A book was "inspired" by Katharine Hepburn, The Bible was "inspired" by God.?

Question

A. Scott Berg had Katharine Hepburn's approval to write her book...he spent much time with her...and much of the book is her own words. Mr. Berg also interviewed employees, friends, co-workers and much of the book contains stories of their interaction with her. Mr. Berg likewise wrote about his conversations with Ms. Hepburn and brought his interpretation of the stories into the writings after studying her papers, contracts, etc...

So, this book is "inspired" by Katharine Hepburn, but written by A. Scott Berg. Is everything in this book exactly as it happened? Probably not...many musings were stories told by others of their interpretation of events...many musings are Mr. Bergs thoughts about the lady.

II Timothy 3:16 says all scripture is given by inspiration of God...likewise the Bible was inspired by God...but, written by human beings. Why can you not realize that these authors brought into their writings their own ideas, prejudices and customs of the day into their book.

The stories in the Bible were handed down..many times through unwritten stories handed down from generation to generation...

The Bible was not written by God..but, inspired by God...why can't fundamentalists accept this fact and accept the Bible for what it is....not God's specific words...but, humans words about God...

...just using Katharine Hepburn's book as an example...no, she is not God..no, her book is not on the level with the Bible...just trying to draw the correlation between "inspired

Answer 1

circular logics are flawed

“The Bible is without error, because God says so - in the Bible.”
"The Qur'an is without error, because God says so - in the Qur'an .”
“The Tanakh is without error, because God says so - in the Tanakh .”
“My essay is without error, because I say so - in my essay.”

Answer 2

Good point.

All Bibles are man-made
— Thomas Edison, (1847-1931)

"... the Bible was a collection of books written at different times by different men -- a strange mixture of diverse human documents -- and a tissue of irreconcilable notions. Inspired? The Bible is not even intelligent. It is not even good craftsmanship, but is full of absurdities and contradictions."
— E. Haldeman-Julius

"The Bible tells us to be like God, and then on page after page it describes God as a mass murderer. This may be the single most important key to the political behavior of Western Civilization."
— Robert Anton Wilson

"The Bible is a wonderful source of inspiration for those who don't understand it."
— George Santayana (1863-1952)

If he [god] is wise, why did he not compose a coherent account of what he wanted mankind to do? No, the Bible is not such an account; nobody can agree in what it says. The very god who, according to those who believe in him, made every last electron spin in its orbit everywhere throughout the universe, still cannot write a clear, unmistakable volume of instructions to human beings who are supposed to follow his wishes, Instead, he allegedly gives us the Bible or Koran, or some other jumble of ridiculous and ancient superstitions...
— Fred Woodworth

I'm an atheist, and that's it. I believe there's nothing we can know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for other people.
— Katharine Hepburn

Answer 3

Where is your proof that the Bible was handed down from generation to generation? Most of it was written during/after the Babylonian Exile which lasted just a single generation.

Of course, to make your analogy accurate, instead of Katharine Hepburn's biography, you should use Hitler's. He's the only person on earth that's come close to killing the number of people God's "inspired" book claims that He killed.

And if you try to explain away the inaccuracies, contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible by attributing it to human authors who 'brought into their writings their own ideas, prejudices and customs of the day', it's only a small jump to admit that God never actually existed. There is no "inspiration".

Answer 4

The new test was written in Greek. The Greek word for "inspired" is "God breathed". Jesus told his disciples they would remember all things.
Mr Berg was not Hepburn breathed I don't think.

Also we have many ancient manuscripts from the bible all the same. In fact the Vatican just bought some first century Gospels from a private dealer the same as our bible is today.
We have over 5000 cataloged, ancient manuscripts on on file including the dead sea scrolls. ALL very accurate many in different languages.
†

Answer 5

So, what's you point? That we humans have the right to "edit" the Bible, or ignore unpopular commands as just the "prejudice" of the human writers?

Are you saying that you are inspired by God to ignore the parts of the bible that you do not like?

Peter's view of inspiration is that the prophets were "carried along by the spirit" in the same way that a boat is driven by a strong current. The sailors may have some latitude in moving the boat from side to side, but the boat cannot fight the current. It will wind up wherever ever the current is driving it.

In the same way, the prophets were free to express what they were experiencing in their own words (because God obviously wanted the Bible to sound "human" to us, not alien), but the prophets were not free to write down something that the Holy Spirit would not have approved of. They could not fight against the current.

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Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
~2 Peter 1:20,21 (NIV)

Answer 6

Yes. The Bible can also be seen as the collective stories of how these people viewed God, the world, faith, and life in general. That doesn't mean we read and apply. It may inspire us, repulse us, or speak to us, but we read it for various reasons, and we interpret what we read. Nice question.

Answer 7

But I have proof of Katharine Hepburn's existence...Big difference.

Answer 8

Thank you! This is a very articulate point to this argument. If you can make at least one person realize that the bible is not the word of God, it will be worth it. Because that person will go directly to the source to know God instead of only knowing him through other peoples experiences. Star for you.

Answer 9

Katherine Hepburn was a living human being......"God" is an idea.

Answer 10

Excellent analogy. I was always taught it was God inspired.