Joan of Bark

As I've said before, why does an omnipotent God even need a book? Can't he just transmit this information directly to our brains, thereby saving us the problems of translation, publication, transmission and interpretation?

Brother Daniel

An excellent point.

I think the conclusion is inescapable: Any "God" worthy of the name, who wishes to "reveal" something to humankind, will do so by direct manipulation of the brains of the recipients -- and the recipients will include everyone whose belief (in the content of the revelation) is held (by God) to be important.

Any revelation that is even slightly more indirect -- such as via an allegedly holy book -- cannot be distinguished from delusions or lies. If "God" understands human limitations, and wants to act ethically, he will not tell his messengers to expect (much less demand) that anyone believe in the genuineness of the revelation. If a "revelation" includes any moral pressure to believe in its genuineness, that very moral pressure is proof that that "revelation" is not genuine.

Lucretius

As the Kama Sutra is generally dated from the 2nd Century CE then all of the above is equally true .
PLUS it has better pictures :devil1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_Sutra#Dating

funinspace

And Hinduism is older than Christianity and has survived many assaults, including Christianity. Want to wager on whether that makes it any more true?

Great, and we know for a fact who wrote Harry Potter and Star Wars, come join the dark side… Maybe you could provide some data from the…cough…"Greatest book in the World", that provide background to the Pentateuch? You know like author's name; place of birth; where he wrote it; when he wrote it; external cross references to the author's life from the same time frame? That would be a fabulous demonstration of how it's better supported than Shakespeare's work. How come, I don't expect to see the evidence forth coming…lol

Doug Shaver

Very well. I will stipulate that the Bible is unique with respect to those six characteristics.

Now then, let

U = The Bible is unique

and

I = The Bible is inerrant.

Please demonstrate how U => I.

BigJim

Bible John and Johnny Skeptic, this thread is an excellent example of why you should take a debate to the formal debates arena. Keeps us riff raff out of it.

Wolfie

How do we know that the various conversations between god and Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Job, etc., etc., etc. have been recorded VERBATIM? Who was the court recorder? If just one word of those conversations has been reported incorrectly, then that makes the bible inerrant.

Anyway - how do we know EXACTLY what god said to Adam? How was it recorded? Was there some sort of Holy Digital Recorder encoding it all as an MP3 file?

Johnny Skeptic

I recently started a thread at the BC&H Forum that is titled "What are your favorite Bible contradictions?" It is interesting to note that not any Christians are still left in that thread. If the Bible does not contain any contradictions, then it is obvious that God has gone out of his way to make it appear that it does contain contradictions.

Timetospend

I wrote a couple of posts (or more)in this thread and might look back at it again with this prompting. However, to be honest, there was not much requiring comment.

I do not know that "it is obvious that God has gone out of his way to make it appear that it does contain contradictions," but I do think that it is written to make one dig.

Given the prolific, unnecessary ridicule already present on this thread, even emphasized by the moderator, I might not look back to this thread. It might be too painful.

Thanks,

Bible John

In the future perhaps but I am busy at this time.

Remember that I am the Director of a national web ministry, and I have other responsibilities, including perhaps if it is the Lords will a girl friend.