re: Satanic Temple puts up display at Michigan Capital

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Well, in my defense, I don't believe in any of the bronze age bull shite mythology. So yeah, it's fake. But, in all seriousness, one can tell a story about a real person and interject legend into it. It isn't as if there aren't myriad examples of this in history.

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Well since you don't believe any of this ( and I already knew this) why take exception with me for saying the characters and stories are real and not just some of them?

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there are no records of King David, King Soloman, and only very sparse archaelogical evidence for either of them. Not one mention of Moses or the slavery at the hand of the Egyptians by either the Egyptians or the Jews.

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The bible speaks of David and Solomon in great detail and all the other topics you listed as well. All written by Jews.

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It's not rational to imagine there is an all powerful Santa Clause controlling the universe that requires being worshipped yet refuses to reveal itself.

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Why would you say this? God revealed himself to man many times throughout history and will again when he returns. Jesus himself was God in flesh and he was witnessed by many.

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LOL I knew the circular logic was your next step. You are now a Ken Hamm joke. Do you believe in a literal timeline of the Bible, special creation to revelations because if you do please indicate so and I will prove it factually impossible.

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It's isn't circular logic. The Old Testament was written by Jews and is a part of Jewish history. To discount it because you are not a believer is wrong.
Archeologist have already discovered many biblical cities and continue to do so presently.

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And that's why we can't take you seriously.

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Can't take me seriously because I have an orthodox view of Christianity and the Bible? I'm not concerned.

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LOL I knew the circular logic was your next step

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Eventually everything has to go back to a single source of authority that cannot appeal to anything greater. At that point, everything becomes circular.

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Many of the letters of the apostles that became the New Testament were first hand eyewitness accounts. I don't know what more you would want?

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you recognize this bible you cling to has been edited so many times over the many hundreds of years that the guys with white beards who "wrote" it probably wouldn't recognize the text anymore.

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you recognize this bible you cling to has been edited so many times over the many hundreds of years that the guys with white beards who "wrote" it probably wouldn't recognize the text anymore.

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When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, many of the documents and accounts of what were found of the gospels was almost word for word.

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Both Jesus and the disciples mention many of the Old Testament people by name as factual and very real.

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I don't deny this. A prophet being real and a story being factual is two different things.

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Adam and Eve

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real but existed way more than 6000 years ago

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Cain and Abel

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I guess they are real I'm not really sure, I'm not sure if it really matters.

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Noah

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real story of flood is overly exaggerated.

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Moses,

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lived but didn't write the entire pentateuch and didn't live as long as they claimed.

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Jonah

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real but the stories are either exaggerated or kinda like a fabel or something. I'm not exactly sure. I think most of the people in the time of Christ believed it was true but that doesn't mean it was completely factual. Try to remember what these people believed during this time, go back and read some of the things people wrote at the time. It helps us understand what they say.

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Daniel,

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This one is a complex one, it is written in three different languages, the first half of a story of the past and the other half a prophecy of the end times. Daniel existed but it was altered. Personally I think all of them are slightly altered.

before I move on I have to show you this VERY important, and very Christmas passage to.

Isiaha 7:14 says this

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14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

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if you know this passage well which you should, you may say that is a bad translation. Well no it's not. It is pretty good, no english translation is great, but young women is correct. In Hebrew young women is more accurate than virgin, even tough many translations use virigin.

something different too. Notice it doesn't say a young women will, it says the young women IS with child. Right now at the time of Isaiah.

Now let's jump forward a few hundred years to Christ. St. Matthew in his Gospel says this (note this is the same translation NRSV)

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel”

wait what happened here? Is Matthew changing the words of the Old Testament?

No not at all. Matthew understood it as he quoted it. Why? because of the LLX (I hope you know what that is look it up if you don't) why would a translation change the translation of the scripture? I don't know exactly but I think it shows us a truth. It is very common for people to alter stories to tweak things to prove a point. Personally I believe the translators of the LLX were divinely inspired by God to make this change. This is one of the most important prophecies of Christ, and Isaiah didn't write it that way.

If they change it this way in the LLX than it is very likely they do it throughout the scriptures.

The literalistic interpretation of the scriptures is a modern evangelical development and hasn't really been a part of any major Christian thought till recent.

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Jesus is comparing his time in the grave to the time Jonah was in the whale. And he says, just as Jonah was in the whale, I'll be in the ground. So what if Jonah never existed? Then Jesus illustration is not only useless but also a lie.

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I'm not so sure if Christ used a story to make a point that it is a lie. He isn't saying that Jonah exists and it happened exactly this way. He is using a story to prove a point. Again I think Jonah existed but he wasn't in the belly for 3 days.

this is off topic from the off topic topic, and plus it's Christmas eve, I don't feel like arguing.

Have a merry Christmas.

I leave you with the collect from the Christmas Mass which I will hear tomorrow morning.

O God, who wonderfully created the dignity of human nature
and still more wonderfully restored it,
grant, we pray,
that we may share in the divinity of Christ,
who humbled himself to share in our humanity.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Have a Merry Christmas Rev.