What reason do you give yourself for taking the Bible literally?

Question

If the stories portrayed in the Bible truly happened, why only then, so there's no one around now to visually testify? Why aren't vegetables randomly sprouting around the starving in africa? Why doesn't the Pope find Osama Bin Laden instead of taking money and touring around like a rock star? The only "miracles" we have revolve around science, with the occasional sighting of satan in a stained glass church window. I don't know if that would be classified as a miracle or an abomination, but nevertheless, when a child with leukemia is suddenly cured, "Oh its a miracle!". No one suggests that hey, maybe the child's body is responsible for fighting it, or here's a theory; medicine actually works! Doctors really know what they're doing and didn't go to med school so "God" could heal....Doctors heal. I get so tired of people giving credit to their "God" rather than the doctor who has been fighting and searching for the answer, and because of their perserverance, find it! Religion is selfish!

Another question: Child "A" and child "B" are both boys, both 12, both have families who love them, and both have cancer. Child "A" dies. Child "B" has a full recovery. Do you believe that this is some Plan?? That "God has a plan for that child...". Is that how you think?

"Balla" Im a medical school student and I see this behavior all the time. No, fortunately all my family is healthy.

"Amos"; consider seeing a psychiatric doctor. With all the traumas you've suffered, dillusions have overwhelmed you! Have you let these doctors that you speak of know how much you appreciate their efforts??

See what I mean? Selfish!

"byHisgrace"; I completely respect your opinion and appreciate an intelligent response, however, I have a back injury that which I was told, by five doctors as well, would be permanent. Recently, with the research I've done and connections that I have, I've found a doctor who believes that my problem can be solved. Had I just left it to the first five doctors, I'd probably have a short career, but I didn't. No God brought him to me, no God led me to him. If my injury is fixed, it will be no miracle, just medicine and a doctor who knew more.

"islam"; Ahh....thats why Im saying it on Y!A. Good attempt though.

Answer 1

I completely agree with your point! It annoys me to no end that when good things happen they say "praise God!!" but when bad things happen it's because of Satan. No one takes any responsibility in their lives which, I think, in their minds mean they can't be held accountable for anything!

Answer 2

Faith is faith. either you have faith in something working or something failing, you have faith in God being true or lying.

my grandfather had aordic hernias on his ENTIRE aorta from his heart to his groin. The anurisms were the size of a basket ball and the size of a grape fruit. The had gone undetected at every screening they did trying to locate his trouble. At the last minute they found them and began operating.

Durring the opertation (and 8 hour operation) the surgon took a break to come tell us that he now believed in myricals. The larger of the two had begun leaking hours before, something unheard of. They burst and you die, there is no other option. The smaller had crowded his heart to the point where it failed three times durring the surgery.

The doctor could give no reason why this man should still be living. He said he didnt believe in God until that moment. He knew what he was doing durring that surgery, but he also knew that there was nothing that science, medicine or good thoughts could do to save him. yet he lived for 8 more years. The replacment vien they grafted in came unsutured and he bled into his lungs for 14 hours before they found the cause, before that my grandfather asked me to come stay with him, because he knew he was dying in a few days. Dispite the fact that his doctors told him he was fine.

When I was 8 my mother was pregnant with my second brother. Her digestive system completely shut down. She was on bedrest for 7 months. The doctors did a battery of tests, everything they could think of. They told her the baby would die, and she would be perminately ruined healthwise. But she believed. She lost 60 pounds durring those 7 months. Her teeth turned to chalk. She could not eat more than a cup of soup in one day. They doctors told her the baby was alive, but they didnt know his health because she refused to let them open her up. In the end after much prayer, and with the doctors in complete helplessness, she gave birth to my brother who was 9 pounds and more healthy than any of us. The doctors could find no trace of any medical problems in her or the baby after that. he's 13 now.

When i was 5 my peditrician gave me the live culture meningitus vaccine, dispite the FDA's urging to stop using it. I had the illness for 5 whole days and he insisted my mother not take me to the hospital. As it turned out she finally did and the doctors told her my entire left side would never grow properly, and i would lose my hip. I nearly died. but iam not only well now as an adult, but am perfectly symetrical and have perfect use of my body, as though it never happened.

