Why do people believe that the New Testament is authoritative? For example, what does "inspired by God" mean? Why do you believe that it is inspired by God.
This is not from an atheist perspective. I believe in God.
I believe that the New Testament has some objective truths. I also believe that it contains many artificial stories intended to serve a purpose.
I has to do with the illustrious longevity of Christianity, all from its very humble beginnings; genocide. Christianity stuck it out, during the original hard times, and would go on and inherit Rome; preach to all the nations, via the world empires like Great Britians. It is hard enough for anything to last, but to also do this at the pinnacle of world success for centuries, requires support from God.
Christianity started in Jerusalem and expanded to north Europe, then west to North, Central and South America, as well as Australia. In modern times, these are the majority of the first world countries on earth. If the words of the New Testament did not inspire, this fate would have been different for Christians. The New Testament is not about the ego, but rather the words are designed to reach the inner self; inner man. Atheism is more ego-centric and the NT was not designed for the ego. The inner self is much deeper in the psyche, and when reached becomes closer to improved human instinct; recipe for success.
I remember going to a college graduation for my younger brother many years ago. His commencement speaker was a prestigious economist. He was telling stories of his travels around the world, as a consultant and economist, and how people from all over, marveled at USA, for how the USA could seem to be so chaotic, always changing, yet remaining peaceful, productive and stable; creative chaos. His explanation to those country and graduates, had to do with Christian Ethics. The love your neighbor and turn the other cheek, as a start, allows one to maintain a positive outlook, even while battling hard in the economic and social chaos. It instills sort of a sports attitude of achievement, where you play hard but fair, instead of shorter fuses, leading to cheating, and war that can end the dream.
The godless Democrats, in the current Presidential election cycle, are the mostly likely to cheat, lie and gossip, since they cannot compete in a fair way based on the rules of sport; pick to policy. They see it, not as sports but as all is fair in love and war. Even though they have to play dirty, this does not drag the more spiritual people into the gutter; Conservatives. Trump went through a lot of DNC cheats and lies, but turned the other cheek and did not respond in kind; lock them up. This was words and not action. When the entire country was more like latter, a generation or two ago, you could work and play hard and like in sports, have a beer with your opponents after the game.
Socialism is more for the cheaters. If you install Socialism, those in power can rig the game, to maintain that power. There is no easy path upward. The best people can no longer compete within that rigged system and they can become a threat if they find a work around.The result is an overall social downgrade. Democracy works better in Christian Countries, since you are trained as a child to have the proper attitude so that ideal of Democracy can be realized and maintained.
The Founding Fathers of the Constitution were closer to Agnostics. However, their wives were Christians and they taught the children who would someday be the future; blend of secular and faith or be prosperous but remain together in freedom.
When I was younger, the politician would mud slinging by doing investigative research, digging up real dirty secrets. Now lying is done instead. At least investigative snooping took skills. Lying is the cheat of the fools. If you water doe the Christians enough, they can't compensate for the cheat, and keep freedom going. Christianity also is based on the idea that law has been replaced by faith. A honest person with self control and good attitude towards others does not need law. This is the recipe for freedom and rights.