FRDB Archives

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.


Go Back   FRDB Archives > Archives > Religion (Closed) > Biblical Criticism & History
Welcome, Peter Kirby.
You last visited: Today at 03:12 PM

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 09-28-2003, 06:35 PM   #11
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Superior, CO USA
Posts: 1,553
Default

Quote:
Originally posted by Sensei Meela
Would that others could appreciate this, as you do.
Sorry if the nuance of this statement is lost on me...does it suggest that I a priori dismiss plausibility of Biblical events by assuming the Bible unreliable? Or should I read it as:

"I don't know how you can go about falsifying things [in his eyes] if [he doesn't] accept canons of plausibility nor [the] reliability of other sources..."

Or have I just got it all wrong? To wit, I'm not looking to falsify the events per se (as I acknowledge the difficulty involved), and again I apologize for the misleading and poorly chosen wording of the topic.

Thanks all for the helpful replies.
No, that isn't what he meant. When discussing events of ancient history, the questions that have to be asked is how plausible is the claim and how well-supported it is. Alexander conquering the Persian empire is a plausible story, and we have considerable evidence that this happened through archealogy and the fact that Alexander is mentioned in stories written by the cultures he warred against. The Exodus story, however, is not plausible nor does it have any support for it. What does your friend think God did, erase all the evidence?

The bottom line is, if your friend isn't going to play by the rules of historical interpretation, then there is really not much point in debating him.
Family Man is offline  
Old 09-28-2003, 06:38 PM   #12
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: the reliquary of Ockham's razor
Posts: 4,035
Default

Quote:
Originally posted by Sensei Meela
"I don't know how you can go about falsifying things [in his eyes] if [he doesn't] accept canons of plausibility nor [the] reliability of other sources..."
This is very close. It was a generic 'you'. If a person doesn't accept and use plausibility or external sources, I don't know of any other method for that person to falsify something or accept it as shown wrong.

If it is helpful to you, there is a magazine called The Skeptical Review that has a lot of material about showing errors in the Bible.

You might ask him to show an error in the Catholic Deuterocanon (Apocrypha), the Histories of Herodotus, or the Bhagavad Gita in order to see what he finds acceptable as falsification...or to find out that he will set the bar in the stratosphere so that everything in the Bible can squeeze through.

best,
Peter Kirby
Peter Kirby is online now   Edit/Delete Message
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 07:20 PM.

Top

This custom BB emulates vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.