From: lking@athena.mit.edu (Loren King)
Subject: Re: Proofs of the Bible (Long, but filled with information)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 03:33:36 GMT




My word!  Look what can happen when one isn't thinking!  I hope
this isn't a joke-post, or what follows will make me look pretty
gullible.  Oh well, here goes ...


In article <1992Nov11.131233.3887@wkuvx1.bitnet>, barnejd@wkuvx1.bitnet writes:

     [stuff deleted]

|>   Proof for the Bible being the Word of God:
|> 1) It claims to be - as I said, every man is allowed to testify on his own
|>     behalf, so the Bible's claim must be counted as evidence, even if that
|>     evidence is taken a little more lightly than some of the exterior evi-
|>     dence.  I trust we can agree that the Bible claims to be the sole rev-
|>     elation of God to man; no Apocrypha, no additions, etc.

.....

|> 2) The unity of the Bible - A unity of facts, purpose, and teaching.  Its
|>     theme is that of the salvation from sin.  It begins with the creation,
|>     sin marring it, and God conceiving a great plan to redeem man from his
|>     sins, and goes from there.

You'll recall a certain medieval conference which ensured this "unity"!

|> 3) The great moral teachings of the Bible - No other book has ever
|>     condemned immorality so severely or demanded as high a standard of
|>     righteousness.  It is virtually unique among religious documents.

Rubbish.  Read the Tao-teh Ching, the Bhagad'vita (sp?) ... and who's
standard of moral righteousness?  You'll notice that one conspicuous
question that Christ failed to answer was Pilate's:  "what is truth?"


|> 4) Its Unparallelled Impartiality - "Human books extol the virtues and
|>     suppress the vices of their heroes.  Not so with the Bible.  It makes
|>     no attempt to conceal, minimize, or apologize for the weaknesses,
|>     mistakes, and wrongdoings of even its greatest characters.  It tells of
|>     the sins of friend and foe alike." (Jimmy Thomas - I could think of no
|>     better way to phrase it in my own words).

RUBBISH!!  Where are women in the bible?  Where is their dignity and freedom?
Their interests, their intelligence?  How about non-European cultures and beliefs?
Face it, the bible is a series of scripts written and extolled by M-E-N.


|> 5) The Brevity of the Bible - So much, virtually a history of the world, is
|>     packed into so few pages.  It tells the 33-year life of the most
|>     important man ever to walk the earth in four short books.

The history of A world, not THE world.  And please spare us your cultural
arrogance as regards the importance of Jesus.

|> 6) The Life of Jesus - That Jesus existed is virtually indisputable.  The
|>     testimony of those closest to him indicated His sinless perfection.
|>     Such a perfect person could never have been so perfectly created by any
|>     man.

|> 7) The Fulfillment of Prophecy - Modern self-proclaimed "prophets" usually
|>     get about 10-20% right; the Bible's all come true in exactly the way
|>     predicted.  The odds of Jesus fulfilling (whether accidentally and/or
|>     by design) the prophecies applying to Him are beyond calculation.

Well the virtue of ambiguous, translated texts is that you can read
pretty much anything into them ... just look at Hegel!


|> 8) The Bible's Scientific Foreknowledge - One of the areas I personally
|>     find fascinating.  Being pre-scientific, it should attribute the
|>     workings of nature to colorful myths and be woefully inaccurate - if it
|>     was written by man. In the 19th century, Herbert Spencer first
|>     announced the 5 fundamental facts of science; yet the Bible covered all
|>     5 in the first 2 verses: "In the beginning [time - jdb] God created the
|>     heavens [space] and the earth [matter].  And the spirit of God moved 
|>     [force] upon the face of the waters [motion]."
|>       The Bible said the earth was round (Is 40:22, Prov 8:27, Lk
|>     17:34-36).  Not too long ago, great minds were convinced the earth was
|>     held up by Atlas or something like him; read Job 26:7 to hear what the
|>     Bible claimed.  Moses knew about a plurality of seas, all with one 
|>     common bed (Gen 1:9-10).  Solomon knew about the rain/evaporation cycle
|>     (Eccl 1:7), as did Amos and Job (Amos 9:6; Job 36:27-28).  After read-
|>     ing Psalm 8:8, Matthew F. Henry charted the sea currents which are still
|>     recognized today.  Until recently, doctors had no idea how that blood
|>     contained, in essence, the life of man, but the Bible did (Lev 17:11,
|>     14).  Scientists cannot distinguish between the blood of races of 
|>     people, just like God said in Acts 17:26.

Rubbish.  see above, on ambiguity and seeing what one wants to see.


|> 9) The Bible's Undeniable Influence for Good - When taken in its purity
|>     (I do not consider the adulterated version pushed by denominations
|>     to be pure), it has done nothing but good.
                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Oh yes, the conquest and butchering of indigenous peoples around the world,
all in the name of the good book ... this is really, undeniably good.  The 
sexist practice of keeping women in the home is really, undeniably good.

Not.

How can you believe this rubbish?  Have you been hidden away in a white, male-
dominated, Christian, hetero-sexual enclave all your life?


|>   These are the main reasons.  Next letter I'll examine creationism vs.
|> evolutionism

Oh good.  Hey, here's a challenge: post this "examination" on talk.origins,
and see how you do  (nothin like challenging real scientists on their own
turf).


(.... oh please, don't let this be a joke ...)


Loren King
MIT