spin

A very late response on a very amusing comment...

On Isa 7:14:
This is hilarious! :rolling: Double fulfillment. :rolling:

The text still says nothing at all about a virgin birth. )LMH is nice and plain: young woman. HRH is nice and plain: pregnant, with child. The young woman is already with child in Hebrew. It's hysterical that this christianizing abuse of the original text only works because of a problematical translation into Greek. :rolling:

Translation errors are quite common. Just as are arguments based solely on faith.


spin

norma98026

Hi Skeptical,

Wow, you wrote a lot! I'll respond to what I can in the next few minutes.

1. Does the fact that the Bible is an anthology negate the possibility that God himself inspired the content? Note how often the phrase "thus said the LORD" appears in the Hebrew Bible.

2. If a person had a couple doctorates in Religious Studies, was an expert in all the religious writings of the world, AND claimed the Bible was unique among them and that there was evidence it was written supernaturally, would that make any difference to you? Or would you say, "in spite of his education, this guy knows nothing?"

Norma

spin

I can write it as well: "thus said the LORD: he who wears purple underpants is a wuss." Does writing it make it true?

For an infidel it is ultimately not who said it that is important, bujt what is said and what the evidence for it is.


spin

Chili

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norma98026

Hi John,
I found your comment about faith intriguing. Why do you as a nonbeliever care what others believe and whether they lose faith or not? I think I know why I care, but I don't understand how my faith or lack of it matters to you.

Are you saying that if faith gives someone comfort, then it's valid for them? IMHO that's a questionable measurement for validity. Faith is meaningful ONLY when it's based on a solid track record -- truth. That is, the object of trust must be reliable to offer any hope. No sense in using a parachute with holes in it, what.

Norma

spin

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norma98026

Hi Spin,

I agree that content and evidence are the most important things. (But just because I wrote it doesn't make it so, ha.) If we believed everyone who said they speak on behalf of God, there'd be chaos with all the conflicting viewpoints!

However, God gave B/W guidelines for determining from content whether or not a prophet has told the truth when he claims a message is from God: if even one of the prophet's predictions does not come true within the predicted timeframe, that's evidence the prophet is not to be believed or trusted.

Norma

John A. Broussard

Thanks for your thoughtful answer to my comments. Though I happen to be a non-believer, that does not necessarily mean that I don't have compassion for others. If I were god, I would see to it that everyone were happy. I don't happen to be god, so I choose to help as best I can those whom I encounter. This may be elitist, but since I'm not an all-powerful god, the recipients of my advice are of course free to accept it or not.

Now, to the next point. If faith gives you comfort AND HARMS NO ONE ELSE, I say hang on to it. You are most definitely jeapordizing that faith by taking part in discussions on this site. Inevitably, since you are a thinking individual, you will end up spending all of your time patching the holes punched into your parachute.

Thanks for acknowledging my post, by the way.

norma98026

Hi Skeptical,
I just returned to the States from South Africa where I attended church with believers I had never met before, most of whom have never set foot in the Western World. Christianity has spread from a tiny country in the Middle East to the entire world.

What difference does it make if God revealed his message to goat herders or musicians or kings or CPAs or doctors? Isn't the content the important thing?

I'm curious about the term moral responsibility. How do you define that?

If God really said, "if you seek me, you'll find me", how is it more responsible to come up with my own strategy?

Norma

norma98026

I appreciate your compassion, John, and I didn't mean to imply in any way that a nonbeliever cannot be compassionate. You said if you were god, you'd make everyone happy. It seems like an easy enough task, but how would you go about it? What does happiness mean? As god, would you give people a choice about whether or not to accept that happiness? I think it's possible that God might be doing that even here by giving us the opportunity to dialogue about ideas we might otherwise dismiss.

Norma