On a mid-July afternoon in 2006, I sat on the couch in my living room watching TV, sweating up a storm, and biting my lips.
Just three days before, I was an atheist.
But now, I had become a Christian, and my biggest fear was unfolding on the TV in front of me.
You see, I was raised in a Christian family, but when I was in high school and college, some bad things happened to my family.
These bad circumstances caused me to believe that everything I was taught about God being real was false.
So over several months, I became an atheist.
During that time of atheism, I also stopped believing in the Bible.
I believed that the Bible was a book made up by a bunch of ignorant authors who made tons of mistakes.
The fact that millions of Christians believed in such a book full or errors just spoke of Christians ignorance, and their blindness to see “the truth.”
But then God did some things in my life that made me believe in Him again.
So even though I had become a re-Christian, I had a hurdle that I just couldn’t jump over. The Bible is a human-made book that is full of errors, and that has tons of contradictions.
This one day that I’m telling you about, I was sitting in my living room watching a special show on TV.
There was an “expert” who was being interviewed on the show.
This “expert” was talking about how the Bible is a myth, and how it was created during an era where legends were the norm of the day.
As I watched to my horror, I began to have doubts about becoming a re-Christian.
“Maybe everything that happened to me the last few days was just a coincidence,” I said to myself in doubt.
“What if it’s true, the Bible is wrong?”
Instead of Worrying to Death, I Did This Instead
I sat in my living room and started to pray.
“God, I want to believe in You, but I’m struggling so badly with believing in the Bible.
“Please help me to know that You are real, and help me with knowing the truth about the Bible.”
That night, I went to my church.
When the service started, someone came on stage and made the following announcement.
“Sorry, but Pastor Steve will not be with us tonight (that’s the senior pastor of the church).
“So instead, we’re blessed to have a guest speaker with us. It’s Pastor Charlie Campbell from Always Be Ready Ministries.”
The next sentence that came out of this person’s mouth is what floored me.
“And tonight, Pastor Charlie will be sharing a message titled, ‘Can We Trust the Bible?'”
That night, I heard Pastor Charlie’s amazing message about why we can trust the Bible.
It was the perfect answer to my prayer!
“Wow, God is real!” I thought to myself.
Truth be told, even after that night, I continued to battle with doubts about the Bible.
So I bought a couple of books on the subject that helped me out tremendously.
In case you’d like to check them out, the books that I bought were:
What Do You Believe About the Bible?
Do you or someone you know doubt that the Bible is a divine book?
Then welcome to the doubters club!
I was once a member too 🙂
Whether you believe that the Bible is a book full of errors or whether you think it’s from God, it’s important that you know these points that I’ll be making in this article.
That’s because if you’re searching for:
- meaning
- purpose
- happiness in life
Then this book is uniquely qualified to share with you the secrets to finding them, even if you have doubts.
“But for this book (the Bible), we could not know right from wrong.”― Abraham Lincoln Click To TweetHey Listen, I Want You To Remember the Acronym F.A.M.O.U.S
As I was putting this article together, I created an acronym that will help you remember my points about why I think the Bible is divine.
The acronym is based on Pastor Charlie’s sermon that I heard that night.
However, I’ve modified it and tweaked it to make it my own.
So if you’ve ever wondered why is it that the Bible is so famous, then you can get your answer by remembering this acronym:
F – Faithful Prophecies
A – Archaeological Confirmations
M – Manuscript Documentation
O – Objective Reporting
U – Unanimous Coherence
S – Scientific Pre-knowledge
6 Reasons Why I Think The Bible is a Book Made by God
1. Reason #1 – Faithful Prophecies
One of the unique things about the Bible is that its a collection of 66 books written by about 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years.
The Bible is a collection of 66 individual books, written by 40 different authors, over a period of 1,500 years.
Now all along, God knows that you would be skeptical about the Bible if you don’t believe in Him.
So what does He do?
God gives you a way to be able to tell if the Bible is truly divine. This is what He says:
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
“’Present the case for your idols,’
says the Lord.
‘Let them show what they can do,’
says the King of Israel.
‘Let them try to tell us what happened long ago
so that we may consider the evidence.
Or let them tell us what the future holds,
so we can know what’s going to happen.
Yes, tell us what will occur in the days ahead.
Then we will know you are gods.”
– Isaiah 41:21-23
God says in this passage that if you want to know which god is the true God, then that God must be able to predict the future accurately.
No other gods have been able to predict the future with such incredible accuracy as the Christian God.
There are hundreds of predictions about the future in the Bible (also known as prophecies).
Some of them have already come true, and some of them still have yet to be fulfilled.
In just a minute, you’ll read about one of the most remarkable predictions found in the Bible that has come true within the past 50 years.
Are You Thinking, “Maybe Prophecies Were Inserted in the Bible at a Later Time to Give it the Illusion That’s It’s a Prophetic Book?”
If you’re skeptical about these prophecies that I’m about to tell you about, then you have every right to be.
I was too.
And I’m going to address that in just a minute.
So just hang tight.
One of My Favorite Prophecies in the Bible
More than 2,600 years ago, the Babylonian Empire destroyed Jerusalem.
They ended up taking many Jews captive back to Babylon.
After 70 years, King Cyrus of Persia conquered the Babylonians and allowed many Jews to return to Jerusalem.
