The Bible - As Fictional as Harry Potter?

Question

How can the religious folks out there seriously beleive that the bible is a book of historical fact
I beleive it is nothing more than a work of blind faith.
My following examples are why i think it's a load of nonsense, and i'd like you to challenge them with credible reasons.

Genesis 1 & 2 - In the first chapter the Bible states that Adam and Eve were created together....
In the second it says that God created Adam first, then once he'd was bored naming the animals etc.. he said he was lonely and so God created Eve from one of Adams ribs.
Now some of you will say this is just 2 versions of one event, which is fine but u cant then expect me to take the bible literally can you?

Genesis 6 : 11-13 - Noahs Ark - You really expect me to beleive he had 2 of every animal on board? there are over 10 billion species on earth!!! And they all just happened to be in the right place at the right time did they? Then get didstributed perfectly?

Exodus 14: 22 -31 Moses - There is no evidence outside of the bible of a man named Moses, or ofthere eve beingJewish slaves in Egypt, and no historcal evidence of them wandering the desert for 40 years

New Testament - Jesus, you worship him as he is the so called son of God yet give no credit to the other "messiahs" of the time who apaarentlydid miracles etc... citing as an example Apolonius of Tianon.

Explain... cos i cant!!!

For totally_idiotic im confused as to how you beleive the Noahs Ark story could have been true, yet cited evolution as a factor in your answer. Surely to beleive in evolution you beleive in science? Isnt that a little contradicting?

Answer 1

Everything in the bible is real. Next time Jehovah's Witnesses call at your door, ask them the questions you have and take the time to listen with an open mind. You will get proper answers.

Answer 2

Good luck mate, you're just about to get a whooooooooole load of people yelling at you!
The Bible is actually very accurate historically, as in when listing names/places/events, this can be matched up to archaeological evidence. Some archaeologists even trust the Bible so much as a historical document that they use it as a starting point for digs - such as in, oh look, the Bible says this happened here, then, so lets have a look and see if it actually happened. In this way, a lot of quotes which historians thought were wrong in the Bible have actually been proved right.
Also, the Bible is not meant to be taken literally all the way through. You have to remember that the Old Testament was first and foremost a oral tradition passing on the stories of the Jews, which was then written down. Do you really expect people living so long ago to be able to grasp the concept of evolution and the Big Bang? Wouldn't it be easier to have a poem which describes the main principles of the earth evolving? (Heavens expanding, rocks, plants, animals, then humans).
The word for each type of animal that is used in the Bible doesn't mean each individual species, but rather the animal. So, not dalmations, terriers, etc, but just dogs. And it wasn't two of every animal, but some other figure I can't remember at the moment!! My belief is that the different species evolved from these essential 'core' species that got onto the ark.
Hope that helps show the Bible isn't all complete rubbish!

EDIT: Yes, I really don't think its that contradictory to believe in both God and science. There are a lot of Christians I know that make a living from science, including a guy who has a PHD in metrophysics (or whatever the Big Bang stuff is called) from Oxford! I think that science is the rules of the universe which God put in place for it all to work, because it had to work somehow, and I think things like evolution is the way it works!

Answer 3

Every book has a real message even if the book is fictional. The new testement can be proved to be historically accurate. Much of the Bible is undisputed even after 2000 or more years. Harry Potter will never be classed as a factual book by historians because too much of the book can be proven to be fictional. 2000 years from now they will have a list of everyone who bought the book and when and where! In 100 years from now history will be a popular subject because of the vast amount of info we are building today.

