From: wiggins@hurricane.cs.odu.edu (Samuel E Wiggins)
Subject: Re: Proofs of the Bible (Long, but filled with information)
Organization: Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
	<1992Nov13.020459.15539@microsoft.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 22:54:16 GMT

In article <1992Nov13.020459.15539@microsoft.com> bobsarv@microsoft.com (Bob Sarver) writes:

   /  Proof for the Bible being the Word of God:

   /1) It claims to be - 

   SO WHAT?  Every religious book in the world makes this claim.  Are they
   all the Word of God just because they claim to be?  Am I Napoleon Bonaparte
   just because I claim to be?
-------
     I think he meant that the Bible says that it excludes the possibility of
other religions being right; it is mutually exclusive.
     No.
     And, lastly, how do I know you're not Napoleon (reincarnated or
something)?
-------
   /
   /2) The unity of the Bible - 

   Putting aside for a moment the very shaky assertion that the Bible displays
   unity, consider the following:

   The Constitution of the United States is a document that shows great unity.
   Does that make it the Word of God, just because it shows unity?  I hardly
   think so.

   Many documents show great unity due to the fact that a team of people with
   similar interests and goals worked to keep the document unified.  Other
   documents show great unity due to later generations editing the document
   to remove offensive or unpopular passages.  

   So far you haven't proven anything.
-------
True.  How could he convince you?




   /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.

   You are quite ignorant of other religions and beliefs.  The Koran makes 
   even more severe demands on people.  Other holy books do as well.  Are 
   these other holy books also the Word of God?

   The bible is not "unique among religious documents" because of its 
   condemnation of morality.  Only someone with no exposure to world religions 
   could make such a biased and uneducated comment.




   /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." 

   Wrong.  In the Old Testament, God instructs the Hebrews to take slaves
   and concubines from among the conquered tribes.  David and Solomon, both
   accounted great (if not the greatest) kings of Israel, had concubines
   to whore with.  Yet other individuals in the OT, for the singular act
   of fornication or adultery, were punished with death.  Not to mention
   the utter contradiction between a god that forbids concubines, and then
   instructs the Israelites on how to take foreign women as their concubines.




   /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 Bible is neither brief, nor is it a history of the world.  This 
   assertion is ridiculous.  It is a colored history of a few groups of
   people, in only one part of the world, and the details are incredibly
   sketchy (as well as being contradicted by archaeological findings).


   And, it says absolutely NOTHING about the first 30 years of Christ's life, 
   except for the Nativity and the incident in the Temple when Christ was 12 
   years old.  How do you justify your statement that it "tells the 33-year 
   life" of Christ?

   And your belief that it tells the story of the "most important
   man who ever lived" is your opinion; other people do not consider Christ to
   be as important. 

   So far you have done an excellent job of expressing your opinions, but you
   haven't offered any concrete proof that the bible is the unique, perfect
   word of God.   Remember the trial metaphor you were using?  If this were a 
   trial, you would be about two steps away from the electric chair.