RE: Rational defense of Christianity?
December 31, 2014 at 8:18 pm
(This post was last modified: December 31, 2014 at 8:27 pm by watchamadoodle.)
(December 31, 2014 at 7:16 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: There are plenty of open religious sites that unlike this one and other overtly prejudice sites are full of balanced and open discussion. religeousforums.com for example.
(December 31, 2014 at 6:44 pm)watchamadoodle Wrote: I read a post yesterday by a Christian who characterized Genesis as a collection of myths rewritten with a monotheist spin. Accepting these kinds of ideas is a slippery slope for Christians IMO - where do you draw the line? Spong has a book showing how many of the gospel stories are rewrites of earlier Jewish Midrash (I haven't read the book - just the overview).
I agree with those ideas too. So do some central Christian theologians. I don't see how it could be any other way, and rather than weaken the Christian position, I find it very much strengthens it.
The problem I see is analogous to evolution. Most Christians accept evolution, but they believe God's hand guided evolution. Fine, but then why add God to fill a gap that has already been filled by biology?
An enlightened Christian might accept that the Bible evolved in a way that looks suspiciously human, but they believe that God's hand inspired all these iterative changes. Then, in 500 AD or so, they freeze the Bible - no more changes - it's perfect now. Of course Christian theology continued to evolve through additional writings and creative interpretations of the Bible. Many Christians believe the Bible is "inerrant" in spite of its messy history.
So It all happened gradually with lots of extinct theologies along the way - just like every other religion in the world. There is no evidence for divine inspiration IMO. I don't see how Christians can know the history and not reach that conclusion.