When i was 14 i fell and broke my ankle. The bone was sticking so far out is almost broke skin. I was so afraid of doctors by this point in my life that i called my pastor to pray for me. He told me he would, He prayed for me over the phone. i had a towel with ice on my ankle, when we checked on it after praying the bone was completely back together and i could walk with absolutely no pain.

you believe what you want to believe. but in my experience a doctor has never saved my life, or fixed an ailment, only God has.

Answer 3

There was a higher occurance of visual miracles 2,000 years ago becaue Jesus was actually present and people had stronger faith. There weren't very many people, like you, who counted it as nonsense. I take the parts of the Bible literally that are intended to be taken literally because I have faith.

You seem angry, did someone in your family die?

Answer 4

I differ with your starting premise. The stories, the miracles and the wonders of the Bible do happen today & I personally have seen miracles that I attest to. Perhaps the difference between our perspectives is that I believe and you don't. That makes me capable of seeing what you cannot. And that's no different than the stories in the Bible - they were witnessed by believers.

In line with your analogy, let me share what I have seen with my own eyes. It also involves a cancer patient - my mother-in-law. Two years ago, doctors diagnosed Stage 4 lung cancer. It was in her lymph nodes and the doctors proclaimed that she would be dead in weeks, perhaps a couple of months. They prescribed her with chemotherapy, but said that the chemo would only prolong her life so she may have 6-9 months instead of 2-3. She underwent chemotherapy while her family and church members prayed.

The news is that the tumor which was inoperable and was going to kill her in 3 weeks to 3 months has shrunk and is almost gone. Instead of speaking of living for weeks doctors now speak of her living for a decade or more. Out of the battery of 5 doctors who have worked with her, not one can explain why she has recovered. These are not backwoods witch doctors - these are accomplished professionals with more than 100 years of practicing medicine between them. Not one has give credit to God, but not one will take credit for it either.

Did the medicine help? Of course. Did the doctors' expertise help as well? Without a doubt. But every one of them had pronounced her incurable and here she is 2 years later with a bright rosy future forecast by the same doctors who still don't understand why and gave her virtually no chance to be alive. I give a lot of credit to her team of doctors – without their knowledge and skill her recovery would not have been possible. But I also give at least equal credit to God, who answered our prayers when we had no other real hope.

You can believe what you'd like and to call people of faith selfish for glorifying God instead of worshipping the doctors. In no case of miracle healing like this (and I have personally witnessed several others) have I ever seen people not give credit to the doctors and the medicine involved. However, to think that that was all that was involved is short-sighted. What arrogance makes humans believe that we are capable of all the answers? What level of egomania does one have to scale in order to claim that God deserves no credit? And the remark that religion is selfish shows a complete misunderstanding of faith and its byproducts. If practiced according to God's wishes, faith is not selfish but altruistic. Believe what you want but there are no prayers said to doctors or to medical chemicals. Plenty are said to God, however - and He answers those who believe He will.

BTW - I believe we are all held responsible for our actions. The source of the goodness or evil makes no difference - we are ultimately responsible for our choice of whether to accept it or not. That doesn't alleviate our personal responsibility - something the secular world doesn't seem to believe in since the gods of psychology tell us we're not personally responsible for anything - we’re products of our environment, or our parents, or something else.


UPDATE:
I appreciate your response as well, but I don't understand how you can be so sure that God didn't arrange for that doctor to be there even after your back injury was deemed permanent? God doesn't have to be called on to act - He often acts in our best interest even when we deny His very existence. I was an atheist for 20+ years until I was in my late 30's and can now see where God was acting on my behalf even when I didn't recognize Him - all leading up to where I am today, which is preparing me for His plan for me tomorrow. Best wishes to you in your studies & in your corrective procedure(s).

Answer 5

Good question, I don't see how in the modern world people can take the bible as a literal translation of history. Just because you don't take the bible literally doesn't mean you don't belief the message.

Answer 6

I view the Bible as reference material as any other book that speaks of God. I do not believe anyone should take the Bible literally.

Answer 7

Most doctors I have come across are christian or jewish.

If you arent, and you are going to med school, I wouldnt tell my patients any of that jibberish you just spouted.