What distinguishes a fantasy book from the bible?

[Statler Waldorf]

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With great difficulty, even at the time. Now, almost impossible. However, to claim that it DID happen still requires evidence. If that means we have to leave that particular example, then we do. The fact that it hasn't once happened since the time that reliable records have been kept (and didn't happen in a place at that time where records were already kept, such as China) is very suspicious though. I'm happy to say that I cannot outright disprove that a bush caught fire and spoke once, but since it contradicts everything we know about what things do (humans) and do not (everything else) talk, as well as the conditions required for things to catch fire, I don't feel like I need to speak further on it.

However, with reference to something like a huge flood said to have taken place circa 6000 years ago, there would be enormous amounts of evidence for something like that. And any claim to evidence that has been made has been refuted, and unlike the burning bush, we can indeed disprove it utterly, by looking at layers of sediment, carbon dating of materials, argon-potassium dating, distribution of animals and so on.

You're a nice guy SW, and I'm enjoying this conversation, but your last bit there worries me and is going to take this thread off topic if we continue. Always ask 'why?'. Why do you believe the accounts are God's revealed nature? Why do you believe he does not lie? So many things from the Bible have been proven inaccurate already, he's either lying or, at best, being misrepresented.

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I just feel like you are treating the burning bush as if scripture says it was a natural occurrence, it never says this. It's a miraculous event, which tells me that the authors of scripture were well aware that bushes do not naturally talk and do not catch fire like described in Exodus. It is most likely for this reason that God decided to use the burning bush, it would definitely catch my attention if it happened to me. :-)

Well I do not want to sway off topic either, but it is an interesting conversation, so if you'd like to continue it in another thread or over P.M. I am up for it.

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[quote='Statler Waldorf' pid='160899' dateline='1312325906']
"IF" being the assumption you need. I need none. Also, don't use "if" because it makes you look like a pansy liberal christian.

Unfortunately, I think that you make sense only to yourself at times.