(December 2, 2016 at 6:25 am)robvalue Wrote: The thing is, if the words in the bible have value, I don't see why that value disappears even if the events turn out to be semi-fictional. [1] If it's good advice, it continues to be good advice. In other words, belief in the original events doesn't seem to be all that relevant from the point of view of living this life. It just seems to be about making sure you're on the right side for the next life. [2]
If you viewed the events and it's not what you thought, nothing has changed. You're still you, you still have your morality and values. [3]
Of course you'll realise you spent a great deal of time talking to nothing, which would be a shame. [4]
1) Some of the words in the bible have value because they reveal things about human destiny and about god which human nature is not capable of naturally discovering on its own (e.g. God is Triune, The Son of God became incarnate in the person of Jesus, the struggle of the poor is salvific, Jesus rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit, everyone will be raised from the dead and judged according to what they've done, etc.). We know these words to be true ONLY by faith, and faith demands the reality of the truth and authority of the revealer. These things would lose their value upon the discovery that the revealer, in whom the truth of the words is known, is neither true nor authoritative nor existent. In other words, you can't know (by faith) that God is Father, Son, and Spirit if the only reason you had for believing it was the authority of a person who a) never existed, b) has not the authority, c) never taught such, etc.
Other words in the bible have value because they reveal things about human destiny and about god which human nature IS CAPABLE of naturally discovering on its own (e.g. murder is bad, social living is good, the golden rule, etc.). Even if it were just men writing according to the wisdom of their culture and time, there are parts which retain their value from the perspective of wisdom, and even literature.
2) Christianity is fundamentally a religion of a person, NOT a book. There is more than mere "advice" in the Bible. It also tells of the relationship God has with us, and what he wants for our life (which is to make our lives divine). If the one who brought that message in his very person never existed, or if he existed in a radically different way than what the Scriptures and the Community today report, then the the faith in that person and the hope for his promises become delusions.
Jesus, in his very person - a union between God and humanity, is the revelation to which we hold. Union with god and his life is achieved through uniting your humanity to his (not to a book). If Jesus never existed or didn't exist like the Bible and the tradition reports, then that raises a lot of questions about the meaning and purpose of human life and the destiny that awaits it.
3) Exactly, but then some of the reasons for which you act may change. Some of the realities from which you determine how to act no longer determine how you act. Some of the things you value no longer exist. You still hold that murder, fornication, extortion, oppression, etc. are "wrong", but the idea of the "best" way to live and the reasons for it requires recalculation.
4) That too