The Jewish people rebuilt Jerusalem, but the city was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans.
The Romans killed more than 1 million Jews and forced many of them into exile.
The Jewish people were scattered all over the world and began living in different countries.
No one ever thought the Jewish people would ever be united, and that they’d have a country of their own again.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
Amos, the prophet, predicted the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem after being in exile.
This prediction or prophecy is found in Amos 9:14-15.
[x_blockquote cite=”Amos 9:14-15″ type=”center”]“Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, And they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; They will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, And make gardens and eat their fruit.
“I will also plant them on their land, And they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.[/x_blockquote]
Before 1948, no one thought that the Jewish people would ever have their own country. But the Bible predicted this would happen 2,767 years before it happened in 1948.
In 1948, against all the odds, the United Nations paved the way for Israel to become a state.
The amazing thing is that this prediction happened around 750 BC.
That’s an astounding 2,767 years before this prophecy came true!
Can This Bible Prophecy Have Been Inserted at a Later Time?
There are copies of the Bible that are hundreds of years older than 1948.
The most famous of them being the Dead Sea Scrolls. And this prophecy has been in the Bible for many years.
So literally, it would be impossible for a prophecy like this to have been inserted after it had come true.
2. Reason #2 – Archaeological Confirmations
There have been thousands of archaeological artifacts that have confirmed the accuracy of the Bible.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that just because an archaeological artifact was found, then that means that Bible is true.
But what I am saying is that these archaeological artifacts that have been found do confirm over and over again that the Bible is historically accurate.
Here are some of the archaeological artifacts that have been found so far.
The images and text below are courtesy of the Biblical Archeology website:
Artifact #1 – Yahweh Ṣebaot Inscription
“This limestone inscription from a burial cave in Judah c. 800–750 B.C.E. is written in Paleo-Hebrew script and reads, ‘Cursed be Hagaf son of Hagab by Yahweh Ṣebaot.’
“The phrase Yahweh Ṣebaot, often translated as “Lord of Hosts,” appears over two hundred times in the Hebrew Bible, especially in prophetic books such as Isaiah and Jeremiah.
“The museum’s inscription is perhaps the earliest non-Biblical evidence for this name. The name Hagab, which means “grasshopper,” also appears in Ezra 2:46.”
Stone block bearing invocation of a curse by Yhwh, Lord of Hosts (BLMJ 4663). Photo: BLMJ Collection.
Artifact #2 – The Quadrilingual Darius I Jar
“Darius I of Persia, also known as ‘Darius the Great,’ is mentioned in the Biblical books of Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel.
“The museum has a Persian calcite jar with four inscriptions that praise Darius in four different languages, one more language than the Rosetta Stone.
“The Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian inscriptions read, ‘Darius, great king’ and the Egyptian hieroglyphs read ‘King of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the two lands, Darius, living eternally, year 36.'”
Jar with quadrilingual inscription of Darius 1 (BLMJ 1979). Photo: BLMJ Collection.
Artifact #3 – The Ivory Cherub
“According to the Bible, cherubs were placed in both the Tabernacle and the Temple (Exodus 37:7–9; 1 Kings 6:23–30).
“While the descriptions about these creatures are vague, the museum has an ivory Phoenician-style cherub from Arslan Tash (Northern Syria, ancient Hadatu) from c. 850–800 B.C.E.
“This cherub, which was probably called a kuribu in Akkadian (similar to Hebrew kerub [כרוב]), was most likely used to decorate a chair, perhaps the throne of the Hazael, king of Damascus, who is mentioned in the books of Kings, Chronicles, and Amos.”
Inlay depicting a cherub (BLMJ 3428). Photo: Moshe Caine.
So How Many Archaeological Artifacts Are There From The Bible?
It looks like there are thousands of them.
Some of them are listed on this Wikipedia page.
3. Reason #3 – Manuscript Evidence
Some skeptics believe that the Bible has been corrupted through the centuries because of copying errors.
Back in the old days, they didn’t have printing presses to copy books, so they had to copy books by hand.
Rumor has it that the Bible has been miscopied as well as mistranslated through the years.
This is a belief that is often taught to Mormon’s and Muslims.
It’s also a lie that is taught by some self-proclaimed Bible scholars who are out to make money and build a name for themselves.
But the truth is that we have reliable copies of the Bible that are hundreds of years old.
These reliable copies (also known as manuscripts) verify that the Bible that we have today is the same Bible that was written hundreds of years ago.
While there are more than 25,000 manuscripts of the Bible today that help verify its authenticity, there is one that stands out supreme.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the best archaeological artifacts that reveal that the Bible that we have today is the same Bible of the ancient times.
It is the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the biggest archaeological finds that verifies that the Bible that we have today is the same Bible from 2,000 years ago.
You can read more about the Dead Sea Scrolls by visiting this Wikipedia page.
4. Reason #4 – Objective Reporting
The Bible is a collection of 66 books written by 40 different authors over a period of 1,500 years.
Many of the authors reveal their character flaws, personal failures, and write about their sins.
So why is that important? I’ll reveal that in just a few seconds.
But just consider a few of these embarrassing tidbits written by the different Bible authors:
1. David had an adulterous relationship with a woman and killed her husband
2. Peter denied that he ever knew Jesus
3. Abraham denied that Sarah was his wife and told Pharoh of Egypt that she was his sister (which was a half-truth)
4. Jonah hated the people of Nineveh to the point of being rebellious to God
5. And many more instances…
So why does this matter?
