Why do you NOT believe the Bible?

[columbus]

It doesn't matter who wrote the laws and truths, it doesn't matter where they came from, it doesn't matter if buddha preached them, it only matters that they are?

That makes a good deal more sense to me than the beliefs that really implausible things are true because some ancient person claimed it to be true.
Tom

 

[djhwoodwerks]

That makes a good deal more sense to me than the beliefs that really implausible things are true because some ancient person claimed it to be true.
Tom

So if a spiritual book appears one day, anonymous, and has many wonderful (to the human mind) things written in it, it would be a good idea to accept it because it would be more plausible than a book that let's us know the authors?

 

[viole]

I would love to have a conversation with some people about why they do NOT believe the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but am looking for the arguments against the Bible.

For the same reason I do not believe the Odyssey is the inspired word of Zeus. I guess. And because I need to believe in X before believing that book Y has been inspired by X. For any X and Y.

Ciao

- viole

 

[Nietzsche]

For the same reason I do not believe the Odyssey is the inspired word of Zeus. I guess. And because I need to believe in X before believing that book Y has been inspired by X. For any X and Y.

Ciao

- viole

Zeus was a creepy rapist, too. I mean, really.

 

[jonathan180iq]

I would love to have a conversation with some people about why they do NOT believe the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but am looking for the arguments against the Bible.

God was certainly a lot more demonstrative back in the ancient world, according the Biblical accounts, wouldn't you agree?
Why is he suddenly so shy and coy? The same god that parted the Red Sea and turned sticks into serpents, the same god who made donkeys talk and turned people into blocks of salt, the same god who spoke to people through burning bushes ,and rained fire down from heaven, and played practical jokes on fathers just to see if they would listen to him is the same god who today is very silent and non-demonstrative... Why is that?

The Bible is a joke.

It only takes a good read-through to recognize that. I think the people that venerate the Bible are the same people who only ever read small passages or they have the Bible explained to them by someone else. The gospels read like slap-stick comedy, with a bunch of simpletons following around this smug dude who performs lots of magic tricks in public (something else that doesn't happen today...) and it references all types of impossible scenarios, like zombies, teleportation, mind-reading, levitation, earthquakes that coincide with solar eclipses, demon pigs...etc. Hell, it can't even get the time-period for the birth of Christ right...

I think we should start with which parts of the Bible you think should be taken seriously and then we can work backwards from there.

 

[columbus]

So if a spiritual book appears one day, anonymous, and has many wonderful (to the human mind) things written in it, it would be a good idea to accept it because it would be more plausible than a book that let's us know the authors?

Doesn't matter to me if the authors are known or not.
The best book I know of, by that standard, is called "A Course In Miracles". I know where it came from. A Jewish psychologist at Columbia University channeled Jesus while her coworker wrote it down. Their names were Helen Shuchman and Bill Thetford. But I still don't believe that it is from God.
Tom

 

[buddhist]

It doesn't matter who wrote the laws and truths, it doesn't matter where they came from, it doesn't matter if buddha preached them, it only matters that they are?

It doesn't matter because we cannot know "who" made them, if there was indeed a "who" behind those Laws governing Reality. There are endless unverifiable stories that purport to explain the "who" - I can spend my whole lifetime exploring those stories without coming to a definite, provable answer.

A man wounded by an arrow or bullet does not ask "who" shot him, but instead focuses on its removal. In the same way, early Buddhists focuses on the removal of suffering through a proven method, rather than spending time shaking our fists at an imaginary who.

 

[djhwoodwerks]

The best book I know of, by that standard, is called "A Course In Miracles". I know where it came from. A Jewish psychologist at Columbia University channeled Jesus while her coworker wrote it down. Their names were Helen Shuchman and Bill Thetford. But I still don't believe that it is from God.

Of course it isn't from God, Jesus can't be "channeled".

 

[columbus]

Of course it isn't from God, Jesus can't be "channeled".

Why would I believe that you know that? Maybe Jesus picked a new prophet. The book itself is way better than the Bible.
Tom

 

[djhwoodwerks]

A man wounded by an arrow or bullet does not ask "who" shot him, but instead focuses on its removal.

Please, if someone shot you, you wouldn't look around to see who it was that shot you? You'll just say, "oh darn, I've been shot, let me focus on getting this out"? Even when in the ambulance, you'll be asking, "who was it that shot me?" "why did they shoot me?"

 

[djhwoodwerks]

Why would I believe that you know that?
Tom

Why wouldn't you? You said,

Doesn't matter to me if the authors are known or not.

 

[buddhist]

So if a spiritual book appears one day, anonymous, and has many wonderful (to the human mind) things written in it, it would be a good idea to accept it because it would be more plausible than a book that let's us know the authors?

If I can prove for myself the claims written in an anonymously written spiritual book, then yes, I will accept it wholeheartedly, over a book with (allegedly) "known" authors teaching things I cannot know for myself.

Please, if someone shot you, you wouldn't look around to see who it was that shot you? You'll just say, "oh darn, I've been shot, let me focus on getting this out"? Even when in the ambulance, you'll be asking, "who was it that shot me?" "why did they shoot me?"

I'm claiming that my first inclination would be to get the wound fixed and healed. My first inclination would not be to spend precious time roaming around looking for the shooter, questioning alleged witnesses, etc. while I'm bleeding to death.

