What makes you think the Bible is from God?

Question

Isaac Newton came up with theories of optics, gravity and invented the integral Calculus while sequestered away in his study. His ideas leapt well ahead of anyone before his time yet no one says that his works came from anywhere but from a man.

Yet the Bible has really no original ideas in it, no science to speak of, no great insights into the human condition, but people insist it must be of God – Why?

(And please spare me the prophesy stuff, it is all either too vague, self fulfilling or written after the fact).

Justin, why does the Bible say insects have 4 legs?

Why did Jesus call mustard seeds the smallest seeds?

Oops, so much for your idea.

Rev. Albert Einstein: You didn't answer the question.

TheHeftyLefty: I have read it. Why do you think I became an atheist?

tuberoot: It certianly was NOT science that made him think that. And yes, I have read it.

Travis: nice weaseling... now try the mustard seed thing.

Travis: You should be a politican... now you're limiting seeds to something agricultural (even though Jesus just said "the smallest seed." Nice trick but not very honest. There are plenty of orchids in Iseral with smaller seeds:

http://www.pbase.com/ilanbt/wild_orchids

OK, after a little research, I found that both Wolffia and poppy seeds were cultivated in that area in the time of Jesus - both useful and used by the people of that time.

Thomas... I'm not so sure. Most Christians think you can earn Gods' favor by accepting Jesus into your heart and following his teaching and by being humble.

Answer 1

The Bible has at least one very original idea. The idea that we humans cannot save ourselves, that we cannot earn God's favor, or our salvation. That idea is completely foreign to the world's religions, all of which put the onus on man to one degree or another. I believe the Bible is divine rather than human in origin because of it's "bulls-eye" in describing our inability to be truly righteous on our own. I also believe the prophecy stuff, but I will "spare you", and in order to understand Jesus and his mustard seed comment, you have to understand his cultural milieu. To a Jewish Rabbi (essentially what he was, rogue though he may have been) the main thing was to get the point across. It doesn't matter if there is a seed smaller than a mustard seed, because he was not talking about mustard. He was talking about faith. Jesus' words can be dangerously mis-understood in many places if you don't understand things like what I just told you, and his many uses of parables, allegory, figures of speech, and my favorite tool of Jesus, hyperbole.

Edit: What "most Christians" think was not the topic of your original question. Most Christians, if they would read a little, would see that God's favor rests with those who abandon any hope of self-justification, and approach him with the empty hand of faith. That is what makes the Bible, and genuine Christianity, so unique.

Answer 2

No insights into the human condition? A little dim-witted, aren't you? What do you know of the human nature?

There is clear Prophecy that is written well before the fact. I can prove the same of Prophets in the Catholic Church since, as well. If you don't focus your eyes, all looks blurry. islam is all prophesied about, as an evil. so is protestantism. The Crusades and a coming war between muslims and Christians is prophesied. You seem a first among ignoble analysts. Try expanding your mind a little before you attempt a grande question again.

As for the name of insects implying four leggedness, that is one of the stupidist things I've ever seen someone try to use as an atheist. Why? That was the standard name applied to that kind of creature in the Hebrew of the times, which didn't just appear at the writing of the Scriptures. What was a standard, familiar term for a long time before was natural to use, as a convention, rather than make up a new term derived for etymological value. There are lots of names for things that we adopt without replacement the moment we realize they are not literally fitting terms.

Then there's the equally silly islamic argument from the opposite end of the pole, saying that muhammad was a real prophet because he used the Arabic word for bee, and that word is feminine, and bees are female! But did he really invent the long standing word's gender in dictating the quran?

As for the stupidity of mocking about seeds, the mustard seed is the smallest thing of its exact sort - spores don't produce anything useful of the like (who needs tuberculosus?). The Hebrews and Greeks didn't have a single word in common for the two things. They often named things according to a combination of function and form, sub-classifying when the thing exceeded that combination of requirements in even one of those specifications. Can you name a smaller seed we plant or that produces us some edible good?

Tom L, the only tangible communication between GOD and man the Bible is not. Providence is an Open Archive fior all to see that a man hears directly from GOD in choosing the right steps in life.

Answer 3

The Ten Commandments are of God, but the Bible? I always thought it was from the writing of the disciples on their experiences with Jesus and God in the New Testament, and from the leaders BC and their beliefs in the Old Testament. Why can't people also accept that religion and science can be separate?

Answer 4

Of course, Isaac Newton thought that the Bible came from God.
Personally, I believe that the Bible came from human beings. It does not claim to have come from God in the first place.

