Question for atheists. Not an insult I swear.?

Question

Many Christians are defending the validity of the bible by saying that it has accurately predicted many catastrophic and significant events. What is your rebuttal to this? Here is a list of just a few.

1) God predicted that the temple in Jerusalem would be totally destroyed (Matthew 24:2). About 40 years later this was literally fulfilled as the Romans destroyed the temple under Titus.

2) God predicted to Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years (Genesis 15:13). Several generations later, following the death of Joseph, this was literally fulfilled (Exodus 1).

3) God through Daniel predicted the coming world empires of Persia, Greece and Rome (Daniel 2, Daniel 7, etc.) with such accuracy that unbelieving scholars have insisted that the book of Daniel must have been written at a much later time because no one living in Daniel’s day could have known about these future kingdoms!

4) In 1 Kings 13:2 God predicted that a man would be born in the line of David by the name of Josiah. The book of 1 Kings was written three centuries before Josiah’s birth!

5) In Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 God predicted that a future Persian king would come on the scene by the name of Cyrus. Yet Isaiah wrote this more than 100 years before Cyrus was even born! This is one reason why unbelieving Bible scholars insist that Isaiah could not have written these chapters, because no one in Isaiah’s day could have known about this future ruler.

Answer 1

You will get a lot of short fused answers that amount to a pile of beans.

I am on your side

Answer 2

1) Even the EARLIEST gospel (Mark), from which the other three were clearly derived, was written AFTER the temple was destroyed. Not much of a prophecy anymore, is it? :P *laughs* It's easy to 'predict' something that's already happened.

As for the rest, and this claim in general, check my source, read it thoroughly, then go back and read these 'prophecies.' You will quickly realize just how 'weak' they are. An excerpt from my source follows:

"There are several mundane ways in which a prediction of the future can be fulfilled:

a. Retrodiction. The "prophecy" can be written or modified after the events fulfilling it have already occurred.

b. Vagueness. The prophecy can be worded in such a way that people can interpret any outcome as a fulfillment. Nostradomus's prophecies are all of this type. Vagueness works particularly well when people are religiously motivated to believe the prophecies.

c. Inevitability. The prophecy can predict something that is almost sure to happen, such as the collapse of a city. Since nothing lasts forever, the city is sure to fall someday. If it has not, it can be said that according to prophecy, it will.

d. Denial. One can claim that the fulfilling events occurred even if they have not. Or, more commonly, one can forget that the prophecy was ever made.

e. Self-fulfillment. A person can act deliberately to satisfy a known prophecy.

There are no prophecies in the Bible that cannot easily fit into one or more of those categories." --http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CH/CH110.html

Answer 3

And *I* gave Diane a Thumbs Down because I _wanted_ her prediction to come true, which is another way a prophecy can be fulfilled. This is especially true for the "Josiah" one - it isn't difficult to name your kid a well-known, prophesied name.

It seems you also answered your own question - many scholars believe that the prophecies were written after the fact. You seem to disagree, but you don't have any evidence. Something as amazing as telling the future requires amazing evidence in order to be believed - or do you believe Tarot readers (which I suspect, as a Christian, you don't) just because they claim they know the future without any evidence or experience to back that up?

Answer 4

The trouble is, all the predictions I know of are either too obvious (it's not uncommon for temples to be destroyed) or vague and ambiguous (i.e. it's almost certain that at least some future event would have been consistent with the prophecy).

Added to that, a prophecy should really predict something that hasn't happened yet, so we can confirm it. What we could really do with is a prophecy that says "on May28th 2007 a comet will appear in the constellation Ursa Major" or something like that - it would be hard to refute one like that.

Answer 5

Sigh.

The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and its Second Temple about 70 CE

The majority of Bible scholars date the gospel of Matthew between the years 70CE and 100CE

It's not really hard to 'foretell' something that has already happened.

Answer 6

Self Fulfilling Prophecy..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-fulfilling_prophecy

http://www.answers.com/topic/self-fulfilling-prophecy

http://www.staff.vu.edu.au/DrDaz/slides/Lecture%2012%20attribution/tsld002.htm


I predict I will have a drink of Pepsi and eat some Chips Ahoy! chewy cookies with chocolate frosting smeared on (this is my snack don't judge it) Yup eating that right now.. MMMMM.

I will predict I will get at least 1 thumbs down probably more for this answer.. Then I can do something to make that come true. For Instance

JESUS NEVER EXISTED, THE BIBLE IS A FRAUD, GOD IS A MYTH..

At least one person will neglect to read the answer and will thumbs down based solely on the all caps part..

I am Atheist although I typically wouldn't be this inflammatory but I had to use something very inflammatory to prove a point.. Sorry to those who do believe I honestly believe you have the right to choose your own belief even when it differs from mine..

Answer 7

I would say Nostradamus and any number of other people prophesy are all over for thousands of years. Some or hits and some misses. This is not proof. The wording in prophesies is always ambiguous enough to make it true to anything you want. I always wondered about the Jesus prophesy. Jesus being a Jew would have known about them, especially when the told the story of his birth. He had all the information he needed to for fill it and the parents nurtured it. Well, that's what I think,

Answer 8

All the predictions in the Bible were either written after the fact, were purposely fulfilled by those who knew of the prophecy, are too vague to be clearly interpreted, were extremely easy to predict, or have failed.

Answer 9

I normally don't discuss these things with children.Just so you can make a better argument next time.I predicted the Mets would win the 1986 World Series.Do you believe it?Now if I predict the 2007 Series it might mean something.Predictions made long before you're born mean nothing.See what I mean?

Answer 10

The bible predicts things that happen later in the Bible? Amazing!

Answer 11

if you know so much why don't you know what Armageddon really means... it means that the veil of blindness will be removed and your religions will be exposed as the work of Satan... the bible is not how it was introduced... Eden is a prophecy not a history... a lot of the OT is a reflection of the spiritual war that is why there is no proof of Eden of Noah and his ark... no proof of Jesus... the devil likes to us the imagination of men to create possibilities.. and then asks that your imagination be enough to keep you believing... the greatest prophecy of all... I've heard the woman in the wilderness called the church... what is a religion ran by men, know about a woman... the dragon is the church... and bit by bit as she destroys what the devil created including heaven...the truth will come out..for the devil likes to hide the truth in the past and keep it hidden till those who are close enough to the truth die.... he can't kill her...not this one... I've met her... she keeps in hiding for the devil is able to create violence around a person... that is what is meant by he controls death..means he can have someone commit murder.... Armageddon is not the end of the world... it's the end of christianity and to the devil it means the end of his world....