(September 16, 2014 at 3:56 pm)Huggy74 Wrote: I believe ancient peoples knew the concept of naturally occurring phenomena the Bible, for instance, never describes lightning as being supernatural, and the torah (first five books of the bible) is far older than the ancient Greek civilization. I don't believe anyone could explain how fire worked, but it wasn't considered miraculous either. Take the burning bush for example, the supernatural part was not the fire, it was the fire not burning the bush.
This is provably untrue.
Famine, floods, disease, earthquakes were all attributed to supernatural causes in the OT and the NT.
Quote:the Bible, for instance, never describes lightning as being supernatural
Did you ever read the Bible?
Exodus 9:23-24 - and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Job 37:3 - Under the whole heaven He lets it loose, And His lightning to the ends of the earth.
Psalms 78:48 - He gave over their cattle also to the hailstones And their herds to bolts of lightning.
Jeremiah 10:12-13 - It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from His storehouses.
Those are only a few of the supernatural source for lightening claimed in the Bible.
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.