Whenever you and I talk or write about ourselves, we always want to put our best foot forward.
You rarely find people who are open with their faults, sins, and their shortcomings.
Yet, the authors of the Bible were very open about their personal issues and their embarrassing moments.
While this doesn’t necessarily prove that the Bible is divinely inspired, it does reveal that the authors were quite credible about what they were reporting.
After all, why would they talk about things that put them in a negative light, and then lie about their eye-witness testimony?
That wouldn’t make sense.
If Bible authors were willing to talk about their faults and their embarrassing moments and were truthful about them, then they’re reporting on facts about Jesus and other things are also likely to be credible.
5. Reason #5 – Unanimous Coherence
I want you to imagine that you and I are at a party.
As we are enjoying ourselves at this party, all of a sudden, somebody walks in with a mask on his face, and with a whole bunch of people who are also masked.
The man, who is also holding a gun, says, “Okay everybody, put your hands up, and take your wallets out!”
Obviously, this man and his gang are there to rob us of our wallets.
After the robbery, the police come, and they start taking the eyewitness testimony of all of the guests.
How many versions of the robbery do you think the detectives are going to get?
The answer is a lot!
One person might report the color of the leading gang member’s clothes to be one color, while somebody else will say that he was wearing a different color.
Some people will say that he had a gun while other people will say that he had a knife.
We know that we’re going to get a whole bunch of different stories.
Yet, this isn’t the case with the Bible.
Even though you have many different authors who are reporting about individual events, all of their reports are coherent.
That doesn’t mean they are identical, but it does mean that they are in agreement.
Now some skeptics like to point out supposed contradictions in eyewitness testimony between the different Gospels.
However, these skeptics don’t go very deep to understand what the “contradictions” mean, and why they are there in the Bible.
So for every single apparent contradiction between two different writers, there is a logical explanation about them.
For more resources about alleged Bible Contradictions, visit J. Warner Wallace’s website here.
So that is reason number five.
There is so much coherence between the different authors of the Bible even though they lived at various times.
They all talk about redemption and how we need God to save us from our sins.
6. Reason #6 – Scientific Pre-knowledge
Remember how I said that the Bible was written over a period of 1,500 years a long time ago?
Most of the people living during that time believed some weird things about the world that today that we know are wrong.
They believed things like:
- The Earth is flat
- The sun revolves around the earth
- The earth was carried on the shoulders of a mythical God called Atlas
- And many other scientifically wrong things
However, during these ancient times, the Bible made different claims about the universe.
These claims we now know are scientifically accurate. Things like:
- The earth is round
- Job 26:10 tells us that God “has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness.”
- The sun is on a circuit through space
- David said about the sun in Psalm 19:6, “Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end.”
- The earth is suspended on nothing
- Job 26:7, “He [God] hangs the Earth on nothing.”
How did the authors of the Bible know these scientifically accurate facts about the world during a time of scientific ignorance?
Key Takeaways
There are only two books in the world that claim to be inspired by God.
The Bible is the only one that has these six facts about it that support its supernatural inspiration.
You can easily remember these facts by remembering the acronym F.A.M.O.U.S.
1. Reason #1 – Faithful Prophecies
2. Reason #2 – Archaeological Confirmations
3. Reason #3 – Manuscript Evidence
4. Reason #4 – Objective Reporting
5. Reason #5 – Unanimous Coherence
6. Reason #6 – Scientific Pre-Knowledge
Over to you: Do you believe the Bible is a made up book, or a book made by God?
[author title=”About the Author”]
Comments 62
Peter, I’ve been following your blog and reading your posts for quite some time now because honestly I find it kind of intriguing.
I don’t comment as often as I’d like mostly due to the fact that I’m terrible at putting my thoughts into words. When I do comment, one thing that I’ve tried to remain is non-confrontational. So If I get that way, I apologize in advance. It’s not intentional.
I’ll admit, I mostly disagree with nearly all of your posts. The reason why I find it intriguing is because I used to be the same. I’m an atheist now. I grew up in a Christian household, I went to Christian school from Preschool to 9th grade, Chapel every Friday, Church every Sunday, baptized and confirmed. Hell, I even volunteered as often as possible to be an usher, count the offerings after the second service, and I worked on the church re-construction project. So I get it it. I’ve heard most of what you say before and to a degree I understand where you’re coming from but did you even try this time? Again, not trying to be mean or anything but I think this topic may have been a little to big for you to handle. I know you mention that there are biblical scholars out there just trying to make a quick buck but there are also those out there who actually care about this topic and aren’t in it for the money. I would suggest reaching out and finding someone to discuss this with. You may be surprised what you find out.
Author
Hi Doug, thank you so much for your comment. I can’t imagine that it was easy for you. As I hope you’ve learned by now about me, I always welcome all sorts of comments, especially when they are from an opposing viewpoint. So please feel free to be as confrontational as you like. Always feel free to express your viewpoints as I have Christians, skeptics, and people from other religions that frequently write comments on this blog.
So there was one part that I didn’t understand about your comment and I’d like to ask for clarification please. When you wrote, “… but did you even try this time?” May I please ask you what you meant by that?
