The Bible isn't mentioned in the Bible.

@jonnythan Said

Well that's the issue. None of the writers of the individual books ever made any reference to the possibility (or fact) that their words were simply the latest in a string of various texts that were the official Word of God. Not one.

This indicates to the rational person that they.. well, weren't. That the books were later collected and assembled by a largely corrupt politically-oriented and wealthy organization.

@AmberB Said

Which gets back to something I asked about before. It's fairly clear that they aren't all true, but how does that in fact prove that none of them are?

@jonnythan Said

It doesn't need to. The entire premise of the Bible is that it is the True Word of God. If any of the information or claims are ever demonstratively false, that invalidates the premise of the whole thing.

@AmberB Said

So you're also of the mind that one story being false proves all the associated stories to be false.

@AmberB Said
I can see how it invalidates the bible as a whole, but to use that as proof that all the specific stories of the bible is false is a weak and illogical position.

@Tako_400 Said

f*** the Bible. And f*** the Atheists.

@jonnythan Said

Yes, you get the idea. No one seems to be making the argument that everything in the Bible is wrong. I agree that would be quite a weak position.

@grace Said

tako,

would you have a good word for the agnostics?

or is it "f***" again?

Bless you my child!

8)

@sheepy Said

Fact remains, there are many scriptures/stories which could have been put in the "Bible", but the early church decided not to include them I am told by a priest friend that some of these include texts allegedly written by actual disciples and Mary Magdalen - now you would have thought these would be prime examples which SHOULD have been included, surely more likely to be accurate than some of the much later ones which made it.

Makes you wonder just what they were scared of people getting to find out.

@AmberB Said

Which gets back to something I asked about before. It's fairly clear that they aren't all true, but how does that in fact prove that none of them are?

@buffalobill90 Said

The fact that I believe the Bible is wrong in the places where it matters most and that Christianity is false and immoral like every other popular religion is not totally affirmed by my argument here. It supports it to some extent, but it isn't the point I'm trying to make per se. My point is that people are wrong to think there is anything special about those 66 books, anything which seperates them from the ones which weren't canonised.

If there was something divine about those ones, and they were inspired by God - they were God's 'chosen books', you might say - then the authors, who were divinely inspired messengers of God, would presumably have known that and would have mentioned it explicitly. But they didn't. The authors were unaware of the opinions of the other Biblical authors, and this is illustrated by the inconsistency in the Bible, not just in its message but in its form - in some places poetry, others myth, or correspondence or history or sermon.

The fact that the books are not special and distinct from the apocryphal texts should present a problem for literalists who do believe that the Bible is special, and that these 66 books are the work of God, not merely men. They base much of their belief system on the Bible; it is of the highest authority to them. If you aren't a literalist and don't think the Bible is divinely inspired or the Church was corrupt, then this may not present an issue for you.

@aquine Said

What are you getting at?

You're not making any sense, just rambling on about how the word of God isn't the Word of God.

Isaiah 55:10,11
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.


God bless you.

@buffalobill90 Said

Christianity is false and immoral like every other popular religion

@buffalobill90 Said
The authors were unaware of the opinions of the other Biblical authors, and this is illustrated by the inconsistency in the Bible, not just in its message but in its form - in some places poetry, others myth, or correspondence or history or sermon.