, and that you must work to reconcile that relationship. How many little details do you need to get bogged down in?



Nope.

All life: fish, plants, humans, everything... evolved from one single organism. the fish and plants are not our ancestors; they're more like our very distant cousins...



Are we talking about evolution "as you see it," or evolution as it actually is?

By the way, living organisms so far demonstrate that chimpanzees remain chimpanzees and fish remain fish and humans remain humans.

 

[TLK Valentine]

Yes, Jesus knew because Matt 24; Mark 13; Luke 21 has both a minor and a MAJOR fulfillment.
The minor was fulfilled in the year 70 when the Roman armies destroyed unfaithful Jerusalem in the year 70 .
The MAJOR is for our day, our time frame - Revelation 7:14

I'm sorry, exactly what in Rev. 7:14 indicates it means here and now of all times?

 

[TLK Valentine]

I've been through it as much as possible with some here.

But not with me.

I've also read about it. I understand what (some, and many or most) scientists may call evidence of the theory.

Do you now?

Genetics is one thing. I do not dispute that. Death is another, and miracles are also beyond evolution but evidently considered by many to be integral to the process.

You say "Death is another" thing -- what do you mean by that?

 

[TLK Valentine]

By the way, living organisms so far demonstrate that chimpanzees remain chimpanzees and fish remain fish and humans remain humans.

Ah, I see you're at that level.
Ok then, question: What makes a human a human, and not a chimpanzee or a fish?

 

[Bunnybounce]

What are your best reasons for believing in the Bible as the literal word of God, if that's your thing? Heck, just give me reasons they don't even have to be good.

But I'm coming to the conclusion/opinion that there isn't really a "good" reason to believe in the Bible as the literal word of God.

I feel like I've just about fully shaken off my Christian convictions and beliefs. I've been an apostate for over a year now I'm pretty sure. The first few months I still had my doubts about my decision to reject Christianity. Just, it was ingrained into my head from birth pretty much that Jesus is literally God. All my family told me that and brought me to church where I was told that too.

Growing up, I dived into Christian apologetics in an attempt to reinforce my faith. I let apologetics convince me as a teenager of the soundness and literalness of the Bible. But apologetics is weak. It doesn't provide a solid reason for saying that the Bible is literally from God.

I realize now that it was two things that developed and fed my Christian convictions and beliefs.
1. Authority figures who I trusted told me the Bible was from God. This is not a good reason.
2. It was a comfort to believe that I have in my hand the literal word of the god of the literal universe. And it tells me how to live my life and that everything will be okay in the end. Very comforting, but not a valid reason to believe imo.

Those are the two reasons I identified why I used to believe so much and dearly. I now understand that I had no good reason to believe in the Bible, and I feel like I haven't a modicum of Christian faith or conviction in me anymore. Which is what I was going for, I'm no longer thinking there's a slight chance ima burn in hell for my apostasy.

So, do I have it right? There is no good reason to believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God.

1 it does have parts of history confirmed.
2 there is evidence of a God.
3 there is NDE evidence of a afterlife
4 the evidence of Jesus resurrection is good.

I'd like to make a separate point here too. Some people have a particular interpretation or narrative of the bible and they think that interpretation is correct. They think there interpretation is synonymous with believing in the bible. Then if they stop believing in the bible, is it the bible they stopped believing in or was it that interpretation they stopped believing in?

My point is, perhaps ones interpretation is wrong and not the bible itself.

 

[Prometheus85]

Convince me otherwise!

A: The Bible is the Word of God.

B: God does not make mistakes or contradict himself and he does not lie.

C: There is no Bible version, Bible manuscript or Bible translation that is free from errors and contradictions.

Conclusion: The Word of God does not exist or the Bible is not the Word of God.

 

[YoursTrue]

But not with me.




Do you now?




You say "Death is another" thing -- what do you mean by that?

I've read about evolution, as I have said, believed it when I was taught the outline of it in school, and also engaged in conversation here with adherents of evolution. I'm not particularly interested in going over it again. But thank you for the offer. I'll say one thing, however, thinking about Darwin now and his theories. Evolutionists say that humans and gorillas have a common ancestor but they haven't found it.

 

[YoursTrue]

Convince me otherwise!

A: The Bible is the Word of God.

B: God does not make mistakes or contradict himself and he does not lie.

C: There is no Bible version, Bible manuscript or Bible translation that is free from errors and contradictions.

Conclusion: The Word of God does not exist or the Bible is not the Word of God.

I would like to mention that many did not believe Jesus either. Or Paul. So the dispute is covered in the Bible.