Peter, I have a couple of thoughts/questions –
1. Which Bible are you referencing in your article?
2. What are we to make of other divinely inspired holy books?
If you or any your readers are interested in how the modern Bible came to be, I’d recommend these resources:
– Do a quick Google search of “canonization of the Bible”. Pretty fascinating stuff..
– Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew – book by Bart D. Ehrman
– http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
As always, thanks for the hard work.
R
Author
Hi R,
It’s great to hear from you! Thanks also for your kind words, it’s always nice to be appreciated 🙂
Great questions by the way, and here are the my answers:
1. Which Bible are you referencing in your article? I’m referencing the Christian, non-Catholic Bible. So only the mainstream Bible, not including any the books of the Apocrypha.
2. What are we to make of other divinely inspired holy books? I’m only aware of two religious books in the world that claim to be written by God. The two books are the Bible and the Quran.
There are other books that are spiritual in nature that belong to other religions. However, they don’t claim to be written by a supreme being.
Although now that I’m writing this comment to you, R, I suppose you could include the writings of Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses too since they also claim to be written by God.
Did I miss any other books?
Hey Peter, glad to see you back writing! Seems like its been a while!
So your reply got me to thinking:
Why are you dismissing a massive amount of Christian texts and Bible versions and sticking to what I assume is the KJV? Are these other texts not also inspired by the Jewish God Jehovah?
And if the litmus test is texts written (inspired scribes using God’s words, etc) by God, then why do you not promote and follow Islam? Or, since you brought them up, Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses teachings?
Author
It does seem like it’s been a while, R! Is it okay if I public confess that I missed our conversations? Well, I just did because I have 🙂
So here are the answers to your question:
1. Why am I dismissing a massive amount of Christian text and Bible versions?
I’m only concerned about the most widely accepted canon of Scripture. I’m glad that you asked me the question earlier in which I cleared up the point about not believing in the Catholic Bible although it’s accepted by millions of Catholics world-wide.
From my research, I found that the additional books of the Apocrypha have been proven to have historical errors in them. Therefore, they can be dismissed as being not divinely inspired.
By the way, I wasn’t really basing my article on any translation (KJV or otherwise), but just upon the books of the Bible in general.
2. Why do I not promote and follow Islam, Mormonism, or Jehovah’s Witnesses?
When I studied these different religions, I found that there were errors in their religious books. I say this with the utmost respect to these religions and to their followers. So that’s why I do not promote them.
Obviously, what we think are errors is going to be subjective as there are followers of each of these religions who believe that their divinely-inspired books are error-free.
I’m guessing that along with the books of the Apocrypha you also dismiss the Gnostic Gospels? …… whole different topic I’d like for you to tackle in another post sometime……
First, I’d have to say that the list of errors in the “most widely accepted canon of (Christian) Scripture” is impressively long and very well documented. Pick your category – historical, scientific, archaeological, etc. – and theologians/biblical scholars have found numerous (thousands??) of agreed upon errors and contradictions. By your standard wouldn’t disqualify your particular version of the Bible from being divinely inspired?
That being said, what is the mechanism or process you used to determine this particular holy book is the true words of a supernatural being and should be followed? Epistemology fascinates me! I’m very curious to know how so many people have studied your Bible and come to different conclusions – both believers and non-believers alike.
R
Author
Ok R, can you please give me an example of one of these errors that you are referring to?
I don’t need to see hundreds or thousands of them. Just please give me one of the ones that you find to be the most compelling.
Oh, and by the way, when you are commenting, can you please start a brand-new comment? WordPress is going to run out of replies real soon and these replies keep on getting thinner and thinner.
Peter,
As for errors, you’re right, you don’t have time to go through all of them. But they are fun to study. Here’s a couple of quick ones:
First, just look at the post from Diana above……. WOW!!
Probably my favorite scientific and historical error in your Bible is the story of Noah’s ark. Hard to believe that people still adamantly hold on to this fairy tale as a real, verifiable event.
R
Good post, thank you. One thought: the folks of antiquity were much more on the mark about the nature of the world than we are since Copernicus. The Word of God is and always has been absolutely true. Check out Testingtheglobe.com
Diana,
You ARE kidding, right??!?
Everything in the Holy Bible (Christian view) is Gods word. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
Author
Amen Kyle, well said!
@ThatGuy, which books are divinely inspired? Only one, the Bible. You mentioned the errors in the Bible being well documented. They are well documented by those who do not know what they are talking about. As Peter alluded to, these so-called discrepancies are easily explained and have been explained and as well, are even logical.
Islam, Mormonism, or Jehovah’s Witnesses? Their beliefs fly in the face of the Bible’s teaching. JW’s do not believe Jesus is God, that particular belief is part and parcel of salvation. Islam, why would any supposed god command the murder of all who will not worship him? Is this supposed god that insecure? Islam’s greatest prophet started wars, enslaved women, married a 9-year-old girl, and openly taught that abuse of women was ok. Sound like god to you? Mormonism? They teach that God appeared to them in America, uh really? I don’t think so.
As to Bible versions, well I prefer the KJV, why? because the other versions make significant changes to the text, like omitting Jesus, and Christ, and the blood of Christ within the text. Makes a big difference. The KJV is also not copyrighted, all other versions are, and to get that copyright on any new version of the Bible, one has to make changes, now why do you think that is?