Answer 4

There are many parts of the bible that man has filled the gaps due to his lack of understanding, of course Adam and eve is a story, but a story that was made to try and explain things to, just like how people use to tell children about the birds and the bees, and this can be seen throughout the bible and all other so called holy books, but before you right it off, you should check your facts, there is a lot in the bible that can be matched to records recorded as history, so before you make a statement you should check things out first.
Remember man has problems understanding how things work now, and the only difference is the things we don't know and make up, or fill the gaps are only different things, to then

Answer 5

A lot in the Bible did actually happen, (great flood, Jericho etc) although was interpreted in a way people would understand when it was written. The greatness of the Bible, if you take time to study it , is that it symbolises every aspect of life - gives examples of every character type and their problems, and gives answers to our dilemmas even today. But we are so used to our 'quick fix' society, we don't want to take any time to ponder and meditate...it's so much easier to dismiss it as useless. Don't take the Bible so literally - it holds a lot of wisdom.
PS...maybe the 'Ark' was a spaceship and the specimens were in test tubes? Maybe God's angels are beings far advanced somewhere out in space or in another dimension. The only thing I know for sure is that we know so little!

Answer 6

Actually, there is archaeological evidence for Moses and the Exodus. There is also evidence to indicate the fall of Jericho and the crossing of the Jordan. There is also evidence that the Hebrews lived in Egypt during the time the Bible says they were slaves.

Before that the Hebrews were nomadic but there is still evidence they were well known from Egypt and other Mideastern stone tablets found. Of coarse, not everything is a clearly written as the Bible because the histories of other nations were not as interested in the Hebrews as they were in themselves. To expect otherwise is to be uniformed of the nature of ancient cultures.

Sometimes, instead of following the crowd and being so anti Christian and anti Bible it pays to do some individual research and make up your own mind.

Answer 7

I KNOW I am going to get thumbs down from some Christians for saying this even though I am one!
But I don't think the Bible is meant to be taken literally. Some of it maybe, but not all of it. Just as Jesus taught in parables at times I also believe that the Bible tells some of it's stories as examples rather than as being meant to be taken as 100% fact.
However, like it or not, Christian or not, there are sound historical facts in the Bible that have been documented elsewhere by non Christians. For just one example Jesus is in the Qu'ran and accepted by Islam as an important prophet.

Answer 8

Historians and theologians treat bible NOT as a history book, but a Story book that tells us something unexplainable. they use certain methods of INTERPRETING the bible and are very careful not to interpret it LITTERALLY. there are many things that has to be considered when interpretting the bible:
the WRITTERS, they're culture, they're belief, the time they wrote their books. honestly, the writers of the bible( especially the gospels) started to write about it after several years it happened, and those writers just got the story by some sources and heresays. that's why if you read the gospels,you'll see differences and even contradictions to the stories, it's because nobody in their times saw it and they just heard about it. like the genesis 1& 2 you mentioned,they contradicted each other but the purpose of the story is not to state whether where we're made of or who was made first. when we look at the essence of each story, all it wants to state is that we all came from something, maybe a greater being than us. but because people back then aren't educated enough to explain the answers to their questions, they resort into explaining everything easier by using GOD as the creator or heaven or hell, or miracles. in the end, the bible is written by people who can't find the right explanations to their questions and found a way to explain it. historians are interpretting it historically, not litterally, it's because it is a fiction from reality. so to extract the reality out of these fictional stories, historians had to retrace the writers' steps to see what made them create such a book. and according to many historians, people from their time are in great crises. racial discrimination, corruption and war made these people think that there must be a punishment for the people who wronged them,and so they created the context of "heaven and hell" and the "judgement day". these are people who suffers because of their economy and government and their only explanation is, as some bible's book's contexts are, that the people who suffers are the ones loved by god. (see the lines where poor is close to jesus and all...).

well, my point is, you can't just go interpret anything written in this book without the appropriate knowledge and the proper research and understanding of what these people have experienced coz it greatly affects the writer and the writing itself.

Answer 9

Yes, there are some parts of the Bible that are fiction. They are meant to be fiction, to teach lessons. Many people don't tend to pay attention to straight forward histories.
Unlike Harry Potter there is actually meaning behind these stories and a reason for telling them.
Like Harry Potter, there is a lot of litterary reflection in the Bible which makes it both inspiring and interesting.
Unlike Harry Potter, the Bible forbids the practice of Witch Craft.

Answer 10

Who ever said Harry Potter was fake?! When I was 11, I was expecting a letter from Hogwarts to tell me I'm a witch