re: Do you really believe stories from the Bible?

Adam and Eve and the early stories are just that-stories. They are meant to be moral lessons. But saying “the bible” shouldn’t be trusted is an absolute idiotic statement.


Old Testament stuff isn’t just floating in space either

Tel Dan Stele ? “House of David” (David was real)
Mesha Stele ? Israel + events line up
Siloam Inscription ? Hezekiah’s tunnel matches exactly
Taylor Prism ? Sennacherib attacking Judah recorded outside the Bible

Egypt side
Merneptah Stele ? earliest mention of Israel (~1200 BC)
Semitic people living in Egypt = confirmed
Ipuwer Papyrus talks about Egypt in chaos

not saying that proves everything
but it’s clearly tied to real history, not just made up

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now New Testament

11 guys say they saw someone they knew was dead alive again

then they get tortured and killed for it

not one of them says “yeah we made it up”

people die for beliefs all the time
they don’t die for something they KNOW is fake

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and it’s not just the Bible saying it

Tacitus says Jesus was executed under Pilate
Josephus mentions Jesus and early Christians
Pliny says Christians worshipped him as God

so even non-Christians confirm the basics

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this part always gets ignored

women are the first witnesses

in that culture that actually hurts your case

if you’re making it up, you don’t write it like that

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and the tomb

no body was ever produced

critics didn’t say “he’s still there”
they said “the body was stolen”

which still means the tomb was empty

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you don’t have to believe it

but you do have to explain
why the tomb was empty
why the people closest to it were willing to die
and why it all started right where it could’ve been shut down

“they just made it up” doesn’t really cover all that

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was yeshua in Aramaic

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That's pretty cool. I think the biggest failure is we try to interpret the Bible using today's terminology instead of the meaning when it was written

Yes, I believe what is written in the Bible—that God told Adam and Eve they could eat from any tree in the garden except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; that He parted the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape the pursuing Egyptian army, and when the Egyptians followed, the waters returned and destroyed them; that there is archaeological evidence supporting Noah’s Ark; and that Jesus turned water into wine.

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I don't think you should be involved in any thread about the Bible. Archeological digs have found cities mentioned in the Bible that people thought were made up. King David was once thought of as a myth but a Archeological dig actually confirmed he was a real person and I could go on and on

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Did you just not read the rest of the post?

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There are no silly, childish things like a worldwide flood, Noah's ark, Jonah and the fish, Moses parting the Red Sea, 800+ year old people, etc. Those are the mythologies of a simpler people who did not understand the world like people of the Roman era.

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yet there is a man who rises from the dead and then ascends to heaven which everyone who claims to be a Christian believes happened. That’s not any more far fetched than to believe that the same God who raised from the dead also delivered the Israelites from Egypt in spectacular fashion

You don’t get to Jesus without God first parting the Red Sea to deliver his people

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Believe what you want. All I can say is that I believe. If I am nothing happens. If you are wrong, you know.

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I’m not saying you’re not a true believer, but the reasoning you just laid out is Pascal’s Wager, and it’s just atrocious logic. (Again, not saying it applies to you, just using your post to talk about it because others have mentioned it in this thread, and it seems to be a very common “reason” for believing.

It’s just hedging your bets “just in case.” And that’s not true belief, not real faith. I struggle with the concept of “belief.” I don’t think true belief can be a choice. You either believe something based on what makes you you (genetics, experiences, and choices—which depend upon the 1st 2).

You could hold up a piece of red paper, ask me what color it is, and everything in my life that makes me me, will say “red.” But you tell me it’s “blue.” And that I need to choose to believe it’s blue. But there is nothing you can say, no consequences you can put before me, that will be able to make me truly believe it is blue. You can say if I don’t “choose” to believe it’s blue or I will spend the afterlife in eternal damnation. And I still wouldn’t be able to choose to truly believe it’s blue, hard as I may try.

Because everything that makes me me—that supposedly came from the Creator (I had nothing to do with my genetics, the family I was born into, the city, the country, the culture, etc…)—tells me it is red. I can say it’s “blue.” I can hope one day I’ll wake up and it will magically appear “blue” to me. But I can’t truly make myself believe it’s blue. Because every fiber of my being believes it’s red. No matter how much I want to believe it’s blue. I can’t make myself choose to believe it.

I’m not even commenting on my personal religious beliefs here—this has nothing to do with me—just pointing out the huge hole in the reasoning of Pascal’s Wager. You can’t choose to truly believe anything. Either you do or you don’t. Hedging your bets “just in case” is not real faith.

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There is so much archeology documenting the evolution of man.

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There is no archaeology that documents the evolution of man. What archaeology documents is the continual advancement of the technological prowess of man.

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If yo believe in Heaven, then by default you have to believe in Hell.

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I don't believe in either one of those. Let me clarify my position: do I believe that there was an itinerant preacher in the 30 ADs who was a rabble rouser and fighting against authority who's follows believed he was divine, and got murdered by said authorities via crucifixion. Sure, that is plausible, hell, John the Baptist's life is very similar to Jesus'.
Do I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, uttered some magic words to revive the little girl, walked on water, stopped the wind and storms on the lake of Galilee, brought Lazarus back from the dead, was reincarnated in the flesh, etc.. Absolutely not, these are nothing but made up legends of the human imagination, no different than the stories of Hercules, Apollo, the Illiad or the Norse Sagas.