What makes the Bible so believable for people?

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Christianity is more like a live event supported by eyewitnesses

There are lots of scenes in the gospels no one was there to witness.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Again, this is a claim, not a fact in evidence. The Bible is more than ancient literature, factually, as it is arguably THE most influential volume in history.

Of course it's a fact. The Bible is in fact in ancient literary work. The influence of the Bible did not come by divine means and its influence is largely due to intense strong arming by the ancients such as Constantine and the Roman Empire and the fact that Christians themselves are largely responsible for its mass purchases and subsequent mass distribution of their own scriptures.

I very much doubt it would have been very "influential" otherwise for which today the Bible's reputation and credibility is steadily dropping.

The Bible doesn't even fall in the top five of The New York Times bestseller list for this year much less the last few decades.

The New York Times Best Sellers

Givin enough time and history, there's no doubt the Bible will be replaced by something else.

 

[Milton Platt]

Again, this is a claim, not a fact in evidence. The Bible is more than ancient literature, factually, as it is arguably THE most influential volume in history.

It is two claims.
1. The bible is ancient literature
2. There is no divinity

The fact that the bible has been very influential does not negate either claim

 

[1213]

So we should stick with the Old Testament, then, since it never changes? Bring back stoning women for adultery? Slavery? Genocide on orders from God?

Should we abandon all scientific inquiry and go back to ignorance?

I think we have no reason to reject truth. If we have some scientific truth, it is ok.

But stoning sinners is not the real commandment. Real commandment is, don’t do adultery. If people would love as the Bible tells, no one would do adultery, and there would be no reason for judgment. But the judgment is still correct, however, we don’t have judges, set by God, like it was long time ago. That is why we should not give the judgements. Or do you think you are a judge set by God?

And about slavery, everyone who is forced to pay taxes is a slave. If we really love others as the bible tells, I think we should free the slaves, even if it is not forbidden to have or to be a slave.

 

[1213]

...

The Piltdown Man was never a scientific discovery, and it is absurd that you would use this hoax as example of science.

And that makes it even worse that:

“…The U.K. human evolution research community enthusiastically embraced Eoanthropus dawsoni, better known as Piltdown Man. Its large braincase and apelike jaw and teeth were exactly what these scientists expected to find from a “missing link.””
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/study-reveals-culprit-behind-piltdown-man-one-science-s-most-famous-hoaxes

If the thing was just from some amateur and without any solid evidence, it makes those who accepted the finding as proof even less credible.

"The Daily Mirror said thousands of text books would have to be revised because of the hoax."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/sci_nat_piltdown_man0_unmasking_a_hoax/html/2.stm

So, apparently the whole science world followed some amateur many years, because his story was good for the evolution believers? And now I should believe the people who say evolution theory is the truth?


How do you know that you are not fooled again?

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Christ most certainly did, that just shows that even you have no idea what the Bible supports and confirm's.

Christ did say in Matthew 24:21-22
21-- "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be"

22-- "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened"

Therefore the only reason why Christ is shortened the days of the tribulation, is because of Christ's elect.

So where does that leave other people at, that are not of Christ's elect ?

You exist in a circular argument.

According to my reading of the Bible, if you believe in God and accept Christ, you are a Christian and bound for glory.

I know that is hard for you to accept, but it is what the Bible says.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Alot of people, like yourself will say, the Bible is flawed, by this only shows that you and them have no idea what the Bible says or confirm's.

I don't see that you have any idea what the Bible says. You have an interpretation. That's it.

The Bible has flaws in it. It is not meant to be taken literally. That is a recent--the last 200 years--view.

If you want to view it literally, that is your business. That doesn't make it the default position. It doesn't make the errors magically vanish.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

And that makes it even worse that:

“…The U.K. human evolution research community enthusiastically embraced Eoanthropus dawsoni, better known as Piltdown Man. Its large braincase and apelike jaw and teeth were exactly what these scientists expected to find from a “missing link.””
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/study-reveals-culprit-behind-piltdown-man-one-science-s-most-famous-hoaxes

If the thing was just from some amateur and without any solid evidence, it makes those who accepted the finding as proof even less credible.

