Moxy

What is it that makes some people believe the bible is inerrant? Is it simply 2Timothy3:16-17?

Is there more to it than this?

John A. Broussard

The reason, other than Timothy which is irrelevant, why anyone believes the bible is innerant is because every single word of it is true. Since that is so, then it could only have been the work of god.

That, of course, explains not only why the believer believes the bible is inerrant but also why the believer will use every conceivable argument to explain away the obvious contradictions, false reports and outright errors in the bible.

Gullwind

From listening to some creationists I've talked to, its a matter of worldview. In their minds, the bible has to be either right or wrong. All or nothing. If any of it is false, then none of it can be trusted.

Therefore, it all must be true because the alternative is unthinkable (to them).

ninewands

13. And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the
14. fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;
15. Every raven after his kind;
17. And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk
18. after his kind, And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,
19. And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle,
20. And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
--- Lev. 11:13-20, KJV

21. Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing ( insects in the NRSV ) that goeth
22. upon all four (!!!), which have legs above their feet (errrmmm ... isn't that the NORMAL place for them?) , to leap withal upon the earth; Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and
23. the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying the bible is innerant is because every single word of it is true. Since that is so, then it could only have been the work of god./quote]g creeping things, which have four feet,shall be an abomination unto you.
--- Lev. 11:21-23, KJV.

I guess that should do for the "All or Nothing" school of Biblical inerrancy."

John A. Broussard

Since Tim refers to "Scripture" and not the "Bible," the first point to clear up is what he meant by "Scripture."

Were I to ask a Muslim what his meant by "Scripture," I suspect his answer would differ from that of a fundie, or a Mormon, or a Scientologist, or ....

It seems to me that a belief in biblical inerrancy would have to rest on a far more solid foundation than this statement.

Agemegos

That's right. There is no natural religion any more, and no external sources that confirm the key incidents of the Bible. The fundamentalists realise that there is no reason to believe any of this crap except that it is written in the Bible. Since they insist on believing it, the Biblical accounts must be adequate reason to believe. And that, unfortunately all round, forces them to swallow some camels.