If one spends a decent amount of time researching the Bible, one will see that each section of the Bible supports all the other sections of the Bible. No I cannot defend every point against the Bible, but there are many people who lay it out so that we who are reading their material can verify their take on things by looking up what they say in the Bible, if that makes sense. Chuck Missler does a fantastic job of this.
Only the Bible correctly predicts the future, NO other books do this. Islam preaches hatred. Read the Quran, it’s right there in the text. Adherents to Islam are commanded to kill all who will not convert to Islam, if you do not kill, you are commanded to support those who do – Islam’s holy book says this, not me. No other book gives credible scientific information that could not have been known way back when either, except the Bible.
I firmly believe that anyone who will take the time to research the Bible with an OPEN mind will come to the conclusion that it is real and of God. This means looking at the arguments both for and against the Bible, and WHY these people feel the way they do. I once called the Bible a bunch of made up BS and God was a figment of someone’s imagination. No longer, I firmly believe as does Peter.
Thank you Peter for continuing to write these articles, your wisdom and affirmation of God is well placed and sorely needed. Blessings to you brother, keep the faith dear friend and keep writing.
Greg
Author
Thanks so much Greg! You are a strong defender of the faith and I’m glad that you come here to share the gospel with others. It’s like an online ministry for you ?
It sure is Peter. God bless my friend. 🙂
Tried posting a reply 4 times now. For some reason it won’t go through???
Author
Sorry about that, R, not sure what’s going on with the WordPress comments 🙁
Author
This comment is a reply to @thatguy comment. Unfortunately, WordPress wouldn’t let me reply to his comment directly, so I have to start a new thread.
@thatguy was objecting to the Bible by saying that it has lots of scientific and fake errors. When I asked him for just one of those examples, he chose Noah’s Ark as being a made up story. However, @thatguy chose a Biblical story that has tremendous scientific evidence.
I’ve read a lot about Noah’s Ark and the different evidences found today that support its authenticity. I’m going to link to a few articles so you can check them out:
1. http://www.messagetoeagle.com/the-great-flood-and-noahs-ark-were-real-events-scientist-says/
2. https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/is-noahs-ark-myth/
3. http://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/there-evidence-flood-was-global by a Ph. D in Geology
You know, i am very proud of getting emails from you. There has been many people who have tried to dismay the bible, saying that there is error, and things in the Bible didn’t really happen. However, I would just like to say that it is been proven over and over again that God does make a way. All throughout the bible, there was been many textual to world experiences. I believe its in Acts 27 when Paul takes a ship and the ship course is recorded. The route that the ship took was so well recorded in the bible it matched perfectly with even today’s terrain there, which happens to be a dangerous path to take. It is because of this passage here that many people have turned to God. If that is real in the bible, why would there need to be reason to make everything else false??? Can we get real and honest here. The bible also happens to have over 1500 years of authors and inspiration, and not one author has contradicted the other. If there is one, please show me. I would love to see it. I also find it interesting that the man named Jesus, was real, and that has been proven, and people try saying that he has never come from the dead. They say he was just another man, and the only place where the TRUE argument begins was if he really rose from the dead, and if he is savior. Of course he is. He ONLY appeared to 500 people. (In there time in order to accuse someone of a crime, it took two.) Of those 500 people he appeared to, all just happened to have the same story. I find it interesting how people say this didn’t happen. Of these 500 people, Jesus appeared to the brother of one of Jesus’s family or disciples (I can’t remember exactly who) who hated Jesus, and he claimed to have seen him. Why in the world would he say that if he didn’t? I mean, he only disliked Jesus……so………..what would be his motive in lying?
Author
Thanks Von for your kind words and for sharing your thoughts with the Not Ashamed of the Gospel community. God bless you 🙂
Peter,
On the Noah’s Ark story….. you are going to be hard pressed to find an unbiased (facts only based), accredited. peer reviewed scientist to sign off on this tale as an actual event. It takes all 5 minutes of amatuer research to learn that every culture of human history has a local flood legend or myth. It’s no stretch at all to see that it wove its way into Jewish tradition as well.
All the “evidence” for a the global, catastrophic flood presented in the Bible has been been debunked by an actual flood of peer reviewed science figuring out that geology of our planets history accounts for for every claim made by guys like Ken Ham. No supernatural intervention required.
Btw, a couple of observations on the flood links you posted:
In one link, Robert Ballard mentions an ice age “some 12,000 years ago” – that little sentence alone wipes out the historical timeline of Biblical young earth creationists like the Kent and Eric Hovind.
Another link to AIG is an immediate red flag. Anything that organization and its “scientists” have to say should in NO way be considered actual scientific evidence. Or even coherent conversation.
Again, the Noah’s Ark tale is just one of many items in the Bible that just aren’t supported facts. The book contains errors, to claim that it doesn’t is ludicrous. The largest and oldest Christian group in the world (I will reference them even though you question their theology) teaches “the Bible is free from error only in matters of faith and morals and not in matters of history and science (New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 1169)”.
It all boils down to a muddy mess. Christian claims that every word in the book is beyond a doubt true no matter what the actual, observable evidence proves otherwise does every denomination a disservice and makes it easy for us skeptics to dismiss the whole thing as total work of fiction. I understand its a slippery slope for believers to admit that errors in their holiest of documents exist, but they’d sure appear more rational and believable to me if they would own up to it.