"The Daily Mirror said thousands of text books would have to be revised because of the hoax."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/sci_nat_piltdown_man0_unmasking_a_hoax/html/2.stm

So, apparently the whole science world followed some amateur many years, because his story was good for the evolution believers? And now I should believe the people who say evolution theory is the truth?


How do you know that you are not fooled again?

Piltdown was never fully accepted by science and the whole of science did not follow it. It was a fraud perpetuated by an amateur and this was determined by science. It is a dead issue. It no longer has meaning. It is outdated. Find something new.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

It's evidence by reading each book as to who wrote each book.

Name them and provide the evidence.

 

[Vinayaka]

For some reason, I always read the thread title as, 'What makes the Bible so unbelievable for people?'

 

[Faithofchristian]

Name them and provide the evidence.

Well you just proved yourself, it's evidence that you don't know as much about the bible as you claim you do, did you then you would know who wrote each book in the bible.

Let's take the book of Daniel for an example, Now as to who wrote the book of Daniel.
Let's see, in Chapter 12 verse 4, God speaking, saying to Daniel "But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book"
Now isn't that amazing, Daniel is to shut (Close) up the book, So it is Daniel who wrote the book, which is called Daniel.

Let's see and what about Moses.
Deuteronomy 31:24-26--"And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished"

25--That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,

26 --Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee"

Have you any idea at all, what the book of the law is, That Moses had written

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Well you just proved yourself, it's evidence that you don't know as much about the bible as you claim you do, did you then you would know who wrote each book in the bible.

Let's take the book of Daniel for an example, Now as to who wrote the book of Daniel.
Let's see, in Chapter 12 verse 4, God speaking, saying to Daniel "But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book"
Now isn't that amazing, Daniel is to shut (Close) up the book, So it is Daniel who wrote the book, which is called Daniel.

Let's see and what about Moses.
Deuteronomy 31:24-26--"And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished"

25--That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying,

26 --Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee"

Have you any idea at all, what the book of the law is, That Moses had written

I never claimed to be a Bible expert. What we are talking about here are the flaws in the Bible and you don't need to be an expert to recognize them.

All your doing is attributing an author and then claiming that the passage quoted was written by that author.

Now you've jumped the shark. Moving the goal posts a bit. You have failed to support your claim that the flaws in the Bible don't exist and are merely the imagination of those that don't understand the Bible.

 

[lukethethird]

Honestly I can't think of a single thing.

Nobody knows who wrote it, with any degree of certainty. No names of the original authors, nobody knows who was on the Council of Trent , Council of Nicea Etc.

It's obviously been redacted , has incomplete information and has gaps in its narratives. Side-by-side variations are noted in each version of the Bible that exist today to substantiate that is indeed the case.

The Bible clearly is not a divinely inspired collection of books either , evidenced by Christianity's vast and varied amount of denominations and sects, who, to this day remain visibly at odds with ongoing issues over interpretation and meaning, making it clear there's no evidence of any type of guiding hand at play to indicate it now or was ever divinely inspired to begin with at its inception.

There's no real support or proofs to the notion of divine harmonization between one author with another throughout the Testaments over significant periods of time to substantiate any type of harmony exists because each subsequent book could be "harmonized" with each proceeding book by simply reading what each proceeding book said and conveniently changing the subsequent book to "fit" each narrative to uphold the claim that the subsequent authors did not know what the preceding authors wrote making such alleged harmony between books a divine proof a Biblical accuracy and credibility.

Oral tradition is actually worthless. If it wasn't, it could have been used and demonstrated today as a living testament of reliability and accuracy but it isn't for a reason. Obvious reasons.

Hence the requirement for writing something down , and we've seen how effective that can be.


Why would anybody be willing to think the Bible is for one reason or another a proper foundation to base an entire religion on and in cases, people's own lives to point of believability that it would trump logic and science?

The Bible is a very thick book, I think that impresses a lot of people.

 

[Faithofchristian]

I never claimed to be a Bible expert. What we are talking about here are the flaws in the Bible and you don't need to be an expert to recognize them.

