Calzaer

*Looks around at the two-hundred-plus different denominations of Christianity*

*Looks at the Catholics*

*Looks at the Eastern Orthodox*

*Looks at the Mormons*

*Looks at the Jews*

*Watches them all kill each other over "incorrect" interpretations of the Bible*

Yup. Sure got that point across REAL FRICKING WELL, huh?

Magus55

Why does it need to be specific? The Bible isn't a science textbook . And here is news for you, do you really think people 4000 years ago are gonna understand scientific explanations that won't be discovered for thousands of years? The Israelites had no clue what taxonomy is. They didn't know what Archaebacteria or protists or eukaryotes meant. The explanations in the Bible are simple, and to the point. The purpose of the Bible is to be read by as many people as possible - explaining Genesis in the complexity of the Theory of Relativity, would not make many people want to read it - they would give up and not bother.

Magus55

It got the point across quite well. But humans do have egos and their own agendas, and they make it more complicated then it has to be. Just look at this board - entire forums devoted to trying to understand the meaning of fowl in relation to the Bible. Fowl means flying creatures - simple as that - God pointed out every creature that wasn't ok to eat, and left it at that. Its when people don't want to accept it and try to find new meanings for it, because it doesn't seem to fit, with modern explanations ( gee I wonder why, maybe because modern explanations didn't exist when the Bible was written?). If you notice, the majority of the Bible focues on prophecy and Salvation because thats the most important part. The rest is a brief historical explanation of God's creation in manner everyone can understand, whether relatively uneducated - or a rocket scientist. Its when humans try to make it say something it doesn't, that confusion and problems arise.

Calzaer

You'd think an all-knowing all-powerful being that really cared about us getting to heaven would have come up with a textual way to circumvent that little problem, wouldn't you?

And if everyone misses the point, you can't possibly say "it got the point across quite well".

Magus55

Do you really think billions of people would all agree with each other, no matter what God did? People would still find something to complain about even if God wrote the Bible including every minute detail in existence, most of which, humans don't even understand today. God wrote it simple enough for the most amount of people to understand it throughout the ages. But people will ALWAYS find something about it they don't like and want to change, no matter what He did.

Peter Kirby

The first thing that any god worth his salt would do is to make sure that we could authenticate in some rational way the document alleged to be from him. (If he is omnipotent, he could have done that.)

best,
Peter Kirby

RED DAVE

From Magus55:

No they wouldn't. They would be stunned by the breadth and accuracy of it all. Kind of like astro-physics.

RED DAVE

lpetrich

I recommend reading the Book of Leviticus -- it is contrary to what Magus55 seems to think the Bible is. It goes into LOTS of detail concerning how to make various kinds of offerings, and tells the story of Nadab and Abihu who were zapped for burning incorrect incense.

lpetrich

Read the Book of Leviticus. It's full of the sort of detail that the Bible allegedly lacks.

Also, if the Bible is not intended to be a science textbook, then why insist that its first few chapters are literal, camcorder-accurate history? Meaning that one could go back in a time machine and watch Noah's Flood or the Universe being created in the manner that the Bible describes.

Magus55

You answered yourself. Genesis is an account of history, not science. It tells the who, why, and what, but not the how.