Atheists: How can you explain this?

Question

Please give serious consideration to the following:

The book of Daniel is purported to have been written during the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (around 500 BC). Copies of Daniel found among the Dead Sea Scrolls are virtually identical with the book of Daniel in modern Bibles. The scrolls have been carbon-dated to AT LEAST 150 years before the time of Jesus.

In Chapter 9 of the book of Daniel, it is prophesied that 483 years will transpire from the "...time of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the arrival of the Anointed One, the ruler...".

This decree from Artaxerxes (King of Babylon) has been found and it was dated. Adding 483 Hebrew years (their calendar was only 360 days) gets you to the date of March 30, 33 AD. This is the date of Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem prior to his crucifixion.

How can you explain such an accurate prediction. If you think it was a lucky guess, please calculate the odds of this explanation.

I'm disappointed in all of you atheists. You have scientific proof that the prophecy was made before the time of Jesus....yet only one person had an answer that addressed this (Tamyp) and all she had was that it was a conspiracy.

No rational discussion. No thoughtful debate. If you understand the scientific method....use it to explain this.

Answer 1

Try predicting the future - it's much more impressive.

It doesn't take any talent at all to make a huge book full of vague predictions and then later match events to some of them.

Oh, and it's not possible to "calculate the odds" when you don't know what counts as a "hit", and you don't know how many chances one had to have a "hit". This is the same issue that makes the Nostradamus stuff - and the issue of the current "psychics" - meaningless. If I get a thousand chances to hit a one-in-a-thousand target, my odds of doing so by pure chance are pretty danged good.
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"No rational discussion. No thoughtful debate. If you understand the scientific method....use it to explain this."

I just did. In return, you lied about the responses you got.

Doesn't it bother you at all to have to resort to such transparent lying to defend your beliefs? If you had any morals, it would.

Answer 2

This is contrived at best. The Bible is uncertain about the date of Jesus' birth and where his apparent "parents" lived when he was born. Matthew says Joseph lived in Bethlehem, and Jesus was born in Herod's reign. Luke says Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census of Quirinius, and Jesus was born then. So, historians tell us that Herod died in 4BC,and Quirinius became governor of Syria (and Judaea) in 6 or 7 AD. That is a contradiction about where Joseph lived and 10 to 14 years discrepancy in the date of his birth. Matthew and Luke give quite different lineages from David to Joseph too. One says 28, and one says 41 in line. You are just repeating some fantasy some preacher concocted to prop up his beliefs. You cannot be sure of any of this stuff you mention when the bible contradicts itself many times. If Jesus was born about 7BC, and he lived 33 years, he would have died in 26AD. If he was born in 7AD, he would've died in 40AD. Your date of 33AD conflicts with both Matthew and Luke. The Messiah was to be desended from David. Joseph was according to both Matthew and Luke, although the lineages given are quite different. Jesus an only be the Messiah if he is the son of Joseph. If he is son of God, he is not the Messiah. There are many problems in your statements here. You should think about this, rather than believing only what you want to believe and blindly repeating such stuff as this. I do not need to explain an accurate prediction, because there is none. it is someone trying to fit some loose stuff together tightly. That can never work out without much thought.

Answer 3

So you're saying that the bible is proof that the bible is correct? The scriptures of Christianity and Catholicism coincide with one another. It's a long story of fables that tie in with each other. By your logic if someone writes a harry potter book in 500 years, it will prove them to be fact. There is no historical evidence that isn't a hot item that can state that Jesus Christ was even a man to begin with.

Besides, you are relying on carbon dating which by Christian standards is inaccurate.

Answer 4

Yes, and the Aztecs predicated the exact day of the arrival of Quetzcoatl (presumed at the time to be Cortes) but this does not mean that we should put any weight behind Aztec mythology. Furthermore even in the event that all they carbon dating and calenders line up, this still does not prove anything, anyways, Nostradamus was loads better at this than the book of Daniel.

Answer 5

ALL those prediction stories were written BEFORE Jesus' supposed existence.
ALL the Jesus stories were written AFTER Jesus' supposed existence.

Next you'll be telling me that no one ever made up a story to fit The Formula.
Next you'll be telling me that NONE of the Jesus stories were re-cycled god-man stories from other cultures.
NEXT you'll be telling me that you believe everything in Bible (aka Goat Herders' Guide to the Galaxy) because GHGG insists that everything within the covers is true.

The Greatest Sting in all of History relies on marks like you for the money to enable it to keep breeding.

Well done, sunshine – you brightened my day with your gullibility.
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Answer 6

Too easy. Even if we were to completely accept that timeline you give it's childishly easy. Someone said it's about time for that prophesy to come true so lets pick, let me see how about that kid to fulfill it.

Jesus didn't actually do anything that was that amazing. And that's if you believe all of the accounts. He died then according only to those who had everything to lose by him turning out to be just an ordinary guy he rose from the dead.

Like every prophesy it only comes true to those who believe it's coming true in the first place. You just made an even better argument in favor of the Oracle at Delphi by the way. And even those cheeseball national Enquirer psychics.

Answer 7

I explain this by questioning where you get 483 years?

"Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto one anointed, a prince, shall be seven weeks; and for threescore and two weeks, it shall be built again, with broad place and moat, but in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall an anointed one be cut off, and be no more; and the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; but his end shall be with a flood; and unto the end of the war desolations are determined"

Answer 8

Do you suppose the people who wrote about Jesus were familiar with the Book of Daniel?

Answer 9

You're looking at it backwards.

Its not hard to fulfill a prophecy in the sequel when you've got the prequel.

Silly man!

Oh, and ZING to the people that mentioned carbon dating. It seems christians are quite happy to use the methods of science when it suits them.

Answer 10

How can you explain that your claimed carbon dating accuracy is greater than the precision with which the half life of carbon 14 is known? Or is that just an inconvenient truth that hurts your argument?