Can anyone...anyone...answer a simple question?

Question

Forgive me for being perfectly honest, which my question is: how on earth does an intelligent, educated, adult human critter believe all that they read in the Holy Bible? Do they never pause and say, "What?"

Answer 1

The bible is written for the faithful, not the skeptic. If I were a skeptic I would agree with you.

Answer 2

IF anyone says they never doubt then they are probably lying or have more faith than me. Everyone has their moments of doubt but there is no Slavation except through Jesus! I have just looked at the evidence and the more I study the Bible the more I have faith in it. The more I study the Bible's history, archaeology etc. the more reliable I find it is! Usually when I say "what" it means I have to look at someting I missed before or something in my life.

"There is no incompatibility between science and religion... Science shows that God exists." - Prof. D. Barton, Nobel Prize Chemistry

"If I had no other data than the early chapters of Genesis, some of the Psalms and other passages of Scripture, I would have arrived at essentially the same picture of the origin of the universe, as is indicated by the scientific data." Nobel Prize-winning physicist Arno Penzias (Big Bang Theorist)

"The principle of [divine] purpose ... stares the biologist in the face wherever he looks ... . The probability for such an event as the origin of DNA molecules to have occurred by sheer chance is just too small to be seriously considered ... ."Ernst Boris Chain - Nobel Prize in medicine

"So many of my colleagues are Christians that I can't walk across my church's fellowship hall without tripping over a dozen physicists." William D. Phillips (1948- ), awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics

Answer 3

I think one of the highest levels of intelligence is admitting you don't know everything and that just because something doesn't make sense to your natural mind and senses doesn't invalidate it. Of course I've said "What?" when reading the Bible, I think it is much more complex than people give it credit for and Christians and non Christians alike often have a poor understanding of it. I also believe knowing the Bible and understanding the Bible are two different things. I don't claim to have all the answers, I'll tell you I've never read the Bible cover to cover, but I'm doing my best to figure it out and I'm careful to study what is saying and the context in which it is presented to understand what is being said. I've learned my first thought or reaction to some scripture is often incomplete or misguided. Human error in interpreting the scripture is a common cause of confusion and doubt when reading the Bible.

Answer 4

Intelligent, educated people do pause. They take some things in the bible at face value, but most of the bible is guidance for living, not absolutes in terms of what is and can be. To say, for example, that airplanes are the devils work because they aren't mentioned in the bible is ignoring the simple fact that when the various parts of the bible were written, airplanes didn't exist. Most people interpret what the bible says in terms of today. It should hardly ever be taken literally.

Answer 5

What do you mean by believe? I read the Bible, I interpret it, I attempt to study it and make meaning out of it. Forgive me for being perfectly honest, but if you looked beyond your own narrow understanding of what kinds of Christian critters there are, you would find that there are many great, intelligent, highly educated human beings that have written thousands of books about the Bible. So I encourage you to pause at the theology section of your local bookstore, check out some Karl Barth, some Paul Tillich, some Niebuhr, Borg, Crossan, Spong. Then come back, and I'll smack you around some more.

Answer 6

As a Christian, sure sometimes you stop and say "what?" There are plenty of things in the Bible that I do not completely understand. Sometimes I can reconcile them with science. For example, Jesus walking on water. I don't really know how he did it, but perhaps in the future we will know more about electrostatics and be able to do something similar. Even the creation account, I take it as a restoration account after one of the mass extinctions. Noah's Flood - I notice that the Bible doesn't just say that it rained for 40 days and nights, it also says that fountains of the deep were broken up, that is water under the ocean floor was also released. Surprisingly scientists are finding vast amounts of water under the oceans, some say as much as 10x more under the ocean than on top.

In any event, the Bible assists the faith that I have in God. I don't take it as a science book, but it is full of philosophical and inspirational truths.

Answer 7

It really don't take an educated adult to believe what they read in the Holy Bible, What I can't understand is, how can an educated person, with any intelligence, not believe the Holy Bible.

Answer 8

Your statement reminds me so much of the tactics bullies use to make everyone do what they want. "I'll imply that you can't possibly be intelligent and educated if you do ____ . You have to conform to what I think is the only educated way to act or I'll insult and ridicule you." Isn't that just exactly what you did? Perhaps those who read and take the time to understand the Bible are using their minds more than you since they are willing to stand up to bullies and learn before they speak. Just a thought there.

Answer 9

Of course they do! It's all about interpretation. An intelligent human critter (teehee, you make people sound cute) knows that a lot of the things in the Bible are metaphors or parables and are meant to make a point.

Answer 10

I'm not a Christian, but a Hindu practioner. Amma, a saint from India, says that the intellect, mind likes to separate things while the heart sews things. What this really means is that the intellect does not perceive all of creation as One, while the heart feels it.

How this applies to the Bible, or any religious text, one must approach it with an open heart rather than an active mind. You must quiet the mind and just feel with your heart. It is in the heart therein lies all the answers to the universe, of our existence.

It really isn't a matter of believing in it literally, rather it is more of like a guide to finding answers to problems in life, kind of like a road map that gives one guidiance in morals and values. Of course, some of us may not agree with the Bible, but that is a personal opinion of some of us, just like Christians may have a personal opinion of Hindu sacred texts.

If the Bible or any other religious text does not make sense for you, then it is not meant for you to study because each one of us has a different mental and emotional affinity. We are not going to be attracted to the same things any more than we are attracted to different foods. We've been given many different roads towards understanding God. If one path isn't working, then we just find one that makes sense to us.

I grew up in a Christian family, so I'm very familiar with the Bible. It never made sense to me. As a matter of fact, I repulsed touching it. I just could not understand it at all except for the words that Jesus spoke. That was the only thing that made sense to me, the rest had no meaning or purpose for me.

After studying spirituality for 20 years, I finally understood the purpose of these different sacred texts. I have learn to respect what people believe it and to not think any less of others who believe in a particular faith with strong conviction even if it may not make sense to me. I just trust that it does have meaning and makes sense for others. And also the best way to understand God and receiving God's grace is best done with an open heart, not through the intellect.

One can have the highest IQ and still not understand the meaning or purpose of why or how we happened to be here. Human intelligence is inferior to God's intelligence. It is said in the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says:

"My dear Arjuna, only by undivided devotional service can I be understood as I am, standing before you, and can thus be seen directly. Only in this way can you enter into the mysteries of My understanding." (11.54)

What this means is that when we give God our devotion through our hearts, God will then reveal all of the secrets to His existence. One cannot know God through the intellect. I'm not only just saying it, I actually experienced proof of this result of my devotion. Once I gave so much more devotion to God, I received more greater understanding within that no book could give me.

Answer 11

I believe the Holy Bible to be Truth in part because of the fulfillment of prophecy. Books written hundreds of years before an event takes place perfectly describe the event. For example: Psalm 22. This Psalm was written by King David. This was written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was crucified. There are thousands of prophecies which have been fulfilled and which are even now being fulfilled. Read Psalm 22 NKJV for yourself, I am sure you have heard the story of His crucifixion. In fact Jesus Christ predicted his own death and that of at least one of His apostles, Peter.