I'm not religious, and I want to know how people rationalize the inaccuracies and/or miracles in holy texts?

Question

Not trying to start a holy war, I just want to see how people's minds work in regards to religion.

Okay, so everyone wants me to list the inaccuracies in the Bible. First, in the Old Testament, God is completely different. He is a childish, mean, imperfect being. He proclaims that we should solve disputes as "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth". Yet in the NEW Testament, Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek". Now, being a perfect being, how could God change his mind, negating his first statement? Also, the life of Jesus is taken almost word for word from many other religions. See the Egyptian religion and Horus for an example. Horus was born as the only begotten son of the Egyptian god Osiris and a virgin mother, Meri. He had a foster father named Seb (also known as Jo-Seph). His birth was heralded by the star Sirius, also known as Jesus's "star in the East", and announced by angels. Herut tried to have the infant Horus murdered. (Herod, anyone?) The blatant plagarism goes on. Anyone want more?

Answer 1

What I've seen and I think you will over time is they ignore inaccuracies. There are web sites out there that they'll use to help them with creative but flawed arguments to justify their positions. Sadly, most ignore the basics of science.

Answer 2

The account of Lazarus is not a mere myth or inaccurate. Jesus raised Lazarus in front of a crowd of eyewitnesses. Even the religious leaders, who hated Jesus, did not deny this miracle. Rather, they said: “What are we to do, because this man [Jesus] performs many signs?” (John 11:47) Many people went to see the resurrected man. As a result, even more of them put faith in Jesus. They saw in Lazarus living proof that Jesus was sent by God. This evidence was so powerful that some of the hardhearted Jewish religious leaders planned to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.—John 11:53; 12:9-11.

If the Bible asserted that people can walk on water without divine assistance or that the sun’s apparent motion across the sky can be interrupted for no reason, it might seem to contradict scientific facts. However, when it attributes such events to God’s power, it does not so much contradict science as lead the discussion into an area where science cannot yet follow.

Answer 3

There are no discreptancies in the Bible. How do I know? The Bible has more manuscripts than any book in the world. Homer's Iliad comes closest, but it still doesn't touch the amount of manuscripts. All of the manuscripts are the same (27,000 total).

Whenever I read something that seems to differ from another verse, I research it. There is always an explanation. You have to read the Bible as a whole, not as different parts because that can be misleading.

Answer 4

The miracles performed in the past were for the people of the time, and even if added or altered it is a time they lived. As for today, we have a gift of light, of reasoning, a generation so smart that miracles and magic we see are in the air. All around us and the same logic of our conception of the magnitud of the Universe and the so innumerable number of perfect systems of life, of organs, of geological, and atmospheric system serve for us as more than miracle for proving the existence and veracity of the God presented in the Ministry of the New Testament.

Those others who consider themselves as they know everything saying "there is not God", they ate from the wrong tree, and have grown wrong, to be cut.

Answer 5

IF you truly believe in God and the Bible, there is no rationalizing inaccuracies/miracles. You just believe them. It's called faith, belief that is not based on proof.

Answer 6

Things like that happen as the result of inaccurate translations of the original texts. Many bibles replace the original word Yahweh with the generic term "Lord". That's just one example. Over the years, churches have altered the original information and caused discrepancies.

Answer 7

George Orwell coined a suitable term for this: it's called doublethink. Another term for the same thing is cognitive dissonance. Anyone who claims that the bible is totally accurate simply hasn't read it; there are half a dozen zingers in the first thousand words. The matter is examined in some detail in:

Answer 8

distinctive motives. some memories are legend and consequently no longer historic. some are interpretive and assessment. events emphasizing the acts of God in events. some are exaggerated or sped up or bogged down as area of the storytelling. Exaggerated--the victories in conflict. sped up--the line to Emmaus as tens of years in one night. blunders of human authors. Does it rely how long the conquest of Canaan took or how finished its became into, eh.

Answer 9

Religion isn't called "DELUSION" for no reason.

These people are mentally ill. They can't face the facts of reality, so they have to make up a nice story so they're not afraid to die. They need the thought of a strict task-master to keep them in line, because they're lazy and can't be moral and good on their own.

They're sad, pathetic creatures that need to be kept quarantined so as not to pollute others with their respective flavors of idiocy.

Answer 10

Why do you feel the need to rationalize? The entire definition of "miracle" is an act of God that supersedes the natural course.

There are no inaccuracies in the text when it comes to doctrinal issues. They do not exist. Only an occasional scribal or textual error that has no bearing on the foundation of your faith.