All your doing is attributing an author and then claiming that the passage quoted was written by that author.

Now you've jumped the shark. Moving the goal posts a bit. You have failed to support your claim that the flaws in the Bible don't exist and are merely the imagination of those that don't understand the Bible.

Well your no expert, all because there is no flaws.

 

[Valjean]

1213 said: ↑
Science is in constant change. It would not be wise to base world view on it, when after couple of years it may again claim something else than today.

This is science' strength. It always reflects the conclusions drawn from the latest research and observations. It's the cutting edge.
The alternative: Accept the fireside tales of the ancient pastoralists as eternal, unchanging truth and live forever in our tents and mud huts.

Again, this is a claim, not a fact in evidence. The Bible is more than ancient literature, factually, as it is arguably THE most influential volume in history.

Non-existence need not be proven, it's the default position we start out with. It's the folklore that begs evidential support. The burden of proof is on the folklorists, making positive claims.
Influence is no evidence of truth. There have been many influential religious works.

 

[Valjean]

There are lots of scenes in the gospels no one was there to witness.

There are no first person accounts of any of it.

 

[BilliardsBall]

Of course it's a fact. The Bible is in fact in ancient literary work. The influence of the Bible did not come by divine means and its influence is largely due to intense strong arming by the ancients such as Constantine and the Roman Empire and the fact that Christians themselves are largely responsible for its mass purchases and subsequent mass distribution of their own scriptures.

I very much doubt it would have been very "influential" otherwise for which today the Bible's reputation and credibility is steadily dropping.

The Bible doesn't even fall in the top five of The New York Times bestseller list for this year much less the last few decades.

The New York Times Best Sellers

Givin enough time and history, there's no doubt the Bible will be replaced by something else.

How do you know what "divine means" are? How do you know that God, interested in man, doesn't work through people?

Again, if you could stick to the facts, that would be great.

The New York Times is reviewing books that SELL. More Bibles are distributed free annually than all the NY Times books together! People around the world crave it.

 

[BilliardsBall]

1213 said: ↑
Science is in constant change. It would not be wise to base world view on it, when after couple of years it may again claim something else than today.

This is science' strength. It always reflects the conclusions drawn from the latest research and observations. It's the cutting edge.
The alternative: Accept the fireside tales of the ancient pastoralists as eternal, unchanging truth and live forever in our tents and mud huts.

But neither age nor historical influence[/quote]Non-existence need not be proven, it's the default position we start out with. It's the folklore that begs evidential support. The burden of proof is on the folklorists, making positive claims.
Influence is no evidence of truth. There have been many influential religious works.[/QUOTE]

You are espousing scientism, an overindulgence in science, which cannot answer any why questions, and relies on inductive research, while denying metaphysical reality. Science cannot weigh love, justice, spirit.

 

[SkepticThinker]

I think we have no reason to reject truth. If we have some scientific truth, it is ok.

But stoning sinners is not the real commandment. Real commandment is, don’t do adultery. If people would love as the Bible tells, no one would do adultery, and there would be no reason for judgment. But the judgment is still correct, however, we don’t have judges, set by God, like it was long time ago. That is why we should not give the judgements. Or do you think you are a judge set by God?

And about slavery, everyone who is forced to pay taxes is a slave. If we really love others as the bible tells, I think we should free the slaves, even if it is not forbidden to have or to be a slave.

No they're not. Don't equivocate. Paying taxes and receiving benefits in return is not even remotely close to be owned by another person as their property.
I'm so sick of reading these ridiculous apologetics trying to blow off the slavery of the Bible.

 

[SkepticThinker]

How do you know what "divine means" are? How do you know that God, interested in man, doesn't work through people?

Again, if you could stick to the facts, that would be great.

How do we know that "he" does? And for that matter, how do we know "he" is a "he?"

The New York Times is reviewing books that SELL. More Bibles are distributed free annually than all the NY Times books together! People around the world crave it.

Yeah, that's the first thing I think of when I check into a hotel room ... I hope those Gideon people left a Bible in the nightstand for me to read on my vacation!
(The fact that they're given away for free doesn't necessarily mean they are deeply craved by all people in the world.)