 

[Prometheus85]

I would like to mention that many did not believe Jesus either. Or Paul. So the dispute is covered in the Bible.

There is no evidence for Paul or Jesus outside the New Testament. The reality is that we don’t have archaeological records for virtually anyone who lived in Jesus’s time and place. Poor Folks don’t normally leave an archaeological trail.

 

[YoursTrue]

There is no evidence for Paul or Jesus outside the New Testament. The reality is that we don’t have archaeological records for virtually anyone who lived in Jesus’s time and place. Poor Folks don’t normally leave an archaeological trail.

It doesn't matter. However it happened those records have been around a long time. They say that Jesus and Paul had many who opposed and didn't believe them. Some did, some didn't. So the record of dissention is there for all those wanting to see.

 

[Audie]

1 it does have parts of history confirmed.
2 there is evidence of a God.
3 there is NDE evidence of a afterlife
4 the evidence of Jesus resurrection is good.

I'd like to make a separate point here too. Some people have a particular interpretation or narrative of the bible and they think that interpretation is correct. They think there interpretation is synonymous with believing in the bible. Then if they stop believing in the bible, is it the bible they stopped believing in or was it that interpretation they stopped believing in?

My point is, perhaps ones interpretation is wrong and not the bible itself.

Of course.
The Bible says whatever one chooses.

Some "history" is shown to be utterly false,
every word of it?
No prob., reinterpret it till it becomes " true".

And that constitutes good and sufficient reason to
accept the bible as a god's living Word?

 

[Audie]

I've read about evolution, as I have said, believed it when I was taught the outline of it in school, and also engaged in conversation here with adherents of evolution. I'm not particularly interested in going over it again. But thank you for the offer. I'll say one thing, however, thinking about Darwin now and his theories. Evolutionists say that humans and gorillas have a common ancestor but they haven't found it.

The honest statement would be that you
only have a dim notion of what ToE is,
that you are unaware of any flaws
( none are known to exist), so you just
make up problems.
Your disbelief is mandated by your
religion. Not by any level of comprehension.

 

[SkepticThinker]

1 it does have parts of history confirmed.

So do Spiderman comics.

2 there is evidence of a God.

What is it?

3 there is NDE evidence of a afterlife

How is a near death experience "evidence of a afterlife?"

4 the evidence of Jesus resurrection is good.

It's terrible, actually.

I'd like to make a separate point here too. Some people have a particular interpretation or narrative of the bible and they think that interpretation is correct. They think there interpretation is synonymous with believing in the bible. Then if they stop believing in the bible, is it the bible they stopped believing in or was it that interpretation they stopped believing in?

My point is, perhaps ones interpretation is wrong and not the bible itself.

I bet you think you've got the correct one?

 

[Aupmanyav]

By the way, living organisms so far demonstrate that chimpanzees remain chimpanzees and fish remain fish and humans remain humans.

Sorry to hear such an ignorant view (according to science). Yes, evolutionary changes do not come in a life time, They take at least tens of thousands of years. No protection from abrupt changes in environment. That is why the Dinosaurs died out.

 

[Aupmanyav]

A: The Bible is the Word of God.
B; God does not make mistakes or contradict himself and he does not lie.
C: There is no Bible version, Bible manuscript or Bible translation that is free from errors and contradictions.

I wonder why did you left out 4. or D: where Bunnymouse says that Bible has good evidence for resurrection of Jesus?

 

[TLK Valentine]

I've read about evolution, as I have said, believed it when I was taught the outline of it in school, and also engaged in conversation here with adherents of evolution. I'm not particularly interested in going over it again. But thank you for the offer. I'll say one thing, however, thinking about Darwin now and his theories. Evolutionists say that humans and gorillas have a common ancestor but they haven't found it.

So what did you mean when you said that "death was another" thing?

 

[YoursTrue]

So what did you mean when you said that "death was another" thing?

Yes, because it's kind of another subject. So this is probably not the forum to go into it now.

 

[YoursTrue]

There is no evidence for Paul or Jesus outside the New Testament. The reality is that we don’t have archaeological records for virtually anyone who lived in Jesus’s time and place. Poor Folks don’t normally leave an archaeological trail.

That doesn't mean they did not exist. Obviously groups were forming that caused divisions which continued historically until Constantine and that becomes another subject.

 

[Audie]

Convince me otherwise!

A: The Bible is the Word of God.

B: God does not make mistakes or contradict himself and he does not lie.

C: There is no Bible version, Bible manuscript or Bible translation that is free from errors and contradictions.

Conclusion: The Word of God does not exist or the Bible is not the Word of God.

Or? Try both