RE: Record few Americans believe in Biblical inerrancy.
December 18, 2017 at 7:27 pm
(This post was last modified: December 18, 2017 at 7:31 pm by Simon Moon.)
(December 18, 2017 at 4:00 pm)alpha male Wrote: @OP: The survey question is very poorly worded. I'm an inerrantist, but as worded, I would choose the inspired option. "To be taken literally" is bad wording. The Bible contains poetry, songs, dreams, visions, parables, etc. These by their nature aren't meant to be taken literally.
The problem is, that almost every believer will tell us nonbelievers, that different passages are, poetry, songs, dreams, visions, parables, etc. For every passage you might claim is parable, there will be another Christian from a different sect that will claim it should be taken literally.
And here I am, a nonbeliever, with no method of discerning who is correct, if anyone. There is nothing in the Bible itself to clarify things. All I have to go on is, admittedly fallible humans, telling me contradictory things.
Even if you happen know the ultimate designation as to which passages are poetry, songs, dreams, visions, parables, etc, how am I supposed to know? I have examples of millions of other Christians, with no more or less evidence for their interpretations, telling me some passages should be interpreted differently than you have interpreted them.
And the most obvious problem is, if a deity with the capabilities theists claim for Yahweh, he should have known that his method for recording his word would be rife with these kinds of problems, and many more. And he could have mitigated the problems without much effort.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