As always, thanks for the forum and discussion.
Next topic?
R
Author
Hi R,
Well, if you’re going to call my scientific sources biased, I suppose I can do the same to yours. But then again, that wouldn’t really get us anywhere.
Here’s my opinion on the subject, R. I don’t think that the problem is with the scientific data. Data is data, they are meant to be facts. However, the way that data is interpreted is going to lead different people to different conclusions.
And I think it all starts with people’s starting point. If scientists start off with a starting point that there is no God, then when they interpret the data, it will lead them to one conclusion. But if scientists start with a starting point that there is a God, then when they interpret that same data, and it would lead them to a different conclusion.
Now of course, there are exceptions to this when there is just bad science being done by a specific party. But I’m just speaking generally. I know that not everybody agrees with my point of view, but I’m just sharing my perspective.
You’re welcome for the provision of the forum and discussion. I always enjoy ourtalks back and forth.
As far as the next topic goes, my next article is titled, “Who else wants to see indisputable evidence that God exists?”
🙂
PG –
“But if scientists start with a starting point that there is a God….” = BIAS
Confirmation bias to put an exact label on it.
Actual science doesn’t start with anything other than a hypothesis. God or supernatural elements cannot be part of that hypothesis or any results because they are in no way falsifiable. So science MUST start with a blank slate.
And resulting data isn’t so much interpreted as it confirmed or rejected through the peer review process. There’s no room for personal bias in accepted scientific findings. And yes, “bad science” is quickly rooted out and dismissed by the scientific community. Those guys love nothing more than finding errors in someone else’s research! It’s what makes the whole process reliable.
R
Author
“So science MUST start with a blank slate…” = Bias
Also confirmation bias to those who are skeptical scientists…
Let me explain…
When it comes to origins, starting with a blank slate, or nothing, takes quite a leap of faith. In fact, I think faith would be a step up from what it means to start with a blank state or nothing
If you start with nothing when it comes to the origins of the universe, then you cannot move forward. From nothing comes nothing.
So for atheist scientists who say that the universe started with the Big Bang, you inherently have a problem. Where did the Big Bang come from? Where did the energy come from? It couldn’t have come from nothing.
And for people who advocate Lawrence Krauss’s theory or Steven Hawking’s theory that it’s possible for the universe to come out of nothing, that theory has been discredited several times. It’s been shown that quantum vacuums are not considered to be nothing, but they are in fact considered something.
I could write a whole article about this and I think I mentioned it in a few of my articles in the past. But anyways, this is just a brief reply to your comment.
Peter,
We’ve drifted waaaay of course from the meat of your article but I do feel like we need to settle how and why science is a reliable tool from which to draw conclusions.
From your viewpoint, any hypothesis that doesn’t begin with a presupposition of a supernatural being (even more exactly, the supernatural being that you happen to subscribe to) can never lead to a valid and true conclusion. This is a major fallacy. Beginning with any unproven, preconceived idea or notion poisons the process of true discovery.
In order for science to work, it MUST begin with either prior established, accepted knowledge or a blank slate, then allow the evidence and corresponding conclusion to lead where it may. It’s maddening that you won’t accept this well established, reliable process for building models that explain the world around us.
A problem Christians have is that this process has never led to their God being a necessary element in scientific conclusions. Therefore they dismiss the scientific community as biased and disingenuous. The good news is that the scientific community doesn’t concern itself with pandering to any religion and just keeps churning out better and better explanations, data and discoveries. And thankfully there’s no end in sight to scientific advancements.
R
Author
Hi R, well now you are putting words in my mouth. I never said that you have to start with a presupposition of the Christian God. Here is what I’m saying:
It’s impossible to start from a neutral state when it comes to the origins of the universe. That’s because you and I live in this world. Since you were a kid, you are exposed to things like mountains, trees, and the incredible complexity of life. And you either took a look at all of these things and concluded that there is a transcendent being that put all this together, or you came up with another theory. Chances are that when you were a child, you did not have the same atheistic believes that you have now.
And when I was talking about a God creating the universe in my other comment, I never said you had to be the Christian God. I was just referring to a transcendent cause of the universe as opposed to a universe from nothing.
In next week’s article, I’m going to be sharing a video that gives indisuputable evidence for God. I don’t think it will convince you but it’s out there and it will be interesting to see your thoughts.
PG,
Before we start solving the mystery of the universe’s origins…… let’s come to an agreement on the most reliable manner to discover and confirm knowledge. The scientific method produces data that can be used to draw conclusions about a hypothesis. If these findings can be repeated with reliability, a peer group confirms the findings, then and only then do we accept their conclusions as knowledge.
Whether or not a transcendent being exist has zero bearing on this process or outcomes – it works prefect without such an entity. Unless you accept this then we can have no common ground to discuss much of anything and knowledge ceases to progress. Insisting that a supernatural element be added unnecessarily to the mix goes against the very purpose of a method used to discover and confirm knowledge with outstanding success.
Btw, to your comment about my possible lack of atheistic views as a child…… ALL children are born atheist. No one becomes a theist until indoctrinated by whatever religion they happen to be raised in or taught.
R
Author
The scientific method only works in the natural realm. However, God does not inhabit the natural realm but the supernatural realm. So then the scientific method isn’t going to give you the results that you’re looking for.