Answer 5

Yeah Isacc Newton figured out the ingredients of what created the Earth and etc. But someone had to put all this together, doesn't just happen. There has to be more to life. No one will know till they die hopefully. I know the bible wasn't written by the hands of God. Heck I dont even believe God has hands. But it was inspired by God. How? I dont know. But I would like to believe that God transferred his thoughts either mentally, vocally, or visually to the men and maybe even woman who helped pen and interpret the bible.

Answer 6

How about when the nation of Israel was given back its land and the children fo God returned, and the ancient lost language was revived, just two prophecies fullfilled. This happened in 1948 around 2000 years after it was written. Best option is to ask God to tell you He will if you just ask

Answer 7

Aloha skeptic,

Not only will believers (with a straight face) tell you the bible is true because it says so, but they will also tell you their bible warned them about people like you...."The fool says in his heart, there is no God." (Psalms 14:1) This is their signal to turn their brains off. The truth is - to quote Thomas Edison - "all Bibles are man-made."

It is easier to believe that a man is honest who says the Bible is the word of God than to believe that he is bright.
— Lemuel K. Washburn

I could not believe that anyone who has read this book would be so foolish as to proclaim that the Bible in every literal word was the divinely inspired, inerrant word of God. Have these people simply not read the text? Are they hopelessly misinformed? Is there a different Bible? Are they blinded by a combination of ego needs and naïveté?
— John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop of New Jersey

... 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

If one were to take the bible seriously one would go mad. But to take the bible seriously, one must be already mad.
— A. Crowley

Bibliolatry: A form of idolatry, resulting from the acceptance of the Bible as an error free rendition of divine inspiration. So much authority is assigned to the Bible that it, in effect, becomes the object of worship.
— Howard M. Teeple

What I'm saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job.
— Carl Sagan

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’ve never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith – it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe.
— Robert A. Heinlein

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe.
— Carl Sagan

I am fond of saying that reading the Bible turned me into an atheist.
— Ruth Hurmence Green, (1915-1981)

Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.
— Isaac Asimov, (1920-1992)

Isn’t God a sh*t!
— Randolph Churchill (after reading the Bible all the way through for a bet)

The Bible is a book that has been read more and examined less than any book that ever existed.
— Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

I do not like your Bible verse,
It makes no sense, it is too terse,
It is devoid of all context,
What will your Holy Book say next?
I do not like your Bible verse,
it seems to go from bad to worse.
— Niall McAuley

The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history
— Noam Chomsky

I know of no book which has been a source of brutality and sadistic conduct, both public and private, that can compare with the Bible.
— James Paget

Of course, we cannot guarantee our Bibles against normal wear or abuse.
— Oxford University Press

It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
— Mark Twain

There are those who feel an imperative need to believe, for whom the values of a belief are proportionate not to its truth, but to its definiteness. Incapable of either admitting the existence of contrary judgments or of suspending their own, they supply the place of knowledge by turning other men’s conjectures into dogmas.
— C. E. M. Joad, (1891-1953)

Changes in the educational levels of the general population in recent years appear to account for much of the variance in biblical beliefs over time. The current proportion of biblical literalists is 32%, only half of what it was in 1963, when 65% of Americans said they believed in the absolute truth of all words in the Bible and that it represented the actual word of God. Belief in inerrancy is most likely to be found among people who did not complete high school (58%), and least likely among college graduates (29%).
— One Nation Under God, (1993) Barry A. Kosmin & Seymour P. Lachman. pg. 268.

Answer 8

If you want to know about anatomy, it might help you to study physiology. The History of Physiology might help in your case.

And what made Sir Isaac Newton so sure that the Bible is the word of God? Hmmmm?

It's the Spirit of God, have you never read John 16?

Answer 9

Acutally many things in the Bible can be applied to science/History/Ethics/Morality and so on ... The Bible was not written by God but by man-True however it was written to spread the word of God and his ideals as they were interpreted through Jesus and his desciples umkay

Answer 10

well i will probably go to hell for this but i think god was created by man to keep us all in line. man created god not god created man. in the bible it says he created the heavens and the earth in seven days and then it was supposedly 2000 years before Christ came to earth so lets say 2033 years roughly is what the age of the earth is supposed to be, well there is to much sheite buried in the ground to dispute that some of it millions and millions of years old some of the first humanoids found in the "cradle of life" (Africa) are like 100 million years old so u do the math and see what u come up with. karma is as karma does i always say