Was the Bible the "Sci-Fi Thriller" of the 4th Century?

Question

Kind of like Star Trek - and now the Christians are all just "Trekkies", believing somehow that it is a true story.

Answer 1

Does that make Kirk Jesus?

I always thought Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were a sort-of Holy Trinity, at least in Freudian terms.

Answer 2

Here is my idea, study the Baha'i Faith, then put the Bible in a section with Baha'i books. Perhaps the Bible was not meant to be a science textbook. Perhaps God intended for man to make scientific discoveries rather than being given them. But I will say this, either the Baha'i Faith is true or it isn't. If it is, then there is a God, all religions came from that one God and word peace is beckoning from an ever-brightening horizon, or there is no god, no true religion and we will never have peace. But I know of many and have heard of many more Baha'is who were former Atheists but I have never heard of an Atheist who was a former Baha'i. There is a very good reason for that. I have also long maintained that science and the Baha'i Faith are together delivering a one-two punch that will have Atheism out on a TKO. And time is proving me more and more right. Some people claim all faith is blind, but my faith is a carefully considered, carefully reasoned and very reasonable, rational and defensible faith. Were atheist Stephen Roberts (1901-1971) standing in front of me this moment, I would say back to him, “I contend that we are both men of faith. I just have faith in one more thing than you do, and for very good reason. When you fully understand why I disdain all the devisers of superstitions and dismiss the gods of vain imaginings, you will understand why I believe in my God, and you will believe also." -- B. Knott Wildered (Not my real name, but the quote is mine.) ************** The Jews await the Messiah, the Christians the return of Christ, the Moslems the Mahdi, the Buddhists the fifth Buddha, the Zoroastrians Shah Bahram, the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna, and the Atheists - a better social organization! Baha'u'llah represents all these, and thus destroys the rivalries and the enmities of the different religions; reconciles them in their primitive purity, and frees them from the corruption of dogmas and rites. (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v1, p. vii)

Answer 3

Your problem, brandycat5, is that you read. You should know by now, reading can get you into all kinds of trouble. Your analogy is spot on however, including the century.

I am no fan of mankind’s indulgence in metaphysics and criticize the organized abuse we euphemistically refer to as ‘religion’ enthusiastically and with regularity.!

My actual assumption, considering my limited knowledge of the human thought process (years of study)and what little most of us know about pre-history, is that early man was actually making an attempt to understand his universe ( maybe a 100 acre tract of land). He must have contemplated actual events that he could not possibly comprehend.
What was the very bright thing in the clouds, the smaller, less bright at night?
Why did the overhead explode with bright flashes of light and utter an astoundingly loud growl?
Why did the tribe need animal skin to stay warm sometime and not need them just a few Moons before?
Who are those strange tribes recently moving across our territory?

I have decided, in what passes for my understanding, that religion eventually became the first attempt at science. It failed only because man didn’t communicate since he lacked language and didn’t know very much. Not knowing very much surely does not stop people today from reaching outlandish decisions why would it have hampered Og, Son of Fire.

Anyway, religion, the failed science, hates science with the same passion that Shi’ia hates anybody who has better than a third grade education.

Them’s my understandid and I’m stickin to em! Lol

I must say again…I really liked the analogy.

Answer 4

Hopefully you realize that there are over 2,300 copies of the New Testament writing that predate the 4th century. All word for word indentical to the text used today for translating the Bibles. The earliest of those date within 15-20 years of the original manuscripts.

If all known copies of the New Testament from before the 4th century where to disappear, there are over 43,000 other books, litergies, letters, commentaries, and other documents with enough Bible quotes to completely reconstruct the entire New Testament.

While you may debate the truthfulness of the documents, there is overwhelming proof that they existed in the form that we know them today within as little as 16 years after the resurrection of Jesus.

Seems like it would be a little difficult to get the people who lived in Israel and Judah, and who would have known whether Jesus really lived, really held meetings with crowds in the thousands, really rode into Jerusalem to the praises of a crowd that would have numbered in the 100's of thousands, or not. Yet within 20 years of those events, the Jewish leaders drove over 3 million Jews from Israel (most settling in Egypt to become the Coptic church which still exist today) because of their Christian faith. If those story were fake, those 3 million people who lived though it would have known it. If they were fake, why did the Jewish leaders record many of the same events in the Talmud, a traditional history of the Jewish people written by comtemporaries of Jesus?

The evidence that Jesus was a real person who said and did what the New Testament records is overwhelming.

Answer 5

Don't forget about the tabloids. Many people back then were illiterate as well. Of course speaking of star trek: I'm still wondering if these people just saw alien UFOs originally and made up a story to go with them.

Answer 6

Perhaps,---but I don't recall those Star Trek guys having a ball by scrapping their own children with lasers.
They never seemed to appreciate the great fun it could be to create things and then waste the hell out of them in so many inventive ways.

Answer 7

Something like fantasy. It's hardly Sci-Fi.

Answer 8

It's more like a lame Danielle Steele pamphlet to me.

Answer 9

with 4th century style erotica.

Answer 10

More like a soap opera...