I don’t believe that children come into this world as atheists. I believe that once they grow older and they’re able to understand nature, then they naturally come to a conclusion that there must have been a Being that put all of our complex universe together.
@Greg Holt
Hey Greg – I replied yesterday but somehow didn’t post?? I’ll do my best to recreate!
I’ve thought for a couple of days how and if to reply to your comment. I want to be very careful not to appear obtuse or argumentative. I think Peter will attest to our civil disagreements that end neither of us changing our minds but at least enjoying seeing another view point.
I’m not going to waste your time with my life story – being raised a staunch Southern Baptist, believing EXACTLY like you do, etc., etc. Instead I just want to ask you a couple of questions and give you a quote I found interesting.
1/3
Btw – did my comment/reply to Greg Holt not post??
Author
I don’t see it, R. Not sure what happened.
My first doubt in bible starts with Adam and eve story. God knows everything right. God knows past, present and future right. So didn’t god knew that Adam and eve will eat the fruit anyway .The explanation that I have heard for this doubt is that God gave Adam and eve freedom to take decisions.ok I agree.Then again there remains the same question.even if they were given the freedom to take decisions, God knew what decision they will take and what will happen right.then what was the point in making two human beings with some limited capabilities,then God tells them not to eat fruit from a specific tree (if the tree was not there, they couldn’t have ate the fruit ,but no, even after knowing that they will eat the fruit god let the tree to be there),then comes the villain serpent, then comes god with the punishment. What a ridiculous story.
Next is the mosah and pharaoh story. God sends some plague to egypt.After each plague, king pharaoh asks mosah to request god to stop the plague and says that he will free the Israelites. It is written in the bible specifically that after god stops the plague, God hardens the heart of pharaoh (so here god himself is making Pharaoh’s heart hardened),then he doesn’t free Israelites. So is it like God was getting bored and so thought of having some mind games.And then the story goes like mosah atlast frees the Israelites and God divides the sea and then comes the heart hardened pharaoh with his soldiers only to die in the sea.what a wonderful way to save Israelites. Most of the stories in the bible is like this.just some unbelievable fairy tales
Author
Hi Ann, I can answer your questions. However, you brought up two stories and I only like to tackle one at a time. So out of your two questions, which one would you like me to address first?
K…Adam and eve story
Author
Okay, here is an article titled, “Genetics Expert Confirms the Reality of Adam and Eve” http://www.charismanews.com/world/50749-genetics-expert-confirms-the-reality-of-adam-and-eve
Hi peter..thanks for sharing the article…I couldn’t find answer for my doubt in this article.my doubt was why god who knows everything including what is going to happen next, let Adam and eve ate the fruit by providing the tree even after knowing that they will eat it.if the tree was not there or the snake was not there, they wouldn’t have ate it.if we are having a small child in our house and if there is a burning candle in the table,will we simply say to the child to not touch it and leave the child alone in the room with the burning candle, even after knowing that that the child will touch it or will we remove the burning candle out of reach of the child to avoid the danger as we know what will happen. Here then what was the point of god’s punishment because God knew what was going to happen right. I don’t know whether I sounds silly but the story doesn’t really make sense to me.
Author
Sorry about that, Ann, I think I forgot about that part of your question. Here, can you please check out this article and let me know your thoughts about it?
https://www.gotquestions.org/if-God-knew-Adam-Eve-sin.html
So god knows each and everyone’s life from beginning to end. So we human beings are toys in the hand of god, who are playing a prewritten drama. The reason behind all these sufferings and cruelties that have happened and is happening in this world is only that god wants himself to be glorified. Wow… what a selfish, cruel and sadist god we are having who was getting bored sitting alone and so wrote a long drama, then created everything and is watching whether everything is going as pre-planned, by hiding somewhere in heaven. I hope he will put an end to this drama when he gets enough glory.
Author
I think you are missing a critical piece, Ann, and that is that we all have free choice. No, this is not a prewritten drama. You have the free choice to either rebel against God or to worship Him. All of the sufferings in the world that you see right now are caused because of human beings and their great capacity to sin. God is giving everybody in the world a chance to repent before He judges them and gives them the punishment that is due to them because of their sinful behavior.
Ann – of course there was no actual Garden of Eden or Adam & Eve. Every culture has/had a creation myth. It’s worth a Google to see just how many there are. The Vikings had a great one! Once again, please dismiss anything you read from AIG – it’s blatantly misleading at best and outright willfully false at worst.
Peter – “God’s plan” and “free will” are mutually exclusive. Your reply just doesn’t hold water or address Ann’s very valid concerns. Any God petty enough to create creatures to worship Him unconditionally, know ahead of time that they won’t, get angry about it when they don’t, devise an eternal torture for them as punishment, etc, etc, etc……….. Doesn’t deserve my worship even if He did exist.
R
I personally don’t think that God’s plan and free will are mutually exclusive. I think that they both exist. For anyone who is reading this comment, you can find out more about how these two can exist by reading this brief article https://www.gotquestions.org/free-will-sovereign.html
smh…………
I believe thatguy might have it a bit wrong. I believe God is a loving God because there is a hell. Let me explain. If there is free will, the will to walk out on God, then there has to be a place where your not stuck with him for the rest of eternity. Therefore it wouldn’t be nice to be stuck with someone that you hose to not have anything to do with. That’s not loving. So what God did was create a place that was nothing like him for people who chose to walk out to not be stuck with him. Therefore it was their choice.
