NationStates Jolt Archive

I've had a discussion with someone on another forum, who stated that the bible is infallible, that thousands of prophecies were made hundreds of years ago which have now been proven to be correct by science. The fact that 40 or so people wrote several things which combined made the bible, which is inspired by god himself. Now I am sceptical and personally agnostic, but I am curious why people praise the bible to be the alpha&omega of their belief? Aside from this book, there is nothing they could base their belief on, so what makes the bible so special and infallible and how could one argue to counter arguments in a discussion like that?

I tried wit hthat open letter to Dr. Laura, but that was blatantly ignored...

...and how could one argue to counter arguments in a discussion like that?

My experience is that you can't counter arguments in a discussion like that. Talking religion isn't even 'discussion', it's stating viewpoints and getting annoyed because no-one will change those viewpoints...

It boggles my mind as to why so many people take a book, so very literally as do christians, with the Bible.
Its merely a collection of stories, with one message.

"Be a good person."

But people take it as meaning that every single word of it is to have such a profound magnificence and literal translatory truth.

Look at it this way.

The Bible...even if actually devinely inspired, was interperated by mortal men...then translated into a form of writing that you can understand, wich may certainly not be what was originally intended.

Its called.."READING TOO MUCH INTO IT."

Nothing written in the Bible can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt; whether it be the creation of the universe or evolution.

Both sides of the argument scoff at the other's findings without nary a single budge, and often they are pointless discussions in which nothing constructive whatsoever is obtained.

Dead topic.

Which version of the bible?

What about all the contradictions?

It boggles my mind as to why so many people take a book, so very literally as do christians, with the Bible.


Ive said it before and Ill say it again, not all us Christians are as stupid as to be a fundamentalist

But how can one counter the argument that some of gthe texts in the bible are prophecies which happened exactly as written? E.g. the history of Israel (may god have mercy with these mass murderers). How can it be that the history of this people has been pre-determined i nthe bible as exactly as it happened? Or the rise and fall of empires? Or that earth is round, the stars are countless and more?

Nothing written in the Bible can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt; whether it be the creation of the universe or evolution.

Both sides of the argument scoff at the other's findings without nary a single budge, and often they are pointless discussions in which nothing constructive whatsoever is obtained.

Dead topic.

Rubbish!!!

I am an atheist. However there are aspects of the teaching in that book that are worthy...such as thou shalt not kill, steal and the like....there is a decent morality in that book....as there are in most religious texts....

The problem lie in those who interpret that books meaning into their own politics or vision of what society ought to be like that one runs into problems.

Fact: The Bible was assembled at the Council of Nicea (sp?)
Fact: There were a coupla gospels which were excluded for one reason or another (among those are the Dead Sea Scrolls and i think the other one was the lost gospels of Philipp)

Personally, tho I'm agnostic, I'm one of those people who thinks Mary Magdelene coulda been married to Christ. Also, a coupla of my Christian friends feel the same way

Fact: The Bible was assembled at the Council of Nicea (sp?)
Fact: There were a coupla gospels which were excluded for one reason or another (among those are the Dead Sea Scrolls and i think the other one was the lost gospels of Philipp)

Personally, tho I'm agnostic, I'm one of those people who thinks Mary Magdelene coulda been married to Christ. Also, a coupla of my Christian friends feel the same way

I've had a discussion with someone on another forum, who stated that the bible is infallible, that thousands of prophecies were made hundreds of years ago which have now been proven to be correct by science. The fact that 40 or so people wrote several things which combined made the bible, which is inspired by god himself. Now I am sceptical and personally agnostic, but I am curious why people praise the bible to be the alphaω of their belief? Aside from this book, there is nothing they could base their belief on, so what makes the bible so special and infallible and how could one argue to counter arguments in a discussion like that?

I tried wit hthat open letter to Dr. Laura, but that was blatantly ignored...


There are too many contardictions to call to always true and infallible tbh

Heh as much as i hate to make long posts on topics i feel that i must state several facts about the way the new testament was written


At the time of jesus's death there were two factions of christianity, one side was those who actually knew jesus, such as his brother, and disciples who were going to write the testament to him, then there was the side lead by saint paul who had never met jesus or even known him in his life but according to the new testament was "enlightened" on the road to damascus, now there was a struggle between the two groups for who was going to write it.. guess who won, thats right saint paul did, a person who had never known jesus and had the impression from some hallucination that he was divine.

There are other reasons also why the new testiment is suprememly fallible, the fact that most of the things jesus said were just affirmations of the jewish religion that he was brought up in, there was a lot of sayings put in later by people who wanted to make him up to be the saviour of mankind, for those who don't believe me there is a society that is dedicated to going thrugh the new testiment and picking out thepassages that jesus might have actually said and those which he definatly didn't say.

Then we go onto the theologens views, who view jesus just as a wandering holy man, who was recreated in the work of fiction that is the bible on the whole to be the saviour of mankind to the revolutionary group at the time.

Then we go onto the matter of prophecies, i think you will find that the world was proven to be round by scientists and explorers and the view of the chruch at the time was actually that the world was flat, excommunicating those who thought different, and these were the people that knew the bible the best. the only prophecies in the bible are those of the end times, and even those are scant prophecies are best, i think Mahatma Gandhi said it best when he stated "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." it gives me great satisfaction that religion is fighting atheists, because that means we will eventually win :)

Let's say, if this was God's book, wouldn't God protect it from manipulation? Won't it be as authentic as possible to the original? Of course, I don't know about the translation glitches... :?

I think Mahatma Gandhi said it best when he stated "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." it gives me great satisfaction that religion is fighting atheists, because that means we will eventually win :)

Hey, atheists are fighting religion too, wouldn't they win too :?

Or is this quote taken out of context?

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I know of a version of the Bible where the last supper turns into a gay orgy, with fisting and everything!!

Ya know, you might start offending people around here, and get DEATed again you know... :?

I believe the bible is prophetic, but DO NOT take it as direct word of God. It is a metaphoric reference and using it for literal references as if God/Jesus wrote it is not how it should be used.

The original bible was in Greek, but translated to Latin and then later other languages. In between, people have fiddled with the bible and mistranslated it. So our bible now is NOT the same bible from around it's creation.

I've had a discussion with someone on another forum, who stated that the bible is infallible, that thousands of prophecies were made hundreds of years ago which have now been proven to be correct by science. The fact that 40 or so people wrote several things which combined made the bible, which is inspired by god himself. Now I am sceptical and personally agnostic, but I am curious why people praise the bible to be the alpha&omega of their belief? Aside from this book, there is nothing they could base their belief on, so what makes the bible so special and infallible and how could one argue to counter arguments in a discussion like that?

I tried wit hthat open letter to Dr. Laura, but that was blatantly ignored...Of course the Bible is infallible and always true; it says so in the Bible!

I'm a Portestant, and a firm believer in God and many ideas and concepts from the bible, but I dont base ALL of them on what was written in the bible.. it's true, that there has been events that have extreme likenesses to events that have actually happened, but not 'everything' can be taken literally...

..for example.. there are parts of the old testament that refer to homosexuality thats evil, and this would be because it was written in a time where it was definately not acceptable in society, and therefore based on the opinion of who ever wrote it.. nowadays, it's not the case....

I believe the bible is prophetic, but DO NOT take it as direct word of God. It is a metaphoric reference and using it for literal references as if God/Jesus wrote it is not how it should be used.

Which is probably even more dangerous, as people can then bend almost every line in the Bible into anything they want.
Then again, they already do this, and in your case they'd be slightly easier to sway from a point of view. Hmm.