(January 11, 2015 at 4:11 am)robvalue Wrote: I think your views grasshopper on the bible are extremely progressive compared to most christians. I commend you.
The thing I don't get though is that you can see the OT to be made up garbage, yet you put religious faith (I presume) into the NT? How can you think there's any ring of truth in there, that the people compiling and editing the bible just happened to start writing true stuff near the end? I'm not having a go, I just can't understand the thinking there.
I agree taking what you find useful from any book is good, but what makes you want to identify as a christian? What does that mean to you?
I believe Jesus Christ was real. I won't bother with pieces of proof and evidence because no proof will do for a non believer. I never used strong words such as garbage for the old testament. The gospel of john was not hearsay and the epistles and acts contain nothing that disproves anything. It's just theology. I suggest that all of you should read the letters of paul especially colossians through the unbiased views of a christian.
Why do I take the latter part of the old testament to be true? They're mostly words of wisdom, books of hope, prophesies about their future (Yes Tyre was destroyed exactly the way the prophet says it would be. No the ancient city of Tyre isn't still standing. That's the modern city)
And the new testament is believable simply because I feel it is. What in the NT apart from the miracles do you think couldn't have been real.
Your conclusion that Jesus wasn't real holds as much weight as if I claim for certain that god exists. It just won't hold up in front of secular and reputable historical scholars