Von – great point! A little twisted and weird theologically and logically speaking but I dig it! Plus, like Bon Scott said – “My friends are gonna be there too”………
R
May I please ask where it says Godmknows everything about what is going to happen in your life?
Von –
From http://www.dictionary.com/
omniscient:
1. having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.
noun
2. an omniscient being.
3. the Omniscient, God.
Not sure these are all KJV, but you get the point:
http://www.allaboutgod.com/god-is-omniscient-faq.htm
https://www.openbible.info/topics/omniscience
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-About-Omniscience/
http://www.icr.org/article/god-omniscient/
Isaiah 46:9-10 says that God knows the future (He is speaking):
Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
Read this Ann http://412teens.org/qna/does-god-know-when-I-will-die.php
Peter –
On the scientific method discussion – we finally agree!! You are EXACTLY right, the method ONLY works in the natural realm! The great thing is, this is the only realm we have to investigate. Once you or someone shows actual evidence of something existing other than the natural realm, I’m positive science will get to work on investigating it as well.
And btw, without a doubt every person is born without a belief system (ala atheist – a person who lacks belief in the existence of God or gods). Those are learned along the way. I strongly oppose your assertion that as we grow older and understand nature we come to a “conclusion that there must have been a Being that put all of our complex universe together”. I came to a completely different conclusion!
R
R, millions of people disagree with you that the natural realm is the only realm that we have to investigate. There are so many people who realize that we are more than just natural beings but that there is a spiritual element to us as well.
Peter –
First off, millions of people believing in a thing in no way confirms that things accuracy or truth. Millions of people used to agree that our earth was the center of the universe….. we see how that turned out.
Secondly, and I sound like a broken record here – zero physical evidence exists that there is anything beyond the natural world we observe. It simply has not been proven otherwise. If you truly believe that anything exists beyond the scope of our natural realm, beyond time and space, etc then you MUST meet the massive burden proof needed to demonstrate that its not only possible but actual. Again – arguments (faith, unfalsifiable experiences, prophecy, etc) are NOT proof.
Please, please, please do more for your particular belief system than regurgitate these worn out apologetics and give us real deal evidence. It would sure clear things up.
R
Author
R,
I wasn’t really saying that millions of people believing in a thing means that it’s accurate. I’m just saying that there are millions of people in the world that believe that we are spiritual beings. So for anyone to just dismiss this then I think they would be doing themselves a disservice. But I’m going to take it that you’ve already explored this realm and come to your own conclusion that there is no spiritual side to humanity.
As for your second point, I believe that we talked about this several times. Ultimately, science will never be able to give you the proof that you are looking for because science is not the proper tool to measure the supernatural. So at this point, I’m not really sure why you bother with all the comments. I think a part of you kind of enjoys the discussion 🙂 .
As for your third point about “regurgitating worn-out apologetics” sometimes it’s difficult to understand a person’s tone when they are writing a comment. When I read that part of your comment, I kind of perceived it a bit negatively. But I’m just going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and just assume that you meant no harm or had no ill-intention.
I’m sure for somebody like you, you’re very familiar with all of these arguments, so that’s why to you it seems like it’s a regurgitation. However, there are plenty of people that come and visit my blog every day and they are seeing these things for the first or second time. And to them, I think it’s helpful, or at least that is what they tell me.
Thanks Peter, you’re a good dude and trying to reach people with your message. Me, I’m just searching for truth and not finding it in religion. No ill will my brother. And yes, I LOVE the discussion.
R
So peter you are saying that God has given everyone the free choice to take decisions and God doesn’t know what decision we will take, just as god was not aware that Adam and eve will eat the fruit. So you are saying, the phrases in the bible that points that God is omniscient is false.That means god doesn’t know what decisions we will take and his knowledge is not infinite, which again contradicts many phrases in the bible.
Ann, I recommend that you take a look at this article which explains both the sovereignty of God and the free will of human beings https://www.gotquestions.org/free-will-sovereign.html
Here’s the first thing that strikes me as fundamentally wrong with the Bible: We assume that the Bible was written by God, and that it is intended to guide all people on how to find Jesus and salvation, and how to live our lives in a manner which pleases Him and benefits us.
God is supposedly omniscient and omnipotent, and this is the best he could do? A ponderous tome that is essentially unreadable by the average person, thus requiring us to accept some other human (and therefore fallible) expert’s interpretation of it? Why couldn’t God create a simple, easily understood by all, Bible? And a Bible that is not so confusing as to welcome multiple different and often conflicting interpretations of the text? The Bible God gave us is a spectacularly hard-to-read document; it doesn’t feel like the best effort of an all-powerful deity.
Author
Ed, if your critique about the Bible is true, then how do you explain that millions of people accept the Bible as the divinely inspired Word of God and they don’t have the same criticisms as you? In essence, why do some people respond with your critiques while others don’t?
Amen Ed!!
I want to believe so badly. But I also badly do not want to live a lie. I am torn. And it seems creative books like Enoch show the Bible is just a clever book of myths, developed over Centuries. And this “god” is inserted to explain things when it was really just people doing it all.
Author
How can you know which books are telling the truth and which ones aren’t?
What about things in our life that are unexplainable and far more than coincidence? All of the order in the universe points to a creator.