BH

On one of the Christian discussion boards that I visit I brought up the idea that Satan may have corrupted the Bible in some way with teachings that are false. Also, on another board, I brought up the idea that the miracles of the Bible may not actually have been by God's power but Satan's.

I was immediately charged with question begging and making an irrational claim. If the Bible is corrupted by Satan, how can you trust what the Bible says about Satan or anything else for that matter. Since your source of information is not trustworthy you can't use it to even be critical of it itself.

I understand what the man was trying to say, and on the surface it makes sense. But here is my problem. It seems to me that if God and Satan exist, their existence is independent of the Bible. Whether the Bible is reliable as a record of God or Satan or not is irrelevant to God or Satan's actual existence.

So, why is it illogical to theorize that an evil being like Satan may exist and could have corrupted the Bible?

Bobinius

Welcome to IIDB.

What question did you beg? You raised a possibility. A very plausible one, considering that it is in Satan's power to deceive. no begging the question here.

If the Bible is corrupted by Satan, then yes, you cannot believe blindly anythig it's written there as 'coming from God'. The irrationality is not in raising the possibility, but in blindly believing that the text 'comes from God', without evidence for it. that's begging the question.

We atheists are not talking about Satan or demons deceing the writers, but about cultural factors and traditions that gave birth to those texts. How can they differentiate between and God-text, and a cultural, imaginary legend or 'Satanic influences'? They choose to dismiss irrationaly all other possible sources of inspiration, and stick with the divine one, of course without any evidence for it. They don't even prove that there actually is a divine source or God in the first place. This is the circularity: saying that the Bible is divinely inspired already presupposes a God, which is unproven.

EricK

The bible says that Satan is a deceiver. If one accepots that part of the Bible is true, then it is possible that the rest of the bible is a deception by Satan. But if one accepts that part of the bible is false then accepting the truth of the remainder of the bible without any external evidence can not be justified.

That seems to me to be a logical argument, and not begging the question at all.

Djugashvillain

This is begging the question:

The Bible is the word of God. God, qua God, cannot lie. Therefore, everything in the Bible is true.

Ironic that he (wrongly) accuses you of using the same logical fallacy that his entire belief system is based upon. But religious irony like this is quickly losing its potency with me. It's not funny anymore: more baffling and sad.

Chris Porter

Hm, strikes me more as Biblical Criticism than Philosophy, so I'm going to move this to BC&H

mikem

If Satan corrupted the Bible, it is not trustworthy, period. Neither side can use it.

BH

I can agree with this. But it is rational to bring up the possibility that Satan may have had a hand in sneaking his doctrines in, though.

Now, can anyone here help me develop supporting arguments for such a stand?

Jayrok

If Satan could corrupt the bible, is it impossible that he might have used Paul to create a new religion that branched off Judaism and blended with saviour cults that were in fashion around the time period?

Let's say, for a moment, that the OT is true and it only affects the nation of Israel. Satan wants to throw a wrench into this and try to get the Jews to stop following God's commandments. Poof, along comes Paul who teaches that the Laws of Moses are obsolete with the crucifixion of Jesus. People no longer have to follow God's strict laws, they simply need to accept Jesus' free gift of salvation through his acts on the cross. He does a masterful job of cherry picking bits and pieces from Hebrew scriptures to give support to his new cult hero... the center piece of his new worldly religion.

Meanwhile, observant Jews are led astray along with the rest of the Christ-followers.

Sure, it's hypothetical, but is it impossible if Satan has such power?



Some problems with this would include the fact that Satan is sort of portrayed in the NT as somewhat of an idiot and if Satan is real, then God is real... Why would he allow his followers to be led astray like that in the first place, without showing up and setting people straight?

Chris Weimer

Perhaps he didn't need to? Christianity was strongly rejected in Palestinian areas, and, seemingly miraculously, the Jews have survived despite the Christian onslaught and massacres that they face.