I see a pattern. It seems as though you expect the Bible to be a scientifically accurate textbook. That is not its intended purpose. The Bible is a meta narrative- 66 cohesive books, written by ~40 authors over thousands of years; with a unified message: God is good, sin is bad, man is fallen (and he can’t get up). All of your religio-scientific fundamentalism (I think I just made up a new term) is misplaced. These are not the “gotcha” points that you think they are.

quote:
The Bible authors believed the earth was a flat disk Sure. So? Everyone thought that in those days.

Your admission is refreshing.

Again- this is not the gotcha you think it is. Just because I admit that the authors may have believed that the earth was flat, it has no bearing whatsoever on the intended purpose of the text.

quote:
Galileo had to recant his position that the earth revolved around the sun to avoid being burnt at the stake by the church. Even during the renaissance the church fully believed (or claimed to believe) the biblical cosmology of the flat disk earth with the sun underneath the firmament.

That is quite the blemish (in regards to Galileo). While I believe the story is a bit overblown in the skeptic community- the act itself is indefensible. If only they had followed Jesus’ teachings more closely. The Church, IMHO, should have stayed in their lane. That said, it is unfair and unproductive to judge Christianity by those who suck at it. Rather, it should be evaluated by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ alone. No analogy I could offer would suffice.

1 ...

Report Post

Posted by Squirrelmeister

Member since Nov 2021

1900 posts

Posted on 2/1/24 at 11:49 pm to Prodigal Son

quote:
quote:
And how does any of this disprove the existence of the Christian God?
quote:
It doesn’t

quote:
Your admission is refreshing.

PS,
It’s tough to disprove something for which no positive evidence exists. You are unable to disprove the existence of Odin, of Zeus, of Amun Ra, of Ahura Mazda, and of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

quote:
quote:
Blindness, lameness, sores and blisters are not caused by demonic possession.
Can you say that for certain- in regard to all instances throughout all human history?

Yes,

for sure.

quote:
I see a pattern. It seems as though you expect the Bible to be a scientifically accurate textbook

I was always told the all powerful and all knowing creator of the universe inspired the text of the Bible and that it was accurate and correct, save for maybe a few translation issues and copying errors after they books were inspired. I would just expect it to not include a plethora of fallacies and falsehoods. Regardless, with no many things stated in the Bible - many of them alleged to come straight out of the mouth of Yahweh - to be patently false based on the overwhelming preponderance of evidence, it wouldn’t be a stretch to claim that not only is it not scientifically accurate but also probably not accurate about much else either.

quote:
The Bible is a meta narrative

A collection of short stories later compiled, edited, and redacted.

quote:
66 cohesive books

Stop!

quote:
written by ~40 authors over thousands of years

Probably more than 40. Some of the very oldest material likely dates to the 9th century BCE with the vast majority compiled and written between 500BCE and 200BCE and with the NT epistles and gospels dating from 50-ish CE to 180-ish CE. That’s barely over 1000 years. But… if you count some of the source material such as the Babylonian Enuma Elish, and some old Akkadian, Egyptian, and Bronze Age Canaanite stories, I guess you can say thousands of years.

quote:
Again- this is not the gotcha you think it is. Just because I admit that the authors may have believed that the earth was flat, it has no bearing whatsoever on the intended purpose of the text.

Maybe so, but because the writers were completely ignorant of the natural world and filled the Bible with falsehoods, it makes it difficult to have faith in what they have written.

quote:
If only they had followed Jesus’ teachings more closely.

Isn’t Jesus supposed to “return” to judge the living and the dead and exterminate all the unbelievers? The church may have been just looking out for Galileo’s immortal soul.

quote:
The Church, IMHO, should have stayed in their lane.

They were right in their lane. Europe wasn’t exactly filled with limited government constitutional republics, but rather theocratic divine monarchies.

quote:
That said, it is unfair and unproductive to judge Christianity by those who suck at it.

Maybe it isn’t fair. But judging is a part of human nature ingrained into our DNA through evolution. And often times judging is the right thing. I’m going to judge the hell out of antifa, BLM, nazis and commies and more as they suck so their ideologies also must suck.

2 ...

Report Post

Political Talk - Replies to Post

Return To Board

Page 1

Return To Board