Dinosaurs and the bible

[DeistPaladin]

Elaborating on my earlier post:

First telling: "...and there I was, on the hill top, looking out over the flooded plains. As far as the eye could see, everything was flooded out..."

*Later*

"...and there grandpa was, on top the mountain, as he saw the world he knew was flooded out..."

*Later*

"...and there our great great grandpa was, on top of the tallest mountain in the world, the only part of the whole world that wasn't flooded."
"Oh come on, the whole world? It would have had to have rained, um, 40 days at least."

*Later*

"...and so it rained 40 days..."

It's not hard to figure out how stories can change over time to become more fanciful. Christians like to claim that no one would have just made up the story of the resurrection, not realizing that nobody had to. Just look at all the "Elvis sightings" and you can see that even in the modern day, this sort of thing happens.

[chatpilot]

Thor the fact that bible has been passed down orally weakens its claims for being the word of a god or god inspired. Upon being written down it is also subject to human error or reinterpretation by the scribes doing the copying and this applies to all the subsequent copies made after the original tales although even those tales might have had several alterations by the time they were transcribed. The originals were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Greek so that, in and of itself presents problems when trying to consolidate all of these into a single language. There is also the risk of lots of it being lost in translation since some words just don't translate properly or don't exist in subsequent languages. Let's not forget also that the transcription of the texts were also subject to the bias of the ones doing the transcribing. And finally that the bible we have available to us now is put together from preexisting copies since the originals are no longer extant.

[Minimalist]

Just look at all the "Elvis sightings"

Elvis at least has the advantage of having been real. More than one can say for ole jeezus.

[Thor]

Thor the fact that bible has been passed down orally weakens its claims for being the word of a god or god inspired. Upon being written down it is also subject to human error or reinterpretation by the scribes doing the copying and this applies to all the subsequent copies made after the original tales although even those tales might have had several alterations by the time they were transcribed. The originals were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Greek so that, in and of itself presents problems when trying to consolidate all of these into a single language. There is also the risk of lots of it being lost in translation since some words just don't translate properly or don't exist in subsequent languages. Let's not forget also that the transcription of the texts were also subject to the bias of the ones doing the transcribing. And finally that the bible we have available to us now is put together from preexisting copies since the originals are no longer extant.

And let's not forget how things ended up being included in the Bible (or NOT being included if you look at it that way).... it was done by vote! http://freethought.mbdojo.com/canon.html

Yes! It was determined which books were inspired by "God" through a vote! Like anyone voting could possibly have knowledge as to what was and what was not "inspired by God". Just incredible!

[Skeptisma]

padraic wrote:"One is a bronze age goat herder,with a limited world view and non existent understanding of international geography.There is a flood,which covers the land as far as one can see. One assumes the entire world is covered with water. Possibly why flood myths are common all over the world."

That is exactly what I thought too since our history is full of flood myths from all over the world. It makes more sense to think that these were local floods that from the perspective of the author was considered a global flood since his view of the size and breadth of the world was limited.

There's actually a really good explanation (with evidence) for one of these worldly flood stories. I believe it was in Japan, but there were writings/drawings/stories of a great flood from centuries past. Scientists recently determined that it may have very well been the result of a large tsunami that originated in the Pac NW of the US (earthquake-related of course). I believe this was one of the "How the Earth Was Made" episodes put on by the History Channel and was quite interesting.

[Minimalist]

Like anyone voting could possibly have knowledge as to what was and what was not "inspired by God".

Well the morons will state categorically that god found out who was on the committee and then "inspired" them.

When you are willing to be a complete shithead there really are no limits to it.

[Thor]

Like anyone voting could possibly have knowledge as to what was and what was not "inspired by God".

Well the morons will state categorically that god found out who was on the committee and then "inspired" them.

When you are willing to be a complete shithead there really are no limits to it.

By this logic, anything can be said to be "inspired by God". I feel like eating shrimp and lobster tonight. Guess I've been "inspired by God"....

[DeistPaladin]

Like anyone voting could possibly have knowledge as to what was and what was not "inspired by God".

Well the morons will state categorically that god found out who was on the committee and then "inspired" them.

When you are willing to be a complete shithead there really are no limits to it.

By this logic, anything can be said to be "inspired by God". I feel like eating shrimp and lobster tonight. Guess I've been "inspired by God"....

An argument I sometimes use with Protestants is that if God could inspire the Council of Nicaea to vote properly for the correct books, why couldn't God also be inspiring the Pope and working through him?

*Note: not an endorsement of Catholicism, obviously, but more on why Protestants reject one but not the other.

[Thor]

An argument I sometimes use with Protestants is that if God could inspire the Council of Nicaea to vote properly for the correct books, why couldn't God also be inspiring the Pope and working through him?

*Note: not an endorsement of Catholicism, obviously, but more on why Protestants reject one but not the other.

You could really take this logic to an extreme and say how do you know that "God" didn't inspire Hitler, Pol Pot, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy or Paul Hill? How do we know that child molesters aren't inspired by "God"? And don't try telling me these people couldn't have been inspired by "God" because they did evil things. "God" does all manner of evil in the Bible and believers rationalize it by saying "We can't understand why God does the things he does", or "God has his reasons".

[Minimalist]

By this logic, anything can be said to be "inspired by God". I feel like eating shrimp and lobster tonight. Guess I've been "inspired by God"....Rolleyes

Like I said, once you subscribe to that stupidity there is no limit to it. "God" is malleable. He can be pounded into any shape the user likes.