To the first guy who called me out:
I recognize that there are dozens of different interpretations and dozens of different doctrines, but at the fault of the Bible? I will disagree. Coming from a Jesuit high school, you should realize that there are lot of long established traditions that don't come from the Bible at all. These traditions and ideas have been put into the religion by men (i like to assume that they were well-meaning men) a long time ago. On top of this, many religions also have political agendas, which in turn changes their doctrine a little bit. Even Hitler used the Bible to make the Jews look bad. This was no different in the times of Jesus, when the Jewish religion became splintered and there were different Jewish sects who believed different things. And in turn, Jesus condemned the Jewish leaders for turning religion into an object of oppression instead of a way to help out the common people.
What? Organized religions being used to oppress people and crapping on the commonfolk? Unheard of!
So I say its a shame that the Bible has been somewhat of a front for a lot of people to do a lot of shady things. The Bible gives us the golden rule in that you should treat people that you want to be treated and to love your neighbor. If the church authorized a crusade to forcefully take over Israel from the Muslims, could you really say that the church was following what the Bible said?
1 John 4:20 says that if you don't love your brother, then you really don't know God.
And to the second guy:
(quote) By what standard are you saying that the bible "mantained continuity"? The old testiment is was thrown together by old Jewish redactors and is rittled many mistakes and contradictions...... (/quote)
First of all, point out a specific mistake/contradiction that you find then we can talk. Second of all, the old testament records a lot of history, most of which has been confirmed by secular souces. The existence of Babylon, Assyria, Tyre, Egypt, and the like. So historically speaking, it is continuous. Tell me about the Roman census.
As for prophecies, I would argue that all the prophecies have come true exactly as they were foretold. I would cite the fall of Judah to Babylon, the fall of Babylon itself, the fall of Persia, the rise and fall of Alexander the Great, and of course the 300+ prophesies surrounding Jesus.
And there is an overall theme of the Bible. The first prophesy regarding the serpent and the woman, the various covenants, the things that Jesus taught, and the accounts of the apostles in the first century. Clearly there was a point to all of it. The plan was to (and is to) fix all the stuff that is messed up in this world. Jesus taught a lot about the "kingdom of God" and about the stuff it would do.
And memo to all:
I encourage everyone to stay away from blanket statements or generalizations if at all possible. Its ok if you believe that Bible is "riddled with mistakes" but its hard for someone to respond to that unless you have a specific point you want to discuss.
Also we cannot lump "scientists" into one huge bloc of authority. Its really easy to do and I've probably been guity of lumping them all together myself. The truth is yes there is a community of scientists but no, they don't all 100% agree with everything.
The same is true with "religion" as we cannot lump all the religions together as one bloc of authority. I know for a FACT that religions and churches and stuff don't 100% agree with everything.
The fact of the matter is that we all have different viewpoints and opinions of the world. I am presenting to you my own viewpoint. I only urge you to understand where I'm coming from-- i'm not expecting you to accept it as absolute truth.