 

[columbus]

Why wouldn't you?

Because you have not given me any reason to believe that you or the Book you like are more authoritative than the one I like.
Tom

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I don't believe in the Bible because I believe it has numerous claims about morality, history and the natural world in conflict with what I understand of those things.

 

[LuisDantas]

I would love to have a conversation with some people about why they do NOT believe the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but am looking for the arguments against the Bible.

You have quite the challenge ahead of you then.

When I read the Bible, I can't help but wonder if it was ever meant to be "believed in" as such. It does not seem to suit that role at all well.

 

[Riders]

I kind of feel that, as a teenager as I started to read the Bible more I found a lot of the things that Yahweh did or that prophets did in his name by using their powers, or some things in Psalms that were praised (like saying they should kill Babylonian babies by hitting them against rocks) to be really horrible and gravely offend my innate moral compass. And I realized that any permanent punishment for any temporal crimes against an infinite unhurtable god was not justifiable and so despite the nicer qualities of Jesus I couldn't even get behind him for how much he talked of hellfire. That was the starting point. Then I found a bunch of weird claims that couldn't be true. And I failed to find any solution to resolving the very evident age of the Universe with the claims of the Bible. The last nail in the coffin was that I tried it out and prayed a lot but nothing happened, but the moment I turned to another religion and prayed stuff happened very quickly and the experience was very real and vivid.

I think though the underpinning reason for me was that every denomination I've ever known, heard about, or whatever didn't actually follow the Bible very accurately. And when I actually read it for myself it became apparent to me that it would actually be very scary if anyone did follow it, as the things it would have people do are pretty violent at times.

Another thing I should point out is that my current understanding is more mature of the Bible. The ancient Jews wanted to preserve the traditional teachings and so they combined different versions of the same stories which is part of why the Bible is full of so many contradictions. This becomes more clear when you realize that in many parts of the Old Testament it tells the same story more than once, it's actually telling it again as the different version. They wanted to preserve all the versions into a single set of scriptures to unite their people. I'm pretty sure everyone who read it back then knew that it was supposed to be like that, and so wouldn't see them as contradictions but more akin to disagreements, perhaps.

Though the New Testament is a bit' different, because the context was way different. There were hundreds of gospels written all wildly different but only a few survived the gnostics' suppression and were later chosen to be part of the canon. The four gospels of Jesus Christ are more consistent than the old testament, but some things like Judas's death stand out. In one account he accidentally slips on a sharp rock and spills his guts and the guys take his money and do something with it. In another Judas feels bad and commits suicide and the guys do something different with his money.

In either case, if a scripture can't even agree with itself which version is the "real" one I can't see it as being the "Inspired Word of God" as I kind of think if there is a God, an intelligent creator of the Universe who planned this all out, he would of been better at getting people to write the truth down correctly and consistently.

Though I guess you could always take just one version of each story as the "true" one but then you would disagree with pretty much nearly all Christians and you really wouldn't have the Bible anymore but something lot shorter.



While I am no Christian, clearly you have never read the entertaining and sometimes hilarious parts of the Old Testament. I could give some examples if you like.

One reason is that I believe like the creation stories, that people from all over the world in different cultures created the same exact stories as the bible did including Genesis and the Noah story. How did that happen if the bible is the one true book?

I agree with you one the morality part, with all the wars God told his people to start against earthbased or Pagan if you prefer, societies. They didn't win people over to Jewish beliefs they forced it on them against their will by going to war,I think that's monstrous.

The Prists of the Catholic church forced Catholicism down the throats of EUropeans and they turned over their Gods destroyed the Library of Alexandria thankyou, the great Library that had the worlds knowledgeable books on the planets science and evolution, it was amazing, do I believe it was right for them to go to war,no if a God a told them that that God is evil.

Sacrificing their children,all the other stuff .................

 

[Riders]

Scripture that's contradictory, the fact that its so difficult to read for this generation I cant even understand it,I don't think God made it so that this generation could really even be able to interpret it these days. SOme scripture, like Psalms is Good, theres questions of what language was really use has it even been translated and interpreted right I don't think it is really translated right from its original language its too old.

 

[Riders]

Zen Buddhist beliefs teaches me that I should not debate, this is going against my religion so I shouldn't bring it into it. sorry I'm a bad example now, butt ruthfuly I believe there is truth in my religion that Christians don't believe in too, that's also a witness against the bible for me.

 

[wicketkeeper]

I would love to have a conversation with some people about why they do NOT believe the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but am looking for the arguments against the Bible.

Respectfully, the bible is but a collection of books which has been called the word of God. It is an interesting read to be honest, but it is a book I read allegorically and not literally. I have two favorite books, from the Old Testament I like the Book of Ezekiel because for me, it tells a tory about aliens and their craft. My second book is from the New Testament, and is the poetic writing of John, the Gospel of John.

The word of Man is not the word of God. The truth is Man created God !

 

[Gyrannon]

I would love to have a conversation with some people about why they do NOT believe the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God but am looking for the arguments against the Bible.

I don't believe in the bible (most of it) because it feels too man-made. It just doesn't scream "I am a God, a Perfect being, and I wrote this book!" it feels more like a sexist incestuous and angry person wrote the bible.