From: davidch@ZIMMER.CSUFRESNO.EDU (David Choweller)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Unfounded Biblical Faith
Date: 10 Apr 92 03:00:52 GMT

Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Unfounded Biblical Faith  (Was:Re: I've forged a cancel of a sendsys)
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Organization: California State University, Fresno
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In article <1992Apr8.004249.22123@hellgate.utah.edu> jwindley%asylum.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Jay Windley) writes:
|rohwerwd@netcom.com (W. David Rohwer) writes:
|>     As you should know by now, the Bible contains many contradictions
|>and errors and as a consequence does not stand up to logic.  A couple
|>of errors are the creation story and the virgin birth.  Christianity
|>is a very false religion.
|
|Please be so kind as to demonstrate why the Bible need be completely
|consistent in order to be of value in moral issues, and why the
|presence of such inconsistencies intrinsically damns the whole Bible
|to complete infeasibility.
|

For one thing, the Bible is supposedly written by God, the most perfect
being that ever existed, or will exist.  We are entitled to hold it to
high standards.

|If the U.S. Constitution, for example, were entirely consistent and
|unambiguous there would be no need for amendments, nor for the Supreme
|Court.
|

Well, the U.S. constitution is written by us poor fallible humans, so
we can be excused.

|Even logic and mathematics textbooks have inconsistencies and errors.
|I'll send you the text for a class I'm currently taking if you doubt
|me.
|

Again, these are all written by humans, the flawed beings that cannot
do anything right.  Can you blame us?  We're created that way.

|Logic is capable of "proving" things which are simply not true.  This
|is possible due to false assumptions used as premises.  Man's knowlege

If the assumptions are false, this does not invalidate logic.  

|is fallible, as even a casual perusal of the history of science (or
|history in general) will attest.  Thus, the assumptions he makes
|cannot be guaranteed to be correct even if they outwardly appear to be
|so. 
|
|Logic requires premises which may or may not be proved.  Often they
|are simply asserted, and later turn out to be incorrect.  Johannes
|Kepler spent much of his life working on a nested body solution for
|celestial mechanics.  His logic was very sound and his proofs
|immaculate.  But his premises were incorrect and his results did not
|coincide with reality.  Thus, merely invoking "logic" is not to lay a
|question to rest.
|
|Further, man's application of logic is similarly bounded by his
|fallibility.  A widely circulated proof equates pi to 2, and only
|those who understand arc length know why the proof fails.  This
|demonstrates that man's ability to use logic successfully is
|necessarily finite, and as such is prone to failure.
|
|In short, logic is also a false religion.
|--------------------------------+---------------------------------------
|Jay Windley                     | jwindley@asylum.utah.edu
|Department of Computer Science  +---------------------------------------
|Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City   | "I have detailed files."  -- T2

--
                                                 davidch@zimmer.CSUFresno.EDU
"JUST a statue!  Is the Statue of Liberty JUST a statue?  Is the Leaning Tower
of 'pizza' JUST a statue?"
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                    'pizza' not 'Pisa')