ShadowGryffindor

:banghead:

And where, pray tell, would you read the theory, if not in a BOOK.

Oh, and you also should delete the part that I quoted in my last post - you know, the one where you said the Bible was supernatural and the Koran is not?

BY YOUR OWN STATEMENT, you have no right to make such a claim (a "criticism") until you have read the Koran.


EDIT: I see Faid noticed this as well, and posted while I was typing.

Faid

I have to be fair to dave. By this post, I am in no way implying that he did a little "Revisionist history" to his previous post, by editing the word "read" out.

The initial post said "read studied", not "read and studied". It is my guess that he tried to change the word before posting his response, and inadvertedly left the old word there. He later corrected it when I um, pointed it out to him.

So there's no foul play there; just a small glimpse of what goes on in his mind.

Occam's Aftershave

We really need to come up with a term for AFdave's constant habit of shooting himself in the foot;

Like citing AIG's reference to 5 million year old mountains to support a 6000 year old Earth claim.

Or claiming 'mutations create no new information', then using a definition of 'information' in which it is trivially easy to show increase.

Or saying one must read a book cover to cover in order to honestly criticize it, then admitting he hasn't read any of the books he is criticizing.

"Hypocridave"?

"Pedicide" ?

Let's hear those ideas folks!

The Evil One

I like pedicide.

Always had a weakness for Greco-Latin roots.

Vicious Love

Is there a formal term for buying one's freedom from slavery or indentured servitude? I've never seen anyone self-own quite like afdave.

ninewands

Do WHAT?
such as ... ?
RIGHT!
Dave, need I remind you that the society recorded in the Bible was a theocracy where such things as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and some, but not ALL, forms of incest were CAPITAL crimes? Neither the United States nor Britain has ever been a nation. The closest contemporary analogies to the Israel of the Bible are Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Dave, have you ever read more than one translation of the Bible? Have you ever read ANY of the Bible in a language other than English?
How about all the pre-Reformation "edits" done under the aegis of the Roman Catholic Church in the name of "political expediency?"
I wouldn't know how intelligent the priests and scribes who wrote the Masoretic texts were. I do know that the so-called "harmony of the gospels" apparently results more from massive plagiarism during the second century than it does from "divine revelation."
I really doubt you are qualified to have an objective opinion on the question. You are an apologist not a textual analyst, and your religious beliefs guarantee you are going to decide that YOUR "holy book" is the One True Word of God^TM.
Don't put yourself out for my benefit. Do it to benefit yourself. Expanding your worldview is always a good thing.

windsofchange

Hey Dave, did you know that, like the Bible, you can read the Koran online? That's right, you don't even have to send away for it, just click the link and start reading.

I'll make it even simpler for you and post the first chapter - it's very short and easy to digest:

Now – explain to us what you see there that makes you say, “Aha! Obviously that’s not inspired by MY god!”

Magdlyn

The Koran is claimed to have been dictated directly to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. God's chief messenger? The one who announced to Mary she was going to get knocked up by God?

If you don't even know that... well...

Constant Mews

I think it's reasonably clear that Dave has never actually read the Bible cover to cover himself. His ignorance concerning its content is quite stunning.

Diogenes the Cynic

I've read the Bible cover to cover twice (once in a formal academic setting) and I've read most individual books more than that. I've read some individual books more tmes than I can count (especially the Gospels) and I've read the New Testament in Greek. I have found, in my personal experience, that I'm more conversant with the Bible than most self-identified Christians. I also have a better than average knowledge (i.e. better than the average lay knowledge) of many of the historical and lingustic issues associated with Biblical criticism.

Few academics try to defend the historical reliability of the Bible anymore and virtually no serious scholar still tries to argue that the Bible contains any accurate predictive prophecy.

In short, yes I have read the Bible. I probably know more about it than the OP does and any claims of historical accuracy or verifiable fulfilled "prophecies" in the Bible bespeak an ignorance about that body of literature, not an education about it.

Simply reading through the Bible with no education or knowledge of its historical/lingusitic/political/literary context is not particularly useful or informative anyway. Entertaining, mayebe. Interesting, certainly, perhaps even inspiring, but if you don't know who wrote it and why and when and where and what their intent was, you're not really going to understand much.